Part 3 (2/2)

I nodded. The movement frightened her so that she leaped backward; but she came again, smiling. The three men were talking earnestly by the ingots. No one else was near us.

Glora's tiny voice was louder, so that we both could hear it at once.

”When I free you, do not move or they may see that you are loose. I get larger now--a little larger--and return.”

She darted away and vanished. Alan and I lay listening to the voices of the three men. Two were talking in a strange tongue. One called to the man at the microscope, and he responded. The third man said suddenly:

”Say, talk English. You know d.a.m.n well I can't understand that lingo.”

”We say, McGuire, the two prisoners soon wake up.”

”What we oughta do is kill 'em. Polter's a fool.”

”The doctor say, wait for him return. Not long, what you call three, four hours.”

”And have the Quebec police up here lookin' for 'em? An' that d.a.m.n girl he stole off the Terrace. What did he call her, Barbara Kent?”

”These two who are drugged, their bodies can be thrown in a gully down behind St. Anne. That what the doctor plan to do, I think. Then the police find them--days maybe from now--and their smashed airs.h.i.+p with them.”

Gruesome suggestion!

The man at the microscope called, ”They are almost gone I can hardly see them any more.” He left the platform and joined the others. And I saw that he was much smaller than they--about my own size possibly.

There seemed six men here altogether. Four now, by the ingots, and two others far across the room where I saw the dark entrance of the corridor-tunnel which led to Polter's castle.

Again I felt a warning hand touch my face, and saw the figure of Glora standing by my head. She was larger now--about a foot tall. She moved past my eyes; stood by my mouth; bent down over my gag. I felt the cautious slide of a tiny knife-blade inserted under the fabric of the gag. She hacked, tugged at it, and in a moment ripped it through.

She stood panting from the effort. My heart was pounding with fear that she would be seen; but the man had turned the central light off when he left the microscope, and it was far darker here now than before.

I moistened my dry mouth. My tongue was thick, but I could talk.

”Thank you, Glora.”

”Quiet!”

I felt her hacking at the ropes around my wrists. And then at my ankles.

It took her a long time, but at last I was free! I rubbed my arms and legs; felt the returning circulation in them.

And presently Alan was free. ”George, what--” he began.

”Wait,” I whispered. ”Easy! Let her tell us what to do.”

We were unarmed. Two, against these six, three of whom were giants.

Glora whispered, ”Do not move! I have the drugs. But I can not give them to you when I am still so small. I have not enough. I will hide--there.”

Her little arm gestured to where, near us, half a dozen boxes were piled. ”When I am large as you, I come back. Be ready, quickly to act. I may be seen. I give you then the drug.”

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