Transcriber's Note This etext was produced from Amazing Stories July 1942. Extensiveresearch did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. Copyright on thispublication was renewed. _Out of nowhere came these grim, cold, black-clad men, to kidnap threeEarth people and carry them to a weird and terrible world where a mancould be a giant at will. _ [Illustration: Lee Anthony crouched and set himself to resist theattack of the robed men. ] THE WORLD BEYOND By RAY CUMMINGS The old woman was dying. There could be no doubt of it now. Surely shewould not last through the night. In the dim quiet bedroom he satwatching her, his young face grim and awed. Pathetic business, thisending of earthly life, this passing on. In the silence, from the livingroom downstairs the gay laughter of the young people at the birthdayparty came floating up. His birthday--Lee Anthony, twenty-one years oldtoday. He had thought he would feel very different, becoming--legally--aman. But the only difference now, was that old Anna Green who had beenalways so good to him, who had taken care of him almost all his life, now was dying. Terrible business. But old age is queer. Anna knew what was happening. The doctor, who had given Lee the medicines and said he would be back inthe morning, hadn't fooled her. And she had only smiled. Lee tensed as he saw that she was smiling now; and she opened her eyes. His hand went to hers where it lay, so white, blue-veined on the whitebedspread. "I'm here, Anna. Feel better?" "Oh, yes. I'm all right. " Her faint voice, gently tired, mingled withthe sounds from the party downstairs. She heard the laughter. "Youshould be down there, Lee. I'm all right. " "I should have postponed it, " he said. "And what you did, preparing forit--" She interrupted him, raising her thin arm, which must have seemed soheavy that at once she let it fall again. "Lee--I guess I am glad you'rehere--want to talk to you--and I guess it better be now. " "Tomorrow--you're too tired now--" "For me, " she said with her gentle smile, "there may not be anytomorrow--not here. Your grandfather, Lee--you really don't rememberhim?" "I was only four or five. " "Yes. That was when your father and mother died in the aero accident andyour grandfather brought you to me. " Very vaguely he could remember it. He had always understood that AnnaGreen had loved his grandfather, who had died that same year. "What I want to tell you, Lee--" She seemed summoning all her lastremaining strength. "Your grandfather didn't die. He just went away. What you've never known--he was a scientist. But he was a lot more thanthat. He had--dreams. Dreams of what we mortals might be--what we oughtto be--but are not. And so he--went away. " This dying old woman; her mind was wandering?... "Oh--yes, " Lee said. "But you're much too tired now, Anna dear--" "Please let me tell you. He had--some scientific apparatus. I didn't seeit--I don't know where he went. I think he didn't know either, where hewas going. But he was a very good man, Lee. I think he had anintuition--an inspiration. Yes, it must have been that. A man--inspired. And so he went. I've never seen or heard from him since. Yet--what hepromised me--if he could accomplish it--tonight--almost now, Lee, wouldbe the time--" * * * * * Just a desperately sick old woman whose blurred mind was seeing visions. The thin wrinkled face, like crumpled white parchment, was transfiguredas though by a vision. Her sunken eyes were bright with it. A wondermentstirred within Lee Anthony. Why was his heart pounding? It seemedsuddenly as though he must be sharing this unknown thing of science--andmysticism. As though something within him--his grandfather's bloodperhaps--was responding.... He felt suddenly wildly excited. "Tonight?" he murmured. "Your grandfather was a very good man, Lee--" "And you, Anna--all my life I have known how good you are. Not like mostwomen--you're just all gentleness--just kindness--" "That was maybe--just an inspiration from him. " Her face was bright withit. "I've tried to bring you up--the way he told me. And what I musttell you now--about tonight, I mean--because I may not live to see it--" Her breath gave out so that her faint tired voice trailed away. "What?" he urged. "What is it, Anna? About tonight--" What a tumult of weird excitement was within him! Surely this wassomething momentous. His twenty-first birthday. Different, surely, forLee Anthony than any similar event had ever been for anyone else. "He promised me--when you were twenty-one--just then--at this time, ifhe could manage it--that he would come back--" "Come back, Anna? Here?" "Yes. To you and me. Because you would be a man--brought up, the best Icould do to make you be--like him--because you would be a man who wouldknow the value of love--and kindness--those things that ought to rulethis world--but really do not. " This wild, unreasoning excitement within him... ! "You think he willcome--tonight, Anna?" "I really do. I want to live to see him. But now--I don't know--" He could only sit in silence, gripping her hand. And again the gayvoices of his guests downstairs came up like a roar of intrusion. Theydidn't know that she was more than indisposed. She had made him promisenot to tell them. Her eyes had closed, and now she opened them again. "They're having agood time, aren't they, Lee? That's what I wanted--for you and themboth. You see, I've had to be careful--not to isolate you fromlife--life as it is. Because your grandfather wanted you to be normal--ahealthy, happy--regular young man. Not queer--even though I've tried toshow you--" "If he--he's coming tonight, Anna--we shouldn't have guests here. " "When they have had their fun--" "They have. We're about finished down there. I'll get rid of them--tellthem you're not very well--" She nodded. "Perhaps that's best--now--" He was hardly aware of how he broke up the party and sent them away. Then in the sudden heavy silence of the little cottage, here in thegrove of trees near the edge of the town, he went quietly back upstairs. * * * * * Her eyes were closed. Her white face was placid. Her faint breath wasbarely discernible. Failing fast now. Quietly he sat beside her. Therewas nothing that he could do. The doctor had said that very probably shecould not live through the night. Poor old Anna. His mind rehearsed thelife that she had given him. Always she had been so gentle, so wise, ruling him with kindness. He remembered some of the things she had reiterated so often that hischildish mind had come to realize their inevitable truth. The greatestinstinctive desire of every living creature is happiness. And the way toget it was not by depriving others of it. It seemed now as though thisold woman had had something of goodness inherent to her--as though shewere inspired? And tonight she had said, with her gentle smile as shelay dying, that if that were so--it had been an inspiration from hisgrandfather. Something of science which his grandfather had devised, and which hadenabled him to--go away. What could that mean? Go where? And why had hegone? To seek an ideal? Because he was dissatisfied with life here? Herhalf incoherent words had seemed to imply that. And now, because Lee wastwenty-one--a man--his grandfather was coming back. Because he hadthought that Lee would be able to help him?... Help him to do--what? He stirred in his chair. It was nearly midnight now. The littlecottage--this little second floor bedroom where death was hovering--washeavy with brooding silence. It was awesome; almost frightening. He bentcloser to the bed. Was she dead? No, there was still a faint flutteringbreath, but it seemed now that there would be no strength for her tospeak to him again. Mysterious business, this passing on. Her eyelids were closed, a symbolof drawn blinds of the crumbling old house in which she had lived for solong. It was almost a tenantless house now. And yet she was somewheredown there behind those drawn blinds. Reluctant perhaps to leave, stillshe lingered, with the fires going out so that it must be cold ... Coldand silent where she huddled. Or was she hearing now the great organ ofthe Beyond with its sweep of harmonies summoning her to come--welcomingher.... A shiver ran through young Lee Anthony as he saw that the pallidbloodless lips of the white wrinkled face had stirred into a smile. Downthere somewhere her spirit--awed and a little frightened doubtless--hadopened some door to let the sound of the organ in--and to let in thegreat riot of color which must have been outside.... And then she hadnot been frightened, but eager.... He realized suddenly that he was staring at an empty shell and that oldAnna Green had gone.... * * * * * A sound abruptly brought Lee out of his awed thoughts. It was outsidethe house--the crunching of wheels in the gravel of the driveway--thesqueal of grinding brakes. A car had stopped. He sat erect in his chair, stiffened, listening, with