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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Emancipatrix, by Homer Eon Flint
+#2 in our series by Homer Eon Flint
+
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+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The Emancipatrix
+
+Author: Homer Eon Flint
+
+Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5699]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on August 12, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EMANCIPATRIX ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+THE EMANCIPATRIX
+
+by
+HOMER EON FLINT
+
+New York
+
+
+[Illustrated title: 'The Emancipatrix' in script, over a
+background of a bee silhouetted against a full moon on the
+horizon.]
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE MENTAL EXPEDITION
+
+
+The doctor closed the door behind him, crossed to the table, silently
+offered the geologist a cigar, and waited until smoke was issuing from
+it. Then he said:
+
+"Well," bluntly, "what's come between you and your wife, Van?"
+
+The geologist showed no surprise. Instead, he frowned severely at the
+end of his cigar, and carefully seated himself on the corner of the
+table. When he spoke there was a certain rigor in his voice, which told
+the doctor that his friend was holding himself tightly in rein.
+
+"It really began when the four of us got together to investigate
+Capellette, two months ago." Van Emmon was a thorough man in important
+matters. "Maybe I ought to say that both Billie and I were as much
+interested as either you or Smith; she often says that even the tour of
+Mercury and Venus was less wonderful.
+
+"What is more, we are both just as eager to continue the investigations.
+We still have all kinds of faith in the Venusian formula; we want to
+'visit' as many more worlds as the science of telepathy will permit. It
+isn't that either of us has lost interest."
+
+The doctor rather liked the geologist's scientific way of stating the
+case, even though it meant hearing things he already knew. Kinney
+watched and waited and listened intently.
+
+"You remember, of course, what sort of a man I got in touch with. Powart
+was easily the greatest Capellan of them all; a magnificent intellect,
+which I still think was intended to have ruled the rest. I haven't
+backed down from my original position."
+
+"Van! You still believe," incredulously, "in a government of the sort he
+contemplated?"
+
+Van Emmon nodded aggressively. "All that we learned merely strengthens
+my conviction. Remember what sort of people the working classes of
+Capellette were? Smith's 'agent' was typical--a helpless nincompoop, not
+fit to govern himself!" The geologist strove to keep his patience.
+
+"However," remarked Kinney, "the chap whose mind I used was no fool."
+
+"Nor was Billie's agent, the woman surgeon," agreed Van Emmon, "even if
+she did prefer 'the Devolutionist' to Powart. But you'll have to admit,
+doc, that the vast majority of the Capellans were incompetents; the rest
+were exceptions."
+
+The doctor spoke after a brief pause. "And--that's what is wrong, Van?"
+
+"Yes," grimly. "Billie can't help but rejoice that things turned out the
+way they did. She is sure that the workers, now that they've been
+separated from the ruling class, will proceed to make a perfect paradise
+out of their land." He could not repress a certain amount of sarcasm.
+"As well expect a bunch of monkeys to build a steam engine!
+
+"Well," after a little hesitation, "as I said before, doc, I've no
+reason to change my mind. You may talk all you like about it--I can't
+agree to such ideas. The only way to get results on that planet is for
+the upper classes to continue to govern."
+
+"And this is what you two have--quarreled about?"
+
+Van Emmon nodded sorrowfully. He lit another cigar absent-mindedly and
+cleared his throat twice before going on: "My fault, I guess. I've been
+so darned positive about everything I've said, I've probably caused
+Billie to sympathize with her friends more solidly than she would
+otherwise."
+
+"But just because you've championed the autocrats so heartily--"
+
+"I'm afraid so!" The geologist was plainly relieved to have stated the
+case in full. He leaned forward in his eagerness to be understood. He
+told the doctor things that were altogether too personal to be included
+in this account.
+
+Meanwhile, out in the doctor's study, Smith had made no move whatever to
+interrogate the geologist's young wife. Instead, the engineer simply
+remained standing after Billie had sat down, and gave her only an
+occasional hurried glance. Shortly the silence got on her nerves; and--
+such was her nature, as contrasted with Van Emmon's--whereas he had
+stated causes first, she went straight to effects.
+
+"Well," explosively, "Van and I have split!"
+
+Smith was seldom surprised at anything. This time was no exception. He
+merely murmured "Sorry" under his breath; and Billie rushed on, her
+pent-up feelings eager to escape.
+
+"We haven't mentioned Capellette for weeks, Smith! We don't dare! If we
+did, there'd be such a rumpus that we--we'd separate!" Something came up
+into her throat which had to be choked back before she could go on.
+Then--
+
+"I don't know why it is, but every time the subject is brought up Van
+makes me so WILD!" She controlled herself with a tremendous effort. "He
+blames me, of course, because of what I did to help the Devolutionist.
+But I can't be blamed for sympathizing with the under dog, can I? I've
+always preferred justice to policy, any time. Justice first, I say! And
+I think we've seen--there on Capellette--how utterly impossible it is
+for any such system as theirs to last indefinitely."
+
+But before she could follow up her point the door opened and the doctor
+returned with her husband. Kinney did not allow any tension to develop;
+instead, he said briskly:
+
+"There's only a couple of hours remaining between now and dinner time; I
+move we get busy." He glanced about the room, to see if all was in
+place. The four chairs, each with its legs tipped with glass; the four
+footstools, similarly insulated from the floor; the electrical circuit
+running from the odd group of machinery in the corner, and connecting
+four pair of brass bracelets--all were ready for use. He motioned the
+others to the chairs in which they had already accomplished marvels in
+the way of mental traveling.
+
+"Now," he remarked, as he began to fit the bracelets to his wrists, an
+example which the rest straightway followed; "now, we want to make sure
+that we all have the same purpose in mind. Last time, we were simply
+looking for four people, such as had view-points similar to our own. To-
+day, our object is to locate, somewhere among the planets attached to
+one of the innumerable sun-stars of the universe, one on which the
+conditions are decidedly different from anything we have known before."
+
+Billie and Van Emmon, their affair temporarily forgotten, listened
+eagerly.
+
+"As I recall it," Smith calmly observed, "we agreed that this attempt
+would be to locate a new kind of--well, near-human. Isn't that right?"
+
+The doctor nodded. "Nothing more or less"--speaking very distinctly--
+"than a creature as superior as we are, but NOT IN HUMAN FORM."
+
+Smith tried hard not to share the thrill. He had been reading biology
+the previous week. "I may as well protest, first as last, that I don't
+see how human intelligence can ever be developed outside the human form.
+Not--possibly!"
+
+Van Emmon also was skeptical, but his wife declared the idea merely
+unusual, not impossible. "Is there any particular reason against it?"
+she demanded of the doctor.
+
+"I will say this much," cautiously. "Given certain conditions, and
+inevitably the human form will most certainly become the supreme
+creature, superior to all the others.
+
+"However, suppose the planetary conditions are entirely different. I
+conceive it entirely possible for one of the other animals to forge
+ahead of the man-ape; quite possible, Smith," as the engineer started to
+object, "if only the conditions are different ENOUGH.
+
+"At any rate, we shall soon find out. I have been reading further in the
+library the Venusians gave us, and I assure you that I've found some
+astonishing things." He fingered one of the diminutive volumes. "There
+is one planet in particular whose name I have forgotten, where all
+animal life has disappeared entirely. There are none but vegetable forms
+on the land, and all of them are the rankest sort of weeds. They have
+literally choked off everything else!
+
+"And the highest form of life there is a weed; a hideous monstrosity,
+shaped something like an octopus, and capable of the most horrible--" He
+stopped abruptly, remembering that one of his hearers was a woman.
+"Never mind about that now."
+
+He indicated another of the little books. "I think we will do well to
+investigate a planet which the Venusians call 'Sanus.' It belongs to the
+tremendous planetary family of the giant star Arcturus. I haven't read
+any details at all; I didn't want to know more than you. We can proceed
+with our discoveries on an equal footing."
+
+"But," objected Smith, recalling the previous methods, "how are we to
+put our minds in touch with any of theirs, unless we know enough about
+them to imagine their view-points?"
+
+"Our knowledge of their planet's name and location," replied the doctor,
+"makes it easier for us. All we have to do is to go into the telepathic
+state, via the Venusian formula; then, at the same time, each must
+concentrate upon some definite mental quality, some particular
+characteristic of his own mind, which he or she wishes to find on Sanus.
+It makes no difference what it may be; all you have to do is, exert your
+imaginations a little."
+
+There was a pause, broken by Smith: "We ought to tell each other what we
+have in mind, so that we don't conflict."
+
+"Yes. For my part," said the doctor, "I'd like to get in touch with a
+being who is mildly rebellious; not a violent radical, but a
+philosophical revolutionist. I don't care what sort of a creature he,
+she, or it may be, so long as the mind is in revolt against whatever
+injustice may exist."
+
+"Then I," stated Smith, "will stick to the idea of service. Nobody was
+surprised that the engineer should make such a choice; he was, first,
+last, and all the time, essentially a useful man."
+
+Van Emmon was not ready with his choice. Instead: "You say, doc, that
+you know nothing further about Sanus than what you've already told us?"
+
+"I was about to mention that. The Venusians say that conditions are
+reversed from what we found on Capellette. Instead of Sanus being ruled
+by a small body of autocrats, it is--ruled by the working class!"
+
+"Under the circumstances," said Van, "I'll take something different from
+what I got last time. No imperiousness this trip." He smiled grimly.
+"There was a time when I used to take orders. Suppose you call my choice
+'subordinacy.'"
+
+"How very noble of you!" gibed Billie. "My idea is supremacy, and plenty
+of it! I want to get in touch with the man higher up--the worker who is
+boss of the whole works!" She flashed a single glance at her husband,
+then threw herself back in her chair. "Go ahead!"
+
+And before two minutes were up, the power of concerted thought, aided by
+a common objective and the special electrical circuit which joined them,
+had projected the minds of the four across the infinite depths of space.
+The vast distance which separated their bodies from Sanus was
+annihilated, literally as quick as thought.
+
+Neither of the four stirred. To all appearances they were fast asleep.
+The room was quite still; only the clock ticked dully on the wall. Down-
+stairs, the doctor's wife kept watch over the house.
+
+The greatest marvel in creation, the human mind, was exploring the
+unknown.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+ALMOST HUMAN
+
+
+Of course, the four still had the ability to communicate with each other
+while in the trance state; they had developed this power to a fair
+degree while investigating Capellette. However, each was so deeply
+interested in what he or she was seeing during the first hour of their
+Sanusian experiences that neither thought to discuss the matter until
+afterward.
+
+When the doctor first made connection with the eyes of his agent, he
+instinctively concluded that he, at least, had got in touch with a being
+more or less like himself. The whole thing was so natural; he was
+surveying a sunny, brush-covered landscape from eyes whose height from
+the ground, and other details, were decidedly those of a human.
+
+For a moment there was comparative silence. Then his unknown agent
+swiftly raised something--a hand, presumably--to a mouth, and gave out a
+piercing cry. Whereupon the doctor learned something that jarred him a
+trifle. His agent was--a woman!
+
+He had time to congratulate himself upon the fact that he was (1) a
+doctor, (2) a married man, (3) the father of a daughter or two, before
+his agent repeated her cry. Almost immediately it was answered by
+another exactly like it, from an unseen point not far away. The Sanusian
+plainly chuckled to herself with satisfaction.
+
+A moment later there came, rather faintly, two more calls, each from a
+different direction in the dun-colored brush. Still without moving from
+the spot, the doctor's agent replied two or three times, meanwhile
+watching her surroundings very closely. Within half a minute the first
+of her friends came in sight.
+
+It was a young woman. At a distance of about twenty yards she appeared
+to be about five feet tall and sturdily built. She was dressed in a
+single garment, made of the skin of some yellow, short-haired animal. It
+may have been a lion cub. Around her waist was a strip of hide, which
+served as a belt, and held a small, stone-headed tomahawk. One shoulder
+and both legs were left quite bare, revealing a complexion so deeply
+tanned that the doctor instantly thought: "Spanish!"
+
+In a way, the girl's face gave the same impression. Large, dark-brown
+eyes, full lips and a healthy glow beneath her tan, all made it possible
+for her to pass as a Spaniard. However, there was nothing in the least
+coquettish about her; she had a remarkably independent manner, and a
+gaze as frank and direct as it was pure and untroubled.
+
+In one hand she carried a branch from some large-leafed shrub. The eyes
+which Kinney was using became fixed upon this branch; and even as the
+newcomer cried out in joyous response to the other's greeting, her
+expression changed and she turned and fled, laughing, as the doctor's
+agent darted toward her. She did not get away, and immediately the two
+were struggling over the possession of the branch.
+
+In the midst of the tussle another figure made its appearance.
+
+"Look out! Here comes Dulnop" [Footnote: It made no difference whatever
+as to what language was used. The telepathic process employed enabled
+the investigators to know all that their agents' subconscious minds took
+in. The brains of the four automatically translated these thought-images
+into their own language. However, this method did not enable them to
+learn what their agents were thinking, but only what they said, heard,
+and saw.] cried Kinney's agent; at the same time she made a special
+effort, and succeeded in breaking off a good half of the branch.
+
+Instantly she darted to one side, where she calmly began to pluck some
+small, hard-shelled nuts from the branch, and proceeded to crack them,
+with entire ease, using a set of teeth which must have been absolutely
+perfect.
+
+She gave the latest comer only a glance or two. He--for it certainly was
+a man--was nearly a half a foot taller than the girl already described;
+but he was plainly not much older or younger, and in build and color
+much the same. He was clothed neither more nor less than she, the only
+difference being that some leopard-like animal had contributed the
+material. In his belt was tucked a primitive stone hammer, also a stone
+knife. His face was longer than hers, his eyes darker; but he was
+manifestly still very boyish. Dulnop, they had called him.
+
+"Hail, Cunora!" he called to the girl who had brought the nuts; then, to
+her who was watching: "Rolla! Where got ye the nuts?"
+
+Rolla didn't answer; she couldn't use her mouth just then; it was too
+full of nuts. She merely nodded in the direction of Cunora.
+
+"Give me some, Cunora!"
+
+The younger girl gave no reply, but backed away from him as he
+approached; her eyes sparkled mischievously and the doctor thought,
+somewhat affectionately. Dulnop made a sudden darting move toward her
+branch, and she as swiftly whirled in her tracks, so that he missed.
+However, he instantly changed his mind and grasped the girl instead.
+Like a flash he drew her to him and kissed her noisily.
+
+Next second he was staggering backward under the weight of her hard
+brown fist. "Do that again, and I'll have the hair out of thy head!" the
+girl screamed, her face flaming. Yet Kinney saw that the man was
+laughing joyously even as he rubbed the spot where her blow had landed,
+while the expression of her eyes quite belied what she had said.
+
+Not until then did the doctor's agent say anything. When she spoke it
+was in a deep, contralto voice which gave the impression of riper years
+than either of the other two. Afterward Kinney learned that Rolla was
+nearly ten years their senior, a somewhat more lithe specimen of the
+same type, clad in the skin of what was once a magnificent goat. She
+carried only a single small knife in her belt. As seen reflected in
+pools of water, her complexion was slightly paler and her whole
+expression a little less self-assertive and distinctively philosophical.
+To those who admire serious, thoughtful women of regular feature and
+different manner, Rolla would have seemed downright beautiful.
+
+"Dulnop," said she, with a laugh in her voice, "ye will do well to seek
+the nut tree, first as last." She nonchalantly crushed another shell in
+her mouth. "Neither Cunora nor I can spare good food to a kiss-hungry
+lout like thee!"
+
+He only laughed again and made as though to come toward her. She stood
+ready to dodge, chuckling excitedly, and he evidently gave it up as a
+bad job. "Tell me whence cameth the nuts, Cunora!" he begged; but the
+girl pretended to be cross, and shut her mouth as firmly as its contents
+would allow.
+
+Next moment there was a shout from the thicket, together with a crashing
+sound; and shortly the fourth Sanusian appeared. He was by far the
+larger; but his size was a matter of width rather than of height. An
+artist would have picked him as a model for Ajax himself. His muscles
+fairly strained the huge lion's skin in which he was clad, and he had
+twice the weight of Dulnop within the same height. Also, to the doctor's
+eye, he was nearer Rolla's age.
+
+His face was strong and handsome in a somewhat fierce, relentless way;
+his complexion darker than the rest. He carried a huge club, such as
+must have weighed all of forty pounds, while his belt was jammed full of
+stone weapons. The doctor classed him and the younger girl together
+because of their vigor and independence, while Dulnop and Rolla seemed
+to have dispositions very similar in their comparative gentleness and
+restraint.
+
+"Hail, all of ye!" shouted this latest arrival in a booming baritone. He
+strode forward with scarcely a glance at the two younger people; his
+gaze was fixed upon Rolla, his expression unmistakable. The woman
+quietly turned upon Dulnop and Cunora.
+
+"Look!" she exclaimed, pointing to a spot back of them. "See the curious
+bird!" They wheeled instantly, with the unquestioning faith of two
+children; and before they had brought their gazes back again, the big
+man had seized Rolla, crushed her to his breast and kissed her
+passionately. She responded just as warmly, pushing him away only in
+order to avoid being seen by the others. They showed only an innocent
+disappointment at having missed seeing the "curious bird."
+
+"A simple-minded people, basically good-humored," was the way the doctor
+summed the matter up when reporting what he had seen. However, it was
+not so easy to analyze certain things that were said during the time the
+four Sanusians spent in each other's company. For one thing--
+
+"Did They give thee permission to go?" Rolla was asked by the big man.
+His name, it seemed, was Corrus.
+
+"Yes, Corrus. They seemed to think it a good idea for us to take a
+little recreation to-day. I suppose ye left thy herd with thy brother?"
+
+He nodded; and the doctor was left to wonder whom "They" might be. Were
+They a small group of humans, whose function was to superintend? Or were
+They, as the books from Venus seemed to indicate, another type of
+creature, entirely different from the humans, and yet, because of the
+peculiar Sanusian conditions, superior to the humans?
+
+"They have decided to move their city a little farther away from the
+forest," Rolla overheard Dulnop telling Cunora; which was the first
+indication that the planet boasted such a thing as a city. Otherwise,
+things appeared to be in a primitive, rather than a civilized condition.
+
+These four skin-clad savages seemed to be enjoying an aboriginal picnic.
+For lunch, they munched on various fruits and nuts picked up en route,
+together with handfuls of some wheat-like cereal which the big man had
+brought in a goatskin. From time to time they scared out various animals
+from the brush, chasing the creatures after the fashion of dogs and
+children. Whenever they came to a stream, invariably all four splashed
+through it, shouting and laughing with delight.
+
+However, there were but two of these streams, and both of them quite
+small. Their banks indicated that either the season was very far
+advanced, or else that the streams were at one time vastly larger.
+
+"A rather significant fact," the doctor afterward commented.
+
+Nevertheless, the most impressive thing about all that the doctor
+learned that day was the strange manner in which the excursion came to
+an end. The quartet was at that moment climbing a small hill, apparently
+on the edge of an extensive range of mountains. An occasional tree,
+something like an oak, broke the monotony of the brush at this point,
+and yet it was not until Rolla was quite at the top of the knoll that
+Kinney could see surrounding country with any degree of clearness. Even
+then he learned little.
+
+The hill was placed on one edge of a valley about forty miles in width.
+A good part of it was covered with dusty vegetation, presumably wild;
+but the rest was plainly under cultivation. There were large green
+areas, such as argued grain fields; elsewhere were what looked like
+orchards and vineyards, some of which were in full bloom--refuting the
+notion that the season was a late one. Nowhere was there a spot of land
+which might be called barren.
+
+Rolla and her three friends stood taking this in, keeping a rather
+curious silence meanwhile. At length Cunora gave a deep sigh, which was
+almost instantly reproduced by all the rest. Corrus followed his own
+sigh with a frank curse.
+
+"By the great god Mownoth!" he swore fiercely. "It be a shame that we
+cannot come hence a great deal oftener! Methinks They could allow it!"
+
+"They care not for our longings," spoke Cunora, her eyes flashing as
+angrily as his. "They give us enough freedom to make us work the better
+--no more! All They care for is thy herd and my crops!"
+
+"And for the labor," reminded the big man, "of such brains as Rolla's
+and Dulnop's. It be not right that They should drive us so!"
+
+"Aye," agreed the younger man, with much less enthusiasm. "However, what
+can ye do about it, Corrus?"
+
+The big man's face flushed, and he all but snarled. "I tell ye what I
+can do! I, and ye as well, if ye but will! I can--"
+
+He stopped, one hand upraised in mighty emphasis, and a sudden and
+startling change came over him. Downright fear drove the anger from his
+face; his massive body suddenly relaxed, and all his power and vigor
+seemed to crumble and wilt. His hands shook; his mouth trembled. At the
+same time the two women shrank from him, each giving an inarticulate cry
+of alarm and distress. Dulnop gave no sound, but the anger which had
+left the herdsman seemed to have come to him; the youngster's eyes
+flared and his breast heaved. His gaze was fixed upon Corrus's neck,
+where the sweat of fear already glistened.
+
+Suddenly the big man dropped his head, as though in surrender. He gasped
+and found voice; this time a voice as shaky and docile as it had been
+strong and dominant a moment before.
+
+"Very well," he spoke abjectly. "Very well. I--shall do as you wish." He
+seemed to be talking to thin air. "We--will go home at once."
+
+And instantly all four turned about, and in perfect silence took the
+back trail.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+WORLD OF MAMMOTHS
+
+
+Immediately upon going into tele-consciousness Smith became aware of a
+decided change in his surroundings. The interior of the study had been
+darkened with drawn shades; now he was using eyes that were exposed to
+the most intense sunlight. The first sight that he got, in fact, was
+directed toward the sky; and he noted with an engineer's keen interest
+that the color of the sky was blue, slightly tinged with orange. This,
+he knew, meant that the atmosphere of Sanus contained at least one
+chemical element which is lacking on the earth.
