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 was 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. Holla
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."
Billie 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.