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diff --git a/27248-h/27248-h.htm b/27248-h/27248-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..07a57da --- /dev/null +++ b/27248-h/27248-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5957 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Raid on the Termites, by Paul Ernst + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + h1,h2 {font-weight: normal;} + h2 {line-height: 2em; font-size: large;} + hr {width: 45%; margin: 1em auto; clear: both; visibility: hidden;} + .tb {width: 65%; margin: 2em auto;} + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .center,.bk1,.figc,h1,h2 {text-align: center;} + .figc {margin: 0 auto; width: 650px;} + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin: 15px; padding: 0; width: 140px;} + .trn {border: solid 1px; margin: 3em 15%; min-height: 230px;} + .trn p {margin: 15px;} + img {border: none;} + a:link,a:visited {text-decoration: none;} + p.cap:first-letter {float: left; margin-right: .05em; padding-top: .05em; font-size: 300%; line-height: .8em;} + .dcap {text-transform: uppercase;} + .bk1 {width: 13em; margin: 2em auto 4em; padding: .75em; border: solid 2px;} +// --> +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Raid on the Termites, by Paul Ernst + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Raid on the Termites + +Author: Paul Ernst + +Release Date: November 12, 2008 [EBook #27248] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAID ON THE TERMITES *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figc"> +<img src="images/001.png" width="650" height="383" alt="" title="" /> +<i><small>Denny bounded free and again sent the length of his spear into the body.</small></i></div> + +<h1><big>The Raid on the Termites</big></h1> + +<p class="center"><i><big>A Complete Novelette</big></i></p> + +<h2><big>By Paul Ernst</big></h2> + +<div class="bk1"><small>Armed with splinters of steel, two +ant-sized men dare the formidable +mysteries of a termitary.</small></div> + +<h2>CHAPTER I<br /> +<i>The Challenge of the Mound</i></h2> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">It</span> was a curious, somehow +weird-looking thing, that +mound. About a yard in height +and three and a half in diameter, +it squatted in the grassy grove +next the clump of trees like an +enormous, inverted soup plate. Here +and there tufts of grass waved on +it, of a richer, deeper color, testifying +to the unwholesome fertility +of the crumbling outer stuff that +had flaked from the solid mound +walls.</p> + +<p>Like an excrescence on the flank +of Mother Earth herself, the mound +loomed; like an unhealthy, cancerous +growth. And inside the enigmatic +thing was another world. A +dark world, mysterious, horrible, +peopled by blind and terrible demons—a +world like a Dante's dream +of a second Inferno.</p> + +<p>Such, at least, were the thoughts +of Dennis Braymer as he worked +with delicate care at the task of +sawing into the +hard cement of a +portion of the +wall near the +rounded top.</p> + +<p>His eyes, dark brown and rimmed +with thick black lashes, flashed +earnestly behind his glasses as they +concentrated on his difficult job. +His face, lean and tanned, was a +mask of seriousness. To him, obviously, +this was a task of vital +importance; a task worthy of all +a man's ability of brain and logic.</p> + +<p>Obviously also, his companion +thought of the work as just something +with which to fill an idle +afternoon. He +puffed at a pipe, +and regarded the +entomologist +with a smile.</p> + +<p>To Jim Holden, Denny was +simply fussing fruitlessly and +absurdly with an ordinary "ant-hill," +as he persisted in miscalling +a termitary. Playing with bugs, that +was all. Wasting his time poking +into the affairs of termites—and +acting, by George, as though those +affairs were of supreme significance!</p> + +<p>He grinned, and tamped and relighted +the tobacco in his pipe. He +refrained from putting his thoughts +into words, however. He knew, of +old, that Denny was apt to explode +if his beloved work were interrupted +by a careless layman. Besides, +Dennis had brought him here +rather under protest, simply feeling +that it was up to a host to do +a little something or other by way +of trying to amuse an old college +mate who had come for a week's +visit. Since he was there on sufferance, +so to speak, it was up to +him to keep still and not interrupt +Denny's play.</p> + +<p>The saw rasped softly another +time or two, then moved, handled +with surgeon's care, more gently—till +at last a section about as big as +the palm of a man's hand was loose +on the mound-top.</p> + +<p>Denny's eyes snapped. His whole +wiry, tough body quivered. He visibly +held his breath as he prepared +to flip back that sawed section of +curious, strong mound wall.</p> + +<p>He snatched up his glass, overturned +the section.</p> + +<p>Jim drew near to watch, too, +seized in spite of himself by some +of the scientist's almost uncontrollable +excitement.</p> + +<p>Under the raised section turmoil +reigned for a moment. Jim saw a +horde of brownish-white insects, +looking something like ants, dashing +frenziedly this way and that as +the unaccustomed light of sun and +exposure of outer air impinged +upon them. But the turmoil lasted +only a little while.</p> + +<p>Quickly, in perfect order, the termites +retreated. The exposed honeycomb +of cells and runways was deserted. +A slight heaving of earth +told how the insects were blocking +off the entrances to the exposed +floor, and making that floor their +new roof to replace the roof this +invading giant had stripped from +over them.</p> + +<p>In three minutes there wasn't a +sign of life in the hole. The observation—if +one could call so short +a glimpse at so abnormally acting +a colony an observation—was over.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Denny</span> rose to his feet, and +dashed his glass to the +ground. His face was twisted in +lines of utter despair, and through +his clenched teeth the breath whistled +in uneven gasps.</p> + +<p>"My God!" he groaned. "My God—if +only I could see them! If only +I could get in there, and watch +them at their normal living. But it's +always like this. The only glance +we're permitted is at a stampede +following the wrecking of a termitary. +And that tells us no more +about the real natures of the things +than you could tell about the nature +of normal men by watching their +behavior after an earthquake!"</p> + +<p>Jim Holden tapped out his pipe. +On his face the impatiently humorous +look gave place to a measure of +sympathy. Good old Denny. How +he took these trivial disappointments +to heart. But, how odd that +any man could get so worked up +over such small affairs! These bugologists +were queer people.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," he said, half really +to soothe Denny, half deliberately +to draw him out, "why get all +boiled up about the contrariness of +ordinary little bugs?"</p> + +<p>Denny rose to the bait at once. +"Ordinary little bugs? If you +knew what you were talking about, +you wouldn't dismiss the termite +so casually! These 'ordinary little +bugs' are the most intelligent, the +most significant and highly organized +of all the insect world.</p> + +<p>"Highly organized?" he repeated +himself, his voice deepening. +"They're like a race of intelligent +beings from another planet—superior +even to Man, in some ways. +They have a king and queen. They +have 'soldiers,' developed from +helpless, squashy things into nightmare +creations with lobster-claw +mandibles longer than the rest of +their bodies put together. They +have workers, who bore the tunnels +and build the mounds. And +they have winged ones from among +which are picked new kings and +queens to replace the original when +they get old and useless. And all +these varied forms, Jim, they hatch +at will, through some marvelous +power of selection, from the same, +identical kind of eggs. Now, I ask +you, could you take the unborn +child and make it into a man with +four arms or a woman with six legs +and wings, at will, as these insects, +in effect, do with theirs?"</p> + +<p>"I never tried," said Jim.</p> + +<p>"Just a soft, helpless, squashy +little bug, to begin with," Denny +went on, ignoring his friend's levity. +"Able to live only in warm +countries—yet dying when exposed +directly to the sun. Requiring +a very moist atmosphere, yet exiled +to places where it doesn't rain for +months at a time. And still, under +circumstances harsher even than +those Man has had to struggle +against, they have survived and +multiplied."</p> + +<p>"Bah, bugs," murmured Jim +maddeningly.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">But</span> again Denny ignored him, +and went on with speculations +concerning the subject that was +his life passion. He was really +thinking aloud, now; the irreverent +Holden was for the moment nonexistent.</p> + +<p>"And the something, the unknown +intelligence, that seems to +rule each termitary! The something +that seems able to combine +oxygen from the air with hydrogen +from the wood they eat and +make necessary moisture; the something +that directs all the blind subjects +in their marvelous underground +architecture; the something +that, at will, hatches a dozen different +kinds of beings from the +common stock of eggs—what can it +be? A sort of super-termite? A +super-intellect set in the minute +head of an insect, yet equal to the +best brains of mankind? We'll +probably never know, for, whatever +the unknown intelligence is, it +lurks in the foundations of the +termitaries, yards beneath the surface, +where we cannot penetrate +without blowing up the whole +mound—and at the same time destroying +all the inhabitants."</p> + +<p>Jim helped Denny gather up his +scientific apparatus. They started +across the fields toward Denny's +roadster, several hundred yards +away—Jim, blond and bulking, a +hundred and ninety pounds of +hardy muscle and bone; Denny wiry +and slender, dark-eyed and dark-haired. +The sledge-hammer and the +rapier; the human bull, and the +human panther; the one a student +kept fit by outdoor studies, and the +other a careless, rich young time-killer +groomed to the pink by the +big-game hunting and South Sea +sailing and other adventurous ways +of living he preferred.</p> + +<p>"This stuff is all very interesting," +he said perfunctorily, "but +what has it to do with practical +living? How will the study of bugs, +no matter how remarkable the bug, +be of benefit to the average man? +What I mean is, your burning zeal—your +really bitter disappointment +a minute ago—seem a bit out of +place. A bit—well, exaggerated +don't you know."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Denny</span> halted; and Jim, perforce, +stopped, too. Denny's +dark eyes burned into Jim's blue +ones.</p> + +<p>"How does it affect practical living? +You, who have been in the +tropics many times on your lion-spearing +and snake-hunting jaunts, +ask such a thing? Haven't you ever +seen the damage these infernal +things can do?"</p> + +<p>Jim shook his head. "I've never +happened to be in termite country, +though I've heard tales about +them."</p> + +<p>"If you've heard stories, you have +at least in idea of their deadliness +when they're allowed to multiply. +You must have heard how they +literally eat up houses and the +furnishings within, how they consume +telegraph poles, railroad ties, +anything wooden within reach. The +termite is a ghastly menace. When +they move in—men eventually move +out! And their appearance here in +California has got many a nationally +famous man half crazy. That's +what they mean to the average person!"</p> + +<p>Jim, scratched his head. "I didn't +think of that angle of it," he +admitted.</p> + +<p>"Well, it's time you thought of +something besides fantastic ways +of risking your life. The termite +has been kept in place, till now, by +only two things: ants, which are its +bitterest enemies, and constantly attack +and hamper its development; +and climatic conditions, which bar +it from the temperate zones. Now +suppose, with all their intelligence +and force of organization—not to +mention that mysterious and terrible +unknown intelligence that +leads them—they find a way to +whip the ants once for all, and to +immunize themselves to climatic +changes? Mankind will probably be +doomed."</p> + +<p>"Gosh," said Jim, with exaggerated +terror.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">"Laugh</span> if you want to," said +Dennis, "but I tell you the +termite is a very real menace. Even +in its present stage of development. +And the maddening thing is that we +can't observe them and so discover +how best to fight them.</p> + +<p>"To get away from the light that +is fatal to them, they build mounds +like that behind us, of silicated, +half-digested wood, which hardens +into a sort of cement that will +turn the cutting edge of steel. If +you pry away some of the wall to +spy on them, you get the fiasco I +was just rewarded with. If you try +to penetrate to the depths of the +mystery, yards underground, by +blowing up the termitary with gun +powder, the only way of getting +to the heart of things—you destroy +the termites. Strays are seldom +seen; in order, again, to avoid light +and air-exposure, they tunnel +underground or build tubes above +ground to every destination. Always +they keep hidden and secret. +Always they work from within, +which is why walls and boards they +have devoured look whole: the +outer shell has been left untouched +and all the core consumed."</p> + +<p>"Can't you get at the beasts in +the laboratory?" asked Jim.</p> + +<p>"No. If you put them into glass +boxes to watch them, they manage +to corrode the glass so it ceases to +be transparent. And they can bore +their way out of any wood, or even +metal, containers you try to keep +them in. The termite seems +destined to remain a gruesome, marvelous, +possibly deadly mystery."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">He</span> laughed abruptly, shrugged +his shoulders, and started toward +the car again.</p> + +<p>"When I get off on my subject, +there's no telling when I'll stop. +But, Jim, I tell you, I'd give years +of my life to be able to do what all +entomologists are wild to do—study +the depths of a termite mound. +God! What wouldn't I give for the +privilege of shrinking to ant-size, +and roaming loose in that secretive-looking +mound behind us!"</p> + +<p>He laughed again, and slapped +Holden's broad back.</p> + +<p>"<i>There</i> would be a thrill for you, +you bored adventurer! There would +be exploration work! A trip to +Mars wouldn't be in it. The nightmare +monsters you would see, the +hideous creations, the cannibalism, +the horrible but efficient slave system +carried on by these blind, intelligent +things in the dark depths +of the subterranean cells! Lions? +Suppose you were suddenly confronted +by a thing as big as a +horse, with fifteen-foot jaws of +steely horn that could slice you in +two and hardly know it! How +would you like that?"</p> + +<p>And now in the other man's eyes +there was a glint, while his face +expressed aroused interest.</p> + +<p>Every man to his own game, +thought Denny curiously, watching +the transformation. He lived for +scientific experiments and observations +having to do with termites. +Holden existed, apparently, only +for the thrill of pitting his brain +and brawn against dangerous beasts, +wild surroundings, or tempestuous +elements. If only their two supreme +interests in life could be combined....</p> + +<p>"How would I like it?" said Jim. +"Denny, old boy, when you can +introduce me to an adventure like +that ..." He waved his arm +violently to complete the sentence. +"What a book of travel it would +make! 'The Raid on the Termites. +Exploring an Insect Hell. Death in +an Ant-hill....'"</p> + +<p>"Termitary! Termitary!" corrected +Denny irritably.</p> + +<p>"Whatever you want to call it," +Jim conceded airily. He dumped the +apparatus he was carrying into the +rear compartment of the roadster. +"But why speak of miracles? Even +if we were sent to a modern hand +laundry, we could hardly be shrunk +to ant-size. Shall we ramble along +home?"</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> +<h2>CHAPTER II<br /> +<i>The Pact</i></h2> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">"What</span> are we going to do +to-night?" asked Jim.</p> + +<p>Dennis looked quizzically at his +big friend. Jim was pacing restlessly +up and down the living room +of the bachelor apartment, puffing +jerkily at his eternal pipe. Dennis +knew the symptoms. Though he +hadn't seen Jim for over a year, +he remembered his characteristics +well enough.</p> + +<p>Some men seem designed only +for action. They are out of step +with the modern era. They should +have lived centuries ago when the +world was more a place of physical, +and less of purely mental, rivalry.</p> + +<p>Jim was of this sort. Each time +he returned from some trip—to Siberia, +the Congo, the mountainous +wilderness of the Caucasus—he was +going to settle down and stop +hopping about the globe from one +little-known and dangerous spot to +another. Each time, in a matter of +weeks, he grew restless again, spoiling +for action. Then came another +impulsive journey.</p> + +<p>He was spoiling for action now. +He didn't really care what happened +that evening, what was +planned. His question was simply +a bored protest at a too tame existence—a +wistful hope that Denny +might lighten his boredom, somehow.</p> + +<p>"What are we going to do to-night?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said Denny solemnly, +"Mrs. Van Raggan is giving a reception +this evening. We might go +there and meet all the Best People. +There is a lecture on the esthetics +of modern art at Philamo Hall. Or +we can see a talkie—"</p> + +<p>"My Lord!" fumed Jim. Then: +"Kidding aside, can't you dig up +something interesting?"</p> + +<p>"Kidding aside," said Dennis, in +a different tone, "I have dug up +something interesting. We're going +to visit a friend of mine, Matthew +Breen. A young man, still unknown, +who, in my opinion, is one of our +greatest physicists. Matt is a kind +of savage, so he may take to you. +If he does—and if he's feeling in a +good humor—he may show you +some laboratory stunts that will afford +you plenty of distraction. +Come along—you're wearing out +my rugs with your infernal pacing +up and down!"</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Matt Breen's</span> place was in +a ratty part of the poorer +outskirts of town; and his laboratory +was housed by what had once +been a barn. But place and surroundings +were forgotten at sight +of the owner's face.</p> + +<p>Huge and gaunt, with unblinking, +frosty gray eyes, looking more like +an arctic explorer than a man of +science, Matt towered over the average +man and carelessly dominated +any assembly by sheer force of +mentality. He even towered a little +over big Jim Holden now, as he +absently shook hands with him.</p> + +<p>"Come in, come in," he said, his +voice vague. And to Denny: "I'm +busy as the devil, but you can +watch over my shoulder if you want +to. Got something new on. Great +thing—though I don't think it'll +have any practical meaning."</p> + +<p>The two padded after him along +a dusty hallway, up a flight of +stairs that was little more than a +ladder, and into the cavernous loft +of the old barn which had been +transformed into a laboratory.</p> + +<p>Jim drew Denny aside a pace or +two. "He says he's got something +new. Isn't he afraid to show it to +a stranger like me?"</p> + +<p>"Afraid? Why should he be?"</p> + +<p>"Well, ideas do get stolen now +and then, you know."</p> + +<p>Denny smiled. "When Matt gets +hold of something new, you can be +sure the discovery isn't a new kind +of can-opener or patent towel-rack +that can be 'stolen.' His ideas are +safe for the simple reason that +there probably aren't more than +four other scientists on earth +capable of even dimly comprehending +them. All you and I can do—whatever +this may turn out to be—is +to watch and marvel."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Matt</span>, meanwhile, had lumbered +with awkward grace to +a great wooden pedestal. Cupping +down over this was a glass bell, +about eight feet high, suspended +from the roof.</p> + +<p>Around the base of the pedestal +was a ring of big lamp-affairs, that +looked like a bank of flood-lights. +The only difference was that where +flood-lights would have had regular +glass lenses to transmit light beams, +these had thin plates of lead across +the openings. Thick copper conduits +branched to each from a big +dynamo.