+
+For a minute or two the sky remained entirely clear. There were no
+clouds whatever; neither did any form of winged life make its
+appearance. So Smith took note of sounds.
+
+Presumably his agent--whoever or whatever it might be--was located in
+some sort of aircraft; for an extremely loud and steady buzzing,
+suggesting a powerful engine, filled the engineer's borrowed ears. Try
+as he might, however, he could not identify the sound exactly. It was
+more like an engine than anything else, except that the separate sounds
+which comprised the buzz occurred infinitely close together. Smith
+concluded that the machine was some highly developed rotary affair,
+working at perhaps six or eight thousand revolutions a minute--three or
+four times as fast as an ordinary engine.
+
+Meanwhile his agent continued to stare into the sky. Shortly something
+arrived in the field of vision; a blurred speck, far to one side. It
+approached leisurely, with the unknown agent watching steadfastly. It
+still remained blurred, however; for a long time the engineer knew as
+little about its actual form as he knew about his mysterious agent.
+
+Then, like a flash, the vision cleared. All the blurring disappeared
+instantly, and the form of a buzzard was disclosed. It was almost
+directly overhead, about a quarter of a mile distant, and soaring in a
+wide spiral. No sound whatever came from it. Smith's agent made no move
+of any kind, but continued to watch.
+
+Shortly the buzzard "banked" for a sharper turn; and the engineer saw,
+by the perspective of its apparent speed, that the aircraft whose use he
+was enjoying was likewise on the move. Apparently it was flying in a
+straight line, keeping the sun--an object vastly too brilliant to
+examine--on the right.
+
+The buzzard went out of sight. Once more the clear sky was all that
+could be seen; that, and the continual roar of the engine, were all that
+Smith actually knew. He became impatient for his agent to look
+elsewhere; it might be that the craft contained other specimens of the
+unknown creatures. But there was no change in the vigilant watch which
+was being kept upon the sky.
+
+Suddenly the engineer became exceedingly alert. He had noticed something
+new--something so highly different from anything he had expected to
+learn that it was some minutes before he could believe it true.
+
+His borrowed eyes had no eyelids! At least, if they did, they were never
+used. Not once did they flicker in the slightest; not once did they
+blink or wink, much less close themselves for a momentary rest from the
+sun's glare. They remained as stonily staring as the eyes of a marble
+statue.
+
+Then something startling happened. With the most sickening suddenness
+the aircraft came to an abrupt halt. Smith's senses swam with the jolt
+of it. All about him was a confused jumble of blurred figures and forms;
+it was infinitely worse than his first ride in a hoist. In a moment,
+however, he was able to examine things fairly well.
+
+The aircraft had come to a stop in the middle of what looked like a cane
+brake. On all sides rose yellowish-green shafts, bearing leaves
+characteristic of the maize family. Smith knew little about cane, yet
+felt sure that these specimens were a trifle large. "Possibly due to
+difference in gravitation," he thought.
+
+However, he could not tell much about the spot on which the machine had
+landed. For a moment it was motionless; the engine had been stopped, and
+all was silent except for the gentle rustling of the cane in the field.
+The unknown operator did not change his position in the slightest. Then
+the craft began to move over the surface, in a jerky lurching fashion
+which indicated a very rough piece of ground. At the same time a queer,
+leathery squeaking came to the engineer's borrowed ears; he concluded
+that the machine was being sorely strained by the motion. At the time he
+was puzzled to account for the motion itself. Either there was another
+occupant of the craft, who had climbed out and was now pushing the thing
+along the ground, or else some form of silent mechanism was operating
+the wheels upon which, presumably, the craft was mounted. Shortly the
+motion stopped altogether.
+
+It was then that Smith noticed something he had so far ignored because
+he knew his own dinner hour was approaching. His agent was hungry, like
+himself. He noticed it because, just then, he received a very definite
+impression of the opposite feeling; the agent was eating lunch of some
+sort, and enjoying it. There was no doubt about this. All that Smith
+could do was to wish, for the hundredth time, that he could look around
+a little and see what was being eaten, and how.
+
+The meal occupied several minutes. Not once did the strange occupant of
+that machine relax his stony stare at the sky, and Smith tried to forget
+how hungry he was by estimating the extent of his vision. He decided
+that the angle subtended about a hundred and sixty degrees, or almost
+half a circle; and he further concluded that if his agent possessed a
+nose, it was a pretty trifling affair, too small to be noticed. It was
+obvious, too, that the fellow's mouth was located much lower in the face
+than normal. He ate without showing a single particle of food, and did
+it very quietly.
+
+At length hunger was satisfied. There was complete stillness and silence
+for a moment, then another short lurching journey through the cane; and
+next, with an abruptness that made the engineer's senses swim again, the
+fellow once more took to the air. The speed with which he "got away" was
+enough to make a motorcyclist, doing his best, seem to stand still.
+
+It took time for Smith to regain his balance. When he did, the same
+unbroken expanse of sky once more met his gaze; but it was not long
+until, out of the corners of those unblinking eyes, he could make out
+bleary forms which shortly resolved themselves into mountain tops. It
+was odd, the way things suddenly flashed into full view. One second they
+would be blurred and unrecognizable; the next, sharply outlined and
+distinct as anything the engineer had ever seen. Yet, there seemed to be
+no change in the focus of those eyes. It wasn't as though they were
+telescopic, either. Not until long afterward did Smith understand the
+meaning of this.
+
+The mountains grew higher and nearer. Before long it seemed as though
+the aircraft was entering some sort of a canon. Its sides were only
+sparsely covered with vegetation, and all of it was quite brown, as
+though the season were autumn. For the most part the surface was of
+broken rock and boulders.
+
+Within a space of three or four minutes the engineer counted not less
+than ten buzzards. The unknown operator of the machine, however, paid no
+attention to them, but continued his extraordinary watch of the heavens.
+Smith began to wonder if the chap were not seated in an air-tight,
+sound-proof chamber, deep in the hull of some great aerial cruiser, with
+his eyes glued fast to a periscope. "Maybe a sky patrol," thought the
+man of the earth; "a cop on the lookout for aerial smugglers, like as
+not."
+
+And then came another of those terrifying stops. This time, as soon as
+he could collect his senses, the engineer saw that the machine had
+landed approximately in the middle of the canon, and presumably among
+the boulders in its bottom. For all about it were the tops of gigantic
+rocks, most of them worn smooth from water action. And, as soon as the
+engine stopped, Smith plainly heard the roar of water right at hand. He
+could not see it, however. Why in the name of wonder didn't the fellow
+look down, for a change?
+
+The craft began to move. This time its motion was smoother arguing an
+even surface. However, it had not gone far before, to the engineer's
+astonishment, it began to move straight down a slope so steep that no
+mechanism with which Smith was familiar could possibly have clung to it.
+As this happened, his adopted eyes told him that the craft was located
+upon one of those enormous boulders, in the center of a stream of such
+absolute immensity that he fairly gasped. The thing was--colossal!
+
+And yet it was true. The unseen machine deliberately moved along until
+it was actually clinging, not to the top, but to the side of the rock.
+The water appeared to be about five yards beneath, to the right. To the
+left was the sky, while the center of that strange vision was now upon a
+similar boulder seemingly a quarter of a mile distant, farther out in
+the stream. But the fellow at the periscope didn't change position one
+whit!
+
+It was so unreal. Smith deliberately ignored everything else and watched
+again for indications of eyelids. He saw not one flicker, but noticed a
+certain tiny come-and-go, the merest sort of vibration, which indicated
+the agent's heart-action. Apparently it beat more than twice as fast as
+Smith's.
+
+But it relieved him to know that his agent was at least a genuine living
+being. For a moment he had fancied something utterly repellent to him.
+Suppose this Sanusian were not any form of natural creature at all, but
+some sort of supermachine, capable of functioning like an organism? The
+thought made the engineer shudder as no morgue could.
+
+Presently the queer craft approached the water closely enough, and at
+such an angle, that Smith looked eagerly for a reflection. However, the
+water was exceedingly rough, and only a confused brownish blur could be
+made out. Once he caught a queer sound above the noise of the water; a
+shrill hiss, with a harsh whine at the end. "Just like some kind of
+suction apparatus," as he later described it.
+
+And then, with that peculiar sound fresh in his ears, came the crowning
+shock of the whole experience. Floating toward the boulder, but some
+distance away, was what looked like a black seed. Next moment the vision
+flashed clear, as usual, and the engineer saw that the object was really
+a beetle; and in a second it was so near that Smith's own body, back on
+the earth, involuntarily shrank back into the recesses of his chair.
+
+For that beetle was an enormity in the most unlimited sense of the word.
+It was infinitely larger than any beetle the engineer had ever seen--
+infinitely! It was as large as a good-sized horse!
+
+But before Smith could get over his amazement there was a rush and a
+swirl in the water behind the insect. Spray was dashed over the rock, a
+huge form showed itself indistinctly beneath the waves, and next instant
+the borrowed eyes were showing the engineer, so clearly as to be
+undeniable, the most astounding sight he had ever seen.
+
+A fish of mountainous size leaped from the water, snapped the beetle
+into its mouth, and disappeared from sight. In a flash it had come and
+gone, leaving the engineer fairly gasping and likewise wondering how he
+could possibly expect anybody to believe him if he told the bald truth
+of what he had seen.
+
+For he simply could not have invented anything half as incredible. The
+fish simply could not be described with ordinary language. IT WAS AS
+LARGE AS THE LARGEST LOCOMOTIVE.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE GOLD-MINER
+
+
+As for Van Emmon, his experience will have to be classed with Smith's.
+That is to say, he soon came to feel that his agent was not what is
+commonly called human. It was all too different. However, he found
+himself enjoying a field of view which was a decided improvement upon
+Smith's. Instead of a range which began and ended just above the
+horizon, his agent possessed the power of looking almost straight ahead.
+
+This told the geologist that his unsuspecting Sanusian was located in an
+aircraft much like the other. The same tremendous noise of the engine,
+the same inexplicable wing action, together with the same total lack of
+the usual indications of human occupancy, all argued that the two men
+had hit upon the same type of agent. In Van Emmon's case, however, he
+could occasionally glimpse two loose parts of the machine, flapping and
+swaying oddly from time to time within the range of the observer, and at
+the front. Nothing was done about it. Van Emmon came to the same
+conclusion as Smith; the operator was looking into something like a
+periscope. Perhaps he himself did not do the driving.
+
+From what the geologist could see of the country below, it was quite
+certainly cultivated. In no other way could the even rows and uniform
+growth be explained; even though Van Emmon could not say whether the
+vegetation were tree, shrub, or plant, it was certainly the work of man
+--or something mightily like man.
+
+Shortly he experienced an abrupt downward dive, such as upset his senses
+somewhat. When he recovered, he had time for only the swiftest glance at
+what, he thought rather vaguely, was a great green-clad mountain. Then
+his agent brought the craft to one of those nerve-racking stops; once
+more came a swimming of the brain, and then the geologist saw something
+that challenged his understanding.
+
+The craft had landed on the rim of a deep pit, or what would have been
+called a pit if it had not been so extraordinary. Mainly the strangeness
+was a matter of color; the slope was of a brilliant orange, and
+seemingly covered with frost, for it sparkled so brightly in the sun as
+to actually hurt the eyes. In fact, the geologist's first thought was "A
+glacier," although he could not conceive of ice or snow of that tint.
+
+Running down the sides of the pit were a number of dark-brown streaks,
+about a yard wide; Van Emmon could make them out, more or less clearly,
+on the other side of the pit as well. From the irregular way in which
+the walls were formed, he quickly decided that the pit was a natural
+one. The streaks, he thought, might have been due to lava flow.
+
+His agent proceeded to drive straight over the rim and down the slope
+into the pit. His engine was quite stopped; like Smith, the geologist
+wondered just how the craft's wheels were operated. Next he was holding
+his breath as the machine reached so steep a point in the slope that,
+most surely, no brakes could hold it. Simultaneously he heard the hiss
+and whine which seemed to indicate the suction device.
+
+"It was a whole lot like going down into a placer mine," the geologist
+afterward said; and in view of what next met his eyes, he was justified
+in his guess.
+
+Down crept the machine until it was "standing on its nose." The sun was
+shining almost straight down into the slope, and Van Emmon forgot his
+uneasiness about the craft in his interest in what he saw.
+
+The bottom of the pit was perhaps twenty feet in diameter, and roughly
+hemispherical. Standing up from its bottom were half a dozen slim
+formations, like idealized stalagmites; they were made of some
+semitransparent rock, apparently, the tint being a reddish yellow.
+Finally, perched on the top of each of these was a stone; and
+surrounding these six "landmarks," as Van Emmon called them, was the
+most prodigious display of wealth imaginable.
+
+For the whole queer place was simply sprinkled with gold. Gold--gold
+everywhere; large nuggets of it, as big as one's fist! Not embedded in
+rock, not scattered through sand, but lying LOOSE upon the surface of
+that unbelievable orange snow! It was overwhelming.
+
+The mysterious Sanusian lost no time. Operating some unseen machinery,
+he caused three shovel-like devices to project from the front of his
+machine; and these instantly proceeded, so swiftly that Van Emmon could
+not possibly watch their action, to pick up nuggets and stow them away
+out of sight in what must have been compartments in the hull. All this
+was done without any sound beyond the occasional thud of a nugget
+dropped in the scramble.
+
+Suddenly the Sanusian wheeled his machine about and started hurriedly up
+the slope. Van Emmon judged that the chap had been frightened by
+something, for he took flight as soon as he reached the top of the pit.
+And--he left half a million in gold behind him!
+
+This new flight had not lasted two minutes before the geologist began to
+note other objects in the air. There were birds, so distant that he
+could not identify them; one came near enough, however, for him to
+conclude that it was a hawk. But he did not hold to this conclusion very
+long.
+
+The thing that changed his mind was another aircraft. It approached from
+behind, making even more noise than the other, and proceeded to draw
+abreast of it. From time to time Van Emmon's agent turned his mysterious
+periscope so as to take it all in, and the geologist was able to watch
+his fill. Whereupon he became converted to a new idea:
+
+The birds that Smith and he had seen had not been birds at all, but
+aircraft built in imitation of them.
+
+For this new arrival had been made in almost perfect imitation of a bee!
+It was very close to an exact reproduction. For one exception, it did
+not have the hairy appearance so characteristic of bees; the body and
+"legs" were smooth, and shiny. (Later, Van Emmon saw machines which went
+so far as even to imitate the hairs.) Also, instead of trying to
+duplicate the two compound eyes which are found, one on each side of a
+bee's head, a perfectly round representation of a single eye was built,
+like a conning tower, toward the front of the bow. Presumably, the
+observer sat or stood within this "head."
+
+But otherwise it was wonderfully like a drone bee. Van Emmon was
+strongly reminded of what he had once viewed under a powerful lens. The
+fragile semitransparent wings, the misshapen legs, and even the jointed
+body with its scale-like segments, all were carefully duplicated on a
+large scale. Imagine a bee thirty feet long!
+
+At first the geologist was puzzled to find that it carried a pair of
+many-jointed antennae. He could not see how any intelligent being would
+make use of them; they were continually waving about, much as bees wave
+theirs. Evidently these were the loose objects he had already noted.
+"Now," he wondered, "why in thunder did the builders go to so much
+trouble for the sake of mere realism?"
+
+Then he saw that the antennae served a very real purpose. There was no
+doubt about it; they were wireless antennae!
+
+For presently the newcomer, who so far had not shown himself at any
+point on his machine, sent out a message which was read as quickly as it
+was received by Van Emmon's agent, and as unconsciously translated:
+
+"Number Eight Hundred Four, you are wanted on Plot Seventeen."
+
+Whereupon Van Emmon's unknown assistant replied at once:
+
+"Very well, Superior."
+
+It was done by means of an extremely faint humming device, reminding the
+geologist of certain wireless apparata he had heard. Not a word was
+actually spoken by either Sanusian.
+
+Van Emmon kept a close watch upon the conning tower on the other
+machine. The sun was shining upon it in such a fashion that its gleam
+made inspection very difficult. Once he fancied that he could make out a
+short, compact figure within the "eye"; but he could not be sure. The
+glass, or whatever it was, reflected everything within range.
+
+Was the airman a quadruped? Did he sit or stand upright, like a man? Or
+did he use all four limbs, animal-fashion? Van Emmon had to admit that
+he could not tell; no wonder he didn't guess the truth.
+
+Shortly after receiving the summons, the geologist's agent changed his
+direction slightly; and within ten minutes the machine was passing over
+a large grain field. On the far edge was a row of trees, and it was
+toward this that the Sanusian proceeded to volplane, presently coming to
+another nausea-producing stop. Once more Van Emmon was temporarily
+helpless.
+
+When he could look again, he saw that the machine had landed upon a
+steep slope, this time with its nose pointing upward. Far above was what
+looked like a cave, with a growth of some queer, black grass on its
+upper rim. The craft commenced to move upward, over a smooth, dark tan
+surface.
+
+In half a minute the machine had reached the top of the slope, and the
+geologist looked eagerly for what might lie within the cave. He was
+disappointed; it was not a cave at all. Instead, another brown slope, or
+rather a bulging precipice, occupied this depression.
+
+Van Emmon looked closer. At the bottom of this bulge was a queer fringe
+of the same kind of grass that showed on top of it. Van Emmon looked
+from one to the other, and all of a sudden the thing dawned upon him.
+
+This stupendous affair was no mountainside; it was neither more nor less
+than the head of a colossal statue! A mammoth edition of the Goddess of
+Liberty; and the aircraft had presumed to alight upon its cheek!
+
+The machine clung there, motionless, for some time, quite as though the
+airman knew that Van Emmon would like to look a long while. He gazed
+from side to side as far as he could see, making out a small section of
+the nose, also the huge curves of a dust-covered ear. It was wonderfully
+life-like.
+
+Next second came the earthquake. The whole statue rocked and swayed; Van
+Emmon looked to see the machine thrown off. From the base of the
+monument came a single terrific sound, a veritable roar, as though the
+thing was being wrenched from the heart of the earth. From somewhere on
+top came a spurt of water that splashed just beside the craft.
+
+Then came the most terrible thing. Without the slightest warning the
+statue's great eye opened! Opened wide, revealing a prodigious pupil
+which simply blazed with wrath!
+
+The statue was alive!
+
+Next second the Sanusian shot into the air. A moment and Van Emmon was
+able to look again, and as it happened, the craft was now circling the
+amazing thing it had just quit, so that the geologist could truthfully
+say that he was dead sure of what he saw.
+
+He was justified in wanting to be absolutely sure. Resting on the solid
+earth was a human head, about fifty yards wide and proportionately as
+tall. It was alive; but IT WAS ONLY THE HEAD, NOTHING MORE.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE SUPER-RACE
+
+
+It will be remembered that Billie wanted to get in touch with a creature
+having the characteristic which she had said she admired: supremacy--"A
+worker who is the boss!" Bearing this in mind, her experience will
+explain itself, dumfounding though it was.
+
+Her first sight of the Sanusian world was from the front of a large
+building. The former architect was not able to inspect it minutely; but
+she afterwards said that it impressed her as being entirely plain, and
+almost a perfect cube. Its walls were white and quite without ornament;
+there was only one entrance, an extremely low and broad, flat archway,
+extending across one whole side. The structure was about a hundred yards
+each way. In front was a terrace, seemingly paved with enormous slabs of
+stone; it covered a good many acres.
+
+Presumably Billie's agent had just brought her machine from the
+building, for, within a few seconds, she took flight in the same abrupt
+fashion which had so badly upset Smith and Van Emmon. When Billie was
+able to look closely, she found herself gazing down upon a Sanusian
+city.
+
+It was a tremendous affair. As the flying-machine mounted higher, Billie
+continually revised her guesses; finally she concluded that London
+itself was not as large. Nevertheless her astonishment was mainly
+directed at the character, not the number of the buildings.
+
+They were all alike! Every one was a duplicate of that she had first
+seen: cube-shaped, plain finished, flat of wall and roof. Even in color
+they were alike; in time the four came to call the place the "White
+City." However, the buildings were arranged quite without any visible
+system. And they were vastly puzzled, later on in their studies, to find
+every other Sanusian city precisely the same as this one.
+
+However, there was one thing which distinguished each building from the
+rest. It was located on the roof; a large black hieroglyphic, set in a
+square black border, which Billie first thought to be all alike. Whether
+it meant a name or a number, there was no way to tell.[Footnote: Since
+writing the above, further investigations have proved that these
+Sanusian house-labels are all numbers.]
+
+Billie turned her attention to her agent. She seemed to belong to the
+same type as Smith's and Van Emmon's; otherwise she was certainly much
+more active, much more interested in her surroundings, and possessed of
+a far more powerful machine. She was continually changing her direction;
+and Billie soon congratulated herself upon her luck. Beyond a doubt,
+this party was no mere slave to orders; it was she who gave the orders.
+
+Before one minute had passed she was approached by a Sanusian in a big,
+clumsy looking machine. Although built on the bee plan, it possessed an
+observation tower right on top of its "head." (The four afterward
+established that this was the sort of a machine that Smith's agent had
+operated.) The occupant approached to within a respectful distance from
+Billie's borrowed eyes, and proceeded to hum the following through his
+antennae:
+
+"Supreme, I have been ordered to report for Number Four."
+
+"Proceed."
+
+"The case of insubordinancy which occurred in Section Eighty-five has
+been disposed of."
+
+"Number Four made an example of her?"
+
+"Yes, Supreme."
+
+"Whereupon the operator flew away, having not only kept his body totally
+out of sight all the while, but having failed by the slightest token to
+indicate, by his manner of communicating that he had the slightest
+particle of personal interest in his report. For that matter, neither
+did Supreme."
