Famine Read Free Page B

was no telling how many more there might be. He bent down yet again and then saw that some of those he had rescued were also helping. They carried miniature spades, picks and shovels.
    The immediate relief was so great that he hardly realised the curious fact that – they had tools.
    They were digging a tunnel.
    At first, he did not really understand why, but there was no point in trying to stop them. After a few minutes he realised there was a definite purpose in what they were doing. They were digging their way towards another chamber, working quickly but with great care.
    Fordham bent down to look through the growing hole; and had a startling, overall view.
    He saw rooms and passages; scrupulously laid out on the plan of a miniature house. In the rooms more of the tiny creatures were huddled. Some were male, but most female – not much more than a foot high, but with beautifully formed bodies, and long, rather wavy, hair. In one room were several such females and dozens of tinier creatures, no longer than his little finger. These were the children.
    In so far as Fordham was able to think at all, he realised that this house, or apartment building, had been built from the hollowed out part of the ground, and the ground itself was the only roof. The walls of the room rose about two feet. They must have dug the cave out, then erected the wall partitions.
    Those he had rescued now moved among the cowering females, apparently reassuring them, talking in low-pitched voices which had little volume or strength; attenuated as the voices from a radio in which the battery was running dry. The care lavished on their women was quite fantastic. So was the next step in this unbelievable colony. ‘Men’ began to climb rope ladders which hung from the ceiling, and for the first time Fordham saw that the walls and the ceiling were reinforced by bracken, corn and barley stalks, leaves and twigs, like an enormous bird’s nest. The fury of activity went on for a long time, until Fordham grew tired of watching, and ran his fingers through the debris, to make sure no more creatures were buried. Satisfied, he turned away, looking repeatedly over his shoulder almost in the hope that the scene would vanish. It did not. He reached the edge of the collapsed area, close to the combine-harvester. If he climbed on that, he should be able to step off the engine on to firm earth. He was now far enough from the ‘building’ to be reasonably sure no further loosening of earth would occur.
    He climbed on to the machine, his heart very heavy. He would have no chance, now, of getting the field harvested. One part of his mind, unable to accept the marvel of what he had seen, was turning to the disappointment of everyday life in a desperate clutch on sanity.
    He stood poised on the engine, cursing and looking about him. From this height, he could see very little; just a hole like the mouth of a cave with a crust of earth on top. He pictured the bustle of activity, the checking, the care for the females and children.
    â€œWomen and children be damned!” muttered Fordham. “They’re midgets!” He stepped forward. “Midgets! Don’t make me laugh. They must be figments of the imagination. They can’t really exist.”
    But the sun was warm upon him, and the barley lay in its glory to the right and left. An aeroplane hummed high in the heavens and in the distance was the spreading oak tree. These things were real. He looked down at the earth, and saw at least twenty dead, miniature bodies. They were real, too. It was pointless to try to fool himself – he had to get to the car, to the Goose Inn, and the phone. No one would believe him, least of all Betty! Thought of the way she would look at him made him burst into a splutter of laughter. Betty’s derisively curving lips and merry blue eyes – well, thank God she hadn’t walked from the car, as she sometimes did. She