pathetic, drooping little figure as she
trudged back to the tunnel.

"When she had disappeared, I sat down to plan out my journey. I resolved
now to reverse as nearly as possible the steps I had taken coming in.
Acting on this decision, I started back to that portion of the forest
where I had trampled it down.

"I found the place without difficulty, stopping once on the way to eat a
few berries, and some of the food I carried with me. Then I took a small
amount of one of the drugs, and in a few moments the forest trees had
dwindled into tiny twigs beneath my feet.

"I started now to find the huge incline down which I had fallen, and
when I reached it, after some hours of wandering, I followed its bottom
edge to where a pile of rocks and dirt marked my former landing-place.
The rocks were much larger than I remembered them, and so I knew I was
not so large, now, as when I was here before.

"Remembering the amount of the drug I had taken coming down, I took now
twelve of the pills. Then, in a sudden panic, I hastily took two of the
others. The result made my head swim most horribly. I sat or lay down, I
forget which. When I looked up I saw the hills beyond the river and
forest coming towards me, yet dwindling away beneath my feet as they
approached. The incline seemed folding up upon itself, like a telescope.
As I watched, its upper edge came into view, a curved, luminous line
against the blackness above. Every instant it crawled down closer, more
sharply curved, and its inclined surface grew steeper.

"All this time, as I stood still, the ground beneath my feet seemed to
be moving. It was crawling towards me, and folding up underneath where I
was standing. Frequently I had to move to avoid rocks that came at me
and passed under my feet into nothingness.

"Then, all at once, I realized that I had been stepping constantly
backward, to avoid the inclined wall as it shoved itself towards me. I
turned to see what was behind, and horror made my flesh creep at what I
saw. A black, forbidding wall, much like the incline in front, entirely
encircled me. It was hardly more than half a mile away, and towered four
or five thousand feet overhead.

"And as I stared in terror, I could see it closing in, the line of its
upper edge coming steadily closer and lower. I looked wildly around with
an overpowering impulse to run. In every direction towered this rocky
wall, inexorably swaying in to crush me.

"I think I fainted. When I