"No, father has not seen him," Nona said. "Father sent to his home, but Tork has not been there."
Frane had promised that his experiment with the growth-drug this evening would be the last, his triumph, the final success. It could come any moment now. And all the little Orite colony knew it, was waiting with excited expectancy for the waving shaft of violet light which Frane had said would show from the top of the laboratory building when the growth-drug was completed.
Down the length of the glass-like cliff-base, Nixon could see the little laboratory building about a hundred feet away. It was humming with activity.
"Well," Nixon said, "nothing to do but wait and see. I sure hope he gets it."
Tensely they waited; the giant hunched at the mouth of his cave with the two tiny figures perched on his bent knee. The hours passed. The moon rose. Then Nixon sucked in his breath, and Nona and Loto gave their little cries. From the top of the laboratory the little light-beam was waving. Success! Frane had accomplished it.
"He did it!" Nixon exulted.
"Yes, he did it," Nona echoed. "My father, I'm so proud of him."
"Let's go over there," Nixon said. "I'll carry you."
He raised them to his shoulder and they clung to the collar of his shirt. They were halfway there when a tiny scream sounded. Then another.