"I've been thinking," he continued, seeing that they agreed with him. "You know this is a curious problem we have facing us. I've been thinking about it a lot. It seemed a frightful long trip down here, but in spite of that, I can't get it out of my mind that we're only a very little distance under the surface of the ring."
"It's absolutely all in the viewpoint," the Chemist said with a smile. "That's what I meant about having an easier method of getting out. The distance depends absolutely on how you view it."
"How far would it be out if we didn't get any larger?" the Very Young Man wanted to know.
"Based on the size of a normal Oroid adult, and using the terrestrial standard of feet and inches as they would seem to us when Oroid size, I should say the distance from Arite to the surface of the ring would be about one hundred and fifty to a hundred and sixty thousand miles."
"Holy mackerel!" exclaimed the Very Young Man.
"Don't let's do much walking while we're small."
"You have the idea exactly," smiled the Chemist.
"Taking the other viewpoint," said the Doctor. "Just where do you figure this Oroid universe is located in the ring?"
"It is contained within one of the atoms of gold," the Chemist answered. "And that golden atom, I estimate, is located probably within one one-hundredth of an inch, possibly even one one-thousandth of an inch away from the circular indentation I made in the bottom of the scratch. In actual distance I suppose Arite is possibly one-sixteenth of an inch below the surface of the ring."
"Certainly makes a difference how you look at it," murmured the Very Young Man in awe.