</p> + +<p>Matt reached into a welter of +odds and ends on a bench, and +picked up a tube. Rather like an +ordinary electric light bulb, it +looked, save that there were no +filaments in the thin glass shell. +Where filaments should have been +there was a thin cylinder of bluish-gray +metal.</p> + +<p>"Element number eighty-five," +said Matt in his deep, abstracted +voice, pointing at the bluish cylinder. +"Located it about a year ago. +Last of the missing elements. Does +strange tricks when subjected to +heavy electric current. In each of +those things that look like searchlights +is one of these bulbs."</p> + +<p>He laid down the extra tube, +turned toward a door in the near +wall, then turned back to his silent +guests again. Apparently he felt +they were due a little more enlightenment.</p> + +<p>"Eighty-five isn't nearly as radioactive +as the elements akin to it," +he said. Satisfied that he had now +explained everything, he started +again toward the door.</p> + +<p>As he neared it, Dennis and Jim +heard a throaty growling, and a +vicious scratching on the wooden +panels. And as Matt opened the +door a big mongrel dog leaped savagely +at him!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Calmly</span>, Matt caught the brute +by the throat and held it away +from him at arm's length, seeming +hardly to be aware of its eighty-odd +pounds of struggling weight. +Into Jim's eyes crept a glint of +admiration. It was a feat of +strength as well as of animal management; +and, himself proficient in +both, Jim could accord tribute +where it was due.</p> + +<p>"You came just as I was about +to try an experiment on the highest +form of life I've yet exposed to my +new rays," he said, striding easily +toward the glass bell with the +savage hound. "It's worked all right +with frogs and snakes—but will it +work with more complex creatures? +Mammalian creatures? That's a +question."</p> + +<p>Denny forbore to ask him what +It did, how It worked, what the +devil It was, anyway. From his own +experience he knew that the abstraction +of an experimenter insulates +him from every outside +contact. Matt, he realized, was probably +making a great effort to remain +aware that they were there +in the laboratory at all; probably +thought he had explained in great +detail his new device and its +powers.</p> + +<p>Vaguely wrapped in his fog of +concentration, Matt thrust the +snarling dog under the bell, which +he lowered quickly till it rested on +the pedestal-floor and ringed the +dog with a wall of glass behind +which it barked and growled soundlessly.</p> + +<p>Completely preoccupied again, +Matt went to a big switch and +threw it. The dynamo hummed, +raised its pitch to a high, almost +intolerable keening note. The ring +of pseudo-searchlights seemed in +an ominous sort of way to spring +into life. The impression must have +been entirely imaginary; actually +the projectors didn't move in the +slightest, didn't even vibrate. Yet +the conviction persisted in the +minds of both Jim and Dennis that +some black, invisible force was +pouring down those conduits, to be +sifted, diffused, and hurled through +the lead lenses at the dog in the +bell.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Thrilled</span> to the core, not having +the faintest idea what it +was they were about to see, but +convinced that it must surely be of +stupendous import, the two stared +unwinkingly at the furious hound. +Matt was staring, too; but his +glance was almost casual, and was +concentrated more on the glass of +the bell than on the experimental +object.</p> + +<p>The reason for the direction of +his gaze almost immediately became +apparent. And as the reason was +disclosed, Dennis and Jim exclaimed +aloud in disappointment—at +the same time, so intense was +their nameless suspense, not knowing +they had opened their mouths. +It appeared that for yet a little +while they were to remain in ignorance +of the precise meaning of +the experiment.</p> + +<p>The glass of the bell was clouding. +A swirling, milky vapor, not +unlike fog, was filling the bell from +top to bottom.</p> + +<p>The dog, rapidly being hidden +from sight by the gathering mist, +suddenly stopped its antics and stood +still in the center of the bell as +though overcome by surprise and +indecision. Motionless, staring +vacantly, it stood there for an instant—then +was concealed completely +by the rolling vapor.</p> + +<p>But just before it disappeared, +Jim turned to Denny in astonishment, +to see if Denny had observed +what he had; namely, that the fog +seemed not to be gathering from the +air penned up in the bell, but in +some strange and rather awful way +to be exuding <i>from the body of the +dog itself</i>!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> two stared back at the bell +again, neither one sure he had +been right in his impression. But +now the glass was entirely opaque. +So thick was the vapor within that +it seemed on the point of turning +to a liquid. Inside, swathed in the +secrecy of the fleecy folds of mist—what +was happening to the dog? +The two men could only guess.</p> + +<p>Matt glanced up at an electric +clock with an oversized second +hand. His fingers moved nervously +on the switch, then threw it to cut +contact. The dynamo keened its +dying note. A silence so tense that +it hurt filled the great laboratory.</p> + +<p>All eyes were glued on the bell.</p> + +<p>The thick vapor that had been +swirling and crowding as if to force +itself through the glass, grew less +restive in motion. Then it began to +rise, ever more slowly, toward the +top.</p> + +<p>More and more compactly it +packed itself into the arched glass +dome, the top layers finally resembling +nothing so much as cloudy +beef gelatin. And now these top +layers were solidifying, clinging to +the glass.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the bottom line of +the vapor was slowly rising, an inch +at a time, like a shimmering curtain +being raised from a stage floor. +At last ten inches showed between +the pedestal and the swaying bottom +of the almost liquid vapor. +Jim and Denny stooped to peer +under the blanket of cloud. The +dog! In what way had it been affected?</p> + +<p>Again they exclaimed aloud, involuntarily, +unconsciously.</p> + +<p>There was no dog to be seen.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">With</span> about fourteen clear +inches now exposed, they +looked a second time, more intently. +But their first glance had been +right. The dog was gone from the +bell. Utterly and completely vanished! +Or so, at least, they thought +at the moment.</p> + +<p>The rising and solidifying process +of the vapor went on, while +Dennis and Jim stood, almost incapable +of movement, and watched +to see what Breen was going to do +next.</p> + +<p>His next move came in about +four minutes, when the crowding +vapor had at last completely come +to rest at the top of the dome like +a deposit of opaque jelly. He +stepped to the windlass that raised +the bell, and turned the handle.</p> + +<p>Immediately the two watchers +strode impulsively toward the exposed +pedestal floor.</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute," commanded the +scientist, his eyes sparkling with +almost ferocious intensity. The two +stopped. "You might step on it," +he added, amazingly.</p> + +<p>He caught up a common glass +water tumbler, and cautiously +moved to the edge of the platform. +"It may be dead, of course," he +muttered. "But I might as well +be prepared."</p> + +<p>Wonderingly, Jim and Dennis +saw that he was intently searching +every square inch of the pedestal +flooring. Then they saw him crawl, +like a stalking cat, toward a portion +near the center—saw him clap +the tumbler, upside down, over +some unseen thing....</p> + +<p>"Got him!" came Matt's deep, +fuzzy voice. "And he isn't dead, +either. Not by a long way! Now +we'll get a magnifying glass and +study him."</p> + +<p>Feeling like figures in a dream, +Jim and Dennis looked through the +lens with their absorbed host.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Capering</span> about under the inverted +tumbler, like a four-legged +bug—and not a very large +bug, either—was an incredible +thing. A thing with a soft, furry +coat such as no true insect possesses. +A thing with tiny, canine +jaws, from which hung a panting +speck of a tongue like no bug ever +had.</p> + +<p>"Yes," rumbled Matt, "the specimen +is far indeed from being dead. +I don't know how long it might +exist in so microscopic a state, nor +whether it has been seriously deranged, +body or brain, by the diminishing +process. But at least—it's +alive."</p> + +<p>"My God!" whispered Dennis. +And, his first coherent sentence +since the physicist had thrown the +switch: "So this—<i>this</i>—is the overgrown +brute you put under the bell +a few minutes ago! This eighth-of-an-inch +thing that is a miniature +cartoon of a dog!"</p> + +<p>Jim could merely stare from the +tumbler and the marvel it walled +in, to the man who had worked the +miracle, and back to the tumbler +again.</p> + +<p>Denny sighed. "That thick, jellylike +substance in the top of the +bell," he said, "what is it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that." The miracle worker +didn't lift his eyes from the tumbler +and the very much alive and +protesting bit of life it housed. +"That's the dog. Rather, it's practically +all of the dog save for this +small residue of substance that +clothes the vital life-spark."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Jim</span> dabbed at his forehead and +found it moist with sweat. "But +how is it done?" he said shakily.</p> + +<p>"With element eighty-five, as I +told you," said Breen, most of +whose attention was occupied by a +new stunt he was trying: he had +cut a microscopic sliver of meat off +a gnawed bone, and was sliding it +under the glass. Would the dog +eat? Could it...?</p> + +<p>It could, and would! With a +mighty bound, that covered all of a +quarter of an inch, the tiny thing +leaped on the meat and began to +gnaw wolfishly at it. The effect was +doubly shocking—to see this perfect +little creature acting like any +regular, full-sized dog, although as +tiny as a woman's beauty spot!</p> + +<p>"Marvelous stuff, eighty-five," +Matt went on. "Any living thing, +exposed to the lead-filtered emanations +it gives off when disintegrated +electrically to precisely the +right degree, is reduced indefinitely +in size. I could have made that dog +as small as a microbe, even sub-visible +perhaps, if I chose. +Curious.... Maybe the presence +of eighty-five in minute quantities +on earth is all that has kept every +living thing from growing indefinitely, +expanding gigantically right +off the face of the globe...."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">But</span> now Dennis was hardly +listening to him. A notion so +fantastic, so bizarre that he could +not at once grasp it fully, had just +struck him.</p> + +<p>"Listen," he said at last, his voice +so hoarse as to be almost unrecognizable, +"listen—can you reverse +that process?"</p> + +<p>Matt nodded, and pointed to the +viscous deposit in the dome of the +bell. "The protoplasmic substance +is still there. It can be rebuilt, remolded +to its original form any +time I put the dog back in the bell +and let the particles of eighty-five, +which are suspended in the vacuum +tubes, settle back into their original, +inert mass. You see, there is +such a close affinity—"</p> + +<p>Dennis cut him short almost +rudely. It wasn't causes, marvelous +though they might be, that he was +interested in; it was results.</p> + +<p>"Would you dare ... that is ... +would you like to try that experiment +on a human being?"</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Now</span> for once the inventor's +entire interest was seized by +something outside his immediate +work. He stared open-mouthed at +Dennis.</p> + +<p>"Would I?" he breathed. "Would +I like ..." He grunted. "Such a +question! No experiment is complete +till man, the highest form of +all life, has been subjected to it. +I'd give anything for the chance!" +He sighed explosively. "But of +course that's impossible. I could +never get anyone to be a subject. +And I can't have it tried on myself +because I'm the only one able to +handle my apparatus in the event +that anything goes wrong."</p> + +<p>"But—would you try it on a human +being if you had a chance?" +persisted Denny.</p> + +<p>"Hah!"</p> + +<p>"And could you reduce a human +being in stature as radically as you +did the dog? For example, could +you make a man ... ant-size?"</p> + +<p>Matt nodded vigorously, eyes +fairly flaming. "I could make him +even smaller."</p> + +<p>Dennis stared at Jim. His face +was transfigured. He shook with +nervous eagerness. And Jim gazed +back at Dennis as breathlessly and +as tensely.</p> + +<p>"Well?" said Dennis at last.</p> + +<p>Jim nodded slowly.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said. "Of course."</p> + +<p>And in those few words two men +were committed to what was perhaps +the strangest, most deadly, and +surely the most unique, adventure +the world has yet known. The +improbable had happened. A man +who lived but for dangers and extraordinary +action, and a man who +would have gambled his soul for +the scientist's ecstasy of at last +learning all about a hidden study—both +had seen suddenly open up to +them a broad avenue leading to the +very pinnacle of their dreams.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> +<h2>CHAPTER III<br /> +<i>Ant-Sized Men</i></h2> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Next</span> morning, at scarcely +more than daybreak, Jim and +Denny stood, stripped and ready +for the dread experiment, beside +Matthew Breen's glass bell. The +night, of course, had been sleepless. +Sleep? How could slumber combat +the fierce anticipations, the exotic +imaginings, the clanging apprehensions +of the two?</p> + +<p>Most of the night had been spent +by Denny in dutifully arguing with +Jim about the advisability of his +giving up the adventure, in soothing +his conscience by presenting in +all the angles he could think of the +risks they would run.</p> + +<p>"You'll be entering a different +world, Jim," Denny had said. "An +unimaginably different world. A +terrible world, in which you'll be +a naked, soft, defenseless thing. I'd +hate to bet that we'd live even to +reach the termitary. And once inside +that—it's odds of seven to one +that we'll never get out again."</p> + +<p>"Stow it," Jim had urged, puffing +at his pipe.</p> + +<p>"I won't stow it. You may think +you've run up against dangers before, +but let me tell you that your +most perilous jungle is safe as a +church compared to the jungle an +ordinary grass plot will present to +us, if, as we plan, we get reduced +to a quarter of an inch. I'm going +in this with a mission. To me it's +a heaven-sent opportunity—one I'm +sure any entomologist would grab +at. But you, frankly, are just a +fool—"</p> + +<p>"All right," Jim had cut in, "let +it go at that. I'm confirmed in my +folly. You can't argue me out of it, +so don't try any more. Now, to be +practical—have you thought of any +way we could arm ourselves?"</p> + +<p>"Arm ourselves?" repeated Dennis +vaguely.</p> + +<p>"Yes. It's a difficult problem. The +finest watch-maker couldn't turn +out a working model of a gun that +could be handled by a man a quarter +of an inch tall. At the same time +I have no desire to go into this +thing bare-handed. And I think I +know something we can use."</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Spears," said Jim with a grin. +"Steel spears. They make steel wire, +you know, down to two-thousandths +of an inch and finer. Probably our +friend has some in his laboratory. +Now, if we grind two pieces about +a quarter of an inch long off such +a wire, and sharpen the ends as well +as we can, we'll have short spears +we could swing very well.</p> + +<p>"Then, there's the matter of +clothes." He grinned again. "We'll +want a breech clout, at least. I propose +that we get the sheerest silk +gauze we can find, and cut an +eighth-inch square apiece to tie +about our middles after the transformation."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">He</span> slapped his fist into his +palm. "By George! Such talk +really begins to bring it home. Two +men, clad in eighth-inch squares of +silk gauze, using bits of almost invisibly +fine steel wire as weapons, +junketing forth into a world in +which they'll be about the smallest +and puniest things in sight! No +more lords of creation, Denny. +We'll have nothing but our wits to +carry us through. But they, of +course, will be supreme in the insect +world as they are in the animal +world."</p> + +<p>"Will they be supreme?" Denny +said softly. That unknown intelligence—that +mysterious intellect +(super-termite?) that seemed to +rule each termite tribe, and which +appeared so marvelously profound! +"I wonder...."</p> + +<p>Then he, in his turn, had descended +to the practical.</p> + +<p>"You've solved the problem of +weapons and clothing, Jim," he said, +"and now for my contribution." He +left the room and came back in a +few minutes with something in his +hands. "Here are some shields for +us.</p> + +<p>"Oh, not pieces of steel armor. +Shields in a figurative more than a +literal sense."</p> + +<p>He set down a small porcelain +pot, and opened it. Within was a +repulsive-looking, whitish-brown +paste.</p> + +<p>"Ground-up termites," he explained. +"If we're to go wandering +around in a termitary, we've got +to persuade the inmates that we're +friends, not foes. So we'll smear +ourselves all over with this termite-paste +before ever we enter the +mound."</p> + +<p>"Clever, these supposedly impractical +scientists," murmured Jim, +with a lightness that did not quite +succeed in covering his real admiration +of the shrewdness of the +thought.</p> + +<p>And now they stood in front of +Breen's glass bell, with Breen beside +them all eagerness to begin +the experiment.</p> + +<p>"What am I supposed to do after +I've reduced you to the proper +size?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Take us out to Morton's Grove, +to the big termitary you'll find +about a quarter of a mile off the +road," said Denny. "Set us down +near the opening to one of the +larger termite tunnels. Then wait +till we come out again. You may +have to wait quite a while—but +that isn't much to ask in return for +our submission to your rays."</p> + +<p>"I'll wait a week, if you wish. +Let's see, what had I better carry +you in?"</p> + +<p>It was decided—with a lack of +forethought later to be bitterly regretted—that +an ordinary patty-dish +of the kind in which restaurants +serve butter, would make as +good a conveyance as anything else.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Matt</span> got the patty-dish and +placed it on the pedestal +floor, tipping it on edge so Jim and +Denny would be able to climb into +it unaided (he wouldn't dare attempt +to lift bodies so small for +fear of mortally injuring them between +thumb and forefinger). Into +the patty-dish, so they could be +readily located, were placed the bits +of wire, the tiny fragments of silk +gauze to serve as breech clouts, and +a generous dab of termite-paste; +and the two men stepped inside the +glass dome to share the fate that, +the night before, had been the +dog's.</p> + +<p>The bell was lowered around +them. They watched the inventor +step to the switch and pull it +down....</p> + +<p>At first there was no sensation +whatever. Almost with incredulity, +they watched the glass walls cloud, +realized that the fogging vapor was +formed of exudations from their +own substance. Then physical reaction +set in.</p> + +<p>The first symptom was paralysis. +With the vapor wreathing their +heads in dense clouds, they found +themselves unable to move a muscle. +The paralysis spread partially to +the involuntary muscles. Heart +action was retarded enormously; +and they ceased almost entirely to +breathe. In spite of the cessation +of muscular functioning, however, +they were still conscious in a vague +way. Conscious enough, at all +events, to go through a hell of +agony when—second and last stage—every +nerve in their bodies +seemed of a sudden to be rasped +with files, and every tiny particle +of their flesh jerked and twitched +as if to break loose from the ever-shrinking +skin.