his heart pounding so that the beat of itseemed to shake his tense body. His grandfather--returning? An automobile horn honked. Footsteps sounded on the verandah. The frontdoorbell rang. There were voices outside as he crossed the living room--a man's voice, and then a girl's laugh. He flung open the door. It was a young man indinner clothes and a tall blonde girl. Tom Franklin, and a vivid, theatrical-looking girl, whom Lee had never seen before. She was inchestaller than her companion. She stood clinging to his arm; her beautifulface, with beaded lashes and heavily rouged lips, was laughing. She wasswaying; her companion steadied her, but he was swaying himself. "Easy, Viv, " he warned. "We made it--tol' you we would.... Hello there, Lee ol' man--your birthday--think I'd forget a thing like that, not onyour life. So we come t'celebrate--meet Vivian Lamotte--frien' o' mine. Nice kid, Viv--you'll like her. " "Hello, " the girl said. She stared up at Lee. He towered above her, andbeside him the undersized and stoop-shouldered Franklin was swayinghappily. Admiration leaped into the girl's eyes. "Say, " she murmured, "you sure are a swell looker for a fact. He saidyou were--but my Gawd--" "And his birthday too, " Frank agreed, "so we're gonna celebrate--" Hisslack-jawed, weak-chinned face radiated happiness and triumph. "Camefas' to get here in time. I tol' Viv I could make it--we never hit athing--" "Why, yes--come in, " Lee agreed awkwardly. He had only met young TomFranklin once or twice, a year ago now, and Lee had completely forgottenit. The son of a rich man, with more money than was good for him.... With old Anna lying there upstairs--surely he did not want these happyinebriated guests here now.... He stood with them just inside the threshold. "I--I'm awfully sorry, " hebegan. "My birthday--yes, but you see--old Mrs. Green--my guardian--justall the family I've got--she died, just a few minutes ago--upstairshere--I've been here alone with her--" It sobered them. They stared blankly. "Say, my Gawd, that's tough, " thegirl murmured. "Your birthday too. Tommy listen, we gotta getgoin'--can't celebrate--" It seemed that there was just a shadow out on the dark verandah. A tallfigure in a dark cloak. "Why--what the hell, " Franklin muttered. A group of gliding soundless figures were out there in the darkness. Andacross the living room the window sash went up with a thump. A blackshape was there, huddled in a great loose cloak which was over the headso that the thing inside was shapeless. For an instant Lee and his two companions stood stricken. The shapesseemed babbling with weird unintelligible words. Then from the windowcame words of English: "_We--want--_" Slow words, strangely intoned. Young Tom Franklin brokein on them. "Say--what the devil--who do you people think you are, comin' in here--"He took a swaying step over the threshold. There was a sudden sharpcommand from one of the shapes. Lee jumped in front of the girl. On theverandah the gliding figures were engulfing Franklin; he had fallen. Lee went through the door with a leap, his fist driving at the cowledhead of one of the figures--a solid shape that staggered backward fromhis blow. But the others were on him, dropping down before his rush, gripping his legs and ankles. He went down, fighting. And then somethingstruck his face--something that was like a hand, or a paw with clawsthat scratched him. His head suddenly was reeling; his senses fading.... * * * * * How long he fought Lee did not know. He was aware that the girl wasscreaming--and that he was hurling clutching figures away--figures thatcame pouncing back. Then the roaring in his head was a vast uproar. Thefighting, scrambling dark shapes all seemed dwindling until they weretiny points of white light--like stars in the great abyss ofnothingness.... He knew--as though it were a blurred dream--that he was lying inert onthe verandah, with Franklin and the girl lying beside him.... The housewas being searched.... Then the muttering shapes were standing here. Leefelt himself being picked up. And then he was carried silently out intothe darkness. The motion seemed to waft him off so that he knew nothingmore. CHAPTER II _The Flight Into Size and Space_ Lee came back to consciousness with the feeling that some great lengthof time must have elapsed. He was on a couch in a small, weird-lookingmetal room--metal of a dull, grey-white substance like nothing he hadever seen before. With his head still swimming he got up dizzily on oneelbow, trying to remember what had happened to him. That fingernail, orclaw, had scratched his face. He had been drugged. It seemed obvious. Hecould remember his roaring senses as he had tried to fight, with thedrug gradually overcoming him.... The room had a small door, and a single round window, like a bullseyepane of thick lens. Outside there was darkness, with points of stars. His head was still humming from the remaining effect of the drug. Or wasthe humming an outside noise? He was aware as he got to his feet andstaggered to the door, that the humming was distantly outside the room. The door was locked; its lever resisted his efforts to turn it. There he saw the inert figures of the girl, and Tom Franklin. They werelying uninjured on two other small couches against the room's metalwall. The girl stirred a little as he touched her dank forehead. Herdyed blonde hair had fallen disheveled to her shoulders. Franklin laysprawled, his stiff white shirt bosom dirty and rumpled, his thin sandyhair dangling over his flushed face. His slack mouth was open. He wasbreathing heavily. At the lens-window Lee stood gasping, his mind still confused andblurred, trying to encompass what was out there. This was a spaceship! Asmall globular thing of white metal. He could see a rim of it, like aflat ring some ten feet beneath him. A spaceship, and obviously it hadleft the Earth! There was a black firmament--dead-black monstrous abysswith white blazing points of stars. And then, down below and to one sidethere was just an edge of a great globe visible. The Earth, with thesunlight edging its sweeping crescent limb--the Earth, down there with afamiliar coastline and a huge spread of ocean like a giant map inmonochrome. Back on the couch Lee sat numbed. There was the sound of scraping metal;a doorslide in the wall opened. A face was there--a man with a blur ofopalescent light behind him. "You are all right now?" a voice said. "Yes. I guess so. Let me out of here--" Let him out of here? To do what? To make them head this thing back toEarth.... To Lee Anthony as he sat confused, the very thoughts were afantasy.... Off the Earth! Out in Space! So often he had read of it, asa future scientific possibility--but with this actuality now his mindseemed hardly to grasp it.... The man's voice said gently, "We cannot trust you. There must be nofighting--" "I won't fight. What good could it do me?" "You did fight. That was bad--that was frightening. We must not harmyou--" "Where are we going?" Lee murmured. "Why in the devil are you--" "We think now it is best to say nothing. We will give you food throughhere. And over there--behind you--a little doorslide to another room. You and these other two can be comfortable--" "For how long?" Lee demanded. "It should not seem many days. Soon we shall go fast. Please watch it atthe window--he would want that. You have been taught some science?" "Yes. I guess so. " To Lee it was a weird, unnatural exchange between captor and captive. The voice, intoning the English words so slowly, so carefully, seemedgentle, concerned with his welfare ... And afraid of him. Abruptly the doorslide closed again, and then at once it reopened. "He would want you to understand what you see, " the man said. "You willfind it very wonderful--we did, coming down here. This was his room--solong ago when he used it. His dials are there--you can watch them andtry to understand. Dials to mark our distance and our size. Thesize-change will start soon. " Size-change? Lee's numbed mind turned over the words and found themalmost meaningless. "From the window there--what you can see will be very wonderful, " theman said again. "He would want you to study it. Please do that. " The doorslide closed.... What you can see from the window will be very wonderful. No one, duringthe days that followed could adequately describe what Lee Anthony andThomas Franklin and Vivian saw through that lens-window. A vast panoramain monochrome ... A soundless drama of the stars, so immense, so awesomethat the human mind could grasp only an infinitesimal fragment of itswonders.... They found the little door which led into another apartment. There weretables and chairs of earth-style, quaintly old-fashioned. Food and drinkwere shoved through the doorslide; the necessities of life and a faircomfort of living were provided. But their questions, even as the timepassed and lengthened