+
+Scarcely had this colloquy ended than another subordinate approached.
+This one used a large and very fine machine. She reported:
+
+"If Supreme will come with me to the spot, it will be easier to decide
+upon this case."
+
+Immediately the two set off without another word; and after perhaps four
+minutes of the speediest travel Billie had known outside the doctor's
+sky-car, they descended to within a somewhat short distance from the
+ground. Here they hovered, and Billie saw that they were stopped above
+some bills at the foot of a low mountain range.
+
+Next moment she made out the figures of four humans on top of a knoll
+just below. A little nearer, and the architect was looking, from the
+air, down upon the same scene which the doctor was then witnessing
+through the eyes of Rolla, the older of the two Sanusian women. Billie
+could make out the powerful physique of Corrus, the slighter figure of
+Dulnop, the small but vigorous form of Cunora, and Rolla's slender,
+graceful, capable body. But at that moment the other flier began to say
+to Supreme:
+
+"The big man is a tender of cattle, Supreme; and he owes his peculiar
+aptitude to the fact that his parents, for twenty generations back, were
+engaged in similar work. The same may be said for the younger of the two
+women; she is small, but we owe much of the excellence of our crops to
+her energy and skill.
+
+"As for the other woman," indicating Rolla, "she is a soil-tester, and
+very expert. Her studies and experiments have greatly improved our
+product. The same may be said in lesser degree of the youth, who is
+engaged in similar work."
+
+"Then," coolly commented the Sanusian whose eyes and ears Billie
+enjoyed; "then your line of action is clear enough. You will see to it
+that the big man marries the sturdy young girl, of course; their
+offspring should give us a generation of rare outdoor ability. Similarly
+the young man and the older woman, despite their difference in ages,
+shall marry for the sake of improving the breed of soil-testers."
+
+"Quite so, Supreme. There is one slight difficulty, however, such as
+caused me to summon you."
+
+"Name the difficulty."
+
+The Sanusian hesitated only a trifle with her reply: "It is, Supreme,
+that the big man and the older woman have seen fit to fall in love with
+one another, while the same is true of the youth and the girl."
+
+"This should not have been allowed!"
+
+"I admit it, Supreme; my force has somehow overlooked their case,
+heretofore. What is your will?"
+
+The commandant answered instantly: "Put an immediate end to their
+desires!"
+
+"It shall be done!"
+
+At that moment there was a stir on the ground. In fact, this was the
+instant when Corrus began his vehement outcry against the tyranny of
+"They." The two in the air came closer; whereupon Billie discovered that
+Supreme did not understand the language of the humans below. [Footnote:
+The humans did not realize this fact, however; they assumed that "They"
+always understood.] Yet the herdsman's tones were unmistakably angry.
+
+"You will descend," commented Supreme evenly, "and warn the big man not
+to repeat such outbreaks."
+
+Immediately Supreme's lieutenant darted down, and was lost to view. The
+commandant glanced interestedly here and there about the landscape,
+returning her gaze to Corrus just as the man stopped in mid-speech.
+Billie was no less astonished than the doctor to see the herdsman's
+expression change as it did; one second it was that of righteous
+indignation, the next, of the most abject subservience.
+
+Nevertheless, Billie could see no cause whatever for it; neither did she
+hear anything. The other flier remained out of sight. All that the
+architect could guess was that the operator had "got the drop" on Corrus
+in some manner which was clear only to those involved. Badly puzzled,
+Billie watched the four humans hurry away, their manner all but
+slinking.
+
+A moment later still another aircraft came up, and its operator
+reported. As before, Billie could make out not a single detail of the
+occupant herself. She, too, wanted the commandant's personal attention;
+and shortly Billie was looking down upon a scene which she had good
+reason to remember all the rest of her life.
+
+In the middle of a large field, where some light green plant was just
+beginning to sprout, a group of about a dozen humans was at work
+cultivating. Billie had time to note that they were doing the work in
+the most primitive fashion, employing the rudest of tools, all quite in
+keeping with their bare heads and limbs and their skin-clad bodies.
+About half were women.
+
+Slightly at one side, however, stood a man who was not so busy. To put
+it plainly, he was loafing, with the handle of his improvised mattock
+supporting his weight. Clearly the two up in the air were concerned only
+with him.
+
+"He has been warned three times, Supreme," said the one who had reported
+the case.
+
+"Three? Then make an example of him!"
+
+"It shall be done, Supreme!"
+
+The lieutenant disappeared. Again the commandant glanced at this, that,
+and the other thing before concentrating upon what happened below. Then
+Billie saw the man straighten up suddenly in his tracks, and with
+remarkable speed, considering his former laziness, he whirled about,
+dodged, and clapped a hand upon his thigh.
+
+Next second he raised an exultant cry. Billie could not understand what
+he said; but she noted that the others in the group echoed the man's
+exultation, and started to crowd toward him, shouting and gesticulating
+in savage delight. Then something else happened so sudden and so
+dreadful that the woman who was watching from the earth was turned
+almost sick.
+
+Like a flash Supreme dropped, headlong, toward the group of humans. In
+two seconds the distance was covered, and in the last fifth of a second
+Billie saw the key to the whole mystery.
+
+In that last instant the man who before had seemed of ordinary size, was
+magnified to the dimensions of a colossus. Instead of being under six
+feet, he appeared to be near a hundred yards in height; but Billie
+scarcely realized this till later, it all happened so quickly. There was
+an outcry from the group, and then the commandant's aircraft crashed
+into the man's HAND; a hand so huge that the very wrinkles in its skin
+were like so many gulleys; even in that final flash Billie saw all this.
+
+Simultaneously with the landing there was a loud pop, while Billie's
+senses reeled with the stunning suddenness of the impact. Next second
+the machine had darted to a safe distance, and Billie could see the man
+gnawing frantically at the back of his hand. Too late; his hand went
+stiff, and his arm twitched spasmodically. The fellow made a step or two
+forward, then swayed where he stood, his whole body rigid and strained.
+An expression of the utmost terror was upon his face; he could not utter
+a sound, although his companions shrieked in horror. Another second and
+the man fell flat, twitching convulsively; and in a moment or two it was
+all over. He was dead!
+
+And then the truth burst upon the watcher. In fact, it seemed to come to
+all four at the same time, probably by reason of their mental
+connections. Neither of them could claim that he or she had previously
+guessed a tenth of its whole, ghastly nature.
+
+The "cane" which Smith had seen had not been cane at all; it had been
+grass. The "beetle" in the stream had not been the giant thing he had
+visualized it; neither had that fish been the size he had thought.
+
+Van Emmon's "gold mine" had not been a pit in any sense of the word; it
+had been the inside of the blossom of a very simple, poppy-like flower.
+The "nuggets" had been not mineral, but pollen. As for the incredible
+thing which Van Emmon had seen on the ground; that living statue; that
+head without a body--the body had been buried out of sight beneath the
+soil; and the man had been an ordinary human, being punished in this
+manner for misconduct.
+
+Instead of being aircraft built in imitation of insects, the machines
+had been constructed by nature herself, and there had been nothing
+unusual in their size. No; they were the real thing, differing only
+slightly from what might have been found anywhere upon the earth.
+
+In short, it had all been simply a matter of view-point. The supreme
+creature of Sanus was, not the human, but the bee. A poisonous bee,
+superior to every other form of Sanusian life! What was more--
+
+"The damned things are not only supreme; THE HUMANS ARE THEIR SLAVES!"
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+IMPOSSIBLE, BUT--
+
+
+The four looked at each other blankly. Not that either was at a loss for
+words; each was ready to burst. But the thing was so utterly beyond
+their wildest conceptions, so tremendously different in every way, it
+left them all a little unwilling to commit themselves.
+
+"Well," said Smith finally, "as I said in the first place, I can't see
+how any other than the human form became supreme. As I understand
+biology--"
+
+"What gets me," interrupted Van Emmon; "what gets me is, WHY the humans
+have allowed such an infernal thing to happen!"
+
+Billie smiled somewhat sardonically. "I thought," she remarked,
+cuttingly, "that you were always in sympathy with the upper dog, Mr. Van
+Emmon!"
+
+"I am!" hotly. Then, with the memory of what he had just seen rushing
+back upon him: "I mean, I was until I saw--saw that--" He stopped,
+flushing deeply; and before he could collect himself Smith had broken in
+again:
+
+"I just happened to remember, doc; didn't you say that the Venusians, in
+those books of yours, say that Sanus is ruled by the workers?"
+
+"Just what I was wondering about," from Van Emmon. "The humans seem to
+do all the work, and the bees the bossing!"
+
+The doctor expected this. "The Venusians had our view-point--the view-
+point of people on the earth, when they said that the workers rule. We
+consider the bee as a great worker, don't we? 'As busy as a bee' you
+know. None of the so-called lower animals show greater industry."
+
+"You don't mean to say," demanded Smith, "that these Sanusian bees owe
+their position to the fact that they are, or were, such great workers?"
+
+Before the doctor could reply, Van Emmon broke in. It seemed as though
+his mind refused to get past this particular point. "Now, why the
+dickens have the humans allowed the bees to dominate them? Why?"
+
+"We'll have to go at this a little more systematically," remarked
+Kinney, "if we want to understand the situation.
+
+"In the first place, suppose we note a thing or two about conditions as
+we find them here on the earth. We, the humans, are accustomed to rank
+ourselves far above the rest. It is taken for granted.
+
+"Now, note this: the human supremacy was not always taken for granted."
+He paused to let it sink in. "Not always. There was a time in
+prehistoric days when man ranked no higher than others. I feel sure of
+this," he insisted, seeing that Smith was opposed to the idea; "and I
+think I know just what occurred to make man supreme."
+
+"What?" from Billie.
+
+"Never mind now. I rather imagine we shall learn more on this score as
+we go on with our work.
+
+"At any rate, we may be sure of this: whatever it was that caused man to
+become supreme on the earth, that condition is lacking on Sanus!"
+
+Van Emmon did not agree to this. "The condition may be there, doc, but
+there is some other factor which overbalances it; a factor such as is--
+well, more favorable to the bees."
+
+The doctor looked around the circle. "What do you think? 'A factor more
+favorable to the bees.' Shall we let it go at that?" There was no
+remark, even from Smith; and the doctor went on:
+
+"Coming back to the bees, then, we note that they are remarkable for
+several points of great value. First, as we have seen, they are very
+industrious by nature. Second, all bees possess wings and on that count
+alone they are far superior to humans.
+
+"Third--and to me, the most important--the bees possess a remarkable
+combination of community life and specialization. Of course, when you
+come to analyze these two points, you see that they really belong to one
+another. The bees we know, for instance, are either queens, whose only
+function is to fertilize the eggs; or workers, who are unsexed females,
+and whose sole occupations are the collecting of honey, the building of
+hives, and the care of the young.
+
+"Now," speaking carefully, "apparently these Sanusian bees have
+developed something that is not unknown to certain forms of earth's
+insect life. I mean, a soldier type. A kind of bee which specializes on
+fighting!"
+
+Van Emmon was listening closely, yet he had got another idea: "Perhaps
+this soldier type is simply the plain worker bee, all gone to sting! It
+may be that these bees have given up labor altogether!"
+
+"Still," muttered Smith, under his breath, "all this doesn't solve the
+real problem. Why aren't the HUMANS supreme?" For once he became
+emphatic. "That's what gets me! Why aren't the humans the rulers, doc?"
+
+Kinney waited until he felt sure the others were depending upon him.
+"Smith, the humans on Sanus are not supreme now because they were NEVER
+supreme."
+
+Smith looked blank. "I don't get that."
+
+"Don't you? Look here: you'll admit that success begets success, won't
+you?"
+
+"Success begets success? Sure! 'Nothing succeeds like success.'"
+
+"Well, isn't that merely another way of saying that the consciousness of
+superiority will lead to further conquests? We humans are thoroughly
+conscious of our supremacy; if we weren't we'd never attempt the things
+we do!"
+
+Van Emmon saw the point. "In other words, the humans on the earth never
+BEGAN to show their superiority until something--something big, happened
+to demonstrate their ability!"
+
+"Exactly!" cried Kinney. "Our prehistoric ancestors would never have
+handed down such a tremendous ambition to you and me if they, at that
+time, had not been able to point to some definite feat and say, 'That
+proves I'm a bigger man than a horse,' for example."
+
+"Of course," reflected Billie, aloud; "of course, there were other
+factors."
+
+"Yes; but they don't alter the case. Originally the human was only
+slightly different from the apes he associated with. There was perhaps
+only one slight point of superiority; today there are millions of such
+points. Man is infinitely superior, now, and it's all because he was
+slightly superior, then."
+
+"Suppose we grant that," remarked the geologist. "What then? Does that
+explain why the bees have made good on Sanus?"
+
+"To a large degree. Some time in the past the Sanusian bee discovered
+that he possessed a certain power which enabled him to force his will
+upon other creatures. This power was his poisonous sting. He found that,
+when he got his fellows together and formed a swarm, they could attack
+any animal in such large numbers as to make it helpless."
+
+"Any creature?"
+
+"Yes; even reptiles, scales or no scales. They'd attack the eyes."
+
+"But that doesn't explain how the bees ever began to make humans work
+for them," objected Van Emmon.
+
+The doctor thought for a few minutes. "Let's see. Suppose we assume that
+a certain human once happened to be in the neighborhood of a hive, just
+when it was attacked by a drove of ants. Ants are great lovers of honey,
+you know. Suppose the man stepped among the ants and was bitten.
+Naturally he would trample them to death, and smash with his hands all
+that he couldn't trample. Now, what's to prevent the bees from seeing
+how easily the man had dealt with the ants? A man would be far more
+efficient, destroying ants, than a bee; just as a horse is more
+efficient, dragging a load, than a man. And yet we know that the horse
+was domesticated, here on the earth, simply because the humans saw his
+possibilities; the horse could do a certain thing more efficiently than
+a human.
+
+"You notice," the doctor went on, with great care, "that everything I've
+assumed is natural enough: the combination of an ant attack and the
+man's approach, occurring at the same time. Suppose we add a third
+factor: that the bees, even while fighting the ants, also started to
+attack the man; but that he chanced to turn his attention to the ants
+FIRST. So that the bees let him alone!
+
+"We know what remarkable things bees are, when it comes to telling one
+another what they know. Is there any reason why such an experience--all
+natural enough--shouldn't demonstrate to them that they, by merely
+threatening a man, could compel him to kill ants for them?"
+
+Billie was dubious for a moment; then agreed that the man, also, might
+notice that the bees failed to sting him as long as he continued to
+destroy their other enemies. If so, it was quite conceivable that, bit
+by bit, the bees had found other and more positive ways of securing the
+aid of men through threatening to sting. "Even to cultivating flowers
+for their benefit," she conceded. "It's quite possible."
+
+Smith had been thinking of something else. "I always understood that a
+bee's stinging apparatus is good for only one attack. Doesn't it always
+remain behind after stinging?"
+
+"Yes," from the doctor, quietly. "That is true. The sting has tiny barbs
+on its tip, and these cause it to remain in the wound. The sting is
+actually torn away from the bee when it flies away. It never grows
+another. That is why, in fact, the bee never stings except as a last
+resort, when it thinks it's a question of self-defense."
+
+"Just what I thought!" chuckled Smith. "A bee is helpless without its
+sting! If so, how can you account for anything like a soldier bee?"
+
+The doctor returned his gaze with perfect equanimity. He looked at Van
+Emmon and Billie; they, too, seemed to think that the engineer had found
+a real flaw in Kinney's reasoning. The doctor dropped his eyes, and
+searched his mind thoroughly for the best words. He removed his
+bracelets while he was thinking; the others did the same. All four got
+to their feet and stretched, silently but thoroughly. Not until they
+were ready to quit the study did the doctor make reply.
+
+"Smith, I don't need to remind you that it's the little things that
+count. It's too old a saying. In this case it happens to be the greatest
+truth we have found today.
+
+"Smith"--speaking with the utmost care--"what we have just said about
+the bee's sting is all true; but only with regard to the bees on the
+earth. It is only on the earth, so far as we know positively, that the
+bee is averse to stinging, for fear of losing his sting.
+
+"There is only one way to account for the soldier bee. Its sting has no
+barbs!"
+
+"No barbs?"
+
+"Why no? If the poison is virulent enough, the barbs wouldn't be
+necessary, would they? Friends, the Sanusian bee is the supreme creature
+on its planet; it is superior to all the other insects, all the birds,
+all the animals; and its supremacy is due solely and entirely to the
+fact that there are no barbs on its sting!"
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE MISSING FACTOR
+
+
+By the time the four once more got together in the doctor's study, each
+had had a chance to consider the Sanusian situation pretty thoroughly.
+All but Billie were convinced that the humans were deserving people,
+whose position was all the more regrettable because due, so far as could
+be seen, the insignificant little detail of the barbless sting.
+
+Were these people doomed forever to live their lives for the sake of
+insects? Were they always to remain, primitive and uncultured, in
+ignorance of, the things that civilization is built upon, obeying the
+orders of creatures who were content to eat, reproduce, and die? For
+that is all that bees know!
+
+Perhaps it was for the best. Possibly Rolla and her friends were better
+off as they were. It might have been that a wise Providence, seeing how
+woefully the human animal had missed its privileges on other worlds, had
+decided to make man secondary on Sanus. Was that the reason for it all?
+
+All but Billie scouted the idea. To them the affair was a ghastly
+perversion of what Nature intended. Van Emmon stated the case in a
+manner which showed how strongly he felt about it.
+
+"Those folks will never get anywhere if the bees can help it!" he
+charged. "We've got to lend a hand, here, and see that they get a
+chance!"
+
+Smith said that, so far as he was concerned, the bees might all be
+consigned to hell. "I'm not going to have anything to do with the agent
+I had, any more!" he declared. "I'm going to get in touch with that
+chap, Dulnop. What is he like, doc?"
+
+Kinney told him, and then Van Emmon asked for details of the herdsman,
+Corrus. "No more bees in my young life, either. From now on it's up to
+us. What do you think?" turning to his wife, and carefully avoiding any
+use of her name.
+
+The architect knew well enough that the rest were wondering how she
+would decide. She answered with deliberation:
+
+"I'm going to stay in touch with Supreme!"
+
+"You are!" incredulously, from her husband.
+
+"Yes! I've got a darned sight more sympathy for those bees than for the
+humans! The 'fraid-cats!" disgustedly.
+
+"But listen," protested Van Emmon. "We can't stand by and let those
+cold-blooded prisoners keep human beings, like ourselves, in rank
+slavery! Not much!"
+
+Evidently he thought he needed to explain. "A human is a human, no
+matter where we find him! Why, how can those poor devils show what
+they're good for if we don't give 'em a chance? That's the only way to
+develop people--give 'em a chance to show what's in 'em! Let the best
+man win!"
+
+Billie only closed her mouth tighter; and Smith decided to say, "Billie,
+you don't need to stand by your guns just because the Sanusian working
+class happens to be insects. Besides, we're three to one in favor of the
+humans!"
+
+"Oh, well," she condescended, "if you put it that way I'll agree not to
+interfere. Only, don't expect me to help you any with your schemes; I'll
+just keep an eye on Supreme, that's all."
+
+"Then we're agreed." The doctor put on his bracelets. "Suppose we go
+into the trance state for about three minutes--long enough to learn
+what's going on to-day."
+
+Shortly Billie again using the eyes and ears of the extraordinarily
+capable bee who ruled the rest, once more looked down upon Sanus. She
+saw the big "city," which she now knew to be a vast collection of hives,
+built by the humans at the command of the bees. At the moment the air
+was thick with workers, returning with their loads of honey from the
+fields which the humans had been compelled to cultivate. What a
+diabolical reversal of the accepted order of things!
+
+The architect had time to note something very typical of the case. On
+the outskirts of the city two humans were at work, erecting a new hive.
+Having put it together, they proceeded to lift the big box and place it
+near those already inhabited. They set it down in what looked like a
+good location, but almost immediately took it up again and shifted it a
+foot to one side. This was not satisfactory, either; they moved it a few
+inches in another direction.
+
+All told, it took a full minute to place that simple affair where it was
+wanted; and all the while those two humans behaved as though some one
+were shouting directions to them--silent directions, as it were. Billie
+knew that a half-dozen soldier bees, surrounding their two heads, were
+coolly and unfeelingly driving them where they willed. And when, the
+work done, they left the spot, two soldiers went along behind them to
+see that they did not loiter.
+
+As for the doctor, he came upon Rolla when the woman was deep in an
+experiment. She stood in front of a rude trough, one of perhaps twenty
+located within a large, high-walled inclosure. In the trough was a
+quantity of earth, through the surface of which some tiny green shoots
+were beginning to show.
+
+Rolla inspected the shoots, and then, with her stone knife, she made a
+final notch in the wood on the edge of the trough. There were twenty-odd
+of these notches; whereas, on other troughs which the doctor had a
+chance to see, there were over thirty in many cases, and still no
+shoots.
+
+The place, then, was an experimental station. This was proven by Rolla's
+next move. She went outside the yard and studied five heaps of soil,
+each of a different appearance, also three smaller piles of pulverized
+mineral-nitrates, for all that the doctor knew. And before Kinney
+severed his connection with the Sanusian, she had begun the task of
+mixing up a fresh combination of these ingredients in a new trough. In
+the midst of this she heard a sound; and turning about, waved a hand
+excitedly toward a distant figure on the far side of a near-by field.
+
+Meanwhile Smith had managed to get in touch with Dulnop. He found the
+young man engaged in work which did not, at first, become clear to the
+engineer. Then he saw that the chap was simply sorting over big piles of
+broken rock, selecting certain fragments which he placed in separate
+heaps. Not far away two assistants were pounding these fragments to
+powder, using rude pestles, in great, nature-made mortars--"pot-holes,"
+from some river-bed.