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Time</span>, of course, was completely +lost sight of. It might have +been ten hours, or five minutes later +when they realized they were still +alive, still standing on their own +feet, and now able to breathe and +move. The spell of rigidity had +been broken; nerves and muscles +functioned smoothly and painlessly +again. Also they were in clear air.</p> + +<p>"I guess the experiment didn't +work," Dennis began unsteadily. +But then, as his eyes began to get +accustomed to his fantastically new, +though intrinsically unchanged surroundings, +he cried aloud.</p> + +<p>The experiment <i>had</i> worked. No +doubt of that! And they were in a +world where all the old familiar +things were new and incredible +marvels.</p> + +<p>"What can be the nature of this +stuff we're standing on?" wondered +Jim, looking down.</p> + +<p>Following his gaze, Denny too +wondered for an instant, till realization +came to him. "Why, it's ordinary +wood! Just the wood of the +pedestal platform!"</p> + +<p>But it didn't seem like wood. The +grain stood out in knee-high ridges +in all directions to the limit of visibility. +It was like a nightmare picture +of a frozen bad-lands, split +here and there by six-feet-broad, +unfathomable chasms—which were +the cracks in the flooring.</p> + +<p>"Where's the patty-dish?" queried +Jim.</p> + +<p>Dennis gazed about. "We were +standing right over it when the reducing +process started.... Oh, +there it is!"</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Far</span> off to the right an enormous, +shallowly hollowed plateau +caught their eyes. They started +toward it, hurdling the irregular +ridges, leaping across the dizzy +chasms.</p> + +<p>The tiny dish had been tipped +on edge—but when they reached it +they found its thickness alone a +daunting thing.</p> + +<p>"It's a pity Matt didn't select a +thinner kind of china," grumbled +Dennis; gazing at the head-high +wall that was the edge of the plate. +"Here—I'll stand on your shoulders, +and then give you an arm up. Look +out—it's slippery!"</p> + +<p>It was. Their feet slid out from +under them on the glazed surface +repeatedly. It was with the utmost +effort that they finally made their +way to the center of the shallow +plateau.</p> + +<p>There, lying beside two heaps of +coarse cloth and a mound of horrible-smelling +stuff that he recognized +as the dab of termite-paste, +they saw two glistening steel bars. +About five feet long, they seemed +to be, and half an inch in diameter. +The wire-ends which, a few +moments ago, they had been forced +to handle with tweezers for fear of +losing!</p> + +<p>Jim picked one up and drew it +back for a pretended spear-thrust. +He laughed, vibrantly, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"I'm just beginning to realize it's +really happened, and that the hunt +has started. Bring on your bugs!"</p> + +<p>Dennis stooped and picked up +his spear. It was unwieldy, ponderous, +the weight of that long, +not-too-thin steel bar. Jim's great +shoulders and heavy arms were +suited well enough to such a weapon; +but Dennis could have wished +that his were some pounds lighter.</p> + +<p>They turned their attention to +the evil-smelling hill of termite-ointment. +With many grimaces, +they took turns in smearing each +other from head to feet with the +repulsive stuff. Then they knotted +about them the yard-square pieces +of fabric—once sheer silk gauze, +now cloth as stiff and cumbersome +as sail-cloth. They faced each other, +ready for their trip.</p> + +<p>The heavens above them, trailing +up and up into mysterious darknesses, +suddenly became closer and +sparkled with a diamond sheen. +Stretching off and up out of sight +was a mountainous column that +might conceivably be a wrist.</p> + +<p>"Matt's looking at us through a +magnifying glass," concluded +Denny.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Abruptly</span> the ridged bad-lands +about them began to vibrate. +Thunder crashed and roared +around their ears.</p> + +<p>"He's trying to say something to +us," said Denny, when the awful +din had ceased. "Oh, Matt—we're +ready to go!"</p> + +<p>Jim echoed his shout. Then +Denny snorted. "Fools! Our voices +are probably pitched way above the +limit of audibility. He can't hear us +any more than we can understand +him!"</p> + +<p>They gazed at each other. More +than anything else that had happened, +this showed them how entirely +they were cut off from their +old world. Truly, in discarding +their normal size, they might as +well have been marooned on another +planet!</p> + +<p>A tremendous, pinkish-gray wall +lowered near them, split into segments, +and surrounded their plateau. +The plateau was lifted—with +a dizzy swiftness that made their +stomachs turn.</p> + +<p>With sickening speed the plateau +moved forward. The texture of the +heavens above them changed. The +sun—the one thing in their new +universe that seemed unchanged in +size and aspect—shone down on +them. The plateau came jarringly +to rest. Great cliffs of what seemed +black basalt gleamed high over +them.</p> + +<p>Matt had carried them out of the +building, and had set the patty-dish +on the black leather seat of +his automobile.</p> + +<p>There was a distant thundering, +as though all the worlds in the +universe but Earth were being +dashed to pieces. That was the motor +starting. And then, as the car +moved off, Jim and Dennis realized +their mistake in choosing a patty-dish +to ride in!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">In</span> spite of the yielding leather +cushion on which their dish was +set, the two quarter-inch men were +hurled this way and that, jounced +horribly up and down, and slid +headlong from one end of the plateau +to the other as the automobile +passed over the city streets. Impossible +to stand. They could only +crouch low on the hard glazed surface, +and try to keep from breaking +legs and arms in the worst earthquake +it is possible to imagine. Anyone +who has ever seen two bugs +ill-advisedly try to walk across the +vibrating hood of an automobile +while the motor is running, will +have some idea of the troubles that +now beset Dennis and Jim.</p> + +<p>"The ass!" groaned Jim, in a comparatively +quiet spell. "Why doesn't +he drive more carefully?"</p> + +<p>"Probably," groaned Denny, +"he's doing the best he can."</p> + +<p>Probably! All that was left them +was conjecture. They could only +guest at what was happening in the +world about them!</p> + +<p>Matthew Breen's face and body +were lost in sheer immensity above +them. They knew they were riding +in a car; but they couldn't see the +car. All they could see was the +black cliff that was the seat-cushion +behind them. The world had disappeared—hidden +in its bigness; the +world, indeed, was just at present +a patty-dish.</p> + +<p>Somehow they endured the ride. +Somehow they avoided broken +bones, and were only shaken up and +bruised when the distant roar of +the motor ceased and the wind +stopped howling about their ears.</p> + +<p>"Well, we're here," said Dennis +unsteadily. "Now for the real—"</p> + +<p>His words were stopped by the +sudden rising of the plateau. Again +they felt the poignantly exaggerated, +express-elevator feeling, +till the plateau finally came to rest.</p> + +<p>The crashing thunder of Matt's +voice came to them, words utterly +indistinguishable. The saucer was +tipped sideways....</p> + +<p>Doubtless Matt thought he was +acting with extreme gentleness; but +in fact the dish was tilted so +quickly and so without warning +that Jim and Dennis slid from its +center, head over heels, to fall over +the edge and land with a bump on +the ground. Their spears, sliding +after, narrowly missed impaling +them.</p> + +<p>Once more came the distant +crashing of Matt's voice. Then there +was silence. Their gigantic protector, +having dumped them unceremoniously +into the grass of Morton's +Grove, had ushered them +squarely into the start of their insane +adventure. From now on their +fate belonged to them alone.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> +<h2>CHAPTER IV<br /> +<i>The Raid</i></h2> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Bewilderedly</span>, they looked +around them.</p> + +<p>Ahead of them, barely to be seen +for the trunks of giant trees intervening, +was a smoothly-rounded +mountain. Majestic and aloof it +soared, dwarfing all near it—the +termitary which, yesterday, had +been but waist-high. There was +their eventual goal; but meanwhile +their immediate surroundings roused +their greater interest—and all their +alertness!</p> + +<p>When Dennis had said they +would find a common grass plot a +wild and exotic jungle, he had +spoken perhaps more truly than he +knew. At any rate, the jungle they +now found themselves in was something +to exceed man's wildest +dreams.</p> + +<p>Far over their heads towered a +wilderness of trees. But such trees! +Without branches, shooting up and +over in graceful, tangling curves, +their trunks oddly flat and ribbonlike +and yellow-green. It was impossible +to look on them as grass +stems.</p> + +<p>Here and there the trees had +fallen, presenting a tangled wilderness +of leathery, five-foot-wide +strips. Webs of roots, tough and +gnarled, whitish in color, curled in +all directions to catch the feet and +baffle the eye. It was an appalling +underbrush. And it was an underbrush, +moreover, in which there was +plenty of wild life!</p> + +<p>A hairy, pulpy thing, reddish in +color, with gauzy wings and a +myriad flashing eyes scuttled close +to them as though drawn by +curiosity to inspect them. As big as +an eagle it appeared to them; both +grasped their spears; but soon, with +a wild whistle of its wings, it rose +up through the tangle of underbrush +and hummed off. A fruit fly.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">And</span> now a monstrous thing appeared +far off, to stalk like a +balloon on twenty-foot legs in their +direction. With incredible quickness +it loomed over them. Six feet +through, its body was roughly +spherical, and carried on those +amazingly long, jointed legs. It +stared at them with beady, cruel +eyes, but finally teetered on its way +again, leaving them untouched.</p> + +<p>"I'll never again be able to see +a daddy longlegs without shivering," +said Jim. His voice was unconsciously +sunk to little more than +a whisper. This was a world of titanic +dangers and fierce alarms. Instinct +cautioned both of them to +make no more noise than necessary. +"We had better make for your termitary +at once."</p> + +<p>Dennis had been thinking that +for some time. But he had been unable +to locate a termite tunnel anywhere. +Matt had been supposed to +set them down near one. No doubt, +to his own mind, he <i>had</i> placed +them near one of the termite highways. +But his ideas of distance +were now so radically different +from theirs that Dennis, at least, +was unable to see a tunnel opening +anywhere.</p> + +<p>He spoke his thoughts to Jim. +"There must be a tunnel opening +somewhere very near us," he concluded. +"But I—Good heavens!"</p> + +<p>Both crouched in wary alarm, +spears held for a thrust, if necessary, +at the frightful thing approaching +them from the near jungle.</p> + +<p>Thirty feet long, it was, and six +feet through, a blunt-ended, untapered +serpent that glistened a moist +crimson color in the rays of the +sun. The trees quaked and rocked +as it brushed against them in its +deliberate advance. Dead leaves +many feet across and too heavy +for the combined efforts of both +men to have budged, were pushed +lightly this way and that as the +monster moved. The very ground +seemed to shake under its appalling +weight.</p> + +<p>"If <i>that</i> comes after us," breathed +Jim, "we're through!"</p> + +<p>But now Denny drew a long +breath of relief.</p> + +<p>"Be still," he said. "Make no +sound, and no move, and it will +probably pass us by. It's blind, and +couldn't harm us in any way—unless +it rolled on us."</p> + +<p>The two stood motionless while +the nightmare serpent crashed by. +Then, with the earthworm fading +into the distance, they resumed +their hunt for the near tunnel entrance.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Jim</span>, whose eyes were more accustomed +to searching jungle +depths, finally saw it—a black hole +leading down into a small hill about +two hundred yards ahead of them. +He pointed.</p> + +<p>"There we are. Come on."</p> + +<p>Laboriously they set out toward +it. Laboriously because at every step +some almost insuperable hurdle +barred their way. A fallen grass +stalk was a problem; sometimes +they had to curve back on their +tracks for sixty or eighty feet in +order to get around it. A dead leaf, +drifted there from the trees near +at hand, was almost a calamity, +necessitating more circuitous maneuvering.</p> + +<p>With every yard the realization +of the stark peril that was now +theirs increased.</p> + +<p>A grasshopper, blundering to the +ground within a rod of them, nearly +crushed them with its several tons +of weight. A bumblebee, as big as +a flying elephant and twice as +deadly, roared around them for several +minutes as though debating +whether or not to attack them, and +finally roared off leaving them +shaken and pale. But the most +startling and narrow of their narrow +escapes occurred an instant +after that.</p> + +<p>They had paused for an instant, +alert but undecided, to stare at a +coldly glaring spider that was +barring their path. It was a small +spider, barely more than waist-high. +But something in its malevolent +eyes made the two men hesitate +about attacking it. At the same time +it was squatting in the only clear +path in sight, with tangles of stalks +and leaves on either side. A journey +around the ferocious brute might be +a complicated, long-drawn-out affair.</p> + +<p>Their problem was decided for +them.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Overhead</span>, suddenly roared +out a sound such as might +have been made by a tri-motored +Fokker. There was a flash of yellow. +The roar increased to an ear-shattering +scream. Something +swooped so breathlessly and at the +same time so ponderously that the +men were knocked flat by the hurricane +of disturbed air.</p> + +<p>A fleeting struggle ensued between +some vast yellow body and +the unfortunate spider. Then the +spider, suddenly as immobile as a +lump of stone, was drawn up into +the heavens by the roaring yellow +thing, and disappeared. A wasp had +struck, and had obtained another +meal.</p> + +<p>"Thank God that thing had a +one-track mind, and was concentrating +on the spider," said Jim, +with a rather humorless laugh.</p> + +<p>Dennis was silent. He was beginning +to realize that he knew +too much about insects for his +peace of mind. To Jim, insects had +always heretofore been something +to brush away or step on, as the circumstance +might indicate. He had +no idea, for example, of exactly +what fate it was he had just missed. +But Denny knew all about it.</p> + +<p>He knew that if the wasp had +chosen either of them, the chosen +one would have felt a stabbing +thing like a red-hot sword penetrate +to his vitals. He knew that +swift paralysis would have followed +the thrust. He knew that then the +victim would have been taken back, +helpless and motionless as the +spider was, to be laid side by side +with other helpless but still conscious +victims in the fetid depths +of the wasp's nest. And he knew +that finally an egg would have been +laid on the victim's chest; an egg +that would eventually hatch and deliver +a bit of life that would calmly +and leisurely devour the paralyzed +food supply alive.</p> + +<p>"Let's hurry," he suggested, +glancing up to see if any more +wasps were hovering about.</p> + +<p>The lowering tunnel mouth was +very near now. Barely twenty yards +away. What with the crowding +monsters around them, the tunnel +began to look like a haven. Almost +at a run, they continued toward +it.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Then</span> a commotion like that +which might be made by a +mighty army sounded in the underbrush +behind them. Dennis looked +back over his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Hurry!" he gasped, suddenly accelerating +his pace into frank flight. +"Ants...."</p> + +<p>Jim glanced back, too—and joined +Denny in his flight. Pouring toward +them at express train speed, +flinging aside fallen stalks, climbing +over obstructions as though no obstructions +were there, was coming +a grim and armored horde. Far in +the lead, probably the one that had +seen the men first and started the +deadly chase, was a single ant.</p> + +<p>The solitary leader was a monster +of its kind. As tall as Jim, +clashing in its horny armor, it +rushed toward the fugitives.</p> + +<p>"It's going to reach the tunnel +before we do," Jim panted. "We've +got to kill the thing—and do it +before the rest get to us...."</p> + +<p>The monster was on them. +Blindly, ferociously it hurled its +bulk at the things that smelled like +termites however little they resembled +them. The termite-paste +was, in this instance, the most +deadly of challenges.</p> + +<p>Jim stepped to the fore, with his +spear point slanted to receive the +onslaught, spear butt grounded at +his feet.</p> + +<p>Whether the six-legged horror +would have had wit enough to comprehend +the nature of the defense +offered, and would have striven to +circumvent it, had time been given +it, is a question that will never be +answered. For the thing wasn't +given the time.</p> + +<p>In mid-air it seemed to writhe +and try to change the direction of +its leap. But it was on the point +and had transfixed itself before its +intelligence, however keen, could +have functioned.</p> + +<p>The fight, though, was by no +means over. With five feet of steel +piercing it through, it whirled with +hardly abated vitality toward Dennis. +Its gargoyle head came close +and closer.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Dennis</span> sprang sideways along +its length, lifted the pointed +bar he held, and dashed it down on +what looked to him a vital spot—the +unbelievably slender trunk that +held its spatulate abdomen to its +armored chest.</p> + +<p>There was a crack as the bar +smashed down on the weak point. +The monster sank quivering to the +ground. An instant later it was up, +but now its movements were dazed +and sluggish as it dragged its half-paralyzed +abdomen after it, and +fumbled and caught on the heavy +bar that transfixed it.</p> + +<p>Jim caught the bar and tugged it. +"My spear!" he cried. "Denny—help!"</p> + +<p>Together the two wrenched to +jerk the spear loose from the horny +armor of the dying ant. The rest +of the pack were very near now.</p> + +<p>"We'll have to let it go...." +panted Denny.</p> + +<p>But at that instant their desperate +efforts tore it loose from the +convulsively jerking hulk. They +darted into the tunnel mouth with +the racing horde scarcely twenty +yards behind them.</p> + +<p>Without hesitation the ants +poured in after them. Jim and +Dennis leaped forward, in pitch +darkness, now and then bumping +heavily against a wall as the tunnel +turned, but having at least no +trouble with their footing: the floor +was as smooth as though man-made.</p> + +<p>Behind them they could hear the +armored horde crashing along in the +blackness. The smashing noise of +their progress was growing louder. +The two had run perhaps fifty +yards in the darkness. Another +fifty, and they would be caught!</p> + +<p>But now, just as their eyes—sharpened +also by the danger they +were in—began to grow accustomed +to the gloom, they saw ahead of +them a thing that might have stepped +straight out of a horrible dream.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Six</span> feet of vulnerable, unarmored +body, amply protected +by horny head and shoulders and +ten feet of awful, scissor-mandibles, +faced them. The creature was doing +a strange sort of war dance, swaying +its terrible bulk back and forth +rhythmically, while its feet remained +immovable. An instant it +did this, then it charged at the +two men. Simultaneously the crashing +of the fierce horde behind +sounded with appalling nearness—the +noise and odor of the ants preventing +the huge termite guard in +front of the men from recognizing +and approving the smell of the +termite-paste that covered their +bodies.</p> + +<p>"Follow me!" snapped Denny, remembering +that the hideous attacking +thing before them was +blind, and gaining from that knowledge +swift inspiration.</p> + +<p>Jim gathered his muscles to follow +at command. But he almost +shouted aloud as he saw Denny +leap—straight toward the enormous, +snapping mandibles.