Page:The food of the gods, and how it came to earth.djvu/45

 suddenly with a flash in his spectacles, "so will your little boy!"

"That's just what I'm thinking of," said Redwood.

He sat back, sighed, threw his unconsumed cigarette into the fire and thrust his hands deep into his trousers pockets. "That's precisely what I'm thinking of. This Herakleophorbia is going to be queer stuff to handle. The pace that chick must have grown at--!"

"A little boy growing at that pace," said Mr. Bensington slowly, and stared at the chick as he spoke.

"I _Say_!" said Bensington, "he'll be Big."

"I shall give him diminishing doses," said Redwood. "Or at any rate Winkles will."

"It's rather too much of an experiment."

"Much."

"Yet still, you know, I must confess--... Some baby will sooner or later have to try it."

"Oh, we'll try it on _some_ baby--certainly."

"Exactly so," said Bensington, and came and stood on the hearthrug and took off his spectacles to wipe them.

"Until I saw these chicks, Redwood, I don't think I _began_ to realise--anything--of the possibilities of what we were making. It's only beginning to dawn upon me ... the possible consequences...."

And even then, you know, Mr. Bensington was far from any conception of the mine that little train would fire.