+
+It was this powder, beyond a doubt, that Rolla was using in her work. To
+Smith, Dunlop's task seemed like a ridiculously simple occupation for a
+nearly grown man, until he reflected that these aborigines were exactly
+like toddling children in intellects.
+
+Van Emmon had no trouble in making connections with Corrus. The herdsman
+was in charge of a dozen cows, wild looking creatures which would have
+been far too much for the man had they been horned, which they were not.
+He handled them by sheer force, using the great club he always carried.
+Once while Van Emmon was watching, a cow tried to break away from the
+group; but Corrus, with an agility amazing in so short and heavy a man,
+dashed after the creature and tapped her lightly on the top of her head.
+Dazed and contrite, she followed him meekly back into the herd.
+
+The place was on the edge of a meadow, at the beginning of what looked
+like a grain field. Stopping here, Corrus threw a hand to his mouth and
+gave a ringing shout. Immediately it was answered, faintly, by another
+at a distance; and then Van Emmon made out the form of Rolla among some
+huts on the other side of the grain. She beckoned toward the herdsman,
+and he took a half-dozen steps toward her.
+
+Just as abruptly he stopped, almost in mid-stride. Simultaneously Van
+Emmon heard a loud buzzing in either ear. Coitus was being warned. Like
+a flash he dropped his head and muttered: "Very well. I will remember--
+next time." And trembling violently he turned back to his cows.
+
+"Well," remarked the geologist, when the four "came out" of their
+seance, "the bees seem to have everything their own way. How can we help
+the humans best? Hurry up with your idea; I'm getting sick of these
+damned poisoners."
+
+The doctor asked if the others had any suggestions. Smith offered this:
+why couldn't the humans retire to some cave, or build tight-walled huts,
+and thus bar out the bees?
+
+No sooner had he made the remark, however, than the engineer declared
+his own plan no good. "These people aren't like us; they couldn't stand
+such imprisonment long enough to make their 'strike' worth while."
+
+"Is there any reason," suggested Billie, indifferently, "why they
+couldn't weave face nets from some kind of grass, and protect themselves
+in that way?"
+
+Smith saw the objection to that, too. "They'd have to protect themselves
+all over as well; every inch would have to be covered tightly. From what
+I've seen of them I'd say that the arrangement would drive them frantic.
+It would be worse than putting clothes on a cat."
+
+"It's a man-sized job we've tackled," commented the doctor. "What Smith
+says is true; such people would never stand for any measures which would
+restrict their physical freedom. They are simply animals with human
+possibilities, nothing more."
+
+He paused, and then added quietly, "By the way, did either of you notice
+any mountains just now?"
+
+Smith and Van Emmon both said they had. "Why?"
+
+"Of course, it isn't likely, but--did you see anything like a volcano
+anywhere?"
+
+"No," both replied.
+
+"Another thing," Kinney went on. "So far, I've seen nothing that would
+indicate lightning, much less the thing itself. Did either of you,"
+explicitly, "run across such a thing as a blasted tree?"
+
+They said they had not. Billie hesitated a little with her reply, then
+stated that she had noted a tree or two in a state of disintegration,
+but none that showed the unmistakable scars due to being struck by
+lightning.
+
+"Then we've got the key to the mystery!" declared the doctor. "Remember
+how brown and barren everything looks, excepting only where there's
+artificial vegetation? Well, putting two and two together, I come to the
+conclusion that Sanus differs radically from the earth in this respect.
+
+"The humans have arrived rather late in the planet's history. Or--and
+this is more likely--Sanus is somewhat smaller than the earth, and
+therefore has cooled off sooner. At any rate, the relationship between
+the age of the planet and the age of its human occupancy differs from
+what it is on the earth."
+
+"I don't quite see," from Smith, "what that's got to do with it."
+
+"No? Well, go back to the first point: the dried-up appearance of
+things. That means, their air and water are both less extensive than
+with us, and for that reason there are far fewer clouds; therefore, it
+is quite possible that there has been no lightning within the memory of
+the humans."
+
+"How so?" demanded the geologist.
+
+"Why, simply because lightning depends upon clouds. Lightning is merely
+the etheric electricity, drawn to the earth whenever there is enough
+water in the air to promote conductivity."
+
+"Yes," agreed Smith; "but--what of it?"
+
+Kinney went on unheeding. "As for volcanoes--probably the same
+explanation accounts for the lack of these also. You know how the earth,
+even, is rapidly coming to the end of her 'volcanic period.' Time was
+when there were volcanoes almost everywhere on the earth.
+
+"The same is likely true of Sanus as well. The point is," and the doctor
+paused significantly, "there have been no volcanic eruptions, and no
+lightning discharges within the memory of Sanusian man!"
+
+What was he getting at? The others eyed him closely. Neither Van Emmon
+nor Smith could guess what he meant; but Billie, her intuition wide
+awake, gave a great jump in her chair.
+
+"I know!" she cried. A flood of light came to her face. "The Sanusians--
+no wonder they let the bees put it over on them!
+
+"They haven't got FIRE! They've never had it!"
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+FIRE!
+
+
+From the corner of his eyes Kinney saw Van Emmon turn a gaze of frank
+admiration at his wife. It lasted only a second, however; the geologist
+remembered, and masked the expression before Billie could detect it.
+
+Smith had been electrified by the idea.
+
+"By George!" he exclaimed two or three times. "Why didn't I think of
+that? It's simple as A, B, C now!"
+
+"Why," Van Emmon exulted, "all we've got to do is put the idea of fire
+into their heads, and the job is done!" He jumped around in his chair.
+"Darn those bees, anyhow!"
+
+"And yet," observed the doctor, "it's not quite as simple as we may
+think. Of course it's true that once they have fire, the humans ought to
+assert themselves. We'll let that stand without argument."
+
+"Will we?" Smith didn't propose to back down that easy. "Do you mean to
+say that fire, and nothing more than fire, can bring about human
+ascendency?"
+
+The doctor felt sure. "All the other animals are afraid of fire. Such
+exceptions as the moth are really not exceptions at all; the moth is
+simply driven so mad by the sight of flame that it commits suicide in
+it. Horses sometimes do the same.
+
+"Humans are the ONLY creatures that do not fear fire! Even a tiny baby
+will show no fear at the sight of it."
+
+"Which ought to prove," Van Emmon cut in to silence Smith, "that
+superiority is due to fire, rather than fire due to superiority, for the
+simple reason that a newborn child is very low in the scale of
+evolution." Smith decided not to say what he intended to say. Van Emmon
+concluded:
+
+"We've just got to give 'em fire! What's the first step?"
+
+"I propose," from the doctor, "that when we get in touch this time we
+concentrate on the idea of fire. We've got to give them the notion
+first."
+
+"Would you rather," inquired Billie, "that I kept the idea from
+Supreme?"
+
+"Thanks," returned her husband, icily, "but you might just as well tell
+her, too. It'll make her afraid in advance, all the better!"
+
+The engineer threw himself back in his seat. "I'm with you," said he,
+laying aside his argument. The rest followed his example, and presently
+were looking upon Sanus again.
+
+All told, this particular session covered a good many hours. The four
+kept up a more or less connected mental conversation with each other as
+they went along, except, of course, when the events became too exciting.
+Mainly they were trying to catch their agents in the proper mood for
+receiving telepathic communications, and it proved no easy matter. It
+required a state of semi-consciousness, a condition of being neither
+awake nor asleep. It was necessary to wait until night had fallen on
+that particular part of the planet. [Footnote: It should be mentioned
+that the parts of Sanus showed the same condition of bee supremacy and
+human servitude. The spot in question was quite typical of the
+colonies.]
+
+Van Emmon was the first to get results. Corrus had driven his herd back
+from the brook at which they had got their evening drink, and after
+seeing them all quietly settled for the night, he lay down on the dried
+grass slope of a small hill, and stared up at the sky. Van Emmon had
+plenty of time to study the stars as seen from Sanus, and certainly the
+case demanded plenty of time.
+
+For he saw a broad band of sky, as broad as the widest part of the Milky
+Way, which was neither black nor sparkling with stars, but glowing as
+brightly as the full moon! From the eastern horizon to the zenith it
+stretched, a great "Silvery Way," as Van Emmon labeled it; and as the
+darkness deepened and the night lengthened, the illumination crept on
+until the band of light stretched all the way across. Van Emmon racked
+his brains to account for the thing.
+
+Then Corrus became drowsy. Van Emmon concentrated with all his might. At
+first he overdid the thing; Corrus was not quite drowsy enough, and the
+attempt only made him wakeful. Shortly, however, he became exceedingly
+sleepy, and the geologist's chance came.
+
+At the end of a few minutes the herdsman sat up, blinking. He looked
+around at the dark forms of the cattle, then up at the stars; he was
+plainly both puzzled and excited. He remained awake for hours, in fact,
+thinking over the strange thing he had seen "in a dream."
+
+Meanwhile Smith was having a similar experience with Dulnop. The young
+fellow was, like Corrus, alone at the time; and he, too, was made very
+excited and restless by what he saw.
+
+Billie was unable to work upon her bee. Supreme retired to a hive just
+before dusk, but remained wide awake and more or less active, feeding
+voraciously, for hours upon hours. When she finally did nap, she fell
+asleep on such short notice that the architect was taken off her guard.
+The bee seemed to all but jump into slumberland.
+
+The doctor also had to wait for Rolla. The woman sat for a long time in
+the growing dusk, looming out pensively over the valley. Corrus was
+somewhere within a mile or two, and so Kinney was not surprised to see
+the herdsman's image dancing, tantalizingly, before Rolla's eyes. She
+was thinking of him with all her might.
+
+Presently she shivered with the growing coolness, and went into a rough
+hut, which she shared with Cunora. The girl was already asleep on a heap
+of freshly gathered brush. Rolla, delightfully free of any need to
+prepare for her night's rest--such as locking any doors or cleaning her
+teeth--made herself comfortable beside her friend. Two or three yawns,
+and the doctor's chance came.
+
+Two minutes later Rolla sat bolt upright, at the same time giving out a
+sharp cry of amazement and alarm. Instantly Cunora awoke.
+
+"What is it, Rolla?" terror-stricken.
+
+"Hush!" The older woman got up and went to the opening which served as a
+door. There she hung a couple of skins, arranging them carefully so that
+no bee might enter. Coming back to Cunora, she brought her voice nearly
+to a whisper:
+
+"Cunora, I have had a wonderful dream! Ye must believe me when I say
+that it were more than a mere dream; 'twere a message from the great
+god, Mownoth, or I be mad!"
+
+"Rolla!" The girl was more anxious than frightened now. "Ye speak
+wildly! Quiet thyself, and tell what thou didst see!"
+
+"It were not easy to describe," said Rolla, getting herself under
+control. "I dreamed that a man, very pale of face and most curiously
+clad, did approach me while I was at work. He smiled and spake kindly,
+in a language I could not understand; but I know he meant full well.
+
+"This be the curious thing, Cunora: He picked up a handful of leaves
+from the ground and laid them on the trough at my side. Then, from some
+place in his garments he produced a tiny stick of white wood, with a tip
+made of some dark-red material. This he held before mine eyes, in the
+dream; and then spake very reassuringly, as though bidding me not to be
+afraid.
+
+"Well he might! Cunora, he took that tiny stick in his hand and moved
+the tip along the surface of the trough; and, behold, a miracle!"
+
+"What happened?" breathlessly.
+
+"In the twinkling of an eye, the stick blossomed! Blossomed, Cunora,
+before mine eyes! And such a blossom no eye ever beheld before. Its
+color was the color of the poppy, but its shape--most amazing! Its shape
+continually changed, Cunora; it danced about, and rose and fell; it
+flowed, even as water floweth in a stream, but always upward!"
+
+"Rolla!" incredulously. "Ye would not awaken me to tell such nonsense!"
+
+"But it were not nonsense!" insisted Rolla. "This blossom was even as I
+say: a living thing, as live as a kitten! And as it bloomed, behold, the
+stick was consumed! In a moment or two the man dropped what was left of
+it; I stooped--so it seemed--to pick it up; but he stopped me, and set
+his foot upon the beautiful thing!"
+
+She sighed, and then hurried on. "Saying something further, also
+reassuring, this angel brought forth another of the strange sticks; and
+when he had made this one bloom, he touched it to the little pile of
+leaves. Behold, a greater miracle, Cunora! The blossoms spread to the
+leaves, and caused them to bloom, too!"
+
+Cunora was eyeing her companion pretty sharply. "Ye must take me for a
+simple one, to believe such imagining."
+
+Rolla became even more earnest. "Yet it were more than imagining,
+Cunora; 'twere too vivid and impressive for only that. As for the
+leaves, the blossoming swiftly spread until it covered every bit of the
+pile; and I tell thee that the bloom flowed as high as thy hand!
+Moreover, after a moment or so, the thing faded and died out, just as
+flowers do at the end of the season; all that was left of the leaves was
+some black fragments, from which arose a bluish dust, like unto the
+cloud that ye and I saw in the sky one day.
+
+"Then the stranger smiled again, and said something of which I cannot
+tell the meaning. Once more he performed the miracle, and this time he
+contrived to spread the blossom from some leaves to the tip of a large
+piece of wood which he took from the ground. 'Twas a wonderful sight!
+
+"Nay, hear me further," as Cunora threw herself, with a grunt of
+impatience, back on her bed; "there is a greater wonder to tell.
+
+"Holding this big blooming stick in one hand, he gave me his other; and
+it seemed as though I floated through the air by his side. Presently we
+came to the place where Corrus's herd lay sleeping. The angel smote one
+of the cows with the flat of his hand, so that it got upon its feet; and
+straightway the stranger thrust the flowing blossom into its face.
+
+"The cow shrank back, Cunora! 'Twas deadly afraid of that beautiful
+flower!"
+
+"That is odd," admitted Cunora. She was getting interested.
+
+"Then he took me by the hand again, and we floated once more through the
+air. In a short time we arrived at the city of the masters. [Footnote:
+Having no microscopes, the Sanusians could not know that the soldier
+bees were unsexed females; hence, "masters."] Before I knew it, he had
+me standing before the door of one of their palaces. I hung back, afraid
+lest we be discovered and punished; but he smiled again and spake so
+reassuringly that I fled not, but watched until the end.
+
+"With his finger he tapped lightly on the front of the palace. None of
+the masters heard him at first; so he tapped harder. Presently one of
+them appeared, and flew at once before our faces. Had it not been for
+the stranger's firm grasp I should have fled.
+
+"The master saw that the stranger was the offender, and buzzed angrily.
+Another moment, and the master would surely have returned to the palace
+to inform the others; and then the stranger would have been punished
+with the Head Out punishment. But instead the angel very deliberately
+moved the blooming stick near unto the master; and behold, it was
+helpless! Down it fell to the ground, dazed; I could have picked it up,
+or killed it, without the slightest danger!
+
+"Another master came out, and another, and another; and for each and all
+the flowing blossom was too much! None would come near it wittingly; and
+such as the angel approached with it were stricken almost to death.
+
+"When they were all made helpless the angel bade me hold my hand near
+the bloom; and I was vastly surprised to feel a great warmth. 'Twas like
+the heat of a stone which has stood all day in the sun, only much
+greater. Once my finger touched the bloom, and it gave me a sharp pain."
+
+Cunora was studying her friend very closely. "Ye could not have devised
+this tale, Rolla. 'Tis too unlikely. Is there more of it?"
+
+"A little. The angel once more took me by the hand, and shortly set me
+down again in this hut. Then he said something which seemed to mean,
+'With this magic bloom thou shalt be freed from the masters. They fear
+it; but ye, and all like ye, do not. Be ye ready to find the blossom
+when I bid thee.' With that he disappeared, and I awoke.
+
+"Tell me; do I look mad, to thine eyes?" Rolla was beginning to feel a
+little anxious herself.
+
+Cunora got up and led Rolla to the entrance. The glow of "the Silvery
+Way" was all the help that the girl's catlike eyesight needed; she
+seemed reassured.
+
+"Ye look very strange and excited, Rolla, but not mad. Tell me again
+what thou didst see and hear, that I may compare it with what ye have
+already told."
+
+Rolla began again; and meanwhile, on the earth, the doctor's companions
+telepathically congratulated him on his success. He had put the great
+idea into a fertile mind.
+
+Presently they began to look for other minds. It seemed wise to get the
+notion into as many Sanusian heads as possible. For some hours this
+search proceeded; but in the end, after getting in touch with some forty
+or fifty individuals in as many different parts of the planet, they
+concluded that they had first hit upon the most advanced specimens that
+Sanus afforded; the only ones, in fact, whose intellect were strong
+enough to appreciate the value of what they were told. The investigators
+were obliged to work with Rolla, Dulnop, and Corrus only; upon these
+three depended the success of their unprecedented scheme.
+
+Rolla continued to keep watch upon Supreme; and toward morning--that is,
+morning in that particular part of Sanus--the architect was rewarded by
+catching the bee in a still drowsy condition. Using the same method
+Kinney had chosen, Billie succeeded in giving the soldier bee a very
+vivid idea of fire. And judging by the very human way in which the half-
+asleep insect tossed about, thrashing her wings and legs and making
+incoherent sounds, Billie succeeded admirably. The other bees in the
+hive came crowding around, and Supreme had some difficulty in
+maintaining her dignity and authority. In the end she confided in the
+subordinate next in command:
+
+"I have had a terrible dream. One of our slaves, or a woman much like
+one, assaulted me with a new and fearful weapon." She described it more
+or less as Rolla had told Cunora. "It was a deadly thing; but how I know
+this, I cannot say, except that it was exceedingly hot. So long as the
+woman held it in her hand, I dared not go near her.
+
+"See to it that the others know; and if such a thing actually comes into
+existence, let me know immediately."
+
+"Very well, Supreme." And the soldier straightway took the tale to
+another bee. This told, both proceeded to spread the news, bee-fashion;
+so that the entire hive knew of the terror within a few minutes. Inside
+an hour every hive in the whole "city" had been informed.
+
+"Give them time now," said the doctor, "and they will tell every bee on
+the planet. Suppose we want a couple of weeks before doing anything
+further? The more afraid the bees are in advance, the easier for Rolla
+and her friends."
+
+Meanwhile Corrus, after a sleepless night with his cattle had driven
+them hurriedly back to the huts surrounding the "experimental station."
+Here the herdsman turned his herd over to another man, and then strode
+over among the huts. Outside one of them--probably Rolla's--he paused
+and gazed longingly, then gave a deep sigh and went on. Shortly he
+reached another hut in which he found Dulnop.
+
+"I was just going to seek ye!" exclaimed the younger man. "I have seen a
+wondrous sight, Corrus!"
+
+Thus the two men came to compare notes, finding that each had learned
+practically the same thing. Corrus being denied the right to visit any
+woman save Cunora, Dulnop hurried to Rolla and told her what he and the
+herdsman had learned. The three testimonies made an unshakable case.
+
+"By the great god Mownoth!" swore Corrus in vast delight when Dulnop had
+reported. "We have learned a way to make ourselves free! As free as the
+squirrels!"
+
+"Aye," agreed the younger. "We know the method. But--how shall we secure
+the means?"
+
+Corrus gave an impatient gesture. "'Twill come in time, Dulnop, just as
+the dream came! Meanwhile we must tell every one of our kind, so that
+all shall be ready when the day comes to strike!
+
+"Then"--his voice lost its savagery, and became soft and tender--"then,
+Dulnop, lad, ye shall have thy Cunora; and as for Rolla and I--"
+
+Corrus turned and walked away, that his friend might not see what was in
+his eyes.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+FOUND!
+
+
+It was two weeks to a day when the four on the earth, after having seen
+very little of each other in the meanwhile, got together for the purpose
+of finishing their "revelation" to the Sanusians.
+
+"Mr. Van Emmon and I," stated Billie coolly, as they put on their
+bracelets, "have been trying to decide upon the best way of telling them
+how to obtain fire."
+
+Neither Smith nor the doctor showed that he noticed her "Mr. Van Emmon."
+Evidently the two were still unreconciled.
+
+"I argue," remarked the geologist, "that the simplest method will be a
+chemical one. There's lots of ways to produce fire spontaneously, with
+chemicals; and this woman Rolla could do it easily."
+
+Billie indulged in a small, superior smile. "He forgets that all these
+chemical methods require PURE chemicals. And you don't find them pure in
+the natural state. You've got to have fire to reduce them with."
+
+"What's your proposition, then?" from the doctor.
+
+"Optics!" enthusiastically. She produced a large magnifying-glass from
+her pocket. "All we have to do is to show Dulnop--he's something of a
+mineralogist--how to grind and polish a piece of crystal into this
+shape!"
+
+Van Emmon groaned. "Marvelous! Say, if you knew how infernally hard it
+is to find even a small piece of crystal, you'd never propose such a
+thing! Why, it would take years--Mrs. Van Emmon!"
+
+Smith also shook his head. "Neither of you has the right idea. The
+easiest way, under the circumstances, would be an electrical one."
+
+He paused, frowning hard; then vetoed his own plan. "Thunder; I'm always
+speaking first and thinking afterward. I never used to do it,"
+accusingly, "until I got in with you folks. Anyhow, electricity won't
+do; you've got to have practically pure elements for that, too."
+
+"Guess it's up to you, doc," said Billie. And they all looked
+respectfully toward their host.
+
+He laughed. "You three will never learn anything. You'll continue to
+think that I'm a regular wonder about these things, but you never notice
+that I merely stay still and let you commit yourselves first before I
+say anything. All I have to do is select the one idea remaining after
+you've disproved the rest. Nothing to it!"
+
+He paused. "I'm afraid we're reduced to the spark method. It would take
+too long to procure materials pure enough for any other plan. Friction
+is out of the question for such people; they haven't the patience.
+Suppose we go ahead on the flint-and-spark basis."