into what on Earth might have been a week or more, remained unanswered. There was only that gentle but firm negation: "We have decided that he would want us to say nothing. We do not knowabout this girl and this smaller man. We brought them so that they couldnot remain on Earth to talk of having seen us. We are sorry about that. He probably won't like it. " "He? Who the devil are you talking about?" Franklin demanded. "See here, if I had you fellows back on Earth now I'd slam you into jail. Damnedbrigands. You can't do this to me! My--my father's one of the mostimportant men in New York--" But now the doorslide quietly closed. A week? It could have been that, or more. In a wall recess of the roomLee found a line of tiny dials with moving pointers. Miles--thousands ofmiles. A million; ten millions; a hundred million. A light-year; tens, thousands. And, for the size-change, a normal diameter, Unit 1--and thenup into thousands. For hours at a time, silent, awed beyond what he had ever conceived theemotion of awe could mean, he sat at the lens-window, staring out andtrying to understand. * * * * * The globe-ship was some five-hundred thousand miles out from Earth whenthe size-change of the weird little vehicle began. It came to Lee with asudden shock to his senses, his head reeling, and a tingling within himas though every fibre of his being were suddenly stimulated into a newactivity. "Well, my Gawd, " Vivian gasped. "What're they doin' to us now?" The three of them had been warned by a voice through the doorslide, sothat they sat together on one of the couches, waiting for what wouldhappen. "This--I wish they wouldn't do it, " Franklin muttered. "Damn them--Iwant to get out of here. " Fear seemed to be Franklin's chief emotion now--fear and a petty senseof personal outrage that all this could be done to him against his will. Often, when Lee and the girl were at the window, Franklin had satbrooding, staring at his feet. "Easy, " Lee said. "It evidently won't hurt us. We're started insize-change. The globe, and everything in it, is getting larger. " Weird. The grey metal walls of the room were glowing now with somestrange current which suffused them. The starlight from the window-lensmingled with an opalescent sheen from the glowing walls. It was like anaura, bathing the room--an aura which seemed to penetrate every smallestcell-particle of Lee's body--stimulating it.... Size-change! Vaguely, Lee could fathom how it was accomplished; his mindwent back to many scientific articles he had read on the theory ofit--only theory, those imaginative scientific pedants had considered it;and now it was a reality upon him! He recalled the learned phrases thewriters had used.... The _state of matter_. In all the Universe, theinherent factors which govern the state of matter yield most readily toa change. An electronic charge--a current perhaps akin to, but certainlynot identical with electricity, would change the state of all organicand inorganic substances ... A rapid duplication of the fundamentalentities within the electrons--and electrons themselves, sounsubstantial--mere whirlpools of nothingness! A rapid duplication of the fundamental whirlpools--that would add size. The complete substance--with shape unaltered--would grow larger. All just theory, but here, now, it was brought to an accomplished fact. Within himself, Lee could feel it. But as yet, he could not see it. Theglowing room and everything in it was so weirdly luminous, there was noalteration in shape. These objects, the figure of Vivian beside him, andthe pallid frightened Franklin, relative to each other they were nodifferent from before. And the vast panorama of starry Universe beyondthe lens-window, the immense distances out there, made any size-changeas yet unperceivable. * * * * * But the size-change had begun, there was no question of it. With hissenses steadying, Lee crossed the room. A weird feeling of lightness wasupon him; he swayed as he stood before the little line of dials in thewall-recess. Five hundred thousand miles from Earth. More than twice thedistance of the Moon. The globe had gone that far with acceleratingvelocity so that now the pointers marked a hundred thousand miles anhour--out beyond the Moon, heading for the orbit-line of Mars. Now thesize-change pointers were stirring. Unit One, the size this globe hadbeen as it rested on Earth, fifty feet in height, and some thirty feetat its mid-section bulge. Already that unit was two, a globe--which, ifit were on Earth, would be a hundred feet high. And Lee himself? Hewould be a giant more than twelve feet tall now.... He stood staring atthe dials for a moment or two. That little pointer of the first of thesize-change dials was creeping around. An acceleration! Another momentand it had touched Unit four. A two hundred foot globe. And Lee, if hehad been on Earth, would already be a towering human nearly twenty-fivefeet in height! Behind him, he heard Franklin suddenly muttering, "If only I couldchange without everything else changing! Damn them all--what I coulddo--" "You're nuts, " Vivian said. "I don't see anything growingbigger--everything here--jus' the same. " Her laugh was abruptlyhysterical. "This room--you two--you look like ghosts. Say, maybe we'reall dead an' don't know it. " Queerly her words sent a shiver through Lee. He turned, stared blanklyat her. This weird thing! The electronic light streaming from thesewalls had a stroboscopic quality. The girl's face was greenish, putty-colored, and her teeth shone phosphorescent. Maybe we're all dead and don't know it.... Lee knew that this thing wasa matter of cold, precise, logical science.... Yet who shall say butwhat mysticism is not mingled with science? A thing, which if weunderstood it thoroughly, would be as logical, as precise as themathematics of science itself? Death? Who shall say what, of actuality, Death may be. A leaving of the mortal shell? A departure from earthlysubstance? A new state of being? Surely some of those elements were herenow. And, logically, why could there not be a state of being not allDeath, but only with some of its elements? "I--I don't like this, " Franklin suddenly squealed. On the couch he sathunched, trembling. "Something wrong here--Lee--damn you Lee--don't youfeel it?" Lee tried to smile calmly. "Feel what?" "We're not--not alone here, " Franklin stammered. "Not just you andVivian and me--something else is here--something you can't see, but youcan almost feel. An' I don't like it--" A presence. Was there indeed something else here, of which now in thisnew state of being they were vaguely aware? Something--like a fellowvoyager--making this weird journey with them? Lee's heart was so wildlybeating that it seemed smothering him. * * * * * Unit Ten ... Twenty ... A Hundred.... With steady acceleration, thelowest size-change pointer was whirling, and the one above it wasmoving. The globe was five thousand feet high now. And on Earth Leewould have been a monstrous Titan over six hundred feet tall. A globe, and humans in that tremendous size--the very weight of them--in a momentmore of this growth--would disarrange the rotation of the Earth on itsaxis!... And then abruptly Lee found himself envisaging the monstrous globe outhere in Space. A thing to disarrange the mechanics of all the CelestialUniverse! In an hour or two, with this acceleration of growth, the globewould be a huge meteorite--then an asteroid.... He stared at the distance dials. With the growth had come an immenseaugmentation of velocity. A hundred thousand miles an hour--that hadbeen accelerated a hundred fold now. Ten million miles an hour.... Through the window-lens Lee gazed, mute with awe. The size-change wasbeginning to show! Far down, and to one side the crescent Earth wasdwindling ... Mars was far away in another portion of its orbit--theMoon was behind the Earth. There were just the myriad blazing giantworlds of the stars--infinitely remote, with vast distances of inky voidbetween them. And now there was a visible movement to the stars! A sortof shifting movement.... An hour.... A day.... A week.... Who shall try and describe what LeeAnthony beheld during that weird outward journey?... For a brief time, after they swept past the orbit of Mars, the great planets of Jupiterand Saturn were almost in a line ahead of the plunging, expanding globe. A monstrous thing now--with electronically charged gravity-plates sothat it plunged onward by its own repellant force--the repellant forceof the great star-field beneath it. * * * * * Lee stared at Jupiter, a lead-colored world with its red spot like amonster's single glaring eye. With the speed of light Jupiter wasadvancing, swinging off to one side with a visible flow of movement, anddropping down into the lower void as the globe went past it. Yet, as itapproached, visually it had not grown larger. Instead, there was only asteady dwindling. A dwindling of great