king
heart. The two newcomers, passing close to him and Aura as they stood
shrinking up against the wall, joined their friends at the table. The
Very Young Man turned to Aura with a solemn face.

"Are there any other doors?" he asked.

The girl pointed. "One other, there--but see, it, too, is closed."

Far across the room the Very Young Man could make out a heavy metal door
similar to that through which they had entered. It was closed--he could
see that plainly. And to open it--so huge a door that its great golden
handle hung nearly a hundred feet above them--was an utter
impossibility.

The Very Young Man looked at the windows. There were four of them, all
on one side of the room--enormous curtained apertures, two hundred feet
in length and half as broad--but none came even within fifty feet of the
floor. The Very Young Man realized with dismay that there was apparently
no way of escape out of the room.

"We can't get out, Aura," he said, and in spite of him his voice
trembled. "There's no way."

The girl had no answer but a quiet nod of agreement. Her face was
serious, but there was on it no sign of panic. The Very Young Man
hesitated a moment; then he started off down the room towards one of the
doors, with Aura close at his side.

They could not get out in their present size, he knew. Nor would they
dare make themselves sufficiently large to open the door, or climb
through one of the windows, even if the room had been nearer the ground
than it actually was. Long before they could escape they would be
discovered and seized.

The Very Young Man tried to think it out clearly. He knew, except for a
possible accident, or a miscalculation on his part, that they were in no
real danger. But he did not want to make a false move, and now for the
first time he realized his responsibility to Aura, and began to regret
the rashness of his undertaking.

They could wait, of course, until the conference was over, and then slip
out unnoticed. But the Very Young Man felt that the chances of their
rescuing Loto were greater now than they would be probably at any time
in the future. They must get out now, he was convinced of that. But how?

They were at the door in a moment more. Standing so close it seemed,
now, a tremendous shaggy walling of shining metal. They walked its
length, and then suddenly the Very Young Man had an idea. He threw
himself face down upon the floor. Underneath the door's lower edge there
was a tiny c