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diff --git a/41586-0.txt b/41586-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7616640 --- /dev/null +++ b/41586-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2520 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41586 *** + + The RED DUST + + _By Murray Leinster_ + + _A Sequel to "The Mad Planet."_ + + [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from January 1927 + Amazing Stories. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence + that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] + + +[Illustration: Burl raised his spear, and plunged down on the back of +the moving thing, thrusting his spear with all the force he could +command. He had fallen upon the shining back of one of the huge, +meat-eating beetles, and his spear had slid across the horny armor and +then stuck fast, having pierced only the leathery tissue between the +insect's head and thorax.] + + + _You who have read "The Mad Planet" by Murray Leinster, will welcome + the sequel to that story. The world, in a far distant future, is + peopled with huge insects and titanic fungus growths. Life has been + greatly altered, and tiny Man is now in the process of becoming + acclimated to the change. We again meet our hero Burl, but this time + a far greater danger menaces the human race. The huge insects are + still in evidence, but the terror they inspire is as nothing + compared to the deadly Red Dust. You will follow this remarkable + story with breathless interest._ + + + + +CHAPTER I + +Prey + + +The sky grew gray and then almost white. The overhanging banks of clouds +seemed to withdraw a little from the steaming earth. Haze that hung +always among the mushroom forests and above the fungus hills grew more +tenuous, and the slow and misty rain that dripped the whole night long +ceased reluctantly. + +As far as the eye could see a mad world stretched out, a world of +insensate cruelties and strange, fierce maternal solicitudes. The +insects of the night--the great moths whose wings spread far and wide in +the dimness, and the huge fireflies, four feet in length, whose beacons +made the earth glow in their pale, weird light--the insects of the night +had sought their hiding-places. + +Now the creatures of the day ventured forth. A great ant-hill towered a +hundred feet in the air. Upon its gravel and boulder-strewn side a +commotion became visible. + +The earth crumbled, and fell into an invisible opening, then a dark +chasm appeared, and two slender, threadlike antennæ peered out. + +A warrior ant emerged, and stood for an instant in the daylight, looking +all about for signs of danger to the ant-city. He was all of ten inches +long, this ant, and his mandibles were fierce and strong. A second and +third warrior came from the inside of the ant-hill, and ran with tiny +clickings about the hillock, waving their antennæ restlessly, searching, +ever searching for a menace to their city. + +They returned to the gateway from which they had made their appearance, +evidently bearing reassuring messages, because shortly after they had +reëntered the gateway of the ant-city, a flood of black, ill-smelling +workers poured out of the opening and dispersed upon their business. The +clickings of their limbs and an occasional whining stridulation made an +incessant sound as they scattered over the earth, foraging among the +mushrooms and giant cabbages, among the rubbish-heaps of the gigantic +bee-hives and wasp colonies, and among the remains of the tragedies of +the night for food for their city. + +The city of the ants had begun its daily toil, toil in which every one +shared without supervision or coercion. Deep in the recesses of the +pyramid galleries were hollowed out and winding passages that led down a +fathomless distance into the earth below. + +Somewhere in the maze of tunnels there was a royal apartment, in which +the queen-ant reposed, waited upon by assiduous courtiers, fed by royal +stewards, and combed and rubbed by the hands of her subjects and +children. + +But even the huge monarch of the city had her constant and pressing duty +of maternity. A dozen times the size of her largest loyal servant, she +was no less bound by the unwritten but imperative laws of the city than +they. From the time of waking to the time of rest, she was ordained to +be the queen-mother in the strictest and most literal sense of the word, +for at intervals to be measured only in terms of minutes she brought +forth a single egg, perhaps three inches in length, which was instantly +seized by one of her eager attendants and carried in haste to the +municipal nursery. + +There it was placed in a tiny cell a foot or more in length until a +sac-shaped grub appeared, all soft, white body save for a tiny mouth. +Then the nurses took it in charge and fed it with curious, tender +gestures until it had waxed large and fat and slept the sleep of +metamorphosis. When it emerged from its rudimentary cocoon it took the +places of its nurses until its soft skin had hardened into the horny +armor of the workers and soldiers, and then it joined the throng of +workers that poured out from the city at dawn to forage for food, to +bring back its finds and to share with the warriors and the nurses, the +drone males and the young queens, and all the other members of its +communities, their duties in the city itself. That was the life of the +social insect, absolute devotion to the cause of its city, utter +abnegation of self-interest for the sake of its fellows--and death at +their hands when their usefulness was past. They neither knew nor +expected more or less. + +It is a strange instinct that prompts these creatures to devote their +lives to their city, taking no smallest thought for their individual +good, without even the call of maternity or sex to guide them. Only the +queen knows motherhood. The others know nothing but toil, for purposes +they do not understand, and to an end of which they cannot dream. At +intervals all over the world of Burl's time these ant-cities rose above +the surrounding ground, some small and barely begun, and others ancient +colonies which were truly the continuation of cities first built when +the ants were insects to be crushed beneath the feet of men. These +ancient strongholds towered two, three, and even four hundred feet above +the plains, and their inhabitants would have had to be numbered in +millions if not billions. + +Not all the earth was subject to the ants, however. Bees and wasps and +more deadly creatures crawled over and flew above its surface. The bees +were four feet and more in length. And slender-waisted wasps darted here +and there, preying upon the colossal crickets that sang deep bass music +to their mates--and the length of the crickets was the length of a man, +and more. + +Spiders with bloated bellies waited, motionless, in their snares, whose +threads were the size of small cables, waiting for some luckless giant +insect to be entangled in the gummy traps. And butterflies fluttered +over the festering plains of this new world, tremendous creatures whose +wings could only be measured in terms of yards. + +An outcropping of rock jutted up abruptly from a fungus-covered plain. +Shelf-fungi and strangely colored molds stained the stone until the +shining quartz was hidden almost completely from view, but the whole +glistened like tinted crystal from the dank wetness of the night. Little +wisps of vapor curled away from the slopes as the moisture was taken up +by the already moisture-laden air. + +Seen from a distance, the outcropping of rock looked innocent and still, +but a nearer view showed many things. + +Here a hunting wasp had come upon a gray worm, and was methodically +inserting its sting into each of the twelve segments of the faintly +writhing creature. Presently the worm would be completely paralyzed, and +would be carried to the burrow of the wasp, where an egg would be laid +upon it, from which a tiny maggot would presently hatch. Then weeks of +agony for the great gray worm, conscious, but unable to move, while the +maggot fed upon its living flesh-- + +There the tiny spider, youngest of hatchlings, barely four inches +across, stealthily stalked some other still tinier mite, the little, +many-legged larva of the oil-beetle, known as the bee-louse. The almost +infinitely small bee-louse was barely two inches long, and could easily +hide in the thick fur of a great bumblebee. + +This one small creature would never fulfill its destiny, however. The +hatchling spider sprang--it was a combat of midgets which was soon over. +When the spider had grown and was feared as a huge, black-bellied +tarantula, it would slay monster crickets with the same ease and the +same implacable ferocity. + +The outcropping of rock looked still and innocent. There was one point +where it overhung, forming a shelf, beneath which the stone fell away in +a sheer-drop. Many colored fungus growths covered the rock, making it a +riot of tints and shades. But hanging from the rooflike projection of +the stone there was a strange, drab-white object. It was in the shape of +half a globe, perhaps six feet by six feet at its largest. A number of +little semicircular doors were fixed about its sides, like inverted +arches, each closed by a blank wall. One of them would open, but only +one. + +The house was like the half of a pallid orange, fastened to the roof of +rock. Thick cables stretched in every direction for yards upon yards, +anchoring the habitation firmly, but the most striking of the things +about the house--still and quiet and innocent, like all the rest of the +rock outcropping--were the ghastly