Saturn, with its gorgeous, luminous rings came next. These approaching planets, seeming to shrink!Because, with Lee's expanding viewpoint, everything in the vast scenewas shrinking! Great distances here, in relation to the giant globe, were dwindling! These millions of miles between Saturn and Jupiter hadshrunk into thousands. And then were shrinking to hundreds. Abruptly, with a startled shock to his senses, Lee's viewpoint changed. Always before he had instinctively conceived himself to be his normalsix foot earthly size. The starry Universe was vast beyond hisconception. And in a second now, that abruptly was altered. He conceivedthe vehicle as of actuality it was--a globe as large as the ball ofSaturn itself! And simultaneously he envisaged the present reality ofSaturn. Out in the inky blackness it hung--not a giant ringed worldmillions of miles away, but only a little ringed ball no bigger than thespaceship--a ringed ball only eight or ten times as big as Lee himself. It hung there for an instant beside them--only a mile or so awayperhaps. And as it went past, with both distance and size-changecombining now, it shrank with amazing rapidity! A ball only as big asthis room.... Then no larger than Lee it hung, still seemingly nofurther away than before. And then in a few minutes more, a mile outthere in the shrinking distance, it was a tiny luminous point, vanishingbeyond his vision. Uranus, little Neptune--Pluto, almost too far away in its orbit to beseen--all of them presently were dwindled and gone. Lee had a glimpse ofthe Solar system, a mere bunch of lights. The Sun was a tiny spot oflight, holding its little family of tiny planets--a mother hen with herbrood. It was gone in a moment, lost like a speck of star-dust among thegiant starry worlds. Another day--that is a day as it would have been on Earth. But here wasmerely a progressing of human existence--a streaming forward of humanconsciousness. The Light-year dial pointers were all in movement. ByEarth standards of size and velocity, long since had the globe'svelocity reached and passed the speed of light. Lee had been taught--hisbook-learning colored by the Einstein postulates--that there could be nospeed greater than the speed of light--by Earth standards--perhaps, yes. The globe--by comparison with its original fifty-foot earth-size--mightstill be traveling no more than a few hundred thousand miles an hour. But this monster--a thing now as big as the whole Solar Systemdoubtless--was speeding through a light-year in a moment! Futile figures! The human mind can grasp nothing of the vastness ofinter-stellar space. To Lee it was only a shrinking inky void--anemptiness crowded with whirling little worlds all dwindling.... Thiscrowded space! Often little points of star-dust had come whirling at theglobe--colliding, bursting into pin-points of fire. Each of them mighthave been bigger than the Earth. There was a time when it seemed that beneath the globe all the tinystars were shrinking into one lens-shaped cluster. The Inter-stellarUniverse--all congealed down there into a blob, and everywhere elsethere was just nothingness.... But then little distant glowing nebulaewere visible--luminous, floating rings, alone in the emptiness.... Distant? One of them drifted past, seemingly only a few hundred feetaway--a luminous little ring of star-dust. The passage of the monstrousglobe seemed to hurl it so that like a blown smoke ring it went intochaos, lost its shape, and vanished. Then at last all the blobs--each of them, to Earth-size conception, amonstrous Universe--all were dwindled into one blob down to one side ofLee's window. And then they were gone.... * * * * * Just darkness now. Darkness and soundless emptiness. But as he stared atintervals through another long night of his human consciousness, Leeseemed to feel that the emptiness out there was dwindling--a finiteemptiness. He noticed, presently, that the size-change pointers hadstopped their movement; the ultimate size of the globe had been reached. The figures of the Light-year dials were meaningless to hiscomprehension. The velocity was meaningless. And now another little setof dials were in operation. A thousand--something--of distance. Therewas a meaningless word which named the unit. A thousand Earth-miles, ifhe had been in his former size? The pointer marked nine hundred in amoment. Was it, perhaps, the distance now from their destination? Vivian was beside him. "Lee, what's gonna happen to us? Won't this cometo an end some time? Lee--you won't let anybody hurt me?" She was like a child, almost always clinging to him now. And suddenlyshe said a very strange thing. "Lee, I been thinkin'--back there onEarth I was doin' a lot of things that maybe were pretty rotten--anglin'for his money for instance--an' not carin' much what I had to do to getit. " She gestured at the sullen Franklin who was sitting on the couch. "You know--things like that. An' I been thinkin'--you suppose, when weget where we're goin' now, that'll be held against me?" What a queer thing to say! She was like a child--and so often a childhas an insight into that which is hidden from those more mature! "I--don't know, " Lee muttered. From the couch, Franklin looked up moodily. "Whispering about me again?I know you are--damn you both. You and everybody else here. " "We're not interested in you, " Vivian said. "Oh, you're not? Well you were, back on Earth. I'm not good enough foryou now, eh? He's better--because he's big--big and strong--that theidea? Well if I ever had the chance--" "Don't be silly, " Lee said. * * * * * The sullen Franklin was working himself into a rage. Lee seemed tounderstand Franklin better now. A weakling. Inherently, with a complexof inferiority, the vague consciousness of it lashing him into baffledanger. "You, Anthony, " Franklin burst out, "don't think you've been fooling me. You can put it over that fool girl, but not me. I'm onto you. " "Put what over?" Lee said mildly. "That you don't know anything about this affair or these men who've gotus--you don't know who they are, do you?" "No. Do you?" Lee asked. Franklin jumped to his feet. "Don't fence with me. By God, if I wasbigger I'd smash your head in. They abducted us, because they wantedyou. That fellow said as much near the start of this damned trip. Theywon't talk--afraid I'll find out. And you can't guess what it's allabout! The hell you can't. " Lee said nothing. But there was a little truth in what Franklin wassaying, of course.... Those things that the dying old Anna Green hadtold him--surely this weird voyage had some connection. He turned away; went back to the window. There was a sheen now. A vagueoutline of something vast, as though the darkness were ending at a greatwall that glowed a little. It seemed, during the next time-interval, as though the globe might haveturned over, so that now it was dropping down upon something tangible. Dropping--floating down--with steadily decreasing velocity, descendingto a Surface. The sheen of glow had expanded until now it filled all thelower hemisphere of darkness--a great spread of surface visually comingup. Then there were things to see, illumined by a faint half-light towhich color was coming; a faint, pastel color that seemed a rose-glow. "Why--why, " Vivian murmured, "say, it's beautiful, ain't it? It lookslike fairyland--or Heaven. It does--don't it, Lee?" "Yes, " Lee murmured. "Like--like--" The wall-slide rasped. The voice of one of their captors said, "We willarrive soon. We can trust you--there must be no fighting?" "You can trust us, " Lee said. It was dark in the little curving corridor of the globe, where withsilent robed figures around them, they stood while the globe gentlylanded. Then they were pushed forward, out through the exit port. The new realm. The World Beyond. What was it? To Lee Anthony then camethe feeling that there was a precise scientific explanation of it, ofcourse. And yet, beyond all that pedantry of science, he seemed to knowthat it was something else, perhaps a place that a man might mould byhis dreams. A place that would be what a man made of it, from that whichwas within himself. Solemn with awe he went with his companions slowly down the incline. CHAPTER III _Realm of Mystery_ "We wish nothing of you, " the man said, "save that you accept from uswhat we have to offer. You are hungry. You will let us bring you food. " It was a simple rustic room to which they had been brought--a room in ahouse seemingly of plaited straw. Crude furnishings were here--table andchairs of Earth fashion, padded with stuffed mats. Woven matting was onthe floor. Through a broad latticed window the faint rose-lightoutside--like a soft pastel twilight--filtered in, tinting the room witha gentle glow. Thin drapes at the window stirred in a breath ofbreeze--a warm wind from the hills, scented with the vivid blooms whichwere everywhere. It had been a brief walk from the