+
+They went at once into the familiar trance state. Nightfall was
+approaching on the part of Sanus in which they were interested. Smith
+and Van Emmon came upon Dulnop and Corrus as they were talking together.
+The herdsman was saying:
+
+"Lad, my heart is heavy this night." Much of his usual vigor was absent.
+"When I were passing Cunora's field this day, some of the masters came
+and drove me over to her side. I tried to get away, and one threatened
+to kill. I fear me, lad, they intend to force us to marry!"
+
+"What!" fiercely, from the younger.
+
+Corrus laid a hand upon his arm. "Nay, Dulnop; fear not. I have no
+feeling for thy Cunora; I may marry her, but as for fathering her
+children--no!"
+
+"Suppose," through set teeth, "suppose They should threaten to kill
+thee?"
+
+"I should rather die, Dulnop, than be untrue to Rolla!"
+
+The younger man bounded to his feet. "Spoken like a man! And I tell
+thee, neither shall I have aught to do with Rolla! Rather death than
+dishonor!"
+
+Next moment silence fell between them; and then Van Emmon and Smith
+noted that both men had been bluffing in what they had said. For,
+sitting apart in the growing darkness, each was plainly in terror of the
+morrow. Presently Corrus spoke in a low tone:
+
+"All the same, Dulnop, it were well for me and thee if the secret of the
+flowing blossom were given us this night. I"--he paused, abashed--"I am
+not so sure of myself, Dulnop, when I hear Their accursed buzzing. I
+fear--I am afraid I might give in!"
+
+At this Dulnop broke down, and fell to sobbing. Nothing could have told
+the investigators so well just how childlike the Sanusians really were.
+Corrus had all he could do to hold in himself.
+
+"Mownoth!" he exclaimed, his eyes raised fervently. "If it be thy will
+to deliver us, give us the secret this night!"
+
+Meanwhile, in Rolla's hut, a similar scene was going on under the
+doctor's projected eye. Cunora lost her nerve, and Rolls came near to
+doing the same in her efforts to comfort the other.
+
+"They are heartless things!" Rolla exclaimed with such bitterness as her
+nature would permit. "They know not what love is: They with their drones
+and their egg-babes! What is family life to Them? Nothing!
+
+"Somehow I feel that Their reign is nearly at an end, Cunora. Perhaps
+the great secret shall be given us to-night!"
+
+The girl dried her tears. "Why say ye that, Rolla?"
+
+"Because the time be ripe for it. Are not all our kind looking forward
+to it? Are we not all expecting and longing for it? Know we not that we
+shall, must, have what we all so earnestly desire?" It was striking, to
+hear this bit of modern psychology uttered by this primitive woman. "Let
+me hear no more of thy weeping! Ye shall not be made to wed Corrus!"
+
+Nevertheless, at the speaking of her lover's name, the older woman's
+lips trembled despite themselves; and she said nothing further beyond a
+brief "Sleep well." After which the two women turned in, and shortly
+reached the drowsy point.
+
+Thus it happened that Rolla, after a minute or two, once more aroused
+Cunora in great excitement, and after securely closing the entrance to
+the hut against all comers, proceeded to relate what she had seen. She
+finished:
+
+"The seed of the flower can be grown in the heart of rotting wood!" And
+for hours afterward the two whispered excitedly in the darkness. It was
+hard to have to wait till dawn.
+
+As for Corrus and Dulnop, they even went so far as to search the heaps
+of stone in the mineral yards, although neither really expected to find
+what they sought.
+
+But the four on the earth, not being able to do anything further until
+morning, proceeded to make themselves at home in the doctor's house.
+Smith and the doctor slept together, likewise Billie and Mrs. Kinney;
+Van Emmon occupied the guest-room in lonely grandeur. When he came down
+to breakfast he said he had dreamed that he was Corrus, and that he had
+burned himself on a blazing cow.
+
+Again in the trance state, the four found that Rolla and Cunora, after
+reaching an understanding with Corrus and Dulnop, had already left their
+huts in search of the required stone. Five bees accompanied them. Within
+a few minutes however, Corrus and Dulnop set out together in the
+opposite direction, as agreed upon; and shortly the guards were
+withdrawn. This meant that the holiday was officially sanctioned, so
+long as the two couples kept apart; but if they were to join forces
+afterward, and be caught in the act, they would be severely punished.
+Such was bee efficiency--and sentiment.
+
+The doctor had impressed Rolla with the fact that she would find the
+desired stone in a mountainous country. Cunora, however, was for
+examining every rock she came to; Rolla was continually passing judgment
+upon some specimen.
+
+"Nay," said she, for the hundredth time. "'Tis a very bright stone we
+seek, very small and very shiny, like sunlight on the water. I shall
+know it when I see it, and I shall see it not until we reach the
+mountains."
+
+Soon Cunora's impatience wore off, and the two concentrated upon making
+time. By midday they were well into the hills, following the course of a
+very dry creek; and now they kept a sharp lookout at every step.
+
+Van Emmon and Smith had similarly impressed Corrus and Dulnop with the
+result that there was no loss of time in the beginning. The two men
+reached the hills on their side of the valley an hour before the women
+reached theirs.
+
+And thus the search began, the strangest search, beyond a doubt, within
+the history of the universe. It was not like the work of some of earth's
+prehistoric men, who already knew fire and were merely looking up fresh
+materials; it was a quest in which an idea, an idea given in a vision,
+was the sole driving force. The most curious part of the matter was that
+these people were mentally incapable of conceiving that there was
+intelligence at work upon them from another world, or even that there
+was another world.
+
+"Ye saw the stars last night?" Corrus spoke to Dulnop. "Well, 'tis just
+such stars as shall awaken the seed of the flower. Ye shall see!"
+
+Both knew exactly what to look for: the brassy, regularly cut crystals
+with the black stripings, such as has led countless men to go through
+untold hardships in the belief that they had found gold. In fact, iron
+pyrites is often called "fool gold," so deceptive is its glitter.
+
+Yet, it was just the thing for the purpose. Flint they already had,
+large quantities of it; practically all their tools, such as axes and
+knives, were made of it. Struck against iron pyrites, a larger, fatter,
+hotter spark could be obtained than with any other natural combination.
+
+It was Dulnop's luck to see the outcropping. He found the mineral
+exposed to plain view, a few feet above the bottom of the ravine the two
+were ascending. With a shout of triumph he leaped upon the rock.
+
+"Here, Corrus!" he yelled, dancing like mad. "Here is the gift of the
+gods!"
+
+The older man didn't attempt to hide his delight. He grabbed his
+companion and hugged him until his ribs began to crack. Then, with a
+single blow from his huge club, the herdsman knocked the specimen clear
+of the slate in which it was set. Such was their excitement, neither
+dreamed of marking the place in any way.
+
+First satisfying themselves that the pyrites really could produce
+"stars" from the flint, the two hurried down-stream, in search of the
+right kind of wood. In half an hour Corrus came across a dead, worm-
+eaten tree, from which he nonchalantly broke off a limb as big as his
+leg. The interior was filled with a dry, stringy rot, just the right
+thing for making a spark "live."
+
+Then came a real difficulty. It will be better appreciated when the
+men's childish nature is borne in mind. Their patience was terribly
+strained in their attempts to make the sparks fly into the tinder. Again
+and again one of them would throw the rocks angrily to the ground,
+fairly snarling with exasperation.
+
+However, the other would immediately take them up and try again. Neither
+man had a tenth the deftness that is common to adults on the earth. In
+size and strength alone they were men; otherwise--it cannot too often be
+repeated--they were mere children. All told, it was over two hours
+before the punk began to smolder.
+
+"By Mownoth!" swore the herdsman, staring reverently at the smoke. "We
+have done a miracle, Dulnop--ye and I! Be ye sure this is no dream?"
+
+Quite in human fashion, Dulnop seriously reached out and pinched the
+herdsman's tremendous arm. Corrus winced, but was too well pleased with
+the result to take revenge, although the nature of these men was such as
+to call for it.
+
+"It be no dream!" he declared, still awestruck.
+
+"Nay," agreed Dulnop. "And now--to make the flower grow!"
+
+It was Corrus's lungs which really did the work. His prodigious chest
+was better than a small pair of bellows, and he blew just as he had been
+told in the vision. Presently a small flame appeared in the tinder, and
+leaped eagerly upward. Both men jumped back, and for lack of enough air
+the flame went out.
+
+"Never mind!" exclaimed Dulnop at Corrus's crestfallen look. "I remember
+that we must be ready with leaves, and the like, as soon as the blossom
+appears. Blow, ye great windmaker, and I shall feed the flower!"
+
+And thus it came about that two men of Sanus, for the first time in the
+history of the planet, looked upon fire itself. And when they had got it
+to burning well, each of them stared at his hands, and from his hands to
+the little heap of "flowers"; from hands to fire they looked, again and
+again; and then gazed at one another in awe.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+AT HALF COCK
+
+
+Rolla and Cunora searched for hours. They followed one creek almost to
+its very beginning, and then crossed a ridge on the left and came down
+another stream. Again and again Cunora found bits of mineral such as
+would have deceived any one who had been less accurately impressed than
+Rolla. As it afterward turned out, the very accuracy of this impression
+was a great error, strange though that may seem.
+
+Finally Rolla glanced up at the sun and sighed. "We will have to give it
+up for this day," she told Cunora. "There be just time enough to return
+before night." Neither said anything about the half-rations upon which
+they would be fed in punishment for running away.
+
+So the two started back, making their way in gloomy silence through the
+woods and fields of the valley. Cunora was greatly disappointed, and
+soon began to show it as any child would, by maintaining a sullenness
+which she broke only when some trifling obstacle, such as a branch, got
+in her way. Then she would tear the branch from the tree and fling it as
+far as she could, meanwhile screaming with anger. Rolla showed more
+control.
+
+It was nearing nightfall when they came within sight of the huts. At a
+distance of perhaps half a mile they stopped and stared hard at the
+scene ahead of them.
+
+"Hear ye anything, Cunora?" asked the older woman.
+
+The girl's keen ears had caught a sound. "Methinks something hath
+aroused our people. I wonder--"
+
+"Cunora!" gasped Rolla excitedly. "Think ye that Corrus and Dulnop have
+succeeded in growing the flower?"
+
+They ran nearer. In a moment it was clear that something most certainly
+was arousing the people. The village was in an uproar.
+
+"Stay!" cautioned Rolla, catching her friend's arm. "Let us use cunning!
+Mayhap there be danger!"
+
+They were quite alone in the fields, which were always deserted at that
+hour. Crouching behind a row of bushes, they quickly drew near to the
+village, all without being seen. Otherwise, this tale would never be
+told.
+
+For Corrus and Dulnop, after having satisfied themselves that the
+wondrous flowering flower would live as long as they continued to feed
+it, had immediately decided to carry it home. To do so they first tried
+building the fire on a large piece of bark. Of course it burned through,
+and there had been more delay. Finally Corrus located a piece of slate,
+so large that a small fire could be kept up without danger of spilling.
+
+The two men had hurried straight for the village. Not once did either of
+them dream what a magnificent spectacle they made; the two skin-clad
+aborigines, bearing the thing which was to change them from slaves into
+free beings, with all the wonders of civilization to come in its train.
+Behind them as they marched, if they but knew it, stalked the principles
+of the steam engine, of the printing-press, of scientific agriculture
+and mechanical industry in general. Look about the room in which you sit
+as you read this; even to the door-knobs every single item depends upon
+fire, directly or indirectly. But Corrus and Dulnop were as ignorant of
+this as their teeth were devoid of fillings.
+
+Not until then did it occur to the four watchers on the earth that there
+was anything premature about the affair. It was Smith who first
+observed:
+
+"Say, Van, I never thought to impress Dulnop with any plan for using the
+fire. How about you and Corrus?"
+
+"By George!" seriously, from the geologist. And immediately the two set
+to work trying to reach their agents' minds.
+
+They failed! Dulnop and Corrus were both too excited, far too wide
+awake, to feel even the united efforts of all four on the earth. And the
+two Sanusians marched straight into the village without the remotest
+idea of how they should act.
+
+"It is a flower!" he shrieked, frantic with joy. "The flower has come!"
+the shout was passed along. "Corrus and Dulnop have found the flowering
+blossom!"
+
+Within a single minute the two men were surrounded by the whole human
+population of the place. For the most part the natives were too awe-
+struck to come very near; they were content to stand off and stare at
+the marvel, or fall upon their knees and worship it. It was now so dark
+that the flames fairly illumined their faces.
+
+Shortly one or two got up courage enough to imitate Dulnop as he "fed
+the flower;" and presently there were several little fires burning
+merrily upon the ground. As for the aborigines, they let themselves
+loose; never before did they shout and dance as they shouted and danced
+that night. It was this Rolla and Cunora heard.
+
+Before five minutes had passed, however, a scout awakened Supreme.
+Billie could see that the bee was angry at having been disturbed, but
+swiftly collected herself as she realized the significance of the
+scout's report.
+
+"So they have found the terror," she reflected aloud. "Very well. Arouse
+all except the egg-layers and the drones. We can make use of the food-
+gatherers as well as the fighters."
+
+The hive was soon awake. Billie was sure that every last bee was greatly
+afraid; their agitation was almost pitiful. But such was their
+organization and their automatic obedience to orders, there was
+infinitely less confusion than might be supposed. Another five minutes
+had not passed before not only that hive, but all within the "city" were
+emptied; and millions upon millions of desperate bees were under way
+toward the village.
+
+Rolla and Cunora knew of it first. They heard the buzzing of that winged
+cloud as it passed through the air above their heads; but such was the
+bees' intent interest in the village ahead, the two women were not spied
+as they hid among the bushes.
+
+By this time twilight was half gone. The firelight lit up the crowd of
+humans as they surged and danced about their new deity. For, henceforth,
+fire would replace Mownoth as their chief god; it was easy to see that.
+
+Moreover, both Corrus and Dulnop, as primitive people will, had been
+irresistibly seized by the spirit of the mob. They threw their burden
+down and joined in the frenzy of the dance. Louder and louder they
+shouted; faster and faster they capered. Already one or two of their
+fellow villagers had dropped, exhausted, to the ground. Never had they
+had so good an excuse for dancing themselves to death!
+
+And into this scene came the bees. Not one of them dared go within ten
+yards of the flames; for a while, all they did was to watch the humans.
+Such was the racket no one noticed the sound of the wings.
+
+"Shall we attack those on the edge of the crowd?" one of Supreme's
+lieutenants wanted to know. The commandant considered this with all the
+force of what mental experience she had had.
+
+"No," she decided. "We shall wait a little longer. Just now, they are
+too jubilant to be frightened; we would have to kill them all, and that
+would not be good policy."
+
+Of course, the bee had the pollen crop, nothing more, in mind when she
+made her decision; yet it was further justified. There was no let-up in
+the rejoicing; if anything, it became more frantic than before. Darkness
+fell upon a crowd which was reeling in self-induced mental intoxication.
+
+Rolla and Cunora came a little nearer; and still remaining hidden, saw
+that more than half their friends had succumbed. One by one the
+remainder dropped out; their forms lay all about what was left of the
+fire. The two women could easily see what their friends were blind to:
+the bees were simply biding their time.
+
+"Ought we not to rush in and warn them?" whispered Cunora to Rolla.
+"Surely the flower hath driven them mad!"
+
+"Hush!" warned the older woman. "Be quiet! Everything depends upon our
+silence!"
+
+It was true. Only two of the villagers remained upon their feet, and
+shortly one of these staggered and fell in his tracks. The one who was
+left was Corrus himself, his immense vitality keeping him going. Then
+he, too, after a final whoop of triumph and defiance, absolutely
+unconscious of the poison-laden horde that surrounded him, fell
+senseless to the earth. Another minute, and the whole crowd was still.
+
+AND THE FIRE HAD GONE OUT.
+
+The bees came closer. Several thousands of them were stricken by smoke
+from the embers, and the rest of the swarm took good care to avoid it.
+They hovered over the prostrate forms of the aborigines and made sure
+that they were unconscious.
+
+"Is there nothing we can do?" whispered Cunora, straining her eyes to
+see.
+
+"Nothing, save to watch and wait," returned Rolla, her gaze fixed upon
+the dark heap which marked her lover's form. And thus an hour passed,
+with the four on the earth quite unable to take a hand in any way.
+
+Then one of the villagers--the first, in fact, who had dropped out of
+the dance--stirred and presently awakened. He sat up and looked about
+him, dazed and dizzy, for all the world like a drunken man. After a
+while he managed to get to his feet.
+
+No sooner had he done this than a dozen bees were upon him. Terror-
+stricken, he stood awaiting their commands. They were not long in
+coming.
+
+By means of their fearful buzzing, the deadly insects guided him into
+the nearest hut, where they indicated that he should pick up one of the
+rude hoelike took which was used in the fields. With this in hand, he
+was driven to the little piles of smoldering ashes, where the fires had
+flickered an hour before.
+
+Hardly knowing what he was doing, but not daring to disobey, the man
+proceeded to heap dirt over the embers. Shortly he had every spark of
+the fire smothered beneath a mound as high as his knees. Not till then
+did any of the others begin to revive.
+
+As fast as they recovered the bees took charge of them. Not a human had
+courage enough to make a move of offense; it meant certain death, and
+they all knew it only too well. As soon as they were wide awake enough
+to know what they were doing, they were forced to search the bodies of
+those still asleep.
+
+"We must find the means for growing the flower," said Supreme, evidently
+convinced that a seed was a seed, under any circumstances. And presently
+they found, tucked away in Corrus's lion-skin, a large chunk of the
+pyrites, and a similar piece on Dulnop.
+
+"So these were the discoverers," commented Supreme.
+
+"What is your will in their case?" the subordinate asked.
+
+The commanding bee considered for a long time. Finally she got an idea,
+such as bees are known to get once in a great while. It was simply a new
+combination--as all ideas are merely new combinations--of two
+punishments which were commonly employed by the bees.
+
+As a result, eight of the villagers were compelled to carry the two
+fire-finders to a certain spot on the bank of a nearby stream. Here the
+two fragments of pyrites were thrown, under orders, into the water; so
+that the eight villagers might know just why the whole thing was being
+done.
+
+Next the two men, still unconscious, were buried up to their necks.
+Their heads, lolling helplessly, were all that was exposed. So it was to
+be the Head Out punishment--imprisonment of one day with their bodies
+rigidly held by the soil: acute torture to an aborigine. But was this
+all?
+
+One of the villagers was driven to the nearest hut, where he was forced
+to secure two large stone axes. Bringing these back to the "torture-
+place," as the spot was called, the man was compelled to wield one of
+the clumsy tools while a companion used the other; and between them they
+cut down the tree whose branches had been waving over the prisoners'
+heads. Then the villagers were forced to drag the tree away.
+
+All of which occurred in the darkness, and out of sight of Rolla and
+Cunora. They could only guess what was going on. Hours passed, and dawn
+approached. Not till then did they learn just what had been done.
+
+The villagers, now all awake, were driven by the bees to the place on
+the bank of the stream. There, the eight men who had imprisoned the two
+discoverers told what had been done with the "magic stones." Each
+villager stared at the offenders, and at something which lay on the
+ground before them, and in sober silence went straight to his or her
+work in the fields.
+
+Presently the huts were deserted. All the people were on duty elsewhere.
+Such bees as were not guarding the fields had returned to the hives.
+Rolla and Cunora cautiously ventured forth, taking great care to avoid
+being seen. They hurried fearfully to the stream.
+
+Before they reached the spot Rolla gave an exclamation and stared
+curiously to one side, where the tree had been dragged. Suddenly she
+gave a terrible cry and rushed forward, only to drop on her knees and
+cover her face with hands that shook as with the palsy. At the same
+instant Cunora saw what had been done; and uttering a single piercing
+scream, fell fainting to the ground.
+
+Heaped in front of the two prisoners was a large pile of pebbles. There
+were thousands upon thousands in the heap. Before each man, at a
+distance of a foot, was a large gourdful of water. To the savages, these
+told the whole story; these, together with the tree dragged to one side.
+
+Corrus and Dulnop were to be buried in that spot every day for as many
+days as there were pebbles in the heap; in other words, until they died.
+Every night they would be dug up, and every morning buried afresh. And
+to keep them from telling any of the villagers where they had found the
+pyrites, they were to be deprived of water all day long. By night their
+tongues would be too swollen for speech. For they had been sentenced to
+the No Shade torture, as well; their heads would be exposed all day long
+to the burning sun itself.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
+
+
+It is significant that Billie, because of her connection with the bee,
+Supreme, was spared the sight that the doctor saw from Rolla's point of
+view. Otherwise, the geologist's wife might have had a different opinion
+of the matter. As it was--
+
+"Corrus and Dulnop," said she as cooly as Supreme herself might have
+spoken, "are not the first to suffer because they have discovered
+something big."
+
+Whereupon her husband's wrath got beyond his grip. "Not the first! Is
+that all you can say?" he demanded hotly. "Why, of all the damnably
+cruel, cold-blooded creatures I ever heard of, those infernal bees--"
+
+Van Emmon stopped, unable to go on without blasphemy.
+
+The doctor had got over the horror of what he had seen. "We want to be
+fair, Van. Look at this matter from the bees' view-point for awhile.
+What were they to do? They had to make sure, as far as possible, that
+their supremacy would never be threatened again. Didn't they?"
+
+"Oh, but--damn it all!" cried Van Emmon. "There's a limit somewhere!
+Such cruelty as that--no one could conceive of it!"
+
+"As for the bees," flared Billie, "I don't blame 'em! And unless I'm
+very much mistaken, the ruling class ANYWHERE, here on the earth or
+wherever you investigate, will go the limit to hold the reins, once they
+get them!"