</p> + +<p>In an instant, however, Denny's +idea was made clear. With a slide +that would have done credit to any +baseball player, the entomologist +catapulted on his chest past the +snapping peril. Jim followed, with +not a foot to spare. They were not +past the soft rear-parts of the thing, +but they were at least past its horrible +jaws. And before the monster +could turn its unwieldy bulk in the +tunnel, the ants were upon it.</p> + +<p>For a few seconds, blinded to +their own danger by the fascination +of the struggle going on before +them, the two men witnessed the +grim watcher of the tunnel as it +drove back wave after wave of attacking +ants.</p> + +<p>Two at a time, the invaders +charged that wall of living horn. +And two at a time they were swept +against the walls, or slashed in two +by the enormous mandibles. One +against an army; but it was a full +minute or so before the one began +to weaken.</p> + +<p>"Come," whispered Dennis, at +last. "If what I think is going to +happen occurs, this will be no place +for us."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">They</span> went ahead, with the din +of battle dying behind them, +till they saw a small tunnel branching +off beside the main stem. Into +this they squeezed. But as Jim +started to go farther down its constricted +length, Dennis stopped him.</p> + +<p>"We're fairly safe here, I think. +We'll stay and watch...."</p> + +<p>Silently, motionless, they lurked +in the entrance of the side-avenue, +and peered out at the main avenue +they had just left. And now that +avenue began to buzz with traffic.</p> + +<p>First, more of the horrors with +the enormous scissor-mandibles began +to stream past them. In twos +and threes, then in whole squads, +they lumbered by, bound for the ant +army that had invaded their sanctum.</p> + +<p>Not quite too far ahead to be out +of sight, the defenders halted. Several +of their number went forward +to help the dying Horatius. The +rest lined up in a triple row across +a wide patch in the tunnel, presenting +a phalanx it would appear that +nothing could beat.</p> + +<p>"How do they know enough to +gather here from distant parts of +this hollow mountain?" whispered +Jim to Denny. "How do they know +their city is besieged just at this +spot, and that their help is needed?"</p> + +<p>Dennis shrugged. His eyes were +shining. This was the kind of thing +he had come here for. This unhampered +observation of a strange and +terrible race at war and at work—it +was well worth all the personal +risks he might run.</p> + +<p>"No man can answer your question, +Jim. They're blind—they can't +see their danger so as to know how +to combat it. They couldn't hear, +and be alarmed by, the vibrations of +battle for a distance of more than +a few yards. My only guess is that +they are constantly and silently +commanded by the unknown intelligence, +the ruling brain, that hides +deep in the earth beneath us and +directs these 'soldier' termites in +some marvelous way—though itself +never seeing or hearing the actual +dangers it guards against."</p> + +<p>"The queen?" suggested Jim.</p> + +<p>Again Denny shrugged. "Who +knows? She might be the brains, +as well as the egg layer, of the +tribe. But don't talk too much. The +vibration of our voices might lead +them to us in spite of their blindness."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Now</span> the main avenue before +them was humming with a +new kind of traffic. From side to +side it was being filled with a new +sort of termite. These were smaller +than the soldiers, and entirely unprotected +by either horn armor +plate or slashing mandibles.</p> + +<p>Each of these carried an unwieldy +block of gleaming substance. +And each in turn dropped its block +in a growing wall behind the savage +defenders against the ants, and +fastened it in place with a thick +and viscous brown liquid that dried +almost immediately into a kind of +cement.</p> + +<p>"The workers," whispered Dennis, +enthralled. "The building blocks are +half-digested wood. The cement is +a sort of stuff that exudes from +their own bodies. In ten minutes +there will be a wall across the +tunnel that no ants on earth could +penetrate!"</p> + +<p>"But the home guards, the brave +lads and all that sort of thing, will +be shut off on the outside of the +wall with the enemy. And there +are hundreds of the enemy," protested +Jim.</p> + +<p>"A necessary sacrifice," said +Denny. "And so perfect is their organization +that no one, including +the soldiers to be sacrificed, ever +makes any objection."</p> + +<p>Jim shivered a little. "It's terrible, +somehow. It's—it's inhuman!"</p> + +<p>"Naturally. It's insectian, if there +is such a word. And a wise man +once predicted that the termite organization, +being so much more perfect +a one than man's, indicated +the kind of society man would at +some time build up for himself. In +ten or twelve more centuries we, +too, might go off in millions and deliberately +starve to death because +the ruling power decided there +were too many people on earth. +We, too, might devour our dead because +it was essential not to let +anything go to waste. We, too, +might control our births so that +we produced astronomers with telescopes +in their heads instead of +regular eyes, carpenters with hammer +and saw instead of hands, soldiers +with poison gas sacs in their +chests so they could breathe death +and destruction at will. It would +be the perfect state of society."</p> + +<p>"Maybe—but I'm glad I'll be dead +before that times comes," said Jim +with another shiver.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">By</span> now the wall ahead of them +was complete. On the other +side of it the soldier termites stolidly +fought on to their certain +death. On the near side, the workers +retreated to unknown depths in +the great hollow mountain behind +them. The main avenue was once +more clear, and, save for a few +workers hastening on unknown errands, +deserted.</p> + +<p>"That act's over," sighed Dennis. +"But it may well be no more +than a curtain raiser to the acts to +come. Shall we be on our way? +We're hardly on the fringe of the +termitary yet—and I want to get +at the heart of it, and into the +depths far beneath it. Depths of +hell, we'll probably find them, Jim. +But a marvelous hell, and one no +man has ever before seen."</p> + +<p>They left their little haven and +moved along the main tunnel toward +the heart of the termitary, +walking easily upright in this tunnel +which was only one of many +hundreds in the vast, hollowed +mountain—which loomed into the +outer sunshine to almost a height +of a yard.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> +<h2>CHAPTER V<br /> +<i>Trapped</i></h2> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">On</span> along the tunnel they went. +And as they progressed, Dennis +got the answer to something +that had troubled him a great deal +before their entrance here—a problem +which had been solved, rather +amazingly, of itself.</p> + +<p>Termitaries, as far as the entomologist +knew, were pitch-black +places which no ray of light ever +entered. He had been afraid he +would be forced to stumble blindly +in unlit depths, able to see nothing +at all, on a par with the blind +creatures among whom he moved. +Yet he and Jim could see in this +subterranean labyrinth.</p> + +<p>He observed now the reason for +that. The walls on all sides, made +of half-digested cellulose, had +rotted just enough through long +years to be faintly phosphorescent. +And that simple natural fact was +probably going to mean all the difference +between life and death: it +gave the two men at least the advantage +of sight over the eyeless +savage creatures among whom, +helped by the termite-smell given +by the paste, they hoped to glide +unnoticed.</p> + +<p>However, even the termite-paste, +and the fact that the termitary citizens +were blind, didn't seem enough +to account for the immunity granted +the two men as they began to come +presently to more crowded passages +and tunnels near the center of the +mound.</p> + +<p>On every side of them now, requiring +the utmost in agility to +keep from actually brushing against +them, were hordes of the worker +termites, and dozens of the frightful +soldiers. Yet on the two men +moved, ever more slowly, without +one of the monsters attempting to +touch them. It was odd—almost uncanny.</p> + +<p>"Surely the noise of our walking, +tiptoe as we may, must be +heard by them—and noted as different +from theirs," whispered Dennis. +"Yet they pay no attention to +us. If it is due to the paste, I must +say it's wonderful stuff!"</p> + +<p>Jim nodded in a puzzled way. +"It's almost as if they wanted to +make our inward path easy. I wonder—if +it's going to be different +when we try to get out again!"</p> + +<p>Dennis was wondering that, too. +It seemed absurd to suspect the +things of being intelligent enough +to lay traps. But it did look almost +as though they were encouraging +their two unheard-of visitors from +another world to go on deeper and +deeper into the heart of the eerie +city (all the tunnels sloped down +now), there perhaps to meet with +some ghastly imprisonment.</p> + +<p>He gave it up. Sufficient for the +moment that they were unmolested, +and that he had a chance at first +hand to make observations more +complete than the world of entomology +had ever dreamed of.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">They</span> stumbled onto what +seemed a death struggle between +one of the giant soldiers and +an inoffensive-looking worker. The +drab, comparatively feeble body of +the worker was wriggling right in +the center of the great claws which, +with a twitch, could have sliced it +in two endwise. Yet the jaws did +not twitch; and in a few moments +the worker drew unconcernedly out +and moved away.</p> + +<p>"The soldier was getting his +meal," whispered Denny, enthralled. +"Their mandibles are enlarged so +enormously that they can't feed +themselves. The workers, who digest +food for the whole tribe, feed +them regularly. Then if a soldier +gets in the least rebellious, he can +simply be starved to death at any +time."</p> + +<p>"Ugh!" Jim whispered back. +"Fancy being official stomach to +three or four other people! More +of your wonderful 'organization,' I +suppose."</p> + +<p>They went on, down and down, +till Denny calculated they had at +last reached nearly to the center of +the vast city. And now they stumbled +into something weird and wonderful +indeed. Rather, they half fell +into it, for it lay down a few feet +and came as a complete surprise +in the dimness; and not till they +had recovered from their near fall +and looked around for a few seconds +did they realize where their +last few steps—the last few steps +of freedom they were to have in the +grim underground kingdom—had +taken them.</p> + +<p>They were in a chamber so huge +that it made the largest of man-made +domes shrink to insignificance +by comparison.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">A hundred</span> yards or more in +every direction, it extended. +And far overhead, lost in distance, +reared the arched roof. A twenty-story +building could have been +placed under that roof without trouble.</p> + +<p>Lost in awe, Dennis gazed about +him; and he saw on the floor, laid in +orderly rows in countless thousands, +that which gave further cause for +wonderment: new-hatched larvae +about the size of pumpkins but a +sickly white in color—feeble, helpless +blobs of life that one day develop +into soldiers and workers, +winged rulers or police. The termite +nursery.</p> + +<p>"Whew!" gasped Jim, wiping his +face. "From the heat in here you'd +think we were getting close to the +real, old-fashioned hell instead of +an artificial, insect-made one. What +are all these nauseating-looking +blobs of lard lying about here, anyway?"</p> + +<p>Denny told him. "Which is the +reason for the heat," he concluded. +"Jim, it's twenty degrees warmer in +here than it is outdoors. How—<i>how</i>—can +these insects regulate the temperature +like that? The work of the +ruling brain again? But where, and +what, can that brain be?"</p> + +<p>"Maybe we'll find out before we +leave this place," said Jim, more +prophetically than he knew. "Hello—we +can't get out through the door +we entered. We'll have to find another +exit. Look."</p> + +<p>Dennis looked. In the doorway +they had just come through was a +soldier—a giant even among giants. +Its ten-foot jaws, like a questing, gigantic +vise, were opening and closing +regularly and rapidly across the +opening of the portal. It made no attempt +to enter the great nursery, +just stood where it was and sliced +the air rhythmically with its jaws.</p> + +<p>"We haven't a chance of walking +through <i>that</i> exit!" Dennis agreed. +"Let's try the other side."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">But</span> before they could half cross +the great room—walking between +rows of life that weakly +stirred like protoplasmic mud on +either side of them—a soldier appeared +at that door, too. Like the +first, it stationed itself there, and +began the same regular, swift slicing +movements of jaws that compassed +the doorway from side to side +and halfway from top to bottom.</p> + +<p>"We might possibly be able to +run through that giant's nut-cracker +before it smashed shut on us," said +Jim dubiously. "But I'd hate to try +it. There's a door at the end, too."</p> + +<p>They made for this, running now. +But a third soldier appeared to +block the way out with those deadly, +clashing mandibles.</p> + +<p>"You're <i>sure</i> they can't see?" demanded +Jim, clutching his spear +while he hesitated whether to try +an attack on the fearful guard or to +turn tail again. "Because they certainly +act as if they did!"</p> + +<p>"Direct commands from the ruling +brain," Denny surmised soberly. +"Somewhere, perhaps half a mile +down in the earth, Something is able +to see us through solid walls, read +in our minds our intentions of what +we're to do next, and send out wordless +commands to these soldiers to +execute countermoves."</p> + +<p>"Rot!" said Jim testily. "These +things are bugs, not supermen. And +the fact that they're now bigger than +we are, and much better armed, +doesn't keep them from being just +bugs. There's no real brain-power +in evidence here."</p> + +<p>But an instant later he changed +his mind. They approached the +fourth and last exit from the giant +chamber. And here there was no +guard. They were able to race out +of it without interference. The +oddity of that was glaring.</p> + +<p>"Denny," gasped Jim, "we're +being <i>herded</i>! Driven in a certain +direction, and for a certain reason, +by these damned things! Do you realize +that?"</p> + +<p>Dennis did realize it. And a moment +later, when he glanced behind, +he realized it more.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Behind</span> them, marching in orderly +twos that filled the tunnel +from side to side, moved a body +of the soldiers. As the men moved, +they moved; never coming nearer +and never dropping behind.</p> + +<p>Experimentally, Dennis stopped. +The grim soldiers stopped, too. +Dennis walked back toward them +a step or two, spear held ready.</p> + +<p>The monsters did not try to attack. +On the other hand they did +not give ground, either; and as +Denny got to within a few yards of +them, one in the front line suddenly +opened and shut his ponderous +jaws.</p> + +<p>They clashed together a matter +of inches from Denny's torso—a +clear warning to get on back in +the direction he had come.</p> + +<p>Jim came and stood beside him, +heavy shoulder muscles bunched +into knots, standing on the balls of +his feet as a boxer stands before +flashing in at an opponent.</p> + +<p>"Shall we have it out with them +here and now?" said Jim, his jaws +set. "We wouldn't have a chance—but +I'm beginning to get awfully +doubtful about the fate these things +have in store for us. I can't even +guess at what it may be—but I've +an idea it may be a lot worse than +a quick, easy death!"</p> + +<p>Denny shook his head. "Let's see +it through," he muttered, looking +at the nightmare jaws of their +guard. Two sweeps of those jaws +and he and Jim would lie in halves.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">They</span> started back down the +corridor, the monstrous shepherds +moving as they did. The way +descended so steeply now that it +was difficult for them to keep their +footing. Then, yards below the level +of the horrible nursery, the tunnel +narrowed—and widened again into +a chamber which had no other opening +save the one they were being +herded into. A blind end to the +passageway.</p> + +<p>"The bug Bastille," said Jim with +a mirthless grin. "Here, I guess, +we're going to wait for the powers-that-be +to judge us and give us our +sentence."</p> + +<p>The giant soldiers halted. Two +of them stood in the narrowed part +of the tunnel, one behind the other, +blocking it with a double, living +barrier. Their jaws commenced +moving regularly, savagely back +and forth, open and closed. Blind +these guards might be; but no +living thing, even though it bristled +with eyes, could creep out unscathed +through the animated +threshing machine those jaws made +of that doorway. The two men were +more securely held in their prison +cell than they would have been by +two-inch doors of nickel-steel. They +could only wait there, helpless prisoners, +to learn the intentions of +the unknown Something that ruled +the great city, and that held them +so easily in its grasp.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VI<br /> +<i>In the Food Room</i></h2> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Restlessly</span>, Jim paced back +and forth in the narrow dank +cell. At the doorway the two guards +opened and closed their jaws, regularly, +rhythmically, about sixty to +the minute. Hours, the two men +calculated, they had been there. +And still the clashing of those jaws +rang steadily, maddeningly in their +ears.</p> + +<p>Clash-clash-clash. The things +seemed as tireless as machinery. +Clash-clash-clash. And into that +savage, tireless movement, Denny +read a sort of longing refrain.</p> + +<p>"Try—to—es—cape! Try—to—es—cape!"</p> + +<p>He shivered. At any time, did he +and Jim grow too fearful of the +dark future or too nerve-wracked +by the terrific suspense, they could +step into these gigantic, steel-hard +jaws. But to be sliced in two ...</p> + +<p>Jim stopped his pacing, and +stared speculatively at the wall of +their cell. For the dozenth time he +raised his ponderous spear and +thrust the pointed end at the wall +with all his strength. And for the +dozenth time he was rewarded only +by seeing a flake no larger than his +clenched fist fall out.</p> + +<p>"Might as well be cement!" he +rasped. "God, we're caught like flies +in a spiderweb!"</p> + +<p>"Well, you wanted excitement," +remarked Dennis, a bit acidly. The +strain was telling on him more than +on the less finely strung Holden; +but he was struggling to keep himself +in hand.</p> + +<p>"So I did want excitement," said +Jim. "But I want at least a sporting +chance for my white-alley, too. +But—"</p> + +<p>He stopped; and both stared +swiftly toward the door.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> ponderous, gruesome clashing +of jaws had stopped. The +two nightmare guards stood motionless, +as though at command. Then +they moved into the cell, straight +toward the two men.</p> + +<p>"It's come!" said Jim through set +teeth. He swung his spear up, +ready to shoot it at the horny +breastplate of the nearest monster +with all his puny strength. "We're +going to catch it now!"</p> + +<p>But Dennis gazed more intently; +and he saw that the blind but +ferocious creatures showed no real +signs of molesting them. Instead, +they were edging to one side. In +a moment, as the two men moved +warily to keep their distance, they +found suddenly that the soldiers +were behind them, and that the +doorway was free to them.</p> + +<p>The glimpse of freedom, however, +was not inspiring. The meaning +of the move was too apparent: +they were again being herded.</p> + +<p>Whatever reigning power it was +that had let them penetrate so +deeply into the trap, and then had +surrounded and imprisoned them—was +now going to honor them +with an audience.</p> + +<p>"His Majesty commands," commented +Jim, reading the sinister +gesture as clearly as Denny had. +"I'll wager we're about to meet +your 'unknown intelligence,' Denny. +But be it 'super-termite' or be +it Queen—whatever it may be—I +want just one chance to use this +spear of mine!"