"I can," said the Very Young Man, "right by the scratch." Then after a moment, "he"s gone."
"I"ve got him right over the scratch," said the Doctor, leaning farther down. Then he raised his head and laid the magnifying gla.s.s and the callipers on the table. "He"s gone now."
"Gosh," said the Very Young Man, drawing a long breath.
The Banker flung himself into a chair as though exhausted from a great physical effort.
"Well, it certainly does work," said the Big Business Man, "there"s no question about that."
The Very Young Man was shaking the cardboard box in his hands and lifting its cover cautiously to see inside. "Let"s try a lizard," he suggested.
"Oh, what"s the use," the Banker protested wearily, "we know it works."
"Well, it can"t hurt anything to try it, can it?" the Very Young Man urged. "Besides, the more we try it, the more sure we are it will work with us when the time comes. You don"t want to try it on yourself, now, do you?" he added with a grin.
"No, thank you," retorted the Banker with emphasis.
"I think we might as well try it again," said the Big Business Man.
The Very Young Man took one of the tiny lizards from the box, and in a moment they had dropped some water containing the drug down its throat.
"Try to put him on the scratch, too," said the Very Young Man.
When the lizard was small enough the Doctor held it with the callipers and then laid it on the ring.
"Look at him walk; look at him walk," whispered the Very Young Man excitedly. The lizard, hardly more than an eighth of an inch long now, but still plainly visible, was wriggling along the top of the ring.
"Shove him up by the scratch," he added.
In a moment more the reptile was too small for any but the Doctor with his gla.s.s to see. "I guess he got there," he said finally with a smile, as he straightened up. "He was going fast."
"Well, _that"s_ all right," said the Very Young Man with a sigh of relief.
The four men again seated themselves; the Big Business Man went back to his figures.
"When do you start?" asked the Banker after a moment.
"November 4th--8 P. M.," answered the Doctor. "Three weeks from to-night."
"We"ve a lot to do," said the Banker.
"What will this cost, do you figure?" asked the Big Business Man, looking up from his notes.
The Doctor considered a moment.
"We can"t take much with us, you know," he said slowly. Then he took a sheet of memoranda from his pockets. "I have already spent for apparatus and chemicals to prepare the drugs"--he consulted his figures--"seventeen hundred and forty dollars, total. What we have still to spend will be very little, I should think. I propose we divide it three ways as we have been doing with the Museum?"
"Four ways," said the Very Young Man. "I"m no kid any more. I got a good job--that is," he added with a rueful air, "I had a good job. To-morrow I quit."
"Four ways," the Doctor corrected himself gravely. "I guess we can manage that."
"What can we take with us, do you think?" asked the Big Business Man.
"I think we should try strapping a belt around our waists, with pouches in it," said the Doctor. "I doubt if it would contract with our bodies, but still it might. If it didn"t there would be no harm done; we could leave it behind."
"You want food and water," said the Banker. "Remember that barren country you are going through."
"And something on our feet," the Big Business Man put in.
"I"d like to take a revolver, too," said the Very Young Man. "It might come in awful handy."
"As I remember Rogers"s description," said the Doctor thoughtfully, "the trip out is more difficult than going down. We mustn"t overlook preparations for that; it is most imperative we should be careful."
"Say, talking about getting back," burst out the Very Young Man. "I"d like to see that other drug work first. It would be pretty rotten to get in there and have it go back on us, wouldn"t it? Oh, golly!" The Very Young Man sank back in his chair overcome by the picture he had conjured up.
"I tried it," said the Doctor. "It works."
"I"d like to see it again with something different," said the Big Business Man. "It can"t do any harm." The Banker looked his protest, but said nothing.
"What shall we try, a lizard?" suggested the Very Young Man. The Doctor shrugged his shoulders.
"What"ll we kill it with? Oh, I know." The Very Young Man picked up a heavy metal paper-weight from the desk. "This"ll do the trick, fine," he added.
Then, laying the paper-weight carefully aside, he dipped up a spoonful of water and offered it to the Doctor.
"Not that water this time," said the Doctor, shaking his head with a smile.
The Very Young Man looked blank.
"Organisms in it," the Doctor explained briefly. "All right for them to get small from the other chemical, but we don"t want them to get large and come out at us, do we?"
"Holy Smoke, I should say not," said the Very Young Man, gasping; and the Banker growled:
"Something"s going to happen to us, playing with fire like this."
The Doctor produced a little bottle. "I boiled this water," he said. "We can use this."
It took but a moment to give the other drug to one of the remaining lizards, although they spilled more of the water than went down its throat.
"Don"t forget to hit him, and don"t you wait very long," said the Banker warningly, moving nearer the door.
"Oh, I"ll hit him all right, don"t worry," said the Very Young Man, brandishing the paper-weight.
The Doctor knelt down, and held the reptile pinned to the floor; the Very Young Man knelt beside him. Slowly the lizard began to increase in size.
"He"s growing," said the Banker. "Hit him, boy, what"s the use of waiting; he"s growing."
The lizard was nearly a foot long now, and struggling violently between the Doctor"s fingers.
"You"d better kill him," said the Doctor, "he might get away from me."