+
+The expression on Van Emmon's face was curious to see. There was no fear
+there, only a puzzled astonishment. Strange as it may seem, Billie had
+told him something that had never occurred to him before. And he
+recognized it as truth, as soon as she had said it.
+
+"Just a minute," remarked Smith in his ordinary voice; "just a minute.
+You're forgetting that we don't really know whether Rolla and Cunora are
+safe. Everything depends upon them now, you know."
+
+In silence the four went back into telepathic connection. Now, of
+course, Smith and Van Emmon were practically without agents. The
+prisoners could tell them nothing whatever except the tale of increasing
+agony as their torture went on. All that Van Emmon and Smith could do
+was lend the aid of their mentality to the efforts of the other two, and
+for a while had to be content with what Billie, through Supreme, and the
+doctor, through Rolla, were able to learn. However, Kinney did suggest
+that one of the other two men get in touch with Cunora.
+
+"Good idea," said Smith. "Go to it, Van Emmon."
+
+The geologist stirred uneasily, and avoided his wife's eyes. "I--I'm
+afraid not, Smith. Rather think I'd prefer to rest a while. You do it!"
+
+Smith laughed and reddened. "Nothing doing for an old bach like me.
+Cunora might--well, you know--go in bathing, for instance. It's all
+right for the doctor, of course; but--let me out!"
+
+Meanwhile the two women on Sanus, taking the utmost care, managed to
+retreat from the river bank without being discovered. Keeping their eyes
+very wide open and their ears strained for the slightest buzz, the two
+contrived to pass through the village, out into the fields, and thence,
+from cover to cover, into the foothills on that side of the valley where
+their lovers had found the pyrites.
+
+"If only we knew which stream they ascended!" lamented Cunora, as they
+stood in indecision before a fork in the river.
+
+"But we don't!" Rolla pointed out philosophically. "We must trust to
+luck and Mownoth, ye and I."
+
+And despite all the effort the doctor could put forth to the contrary,
+the two women picked out the wrong branch. They searched as diligently
+as two people possibly could; but somehow the doctor knew, just because
+of the wrong choice that had been made, that their search would be
+unsuccessful. He thought the matter over for a few moments, and finally
+admitted to his three friends:
+
+"I wonder if I haven't been a little silly? Why should I have been so
+precious specific in impressing Rolla about the pyrites? Pshaw! Almost
+any hard rock will strike sparks from flint!"
+
+"Why, of course!" exploded Van Emmon. "Here--let's get busy and tell
+Rolla!"
+
+But it proved astonishingly difficult. The two women were in an
+extraordinary condition now. They were continually on the alert. In
+fact, the word "alert" scarcely described the state of mind, the keen,
+desperate watchfulness which filled every one of their waking hours, and
+caused each to remain awake as long as possible; so that they invariably
+fell to sleep without warning. They could not be caught in the drowsy
+state!
+
+For they knew something about the bees which the four on the earth did
+not learn until Billie had overheard Supreme giving some orders.
+
+"Set a guard on that river bank," she told her subordinate, "and
+maintain it night and day. If any inferior attempts to recover the magic
+stone, deal with him or her in the same manner in which we punished the
+finders of the deadly flower."
+
+"It shall be done, Supreme. Is there anything further?"
+
+"Yes. Make quite sure that none of the inferiors are missing."
+
+Shortly afterward the lieutenant reported that one of the huts was
+empty.
+
+"Rolla, the soil-tester, and Cunora, the vineyardist, are gone."
+
+"Seek them!" Supreme almost became excited. "They are the lovers of the
+men we punished! They would not absent themselves unless they knew
+something! Find them, and torture them into revealing the secret! We
+must weed out this flowing blossom forever!"
+
+"It shall be done!"
+
+Such methods were well known to Rolla and Cunora. Had not their fellow
+villagers, many of them, tried time after time to escape from bondage?
+And had they not inevitably been apprehended and driven back, to be
+tortured as an example to the rest? It would never do to be caught!
+
+So they made it a practice to travel only during twilight and dawn,
+remaining hidden through the day. Invariably one stood watch while the
+other slept. The bees were--everywhere!
+
+Upon crossing the range of mountains going down the other side, Cunora
+and Rolla began to feel hopeful of two things--first, that their luck
+would change, and the wonderful stone be found; and second, that they
+would be in no danger from the bees in this new country, which seemed to
+be a valley much like the one they had quit. It was all quite new and
+strange to them, and in their interest they almost forgot at times that
+each had a terrible score to settle when her chance finally came.
+
+Twice they had exceedingly narrow escapes. Always they kept carefully
+hid, but on the third day Cunora, advancing cautiously through some
+brush, came suddenly upon two bees feeding. She stopped short and held
+her breath. Neither saw her, so intent were they upon their honey; yet
+Cunora felt certain that each had been warned to watch out for her. This
+was true; Billie learned that every bee on the planet had been told. And
+so Cunora silently backed away, an inch at a time, until it was safe to
+turn and run.
+
+On another occasion Rolla surprised a big drone bee, just as she bent to
+take a drink of water from a stream. The insect had been out of her
+sight, on the other side of a boulder. It rose with an angry buzz as she
+bent down; a few feet away from her it hung in the air, apparently
+scrutinizing her to make sure that she was one of the runaways. Her
+heart leaped to her mouth. Suppose they were reported!
+
+She made a lightninglike grab at the thing, and very nearly caught it.
+Straight up it shot, taken by surprise, and dashed blindly into a ledge
+of rock which hung overhead. For a second it floundered, dazed; and that
+second was its last. Cunora gave a single bound forward, and with a
+vicious swing of a palm-leaf, which she always carried, smashed the bee
+flat.
+
+Before they had been free five days they came to an exceedingly serious
+conclusion: that it was only a question of time until they were caught.
+Sooner or later they must be forced to return; they could not hope to
+dodge bees much longer. When Rolla fully realized this she turned
+gravely to the younger girl.
+
+"Methinks the time has come for us to make a choice, Cunora. Which shall
+it be: live as we have been living for the past four days, with the
+certainty of being caught in time or--face the unknown perils on the
+edge of the world?"
+
+Cunora dropped the piece of stone she had been inspecting and shivered
+with fear. "A dreadful choice ye offer, Rolla! Think of the horrible
+beasts we must encounter!"
+
+"Ye mean," corrected the philosophical one--"ye mean, the beasts which
+men SAY they have seen. Tell me; hast ever seen such thyself? Many times
+hast thou been near the edge, I know."
+
+The girl shook her head. "Nay; not I. Yet these beasts must be, Rolla;
+else why should all men tell of them?"
+
+"I note," remarked Rolla thoughtfully, "that each man tells of seeing a
+different sort of beast. Perchance they were all but lies."
+
+However, it was Cunora's fear of capture, rather than her faith in
+Rolla's reasoning, which drove the girl to the north. For to the north
+they traveled, a matter of some two weeks; and not once did they dare
+relax their vigilance. Wherever they went, there was vegetation of some
+sort, and wherever there was vegetation bees were likely to be found. By
+the time the two weeks were over, the women were in a state of near-
+hysteria, from the nervous strain of it all. Moreover, both suffered
+keenly for want of cereals, to which they were accustomed; they were
+heartily tired of such fruits and nuts as they were able to pick up
+without exposing themselves.
+
+One morning before daybreak they came to the upper end of a long, narrow
+valley--one which paralleled their own, by the way--and as they emerged
+from the plain into the foot-hills it was clear that they had reached a
+new type of country. There was comparatively little brush; and with
+every step the rockiness increased. By dawn they were on the edge of a
+plateau; back of them stretched the inhabited country; ahead, a haze-
+covered expanse. Nothing but rocks was about them.
+
+"Ye are sure that we had best keep on?" asked Cunora uneasily.
+
+Rolla nodded, slowly but positively. "It is best. Back of us lies
+certain capture. Ahead--we know not what; but at least there is a
+chance!"
+
+Nevertheless, both hesitated before starting over the plateau. Each
+gazed back longingly over the home of their kind; and for a moment
+Rolla's resolution plainly faltered. She hesitated; Cunora made a move
+as though to return. And at that instant their problem was decided for
+them.
+
+A large drone passed within six feet of them. Both heard the buzz, and
+whirled about to see the bee darting frantically out of reach. At a safe
+distance it paused, as though to make sure of its find, then disappeared
+down the valley. They had been located!
+
+"We have no choice now!" cried Rolla, speaking above a whisper for the
+first time in weeks. "On, as fast as ye can, Cunora!"
+
+The two sped over the rocks, making pretty good time considering the
+loads they carried. Each had a good-sized goatskin full of various dried
+fruits and nuts, also a gourd not so full. In fact, it had been some
+while since they had had fresh water. Cunora was further weighed down by
+some six pounds of dried rabbit meat; the animals had been caught in
+snares. Both, however, discarded their palm leaves; they would be of no
+further use now.
+
+And thus they fled, knowing that they had, at most, less than a day
+before the drone would return with enough soldiers to compel obedience.
+For the most part, the surface was rough granite, with very little sign
+of erosion. There was almost no water; both women showed intense joy
+when they found a tiny pool of it standing in a crevasse. They filled
+their gourds as well as their stomachs.
+
+A few steps farther on, and the pair stepped out of the shallow gully in
+which they had been walking. Immediately they were exposed to a very
+strong and exceedingly cold wind, such as seemed to surprise them in no
+way, but compelled both to actually lean against its force. Moreover,
+although this pressure was all from the left, it proved exceedingly
+difficult to go on. Their legs seemed made of lead, and their breathing
+was strangely labored. This, also, appeared to be just what they had
+expected.
+
+Presently, however, they found another slight depression the rocks; and
+sheltered from the wind, made a little better progress ahead. It was
+bitter cold, however; only the violence of their exercise could make
+them warm enough to stand it. All in all, the two were considerably over
+three hours in making the last mile; they had to stop frequently to
+rest. The only compensating thing was their freedom from worry; the bees
+would not bother them where the wind was so strong. So long as they
+could keep on the move they were safe.
+
+But what made it worse was the steadily increasing difficulty of moving
+their legs. For, although the surface continued level, they seemed to be
+CLIMBING now, where before they had simply walked. It was just as though
+the plateau had changed into a mountain, and they were ascending it;
+only, upon looking back, nothing but comparatively flat rock met the
+gaze. What made them lean forward so steeply anyhow?
+
+Rolla seemed to think it all very ordinary. She was more concerned about
+the wind, to which they had become once more exposed as they reached the
+end of the rift. On they pressed, five or six steps at each attempt,
+stopping to rest twice the length of time they actually traveled. It was
+necessary now to cling to the rock with both hands, and once Cunora lost
+her grip, so that she would have been blown to one side, or else have
+slipped backward, had not Rolla grasped her heel and held her until she
+could get another hand-hold.
+
+"Courage!" gasped Rolla. Perspiration was streaming down her face,
+despite the bitter cold of the wind; her hands trembled from the strain
+she was undergoing. "Courage, Cunora! It be not much farther!" On they
+strove. Always it seemed as though they were working upward as well as
+onward, although the continued flatness of the surface argued
+obstinately against this. Also, the sun remained in the same position
+relative to the rocks; if they were climbing, it should have appeared
+overhead. What did it mean?
+
+Finally Rolla saw, about a hundred yards farther on, something which
+caused her to shout: "Almost there, Cunora!"
+
+The younger girl could not spare breath enough to reply. They struggled
+on in silence.
+
+Now they were down on their hands and knees. Before half the hundred
+yards was covered, they were flat on their faces, literally clawing
+their way upward and onward. Had the wind increased in violence in
+proportion as the way grew harder, they could never have made it,
+physical marvels though they were. Only the absolute knowledge that they
+dared not return drove them on; that, and the possibility of finding the
+precious stone, and of ultimately saving the two men they had left
+behind.
+
+The last twenty feet was the most extraordinary effort that any human
+had ever been subjected to. They had to take turns in negotiating the
+rock; one would creep a few inches on, get a good hold, and brace
+herself against the wind, while the other, crawling alongside, used her
+as a sort of a crutch. Their fingers were bleeding and their finger-
+nails cracked from the rock and cold; the same is equally true of their
+toes. Had it been forty feet instead of twenty--
+
+The rocks ended there. Beyond was nothing but sky; even this was not
+like what they were used to, but was very nearly black. Two more spurts,
+and Rolla threw one hand ahead and caught the edge of the rock. Cunora
+dragged herself alongside. The effort brought blood to her nostrils.
+
+They rested a minute or two, then looked at one another in mute inquiry.
+Cunora nodded; Rolla took great breath; and they drew themselves to the
+edge and looked over.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+OUTSIDE INFORMATION
+
+
+The two women gazed in extreme darkness. The other side of the ridge of
+rock was black as night. From side to side the ridge extended, like a
+jagged knife edge on a prodigious scale; it seemed infinite in extent.
+Behind them--that is, at their feet-lay the stone-covered expanse they
+had just traversed; ahead of them there was--nothingness itself.
+
+Cunora shook with fear and cold. "Let us not go on, Rolla!" she
+whimpered. "I like not the looks of this void; it may contain all sorts
+of beasts. I--I am afraid!" She began to sob convulsively. Rolla peered
+into the darkness. Nothing whatever was to be seen. It was as easy to
+imagine enemies as friends; easier in fact. What might not the unknown
+hold for them?
+
+"We cannot stay here," spoke Rolla, with what energy her condition would
+permit. "We could not--hold on. Nor can we return now; They would surely
+find us!"
+
+But Cunora's courage, which had never faltered in the face of familiar
+dangers, was not equal to the unknown. She wailed: "Rolla! A little way
+back--a hollow in the rock! 'Tis big enough to shelter me! I would--
+rather stay there than--go on!"
+
+"Ye would rather die there, alone!"
+
+Cunora hid her face. "Let me have half the food! I can go back to the
+pool--for water! And maybe," hopefully--"maybe They will give up the
+search in time."
+
+"Aye," from Rolla, bitterly. "And in time Dulnop will die, if we do
+nothing for him--and for Corrus!"
+
+Cunora fell to sobbing again. "I cannot help it! I am--afraid!"
+
+Rolla scarcely heard. An enormous idea had just occurred to her. She had
+told the girl to think of Dulnop and Corrus; but was it not equally true
+that they should think of all the other humans, their fellow slaves,
+each of whom had suffered nearly as much? Was not the fire equally
+precious to them all?
+
+She started to explain this to the girl, then abruptly gave it up. It
+was no use; Cunora's mind was not strong enough to take the step. Rolla
+fairly gasped as she realized, as no Sanusian had realized before, that
+she had been given the responsibility of rescuing A WHOLE RACE.
+
+Fire she must have! And since she could not, dared not, seek it here,
+she must try the other side of the world. And she would have to do it--
+alone!
+
+"So be it!" she said loudly in a strange voice. "Ye stay here and wait,
+Cunora! I go on!"
+
+And for fear her resolution would break down, she immediately crept over
+the edge. She clung to the rock as though expecting to be dragged from
+it. Instead, as she let her feet down into the blackness, she could feel
+solid rock beneath her body, quite the same as she had lain upon a
+moment before. It was like descending the opposite side of an incredibly
+steep mountain, a mountain made of blackness itself.
+
+The women gave one another a last look. For all they knew, neither would
+gaze upon the other again. Next moment, with Cunora's despairing cry
+ringing in her ears, Rolla began to crawl backward and downward.
+
+She could plainly see the sun's level rays above her head, irregular
+beams of yellowish light; it served slightly to illuminate her
+surroundings. Shortly, however, her eyes became accustomed to the
+darkness; the stars helped just as they had always helped; and soon she
+was moving almost as freely as on the other side.
+
+Once she slipped, and slid down and to one side, for perhaps ten feet.
+When she finally grabbed a sharp projecting ledge and stopped, her
+vision almost failed from the terrible effort she had put forth. She
+could scarcely feel the deep gash that the ledge had made in her finger-
+tips.
+
+After perhaps half an hour of hard work among bare rocks exactly like
+those she had quit, she stopped for a prolonged rest. As a matter of
+course, she stared at the sky; and then came her first discovery.
+
+Once more let it be understood that her view was totally different from
+anything that has ever been seen on the earth. To be sure, "up" was over
+her head, and "down" was under her feet; nevertheless, she was stretched
+full length, face down, on the rock. In other words, it was precisely as
+though she were clinging to a cliff. Sky above, sky behind and all
+sides; there were stars even under her feet!
+
+But all her life she had been accustomed, at night, to see that broad
+band of silver light across the heavens. She had taken it for granted
+that, except at two seasons of the year, for short periods, she would
+always see "the Silvery Way." But to-night--there was no band! The whole
+sky was full of--stars, nothing else!
+
+It will be easier to picture her wonder and uneasiness if she is
+compared mentally with a girl of five or six. Easier, too, to appreciate
+the fact that she determined to go on anyhow. Mile after mile was
+covered in the darkness. Rolla was on the point of absolute exhaustion;
+but she dared not sleep until she reached a spot where there was no
+danger of falling. It was only after braving the gale for over four
+hours in the starlight that Rolla reached a point where she was no
+longer half crawling, half creeping, but moved nearly erect. Shortly she
+was able to face the way she was going; and by leaning backward was able
+to make swift progress. In another half-hour she was walking upright.
+Still no explanation of the mystery!
+
+Finding a sheltered spot, she proceeded to make herself comparatively
+comfortable on the rock. Automatically, from habit, she proceeded to
+keep watch; then she must have remembered that there was now no need for
+vigilance. For she lay herself down in the darkness and instantly fell
+asleep.
+
+Three hours later--according to the time kept by the watchers on the
+earth--Rolla awoke and sat up in great alarm. And small wonder.
+
+It was broad daylight! The sun was well above the horizon; and not only
+the Sanusian but the people on the earth were vastly puzzled to note
+that it was the western horizon! To all appearances, Rolla had slept a
+whole day in that brief three hours.
+
+Shortly her nerves were steady enough for her to look about,
+uncomprehendingly, but interestedly, as a child will. There was nothing
+but rock to be seen; a more or less level surface, such as she had
+toiled over the day before. The day before! She glanced at the sun once
+more, and her heart gave a great leap.
+
+The sun was rising--IN THE WEST!
+
+"'Tis a world of contraries," observed Rolla sagely to herself. "Mayhap I
+shall find all else upside down."
+
+She ate heartily, and drank deep from her gourd. There was not a cupful
+remaining. She eyed it seriously as she got to her feet.
+
+Another look back at that flat expanse of granite, which had so
+gradually and so mysteriously changed from precipice to plain, and Rolla
+strode on with renewed vigor and interest. Presently she was able to
+make out something of a different color in the distance, and soon was
+near enough to see some bona-fide bushes; a low, flowerless shrub, it is
+true, but at least it was a living thing.
+
+Shortly the undergrowth became dense enough to make it somewhat of an
+effort to get through. And before long she was noticing all manner of
+small creatures, from bugs to an occasional wandering bird. These last,
+especially, uttered an abrupt but cheerful chirp which helped
+considerably to raise her spirits. It was all too easy to see, in her
+fancy, her lover helpless and suffering in the power of those cold-
+blooded, merciless insects.
+
+In an hour or two she reached the head of a small stream. Hurrying down
+its banks as rapidly as its undergrowth would permit, Rolla followed its
+course as it bent, winding and twisting, in the direction which had
+always been north to her, but which the sun plainly labeled "south."
+Certainly the sun mounted steadily toward the zenith, passing
+successively through the positions corresponding to four, three and two
+o'clock, in a manner absolutely baffling.
+
+About noon she came out of the canon into the foothills. Another brief
+rest, and from the top of a knoll she found herself looking upon a
+valley about the size of the one she called "home." Otherwise, it was
+very different. For one thing, it was far better watered; nowhere could
+she see the half-dried brownishness so characteristic of her own land.
+The whole surface was heavily grown with all manner of vegetation; and
+so far as she could see it was all absolutely wild. There was not a sign
+of cultivation.
+
+Keeping to the left bank of the river, a much broader affair than any
+she had seen before, Rolla made her way for several miles with little
+difficulty. Twice she made wide detours through the thicket, and once it
+was necessary to swim a short distance; the stream was too deep to wade.
+The doctor watched the whole affair, purely as a matter of professional
+interest.
+
+"She is a magnificent specimen physically," he said in his impersonal
+way, "and she shows none of the defects of the African savages."
+
+And such was his manner, in speaking of his distant "patient," that
+Billie took it entirely as a matter of course, without the slightest
+self-consciousness because of Van Emmon and Smith.
+
+All this while Rolla had been intent, as before, upon finding some of
+the coveted crystals. She had no luck; but presently she discovered
+something decidedly worth while--a fallen tree trunk, not too large, and
+near enough to the bank to be handled without help. A few minutes later
+she was floating at ease, and making decidedly better time.
+
+A half-hour of this--during which she caught glimpses of many animals,
+large and small, all of which fled precipitately--and she rounded a
+sharp bend in the stream, to be confronted with a sight which must have
+been strange indeed to her. Stretching across the river was--a network
+of rusty wire, THE REMAINS OF A REINFORCED CONCRETE BRIDGE.
+
+There was no doubt of this. On each bank was a large, moss-grown block
+of stone, which the doctor knew could be nothing else than the old
+abutments. Seemingly there had been only a single span.
+
+The woman brought the log to the shore, and examined the bridge closely.
+Instinctively she felt that the structure argued a high degree of
+intelligence, very likely human. A little hesitation, and then she
+beached her log, ascended the bank, and looked upon the bridge from
+above.
+
+A narrow road met her eyes. Once it might have been twice as wide, but
+now the thicket encroached until there was barely room enough, judged
+the doctor, for a single vehicle to pass. Its surface was badly broken
+up--apparently it had been concrete--and grass grew in every crack.
+Nevertheless, it was a bona-fide road.
+
+For the first time in a long while, Rolla was temporarily off her guard.
+The doctor was able to impress her with the idea of "Follow this road!"