trophies fastened to the outer walls +and hanging from long silken chains below. + +Here was the hind leg of one of the smaller beetles. There was the +wing-case of a flying creature. Here a snail-shell, two feet in +diameter, hanging at the end of an inch-thick cable. There a boulder +that must have weighed thirty or forty pounds, dangling in similar +fashion. + +But fastened here and there, haphazard and irregularly, were other more +repulsive remnants. The shrunken head-armor of a beetle, the fierce jaws +of a cricket--the pitiful shreds of a hundred creatures that had formed +forgotten meals for the bloated insect within the home. + +Comparatively small as was the nest of the clotho spider, it was +decorated as no ogre's castle had ever been adorned--legs sucked dry of +their contents, corselets of horny armor forever to be unused by any +creature, a wing of this insect, the head of that. And dangling by the +longest cord of all, with a silken cable wrapped carefully about it to +keep the parts together, was the shrunken, shriveled, dried-up body of a +long-dead man! + +Outside, the nest was a place of gruesome relics. Within, it was a place +of luxury and ease. A cushion of softest down filled all the bulging +bottom of the hemisphere. A canopy of similarly luxurious texture +interposed itself between the rocky roof and the dark, hideous body of +the resting spider. + +The eyes of the hairy creature glittered like diamonds, even in the +darkness, but the loathsome, attenuated legs were tucked under the +round-bellied body, and the spider was at rest. It had fed. + +It waited, motionless, without desires or aversions, without emotions or +perplexities, in comfortable, placid, machinelike contentment until time +should bring the call to feed again. + +A fresh carcass had been added to the decorations of the nest only the +night before. For many days the spider would repose in motionless +splendor within the silken castle. When hunger came again, a nocturnal +foray, a creature would be pounced upon and slain, brought bodily to the +nest, and feasted upon, its body festooned upon the exterior, and +another half-sleeping, half-waking period of dreamful idleness within +the sybaritic charnel-house would ensue. + +Slowly and timidly, half a dozen pink-skinned creatures made their way +through the mushroom forest that led to the outcropping of rock under +which the clotho spider's nest was slung. They were men, degraded +remnants of the once dominant race. + +Burl was their leader, and was distinguished solely by two three-foot +stumps of the feathery, golden antennæ of a night-flying moth he had +bound to his forehead. In his hand was a horny, chitinous spear, taken +from the body of an unknown flying creature killed by the flames of the +burning purple hills. + +Since Burl's return from his solitary--and involuntary--journey, he had +been greatly revered by his tribe. Hitherto it had been but a +leaderless, formless group of people, creeping to the same hiding-place +at nightfall to share in the food of the fortunate, and shudder at the +fate of those who might not appear. + +Now Burl had walked boldly to them, bearing, upon his back the gray bulk +of a labyrinth spider he had slain with his own hands, and clad in +wonderful garments of a gorgeousness they envied and admired. They hung +upon his words as he struggled to tell them of his adventures, and +slowly and dimly they began to look to him for leadership. He was +wonderful. For days they had listened breathlessly to the tale of his +adventures, but when he demanded that they follow him in another and +more perilous affair, they were appalled. + +A peculiar strength of will had come to Burl. He had seen and done +things that no man in the memory of his tribe had seen or done. He had +stood by when the purple hills burned and formed a funeral pyre for the +horde of army ants, and for uncounted thousands of flying creatures. He +had caught a leaping tarantula upon the point of his spear, and had +escaped from the web of a banded web-spider by oiling his body so that +the sticky threads of the snare refused to hold him fast. He had +attacked and killed a great gray labyrinth spider. + +But most potent of all, he had returned and had been welcomed by +Saya--Saya of the swift feet and slender limbs, whose smile roused +strange emotions in Burl's breast. + +It was the adoring gaze of Saya that had roused Burl to this last pitch +of rashness. Months before the clotho spider in the hemispherical silk +castle of the gruesome decorations had killed and eaten one of the men +of the tribe. Burl and the spider's victim had been together when the +spider appeared, and the first faint gray light of morning barely +silhouetted the shaggy, horrible creature as it leaped from ambush +behind a toadstool toward the fear-stricken pair. + +Its attenuated legs were outstretched, its mandibles gaped wide, and its +jaws clashed horribly as it formed a black blotch in mid air against the +lightening sky. + +Burl had fled, screaming, when the other man was seized. Now, however, +he was leading half a dozen trembling men toward the inverted dome in +which the spider dozed. Two or three of them bore spears like Burl +himself, but they bore them awkwardly and timorously. Burl himself was +possessed by a strange, fictitious courage. It was the utter +recklessness of youth, coupled with the eternal masculine desire to +display prowess before a desired female. + +The wavering advance came to a halt. Most of the naked men stopped from +fear, but Burl stopped to invoke his newly discovered inner self, that +had furnished him with such marvelous plans. Quite accidentally he had +found that if he persistently asked himself a question, some sort of +answer came from within. + +Now he gazed up from a safe distance and asked himself how he and the +others were to slay the clotho spider. The nest was some forty feet from +the ground, on the undersurface of a shelf of rock. There was sheer open +space beneath it, but it was firmly held to its support by long, silken +cables that curled to the upper side of the rock-shelf, clinging to the +stone. + +Burl gazed, and presently an idea came to him. He beckoned to the others +to follow him, and they did so, their knees knocking together from their +fright. At the slightest alarm they would flee, screaming in fear, but +Burl did not plan that there should be any alarm. + +He led them to the rear of the singular rock formation, up the gently +sloping side, and toward the precipitous edge. He drew near the point +where the rock fell away. A long, tentacle-like silk cable curled up +over the edge of a little promontory of stone that jutted out into +nothingness. + +Burl began to feel oddly cold, and something of the panic of the other +men communicated itself to him. This was one of the anchoring cables +that held the spider's castle secure. He looked and found others, six or +seven in all, which performed the task of keeping the shaggy, horrid +ogre's home from falling to the ground below. + +His idea did not desert him, however, and he drew back, to whisper +orders to his followers. They obeyed him solely because they were +afraid, and he spoke in an authoritative tone, but they did obey, and +brought a dozen heavy boulders of perhaps forty pounds weight each. + +Burl grasped one of the silken cables at its end and tore it loose from +the rock for a space of perhaps two yards. His flesh crawled as he did +so, but something within him drove him on. Then, while beads of +perspiration stood out on his forehead--induced by nothing less than +cold, physical fear--he tied the boulder to the cable. The first one +done, he felt emboldened, and made a second fast, and a third. + +One of his men stood near the edge of the rock, listening in agonized +apprehension. Burl had soon tied a heavy stone to each of the cables he +saw, and as a matter of fact, there was but one of them he failed to +notice. That one had been covered by the flaking mold that took the +place of grass upon the rocky eminence. + +There were left upon the promontory, several of the boulders for which +there was no use, but Burl did not attempt to double the weights on the +cables. He took his followers aside and explained his plan in whispers. +Quaking, they agreed, and, trembling, they prepared to carry it out. + +One of them stationed himself beside each of the boulders, Burl at the +largest. He gave a signal, and half a dozen ripping, tearing sounds +broke the sullen silence of the day. The boulders clashed and clattered +down the rocky side of the precipice, tearing--perhaps "peeling"--the +cables from their adhesion to the stone. They shot into open space and +jerked violently at the half-globular nest, which was wrenched from its +place by the combined impetus of the six heavy weights. + +Burl had flung himself upon his face to watch what he was sure would be +the death of the spider as it fell forty feet and more, imprisoned in +its heavily weighted home. His eyes sparkled with triumph as he saw the +ghastly, trophy-laden house swing out from the cliff. Then he gasped in +terror. + +One of the cables had not been discovered. That single cable held the +spider's castle from a fall, though the nest had been torn from its +anchorage, and now dangled heavily on its side in mid air. A convulsive +struggle seemed to be going on within. + +Then one of the archlike doors opened, and the spider emerged, evidently +in terror, and confused by the light of day, but still venomous and +still deadly. It found but a single of its anchoring cables intact, that +leading to the cliff top hard by Burl's head. + +The spider sprang for this single