e men on the roof-top
and a rain of stones began falling around them.

The Doctor clutched his friend by the arm and pulled him back from the
parapet. "They know us--good God, don't you see?" he said tensely. "Come
on. We must get out of this. There'll be trouble." He started across the
roof towards the opening that led down into the house.

The Big Business Man jerked himself free from the grasp that held him.

"I do see," he cried a little wildly. "I do see we've been damn fools.
There'll be trouble. You're right--there will be trouble; but it won't
be ours. I'm through--through with this miserable little atom and its
swarm of insects." He gripped the Doctor by both shoulders. "My God,
Frank, can't you understand? We're men, you and I--men! These
creatures"--he waved his arm back towards the city--"nothing but
insects--infinitesimal--smaller than the smallest thing we ever dreamed
of. And we take them seriously. Don't you understand? Seriously! God,
man, that's funny, not tragic."

He fumbled at the neck of his robe, and tearing it away, brought out a
vial of the drugs.

"Here," he exclaimed, and offered one of the pellets.

"Not too much," warned the Doctor vehemently, "only touch it to your
tongue."

Oteo, with pleading eyes, watched them taking the drug, and the Doctor
handed him a pellet, showing him how to take it.

As they stood together upon the roof-top, clinging to one another, the
city dwindled away rapidly beneath them. By the time the drug had ceased
to act there was hardly room for them to stand on the roof, and the
house, had it not been built solidly of stone, would have been crushed
under their weight. At first they felt a little dizzy, as though they
were hanging in mid-air, or were in a balloon, looking down at the city.
Then gradually, they seemed to be of normal size again, balancing
themselves awkwardly upon a little toy-house whose top was hardly bigger
than their feet.

The park, only a step now beneath the house-top, swarmed with tiny
figures less than two inches in height. Targo still stood upon the
palace roof; they could have reached down and picked him up between
thumb and forefinger. The whole city lay within a radius of a few
hundred feet around them.

When they had stopped increasing in size, they leaped in turn over the
palace, landing upon the broad beach of the lake. Then they began
walking along it. There was only room for one on the sand, and the other
two, for they wal