+and to his intense gratification the woman started away from the river
+at once.
+
+Soon the novelty of the thing wore off enough for her to concern herself
+with fresh food. She discovered plenty of berries, also three kinds of
+nuts; all were strange to her, yet she ate them without question, and
+suffered nothing as a result, so far as the doctor could see.
+
+The sun was less than an hour from the horizon when the road, after
+passing over a slight rise, swung in a wide arc through the woods and
+thus unveiled a most extraordinary landscape. It was all the more
+incredible because so utterly out of keeping with what Rolla had just
+passed through. She had been in the wilderness; now--
+
+A vast city lay before her. Not a hundred yards away stood a low, square
+building of some plain, gray stone. Beyond this stretched block upon
+block--mile upon mile rather--of bona-fide residences, stores and much
+larger buildings. It is true that the whole place was badly overgrown
+with all sorts of vegetation; yet, from that slight elevation, there was
+no doubt that this place was, or had been, a great metropolis.
+
+Presently it became clear that "had been" was the correct term. Nothing
+but wild life appeared. Rolla looked closely for any signs of human
+occupancy, but saw none. To all appearances the place was deserted; and
+it was just as easy to say that it had been so for ten centuries as for
+one.
+
+"There seems no good reason why I should not go farther," commented
+Rolla aloud, to boost her courage. "Perchance I shall find the magic
+stone in this queer place."
+
+It speaks well for her self-confidence that, despite the total
+strangeness of the whole affair--a city was as far out of her line as
+aviation to a miner--she went forward with very little hesitation. None
+of the wild creatures that scuttled from her sight alarmed her at all;
+the only things she looked at closely were such bees as she met. The
+insects ignored her altogether, except to keep a respectful distance.
+"These masters," observed Rolla with satisfaction, "know nothing of me.
+I shall not obey them till they threaten me." But there was no
+threatening.
+
+For the most part the buildings were in ruins. Here and there a
+structure showed very little damage by the elements. In more than one
+case the roof was quite intact. Clearly the materials used were
+exceptional, or else the place had not been deserted very long. The
+doctor held to the latter opinion, especially after seeing a certain
+brown-haired dog running to hide behind a heap of stones.
+
+"It was a dog!" the doctor felt sure. To Rolla, however, the animal was
+even more significant. She exclaimed about it in a way which confirmed
+the doctor's guess. On she went at a faster rate, plainly excited and
+hopeful of seeing something further that she could recognize.
+
+She found it in a hurry. Reaching the end of one block of the ruins, she
+turned the corner and started to follow the cross street. Whereupon she
+stopped short, to gaze in consternation at a line of something whitish
+which stretched from one side of the "street" to the other.
+
+It was a line of human skeletons.
+
+There were perhaps two hundred in the lot, piled one on top of the
+other, and forming a low barrier across the pavement. To Rolla the thing
+was simply terrible, and totally without explanation. To the people on
+the earth, it suggested a formation of troops, shot down in their tracks
+and left where they had fallen. The doctor would have given a year of
+his life if only Rolla had had the courage to examine the bones; there
+might have been bullet-holes, or other evidence of how they had met
+their death.
+
+The Sanusian chose rather to back carefully away from the spot. She
+walked hurriedly up the street she had just left, and before going
+another block came across two skeletons lying right in the middle of the
+street. A little farther on, and she began to find skeletons on every
+hand. Moreover--and this is especially significant--the buildings in
+this locality showed a great many gaps and holes in their walls, such as
+might have been made by shell-fire.
+
+This made it easier to understand something else. Every few yards or so
+the explorer found a large heap of rust in the gutter, or what had once
+been the gutter. These heaps had little or no shape; yet the doctor
+fancied he could detect certain resemblances to things he had seen
+before, and shortly declared that they were the remains of motors.
+
+"Can't say whether they were aircraft or autos, of course," he added,
+"but those things were certainly machines." Later, Rolla paid more
+attention to them, and the doctor positively identified them as former
+motor-cars.
+
+The sun had gone down. It was still quite light, of course; darkness
+would not come for a couple of hours. Rolla munched on what food she
+had, and pressed on through the ruins. She saw skeletons and rusted
+engines everywhere, and once passed a rounded heap of rust which looked
+like nothing so much as a large cannon shell. Had the place been the
+scene of a battle?
+
+Just when she had got rather accustomed to the place and was feeling
+more or less at her ease, she stopped short. At the same time the doctor
+himself fairly jumped in his chair. Somewhere, right near at hand, on
+one of the larger structures, a bell began to ring!
+
+It clanged loudly and confidently, giving out perhaps thirty strokes
+before it stopped. The stillness which followed was pretty painful. In a
+moment, however, it was broken as effectively as any silence can be
+broken.
+
+A man's voice sounded within the building.
+
+Immediately it was replied to, more faintly, by several others. Then
+came the clatter of some sort of utensils, and sundry other noises which
+spoke loudly of humans. Rolla froze in her tracks, and her teeth began
+to chatter.
+
+Next moment she got a grip on herself. "What difference doth it make,
+whether they be friend or enemy?" she argued severely, for the benefit
+of her shaking nerves. "They will give thee food, anyhow. And perchance
+they know where liveth the magic stone!"
+
+In the end Rolla's high purpose prevailed over her weak knees, and she
+began to look for the entrance to the place. It was partly in ruins--
+that is, the upper stories--but the two lower floors seemed, so far as
+their interior could be seen through the high, unglazed windows, to be
+in good condition. There were no doors on that street.
+
+Going around the corner, however, Rolla saw a high archway at the far
+corner of the structure. Approaching near enough to peek in, she saw
+that this arch provided an opening into a long corridor, such as might
+once have served as a wagon or auto entrance. After a little hesitation
+she went in.
+
+She passed a door, a massive thing of solid brassy metal, such as
+interested the doctor immensely but only served to confuse the explorer.
+A little farther on, and the corridor became pretty dark. She passed
+another brass door, and approached the end of the pavement. There was
+one more door there; and she noted with excitement that it was open.
+
+She came closer and peered in. The room was fairly well lighted, and
+what she saw was clear-cut and unmistakable. In the middle of the room
+was a long table, and seated about it, in perfect silence, sat an even
+dozen men.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+THE TWELVE
+
+
+For a minute or two Rolla was not observed. She simply stood and stared,
+being neither confident enough to go forward nor scared enough to
+retreat. Childlike, she scrutinized the group with great thoroughness.
+
+Their comparatively white faces and hands puzzled her most. Also, she
+could not understand the heavy black robes in which all were dressed.
+Falling to the floor and reaching far above their necks, such garments
+would have been intolerable to the free-limbed Sanusians. To the
+watchers on the earth, however, the robes made the group look
+marvelously like a company of monks.
+
+Not that there was anything particularly religious about the place or in
+their behavior. All twelve seemed to be silent only because they were
+voraciously hungry. A meal was spread on the table. Except for the
+garments, the twelve might have been so many harvest hands, gathered for
+the evening meal in the cook-house. From the white-bearded man who sat
+at the head of the table and passed out large helpings of something from
+a big pot, to the fair-haired young fellow at the foot, who could
+scarcely wait for his share, there was only one thing about them which
+might have been labeled pious; and that was their attitude, which could
+have been interpreted: "Give us this day our daily bread--and hurry up
+about it!"
+
+Apparently Rolla was convinced that these men were thoroughly human, and
+as such fairly safe to approach. For she allowed her curiosity to govern
+her caution, and proceeded to sidle through the doorway. Half-way
+through she caught a whiff of the food, and her sidling changed to
+something faster.
+
+At that instant she was seen. A tall, dark-haired chap on the far side
+of the table glanced up and gave a sharp, startled exclamation.
+Instantly the whole dozen whirled around and with one accord shot to
+their feet.
+
+Rolla stopped short.
+
+There was a second's silence; then the white-bearded man, who seemed, to
+be the leader of the group, said something peremptory in a deep,
+compelling voice. Rolla did not understand.
+
+He repeated it, this time a little less commandingly; and Rolla, after
+swallowing desperately, inclined her head in the diffident way she had,
+and said:
+
+"Are ye friends or enemies?"
+
+Eleven of the twelve looked puzzled. The dark-haired man, who had been
+the first to see her, however, gave a muttered exclamation; then he
+cogitated a moment, wet his lips and said something that sounded like:
+"What did you say? Say it again!"
+
+Rolla repeated.
+
+The dark-haired man listened intently. Immediately he fell to nodding
+with great vigor, and thought deeply again before making another try:
+"We are your friends. Whence came ye, and what seek ye?"
+
+Rolla had to listen closely to what he said. The language was
+substantially the same as hers; but the verbs were misplaced in the
+sentences, the accenting was different, and certain of the vowels were
+flatted. After a little, however, the man caught her way of talking and
+was able to approximate it quite well, so that she understood him
+readily.
+
+"I seek," Rolla replied, "food and rest. I have traveled far and am
+weary."
+
+"Ye look it," commented the man. His name, Rolla found out later, was
+Somat. "Ye shall have both food and rest. However, whence came ye?"
+
+"From the other side of the world," answered Rolla calmly.
+
+Instantly she noted that the twelve became greatly excited when Somat
+translated her statement. She decided to add to the scene.
+
+"I have been away from my people for many days," and she held up one
+hand with the five fingers spread out, opening and closing them four
+times, to indicate twenty.
+
+"Ye came over the edge of the world!" marveled Somat. "It were a
+dangerous thing to do, stranger!"
+
+"Aye," agreed Holla, "but less dangerous than that from which I fled.
+However," impatiently, "give me the food ye promised; I can talk after
+my stomach be filled."
+
+"Of a surety," replied Somat apologetically. "I were too interested to
+remember thy hunger." He spoke a word or two, and one of his companions
+brought another stool, also dishes and table utensils.
+
+Whereupon the watchers on the earth got a first-class surprise. Here
+they had been looking upon twelve men, living in almost barbaric fashion
+amid the ruins of a great city; but the men had been eating from hand-
+painted china of the finest quality, and using silverware that was
+simply elegant, nothing less! Luxury in the midst of desolation!
+
+Rolla, however, paid little attention to these details. She was scarcely
+curious as to the food, which consisted of some sort of vegetable and
+meat stew, together with butterless bread, a kind of small-grained corn
+on the cob, a yellowish root-vegetable not unlike turnips, and large
+quantities of berries. She was too hungry to be particular, and ate
+heartily of all that was offered, whether cooked or uncooked. The twelve
+almost forgot their own hunger in their interest in the stranger.
+
+It was now pretty dark in the big room. The white-bearded man said
+something to the young fellow at the foot of the table, whereupon the
+chap got up and stepped to the nearest wall, where he pressed something
+with the tip of his finger. Instantly the room was flooded with white
+light--from two incandescent bulbs!
+
+Rolla leaped to her feet in amazement, blinking painfully in the
+unaccustomed glare.
+
+"What is this?" she demanded, all the more furiously to hide her fear.
+"Ye would not trick me with magic; ye, who call yourselves friends!"
+
+Somat interpreted this to the others. Some laughed; others looked
+pityingly at her. Somat explained:
+
+"It is nothing, stranger. Be not afraid. We forgot that ye might know
+nothing of this 'magic.'" He considered deeply, apparently trying to put
+himself in her place. "Know ye not fire?" Of course, she did not know
+what he meant. "Then," with an inspiration, "perchance ye have see the
+flower, the red flower, ye might call--"
+
+"Aye!" eagerly. "Doth it grow here?"
+
+Somat smiled with satisfaction, and beckoned for her to follow him. He
+led the way through a small door into another room, evidently used as a
+kitchen. There he pointed to a large range, remarkably like the up-to-
+date article known on the earth.
+
+"The flower 'groweth' here," said he, and lifted a lid from the stove.
+Up shot the flame.
+
+"Great Mownoth!" shouted Rolla, forgetting all about her hunger. "I have
+found it--the precious flower itself!"
+
+Somat humored her childlike view-point. "We have the seed of the flower,
+too," said he. He secured a box of matches from a shelf, and showed her
+the "little sticks."
+
+"Exactly what the angel showed me!" jubilated Holla. "I have come to the
+right place!"
+
+Back she went to her food, her face radiant, and all her lurking
+suspicion of the twelve completely gone. From that time on she had
+absolute and unquestioning confidence in all that was told her. In her
+eyes, the twelve were simply angels or gods who had seen fit to clothe
+themselves queerly and act human.
+
+Supper over, she felt immensely tired. All the strain of the past three
+weeks had to have its reaction. Like a very tired, sleepy child, she was
+led to a room in another part of the building, where she was shown an
+ordinary sleeping-cot. She promptly pulled the mattress onto the floor,
+where she considered it belonged, and fell fast asleep.
+
+Meanwhile, back on the earth, Van Emmon and Smith had lost no time in
+making use of the doctor's description of the twelve. Within a few
+minutes they had new agents; Van Emmon used Somat's eyes and ears, while
+Smith got in touch with the elderly bearded man at the head of the
+table. His name was Deltos.
+
+"A very striking confirmation of the old legends," he was saying through
+a big yawn, as Smith made connection. He used a colloquial type of
+language, quite different from the lofty, dignified speech of the
+Sanusians. "That is, of course, if the woman is telling the truth."
+
+"And I think she is," declared the young fellow at the foot of the
+table. "It makes me feel pretty small, to think that none of us ever had
+the nerve to make the trip; while she, ignorant as she is, dared it all
+and succeeded!"
+
+"You forget, Sorplee," reminded Somat, "that such people are far hardier
+than we. The feat is one that requires apelike ability. The only thing
+that puzzled me is--why did she do it at all?"
+
+"It will have to remain a puzzle until she awakens," said Deltos, rising
+from the table. "Lucky for us, Somat, that you saw fit to study the root
+tongues. Otherwise we'd have to converse by signs."
+
+Neither Smith nor Van Emmon learned anything further that night. The
+twelve were all very tired, apparently, and went right to bed; a
+procedure which was straightway seconded by the four watchers on the
+earth. Which brings us in the most ordinary manner to the events of the
+next day.
+
+After breakfast all but Somat left the place and disappeared in various
+directions; and Rolla noted that the robes were, evidently, worn only at
+meal time. Most of the men were now dressed in rough working garments,
+similar to what one sees in modern factories. Whimsical sort of gods,
+Rolla told herself, but gods just the same.
+
+"Tell me," began Somat, as the woman sat on the floor before him--he
+could not get her to use a chair--"tell me, what caused thee to leave
+thy side of the world? Did ye arouse the wrath of thy fellow creatures?"
+
+"Nay," answered Rolla, and proceeded to explain, in the wrong order, as
+a child might, by relating first the crossing of the ridge, the flight
+from the bees, the "masters'" cruel method of dealing with Corrus and
+Dulnop, and finally the matter of the fire itself, the real cause of the
+whole affair. Somat was intelligent enough to fill in such details as
+Rolla omitted.
+
+"Ye did right, and acted like the brave girl ye are!" he exclaimed, when
+Rolla had finished. However, he did not fully appreciate what she had
+meant by "the winged masters," and not until she pointed out some bees
+and asked if, on this part of the planet, such were the rulers of the
+humans, that the man grasped the bitter irony of it all.
+
+"What! Those tiny insects rule thy lives!" It took him some time to
+comprehend the deadly nature of their stings, and the irresistible power
+of concerted effort; but in the end he commented: "Tis not so strange,
+now that I think on it. Mayhap life is only a matter of chance, anyway."
+
+Presently he felt that he understood the Sanusian situation. He fell
+silent; and Rolla, after waiting as long as her patience would allow,
+finally put the question temporarily uppermost in her mind:
+
+"It is true that I have crossed the edge of the world. And yet, I
+understand it not at all. Can ye explain the nature of this strange
+world we live upon, Somat?" There was infinite respect in the way Rolla
+used his name; had she known a word to indicate human infallibility,
+such as "your majesty," she would have used it. "There is a saying among
+our people that the world be round. How can this be so?"
+
+"Yet it is true," answered Somat, "although ye must know that it be not
+round like a fruit or a pebble. No more is it flat, like this,"
+indicating the lid of the stove, near which they sat. "Instead, 'tis
+shaped thus"--and he took from his finger a plain gold band, like an
+ordinary wedding ring--"the world is shaped like that!"
+
+Rolla examined the ring with vast curiosity. She had never seen the like
+before, and was quite as much interested in the metal as in the thing it
+illustrated. Fortunately the band was so worn that both edges were
+nearly sharp, thus corresponding with the knifelike ridge over which she
+had crawled.
+
+"Now," Somat went on, "ye and your people live on the inner face of the
+world," indicating the surface next his skin, "while I and my kind live
+on the outer face. Were it not for the difficulties of making the trip,
+we should have found you out ere this."
+
+Rolla sat for a long time with the ring in her hand, pondering the great
+fact she had just learned. And meanwhile, back on the earth, four
+excited citizens were discussing this latest discovery.
+
+"An annular world!" exclaimed the doctor, his eyes sparkling
+delightedly. "It confirms the nebular hypothesis!"
+
+"How so?" Smith wanted to know.
+
+"Because it proves that the process of condensation and concentration,
+which produces planets out of the original gases, can take place at
+uneven speeds! Instead of concentrating to the globular form, Sanus
+cooled too quickly; she concentrated while she was still a ring!"
+
+Smith was struck with another phase of the matter. "Must have a queer
+sort of gravitation," he pointed out. "Seems to be the same, inside the
+ring or outside. Surely, doc it can't be as powerful as it is here on
+the earth?"
+
+"No; not likely."
+
+"Then, why hasn't it made a difference in the inhabitants? Seems to me
+the humans would have different structure."
+
+"Not necessarily. Look at it the other way around; consider what an
+enormous variety of animal forms we have here, all developed under the
+same conditions. The humming-bird and the python, for instance.
+Gravitation needn't have anything to do with it."
+
+Billie was thinking mainly of the question of day and night. "The ring
+must be inclined at an angle with the sun's rays," she observed. "That
+being the case, Sanus has two periods each year when there is continuous
+darkness on the inner face; might last a week or two. Do you suppose the
+people all hibernate during those seasons?"
+
+But no one had an answer to that.
+
+Van Emmon said he would give all he was worth to explore the Sanusian
+mountains long enough to learn their geology. He said that the rocks
+ought to produce some new mineral forms, due to the peculiar condition
+of strain they would be subjected to.
+
+"I'm not sure," said he thoughtfully, "but I shouldn't be surprised if
+there's an enormous amount of carbon there. Maybe diamonds are as
+plentiful as coal is here."
+
+At the word "diamonds" Smith glanced covertly at Billie's left hand. But
+she had hidden it in the folds of her skirt. Next moment the doctor
+warned them to be quiet; Somat and Rolla were talking again.
+
+He was telling her about his world. She learned that his people, who had
+never concerned themselves with her side of the planet, had progressed
+enormously beyond the Sanusians. Rolla did not understand all that he
+told her; but the people on the earth gathered, in one way or another,
+that civilization had proceeded about as far as that of the year 1915 in
+Europe. All this, while fellow humans only a few thousand miles away,
+not only failed to make any progress at all, but lived on, century after
+century, the absolute slave of a race of bees!
+
+But it was a fact. The ancient city in which Rolla found herself had
+been, only a generation before, a flourishing metropolis, the capital of
+a powerful nation. There had been two such nations on that side of the
+planet, and the most violent rivalry had existed between them.
+
+"However," Somat told Rolla, "'twas not this rivalry which wrought their
+downfall, except indirectly. The last great war between them was
+terrible, but not disastrous. Either could have survived that.
+
+"But know you that the ruler of one of the nations, in order to carry on
+this war--which was a war of commerce (never mind what that means)--in
+order to carry it on was obliged to make great concessions to his
+people. In the other nation, the ruler oppressed the workers, instead,
+and drove them mad with his cruelty. So that, not long after the end of
+the war, there was a great rebellion among the people who had been so
+long oppressed, and their government was overthrown."
+
+Back on the earth the four investigators reflected on this in amazement.
+The case was wonderfully like that of Russia after the great war.
+Perhaps--
+
+"Immediately the other nation forced its soldiers to fight the
+victorious rebels. But at home the workers had tasted of power. Many
+refused to work at all; and one day, behold, there were two rebellions
+instead of one! And within a very short time the whole world was
+governed by--the working class!"
+
+So this was what the Venusians had meant when they wrote that Sanus was
+ruled by the workers!
+
+"What became of these rebellions?" Rolla asked, little understanding
+what it meant, but curious anyhow.
+
+"Devastation!" stated Somat solemnly. He waved a hand, to include all
+that lay within the ruined city. "Not altogether because of the workers,
+although they were scarcely fit for ruling but because the former rulers
+and others of that kind, who liked to oppose their wills upon others,
+saw fit to start a fresh rebellion. Conflict followed conflict;
+sometimes workers were in power, and sometimes aristocrats. But the
+fighting ended not until"--he drew a deep breath--"until there were none
+left to fight!"
+
+"Ye mean," demanded Rolla incredulously, "that your people killed
+themselves off in this fashion?"
+
+Aye," sorrowfully. "There were a few of us--they called us 'the middle
+class'--who urged equality. We wanted a government in which all classes
+were represented fairly; what we called a democracy. Once the experiment
+was started, but it failed.
+
+"Saw ye the skeletons in the streets?" he went on." 'Twas a dreadful
+sight, those last few days. I were but a lad, yet I remember it all too
+well." He paused, then broke out fiercely: "I tell ye that I saw brother
+slay brother, father slay son, son slay mother, in those last days!
+
+"Lucky am I that I fled, I and my parents! They took me to a mountainous
+country, but even there the madness spread, and one day a soldier of the
+army killed my father and my mother. He sought me, also, that he might
+slay me; but I hid from him beneath a heap of manure. Aye," he gritted
+savagely, "I owe my life to a pile of manure!