cable, and its legs grasped the +slender thread eagerly while it began to climb rapidly up toward the +cliff top. + +As with all the creatures of Burl's time, its first thought was of +battle, not flight, and it came up the thin cord with its poison fangs +unsheathed and its mandibles clashing in rage. The shaggy hair upon its +body seemed to bristle with insane ferocity, and the horrible, thin legs +moved with desperate haste as it hastened to meet and wreak vengeance +upon the cause of its sudden alarm. + +Burl's followers fled, uttering shrieks of fear, and Burl started to his +feet, in the grip of a terrible panic. Then his hand struck one of the +heavy boulders. Exerting every ounce of his strength, he pushed it over +the cliff just where the cable appeared above the edge. For the fraction +of a second there was silence, and then the indescribable sound of an +impact against a soft body. + +There was a gasping cry, and a moment later the curiously muffled +clatter of the boulder striking the earth below. Somehow, the sound +suggested that the boulder had struck first upon some soft object. + +A faint cry came from the bottom of the hill. The last of Burl's men was +leaping to a hiding-place among the mushrooms of the forest, and had +seen the sheen of shining armor just before him. He cried out and waited +for death, but only a delicately formed wasp rose heavily into the air, +bearing beneath it the more and more feebly struggling body of a giant +cricket. + +Burl had stood paralyzed, deprived of the power of movement, after +casting the boulder over the cliff. That one action had taken the last +ounce of his initiative, and if the spider had hauled itself over the +rocky edge and darted toward him, slavering its thick spittle and +uttering sounds of mad fury, Burl would not even have screamed as it +seized him. He was like a dead thing. But the oddly muffled sound of the +boulder striking the ground below brought back hope of life and power of +movement. + +He peered over the cliff. The nest still dangled at the end of the +single cable, still freighted with its gruesome trophies, but on the +ground below a crushed and horribly writhing form was moving in +convulsions of rage and agony. + +Long, hairy legs worked desperately from a body that was no more than a +mass of pulped flesh. A ferocious jaw tried to clamp upon something--and +there was no other jaw to meet it. An evil-smelling, sticky liquid +exuded from the mangled writhing, thing upon the earth, moving in +terrible contortions of torment. + +Presently an ant drew near and extended inquisitive antennæ at the +helpless monster wounded to death. A shrill stridulation sounded out, +and three or four other foot-long ants hastened up to wait patiently +just outside the spider's reach until its struggles should have lessened +enough to make possible the salvage of flesh from the perhaps +still-living creature for the ant city a mile away. + +And Burl, up on the cliff-top, danced and gesticulated in triumph. He +had killed the clotho spider, which had slain one of the tribesmen four +months before. Glory was his. All the tribesmen had seen the spider +living. Now he would show them the spider dead. He stopped his dance of +triumph and walked down the hill in haughty grandeur. He would reproach +his timid followers for fleeing from the spider, leaving him to kill it +alone. + +Quite naïvely Burl assumed that it was his place to give orders and that +of the others to obey. True, no one had attempted to give orders before, +or to enforce their execution, but Burl had reached the eminently +wholesome conclusion that he was a wonderful person whose wishes should +be respected. + +Burl, filled with fresh notions of his own importance, strutted on +toward the hiding-place of the tribe, growing more and more angry with +the other men for having deserted him. He would reproach them, would +probably beat them. They would be afraid to protest, and in the future +would undoubtedly be afraid to run away. + +Burl was quite convinced that running away was something he could not +tolerate in his followers. Obscurely--and conveniently in the extreme +back of his mind--he reasoned that not only did a larger number of men +present at a scene of peril increase the chances of coping with the +danger, but they also increased the chances that the victim selected by +the dangerous creature would be another than himself. + +Burl's reasoning was unsophisticated, but sound; perhaps unconscious, +but none the less effective. He grew quite furious with the deserters. +They had run away! They had fled from a mere spider. + +A shrill whine filled the air, and a ten-inch ant dashed at Burl with +its mandibles extended threateningly. Burl's path had promised to +interrupt the salvaging work of the insect, engaged in scraping shreds +of flesh from the corselet of one of the smaller beetles slain the +previous night. The ant dashed at Burl like an infuriated fox-terrier, +and Burl scurried away in undignified retreat. The ant might not be +dangerous, but bites from its formic acid-poisoned mandibles were no +trifles. + +Burl came to the tangled thicket of mushrooms in which his tribefolk +hid. The entrance was tortuous and difficult to penetrate, and could be +blocked on occasion with stones and toadstool pulp. Burl made his way +toward the central clearing, and heard as he went the sound of weeping, +and the excited chatter of the tribes people. + +Those who had fled from the rocky cliff had returned with the news that +Burl was dead, and Saya lay weeping beneath an over-shadowing toadstool. +She was not yet the mate of Burl, but the time would come when all the +tribe would recognize a status dimly different from the usual tribal +relationship. + +Burl stepped into the clearing, and straightway cuffed the first man he +came upon, then the next and the next. There was a cry of astonishment, +and the next second instinctive, fearful glances at that entrance to the +hiding-place. + +Had Burl fled from the spider, and was it following? Burl spoke loftily, +saying that the spider was dead, that its legs, each one the length of a +man, were still, and its fierce jaws and deadly poison-fangs harmless +forevermore. + +Ten minutes later he was leading an incredulous, awed little group of +pink-skinned people to the spot below the cliff where the spider +actually lay dead, with the ants busily at work upon its remains. + +And when he went back to the hiding-place he donned again his great +cloak that was made from the wing of a magnificent moth, slain by the +flames of the purple hills, and sat down in splendor upon a crumbling +toadstool, to feast upon the glances of admiration and awe that were +sent toward him. Only Saya held back shyly, until he motioned for her to +draw near, when she seated herself at his feet and gazed up at him with +unutterable adoration in her eyes. + +But while Burl basked in the radiance of his tribe's admiration, danger +was drawing near them all. For many months there had been strange red +mushrooms growing slowly here and there all over the earth, they knew. +The tribefolk had speculated about them, but forebore tasting them +because they were strange, and strange things were usually dangerous and +often fatal. + +Now those red growths had ripened and grown ready to emit their spores. +Their rounded tops had grown fat, and the tough skin grew taut as if a +strange pressure were being applied from within. And to-day, while Burl +luxuriated in his position of feared and admired great man of his tribe, +at a spot a long distance away, upon a hill-top, one of the red +mushrooms burst. The spores inside the taut, tough skin shot all about +as if scattered by an explosion, and made a little cloud of reddish, +impalpable dust, which hung in the air and moved slowly with the +sluggish breeze. + +A bee droned into the thin red cloud of dust, lazily and heavily flying +back toward the hive. But barely had she entered the tinted atmosphere +when her movements became awkward and convulsive, effortful and excited. +She trembled and twisted in mid air in a peculiar fashion, then dropped +to the earth, while her abdomen moved violently. + +Bees, like almost all insects, breathe through spiracles on the +undersurfaces of their abdomens. This bee had breathed in some of the +red mushroom's spores. She thrashed about desperately upon the +toadstools on which she had fallen, struggling for breath, for life. + +After a long time she was still. The cloud of red mushroom spores had +strangled or poisoned her. And everywhere the red fringe grew, such +explosions were taking place, one by one, and wherever the red clouds +hung in the air creatures were breathing them in and dying in +convulsions of strangulation. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +The Journey + + +Darkness. The soft, blanketing night of the age of fungoids had fallen +over all the earth, and there was blackness everywhere that was not good +to have. Here and there, however, dim, bluish lights glowed near the +ground. There an intermittent glow showed that a firefly had wandered +far from the rivers and swamps above which most of his kind now +congregated. Now a faintly luminous ball of fire drifted above the +steaming, moisture-sodden earth. It was a will-o'-the-wisp, grown to a +yard in diameter. + +From the low-hanging banks of clouds that hung perpetually overhead, +large, warm raindrops fell ceaselessly. A drop, a pause, and then +another drop, added to the already dank moisture of the ground below. + +The world of fungus growths flourished on just such dampness and +humidity. It seemed as if the toadstools and mushrooms could be heard, +swelling and growing large in the darkness. Rustlings and stealthy +movements sounded furtively through the night, and from above the heavy +throb of mighty wing-beats was continuous. + +The tribe was hidden in the midst of a tangled copse of toadstools too +thickly interwoven for the larger insects to penetrate. Only the little +midgets hid in its recesses during the night-time, and the smaller moths +during the day. + +About and among the bases of the toadstools, however, where their spongy +stalks rose from the humid earth, small beetles roamed, singing +cheerfully to themselves in deep bass notes. They were small and round, +some six or eight inches long, and their bellies were pale gray. + +And as they went about they emitted sounds which would have been chirps +had they been other than low as the lowest tone of a harp. They were +truffle-beetles, in search of the dainty tidbits on which epicures once +had feasted. + +Some strange sense seemed to tell them when one of half a dozen +varieties of truffle was beneath them, and they paused in their +wandering to dig a tunnel straight down. A foot, two feet, or two yards, +all was the same to them. In time they would come upon the morsel they +sought and would remain at the bottom of their temporary home until it +was consumed. Then another period of wandering, singing their cheerful +song, until another likely spot was reached and another tunnel begun. + +In a tiny, open space in the center of the toadstool thicket the +tribefolk slept with the deep notes of the truffle-beetles in their +ears. A new danger had come to them, but they had passed it on to Burl +with a new and childlike confidence and considered the matter settled. +They slept, while beneath a glowing mushroom at one side of the clearing +Burl struggled with his new problem. He squatted upon the ground in the +dim radiance of the shining toadstool, his moth-wing cloak wrapped about +him, his spear in his hand, and his twin golden plumes of the moth's +antennæ bound to his forehead. But his face was downcast as a child's. + +The red mushrooms had begun to burst. Only that day, one of the women, +seeking edible fungus for the tribal larder, had seen the fat, distended +globule of the red mushroom. Its skin was stretched taut, and glistened +in the light. + +The woman paid little or no attention to the red growth. Her ears were +attuned to catch sounds that would warn her of danger while her eyes +searched for tidbits that would make a meal for the tribe, and more +particularly for her small son, left behind at the hiding-place. + +A ripping noise made her start up, alert on the instant. The red +envelope of the mushroom had split across the top, and a thick cloud of +brownish-red dust was spurting in every direction. It formed a pyramidal +cloud some thirty feet in height, which enlarged and grew thinner with +minor eddies within itself. + +A little yellow butterfly with wings barely a yard from tip to tip, +flapped lazily above the mushroom-covered plain. Its wings beat the air +with strokes that seemed like playful taps upon a friendly element. The +butterfly was literally intoxicated with the sheer joy of living. It had +emerged from its cocoon barely two hours before, and was making its +maiden flight above the strange and wonderful world. It fluttered +carelessly into the red-brown cloud of mushroom spores. + +The woman was watching the slowly changing form of the spore-mist. She +saw the butterfly enter the brownish dust, and then her eyes became +greedy. There was something the matter with the butterfly. Its wings no +longer moved lazily and gently. They struck out in frenzied, hysterical +blows that were erratic and wild. The little yellow creature no longer +floated lightly and easily, but dashed here and there, wildly and +without purpose, seeming to be in its death-throes. + +It crashed helplessly against the ground and lay there, moving feebly. +The woman hurried forward. The wings would be new fabric with which to +adorn herself, and the fragile legs of the butterfly contained choice +meat. She entered the dust-cloud. + +A stream of intolerable fire--though the woman had never seen or known +of fire--burned her nostrils and seared her lungs. She gasped in pain, +and the agony was redoubled. Her eyes smarted as if burning from their +sockets, and tears blinded her. + +The woman instinctively turned about to flee, but before she had gone a +dozen yards--blinded as she was--she stumbled and fell to the ground. +She lay there, gasping, and uttering moans of pain, until one of the men +of the tribe who had been engaged in foraging near by saw her and tried +to find what had injured her. + +She could not speak, and he was about to leave her and tell the other +tribefolk about her when he heard the clicking of an ant's limbs, and +rather than have the ant pick her to pieces bit by bit--and leave his +curiosity ungratified--the man put her across his shoulders and bore her +back to the hiding-place of the tribe. + +It was the tale the woman had told when she partly recovered that caused +Burl to sit alone all that night beneath the shining toadstool in the +little clearing, puzzling his just-awakened brain to know what to do. + +The year before there had been no red mushrooms. They had appeared only +recently, but Burl dimly remembered that one day, a long time before, +there had been a strange breeze which blew for three day and nights, and +that during the time of its blowing all the tribe had been sick and had +wept continually. + +Burl had not yet reached the point of mental development when he would +associate that breeze with a storm at a distance, or reason that the +spores of the red mushrooms had been borne upon the wind to the present +resting-places of the deadly fungus growths. Still less could he decide +that the breeze had not been deadly only because it was lightly laden +with the fatal dust. + +He knew simply that unknown red mushrooms had appeared, that they were +everywhere about, and that they would burst, and that to breathe the +red dust they gave out was grievous sickness or death. + +The tribe slept while the bravely attired figure of Burl squatted under +the glowing disk of the luminous mushroom, his face a picture of +querulous perplexity, and his heart full of sadness. + +He had consulted his strange inner self, and no plan had come to him. He +knew the red mushrooms were all about. They would fill the air with +their poison. He struggled with his problem while his people slumbered, +and the woman who had breathed the mushroom-dust sobbed softly in her +troubled sleep. + +Presently a figure stirred on the farther side of the clearing. Saya +woke and raised her head. She saw Burl crouching by the shining +toadstool, his gay attire draggled and unnoticed. She watched him for a +little, and the desolation of his pose awoke her pity. + +She rose and went to his side, taking his hand between her two, while +she spoke his name softly. When he turned and looked at her, confusion +smote her, but the misery in his face brought confidence again. + +Burl's sorrow was inarticulate--he could not explain this new +responsibility for his people that had come to him--but he was comforted +by her presence, and she sat down beside him. After a long time she +slept, with her head resting against his side, but he continued to +question himself, continued to demand an escape for his people from the +suffering and danger he saw ahead. With the day an answer came. + +When Burl had been carried down the river on his fungus raft, and had +landed in the country of the army ants, he had seen great forests of +edible mushrooms, and had said to himself that he would bring Saya to +that place. He remembered, now, that the red mushrooms were there also, +but the idea of a journey remained. + +The hunting-ground of his tribe had been free of the red fungoids until +recently. If he traveled far enough he would come to a place where there +were still no red toadstools. Then came the decision. He would lead his +tribe to a far country. + +He spoke with stern authority when the tribesmen woke, talking in few +words and in a loud voice, holding up his spear as he gave his orders. + +The timid, pink-skinned people obeyed him meekly. They had seen the body +of the clotho spider he had slain, and he had thrown down before them +the gray bulk of the labyrinth spider he had thrust through with his +spear. Now he was to take them through unknown dangers to an unknown +haven, but they feared to displease him. + +They made light loads of their mushrooms and such meat-stuffs as they +had, and parceled out what little fabric they still possessed. Three men +bore spears, in addition to Burl's long shaft, and he had persuaded the +other three to carry clubs, showing them how the weapon should be +wielded. + +The indefinitely brighter spot in the cloud-banks above that meant the +shining sun had barely gone a quarter of the way across the sky when the +trembling band of timid creatures made their way from their hiding-place +and set out upon their journey. For their course, Burl depended entirely +upon chance. He avoided the direction of the river, however, and the +path along which he had returned to his people. He knew the red +mushrooms grew there. Purely by accident he set his march toward the +west, and walked cautiously on, his tribesfolk following him fearfully. + +Burl walked ahead, his spear held ready. He made a figure at once brave +and pathetic, venturing forth in a world of monstrous ferocity and +incredible malignance, armed only with a horny spear borrowed from a +dead insect. His velvety cloak, made from a moth's wing, hung about his +figure