Carter Fleming found himself resting comfortably with his face against someone's back. Otherwise he was completely surrounded by soft flesh. He realized they were being handled carefully however so he felt that death, while definitely a threat had been at least postponed. He wondered about the others, so close to him and yet so far away so far as contact was concerned. He knew the terror that raced through their minds and he pitied them....
The giant was continuing on, Carter decided, and he endured the ride as best he could.
Then it terminated suddenly as Carter and the others were very gently tumbled into a room. The room had no ceiling but this situation was speedily remedied when a ceiling was lowered and set into place above them. In the resulting darkness, Carter heard Peggy Wilson sobbing and various unintelligible noises from Maltby and Payton. Then the room began suddenly to move in haphazard directions.
Possibly this was finally the end, but Fleming Carter could not bring himself to think so. Because even though the room pitched and tossed, Carter felt it was being done rather gently by the giant hands.
Then it was over. The room settled down and remained on solid base. Immediately there was a rending sound and a vast finger was thrust through the wall just below ceiling level. The finger was withdrawn but only to reappear when thrust through the other side.
It vanished again and the two resulting holes let in ample air and light.
For a few moments Carter and the other three sat motionless, waiting. Something was going on outside the room—the room itself moving slightly—but the violent tossing was evidently over.
Peggy Wilson spoke first—or rather, sobbed. "Where are we?"
"I'm sure I don't know, my dear, but if I stood on the young man's shoulders I could look out through one of those openings and perhaps learn a little something."
"You want me to lift you?" Wilmer Payton said dully.