space-globe. Lee had seen what seemeda little village stretching off among the trees. There had been peoplecrowding to see the strangers--men, women and children, in simple crudepeasant garb--brief garments that revealed their pink-white bodies. Theybabbled with strange unintelligible words, crowding forward until therobed men from the globe shoved them away. It was a pastoral, peaceful scene--a little country-side drowsing in thewarm rosy twilight. Out by the river there were fields where men stoodat their simple agricultural implements--stood at rest, staringcuriously at the commotion in the village. And still Lee's captors would say nothing, merely drew them forward, into this room. Then all of them left, save one. He had doffed his robenow. He was an old man, with long grey-white hair to the base of hisneck. He stood smiling. His voice, with the English words queerlypronounced, was gentle, but with a firm finality of command. "My name is Arkoh, " he said. "I am to see that you are made comfortable. This house is yours. There are several rooms, so that you may do in themas you wish. " "Thank you, " Lee said. "But you can certainly understand--I have askedmany questions and never had any answers. If you wish to talk to mealone--" "That will come presently. There is no reason for you to be worried--" "We're not worried, " Franklin burst out. "We're fed up with thishighhanded stuff. You'll answer questions now. What I demand to know iswhy--" "Take it easy, " Lee warned. Franklin had jumped to his feet. He flung off Lee's hand. "Don't make melaugh. I know you're one of them--everything about you is a fake. Yougot us into this--" "So? You would bring strife here from your Earth?" Arkoh's voice cut in, like a knife-blade cleaving through Franklin's bluster. "That is notpermissible. Please do not make it necessary that there should beviolence here. " He stood motionless. But before his gaze Franklinrelaxed into an incoherent muttering. "Thank you, " Arkoh said. "I shall send you the food. " He turned and leftthe room. * * * * * Vivian collapsed into a chair. She was trembling. "Well--my Gawd--whatis all this? Lee--that old man with his gentle voice--he looked like ifyou crossed him you'd be dead. Not that he'd hurt you--it wouldbe--would be something else--" "You talk like an ass, " Franklin said. "You've gone crazy--and I don'tblame you--this damned weird thing. For all that old man's smooth talk, we're just prisoners here. Look outside that window--" It was a little garden, drowsing in the twilight. A man stood watchingthe window. And as Lee went to the lattice, he could see others, likeguards outside. The man who brought their simple food was a stalwart fellow in a drapedgarment of brown plaited fibre. His black hair hung thick about hisears. He laid out the food in silence. "What's _your_ name?" Franklin demanded. "I am Groff. " "And you won't talk either, I suppose? Look here, I can make it worthyour while to talk. " "Everyone has all he needs here. There is nothing that you need giveus. " "Isn't there? You just give me a chance and I'll show you. No one hasall he needs--or all he wants. " Groff did not answer. But as he finished placing the food, and left theroom, it seemed to Lee that he shot a queer look back at Franklin. Alook so utterly incongruous that it was startling. Franklin saw it andchuckled. "Well, at least there's one person here who's not so damn weird that itgives you the creeps. " "You don't know what you're talking about, " Lee said. With suddenimpulse he lowered his voice. "Franklin, listen--there are a few thingsthat perhaps I can tell you. Things that I can guess--that Viviansenses--" "I don't want to hear your explanation. It would be just a lot of damnlies anyway. " "All right. Perhaps it would. We'll soon know, I imagine. " "Let's eat, " Vivian said. "I'm hungry, even if I am scared. " To Lee it seemed that the weird mystery here was crowding upon them. Asthough, here in this dim room, momentous things were waiting to revealthemselves. A strange emotion was upon Lee Anthony. A sort of tenseeagerness. Certainly it was not fear. Certainly it seemed impossiblethat there could be anything here of which he should be afraid. Againhis mind went back to old Anna Green and what she had told him of hisgrandfather. How far away--how long ago that had been.... And yet, wasAnna Green far away now? Something of her had seemed always to be withhim on that long, weird voyage, from the infinite smallness andpettiness of Earth to this realm out beyond the stars. And more thanever now, somehow Lee seemed aware of her presence here in this quietroom. Occultism? He had always told himself that surely he was nomystic. A practical fellow, who could understand science when it wastaught him, but certainly never could give credence to mysticism. Thedead are dead, and the living are alive; and between them is a gulf--anabyss of nothingness. Now he found himself wondering. Were all those people on Earth whoclaimed to feel the presence of dead loved ones near them? Were thosepeople just straining their fancy--just comforting themselves with whatthey wished to believe? Or was the scoffer himself the fool? And if thatcould be so, on Earth, why could not this strange realm be of such aquality that an awareness of those who have passed from life would bethe normal thing? Who shall say that the mysteries of life and death areunscientific? Was it not rather that they embraced those gaps of sciencenot yet understood? Mysteries which, if only we could understand them, would be mysteries no longer? Lee had left the table and again was standing at the latticed window, beyond which the drowsing little garden lay silent, and empty now. Theguard who had been out here had moved further away; his figure was ablob near a flowered thicket at the house corner. And suddenly Lee wasaware of another figure. There was a little splashing fountain near thegarden's center--a rill of water which came down a little embankment andsplashed into a pool where the rose light shimmered on the ripples. The figure was sitting at the edge of the pool--a slim young girl in abrief dress like a drape upon her. She sat, half reclining on the bankby the shimmering water, with her long hair flowing down over hershoulders and a lock of it trailing in the pool. For a moment he thoughtthat she was gazing into the water. Then as the light which tinted hergraceful form seemed to intensify, he saw that she was staring at him. It seemed as though both of them, for that moment, were breathless witha strange emotion awakened in them by the sight of each other. And thenslowly the girl rose to her feet. Still gazing at Lee, she came slowlyforward with her hair dangling, framing her small oval face. The glow inthe night-air tinted her features. It was a face of girlhood, almostmature--a face with wonderment on it now. He knew that he was smiling; then, a few feet from the window shestopped and said shyly: "You are Lee Anthony?" "Yes. " "I am Aura. When you have finished eating, I am to take you to him. " "To him?" "Yes. The One of Our Guidance. He bade me bring you. " Her soft voice wasmusical; to her, quite obviously, the English was a foreign tongue. "I'm ready, " Lee said. "I'm finished. " One of her slim bare arms went up with a gesture. From the corner of thelittle house the guard there turned, came inside. Lee turned to theroom. The guard entered. "You are to come, " he said. "So we just stay here, prisoners, " Franklin muttered. He and Vivianwere blankly staring as Lee was led away. * * * * * Then in a moment he was alone beside the girl who had come for him. Silently they walked out into the glowing twilight, along a littlewoodland path with the staring people and the rustic, nestling dwellingsblurring in the distance behind them. A little line of wooded hills layahead. The sky was like a dark vault--empty. The pastel light on theground seemed inherent to the trees and the rocks; it streamed out likea faint radiation from everywhere. And then, as Lee gazed up into theabyss of the heavens, suddenly it seemed as though very faintly he couldmake out a tiny patch of stars. Just one small cluster, high overhead. "The Universe you came from, " Aura said. "Yes. " The crown of her tresses as she walked beside him was at hisshoulder. He gazed down at her. "To whom are you taking me? It seemsthat I could guess--" "I was told not to talk of that. " "Well, all right. Is it far?" "No. A little walk--just to that nearest hill. " Again they were silent. "My Earth, " he said presently, "do you know muchabout it?" "A little. I have been told. " "It seems so far away to me now. " She gazed up at him. She was smiling. "Is it? To me it seems quiteclose. " She gestured. "Just up there. It seemed far to you, Isuppose--that was because you were so small, for so long, coming here. " Like a man the size of an ant, trying to walk ten miles. Of course, itwould