+
+"These other eleven men all have like tales to tell. Only one woman
+survived those awful days. Young Sorplee is her son; his father was a
+soldier, whom she herself slew with her own hands. Even she is now dead.
+
+"Well," he finished, after a long pause, "when the madness had spent
+itself, we who remained came from our hiding-places to find our world
+laid waste. 'Tis now thirty years since Sorplee's mother died, since we
+first looked upon these ruins, and we have made barely a beginning. We
+have little heart for the work. Of what use is it, with no women to
+start the race afresh?"
+
+Rolla started despite herself. Was this the reason why she, despite her
+savagery, had been made so welcome?
+
+"Ye have not told me," said she hurriedly, "why ye and the others all
+wear such curious garments when ye eat."
+
+Somat was taken off his guard. He had been chuckling to himself at the
+woman's childlike mind. Now he had to look apologetic and not a little
+sheepish as he made reply:
+
+"The robes are a mere custom. It were started a great many years ago, by
+the founders of a--a--" He tried to think of a simpler expression than
+"college fraternity." "A clan," he decided. "All of we men were members
+of that clan."
+
+"And," pursued Rolla, "will ye give me the magic stone, that I may take
+the flowing blossoms back to my people, and release my loved one from
+the masters' cruelty?"
+
+The great question was put! Rolla waited in tremulous anxiety for the
+answer.
+
+"Aye, stranger!" replied Somat vigorously. "More; ye shall have some of
+the little sticks!"
+
+Whereupon Rolla leaped to her feet and danced in sheer delight. Somat
+looked on and marveled. Then, abruptly, he got up and marched away. He
+had not seen a woman in thirty years; and he was a man of principle.
+
+That night, when the twelve were again seated at the table, Somat
+related this conversation with Rolla. Since he used his own language, of
+course she did not understand what was said. "And I told her," he
+concluded, "how we came to be here; also the reason for the condition of
+things. But I doubt if she understood half what I said. We have quite a
+problem before us," he added. "What shall we do about it?"
+
+"You mean this woman?" Deltos asked. Rolla was busy with her food. "It
+seems to me, brothers, that Providence has miraculously come to our aid.
+If we can handle her people rightly the future of the race is assured."
+
+Somat thought it was simple enough. "All we need to do is send this
+woman back with a supply of matches, and implicit instructions as to how
+best to proceed against the bees. Once released, their friends can make
+their way over the edge and settle among us. Let the bees keep their
+country."
+
+The two who had seconded him before again showed agreement. Sorplee and
+Deltos, however, together with the other seven, were distinctly opposed
+to the method.
+
+"Somat," protested Deltos, as though surprised, "you forget that there's
+an enormous population over there. Let them come in of their own free
+will? Why, they would overrun our country! What would become of us?"
+
+"We'd have to take our chances, replied Somat energetically, "like good
+sports! If we can't demonstrate our worth to them, enough to hold their
+respect, we'd deserve to be snowed under!"
+
+"Not while I'm alive!" snarled Sorplee. "If they come here, they've got
+to give up their wilderness ways, right off! We can't stand savagery!
+The safest thing for us, and the best for them, is to make an industrial
+army of 'em and set 'em to work!" His enthusiasm was boundless.
+
+"I must say," admitted Deltos, with his usual dignity, "that you have
+the right idea, Sorplee. If I had stated it, however, I should have been
+more frank about it. The arrangements you propose simply means that we
+are to take possession of them!"
+
+"What!" shouted Somat, horrified.
+
+"Why, of course! Make slaves of them! What else?"
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+THE SLAVE RAID
+
+
+Despite all that Somat and his two backers could say, the other nine men
+swiftly agreed upon the thing Deltos had proposed. Somat went so far as
+to declare that he would warn Rolla; but he was instantly given to
+understand that any such move would be disastrous to himself. In the end
+he was made to agree not to tell her.
+
+"We aren't going to let you and your idealism spoil our only chance to
+save the race!" Sorplee told him pugnaciously; and Somat gave his word.
+At first he hoped that the nine might fall out among themselves when it
+came to actually enslaving the Sanusians; but he soon concluded that, if
+there was any difference of opinion, the aristocratic element would take
+charge of half the captives, while Sorplee's friends commandeered the
+rest. The outlook was pretty black for Rolla's friends; yet there was
+nothing whatever to do about it.
+
+Among the four people on the earth, however, the thing was being
+discussed even more hotly. Van Emmon found himself enthusiastically
+backing Somat, the liberal-minded one.
+
+"He's got the right idea," declared the geologist. "Let the Sanusians
+come over of their own free will! Let the law of competition show what
+it can do! Dandy experiment!"
+
+Smith could not help but put in: "Perhaps it's Deltos and Sorplee who
+are right, Van. These Sanusians are mere aborigines. They wouldn't
+understand democratic methods."
+
+"No?" politely, from the doctor. "Now, from what I've seen of Rolla,
+I'll say she's a perfect example of 'live-and-let-live.' Nothing either
+subservient or autocratic in her relations with other people. Genuinely
+democratic, Smith."
+
+"Meanwhile," remarked Billie, with exaggerated nonchalance, "meanwhile,
+what about the bees? Are they going to be permitted to show their
+superiority or not?"
+
+Van Emmon took this to be aimed at him. "Of course not! We can't allow a
+race of human beings to be dominated forever by insects!
+
+"I say, let's get together and put Rolla wise to what Deltos and Sorplee
+are framing up! We can do it, if we concentrate upon the same thought at
+the right time!"
+
+Smith did not commit himself. "I don't care much either way," he
+decided. "Go ahead if you want to"--meaning Van Emmon and the doctor--"I
+don't want to butt in."
+
+"Don't need you," growled the geologist. "Two of us is enough."
+
+"Is that so?" sarcastically, from Billie. "Well, it'll take more than
+two of you to get it over to Rolla!"
+
+"What do you mean?" hotly.
+
+"I mean," with deliberation,--"that if you and the doctor try to
+interfere I'll break up our circle here!" They stared at her
+incredulously. "I sure will! I'm not going to lend my mental influence
+for any such purpose!"
+
+"My dear," protested the doctor gently, "you know how it is: the
+combined efforts of the four of us is required in order to keep in touch
+with Sanus. Surely you would not--"
+
+"Oh, yes, I would!" Billie was earnestness itself. "Mr. Van Emmon was so
+good as to blame me for what I did in that Capellette mix-up; now, if
+you please, I'm going to see to it that this one, anyhow, works itself
+out without our interference!
+
+"Well, I'll be darned!" The geologist looked again, to make sure it was
+really his wife who had been talking thus. "I'm mighty glad to know that
+you're not intending to warn Supreme, anyhow!"
+
+"Maybe I shall! snapped Billie.
+
+"If you do," stated the doctor quietly, "then I'll break the circle
+myself." They looked at him with a renewal of their former respect as he
+concluded emphatically: "If you won't help us stop this slave raid,
+Billie, then, by George, you'll at least let the bees fight it out on
+their own!"
+
+And so the matter stood, so far as the investigators were concerned.
+They were to be lookers-on, nothing more.
+
+Meanwhile the survivors of a once great civilization prepared to move in
+person against the bees. They did this after Deltos had pointed out the
+advantages of such a step.
+
+"If we rout the bees ourselves," said he, "the natives will regard us as
+their saviors, and we shall have no trouble with them afterward."
+
+This was sound policy; even Somat had to admit it. He had decided to be
+a member of the expedition, for the reason that Rolla flatly refused to
+accompany the other men unless he, her special god, went along. His two
+liberal-minded friends stayed behind to take care of their belongings in
+the ruined city.
+
+The expedition was a simple one. It consisted of a single large auto
+truck and trailer, the only items of automotive machinery that the
+twelve had been able to reconstruct from the ruins. However, these
+served the purpose; they carried large supplies of food, also means for
+protection against the bees, together with abundant material for routing
+them. A large quantity of crude explosives also was included. The
+trailer was large enough to seat everybody; and the ten men of the party
+had a good deal of amusement watching Rolla as she tried to get
+accustomed to that land of travel. She was glad enough when the end of
+the road was reached and the truck began to push its way into the
+wilderness, giving her an excuse to walk.
+
+No need to describe the trip in detail. Within three days the truck was
+as far as it could go up the rock wall of the "edge." The point selected
+was about twenty miles west of where Cunora was hid, and directly
+opposite the upper end of her home valley. No attempt was made to go
+over the top as Rolla had done; instead, about two miles below the ridge
+a crevasse was located in the granite; and by means of some two tons of
+powder a narrow opening was made through to the other side. Through it
+the men carried their supplies on their backs, transferring everything
+to improvised sleds, a hundred pounds to a man.
+
+While this was being done, Rolla hurried east and located Cunora. The
+girl was in a pitiful condition from lack of proper food, and
+comparative confinement and constant strain. But during Rolla's absence
+she had seen none of the bees.
+
+"What are you going to do now?" she asked Rolla, after the explorer had
+told her story.
+
+Rolla shrugged her shoulders indifferently. "These gods," she declared
+with sublime confidence, "can do no wrong! Whatever they propose must be
+for the best! I have done my part; now it is all in the hands of the
+Flowing Blossom!"
+
+Not until they reached the head of the valley which had been her home
+did Rolla ask Somat as to the plan. He answered:
+
+"Ye and the other woman shall stay here with me, on this hill." He
+produced a telescope. "We will watch with this eye-tube. The other nine
+men will go ahead and do the work."
+
+"And will they separate?"
+
+"Nay. They intend to conquer this colony first; then, after your people
+are freed and safely on the way to my country, the conquerors will
+proceed to the next valley, and so on until all are released." He kept
+his word not to warn Rolla of the proposed captivity. "In that way the
+fear of them will go ahead and make their way easy."
+
+Meanwhile the nine were getting ready for their unprecedented conquest.
+They put on heavy leather clothes, also leather caps, gloves and boots.
+Around their faces were stiff wire nets, such as annoyed them all
+exceedingly and would have maddened Cunora or Rolla. But it meant
+safety.
+
+As for weapons, they relied entirely upon fire. Each man carried a
+little wood alcohol in a flask, in case it was necessary to burn wet or
+green wood. Otherwise, their equipment was matches, with an emergency
+set of flint and steel as well. There could be no resisting them.
+
+"We'll wait here till we've seen that you've succeeded," Somat told
+Deltos and Sorplee. "Then we'll follow."
+
+The nine left the hills. The hours passed with Rolla and Cunora amusing
+themselves at the "eye-tube." They could see the very spot where their
+lovers were being punished; but some intervening bushes prevented seeing
+the men themselves. The other villagers were at work quite as usual; so
+it was plain that, although the bees were invisible, yet they were still
+the masters.
+
+Hardly had the nine reached the first low-growing brush before they
+encountered some of the bees. None attempted to attack, but turned about
+and flew back to report. It was not long before Supreme, and therefore
+Billie, knew of the approaching raiders.
+
+"They are doubtless provided with the magic flower," Supreme told her
+lieutenants. "You will watch the blossom as it sways in the wind, and
+keep always on the windward side of it. In this way you can attack the
+inferiors."
+
+The word was passed, bee-fashion, until every soldier and worker in the
+colony knew her duty. The stingers were to keep back and watch their
+chance, while the workers harassed the attackers. Moreover, with the
+hives always uppermost in her mind, Supreme planned to keep the actual
+conflict always at a distance from the "city."
+
+It was late in the day when the nine reached the stream in whose bed
+rested the pyrites taken from Corrus and Dulnop. This stream, it will be
+remembered, flowed not far from the torture-place. Deltos's plan was to
+rescue these two men before doing anything else; this, because it would
+strengthen the villagers' regard for the conquerors.
+
+The bees seemed to sense this. They met the invaders about three miles
+above the village, in an open spot easily seen by the people with the
+telescope. And the encounter took place during twilight, just early
+enough to be visible from a distance, yet late enough to make the fire
+very impressive.
+
+"Remember, it's the smoke as much as the flame," Deltos shouted to the
+others. "Just keep your torches on the move, and make as much fuss as
+you can!"
+
+Next moment the swarm was upon them. It was like a vast cloud of soot;
+only, the buzzing of those millions of wings fairly drowned out every
+other sound. The nine had to signal to one another; shouting was
+useless.
+
+Within a single minute the ground was covered with bees, either dead or
+insensible from the smoke. Yet the others never faltered. At times the
+insects battered against the wire netting with such force, and in such
+numbers, that the men had to fight them away in order to get enough air.
+
+Supreme watched from above, and kept sending her lieutenants with fresh
+divisions to first one man and then another, as he became separated from
+the rest. Of course, nobody suffered but the bees. Never before had they
+swarmed a creature which did not succumb; but these inferiors with the
+queer things over their faces, and the cows' hides over their bodies and
+hands, seemed to care not at all. Supreme was puzzled.
+
+"Keep it up," she ordered. "They surely cannot stand it much longer."
+
+"It shall be done!"
+
+And the bees were driven in upon the men, again and again. Always the
+torches were kept waving, so that the insects never could tell just
+where to attack. Always the men kept moving steadily down-stream; and as
+they marched they left in their wake a black path of dead and dying
+bees. Half of them had been soldier bees, carrying enough poison in
+their stings to destroy a nation. Yet, nine little matches were too much
+for them!
+
+Presently the invaders had approached to within a half-mile of the
+torture-place. One of Supreme's lieutenants made a suggestion:
+
+"Had we not better destroy the men, rather than let them be rescued?"
+
+The commandant considered this fully. "No," she decided. "To kill them
+would merely enrage the other villagers, and perhaps anger them so much
+as to make them unmanageable." More than once a human had been driven so
+frantic as to utterly disregard orders. "We cannot slay them all."
+
+The bees attacked with unabated fury. Not once did the insects falter;
+orders were orders, and always had been. What mattered it if death came
+to them, so long as the Hive lived? For that is bee philosophy.
+
+And then, just when it seemed that the wisest thing would be to
+withdraw, Supreme got the greatest idea she had ever had. For once she
+felt positively enthusiastic. Had she been a human she would have yelled
+aloud for sheer joy.
+
+"Attention!" to her subordinates. "We attack no more! Instead, go into
+the huts and drive all the inferiors here! Compel them to bring their
+tools! Kill all that refuse!"
+
+The lieutenants only dimly grasped the idea. "What shall we do when we
+get them here?"
+
+"Do? Drive them against the invaders, of course!"
+
+It was a daring thought. None but a super bee could have conceived it.
+Off flew the lieutenants, with Supreme's inspired order humming after
+them:
+
+"Call out every bee! And drive every last one of the inferiors to this
+spot!"
+
+And thus it came about that, a minute later, the nine looked around to
+see the bees making off at top speed. Sorplee raised a cheer.
+
+"Hurrah!" he shouted, and the rest took it up. Neither admitted that he
+was vastly relieved; it had been a little nerve-shaking to know that a
+single thickness of leather had been all that stood, for an hour,
+between him and certain death. The buzzing, too, was demoralizing.
+
+"Now, to release the two men!" reminded Deltos, and led the way to the
+torture-place. They found Corrus and Dulnop exactly as the two women had
+left them six weeks before, except that their faces were drawn with the
+agony of what they had endured. Below the surface of the ground their
+bodies had shriveled and whitened with their daily imprisonment. Only
+their spirits remained unchanged; they, of all the natives, had known
+what it was to feel superior.
+
+For the last time they were dug out and helped to their feet. They could
+not stand by themselves, much less run; but it is not likely they would
+have fled. Somehow they knew that the strange head-coverings had human
+faces be hind them. And scarcely had they been freed before Sorplee,
+glancing about, gave an exclamation of delight as he saw a group of
+natives running toward them.
+
+"Just what we want!" he exclaimed. "They've seen the scrap, and realize
+that we've won!"
+
+Looking around, the nine could see the other groups likewise hurrying
+their way. All told, there were a couple of hundred of the villagers,
+and all were armed with tools they knew how to use very well.
+
+"Who shall do the honors?" asked Sorplee. "Wish Somat was here, to
+explain for us."
+
+"Don't need him," reminded Deltos. "All we've got to do is to show these
+two fellows we dug up."
+
+And it was not until the first of the villagers was within twenty yards
+that the nine suspected anything. Then they heard the buzzing. Looking
+closer, they saw that it was--an attack!
+
+"Stop!" cried Deltos, in swift panic. "We are friends, not enemies!"
+
+It was like talking to the wind. The villagers had their choice of two
+fears: either fight the strangers with the magic flower, or--be stung to
+death. And no one can blame them for what they chose.
+
+The nine had time enough to snatch knives or hatchets from their belts,
+or clubs from the ground. Then, with wild cries of fear, the natives
+closed in. They fought as only desperate people can fight, caught
+between two fires. And they were two hundred to nine!
+
+In half a minute the first of the invaders was down, his head crushed by
+a mattock in the hands of a bee-tormented native. In a single minute all
+were gone but two; and a moment later, Deltos alone, because he had
+chanced to secure a long club, was alive of all that crew.
+
+For a minute he kept them off by sheer strength. He swung the stick with
+such vigor that he fairly cleared a circle for himself. The natives
+paused, howling and shrieking, before the final rush.
+
+An inspiration came to Deltos. He tore his cap from his head and his net
+from his face.
+
+"Look!" he screamed, above the uproar. "I am a man, like yourselves! Do
+not kill!"
+
+Next second he froze in his tracks. The next he was writhing in the
+death agony, and the bees were supreme once.
+
+Supreme herself had stung Deltos.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+OVERLOOKED
+
+
+Of the four on the earth, Smith was the first to make any comment. He
+had considerable difficulty in throwing his thought to the others;
+somehow he felt slightly dazed.
+
+"This is--unbelievable!" he said, and repeated it twice. "To think that
+those insects are still the masters!"
+
+"I wish"--Billie's voice shook somewhat--"I wish almost that I had let
+you warn Rolla. It might have helped--" She broke off suddenly, intent
+upon something Supreme was hearing. "Just listen!"
+
+"Quick!" a lieutenant was humming excitedly to the commandant. "Back to
+the hives; give the order, Supreme!"
+
+It was done, and immediately the bees quit the throng of natives and
+their victims, rushing at top speed for their precious city. As they
+went, Supreme demanded an explanation.
+
+"What is the meaning of this?"
+
+For answer the lieutenant pointed her antennae straight ahead. At first
+Supreme could see nothing in the growing darkness; then she saw that
+some of the sky was blacker than the rest. Next she caught a faint glow.
+
+"Supreme, the deadly flower has come to the hives!"
+
+It was true! In ten minutes the city was near enough for the commandant
+to see it all very clearly. The fire had started on the windward side,
+and already had swept through half the hives!
+
+"Quick!" the order was snapped out. "Into the remaining houses, and save
+the young!"
+
+She herself led the horde. Straight into the face of the flames they
+flew, unquestioningly, unhesitantly. What self, compared with the Hive?
+
+Next moment, like a mammoth billow, the smoke rolled down upon them all.
+And thus it came about that the villagers, making their cautious way
+toward the bee city, shouted for joy and danced as they had never danced
+before, when they saw what had happened.
+
+Not a bee was left alive. Every egg and larva was destroyed; every queen
+was burned. And every last soldier and worker had lost her life in the
+vain attempt at rescue.
+
+Suddenly one of the villagers, who had been helping to carry Corrus and
+Dulnop to the spot, pointed out something on the other side of the fire!
+It was Rolla!
+
+"Hail!" she shouted, hysterical with happiness as she ran toward her
+people. Cunora was close upon her heels. "Hail to the flowing flower!"
+
+She held up a torch. Down fell the villagers to their knees. Rolla
+strode forward and found Corrus, even as Cunora located her Dulnop.
+
+"Hail to the flowing flower!" shouted Rolla again. "And hail to the free
+people of this world! A new day cometh for us all! The masters--are no
+more!"
+
+The four on the earth looked at each other inquiringly. There was a
+heavy silence. The doctor stood it as long as he could, and then said:
+
+"So far as I'm concerned, this ends our investigations." They stared at
+him uncomprehendingly; he went on: "I don't see anything to be gained by
+this type of study. Here we've investigated the conditions on two
+planets pretty thoroughly, and yet we can't agree upon what we've
+learned!
+
+"Van still thinks that the upper classes should rule, despite all the
+misery we saw on Capellette! And Billie is still convinced that the
+working classes, and no others, should govern! This, in the face of what
+we've just--seen! Sanus is absolute proof of what must happen when one
+class tries to rule; conflict, bloodshed, misery--little else! Besides"
+--remembering something, and glancing at his watch--"besides, it's time
+for dinner."
+
+He and Smith got to their feet, and in silence quit the room. Billie and
+Van Emmon were still fumbling with their bracelets. The two young people
+rose from the chairs at the same time and started across the room to put
+flip bracelets away. The wire which connected them trailed in between
+and caught on the doctor's chair. It brought the two of them up short.
+
+Van Emmon stared at the wire. He gave it a little tug. The chair did not
+move. Billie gave an answering jerk, with similar lack of results. Then
+they glanced swiftly at one another, and each stepped back enough to
+permit lifting the wire over the chair.
+
+"In other words," Van Emmon stammered, with an effort to keep his voice
+steady--"in other words, Billie, we both had to give in a little, in
+order to get past that chair!"
+
+Then he paused slightly, his heart pounding furiously.
+
+"Yes Van." She dropped the bracelets. "And--as for me--Van, I didn't
+really want to see the bees win! I only pretended to--I wanted to make
+you--think!"
+
+"Billie! I'll say 'cooperate' if you will!"
+
+"Cooperate!"
+
+He swept her into his arms, and held her so close that she could not see
+what had rushed to his eyes. "Speaking of cooperation," he remarked
+unsteadily, "reminds me--it takes two to make a kiss!"
+
+They proceeded to experiment.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Emancipatrix, by Homer Eon Flint
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EMANCIPATRIX ***
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