<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></SPAN>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
<h3>PERILOUS WAYS</h3>
<p>The Very Young Man sat on the floor, between his two friends at the edge
of the handkerchief, and put the first pellets of the drug to his
tongue. His heart was beating furiously; his forehead was damp with the
sweat of excitement and of fear. The pellets tasted sweet, and yet a
little acrid. He crushed them in his mouth and swallowed them hastily.</p>
<p>In the silence of the room, the ticking of his watch suddenly sounded
very loud. He raised his arm and looked at its face; it was just ten
minutes past eight. He continued to stare at its dial, wondering why
nothing was happening to him. Then all at once the figures on the watch
became very sharp and vivid; he could see them with microscopic
clearness. A buzzing sounded in his ears.</p>
<p>He remembered having felt the same way just before he fainted. He drew a
deep breath and looked around the room; it swam before his gaze. He
closed his eyes and waited, wondering if he would faint. The buzzing in
his head grew louder; a feeling of nausea possessed him.</p>
<p>After a moment his head cleared; he felt better. Then all at once he
realized that the floor upon which he sat was moving. It seemed to be
shifting out from under him in all directions. He sat with his feet flat
upon the floor, his knees drawn close against his chin. And the floor
seemed to be carrying his feet farther out; he constantly had to be
pulling them back against him. He put one hand down beside him, and
could feel his fingers dragging very slowly as the polished surface
moved past. The noise in his head was almost gone now. He opened his
eyes.</p>
<p>Before him, across the handkerchief the Banker sat in his chair. He had
grown enormously in size, and as the Very Young Man looked he could see
him and the chair growing steadily larger. He met the Banker's anxious
glance, and smiled up at him. Then he looked at his two friends, sitting
on the floor beside him. They alone, of everything within his range of
vision, had grown no larger.</p>
<p>The Very Young Man thought of the belt around his waist. He put his hand
to it, and found it tight as before. So, after all, they would not have
to leave anything behind, he thought.</p>
<p>The Doctor rose to his feet and turned away, back under the huge table
that loomed up behind him. The Very Young Man got up, too, and stood
beside the Big Business Man, holding to him for support. His head felt
strangely confused; his legs were weak and shaky.</p>
<p>Steadily larger grew the room and everything in it. The Very Young Man
turned his eyes up to the light high overhead. Its great electric bulbs
dazzled him with their brilliancy; its powerful glare made objects
around as bright as though in daylight. After a moment the Big Business
Man's grip on his arm tightened.</p>
<p>"God, it's weird!" he said in a tense whisper. "Look!"</p>
<p>Before them spread a great, level, shining expanse of black, with the
ring in its center—a huge golden circle. Beyond the farther edge of the
black they could see the feet of the banker, and the lower part of his
legs stretching into the air far above them.</p>
<p>The Very Young Man looked up still higher, and saw the Banker staring
down at him, "Good-by, my boy," said the Banker. His voice came from far
away in a great roar to the Very Young Man's ears.</p>
<p>"Good-by, sir," said the Very Young Man, and waved his hand.</p>
<p>Several minutes passed, and still the Very Young Man stood holding to
his companion, and watching the expanse of handkerchief widening out and
the gleaming ring growing larger. Then he thought of the Doctor, and
turned suddenly to look behind him. Across the wide, glistening surface
of the floor stood the Doctor, leaning against the tremendous column
that the Very Young Man knew was the leg of the center-table. And as the
Very Young Man stood staring, he could see this distance between them
growing steadily greater. A sudden fear possessed him, and he shouted to
his friend.</p>
<p>"Good Lord, suppose he can't make it!" said the Big Business Man
fearfully.</p>
<p>"He's coming," answered the Very Young Man. "He's got to make it."</p>
<p>The Doctor was running towards them now, and in a few moments he was
beside them, breathing heavily.</p>
<p>"Close call, Frank," said the Big Business Man, shaking his head. "You
were the one said we must keep together." The Doctor was too much out of
breath to answer.</p>
<p>"This is worse," said the Very Young Man. "Look where the ring is."</p>
<p>More than two hundred yards away across the black expanse of silk
handkerchief lay the ring.</p>
<p>"It's almost as high as our waist now, and look how far it is!" added
the Very Young Man excitedly.</p>
<p>"It's getting farther every minute," said the Big Business Man. "Come
on," and he started to run towards the ring.</p>
<p>"I can't make it. It's too far!" shouted the Doctor after him.</p>
<p>The Big Business Man stopped short. "What'll we do?" he asked. "We've
got to get there."</p>
<p>"That ring will be a mile away in a few minutes, at the rate it's
going," said the Very Young Man.</p>
<p>"We'll have to get him to move it over here," decided the Doctor,
looking up into the air, and pointing.</p>
<p>"Gee, I never thought of that!" said the Very Young Man. "Oh, great
Scott, look at him!"</p>
<p>Out across the broad expanse of handkerchief they could see the huge
white face of their friend looming four or five hundred feet in the air
