Basil Wells

“ Rolf emptied three more of the shotguns, reloaded them and fired again. A third time he emptied all his weapons into those clustering ranks; dropped the last gun, and raced for the cellar and the tunnel opening out from it.
Along a narrow, rough-timbered drift he ran for a hundred feet and emerged in the shelter of a heap of rocks and clustering brush. Less than fifty feet distant, at the base of a weathered yellow cliff, opened the hidden entrance to the cavern where the ancient rebuilt spaceship pointed its blunt nose skyward. ”

“ Rolf told her soberly, "but with the food and supplies already stored in the Vulcan we can live for fifty years in space. We should find a habitable sphere in that time."
"Hiyuh, Big Boy," rang out a cheery greeting from the trail above the engrossed pair. "Trying to play Romeo to Janet? No use playing up to her, Rolf. Her heart is pure asbestos. She thinks necking is a kin to hanging."
"Listen, brat," Janet cried, her face flushing beautifully, "do you ever think of anything but wisecracks? Beat it!"
"Begorra!" squealed Jean. "You've got her talking human, Rolfy. Ain't love the nuts?" ”

“ Thus do they kill the Mosters."
"Jek," demanded Rolf, "what are these monsters you talk about, the ones we go to find?"
"Giants," said Jek eagerly. "Men like you. Men who Would not submit to the Great Change."
Rolf had lost all count of the days. For many weeks they had roamed the desolate tree-clad canyons of Northern Arizona and Southwestern Utah searching for men like himself. They found weedy cultivated fields in hidden box canyons and the clean-picked bones of men and women about the ashes of dead fires beside the empty walls of nearby cabins. ”

“ A shower of little spears flashed about them as Rolf began to run. Two of them pierced the loose cloth of Rolf's baggy pants leg, where he found them dangling later in the day, while another grazed his side.
Then they were beyond effective range of the thrown weapons and Rolf sent a half-dozen heavy rocks crashing back into their advancing ranks. Jek tugged at his ear and pointed again toward the distant hills.
"Soon," he shrieked, "the horsemen will come. They can run like the swift rabbits. They will follow us. When we sleep they will plunge spears into our eyes. ”

“ Venus and Mars are of course overrun by the Little People so we knew that only on some distant world we might find human beings like ourselves."
"Why not go anyway?" Rolf questioned. "I would like to see Earth from empty space before I die. I have always dreamed of spaceflight and of exploring some new world. Eventually the runts will find us and jab out our eyes; so why not take a chance on blasting off for Ganymede or Io? Better to die in space than in these forsaken canyons."
"You are right!" cried Janet impulsively springing to her feet and facing the man. ”

“ Where'd you learn to swing sucha wicked sap?"
"Geeze," gasped Jean breathlessly, plumping herself down beside Rolf, "you do know the lingo!"
"Here we are stranded on Earth," Janet was saying several days later as they sat close together on a sun-warmed rock ledge overlooking the autumn-hued little hollow where the cabins squatted placidly. "If father and the others had only been with Jean and I in the cavern when the Little People attacked them we would be halfway to Ganymede by now. The Vulcan would not be an earth-bound hulk of metal. ”

“ Janet found her father's old revolver and loaded it with trembling unaccustomed fingers. The shotgun bellowed twice and a great gap opened in the charging horde of little men.
Rolf snatched up a rifle from the little pile beside him and sent a barrage of bullets after those devastating shotgun blasts. The mounted men galloped away then into the screening shelter of the trees and brush at the edge of the clearing.
"Quick!" Rolf shouted. "Down the tunnel before they circle the cabins. I'll hold off the runts for a little while and join you." ”

“ But when men were a foot tall Earth was big enough for all of them."
"I rather imagine," murmured Rolf making rough mental calculations. "The area would be increased by 62—thirty-six times as many square miles as before."
"The Great Change destroyed us," droned on Jek. "Sons of miners remained miners. The sons of farmers remained farmers. The power to reason is gone. Our brains are too small."
"Right," agreed Rolf. "And Jek, unless I'm greatly mistaken that same thing has happened before on Earth. The Age of Reptiles must have had some species with great intelligence. They are gone. ”

“ Rolf smiled, grimly amused at the little man's words.
"Before the Great Change," Jek went on, "all men were giants. Too many men crowded Earth. Even in the oceans they lived on artificial islands. There were many wars to capture land already overcrowded. Men and women starved. ”

“ One arm he held before his eyes to ward off the showering spears but in his other hand he gripped the legs of two of the little men. With this improvised human club he battered a road open before him. ”

“ Few of us are curious or even try to think. We work, we eat, we sleep. If they see me away from my work I will be killed. It is the law.
"If they see you they will kill you. All Mosters must be killed. ”