their size, the tunnel appeared to them
now not more than eight or nine feet in height, and in most places of
nearly similar width. For perhaps ten minutes no one spoke except an
occasional monosyllable. The Chemist and Big Business Man, walking
abreast, were leading; Aura and Lylda with the Very Young man, and Loto
close in front of them, brought up the rear.

The tunnel they were traversing appeared quite deserted; only once, at
the intersection of another smaller passageway, a few little
figures--not more than a foot high--scurried past and hastily
disappeared. Once the party stopped for half an hour to rest.

"I don't think we'll have any trouble getting through," said the
Chemist. "The tunnels are usually deserted at the time of sleep."

The Big Business Man appeared not so sanguine, but said nothing. Finally
they came to one of the large amphitheaters into which several of the
tunnels opened. In size, it appeared to them now a hundred feet in
length and with a roof some twelve feet high. The Chemist stopped to let
the others come up.

"I think our best route is there," he pointed.

"It is not so high a tunnel; we shall have to get smaller. Beyond it
they are larger again. It is not far--half an hour, perhaps, walking as
we----"

A cry from Aura interrupted him.

"My brother, see, they come," she exclaimed.

Before them, out of several of the smaller passageways, a crowd of
little figures was pouring. There were no shouts; there was seemingly no
confusion; just a steady, flowing stream of human forms, emptying from
the tunnels into the amphitheater and spreading out over its open
surface.

The fugitives stared a moment in horror. "Good God! they've got us," the
Doctor muttered, breaking the tenseness of the silence.

The little people kept their distance at first, and then as the open
space filled up, slowly they began coming closer, in little waves of
movement, irresistible as an incoming tide.

Aura turned towards the passageway through which they had entered. "We
can go back," she said. And then. "No--see, they come there, too." A
crowd of the little gray figures blocked that entrance also--a crowd
that hesitated an instant and then came forward, spreading out fan-shape
as it came.

The Big Business Man doubled up his fists.

"It's fight," he said grimly. "By God! we'll----" but Lylda, with a low
cry, flung herself before him.

"No, no," she said passionately. "Not that; it cannot be that now,