be a monstrous trip. But if that man were steadily to grow larger, as he progressed he would cover the distance very quickly. "Well, " Lee said, "I suppose I can understand that. You were born here, Aura?" "Yes. Of course. " "Your world here--what is it like?" She gazed up at him as though surprised. "You have seen it. It is just asimple little place. We have not so many people here in the village, andabout that many more--those who live in the hills close around here. " "You mean that's all? Just this village? Just a few thousand people?" "Oh there are others, of course. Other groups--like ours, I guess--outin the forests--everywhere in all the forests, maybe. " Her gesturetoward the distant, glowing, wooded horizons was vague. "We have nevertried to find out. Why should we? Wherever they are, they have all thatthey need or want. So have we. " The thing was so utterly simple. He pondered it. "And you--you're veryhappy here?" Her wide eyes were childlike. "Why yes. Of course. Why not? Why shouldnot everyone be happy?" "Well, " he said, "there are things--" "Yes. I have heard of them. Things on your Earth--which the humanscreate for themselves--but that is very silly. We do not have themhere. " Surely he could think of no retort to such childlike faith. Her faith. How horribly criminal it would be to destroy it. A pricelessthing--human happiness to be created out of the faith that it was thenormal thing. He realized that his heart was pounding, as though nowthings which had been dormant within him all his life were comingout--clamoring now for recognition. And then, out of another silence he murmured, "Aura--you're taking me tomy grandfather, aren't you? He came here from Earth--and then he sentback there to get me?" "Yes, " she admitted. "So you know it? But I was instructed to--" "All right. We won't talk of it. And he's told you about me?" "Yes, " she agreed shyly. She caught her breath as she added, "I havebeen--waiting for you--a long time. " Shyly she gazed up at him. Thenight-breeze had blown her hair partly over her face. Her hand brushedit away so that her gaze met his. "I hoped you would be, well, like youare, " she added. "Oh, " he said awkwardly. "Well--thanks. " "And you, " she murmured out of another little silence, "you--I hope Ihaven't disappointed you. I am the way you want--like you wished--" What a weird thing to say! He smiled. "Not ever having heard of you, Aura, I can't exactly say that I--" * * * * * He checked himself. Was she what he had wished? Why yes--surely he hadbeen thinking of her--in his dreams, all his life vaguely picturingsomething like this for Lee Anthony.... "I guess I have been thinking of you, " he agreed. "No, you haven'tdisappointed me, Aura. You--you are--" He could find no words to say it. "We are almost there, " she said. "Hewill be very happy to have you come. He is a very good man, Lee. Theone, we think, of the most goodness--and wiseness, to guide us all--" The path had led them up a rocky defile, with gnarled little treesgrowing between the crags. Ahead, the hillside rose up in a broken, rocky cliff. There was a door, like a small tunnel entrance. A woman ina long white robe was by the door. "He is here, " Aura said. "Young Anthony. " "You go in. " Silently they passed her. The tunnel entrance glowed with the pastelradiance from the rocks. The radiance was a soft blob of color ahead ofthem. "You will find that he cannot move now, " Aura whispered. "You will sitby his bed. And talk softly. " "You mean--he's ill?" "Well--what you would call paralysis. He cannot move. Only his lips--hiseyes. He will be gone from us soon, so that then he can only be unseen. A Visitor--" Her whisper trailed off. Lee's heart was pounding, seeming to thump inhis throat as Aura led him silently forward. It was a draped, cave-likelittle room. Breathless, Lee stared at a couch--a thin old figure lyingthere--a frail man with white hair that framed his wrinkled face. It wasa face that was smiling, its sunken, burning eyes glowing with a newintensity. The lips moved; a faint old voice murmured: "And you--you are Lee?" "Yes--grandfather--" He went slowly forward and sat on the bedside. CHAPTER IV _Mad Giant_ To Lee, after a moment, his grandfather seemed not awe-inspiring, butjust a frail old man, paralyzed into almost complete immobility, lyinghere almost pathetically happy to have his grandson at last with him. Anold man, with nothing of the mystic about him--an old man who hadbeen--unknown to the savants of his Earth--perhaps the greatestscientist among them. Quietly, with pride welling in him, Lee held thewasted, numbed hand of his grandfather and listened.... Phineas Anthony, the scientist. After many years of research, spending his own private fortune, he had evolved the secret ofsize-change--solved the intricate problems of anti-gravitationalspaceflight; and combining the two, had produced that little vehicle. A man of science; and perhaps more than that. As old Anna Green hadsaid, perhaps he was a man inspired--a man, following his dreams, hisconvictions, convinced that somewhere in God's great creation of thingsthat are, there must be an existence freed of those things by which Manhimself so often makes human life a tortured hell. "And Something led me here, Lee, " the gentle old voice was saying. "Perhaps not such a coincidence. On this great Inner Surface of gentlelight and gentle warmth--with Nature offering nothing against which onemust strive--there must be many groups of simple people like these. Theyhave no thought of evil--there is nothing--no one, to teach it to them. If I had not landed here, I think I would have found much the same thingalmost anywhere else on the Inner Surface. " "The Inner Surface? I don't understand, grandfather. " A conception--a reality here--that was numbing in its vastness. This wasthe concave, inner surface, doubtless deep within the atom of somematerial substance. A little empty Space here, surrounded by solidity. "And that--" Lee murmured, "then that little space is our Inter-Stellarabyss?" "Yes. Of course. The stars, as we call them--from here you could callthem tiny particles--like electrons whirling. All of them in this littlevoid. With good eyesight, you can sometimes see them there--" "I did. " And to this viewpoint which Lee had now--so gigantic, compared toEarth--all the Inter-Stellar universe was a void here of what oldAnthony considered would be perhaps eight or ten thousand miles. A void, to Lee now, was itself of no greater volume than the Earth had been tohim before! Silently he pondered it. This Inner Surface--not much bigger, to himnow, than the surface of the Earth is to its humans.... Suddenlyhe felt small--infinitely tiny. Out here beyond the stars, he wasonly within the atom of something larger, a human, partly on hisway--emerging--outward-- * * * * * It gave him a new vague conception. As though now, because he was partlyemerged, the all-wise Creator was giving him a new insight. Surely inthis simple form of existence humans were totally unaware of what evilcould be. Was not this a higher form of life than down there on his tinyEarth? The conception numbed him with awe.... "You see, Lee, I have been looking forward to having you become aman--to having you here, " old Anthony was saying. As he lay, so utterlymotionless, only his voice, his face, his eyes, seemed alive. It was anamazingly expressive old face, radiant, transfigured. "I shall not behere long. You see? And when I have--gone on--when I can only come backhere as a Visitor--like Anna Green, you have been aware of her, Lee?" "Yes, grandfather. Yes, I think I have. " "The awareness is more acute, here, than it was back on Earth. A verycomforting thing, Lee. I was saying--I want you here. These people, sosimple--you might almost think them childlike--they need someone toguide them. The one who did that--just as I came, was dying. Maybe--maybe that is what led me here. So now I need you. " It welled in Lee with an awe, and a feeling suddenly of humbleness--andof his own inadequacy, so that he murmured, "But grandfather--I would do my best--but surely--" "I think it will be given you--the ability--and I've been thinking, Lee, if only some time it might be possible to show them on Earth--" Lee had been aware that he and old Anthony were alone here. When Leeentered, Aura had at once withdrawn. Now, interrupting his grandfather'sfaint, gentle voice there was a commotion outside the undergroundapartment. The sound of women's startled cries, and Aura's voice. Then Aura burst in, breathless, pale, with her hair flying and on herface and in her eyes a terror so incongruous that Lee's heart went cold. He gasped, "Aura! Aura, what is it?" "This terrible thing--that man who came with you--that man, Franklin--hetalked with Groff. Some evil spell to put upon Groff--it could only havebeen that--" Lee seized her. "What do you mean? Talk slower. Groff? The