The girl did not reply at once; she simply met his earnest gaze with her frank answering smile of understanding.
The Chemist was calling to them.
"Oh, you Jack. We're about ready to start."
The Very Young Man got to his feet, holding down his hands to help Aura up.
"You're going to make a fine woman, Aura, in this new world. You just wait and see if you don't," he said as they rejoined the others.
The Chemist explained his plans to them. "This valley is several times deeper than its breadth; you can see that. We cannot grow large enough to jump out as we did out of the pit; we would be crushed by the walls before we were sufficiently tall to leap out.
"But we're not going to do as I did, and climb all the way up. Instead we will stay here at the bottom until we are as large as we can conveniently get between the valley walls. Then we will stop growing and climb up the side; it will only be a short distance then."
The Very Young Man nodded his comprehension. "Unless by that time the walls are too smooth to climb up," he remarked.
"If we see them getting too smooth, we'll stop and begin climbing," the Chemist agreed. "We're all ready, aren't we?" He began measuring out the estimated quantities of the drug, handing it to each of them.
"Say, I'm terrible sorry," began the Very Young Man, apologetically interrupting this procedure. "But you know if it wasn't for me, we'd all starve to death."