</p> + +<p>Reluctantly he stepped forth before +the fearful guard; reluctantly, +but in full command of his nerves +now that the wearing inactivity was +ended and something definite was +about to happen. Which proves but +once again the wisdom of the gods +in not allowing man to read the +future. For could Jim Holden have +foreseen the precise experience +awaiting them, his nerve control—and +Denny's, too—might not have +been so firm.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Again</span> their way led sharply +down, through tunnels loftier +and broader and glowing more brilliantly +with phosphorescence which +was a testimonial to their greater +age.</p> + +<p>The efficiency of their herding +was perfect. At each side entrance +along the way stood one of the +ghastly soldiers, jaws clashing with +monotonous deadliness. Now and +again several of the monsters appeared +straight ahead, barring the +avenue, and leaving no choice but +to turn to right or left into off-branching +tunnels. Small chance +here of missing the path! And +always behind them marched their +two particular guards, closing off +their retreat.</p> + +<p>"How do you suppose they sense +our approach?" wondered Jim, who +had noticed that the menacing jaw-clashing +began while they were still +fairly far from whatever side entrance +was being barred to them. +And again: "You're <i>sure</i> they can't +see?"</p> + +<p>"There isn't an eye in the lot of +them," said Denny. "They must +sense our coming by the vibration +of our footsteps."</p> + +<p>But when they tried tiptoeing, on +noiseless bare feet, the result was +the same. Surely the things could +not hear them for more than a few +feet; yet with no sound to guide +them, the blind guards commenced +automatically opening and closing +those invulnerable jaws with the +distant approach of the two men +just the same. They could only +ascribe it to the same force that +seemed able to follow them, step +by step and thought by thought, +though it was far away and out of +sight—the ruling brain of the termite +tribe.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Ever</span> hotter it grew as they descended, +till at length a blast +of heat like a draft from a furnace +met them as they rounded a corner +and stepped into a corridor that no +longer led downward. They knew +that they were very near the ruler's +lair now, on the lowest level, deep +in the foundations of the vast pile.</p> + +<p>Dennis wiped perspiration, caused +as much by emotion as by heat, +from his face. He alone of all students +on earth was going to penetrate +the very heart of the termite +mystery. He alone was going to +have at least a glimpse of the baffling +intelligence that science had +guessed about for so many decades +He ... alone. For it was hardly +likely that he would ever get back +up to the surface of earth to share +his knowledge.</p> + +<p>How different was this adventure +from what he had hoped it might +be! He had thought that the two +of them might simply enter the +termitary, mingle—perilously, but +with at least a margin of safety—with +the blind race it housed, and +walk out again whenever they +pleased. But from the moment of +entering they'd had no chance. +They had been hopelessly in the +clutch of the insects; played with, +indulged, and finally trapped, to be +led at last like dogs on a leash to +the lair of the ruling power.</p> + +<p>They rounded another corner and +now, ahead of them, they saw what +must be the end of this last and +deepest of all the tunnels. This end +showed as a glare of light. Real +light, not the soft gleam of the +rotting wood walls which was +already paling feebly in comparison. +The glare ahead of them, indeed, +had something of the texture of +electric light. Neither Jim nor Dennis +could repress a sudden start; +it was like coming abruptly onto a +man-made fact, a bit of man-made +world in the midst of this insect +hell.</p> + +<p>The damp heat was almost paralyzing +now. Their limbs felt weak +as they stumbled toward the light. +But they were inexorably herded +forward, and soon were at the +threshold of the oddly illuminated +chamber.</p> + +<p>Now the two stopped for an instant +and sniffed, as a peculiar odor +came to their nostrils. It was a +vague but fearsome odor, indescribable, +making their skin crawl. +A smell of decay—of death—and +yet somehow of rank and fetid life. +A combination of charnel-house and +menagerie smell.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Denny</span> blanched as an inkling +of what was before them came +to his mind. He remembered the +swooping wasp, that had so narrowly +missed them at the start of +their adventure. The wasp, he +knew, was not the only insect that +had certain dread ways of stocking +its larder and keeping the contents +of that larder fresh! The termites +did not customarily follow these +practises. Yet—yet the odor coming +from the place before them certainly +suggested ... But he tried +to thrust such apprehensions from +his thoughts.</p> + +<p>They entered the chamber. The +two gigantic soldiers stopped on +the threshold behind them and took +up their standard guard attitudes. +The men stared about them....</p> + +<p>It was huge, this chamber, almost +as huge as the nursery chamber +they had blundered into. The +source of the light was not apparent. +It seemed to glow from +walls and floor and ceiling, as +though it were a box of glass with +sunshine pouring in at all six +sides.</p> + +<p>And now horror began to mingle +with awed interest, as they took in +more comprehensively the sights in +that place, and saw precisely what +it contained.</p> + +<p>Denny's apprehensions had been +only too well founded. For larder, +food storeroom, the chamber certainly +was. But what a storeroom! +And in what state the "food" that +stocked it was!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">All</span> along the vast floor were +laid rows of inert, fantastic +bodies. Insects. The whole small-insect +world seemed to be represented +here. One or more of everything +that crawled, flew, walked or +bored, seemed gathered in this great +room. Grubs, flies, worms, ants, +things soft and slimy and things +grim and armored, were piled side +by side like cordwood.</p> + +<p>These hulks, nearly all larger +than the two quarter-inch men, lay +stark and motionless where they +had been dropped. From them came +the odor that had stopped Jim and +Denny on the threshold—the +strange odor of blended life and +death. And the reason for the queer +odor became apparent as the two +gazed more closely at the motionless +hulks.</p> + +<p>These things, like figures out of +a delirium in their great size and +exaggerated frightfulness, were +rigid as in death—but they were +nevertheless not dead! Helpless as +so many lumps of stone, they were +still horribly, pitifully alive. Paralyzed, +in some inscrutable termite +fashion, probably fully conscious of +their surroundings, they could only +lie there and wait for their turn +to come to be devoured by the ferocious +creatures that had dragged +them down to this, the bowels of +the mound city.</p> + +<p>Besides these things bound in the +rigidity of death, there was more +normal life. There were termites in +that vast storeroom, too; but they +were specialized creatures, such as +termitary life abounds in, that were +so distorted as to be hardly recognizable +as termites.</p> + +<p>Along one wall of the place, +hanging head down and fastened +there for life, was a row of worker +termites whose function was obviously +that of reservoirs: their +abdomens, so enormously distended +as to be nearly transparent, glistened +in varying colors to indicate +that they contained various liquids +whose purpose could only be +guessed at.</p> + +<p>Living cisterns, never to move, +never to know life even in the +monotonous, joyless way of the normal +worker, they hung there to be +dipped into whenever the master +that reigned over this inferno, or +his immediate underlings, desired +some of their contents!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">In</span> addition, there were several +each of two forms of termite +soldier such as they had not seen +before, standing rigidly at attention +about the place.</p> + +<p>At the door, of course, were the +two creatures with the enormous +mandibles that had escorted the +pigmy men to the larder. But these +others were as different as though +they belonged to a different race.</p> + +<p>Three had heads that were hideously +bulbous in form, and which +were flabby and elastic instead of +armored with thick horn as were +the heads of the usual soldiers. +Like living syringes, these heads +were; perambulating bulbs filled +with some defensive or offensive +liquid to be squirted out at the +owner's will.</p> + +<p>The third kind of soldier was +represented in the spectacle of termites +with heads that were huge +and conical, resembling bungs, or +the tapered cylindrical corks with +which one plugs a bottle. These, +Denny knew from his studies, had +been evolved by termite biology +for the purpose of temporarily +stopping up any breach in termitary +mound-wall or tunnel while +the workers could assemble and repair +the chink with more solid and +permanent building material.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">But</span> how fantastically, gruesomely +different these colossal +figures looked, here in the deepest +stronghold of termitedom, than as +scurrying little insects viewed +under an entomologist's glass! And +how appallingly different was the +viewpoint from which they were +now being observed—here where +the human observers were equal in +size, and doomed at any moment +perhaps to be paralyzed and piled +with the helpless live things that +made up the rest of the "larder"!</p> + +<p>And the presiding genius of this +mysterious, underground storeroom—where +was it? Denny and Jim +looked about over the rows of live +food, and among the termite soldiers +with their odd heads, in vain +for a creature that might conceivably +be the super-insect that so +omnipotently ruled the mound.</p> + +<p>Off in a corner they saw two +more termites—standard worker +types, standing motionless side by +side, with a queer sort of mushroom +growth linking them together—a +large, gray-white ball borne +mutually on their backs. But that +was all. The listing of those two +workers concluded the roll-call of +termites in the chamber as far as +the two men could see. And the +two were—just ordinary workers.</p> + +<p>"I guess His Majesty is out," +said Jim. But his voice, in spite of +the attempted levity of the words, +was low-pitched and somber. "Most +impolite to keep us waiting—"</p> + +<p>He stopped as Denny sharply +threw up his hand. And he too +gazed at the maneuver that had +caught Denny's wary attention.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">This</span> was nothing save that the +various soldiers in the chamber—seven +of them, besides the two that +never left their stations at the door—had +moved. But they had moved +in concert, almost as harmoniously +in unison as if performing some +sort of drill.</p> + +<p>In a single line they filed across +the rows of inert, palpitating, paralyzed +bodies; and in a line they surrounded +Jim and Denny in a hollow +square about twenty feet across. +There they took up their stations, +the three soldiers with the syringe-heads, +and the four with the unwieldy +craniums that resembled +bungs.</p> + +<p>So perfectly had the move been +executed, so perfectly and in unison +had it been timed, that there +could be little doubt it had resulted +from a direct order. But where was +the thing to give the command? +Where was the head-general? In +some far place, on his way to inspect +the new and odd kind of +prisoners, and giving orders to hold +them yet more closely in anticipation +of that inspection?</p> + +<p>Jim turned to Denny and started +to voice some of his thoughts. But +the words were killed by the light +that had appeared suddenly in +Denny's eyes. In them had appeared +a gleam of almost superstitious terror.</p> + +<p>"Jim!" gasped Denny, raising his +hand and pointing with trembling +forefinger. "Jim—<i>look</i>!"</p> + +<p>Jim turned to gaze, and his spear, +clutched with almost convulsive +desperation till this moment, sagged +to the floor from his limp hinds.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> thing Denny had pointed +at was the curious, large mushroom +growth supported jointly on +the backs of the two worker termites. +It had been across the +chamber from them when they first +saw it. Now it was moving toward +them, steadily, borne by the team +of workers. And now, clearly, for +the first time, they saw what it +really was.</p> + +<p>It was a head, that mushroom +growth. Rather, the whitish-gray, +soft-looking thing was a brain. For +it had long ago burst free of the +original insect skull casing in +which it had been born. Evidence +that it had once been a normal, termite +head was given by the fact +that here and there, on sides and +top of the huge, spongy-looking +mass, were brownish scales—fragments +of the casing that had once +contained its bulk.</p> + +<p>Set low down under the sphere, +with the whitish-gray mass beetling +up over them like a curving cliff, +were eyes; great, staring, dull +things of the type termites have +during the short-winged periods of +their existences. Like huge round +stones, those eyes regarded the two +men as the team of termites +marched closer.</p> + +<p>Hanging down from the great +mass was an abortive miniature of +a body—soft, shriveled abdomen, +almost nonexistent chest, and tiny, +sticklike legs that trailed helplessly +along the floor as the termites—in +the manner of two men who support +a helpless third man between them—bore +it forward.</p> + +<p>Here, then was the Intellect that +ruled the tribe, the super-termite, +the master mind of the mound! +This travesty of a termite! This +thing with wasted limbs and torso, +and with enormous, voracious brain +that drained all sustenance constantly +from the body! It was, in +the insect world, a parallel to the +dream that present-day Man sometimes +has of Man a million years +in the future: a thing all head and +staring eyes, with a brain so enlarged +that it must be artificially +supported on its flabby torso.</p> + +<p>"I guess His Majesty is out," Jim +had said, with a shaky attempt at +lightness.</p> + +<p>But he now realized his mistake. +His Majesty hadn't been out. His +Majesty had been with them all +along—a four-foot, irregular sphere +of grayish-white nerve matter and +intricately wrinkled cortex dependent +for movement on borrowed +backs and legs—and was now peering +at them out of the only pair +of eyes in the termitary as though +in doubt as to what to do first with +his helpless-seeming captives.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VII<br /> +<i>"Clinging Brown Stuff"</i></h2> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Bemused</span>, appalled, the two +gazed at this almost disembodied +brain that held them captive. +It continued to come steadily +toward them, carried by its two +faithful slaves; and the grotesque +termite soldiers, that had closed +about them in a hollow square, +parted to let it through.</p> + +<p>Such was the bewitchment of the +two men as they stared at the monstrosity, +that they did not hear the +slight clashing of horn that accompanied +a swift movement of one +of the soldiers behind them.</p> + +<p>The first thing they knew of +such a movement was when they +felt their arms pinioned to their +sides with crushing force, and +looked down to find a pair of hard, +jointed forelegs coiled about their +bodies. In answer to some voiceless +command, one of the termites with +the conical heads had approached +behind them and wound a leg +around each.</p> + +<p>Sweat stood out on Denny's forehead +at the repellent touch of that +living bond. He turned and twisted +wildly.</p> + +<p>Jim was struggling madly in the +grip of the other foreleg. Great +shoulders bulging with the effort, +muscles standing in knots on his +heavy arms, he nearly succeeded in +breaking free. Denny felt the tie +that bound him relax ever so little +as the monster centered its attention +on the stronger man.</p> + +<p>With a last effort, he tore his +right arm free, and wriggled partly +around in the thing's grip. He +raised the spear and plunged it +slantingly down into the hideous +body.</p> + +<p>This type of termite was armored +more poorly than the others. Only +its head was plated with horn; +chest and abdomen were soft and +vulnerable as those of any humble +worker in the mound. The spear +tore into it for two-thirds its +length. There was a squeak—the +first sound they had heard—from +the wounded monster. The clutching +forelegs tightened terribly, then +began to loosen, quivering spasmodically +as they slowly relinquished +their grasp.</p> + +<p>Denny bounded free and again +sent the length of his spear into the +loathsome body. Jim, meanwhile, +had leaped toward his fallen spear. +He stooped to pick it up—and was +lost!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Obeying</span> another wordless order, +one of the ghastly, +syringe-headed monsters had +stepped out of line with the start +of the short struggle. This one +bounded on Jim just as he leaned +over for his weapon.</p> + +<p>Denny shouted a warning, started +to run to his friend's aid. The dying +termite, with a last burst of incredible +vitality, caught his leg and +held him.</p> + +<p>In an instant it was done. The +termite with the distorted head had +drenched Jim with a brown, thick +liquid that covered him from shoulder +to feet—and Jim was writhing +helplessly on the floor.</p> + +<p>Denny burst loose at last from +the feebly clutching foreleg. He +straightened, poised his spear, and +with a strength born of near madness +shot it at the syringe-headed +thing's chest.</p> + +<p>But this one was different, armored +to the full save for its soft +cranium. The steel bar glanced +harmlessly from the heavy horn +breastplate. In answer, the monster +wheeled and drenched Dennis, +too, with the loathsome liquid.</p> + +<p>On the instant Dennis was helpless. +As Jim had done, he sank to +the floor, his body constricted in a +sheath that tightened as it dried +and which bound him as securely +as any straitjacket might have done.</p> + +<p>The two rolled on the floor, trying +to shed the terrible coating of +hardening fluid that contracted +about them. But they were as impotent +as two flies that had rolled +in the sticky slime of some super-flypaper. +At last they gave it up.</p> + +<p>Panting, helpless as mummies, +they glared up at the stony eyes of +the ruler-termite. The team of +workers moved, bearing their burden +of almost bodiless, mushroom +brain like well-oiled machines.</p> + +<p>Their forelegs went out. The +two men were shoved along the +floor ahead of the monarch—and +were laid in one of the lines of +paralyzed insects so patently held +as the ruler's private food supply!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> great, stony eyes were next +bent, as though in curiosity, on +the spears that had done such damage +to the termite with the conical +head. In the true insect world there +was no such phenomenon as those +glittering steel bars; and it appeared +that the over-developed +brain of the monarch held questions +concerning their nature.</p> + +<p>The team of termites wheeled, +and walked over to the nearest +spear, trailing the feeble, atrophied +legs of their rider as they went. +They squatted close to the floor, +and the staring eyes examined the +spears at close range. Then the +owner of the eyes apparently sent +out another command; for one of +the guards at the door left its post +and drew near, scissor-mandibles +opened in obedience.</p> + +<p>The hard mandible's clashed over +one of the steel bars. The jaws +crunched shut, with a nerve-rasping +grind. They made, naturally, no impression +on the bar. The guard retired +to its post at the doorway.</p> + +<p>The termite-ruler seemed to think +this over, for a moment. Then at +some telepathic order, its two bearers +picked up the spear and carried +it, and their physically helpless +ruler, over to one of the living +cisterns—one filled with a dark red +liquid.</p> + +<p>One of the beasts of burden +reached up and thrust an end of +the spear into the hugely distended +abdomen filled with the unknown +red liquid. The spear was withdrawn, +with about a foot of its +blunt end reddened by the fluid. +The termite laid it down; the staring, +dull eyes watched it....