man whoserved us that meal--" "Yes, Groff. And two of the men who were to guard there. What that mansaid to them--did to them--and when old Arkoh found it out he opposedthem--" Her voice was drab with stark horror--so new an emotion that itmust have confused her, so that now she just stood trembling. "Child, come here--come here over to me--" Old Anthony's voice summonedher. "Now--talk more slowly--try and think what you want to tell us.... What happened?" "Oh--I saw old Arkoh--him whom I love so much--who always has been sogood to me--to us all--I saw him lying there on the floor--" * * * * * Words so unnatural here that they seemed to reverberate through thelittle cave-room with echoes that jostled and muttered like alien, menacing things which had no right here--and yet, were here. "You saw him--lying there?" Lee prompted. "Yes. His throat, with red blood running out of it where they had cuthim--and he was dying--he died while I stood there--" The first murder. A thing so unnatural. Old Anthony stared for aninstant mute at the girl who now had covered her face with her hands asshe trembled against Lee. "Killed him?" Lee murmured. On Anthony's face there was wonderment--disillusion, and thenbitterness. "So? This is what comes to us, from Earth?" Lying so helpless, old Anthony could only murmur that now Lee must dowhat he could. "Your own judgement, my son--do what you can to meet this. " The sunken, burning eyes of the old man flashed. "If there must be violence here, let it be so. Violence for that which is right. " "Grandfather--yes! That miserable cowardly murderer--" To meet force, with force. Surely, even in a world of ideals, there isno other way. With his fists clenched, Lee ran from the cave-room. Frightened womenscattered before him at its entrance. Where had Franklin gone? Thatfellow Groff, and two or three of the guards had gone with him. Cynicismswept Lee; he remembered the look Groff had flung at Franklin. Even herein this realm--because it was peopled by humans--evil passions couldbrood. Groff indeed must have been planning something, and he had seenin Franklin a ready helper--a man from Earth, whom Groff very well mayhave thought would be more resourceful, more experienced in the ways ofviolence than himself. This realm where everyone had all of happiness that he could want! Humanperfection of existence. A savage laugh of irony was within Lee as hethought of it. No one had ever held out the offer of more thanperfection to these people. But Franklin evidently had done it--playingupon the evil which must lie within every living thing, no matter howlatent it may be. Awakening in those guards the passion ofcupidity--desire for something better than they had now. * * * * * What had happened to Vivian? Out in the rose-light dimness, a little waydown the path, Lee found himself staring off toward the forest where thevillage lay nestled. Voices of the frightened people came waftingthrough the night silence. "Lee--Lee--" It was Aura behind him, running after him. "Lee--wait--I belong withyou. You know that--" He gripped her. "That girl from Earth--that Vivian--she was withFranklin. What happened to her?" "She went. He took her--" "She went--voluntarily?" "Yes. The people saw her running out with Franklin, and Groff and theother men. Oh, Lee--what--what are you going to do?" "I don't know. " He stood for a moment dazed, confused--panting, hisfingers twitching. If only he could get a grip on Franklin's throat. Andso Vivian went too! That was a laugh--girl of the streets, prettyworthless, on Earth. But here--she had seemed to sense what this realmcould mean. "Aura, where would Groff be likely to go?" "Go? Why--why I do remember, Groff often went up into the hills. Henever said why?" "Would they have any weapons?" "Weapons?" Her eyes widened as though for a second she did notcomprehend. "Weapons? You mean--instruments with which to kill people?No--how could there be? But a knife can kill. A knife cut old Arkoh'sthroat. We have knives--in the houses--and knives that are used for theharvests--" She had turned to gaze out toward the glowing hills.... "Oh, Lee--look--" Numbed, with their breath catching in their throats, they stared. Out bythe hills a man's figure rose up--monstrous, gigantic figure. Franklin! He stood beside the little hill, with a hand on its top, hishuge bulk dwarfing it! Franklin, a titan, his head and shoulders loomingmonstrously against the inky blackness of the sky! CHAPTER V _Combat of Titans_ "Aura, you think you know where Groff may have gone--those times he wentout into the hills?" "Yes. I think so. Lee--that giant, I think now I understand what musthave happened. " The giant shape of Franklin, a mile or two from them, had stood for amoment and then had receded, vanished momentarily as he moved backwardbehind the hills. Lee and Aura, stunned, still stood beside the littlerocky path. Lee's mind was a turmoil of confusion, with only theknowledge that he must do something now, quickly. There were no weaponshere in this peaceful little realm. Four or five of these madmenvillains--what need had they of weapons? The monstrous power of size. The thought of it struck at Lee with a chill that seemed turning hisblood to ice. The monster that Franklin had become--with a size likethat he could scatter death with his naked hands. * * * * * "I remember now, " Aura was gasping. "There was a time when yourgrandfather was working on his science. Groff was helping him then. Yourgrandfather taught Groff much. " "Working at what?" "It was never said. Then your grandfather gave it up--he had decided itwould not be wise here. " * * * * * Some individual apparatus, with the size-change principle of thespace-globe? And Groff had gotten the secret. An abnormality here--Groffwith the power of evil latent within him, tempted by this opportunity. What could he have hoped to accomplish? Of what use to him would it beto devastate this little realm? Bitter irony swept Lee. Of what use wasvast personal power to anyone? Those madmen of Earth's history, withtheir lust for conquest--of what use could the conquest be to them? Andyet they had plunged on. He realized that with Groff there could have been a wider field ofconquest. Groff had heard much of Earth. With the power of size here, hecould master this realm; then seize the space-globe. Go with it toEarth. Why, in a gigantic size there, he and a few villainous companionscould master the Earth-world. A mad dream indeed, but Lee knew it was alustful possibility matched by many in Earth's history. And then Franklin had come here. Franklin, with his knowledge of Earthwhich Groff would need. Franklin, with his inherent feeling ofinferiority--his groping desire for the strength and power of size. Whatan opportunity for Franklin! Lee heard himself saying out of the turmoil of his thoughts: "Then, Aura--out there in the hills they've got some apparatus, of course, which--" His words were stricken away. From somewhere in the glowing dimness nearat hand there was a groan. A gasping, choking groan; and the sound ofsomething falling. "Lee--over there--" Aura's whispered words were drab with horror. * * * * * A figure which had been staggering among the rocks near them, hadfallen. They rushed to it. Vivian! She was trying to drag herselfforward. Her hair, streaming down in a sodden mass, was matted withblood. Her pallid face was blood-smeared. Her neck and throat were awelter of crimson horror. Beside her on the ground lay a strange-lookingapparatus of grids and wires--a metal belt--a skeleton helmet.... Shewas gripping it with a blood-smeared hand, dragging it with her. "Vivian--Vivian--" "Oh--you, Lee? Thank Gawd I got to you--" Her elbows gave way; her head and shoulders sank to the rock. Faintlygasping, with blood-foam at her livid lips, she lay motionless. But herglazing eyes gazed up at Lee, and she was trying to smile. "I went with them--that damned Franklin--he thought I was as bad ashim--" Her faint words were barely audible as he bent down to her. "Justwant to tell you, Lee--you're perfectly swell--I guess I fell for you, didn't I? That's over now--just wanted you to know it anyway. There'sone of the damned mechanisms they've got--" "Where are they, Vivian?" "A cave, not very far from here--down that little ravine--justahead--they're in there--four or five of them, getting ready to--" Bloodwas rattling in her throat, choking her. She tried, horribly, to cough. And then she gasped: "I stole this mechanism. He--Franklin--he caught me--slashed me. Hethought I was dead, I guess--but--when he had gone, I got thismechanism--trying to get to you--" Her choking, rattling breath again gave out. For a moment she lay with aparoxysm of death twitching her. And then, very faintly she gasped: "Sort of nice--I was able to do one good thing--anyhow. I'm glad ofthat--" The paroxysm ended in a moment. Her white lips were still trying tosmile as