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 all parts of Sanus showed the

same condition of bee supremacy and human servitude. The spot in

question was quite typical of all 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 caus'ed them to bloom, too!"

Cunora was eying 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 straighway 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 spoke 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.