w. Let me have a bath and some dinner. Then
I will tell you all about it."

The Doctor rang for an attendant, and led the Chemist to the door,
throwing a blanket around him as he did so. In the doorway the Chemist
paused and looked back with a wan smile over the wreck of the room.

"Give me an hour," he said. "And eat something yourselves while I am
gone." Then he left, closing the door after him.

When he returned, fully dressed in clothes that were ludicrously large
for him, the room had been straightened up, and his four friends were
finishing their meal. He took his place among them quietly and lighted a
cigar.

"Well, gentlemen, I suppose that you are interested to hear what
happened to me," he began. The Very Young Man asked his usual question.

"Let him alone," said the Doctor. "You will hear it all soon enough."

"Was it all as you expected?" asked the Banker. It was his first remark
since the Chemist returned.

"To a great extent, yes," answered the Chemist. "But I had better tell
you just what happened." The Very Young Man nodded his eager agreement.

"When I took those first four pills," began the Chemist in a quiet, even
tone, "my immediate sensation was a sudden reeling of the senses,
combined with an extreme nausea. This latter feeling passed after a
moment.

"You will remember that I seated myself upon the floor and closed my
eyes. When I opened them my head had steadied itself somewhat, but I was
oppressed by a curious feeling of drowsiness, impossible to shake off.

"My first mental impression was one of wonderment when I saw you all
begin to increase in size. I remember standing up beside that chair,
which was then half again its normal size, and you"--indicating the
Doctor--"towered beside me as a giant of nine or ten feet high.

"Steadily upward, with a curious crawling motion, grew the room and all
its contents. Except for the feeling of sleep that oppressed me, I felt
quite my usual self. No change appeared happening to me, but everything
else seemed growing to gigantic and terrifying proportions.

"Can you imagine a human being a hundred feet high? That is how you
looked to me as I stepped upon that huge expanse of black silk and
shouted my last good-bye to you!

"Over to my left lay the ring, apparently fifteen or twenty feet away. I
started to walk towards it, but although it grew rapidly larger, the
distance separating me from it seemed to increase rather than lessen.
Then I ran,