e to his listeners.

"The Master welcomes his friends," he repeated, dropping his arms to his
sides and smiling in a most friendly manner.

The Very Young Man caught his breath. "He's been sent to meet us; he's
from Rogers. What do you think of that? We're all right now!" he
exclaimed excitedly.

The Doctor held out his hand, and the Oroid, hesitating a moment in
doubt, finally reached up and grasped it.

"Are you from Rogers?" asked the Doctor.

The Oroid looked puzzled. Then he turned and flung out his arm in a
sweeping gesture towards the deeper woods before them. "Rogers--Master,"
he said.

"You were waiting for us?" persisted the Doctor; but the other only
shook his head and smiled his lack of comprehension.

"He only knows the first words he said," the Big Business Man suggested.

"He must be from Rogers," the Very Young Man put in. "See, he wants us
to go with him."

The Oroid was motioning them forward, holding out his hand as though to
lead them.

The Very Young Man started forward, but the Big Business Man held him
back.

"Wait a moment," he said. "I don't think we ought to go among these
people as large as we are. Rogers is evidently alive and waiting for us.
Why wouldn't it be better to be about his size, instead of ten-foot
giants as we would look now?"

"How do you know how big Rogers is?" asked the Very Young Man.

"I think that a good idea," agreed the Doctor. "Rogers described these
Oroid men as being some six inches shorter than himself, on the
average."

"This one might be a pygmy, for all we know," said the Very Young Man.

"We might chance it that he's of normal size," said the Doctor, smiling.
"I think we should make ourselves smaller."

The Oroid stood patiently by and watched them with interested eyes as
each took a tiny pellet from a vial under his arm and touched it to his
tongue. When they began to decrease in size his eyes widened with fright
and his legs shook under him. But he stood his ground, evidently assured
by their smiles and friendly gestures.

In a few minutes the action of the drug was over, and they found
themselves not more than a head taller than the Oroid. In this size he
seemed to like them better, or at least he stood in far less awe of
them, for now he seized them by the arms and pulled them forward
vigorously.

They laughingly yielded, and, led by this strange being of another
world, they turned from the open places they had been following and
plung