in graceful folds, however, and twin golden plumes nodded +jauntily from his forehead. + +Behind him the nearly naked people followed reluctantly. Here a woman +with a baby in her arms, there children of nine or ten, unable to resist +the Instinct to play even in the presence of the manifold dangers of the +march. They ate hungrily of the lumps of mushroom they had been ordered +to carry. Then a long-legged boy, his eyes roving anxiously about in +search of danger followed. + +Thirty thousand years of flight from every peril had deeply submerged +the combative nature of humanity. After the boy came two men, one with a +short spear, and the other with a club, each with a huge mass of edible +mushroom under his free arm, and both badly frightened at the idea of +fleeing from dangers they knew and feared to dangers they did not know +and consequently feared much more. + +So was the caravan spread out. It made its way across the country with +many deviations from a fixed line, and with many halts and pauses. Once +a shrill stridulation filled all the air before them, a monster sound +compounded of innumerable clickings and high-pitched cries. + +They came to the tip of an eminence and saw a great space of ground +covered with tiny black bodies locked in combat. For quite half a mile +in either direction the earth was black with ants, snapping and biting +at each other, locked in vise-like embraces, each combatant couple +trampled under the feet of the contending armies, with no thought of +surrender or quarter. + +The sound of the clashing of fierce jaws upon horny armor, the cries of +the maimed, and strange sounds made by the dying, and above all, the +whining battle-cry of each of the fighting hordes, made a sustained +uproar that was almost deafening. + +From either side of the battle-ground a pathway led back to separate +ant-cities, a pathway marked by the hurrying groups of reinforcements +rushing to the fight. Tiny as the ants were, for once no lumbering +beetle swaggered insolently in their path, nor did the hunting-spiders +mark them out for prey. Only little creatures smaller than the +combatants themselves made use of the insect war for purposes of their +own. + +These were little gray ants barely more than four inches long, who +scurried about in and among the fighting creatures with marvelous +dexterity, carrying off, piece-meal, the bodies of the dead, and slaying +the wounded for the same fate. + +They hung about the edges of the battle, and invaded the abandoned areas +when the tide of battle shifted, insect guerrillas, fighting for their +own hands, careless of the origin of the quarrel, espousing no cause, +simply salvaging the dead and living débris of the combat. + +Burl and his little group of followers had to make a wide detour to +avoid the battle itself, and the passage between bodies of +reinforcements hurrying to the scene of strife was a matter of some +difficulty. The ants running rapidly toward the battle-field were hugely +excited. Their antennæ waved wildly, and the infrequent wounded one, +limping back toward the city, was instantly and repeatedly challenged by +the advancing insects. + +They crossed their antennæ upon his, and required thorough evidence that +he was of the proper city before allowing him to proceed. Once they +arrived at the battle-field they flung themselves into the fray, +becoming lost and indistinguishable in the tide of straining, fighting +black bodies. + +Men in such a battle, without distinguishing marks or battle-cries, +would have fought among themselves as often as against their foes, but +the ants had a much simpler method of identification. Each ant-city +possesses its individual odor--a variant on the scent of formic +acid--and each individual of that city is recognized in his world quite +simply and surely by the way he smells. + +The little tribe of human beings passed precariously behind a group of a +hundred excited insect warriors, and before the following group of forty +equally excited black insects. Burl hurried on with his following, +putting many miles of perilous territory behind before nightfall. Many +times during the day they saw the sudden billowing of a red-brown +dust-cloud from the earth, and more than once they came upon the empty +skin and drooping stalk of one of the red mushrooms, and more often +still they came upon the mushrooms themselves, grown fat and taut, +prepared to send their deadly spores into the air when the pressure from +within became more than the leathery skin could stand. + +That night the tribe hid among the bases of giant puff-balls, which at a +touch shot out a puff of white powder resembling smoke. The powder was +precisely the same in nature as that cast out by the red mushrooms, but +its effects were marvelously--and mercifully--different; it was +innocuous. + +Burl slept soundly this night, having been two days and a night without +rest, but the remainder of his tribe, and even Saya, were fearful and +afraid, listening ceaselessly all through the dark hours for the +menacing sounds of creatures coming to prey upon them. + +And so for a week the march kept on. Burl would not allow his tribe to +stop to forage for food. The red mushrooms were all about. Once one of +the little children was caught in a whirling eddy of red dust, and its +mother rushed into the deadly stuff to seize it and bring it out. Then +the tribe had to hide for three days while the two of them recovered +from the debilitating poison. + +Once, too, they found a half-acre patch of the giant cabbages--there +were six of them full grown, and a dozen or more smaller ones--and Burl +took two men and speared two of the huge, twelve-foot slugs that fed +upon the leaves. When the tribe passed on it was gorged on the fat meat +of the slugs, and there was much soft fur, so that all the tribefolk +wore loin-cloths of the yellow stuff. + +There were perils, too, in the journey. On the fourth day of the tribe's +traveling, Burl froze suddenly into stillness. One of the hairy +tarantulas--a trap-door spider with a black belly--had fallen upon a +scarabæus beetle, and was devouring it only a hundred yards ahead. + +The tribefolk, trembling, went back for half a mile or more in +panic-stricken silence, and refused to advance until he had led them a +detour of two or three miles to one side of the dangerous spot. + +Long, fear-ridden marches through perilous countries unknown to them, +through the golden aisles of yellow mushroom forests, over the flaking +surfaces of plains covered with many-colored "rusts" and molds; pauses +beside turbid pools whose waters were concealed by thick layers of green +slime, and other evil-smelling ponds which foamed and bubbled slowly, +which were covered with pasty yeasts that rose in strange forms of +discolored foam. + +Fleeting glimpses they had of the glistening spokes of symmetrical +spiders'-webs, whose least thread it would have been beyond the power of +the strongest of the tribe to break. They passed through a forest of +puff-balls, which boomed when touched and shot a puff of vapor from +their open mouths. + +Once they saw a long and sinuous insect that fled before them and +disappeared into a burrow in the ground, running with incredible speed +upon legs of uncountable number. It was a centipede all of thirty feet +in length, and when they crossed the path it had followed a horrible +stench came to their nostrils so that they hurried on. + +Long escape from unguessed dangers brought boldness, of a sort, to the +pink-skinned men, and they would have rested. They went to Burl with +their complaint, and he simply pointed with his hands behind them. There +were three little clouds of brownish vapor in the air, where they could +see, along the road they had traversed. To the right of them a +dust-cloud was just settling, and to the left another rose as they +looked. + +A new trick of the deadly dust became apparent now. Toward the end of a +day in which they had traveled a long distance, one of the little +children ran a little to the left of the route its elders were +following. The earth had taken on a brownish hue, and the child stirred +up the surface mould with its feet. + +The brownish dust that had settled there was raised again, and the child +ran, crying and choking, to its mother, its lungs burning as with fire, +and its eyes like hot coals. Another day would pass before the child +could walk. + +In a strange country, knowing nothing of the dangers that might assail +the tribe while waiting for the child to recover, Burl looked about for +a hiding-place. Far over to the right a low cliff, perhaps twenty or +thirty feet high, showed sides of crumbling, yellow clay, and from where +Burl stood he could see the dark openings of burrows scattered here and +there upon its face. + +He watched for a time, to see if any bee or wasp inhabited them, knowing +that many kinds of both insects dig burrows for their young, and do not +occupy them themselves. No dark forms appeared, however, and he led his +people toward the openings. + +The appearance of the holes confirmed his surmise. They had been dug +months before by mining bees, and the entrances were "weathered" and +worn. The tribefolk made their way into the three-foot tunnels, and hid +themselves, seizing the opportunity to gorge themselves upon the food +they carried. + +Burl stationed himself near the outer end of one of the little caves to +watch for signs of danger. While waiting he poked curiously with his +spear at a little pile of white and sticky parchment-like stuff he saw +just within the mouth of the tunnel. + +Instantly movement became visible. Fifty, sixty, or a hundred tiny +creatures, no