</p> + +<p>Slowly the end of the bar dulled +with swift oxidation; slowly it +turned brownish and flaked away, +almost entirely consumed. The acid—if +that was what the red stuff +was—was awesomely powerful, at +least with inorganic substances.</p> + +<p>The termite team turned away +from the bar, as if it were now a +matter of indifference to the bloated +brain borne on their backs. It approached +the men again.</p> + +<p>"I suppose," groaned Jim, "that +our turn is next. The thing will +probably have us dipped into the +red stuff, to see if we're consumed, +too."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">But</span> here His Majesty's curiosity +was interrupted while +he partook of nourishment.</p> + +<p>The clashing jaws of the two termite +soldiers at the door stopped +for a moment. Jim and Dennis +struggled to turn their heads—all +of them they could move—to see +what the cessation of jaw-clashing +might mean.</p> + +<p>Three worker termites squeezed +past. They approached one of the +line of paralyzed insect hulks, and +sank their mandibles into a garden +slug. They tugged at this until +they had it under the live cistern +of red liquid into which the spear +had been thrust.</p> + +<p>One of the three flicked drops of +the reddish stuff onto the inert +slug, till it was well sprinkled. +Then they dragged the carcass back +to the termite-ruler.</p> + +<p>They got it there barely in time. +In a matter of seconds after they +had dropped it before the monarch, +the slug had collapsed into a half-liquid +puddle of decomposed protoplasm +on the floor. One of the main +functions—if not <i>the</i> main function—of +the red acid, it seemed, was to +act as a powerful digestive juice +for His Majesty's food, predigesting +it before it was taken into the +feeble body for nourishment.</p> + +<p>The termite team settled down +over the semi-liquid mess that had +been the slug, and tilted back. Now, +under the huge globe of the brain, +Jim and Denny saw exposed a +small, soft mouth fringed by the +tiny rudiments of atrophied mandibles. +The repulsive little mouth +touched the acid-softened mass....</p> + +<p>The withered abdomen filled out. +The whitish-gray lump of brain-matter +grew slightly darker. It +looked as though the mass of the +dead slug were as large as the total +bulk of the termite ruler; but not +until the meal was nearly gone did +the voracious feeding stop.</p> + +<p>The three workers that had +spread the banquet before their +monarch, left the chamber. The +guards resumed their interrupted +jaw-clashing, which seemed senseless +now: the captives, though not +paralyzed as were the other captives +there, were held so helpless +by the dried and hardened fluid +that escape was out of the question.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> misshapen burden of the +termite team seemed to relax +a little, lethargically, as though so +gorged with food as to render +almost inactive the grotesquely exaggerated +brain. The stony eyes became +duller. Plainly the captives +were to have a brief respite +while the huge meal was assimilated.</p> + +<p>"If I could get loose for just one +minute," Jim took the opportunity +to whisper to Denny, "and get at +my spear—I think there would be +one termite-ruler less in the world!"</p> + +<p>Denny nodded. He had been +thinking along the same lines as +Jim: that bloated, swollen brain +seemed a very vulnerable thing. +Soft and boneless and formless, contained +only by the dirty-white, +membranous skin, it did appear a +tempting target for a spear thrust. +And now, sluggish with its meal, it +seemed less alert and on guard.</p> + +<p>Jim went on with his thought.</p> + +<p>"I think you scientists are wrong +about <i>all</i> the termites having intelligence," +he whispered. "I believe +that thing has the only reasoning +mind in the mound. Look at those +two guards at the door, for instance. +There's no earthly need for +them to keep guard as eternally as +they do. We can't even move, let +alone try to escape. They're utterly +brainless, commanded to guard the +entrance with their mandibles, and +continuing to guard it accordingly +although the need for it is past."</p> + +<p>Jim worked almost unthinkingly +at his bonds. "If we could kill the +wizened, little, big-headed thing, +we might have a chance. There'd +be nothing left to guide the tribe, +no ruling power to direct them +against us. We might even ... +escape!"</p> + +<p>"Through the entire city—with +untold thousands of these horrible +things on our trail?" objected +Denny gloomily.</p> + +<p>"But if the untold thousands +were dummies, used to being directed +in every move by this master +brain," urged Jim, "they might just +blunder around while we slipped +through the lines...."</p> + +<p>His words trailed into silence. +Escape seemed so improbable as to +be hardly worth talking about. +Quiet reigned for a long time.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">It</span> was broken finally by Dennis.</p> + +<p>"Jim," he breathed suddenly, +"can you see my legs?"</p> + +<p>With difficulty Jim turned his +head. "Yes," he said. "Why?"</p> + +<p>"It seems to me I can move my +left knee—just a little!"</p> + +<p>Jim looked more closely. "By +heaven!" he exclaimed. "Denny, <i>I +think the brown stuff is cracking</i>! +Maybe it was never intended to be +more than a temporary bond, to +hold an enemy helpless just long +enough for it to be killed! Maybe +it hardens as it dries so that it loses +all resiliency! Maybe—"</p> + +<p>He stopped. A faint quivering of +the ruler's withered little legs +heralded its reawakening consciousness.</p> + +<p>"Act helpless!" whispered Denny +excitedly, as he too saw that faint +stir of awakening. "Don't let the +thing get an idea of what we're +thinking. Because ... we <i>might</i> get +our moment of freedom...."</p> + +<p>Both lay relaxed on the floor, +eyes half closed. And in the hardening +substance that covered them +all over like a shell of cloudy +brown bakelite, appeared more minute +seams as it dried unevenly on +the flexible human flesh beneath it. +Whether Jim's guess that it was +only a temporary bond was correct, +or whether it had been developed +to harden relentlessly only over unyielding +surfaces of horn such as +the termites' deadliest enemy, the +ants, wear for armor, will never be +known. But in a matter of moments +it became apparent that it was +going to prove too brittle to continue +clamping flesh as elastic as +that of the two humans!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">By</span> now the termite-ruler seemed +to have recovered fully from +its gargantuan meal. And while, of +course, there was no expression of +any kind to be read in the stony, +dull eyes, its actions seemed once +more to indicate curiosity about +these queer, two-legged bugs that +wandered in here where they had +no business to be.</p> + +<p>The team of workers bore it +close again, lowered the great head +close to Denny. One of the team +began chipping at the brown shell +where it encased and held immovably +to his body Denny's left hand.</p> + +<p>A bit of the shell dropped away, +exposing the fingers. Delicately, accurately, +the worker's normal-sized +but powerful mandibles edged the +little finger away from the rest—and +closed down over it....</p> + +<p>"Denny!" burst out Jim, who +could just see, out of the corners +of his eyes, what was being done. +"My God ... Denny...."</p> + +<p>Dennis himself said nothing. His +face went white as chalk, and great +drops of perspiration stood out on +his forehead. But no sound came +from his tortured lips.</p> + +<p>The finger was lifted to the terrible +little mouth under the gigantic +head. The mouth received it; +the worker nuzzled with its mandibles +for another finger. The monarch, +having tried the taste of this +latest addition to his larder, had +found it good.</p> + +<p>Jim writhed and twisted in his +weakening bonds. There was a soft +snapping as several now thoroughly +dried sections of the brown substance +cracked loose. The termite +team whirled around; the ruler +stared, as though in sudden realization +of danger.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">More</span> furiously Jim fought his +bonds. Dennis was still, recovering +slowly from the nauseating +weakness that had followed the +pain of his mutilated hand. There +was less blood flow than might +have been expected, due, perhaps, +to the fact that the nipping mandibles +had pinched some of the encasing +shell tight over the wound.</p> + +<p>With a dull crack, a square foot +of the brown stuff burst from Jim's +straining chest. But now the monarch +moved to correct the situation.</p> + +<p>The two giant soldiers at the +doorway started across the great +room toward them. Simultaneously, +a second of the syringe-headed termites +moved to renew the bonds +that were being broken.</p> + +<p>But the move had come a shade +too late. Jim kicked his legs free +with a last wild jerk, and staggered +to his feet. His arms were still held, +in a measure, in spite of his utmost +efforts to free them of the clinging +brown stuff. But he could, and +did, run away from the body of +soldiers surrounding the monarch +just before the deadly syringe of +the first attacking termite could +function against him.</p> + +<p>The great, flabby head hurtled +his way. But he knew what to expect, +now. As the slimy brown +stream, directed by the agitated termite-ruler, +squirted toward him, he +leaped alertly aside—leaped again +as the head swung around—and saw +with savage hope that the monster +had exhausted its discharge!</p> + +<p>The two soldiers from the doorway +closed in on him now. With +their apparent command of the situation, +the monstrosities with the +bung- and syringe-heads closed in +more tightly around their monarch. +Theirs, evidently to protect that +vulnerable big brain, and leave the +attacking to others.</p> + +<p>Jim fled down between the rows +of paralyzed insects. The two great +guards from the doorway, mandibles +reaching fiercely toward the +fugitive, followed. And there commenced, +there in that deep-buried +insect hell, a chase for life.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII<br /> +<i>The Coming of the Soldiers</i></h2> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">For</span> a moment Jim was handicapped +in fleetness and agility +by the fact that his arms were +hampered. But the two hideous +guards, though each was a dozen +times more powerful than any man +its size, were handicapped in a +chase, too—by the very weight of +their enormous mandibles. In their +thundering chase after Jim, they +resembled nothing so much as two +powerful but clumsy battleships +chasing a relatively puny but much +more agile destroyer.</p> + +<p>Behind the great bulk of a paralyzed +June bug, Jim halted for a +fraction while he tore his arms at +last free of the clinging brown +stuff. The guards rushed around the +June bug at him.</p> + +<p>He leaped for the row of hanging +cisterns; and there, while he +dodged from one to another of the +loathsome vats, he thought over a +plan that had come to his racing +mind. It wasn't much of a plan, and +it seemed utterly futile in the face +of the odds against him. But he +had boasted, before starting this +mad adventure, that Man's wits +were superior to any bug's. It was +time now to see if his boast had +been an empty one.</p> + +<p>He feinted toward the far end of +the laboratory. The guards, acting +always as if they had a dozen eyes +instead of none, rushed to prevent +this, cutting across his path and +closing the exit with clashing jaws.</p> + +<p>Jim raced toward the spot where +Denny lay. This was within twenty +yards of the spot where, behind +his ring of guards, the big-brained +ruler now cowered. But, while one +of the syringe-monsters sent a +brown stream blindly toward the +leaping, shifting man, no other attacking +move was made. The soldiers +remained chained to their +posts. Jim retrieved his spear—and +the first part of his almost hopeless +plan had succeeded!</p> + +<p>It was good, the feel of that +smooth steel. He balanced the ponderous +weapon lightly. An ineffective +thing against the plates of +living armor covering the scissor-mandibles. +But it was not against +them—at least not directly—that he +was planning to use it now!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Once</span> more he darted toward the +living cisterns. The soldiers +followed close behind.</p> + +<p>Under the bulging abdomen of +the termite containing the reddish +acid, Jim halted as though to make +a defiant last stand against the +guards. They stopped, too, then began +to advance on him from either +side, more slowly, like two great +cats stalking a mouse.</p> + +<p>Muscles bunched for a lightning-quick +move, eyes narrowed to mere +slits as he calculated distances and +fractions of a second. Jim stood +there beneath the great acid vat. +The mandibles were almost within +slicing distance now.</p> + +<p>The guards opened wide their +tremendous jaws, forming two +halves of a deadly horn circle that +moved swiftly to encompass him. +They leaped....</p> + +<p>With barely a foot left him, Jim +darted back, then poised his spear +and shot it straight toward the +bulging, live sack that held the +acid above the guards.</p> + +<p>The acid spurted from the spear +hole. Jim clenched his fists and unconsciously +held his breath till his +chest ached, as the scarlet liquid +spread over the great hulks that +twisted and fought in ponderous +frenzy to untangle legs and antennae +and mandibles from the snarl +their collision had made of them.</p> + +<p>The acid bit through steel and +human flesh. On the other hand, it +had not harmed the horny flipper +of the termite worker that had +flicked it onto the garden slug. Did +that mean that the flipper was immunized +to the stuff, like the lining +of the stomach, which is unharmed +by acids powerful enough to decompose +other organic master? Or did +it mean that <i>all</i> horn was untouched +by it?</p> + +<p>He groaned aloud. The two great +insects had drawn apart by now, +and had sprung from under the +shattered acid vat. Again they were +on the trail. The maneuver had +been fruitless! The chase was on +again, which meant—since he could +not hope to elude the blind but ably +directed creatures forever—that all +hope was lost....</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Then</span> he shouted with triumph. +A massive foreleg dropped +from one of the guards, to crash to +the floor. Whether or not the acid +was able to set on the horny exterior +of the termites, it was as +deadly to their soft interiors as +to any other sort of flesh! The +acid had found the joint of that +foreleg and had eaten through it +as hot iron sinks through butter!</p> + +<p>Still the injured creature came +on, with Jim ever retreating, twisting +and dodging from one side of +the huge room to the other, leaping +over the smaller paralyzed insects +and darting behind the larger carcasses. +But now the thing's movements +were very slow—as were the +movements of its companion.</p> + +<p>Another leg fell hollowly to the +floor, like an abandoned piece of +armor; and then two at once from +the second termite.</p> + +<p>Both stopped, shuddering convulsively. +The agony of those two +enormous, dumb and blind things +must have been inconceivable. The +acid was by now spending its awful +force in their vitals, having seeped +down through every joint and crevice +in their living armor. They were +hardly more than huge shells of +horn, kept alive only by their unbelievable +vitality.</p> + +<p>One more feeble lunge both made +in concert, toward the puny adversary +that had outwitted them. +Then both, as though at a spoken +command, stopped dead still. Next +instant they crashed to the floor, +shaking it in their fall.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">For</span> a second Jim could only +stand there and gaze at their +monstrous bodies. His plan had succeeded +beyond all belief; and realization +of this success left him +dazed for an instant. But it was +only for an instant.</p> + +<p>Recovering himself, he raced to +the acid vat to recover the spear +he'd punctured it with—only three +feet of it was left: the rest had +been eaten away by the powerful +stuff—and then wheeled to help +Denny.</p> + +<p>By now the crackling brown stuff +had fallen from Denny, too—enough, +at least for him to struggle +to his feet and hasten its cracking +by tearing at it with partially +loosened hands. As Jim reached +him, he freed himself entirely save +for the last few bits that stuck to +him as bits of shell cling to a newborn +chick.</p> + +<p>They turned together toward the +corner where the termite-ruler was +cowering behind the guards that +surrounded it. Intellect to a degree +phenomenal for an insect, this +thing might have; but of the blind +fierce courage possessed by its subjects, +it assuredly had none! In +proof of this was the fact that +when the half dozen specialized soldiers +ringing it round might have +leaped to the aid of the two clumsy +door guards and probably have +ended the uneven fight in a few +minutes, the craven monarch had +ordered them to stay at their +guard-posts rather than take the +risk of remaining unguarded and +defenseless for a single moment! +Increasing intelligence apparently +had resulted (as only too often it +does in the world of men) in decreasing +bravery!</p> + +<p>An attack on the thing, closely +guarded as it was, seemed hopeless. +Those enormous, flat-topped heads +held ready to present their steely +surfaces as shields! Those armored +terrors with the syringe-heads—one +of which still held a full cargo of +the terrible brown fluid that at a +touch could bind the limbs of the +men once more in the straitjacket +embrace! What could the two do +against that barrier?</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Nevertheless</span>, without a +word being spoken, and without +a second's hesitation, Jim and +Denny advanced on the bristling +ring—and the heart of termite +power it enclosed. Not only was +the slimmest of hopes of escape +rendered impossible while the super-termite +lived to direct its subjects +against them—but also they +had a reckoning to collect from the +thing if they could....</p> + +<p>Denny glanced down at his hand, +from which slow red drops still +oozed.</p> + +<p>At their approach, the guarding +ring shifted so that the soldier +whose head was still bulging with +the brown liquid, faced them. The +two men stopped, warily. They +must draw the sting from that monster +before they dared try to come +closer.</p> + +<p>Jim feinted, leaping in and to +one side. The guard turned with +him, moved forward a bit as though +to discharge a brown stream at +him—but held its fire. Jim moved +still closer, then leaped crabwise to +one side as the brain behind the +guards telepathed in a panic for its +blind minion to release some of its +ammunition. The flood missed Jim +only by inches.</p> + +<p>Denny took his turn at gambling +with death. He shouted ringingly, +and ran a dozen steps straight at +the monster that was the principal +menace. At the last moment he +flung himself aside as Jim had +done—but this time the stream was +not to be drawn.</p> + +<p>Still most of the deadly liquid +was left; the thing's head bulged +with it. And no real move could +be made till that head was somehow +emptied.</p> + +<p>"Your spear!" panted Denny, who +was armed only with the three-foot +club which was all that was left +of the spear that had entered the +acid bag.</p> + +<p>Jim nodded. As he had done +under the acid vat, he drew it back +for a throw—and shot it forward +with all the power of his magnificent +shoulders.</p> + +<p>The glittering length of steel +slashed into the flabby, living +syringe. A fountain of molasseslike +liquid gushed out.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> move had not been elaborately +reasoned out; it had +been a natural; almost instinctive +one, simply a blow struck for the +purpose of draining the dread reservoir +of its sticky contents. But the +results—as logical and inevitable as +they were astounding and unforeseen—were +such that the move +could not have been wiser had all +the gods of war conspired to help +the two men with shrewd advice.</p> + +<p>The searching spear-point had +evidently found the brain behind +the syringe of the thing; for it +reared in an agony that could only +have been that of approaching +death, and ran amuck.</p> + +<p>No longer did the ruling brain +that crouched behind it have the +power to guide its movements, it +seemed. The telepathic communications +had been snapped with that +crashing spear-point. It charged +blindly, undirected, in havoc-wreaking +circles. And in an instant the +whole aspect of the battle had been +changed.