the light went out of her eyes and she was gone. Trembling, Leestood up, with the mute, white-faced Aura clinging to him. It was fairlyobvious how the weird mechanism should be adjusted--anklets, theskeleton helmet of electrodes, the belt around his waist, with itsgrids, tiny dials and curved battery box. In a moment he stood with thewires strung from his head, to wrist, ankles and waist. There seemed butone little control switch that would slide over a metal arc of intensitycontacts. "Oh, Lee--what--what are you going to do--?" Aura stood white withterror. "She said--four or five of them in a cave near here--perhaps theyhaven't yet gotten large--" * * * * * Down in a little ravine Lee found himself running forward in theluminous darkness. He called back, "Aura--you stay where you are--youhide, until it's over--" Then, in the turmoil of his mind, there was no thought of the girl. There was only the vision of old Anthony lying back there sohelpless--his burning eyes bitter with this thing which had so horriblycome to his little realm. To meet force with force was the only answer. It was not Lee's plan to increase his size for a moment now. By doingthat, almost at once he would be discovered. And perhaps there werestill four or five of the murderers, still not giants, in a cave nearby. The dim rocky ravine, heavy with shadows, led downward. He came to atunnel opening, advancing more cautiously now. And then, as he turned anangle ahead of him, down a little subterranean declivity a luminous cavewas visible. Groff's hideout. At one of its entrances here Lee stood foran instant gasping. The five men were here--Groff and four of hisvillainous companions. The five bodies lay strewn--horribly mangled. And the wreckage of theirsize-change mechanisms was strewn among them. So obvious, what had happened! Franklin had been the first to get large. And at once he had turned on them. Franklin, the weakling who dared nothave any rivalry! And now Franklin was outside, out in the hills, araging, murderous monster. For a moment, in the grisly shambles of thelittle cave Lee stood transfixed. Then his hand was fumbling at hisbelt. He shoved the small switch-lever. There was a shock--a humming--a reeling of his senses. It was akin towhat he had felt on the space-globe, but stronger, more intense now. Foran instant he staggered, confused. The wires strung on him were glowing;he could feel their heat. Weird luminous opalescence streamed fromthem--it bathed him--strange electrolite radiance that permeated everyminute fibre of his being. With his head steadying, Lee suddenly was aware of movement all abouthim. The dim outlines of the cave-room were shrinking with a creeping, crawling movement. Cave-walls and roof all shrinking, dwindling, drawingdown upon him. Under his feet the rocky ground seemed hitching forward. This little cave! In a moment while he stood shocked into immobility, the cave was a tiny cell. Down by his feet the gruesome mangled corpseswere the size of children. The cave-roof bumped his head. He must getout of here! The realization stabbed him. Why, in another moment or twothese dark walls would close upon him! Then with instant changingviewpoint he saw the true actuality. He was a growing giant, crouchinghere underground--a giant who would be crushed, mangled by his ownmonstrous growth. * * * * * Lee turned, staggered into the little tunnel, shoved his way out. Thewalls pressed him; they seemed in a moment to close after him as hegained the outer glowing darkness.... There was only a narrow slit inthe dwindling cliff to mark the tunnel entrance. Lee had the wits tocrouch in a fairly open space as he stared at the dwindling trees, thelittle hills, all shrinking. Franklin must be around here somewhere. Franklin doubtless would see him in a moment. And then as Lee rose up, Franklin saw him. Lee put a hand on one of thelittle hills at his waist, vaulted it so that he faced Franklin withwhat seemed no more than a hundred feet between them. For that secondFranklin was transfixed. Amazement swept his face. His muttering wasaudible: "Why--why--what's this--" An adversary had come to challenge his power. As Lee boundedforward, on Franklin's face while he stood transfixed, there waswonderment--disappointment--sudden instinctive fear--and then wild rage. He stooped; seized a boulder, hurled it at the oncoming Lee. It missed;and then Lee was on him, seizing him. Franklin's body had not been enlarging, but as he saw Lee coming, hishand had flung his switch. They gripped each other now, swaying, lockedtogether, staggering. Franklin still was more than head and shouldersabove Lee. His huge arms, with amazing power in them, bent Lee backward. He stumbled, went down with Franklin on him. "Got you! Damn you, " hesaid. * * * * * His giant hands gripped Lee's throat, but Lee was aware that his ownbody was enlarging faster than Franklin's, upon which the size-currenthad only now started to act. If Lee could only resist--just a little bitlonger! His groping hands beside him on the ground seized a rock. Monstrous strangling fingers were at this throat--his breath was gone, his head roaring. Then he was aware that he had seized a rock and struckit up into Franklin's face. For a second the hands at Lee's throatrelaxed. He gulped in air, desperately broke free and staggered to hisfeet. But Franklin was up as quickly. The tiny forest trees crackled underLee's tread as again he hurled himself viciously on his antagonist.... * * * * * At the head of the distant ravine, the numbed Aura crouched alone, staring out at the hills with mute horror--staring at the two monstrousgiants slugging it out. Franklin was the larger. She saw Lee rise up, and with a hand on one of the hills, vault over it. Giants that loomedagainst the sky as they fronted each other and then crashed together, went down. Lee was underneath! Dear God-- Two monstrous bodies--Lee was lying with a ridge of crags under hisshoulders.... Franklin's voice was a blurred roar of triumph in thedistance. Then she saw Lee's groping hand come up with a monstrous fiftyfoot boulder. He crashed it home. They were up again. Their giant staggering lunges had carried them fivemiles from her. They were almost the size of fighting titans. Theblurred distant shapes of them were silhouettes against the glow of thesky. The forest out there was crackling under their tread ... A blurredroar of breaking, mangled trees.... It was just a few seconds while Aura stared, but each second was aneternity of horror. Then one of the monstrous figures was toppling. Agreat boulder had crashed on Franklin's head; he had broken loose, staggering while Lee jumped backward and crouched. For just a second the towering shape of the stricken Franklin loomed upin the sky. And then it fell crashing forward. A swift-flowing streamwas there, and the body fell across it--blocking the water which dammedup, then turned aside and went roaring off through the mangled forest. * * * * * Lee, again in his former size, sat at old Anthony's bedside, with Aurabehind him. The news of the combat out there against the sky had come toAnthony--the excitement of it, too much for his faltering old heart.... "But you will be all right, grandfather. The thing is over now. " "Yes. All right--of course, Lee. Just a visitor here--and you will takemy place--" He lay now--as old Anna Green had been that night--just on the brink. "Lee, listen to me--those mechanisms--the space-globe--Lee, I realizenow there is no possibility that we could help Earth--and surely itcould only bring us evil here. What we have found here--don't you see, back on Earth each man must create it for himself. Within himself: Hecould do that, if he chose. And so you--you must disconnectus--forever--" "Yes, grandfather--" "And I--guess that is all--" For some time he seemed to hover on the brink, while Lee and Aura, sitting hand in hand, silently watched him. And then he was gone. * * * * * The last of the mechanisms irrevocably was smashed. The little line ofvacuums and tubes of the space-globe's mechanisms went up into a burstof opalescent light under Lee's grim smashing blows. Then silently he went outside and joined Aura. Behind them, down thedeclivity toward the village, the people were gathering. He was silent, his heart pounding with emotion, as he faced them from a littleeminence--faced them and heard their shouts, and saw their arms go up towelcome him. Slowly he and Aura walked down the slope toward his waiting people. Andwith her by his side, her hand in his, Lee Anthony knew then that he hadfound fulfillment--the attainment of that which is within every man'sheart--man's heritage--those things for which he must never cease tostrive. THE END Transcriber's Note Minor corrections of spelling and punctuation have been made withoutcomment. Variations in spelling, capitalization, and hyphenation havebeen retained to match the original document.