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.