</p> + +<p>The ring of living armor presented +by the other soldiers was +broken as the enormous, dying termite +charged among them. Furthermore, +the fountain of thick brown +liquid exuding from its head, +smeared the limbs of the soldiers +the blind, crazed thing touched, as +well as its own.</p> + +<p>In thirty seconds or less the +wounded giant was down, still alive, +but wriggling feebly in a binding +sheath of its own poison. And with +it, so smeared as to be utterly out +of the struggle, were three of the +others.</p> + +<p>Quick to seize the advantage, Jim +leaped to wrench his spear from +the conquered giant's head. And +side by side he and Denny started +again the charge against the ruler's +guards, which, while still mighty in +defense, were by their very nature +unable to attack.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Three</span> of these guards were +left. Two of them were the +freaks with the great, armored, +bung-heads—and the soft and vulnerable +bodies. The third was of the +syringe type, with invulnerable +horn breastplate and body armor—but +with a head that, now its fatal +liquid was exhausted, was useless +in battle.</p> + +<p>"Take 'em one by one," grunted +Jim, setting the example by +swinging his spear at the body of +the nearest guard. "We'll get at +that damn thing with the overgrown +brains yet!"</p> + +<p>His spear clanged on iron-hard +horn as the termite swung its unwieldy +head to protect its unarmored +body. The force of the contact +tore the spear from his hand; +but almost before it could drop, he +had recovered it. And in that flashing +instant Denny had darted in +at the side of the thing and half +disembowelled it with a thrust of +the acid-blunted point of his three-foot +bar, and a lightninglike wrench +up and to the side.</p> + +<p>"Only two left!" cried Jim, +stabbing at the flabby head of the +syringe-monster that loomed a foot +above his own head. "We'll do it +yet, Denny!"</p> + +<p>But at that moment a clashing +and rattling at the doorway suddenly +burst in on the din of the +eery fight. Both men stared at +each other with surrender in their +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Now we <i>are</i> all through!" yelled +Jim, almost calm in his complete +resignation. "But we'll try to reach +that devilish thing before we're +doomed!"</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">In</span> the heat of the swift, deadly +fray, the two men had forgotten +for the moment, that these few soldiers +ranged against them were not +all the fighters in the mound city. +But the quaking intellect they were +striving to reach had not forgotten! +At some time early in the one-sided +struggle it had sent out a +soundless call to arms. And now, in +the doorway, struggling to force +through in numbers too great for +the entrance's narrow limits, were +the first of the soldier hordes the +ruler had commanded to report here +for fight duty. And behind them, as +far as the eye could see, the tunnel +was blocked by yet others marching +to kill the creatures that menaced +their leader. The abortive effort at +escape, it seemed, was doomed.</p> + +<p>The strength of desperation augmented +Jim's naturally massive +muscular power. He whirled his +spear high over his head, clubwise. +Disdaining now to try for a thrust +behind and to one side of the great +conical head that faced him, he +brought the bar down with sledge-hammer +force on the horn-plated +thing.</p> + +<p>As though it had been a willow +wand, the big bar whistled through +the air in its descent. With a crack +that could be heard even above the +crashing mandibles of the soldiers +pouring across the hundred-yard +floor toward the scene of battle, the +bar landed on the living buckler of +a head.</p> + +<p>The head could not have been +actually harmed. But the brain behind +it was patently jarred and +numbed for an instant. The great +creature stood still, its head weaving +slowly back and forth. Jim +swung his improvised club in another +terrific arc....</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Denny</span> darted around behind +the ponderously wheeling +bulk of the last remaining guard to +the team of worker termites. He, +too, swung his arms high—over the +bloated brain-bag that cowered +down between the backs that bore +it—leaping here and there to avoid +the blunt mandibles of the burden +bearers. He, too, brought down his +three-foot length of bar with all the +force he could muster, the sight of +that swollen, hideous head atop the +withered remnants of termite body +lending power to his muscles.</p> + +<p>And now, just as the nearest of +the soldiers reached out for them, +the termite-ruler lay helpless on the +backs of its living crutches, with its +attenuated body quivering convulsively, +and its balloonlike, fragile +head cleft almost in two halves. It +was possible that even that terrific +injury might not be fatal to a thing +so great and flexible of brain, and +so divorced from the ills as well as +the powers of the flesh. But for the +moment at least it was helpless, +an inert mass on the patient backs +of the termite team.</p> + +<p>"To the acid vat," snapped Jim. +"We'll make our last stand there."</p> + +<p>Dodging the nearest snapping +mandibles, Denny ran beside his +companion to where the termite, +dead now, with its distended abdomen +deflated and the last of the +acid trickling from the hole caused +by Jim's spear, still hung head +down from the ceiling.</p> + +<p>The powerful ruler of this vast +underground city was crushed—for +the moment at least. But the +fate of the two humans seemed no +less certain than it had before. +For now the huge chamber was +swarming with the giant soldiers. +In numbers so great that they +crashed and rattled against each +other as they advanced, they +marched toward the place where +the broken monarch still quivered +in weak convulsions—and behind +which, near the acid vat, the two +men crouched.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> +<h2>CHAPTER IX<br /> +<i>The Cannibalistic Orgy</i></h2> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">At</span> first Jim and Dennis could +only comprehend the <i>numbers</i> +of the foe—could only grip their +bars and resolve to die as expensively +as possible. But then, as a +few seconds elapsed during which +they were amazingly not charged by +the insects, they began to notice the +<i>actions</i> of the things.</p> + +<p>They were swarming so thickly +about the spot where their leader +had fallen that all the men could +see was their struggling bodies. +And the movements of these soldiers +were puzzling in the extreme.</p> + +<p>The things seemed, of a sudden, +to be fighting among themselves! +At any rate, they were not hurrying +to attack the unique, two-legged +bugs by the deflated acid bag.</p> + +<p>Instead, they seemed to be having +a monstrous attack of colic as +they rolled about their vanquished +monarch. With their antennae weaving +wildly, and their deadly jaws +crashing open and shut along the +floor, they were fairly wallowing +about that section. And the crowding +ring of soldiers surrounding the +wallowers were fighting like mad +things to shove them out of place.</p> + +<p>Over each other they struggled +and rolled, those on the top and +sides of the solid mass pressing to +get in and down. In stark astonishment, +the two men watched the inexplicable +conflict—and wondered +why they had not already been +rushed and sliced to pieces by the +steely, ten-foot mandibles.</p> + +<p>In Dennis' mind, as he watched, +wide-eyed, the crazy battle of the +monsters around the spot, a memory +struggled to be recognized. He +had seen something vaguely like +this before, on the upper earth, +what was it?</p> + +<p>Abruptly he remembered what it +was. And with the recollection—and +all the possibilities of deliverance +it suggested—he shouted +aloud and clutched Jim's arm with +trembling fingers.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">That</span> scene of carnage suggested +to his mind the day he +had seen a cloud of vultures fighting +over the carcass of a horse in +the desert. The mad pushing, the +slashing and rending of each other +as all fought for the choice morsels +of dead flesh! It was identical.</p> + +<p>The termites, he knew, were deliberately +cannibalistic. A race so +efficiently run, so ingenious in +letting nothing of possible value go +to waste, would almost inevitably be +trained to consume the bodies of +dead fellow beings. And now—now ...</p> + +<p>The gruesome monarch, that +thing of monstrous brain and +almost nonexistent body, was no +longer the monarch. It was either +dead, or utterly helpless. In that +moment of death or helplessness—was +it being fallen upon and eaten +by the horde of savage things it normally +ruled? Did the termite hordes +make a practice of devouring their +helpless and worn-out directing brains +as it was known they devoured +all their worn-out, no longer +potent queens?</p> + +<p>It certainly looked as if that was +what the leaderless horde of soldiers +was doing here! Or, at any +rate, trying to do; accustomed to +being fed by the workers, with mandibles +too huge to permit of normal +self-feeding, they would probably +be able to hardly more than strain +clumsily after the choice mass beneath +them and absorb it in morsels +so small as to be more a source +of baffled madness than of satisfaction.</p> + +<p>Which latter conjecture seemed +certainly to support the theory that +the soldier termites were not trying +to help their fallen monarch, but +were trampling and slashing it to +death in an effort to devour it!</p> + +<p>"Quick!" snapped Denny, realizing +that it was a chance that +must not be overlooked; that even +if he were wrong, they might as +well die trying to get to the doorway +as be crushed to death where +they stood. "Run to the exit!"</p> + +<p>"Through that nightmare army?" +said Jim, astounded. "Why, we +haven't a chance of making it!"</p> + +<p>"Come, I say!" Denny dragged +him a few feet by main force. "I +hope—I believe—we won't be bothered. +If a pair of jaws crushes us, +it will probably be by accident and +not design—the brutes are too busy +to bother about us now."</p> + +<p>Still gazing at Denny as though +he thought him insane, Jim tarried +no longer. He began to edge his +way, by Denny's side, toward the +distant door.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">In</span> a very few feet Denny's theory +was proved right. None of the +gigantic insects tried to attack +them. But even so that journey to +the exit, a distance of more than +the length of a football field, was a +ghastly business.</p> + +<p>On all sides the giant, armored +bodies rushed and shoved. The +clash of horn breastplates against +armored legs, of mandibles and +granitic heads against others of +their kind, was ear-splitting. The +monsters, in their effort to indulge +the cannibalistic instinct—at once +so horrible to the two humans, and +so fortunate for them—were completely +heedless of their own welfare +and everything else.</p> + +<p>Like giant ice cakes careening +in the break-up of a flood, they +crunched against each other; and +like loose ice cakes in a flood, +every now and then one was forced +clear up off its feet by the surrounding +rush, to fall back to the +floor a moment later with a resounding +crash.</p> + +<p>It would seem an impossibility +for any two living things as relatively +weak and soft as men to find +a way through such a maelstrom. +Yet—Jim and Denny did.</p> + +<p>Several times one or the other +was knocked down by a charging, +blind monster. Once Denny was +almost caught and crushed between +two of the rock-hard things. Once +Jim only saved himself from a pair +of terrific, snapping jaws that +rushed his way, by using his short +spear as a pole and vaulting up +and over them onto the monster's +back, where he was allowed to slide +off unheeded as the maddened thing +continued in its rush. But they +reached the door!</p> + +<p>There they gazed fearfully down +the corridor, sure there would be +hundreds more of the soldiers +crowding to answer the last call of +their ruling, master mind. But only +a few stragglers were to be seen, +and these, called to the grim feast +by some sort of instinct or perhaps +some sense of smell, rushed past +with as little attempt to attack them +as the rest.</p> + +<p>The two men ran down the tunnel, +turned a corner into an ascending +tunnel they remembered from +their trip in, raced up this, hearts +pounding wildly with the growing +hope of actually escaping from the +mound with their lives—and then +halted. Jim cursed bitterly, impotently.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Branching</span> off from this second +tunnel, all looking exactly +alike and all identical in the +degree of their upward slant, were +five more tunnels! Like spokes of a +wheel, they radiated out and up; +and no man could have told which +to take. They stopped, in despair, +as this phase of their situation, unthought +of till now, was brought +home to them.</p> + +<p>"God! The place is a labyrinth! +How can we ever find, our way +out?" groaned Jim.</p> + +<p>"All we can do is keep going on—and +up," said Denny, with a shake +of his head.</p> + +<p>At random, they picked the center +of the five underground passages, +and walked swiftly along it. +And now they began to come in +contact again with the normal life +of the vast mound city.</p> + +<p>Here soldiers were patrolling up +and down with seeming aimlessness, +while near-by workers labored at +shoring up collapsing sections of +tunnel wall, or at carrying staggering +large loads of food from one +unknown place to another. But now +there seemed to be a certain lack of +system, of coordination, in the +movements of the termites.</p> + +<p>"Damned funny these soldiers +aren't joining in the rush with the +rest to get to the laboratory in answer +to the command of the ruler," +said Jim, warily watching lest one +of the gigantic guards end the +queer truce and rush them. "And +look at the way the workers move—just +running aimlessly back and +forth with their loads. I don't get +it."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">"I think</span> I do," said Denny. He +pitched his voice low, and +signed for Jim to walk more slowly, +on tiptoe. "These soldiers aren't +with the rest because only a certain +number was called. It's simple +mathematics: if all the soldiers in +the mound tried to get in that room +back there where the ruler was, +they'd get jammed immovably in +the tunnels near-by. The king-termite, +with all the astounding reasoning +power it must have had, +called only as many as could crowd +in, in order to avoid a jam in which +half the soldiers in the city might +be killed.</p> + +<p>"As for the aimless way the +workers are moving—you forget +they haven't a leader any more. +They are working by habit and instinct +only, carrying burdens, building +new wall sections, according to +blind custom alone, and regardless +of whether the carrying and building +are necessary."</p> + +<p>"In that case," sighed Jim, "we'd +have a good chance to getting out +of here—if we could only find the +path!"</p> + +<p>"I'm sure we can find the path, +and I'm sure we can get out," said +Denny confidently. "For in a mound +of this size there must be many +paths leading to the upper world, +and there is no reason—with the +omnipotent ruling brain dead and +eaten—why any of these creatures +should try to stop or fight us."</p> + +<p>Which was good logic—but which +left entirely out of consideration +that one factor which man so often +forgets but is still inevitably governed +by: the unpredictable whims +of fate. For on their way out they +were to blunder into the one place +in all the mound which was—death +or no death of the ruling power—absolutely +deadly to them; and +were to arouse the terrible race +about them to frenzies that were +based, not on any reasoned thought +processes, or which in any case +they were of themselves incapable, +but on the more grim and fanatic +foundations of unreasoned, primal, +outraged instinct.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> +<h2>CHAPTER X<br /> +<i>The Termite Queen</i></h2> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> slope of the upward-leading +tunnels had become less noticeable, +from which fact the two +men reasoned hopefully that they +were near ground level. And now +they began to see termite workers +bearing a new sort of burden: termite +eggs, sickly looking lumps +that had only too obviously been +newly laid.</p> + +<p>A file of workers approached. In +a long line, each with an egg, looking +for all the world like a file of +human porters bearing the equipment +of a jungle expedition. +Slowly, the things moved—carefully—bound +for some such vast incubator +as the one Jim and Dennis +had stumbled into some hours before.</p> + +<p>"We want to go in the opposite +direction from them," Denny whispered. +"They're coming from the +Queen termite's den—and we don't +want to blunder in there!"</p> + +<p>They about-faced, and moved +with the workers till they came +to the nearest passage branching +away from the avenue on which +the file marched. Denny dabbed at +his forehead.</p> + +<p>"Lucky those things came in time +to warn us," he said. "From what +little science knows of the termites, +I can guess that the Queen's +chamber would be a chamber of +horrors for us!"</p> + +<p>They walked on, searching for +another main avenue, such as the +one they had left; which might be +an artery leading to the outside +world. But they had not gone far +when they were again forced to +change their course.</p> + +<p>Ahead of them, marching in regular +formation, came a band of soldiers +larger than the usual squad. +They filled the tunnel so compactly +that the two men did not +dare try to squeeze past them.</p> + +<p>"Here," whispered Jim, pointing +to a side tunnel.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">They</span> stole down it; but in a +moment it developed that their +choice had been an unlucky one: +the crash of the heavy, armored +bodies continued to follow them. +The soldiers had turned down that +tunnel, too.</p> + +<p>"Are they after us again?" whispered +Jim.</p> + +<p>Denny shrugged. There was still +a remnant of the disguising termite-paste +on their bodies to fool +the insects. It seemed impossible +that the ruling brain behind them +had survived the cannibalistic rush +and taken command of the mound +again? But—was anything impossible +in this world of terror?</p> + +<p>Steadily the two were forced to +retreat before the measured advance +of the guards. And now the +tunnel they were in broadened—and +abruptly ended in another of +the vast chambers that seemed to +dot the mound city at fairly regular +intervals. But this one appeared +to be humming with activity, if the +noise coming from within it was +any indication.</p> + +<p>The two passed at the threshold, +dismayed at the evidence of super-activity +in the chamber ahead of +them. But while they paused there, +the soldiers behind them rounded +a corner. They could not go back. +There were no more of the opportune +side entrances to dodge into. +All they could do was retreat still +farther—into the vast room before +them.</p> + +<p>They did so, reluctantly, moving +step by step as the marching band +behind them crashed rhythmically +along. But once inside the great +chamber, they shrank back against +the wall with whispered imprecations +at the final, desperate trick +fate had played on them.</p> + +<p>Their path of retreat, leading +around labyrinthine corners and by-passages, +had doubled back on them +without their having been aware +of it. They were in the very place +Dennis had wished so much to +avoid—the chamber of the Queen +termite!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">High</span> overhead, almost lost in +the dimness, was the arching +roof. Around the circular walls +were innumerable tunnel entrances. +At each of these stood a termite +guard—picked soldiers half again +as large as the ordinary soldiers, +with mandibles so great and heavy +that it was a marvel the insects +could support them.</p> + +<p>Hurrying here and there were +worker termites. And these were +centering their activities on an object +as fearful as anything that ever +haunted the mind of a madman.