The Raid on the Termites
Public Domain
Chapter 11: Back to Normal
“I think,” said Jim, loading his pipe, “that now I really will settle down. No other adventures could seem like much after the one”--he repressed a shiver--”we’ve just passed through.”
“And I think,” said Dennis, following his own line of thought, “that as far the world of science goes, my exploring has been for nothing. Try to tell sober scientists of the specially evolved, huge-brained thing that rules the termite tribe and forms and holds the marvelous organization it has? Try to tell them--now that Matt has to stubbornly decided to keep secret his work with element eighty-five--that we were reduced to a quarter of an inch in height, and that we went through a mound and saw at first hand the things we describe? They’d shut me in an asylum!”
The two were sitting in Denny’s apartment, once more conventionally clothed, and again their normal five feet eleven, and six feet two.
The reassembling of Denny’s body had done odd things. Jim had set the broken bone with rough skill before stepping under the glass bell; and the fracture had been healed automatically by the growing deposit of protoplasmic substance resulting when Matt threw his switch.