above them. It was the most astounding sight their eyes had ever beheld;
yet so confused were they by the flood of new impressions to which they
were being subjected that this colossal figure added little to their
surprise.</p>
<p>"We must make him move the ring over here," repeated the Doctor.</p>
<p>"You'll never make him hear you," said the Big Business Man, as the Very
Young Man began shouting at the top of his voice.</p>
<p>"We've got to," said the Very Young Man breathlessly. "Look at that
ring. We can't get to it now. We're stranded here. Good Lord! What's the
matter with him—can't he see us?" he added, and began shouting again.</p>
<p>"He's getting up," said the Doctor. They could see the figure of the
Banker towering in the air a thousand feet above the ring, and then with
a swoop of his enormous face come down to them as he knelt upon the
floor.</p>
<p>With his hands to his mouth, the Very Young Man shouted up: "It's too
far away. We can't make it—we're too small." They waited. Suddenly,
without warning, a great wooden oval bowl fifteen or twenty feet across
came at them with tremendous speed. They scattered hastily in terror.</p>
<p>"Not that—the ring!" shouted the Very Young Man, as he realized it was
the spoon in the Banker's hand that had frightened them.</p>
<p>A moment more and the ring was before them, lying at the edge of the
handkerchief—a circular pit of rough yellow rock breast high. They ran
over to it and climbed upon its top.</p>
<p>Another minute and the ring had grown until its top became a narrow
curving path upon which they could stand. They got upon their feet and
looked around curiously.</p>
<p>"Well, we're here," remarked the Very Young Man. "Everything's O.K. so
far. Let's get right around after that scratch."</p>
<p>"Keep together," cautioned the Doctor, and they started off along the
path, following its inner edge.</p>
<p>As they progressed, the top of the ring steadily became broader; the
surface underfoot became rougher. The Big Business Man, walking nearest
the edge, pulled his companion towards him. "Look there!" he said. They
stood cautiously at the edge and looked down.</p>
<p>Beneath them the ring bulged out. Over the bulge they could see the
black of the handkerchief—a sheer hundred-feet drop. The ring curved
sharply to the left; they could follow its wall all the way around; it
formed a circular pit some two hundred and fifty feet in diameter.</p>
<p>A gentle breeze fanned their faces as they walked. The Very Young Man
looked up into the gray of the distance overhead. A little behind, over
his shoulder he saw above him in the sky a great, gleaming light many
times bigger than the sun. It cast on the ground before him an opaque
shadow, blurred about the edges.</p>
<p>"Pretty good day, at that," remarked the Very Young Man, throwing out
his chest.</p>
<p>The Doctor laughed. "It's half-past eight at night," he said. "And if
you'll remember half an hour ago, it's a very stormy night, too."</p>
<p>The Big Business Man stopped short in his walk. "Just think," he said
pointing up into the gray of the sky, with a note of awe in his voice,
"over there, not more than fifteen feet away, is a window, looking down
towards the Gaiety Theater and Broadway."</p>
<p>The Very Young. Man looked bewildered. "That window's a hundred miles
away," he said positively.</p>
<p>"Fifteen feet," said the Big Business Man. "Just beyond the table."</p>
<p>"It's all in the viewpoint" said the Doctor, and laughed again.</p>
<p>They had recovered their spirits by now, the Very Young Man especially
seeming imbued with the enthusiasm of adventure.</p>
<p>The path became constantly rougher as they advanced.</p>
<p>The ground underfoot—a shaggy, yellow, metallic ore—was strewn now
with pebbles. These pebbles grew larger farther on, becoming huge rocks
and bowlders that greatly impeded their progress.</p>
<p>They soon found it difficult to follow the brink of the precipice. The
path had broadened now so that its other edge was out of sight, for they
could see only a short distance amid the bowlders that everywhere
tumbled about, and after a time they found themselves wandering along,
lost in the barren waste.</p>
<p>"How far is the scratch, do you suppose?" the Very Young Man wanted to
know.</p>
<p>They stopped and consulted a moment; then the Very Young Man clambered
up to the top of a rock. "There's a range of hills over there pretty
close," he called down to them. "That must be the way."</p>
<p>They had just started again in the direction of the hills when, almost
without warning, and with a great whistle and roar, a gale of wind swept
down upon them. They stood still and looked at each other with startled
faces, bracing with their feet against its pressure.</p>
<p>"Oh, golly, what's this?" cried the Very Young Man, and sat down
suddenly upon the ground to keep from being blown forward.</p>
<p>The wind increased rapidly in violence until, in a moment, all three of
the men were crouching upon the ground for shelter.</p>
<p>"Great Scott, this is a tornado!" ejaculated the Big Business Man. His
words were almost lost amid the howling of the blast as it swept across
the barren waste of rocks.</p>
<p>"Rogers never told us anything about this. It's getting worse every
minute. I——" A shower of pebbles and a great cloud of metallic dust
swept past, leaving them choking and gasping for breath.</p>
<p>The Very Young Man got upon his hands and knees.</p>
<p>"I'm going over there," he panted. "It's better."</p>
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