</p> + +<p>Up and back, this object loomed, +half filling the enormous room like +a zeppelin in a hangar. And like a +zeppelin—a blunt, bloated zeppelin—the +object was circular and tapered +at both ends. But the zeppelin +was a living thing—a horrible travesty +of life.</p> + +<p>At the end facing the two men +was a tiny dot of a head, almost +lost in the whitish mass of the +enormous body. Around this a cluster +of worker termites pressed, giving +nourishment to the insatiable +mouth. At the far end of the vast +shape another cluster of termites +thronged. And these bore away a +constant stream of termite eggs—that +dripped from the zeppelinlike, +crammed belly at the rate of almost +one a second.</p> + +<p>Her Highness, the Queen—two +hundred tons of flabby, greasy flesh, +immobile, able only to eat and lay +eggs.</p> + +<p>"My God," whispered Jim. Utterly +unstrung, he gazed at that +mighty, loathsome mass, listening +to its snapping jaws as it took on +the tons of nourishment needed for +its machinelike functioning. "My +God!"</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Instinctively</span> he whirled to +run back through the entrance +they had come through. But now, +with the admittance of the soldier +band that had pressed them in here, +the entrance was guarded again by +one of the giants permanently stationed +there.</p> + +<p>"What had we better do?" he +breathed to Denny.</p> + +<p>Dennis stared helplessly around. +He had noticed that the termites +in here were acting differently from +the others they had encountered +since leaving the lair of the termite-ruler. +These were moving uneasily, +restlessly, stopping now and +again with waving, inquisitive antennae. +It looked ominously as +though they had sensed the presence +of intruders here in the sanctum +where their race was born, and +were dimly wondering what to do.</p> + +<p>"We might try each tunnel +mouth, one by one, on the chance +that we can find a careless guard +somewhere," Dennis muttered at +last. "But for heaven's sake don't +touch any of the brutes! I think +that at the slightest signal the +whole mob of the things would +spring on us and tear us to pieces. +Most of the paste is rubbed off by +now."</p> + +<p>Jim nodded. He had no desire to +brush against one of the colossal, +special guard of soldiers if he could +help it, or against any of the relatively +weak workers that might +give the signal of alarm.</p> + +<p>Stealing silently along among the +blind, instinctively agitated monsters, +they worked a circuitous way +from one exit to another. But nowhere +did any chance of getting +out of the place present itself. +Across each tunnel mouth was +placed one of the enormous guards, +twelve-foot mandibles opened like +a waiting steel trap.</p> + +<p>Halfway around the tremendous +room they went, without mishap, +but also without finding an exit +they could slip through. And then, +in the rear of the vast bulk of the +Queen, it happened.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">One</span> of the worker termites, +bearing an egg in its mandibles, +faltered, and dropped its +precious burden. The thing fell +squashily to the floor within a foot +of Jim, who had brushed against +the wall to let the burden bearer +pass without touching him. Jim, +attempting to sidestep away from +the spot, as the worker put out +blind feelers, to search for the +dropped egg, lost his balance for a +fraction of a second—and stepped +squarely on the nauseous ovoid!</p> + +<p>Frantically he stepped out of the +mess he had created, and the two +stood staring at each other, holding +their breaths, fearful of what might +result from that accidental destruction +of budding termite life.</p> + +<p>The worker, feeling about for its +burden, came in contact with the +shattered egg. It drew back +abruptly, as though in perplexity: +soft and tough, the egg should not +have broken merely from being +dropped. Then it felt again....</p> + +<p>For a few seconds nothing whatever +occurred. The two breathed +again, and began to hope that their +fears had been meaningless. But +that was not to be.</p> + +<p>The worker termite finally began +to rush back and forth, antennae +whipping from side to side, patently +trying to discover the cause +of the tragedy. And Jim and Dennis +rushed back and forth, too, engaged +in a deadly game of blind +man's buff as they tried to avoid the +questing antennae—which, registering +sensation by touch instead of +smell, was not to be fooled by the +last disappearing traces of the termite-paste.</p> + +<p>The game did not last long. One +of the feelers whipped against +Dennis' legs—and hell broke loose!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> worker emitted a sound +like the shriek of a circular +saw gone wild. And on the instant +all its fellows, and the gigantic +guards at the exits, stiffened to +rigid attention.</p> + +<p>Again came the roaring sound, +desolate, terrible, at once a call to +arms and a funeral dirge. And now +every termite in the dim, cavernous +chamber began the battle dance +Jim and Dennis had seen performed +by the termite guard when it was +confronted by the horde of ants. +Not moving their feet, they commenced +to sway back and forth, +while long, rhythmic shudders convulsed +their grotesque bodies. It +was a formal declaration of war +against whatever mad things had +dared invade the fountain-spring of +their race.</p> + +<p>Jim and Dennis leaped toward +the nearest exit, determined to take +any risk on the chance of escaping +from the horde of things now +aware of their presence and ravening +for their blood. But in this exit—the +only one accessible to them +now—the guard had commenced +the jaw-clashing that closed openings +more efficiently than steel +plates could have done. An attempt +to pass those enormous mandibles +presented no risk; what it presented +was suicide.</p> + +<p>By now the dread war dance had +stopped. All the termites in the +chamber were converging slowly +toward the spot where the termite +had given the rasping alarm. Even +the workers, ordinarily quick to run +from danger, were advancing instead +of retreating. Of all living +things in the room only the Queen, +unable to move her mountainous +bulk, did not join in the slow, sure +move to slash to pieces the hated +trespassers.</p> + +<p>Again the questing antennae of +the worker that had given the alarm +touched one of the men. With a +deafening rasp it sprang toward +them, blind but terrible.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Dennis</span> swung his steel club. +It clashed against the scarcely +less hard mandibles of the worker, +not harming them, but seeming to +daze the insect a little.</p> + +<p>Jim followed the act by plunging +his longer spear into the soft body. +No words were wasted by the two +men. It was a fight for life again, +with the odds even more heavily +against them than they had been +in the ruler's lair.</p> + +<p>Behind them, blocking the only +exit they had any chance whatever +of reaching, the guard continued +its clashing mandible duty. If only +it, too, would join in the blind +search for the trespassers, thus +giving them an opportunity of +slipping out! But the monster gave +no indication of doing such a thing.</p> + +<p>Another worker termite flung its +bulk at them. Its mandibles, tiny in +comparison with those of the great +guards but still capable of slicing +either of the men in two, snapped +perilously close to Jim's body. +There was a second's concerted +action: Dennis' club lashed against +the thing's head, Jim's spear tore +into the vulnerable body.</p> + +<p>Ringing them round, the main +band of the termites moved closer. +They moved slowly, in no hurry, +apparently only too sure the enemy +could not possibly get away from +them. And the two worker termites +killed were mere incidents compared +to the avalanche of mandible +and horn that would be on them +in about thirty seconds.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">However</span>, the two dead termites +gave Jim a sudden inspiration. +He glanced from the carcasses +to the mechanically moving, +deadly jaws of the guard that +barred the nearest exit.</p> + +<p>"Denny," he panted, "feed it +this."</p> + +<p>He pointed first toward the +nearest carcass and then toward the +rock-crushing, steadily snapping +jaws.</p> + +<p>"I'll try to hold the bridge +here—"</p> + +<p>But Dennis was on his way, +catching Jim's idea with the first +gesture.</p> + +<p>He stooped down, and caught the +dead termite by two of its legs. +Close to two hundred pounds the +mass weighed; but strength is an +inconstant thing, and increases or +decreases according to the vital +needs of life-preservation.</p> + +<p>Clear of the floor, Denny lifted +the bulk, and with its repulsive +weight clasped in his arms, he advanced +toward the mighty guard.</p> + +<p>Behind him, Jim glared desperately +at the third termite that was +about to attack. No feeble worker +this, but one of the most colossal of +all the Queen's guard.</p> + +<p>Towering over Jim, mandibles +wide open and ready to smash over +its prey, the giant reared toward +him. And behind him came the main +body of the horde. It was painfully +evident that the clash with the lone +soldier would be the last single encounter. +After that the hundreds of +the herd would be on the men, tearing +and trampling them to bits.</p> + +<p>During the thing's steady, inexorable +approach, which had taken +far less time than that required to +tell of it, Jim had clenched his fingers +around his spear and calculated +as to the best way to hold the +monster off for just the few seconds +needed by Denny to try the +plan suggested.</p> + +<p>The monster ended its slow advance +in a lunge, that, for all its +great bulk, was lightning quick. But +a shade more quickly, Jim sidestepped +the terrible mandibles, +leaped back along the armored body +till he had reached the unarmored +rear, and thrust his spear home with +all his force.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> hideous guard reared with +pain and rage. But this was no +worker termite, to be killed with a +thrust. As though nothing had happened, +the huge hulk wheeled +around. The mandibles crashed shut +with deafening force over the space +Jim had occupied but an instant before.</p> + +<p>And now the inner circle of the +multiple ring of death was within +a few yards. Jim leaped to put himself +behind the living barrier of the +attacking soldier. But it was only +a matter of a few seconds now, before +he and Denny would be caught +in the blind bull charges of the +wounded soldier or by the surrounding +ring of maddened termites.</p> + +<p>"Denny?" he shouted imploringly +over his shoulder, not daring to +take his eyes off the danger in front +of him.</p> + +<p>"Soon!" he heard Dennis pant.</p> + +<p>The entomologist had got almost +up to the twelve-foot jaws that +closed the exit. He paused a moment, +gathering strength. Then he +heaved the soft mass of the dead +termite into the clashing mandibles.</p> + +<p>"Jim!" he cried, as the burden +left his arms.</p> + +<p>Jim turned, raced the few yards +intervening between the ring of +death and the doorway. Together +they waited to see if their forlorn +hope would work....</p> + +<p>It could not have lasted more +than a second, that wait, yet it +seemed at least ten minutes. And +then both cried aloud—and +crouched to repeat the maneuver +that had saved them from death +when they had first entered this insect +hell.</p> + +<p>For the enormous, smashing jaws +had caught the body of the worker +termite with ferocious eagerness, +and were worrying the inanimate +carcass with terrible force.</p> + +<p>The great jaws were occupied +just an instant before the monster +sensed that it was one of his own +kind that he was mangling so thoroughly. +But in that instant Jim had +slid on his chest along the floor +past the armored head and shoulders, +and Dennis had leaped to follow.</p> + +<p>But Dennis was not to get off so +lightly.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> charging ring of termites +had closed completely in by +now. The snapping mandibles of +the nearest one were up to him. +They opened; shut.</p> + +<p>They caught Denny on the back +swing, knocking him six feet away +instead of slicing him wide open. +Denny got to his feet almost before +he had landed; but between him +and the exit was the bulk of the +termite that had felled him, and in +the doorway the guard had dropped +the body it was slashing to bits, +and had recommenced its slashing +jaw movements.</p> + +<p>"Jim! For God's sake...." +shrieked the doomed man.</p> + +<p>Beside himself, he managed to +hurdle clear over the massive insect +between him and the doorway. But +there he stopped, with the guard's +great mandibles fanning the air less +than a foot from him. "Jim!" came +the agonized cry again.</p> + +<p>And behind the gigantic termite, +in the tunnel, with at least a possibility +of safety lying open before +him, Jim heard and answered the +call.</p> + +<p>Savagely he plunged his spear +into the unarmored rear of the +guard, tore it out, thrust again....</p> + +<p>The thing heaved and struggled +to turn, shaking the tunnel with its +rasping anger—and taking its attention +at last away from the duty of +closing that tunnel mouth.</p> + +<p>With no room to run and slide, +Denny fell to the floor and commenced +to creep through the narrow +space between the trampling +guard's bulk and the wall. He felt +his left arm and shoulder go numb +as he was crushed for a fleeting instant +against the wood partition. +Broken, he thought dimly. The collar-bone. +But still he kept moving +on.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">He</span> moved in a haze of pain and +weakness. He did not see that +he had passed clear of the menacing +hulk—that his slow crawling +had been multiplied in results by +the fact that the termite guard had +finally, stopped trying to turn in +the narrow passage and had rushed +ahead into the Queen's chamber, to +turn there and come dashing back. +He did not see that Jim was finally +disarmed and completely helpless, +with his spear buried beyond recovery +in the bulk of the maddened +guard. He hardly felt Jim's supporting +arm as it was thrust under +him, to half drag and half lead him +along the tunnel away from the +horde behind.</p> + +<p>He only knew that they were +moving forward, with the din behind +them—as the grim cohorts of +the Queen fought to all crowd +ahead in the narrow passage at once—keeping +pace with them in spite +of all they could do to make haste. +And he only knew that finally Jim +gave a great shout, and that suddenly +they were standing under a +rent in a tunnel roof through which +sunlight was pouring.</p> + +<p>Several worker termites were laboring +to close up the chink and cut +off the sunlight; but these, not +being of the band outraged by the +destruction of the egg in the +Queen's chamber, moved swiftly +away as the two men advanced.</p> + +<p>Jim reached up and tore with +frantic hands at the crumbling +edges of the rotten wood overhead. +Ignoring his gashed and bleeding +fingers, he widened the breach till +he, could pull himself up through +it. Then he reached down, caught +Denny's sound arm, and raised him +by main strength.</p> + +<p>They were in the clear air of the +outer world once more, on a terrace +in the mound low down near its +base.</p> + +<p>Jim and Dennis half slid, half fell +down the near terrace slope to the +jungle of grass stalks beneath. And +there Denny bit his lip sharply, +struggled against the weakness +overcoming him—and fainted.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Jim</span> caught him up over his shoulder, +and staggered forward +through the jungle. Behind, the termites +poured out through the +broken wall in an enraged flood, +braving even the sunlight and outer +air in their chase of the invaders +that had, profaned the Queen's +chamber.</p> + +<p>"Matt!" shouted Jim with all the +strength of his lungs, forgetting +that his voice could not be heard +by normal human ears. "Matt!"</p> + +<p>But if Matthew Breen could not +hear, he could see. The slightest inattention +at his guard duty at that +second would have resulted in two +deaths. But he was on the alert.</p> + +<p>Jim saw the sun blotted out +swiftly, saw a huge, pinkish-gray +wall swoop down between him and +Denny, and the deadly horde of termites +pursuing them. Then he saw +another pinkish-gray wall, in which +was set something—a shallow, regular, +hollowed plateau—that looked +familiar. The patty-dish in which he +and Denny had been carried to this +place of death and horror.</p> + +<p>Jim knew he could not clamber +into that great plateau; he was too +exhausted. But the necessity was +spared him.</p> + +<p>The patty-dish scooped down +under him, uprooting huge trees, +digging up square yards of earth all +around him. He was flung from his +feet to roll helplessly beside the +unconscious Dennis, as men and +earth and all were shifted from +the dish's rim to its center.</p> + +<p>Like gigantic express elevator +the dish soared dizzily up in the +tremendous hand that held it, over +the vast pile of the mound city, +over all the surrounding landscape, +and was borne back toward Matt's +automobile—and toward the laboratory +where the bulk of their bodies +waited, in protoplasmic form, in the +dome of the glass bell.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XI<br /> +<i>Back to Normal</i></h2> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">"I think</span>," said Jim, loading his +pipe, "that now I really will +settle down. No other adventures +could seem like much after the one"—he +repressed a shiver—"we've just +passed through."</p> + +<p>"And I think," said Dennis, following +his own line of thought, +"that as far the world of science +goes, my exploring has been for +nothing. Try to tell sober scientists +of the specially evolved, huge-brained +thing that rules the termite +tribe and forms and holds the +marvelous organization it has? Try +to tell them—now that Matt has +to stubbornly decided to keep secret +his work with element eighty-five—that +we were reduced to a +quarter of an inch in height, and +that we went through a mound and +saw at first hand the things we describe? +They'd shut me in an +asylum!"</p> + +<p>The two were sitting in Denny's +apartment, once more conventionally +clothed, and again their normal +five feet eleven, and six feet two.</p> + +<p>The reassembling of Denny's +body had done odd things. Jim had +set the broken bone with rough +skill before stepping under the +glass bell; and the fracture had +been healed automatically by the +growing deposit of protoplasmic +substance resulting when Matt +threw his switch.</p> + +<p>But Denny's missing finger had +baffled the reversing process. With +no tiny pattern to form around, the +former substance of his finger had +simply gathered in a shapeless knob +of flesh and bone like a tumorous +growth sprouting from his hand. It +would have to be amputated.</p> + +<p>But the marvels performed under +Matthew Breen's glass bell were far +secondary to the two men. The +things they had recently seen and +undergone, and the possibility of +telling folks about them, occupied +their attention exclusively.</p> + +<p>"Then you're not going to write +a monograph on the real nature of +termites, as you'd planned?" Jim +asked Denny.</p> + +<p>Denny shrugged dispiritedly. +"People would take it for a joke +instead of a scientific treatise if I +did," he said.</p> + +<p>Jim puffed reflectively at his +pipe. A thought had come, to him +that seemed to hold certain elements +of possibility.</p> + +<p>"Why not do this," he suggested: +"Write it up first as a straight +story, and see if people will believe +it. Then, if they do, you can rewrite +it as scientific fact."</p> + +<p>And eventually they decided to +do just that. And—here is their +story.</p> + +<div class="trn"> +<div class="figleft"><a href="images/002-2.jpg"><img src="images/002-1.jpg" width="140" height="200" alt="" title="" /></a></div> +<p><b><big>Transcriber's Note:</big></b></p> +<p>This etext was produced from <i>Astounding Stories</i> June 1932. +Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. +copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and +typographical errors have been corrected without note.</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Raid on the Termites, by Paul Ernst + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAID ON THE TERMITES *** + +***** This file should be named 27248-h.htm or 27248-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/2/4/27248/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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