more than half an inch in length, tumbled pell-mell from +the dirty-white heap. Awkward legs, tiny, greenish-black bodies, and +bristles protruding in every direction made them strange to look upon. + +They had tumbled from the whitish heap and now they made haste to hide +themselves in it again, moving slowly and clumsily, with immense effort +and laborious contortions of their bodies. + +Burl had never seen any insect progress in such a slow and ineffective +fashion before. He drew one little insect back with the point of his +spear and examined it from a safe distance. Tiny jaws before the head +met like twin sickles, and the whole body was shaped like a rounded +diamond lozenge. + +Burl knew that no insect of such small size could be dangerous, and +leaned over, then took one creature in his hand. It wriggled frantically +and slipped from his fingers, dropping upon the soft yellow +caterpillar-fur he had about his middle. Instantly, as if it were a +conjuring trick, the little insect vanished, and Burl searched for a +matter of minutes before he found it hidden deep in the long, soft hairs +of the fur, resting motionless, and evidently at ease. + +It was a bee-louse, the first larval form of a beetle whose horny armor +could be seen in fragments for yards before the clayey cliff-side. +Hidden in the openings of the bee's tunnel, it waited until the +bee-grubs farther back in their separate cells should complete their +changes of form and emerge into the open air, passing over the cluster +of tiny creatures at the doorway. As the bees pass, the little bee-lice +would clamber in eager haste up their hairy legs and come to rest in the +fur about their thoraxes. Then, weeks later, when the bees in turn made +other cells and stocked them with honey for the eggs they would lay, the +tiny creatures would slip from their resting-places and be left behind +in the fully provisioned cell, to eat not only the honey the bee had so +laboriously acquired, but the very grub hatched from the bee's egg. + +Burl had no difficulty in detaching the small insect and casting it +away, but in doing so discovered three more that had hidden themselves +in his furry garment, no doubt thinking it the coat of their natural, +though unwilling hosts. He plucked them away, and discovered more, and +more. His garment was the hiding-place for dozens of the creatures. + +Disgusted and annoyed, he went out of the cavern and to a spot some +distance away, where he took off his robe and pounded it with the flat +side of his spear to dislodge the visitors. They dropped out one by +one, reluctantly, and finally the garment was clean of them. Then Burl +heard a shout from the direction of the mining-bee caves, and hastened +toward the sound. + +It was then drawing toward the time of darkness, but one of the +tribesmen had ventured out and found no less than three of the great +imperial mushrooms. Of the three, one had been attacked by a parasitic +purple mould, but the gorgeous yellow of the other two was undimmed, and +the people were soon feasting upon the firm flesh. + +Burl felt a little pang of jealousy, though he joined in the consumption +of the find as readily as the others, and presently drew a little to one +side. + +He cast his eyes across the country, level and unbroken as far as the +eye could see. The small clay cliff was the only inequality visible, and +its height cut off all vision on one side. But the view toward the +horizon was unobstructed on three sides, and here and there the black +speck of a monster bee could be seen, droning homeward to its hive or +burrow, and sometimes the slender form of a wasp passed overhead, its +transparent wings invisible from the rapidity of their vibrations. + +These flew high in the air, but lower down, barely skimming the tops of +the many-colored mushrooms and toadstools, fluttering lightly above the +swollen fungoids, and touching their dainty proboscides to unspeakable +things in default of the fragrant flowers that were normal food for +their races--lower down flew the multitudes of butterflies the age of +mushrooms had produced. + +White and yellow and red and brown, pink and blue and purple and green, +every shade and every color, every size and almost every shape, they +flitted gaily in the air. There were some so tiny that they would barely +have shaded Burl's face, and some beneath whose slender bodies he could +have hidden himself. They flew in a riot of colors and tints above a +world of foul mushroom growths, and turgid, slime-covered ponds. + +Burl, temporarily out of the limelight because of the discovery of a +store of food by another member of the tribe, bethought himself of an +idea. Soon night would come on, the cloud-bank would turn red in the +west, and then darkness would lean downward from the sky. With the +coming of that time these creatures of the day would seek hiding-places, +and the air would be given over to the furry moths that flew by night. +He, Burl, would mark the spot where one of the larger creatures +alighted, and would creep up upon it, with his spear held fast. + +His wide blue eyes brightened at the thought, and he sat himself down to +watch. After a long time the soft, down-reaching fingers of the night +touched the shaded aisles of the mushroom forests, and a gentle haze +arose above the golden glades. One by one the gorgeous fliers of the +daytime dipped down and furled their painted wings. The overhanging +clouds became darker--finally black, and the slow, deliberate rainfall +that lasted all through the night began. Burl rose and crept away into +the darkness, his spear held in readiness. + +Through the black night, beneath deeper blacknesses which were the dark +undersides of huge toadstools, creeping silently, with every sense +alert for sign of danger or for hope of giant prey, Burl made his slow +advance. + +A glorious butterfly of purple and yellow markings, whose wings spread +out for three yards on either side of its delicately formed body, had +hidden itself barely two hundred yards away. Burl could imagine it, now, +preening its slender limbs and combing from its long and slender +proboscis any trace of the delectable foodstuffs on which it had fed +during the day. Burl moved slowly and cautiously forward, all eyes and +ears. + +He heard an indescribable sound in a thicket a little to his left, and +shifted his course. The sound was the faint whistling of air through the +breathing-holes along an insect's abdomen. Then came the delicate +rustling of filmy wings being stretched and closed again, and the +movement of sharply barbed feet upon the soft earth. Burl moved in +breathless silence, holding his spear before him in readiness to plunge +it into the gigantic butterfly's soft body. + +The mushrooms here were grown thickly together, so there was no room for +Burl's body to pass between their stalks, and the rounded heads were +deformed and misshapen from their crowdings. Burl spent precious moments +in trying to force a silent passage, but had to own himself beaten. Then +he clambered up upon the spongy mass of mushroom heads, trusting to luck +that they would sustain his weight. + +The blackness was intense, so that even the forms of objects before him +were lost in obscurity. He moved forward for some ten yards, however, +walking gingerly over his precarious foothold. Then he felt rather than +saw the opening before him. A body moved below him. + +Burl raised his spear, and with a yell plunged down on the back of the +moving thing, thrusting his spear with all the force he could command. +He landed on a shifting form, but his yell of triumph turned to a scream +of terror. + +This was not the yielding body of a slender butterfly that he had come +upon, nor had his spear penetrated the creature's soft flesh. He had +fallen upon the shining back of one of the huge, meat-eating beetles, +and his spear had slid across the horny armor, and then stuck fast, +having pierced only the leathery tissue between the insect's head and +thorax. + +Burl's terror was pitiable at the realization, but as nothing to the +ultimate panic which possessed him when the creature beneath him uttered +a grunt of fright and pain, and, spreading its stiff wing-cases wide, +shot upward in a crazy, panic-stricken, rocket-like flight toward the +sky. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +The Sexton-Beetles + + +Burl fell headforemost upon the spongy top of a huge toadstool that +split with the impact and let him through to the ground beneath, +powdering him with its fine spores. He came to rest with his naked +shoulder half-way through the yielding flesh of a mushroom-stalk, and +lay there for a second, catching his breath to scream again. + +Then he heard the whining buzz of his attempted prey. There was +something wrong with the beetle. Burl's spear had struck it in an +awkward spot, and it was rocketing upward in erratic flight that ended +in a crash two or three hundreds yards away. + +Burl sprang up in an instant. Perhaps, despite his mistake, he had slain +this infinitely more worthy victim. He rushed toward the spot where it +had fallen. + +His wide blue eyes pierced the darkness well enough to enable him to +sheer off from masses of toadstools, but he could distinguish no +details--nothing but forms. He heard the beetle floundering upon the +ground; then heard it mount again into the air, more clumsily than +before. + +Its wing-beats no longer kept up a sustained note. They thrashed the air +irregularly and wildly. The flight was zigzag and uncertain, and though +longer than the first had been, it ended similarly, in a heavy fall. +Another period of floundering, and the beetle took to the air again just +before Burl arrived at the spot. + +It was obviously seriously hurt, and Burl forgot the dangers of the +night in his absorption in the chase. He darted after his prey, +fleet-footed and agile, taking chances that in cold blood he would never +have thought of. + +Twice, in the pain-racked struggles of the monster beetle, he arrived at +the spot where the gigantic insect flung itself about madly, insanely, +fighting it knew not what, striking out with colossal wings and legs, +dazed and drunk with agony. And each time it managed to get aloft in +flight that was weaker and more purposeless. + +Crazy, fleeing from the torturing spear that pierced its very vitals, +the beetle blundered here and there, floundering among the mushroom +thickets in spasms that were constantly more prolonged and more +agonized, but nevertheless flying heavily, lurching drunkenly, managing +to graze the tops of the toadstools in one more despairing, tormented +flight. + +And Burl followed, aflame with the fire of the chase, arriving at the +scene of each successive, panic-stricken struggle on the ground just +after the beetle had taken flight again, but constantly more closely on +the heels of the weakening monster. + +At last he came up panting, and found the giant lying upon the earth, +moving feebly, apparently unable to rise. How far he was from the tribe, +Burl did not know, nor did the question occur to him at the moment. He +waited for the beetle to be still, trembling with excitement and +eagerness. The struggles of the huge form grew more feeble, and at last +ceased. Burl moved forward and grasped his spear. He wrenched at it to +thrust again. + +In an instant the beetle had roused itself, and was exerting its last +atom of strength, galvanized into action by the agony caused by Burl's +seizure of the spear. A great wing-cover knocked Burl twenty feet, and +flung him against the base of a mushroom, where he lay, half stunned. +But then a strangely pungent scent came to his nostrils--the scent of +the red mushrooms! + +He staggered to his feet and fled, while behind him the gigantic beetle +crashed and floundered--Burl heard a tearing and ripping sound. The +insect had torn the covering of one of the red mushrooms, tightly packed +with the fatal red dust. At the noise, Burl's speed was doubled, but he +could still hear the frantic struggles of the dying beetle grow to a +very crescendo of desperation. + +The creature broke free and managed to rise in a final flight, fighting +for breath and life, weakened and tortured by the spear and the horrible +spores of the red mushrooms. Then it crashed suddenly to the earth and +was still. The red dust had killed it. + +In time to come, Burl might learn to use the red dust as poison gas had +been used by his ancestors of thirty thousand years before, but now he +was frightened and alone, lost from his tribe, and with no faintest +notion of how to find them. He crouched beneath a huge toadstool and +waited for dawn, listening with terrified apprehension for the ripping +sound that would mean the bursting of another of the red mushrooms. + +Only the wing beats of night-flying creatures came to his ears, however, +and the discordant noises of the four-foot truffle-beetles as they +roamed the aisles of the mushroom forests, seeking the places beneath +which their instinct told them fungoid dainties awaited the courageous +miner. The eternal dripping of the raindrops falling at long intervals +from the overhanging clouds formed a soft obbligato to the whole. + +Burl listened, knowing there were red toadstools all about, but not once +during the whole of the long, dark hours did the rending noise tell of a +bursting fungus casting loose its freight of deadly dust upon the air. +Only when day came again, and the chill dampness of the night was +succeeded by the steaming humidity of the morning, did a tall pyramid of +brownish-red stuff leap suddenly into the air from a ripped mushroom +covering. + +Then Burl stood up and looked around. Here and there, all over the whole +countryside, slowly and at intervals, the cones of fatal red sprang into +the air. Had Burl lived thirty thousand years earlier, he might have +likened the effect to that of shells bursting from a leisurely +bombardment, but as it was he saw in them only fresh and inexorable +dangers added to an already peril-ridden existence. + +A hundred yards from where he had hidden during the night the body of +his victim lay, crumpled up and limp. Burl approached speculatively. He +had come even before the ants appeared to take their toll of the +carcass, and not even a buzzing flesh-fly had placed its maggots on the +unresisting form. + +The long, whiplike antennæ lay upon the carpet of mold and rust, and the +fiercely toothed legs were drawn close against the body. The +many-faceted eyes stared unseeingly, and the stiff and horny wing-cases +were rent and torn. + +When Burl went to the other side of the dead beetle he saw something +that filled him with elation. His spear had been held between his body +and the beetle's during that mad flight, and at the final crash, when +Burl shot away from the fear-crazed insect, the weight of his body had +forced the spearpoint between the joints of the corselet and the neck. +Even if the red dust had not finished the creature, the spear wound in +time would have ended its life. + +Burl was thrilled once more by his superlative greatness, and +conveniently forgot that it was the red dust that had actually +administered the _coup de grâce_. It was so much more pleasant to look +upon himself as the mighty slayer that he hacked off one of the +barb-edged limbs to carry back to his tribe in evidence of his feat. He +took the long antennæ, too, as further proof. + +Then he remembered that he did not know where his tribe was to be found. +He had no faintest idea of the direction in which the beetle had flown. +As a matter of fact, the course of the beetle had been in turn directed +toward every point of the compass, and there was no possible way of +telling the relation of its final landing-place to the point from which +it had started. + +Burl wrestled with his problem for an hour, and then gave up in disgust. +He set off at random, with the leg of the huge insect flung over his +shoulder and the long antennæ clasped in his hand with his spear. He +turned to look at his victim of the night before just before plunging +into the near-by mushroom forest, and saw that it was already the center +of a mass of tiny black bodies, pulling and hacking at the tough armor, +and carving out great lumps of the succulent flesh to be carried to the +near-by ant city. + +In the teeming life of the insect world death is an opportunity for the +survivors. There is a strangely tense and fearful competition for the +bodies of the slain. There had been barely an hour of daylight in which +the ants might seek for provender, yet in that little time the freshly +killed beetle had been found and was being skilfully and carefully +exploited. When the body of one of the larger insects fell to the +ground, there was a mighty rush, a fierce race, among all the tribes of +scavengers to see who should be first. + +Usually the ants had come upon the scene and were inquisitively +exploring the carcass long before even the flesh-flies had arrived, who +dropped their living maggots upon the creature. The blue-bottles came +still later, to daub their masses of white eggs about the delicate +membranes of the eye. + +And while all the preceding scavengers were at work, furtive beetles and +tiny insects burrowed below the reeking body to attack the highly +scented flesh from a fresh angle. + +Each working independently of the others, they commonly appeared in the +order of the delicacy of the sense which could lead them to a source of +food, though accident could and sometimes did afford one group of +workers in putrescence an advantage over the others. + +Thus, sometimes a blue-bottle anticipated even the eager ants, and again +the very flesh-flies dropped their squirming offspring upon a limp form +that was already being undermined by white-bellied things working in the +darkness below the body. + +Burl grimaced at the busy ants and buzzing flies, and disappeared into +the mushroom forest. Here for a long time he moved cautiously and +silently through the aisles of tangled stalks and the spongy, round +heads of the fungoids. Now and then he saw one of the red toadstools, +and made a wide detour around it. Twice they burst within his sight, +circumscribed as his vision was by the toadstools among which he was +traveling. + +Each time he ran hastily to put as much distance as possible between +himself and the deadly red dust. He traveled for an hour or more, +looking constantly for familiar landmarks that might guide him to his +tribe. He knew that if he came upon any place he had seen while with his +tribe he could follow the path they had traveled and in time rejoin +them. + +For many hours he went on, alert for signs of danger. He was quite +ignorant of the fact that there were such things as points of the +compass, and though he had a distinct notion that he was not moving in a +straight line, he did not realize that he was actually moving in a +colossal half-circle. After walking steadily for nearly four hours he +was no more than three miles in a direct line from his starting-point. +As it happened, his uncertainty of direction was fortunate. + +The night before the tribe had been feeding happily upon one of the +immense edible mushrooms, when they heard Burl's abruptly changing cry. +It had begun as a shout of triumph, and ended as a scream of fear. Then +they heard hurried wing-beats as a creature rose into the air in a +scurry of desperation. The throbbing of huge wings ended in a heavy +fall, followed by another flight. + +Velvety darkness masked the sky, and the tribesmen could only stare off +into the blackness, where their leader had vanished, and begin to +tremble, wondering what they should do in a strange country with no bold +chief to guide them. + +He was the first man to whom the tribe had ever offered allegiance, but +their submission had been all the more complete for that fact, and his +loss was the more appalling. + +Burl had mistaken their lack of timidity. He had thought it +independence, and indifference to him. As a matter of fact, it was +security because the tribe felt safe under his tutelage. Now that he had +vanished, and in a fashion that seemed to mean his death, their old +fears returned to them reenforced by the strangeness of their +surroundings. + +They huddled together and whispered their fright to one another, +listening the while in panic-stricken apprehension for signs of danger. +The tribesmen visualized Burl caught in fiercely toothed limbs, being +rent and torn in mid air by horny, insatiable jaws, his blood falling in +great spurts toward the earth below. They caught a faint, reedy cry, and +shuddered, pressing closer together. + +And so through the long night they waited in trembling silence. Had a +hunting spider appeared among them they would not have lifted a hand to +defend themselves, but would have fled despairingly, would probably have +scattered and lost touch with one another, and spent the remainder of +their lives as solitary fugitives, snatching fear-ridden rest in strange +hiding-places. + +But day came again, and they looked into each other's eyes, reading in +each the selfsame panic and fear. Saya was probably the most pitiful of +all the group. Burl was to have been her mate, and her face was white +and drawn beyond that of any of the rest of the tribefolk. + +With the day, they did not move, but remained clustered about the huge +mushroom on which they had been feeding the night before. They spoke in +hushed and fearful tones, huddled together, searching all the horizon +for insect enemies. Saya would not eat, but sat still, staring before +her in unseeing indifference. Burl was dead. + +A hundred yards from where they crouched a red mushroom glistened in the +pale light of the new day. Its tough skin was taut and bulging, +resisting the pressure of the spores within. But slowly, as the morning +wore on, some of the moisture that had kept the skin soft and flaccid +during the night evaporated. + +The skin had a strong tendency to contract, like green leather when +drying. The spores within it strove to expand. The opposing forces +produced a tension that grew greater and greater as more and more of the +moisture was absorbed by the air. At last the skin could hold no longer. + +With a ripping sound that could be heard for hundreds of feet, the tough +wrapping split and tore across its top, and with a hollow, booming noise +the compressed mass of deadly spores rushed into the air, making a +pyramidal cloud of brown-red dust some sixty feet in height. + +The tribesmen quivered at the noise and faced the dust cloud for a +fleeting instant, then ran pell-mell to escape the slowly moving tide of +death as the almost imperceptible breeze wafted it slowly toward them. +Men and women, boys and girls, they fled in a mad rush from the deadly +stuff, not pausing to see that even as it advanced it settled slowly to +the ground, nor stopping to observe its path that they might step aside +and let it go safely by. + +Saya fled with the rest, but without their extreme panic. She fled +because the others had done so, and ran more carelessly, struggling with +a half-formed idea that it did not particularly matter whether she were +caught or not. + +She fell slightly behind the others, without being noticed. Then quite +abruptly a stone turned under her foot, and she fell headlong, striking +her head violently against a second stone. Then she lay quite still +while the red cloud billowed slowly toward her, drifting gently in the +faint, hardly perceptible breeze. + +It drew nearer and nearer, settling slowly, but still a huge and +menacing mass of deadly dust. It gradually flattened out, too, so that +though it had been a rounded cone at first, it flowed over the minor +inequalities of the ground as a huge and tenuous leech might have +crawled, sucking from all breathing creatures the life they had within +them. + +A hundred and fifty yards away, a hundred yards away, then only fifty +yards away. From where Saya lay unconscious on the earth, eddies within +the moving mass could be seen, and the edges took on a striated +appearance, telling of the curling of the dust wreaths in the larger +mass of deadly powder. + +The deliberate advance kept on, seeming almost purposeful. It would have +seemed possible to draw from the unhurried, menacing movement of the +poisonous stuff that some malign intelligence was concealed in it, that +it was, in fact, a living creature. But when the misty edges of the +cloud were no more than twenty-five yards from Saya's prostrate body a +breeze from one side sprang up--a vagrant, fitful little breeze, that +first halted the red cloud and threw it into confusion and then drove it +to one side, so that it passed Saya without harming her, though a single +trailing wisp of dark-red mist floated very close to her. + +Then for a time Saya lay still indeed, only her breast rising and +falling gently with faint and irregular breaths. Her head had struck a +sharp-edged stone in her fall, and a tiny pool of sticky red had +gathered from the wound. + +Perhaps thirty feet from where she lay, three small toadstools grew in a +little clump, their bases so close together that they seemed but one. +From between two of them, however, just where they parted, twin tufts of +reddish threads appeared, twinkling back and forth, and in and out. As +if they had given some reassuring sign, two slender antennæ followed, +then bulging eyes, and then a small black body which had bright-red +scalloped markings upon the wing-cases. + +It was a tiny beetle no more than eight inches long--a burying-beetle. +It drew near Saya's body and clambered upon her, explored the ground by +her side, moving all the time in feverish haste, and at last dived into +the ground beneath her shoulder, casting back a little shower of hastily +dug earth as it disappeared. + +Ten minutes later another similar insect appeared, and upon the heels of +the second a third. Each of them made the same hasty examination, and +each dived under the still form. Presently the earth seemed to billow at +a spot along Saya's side, then at another. Perhaps ten minutes after the +arrival of the third beetle a little rampart had reared itself all about +Saya's body, precisely following the outline of her form. Then her body +moved slightly, in a number of tiny jerks, and seemed to settle perhaps +half an inch into the ground. + +The burying beetles were of those who exploited the bodies of the +fallen. Working from below, they excavated the earth from the under side +of such prizes as they came upon, then turned upon their backs and +thrust with their legs, jerking the body so it sank into the shallow +excavation they had prepared. + +The process would be repeated until at last the whole of the gift of +fortune had sunk below the surrounding surface and the loosened earth +fell in upon the top, thus completing the inhumation. + +Then in the darkness the beetles would feast and rear their young, +gorging upon the plentiful supply of succulent foodstuff they had hidden +from jealous fellow scavengers above them. + +But Saya was alive. Thirty thousand years before, when scientists +examined into the habits of the burying-beetles, or the sexton-beetles, +they had declared that fresh meat or living meat would not be touched. +They based their statement solely upon the fact that the insects (then +tiny creatures indeed) did not appear until the trap-meat placed by the +investigators had remained untouched for days. + +Conditions had changed in thirty thousand years. The ever-present ants +and the sharp-eyed flies were keen rivals of the brightly arrayed +beetles. Usually the tribes of creatures who worked in the darkness +below ground came after the ants had taken their toll, and the flies +sipped daintily. + +When Saya fell unconscious upon the ground, however, it was the one +accident that caused the burying-beetle to find her first, before the +ants had come to tear the flesh from her slender, soft-skinned body. She +breathed gently and irregularly, her face drawn with the sorrow of the +night before, while desperately hurrying beetles swarmed beneath her +body, channeling away the earth so that she would sink lower and lower +into the ground. + +An inch, and a long wait. Then she sank slowly a second inch. The +bright-red tufts of thread appeared again, and a beetle made his way to +the open air. He moved hastily about, inspecting the progress of the +work. He dived below again. Another inch, and after a long time another +inch was excavated. + +Burl stepped out from a group of over-shadowing toadstools and halted. +He cast his eyes over the landscape, and was struck by its familiarity. +It was, in point of fact, very near the spot he had left the night +before, in pursuit of a colossal wounded beetle. + +Burl moved back and forth, trying to account for the sensation of +recognition, and then trying to approximate the place from which he had +last seen it. + +He passed within fifty feet of the spot where Saya lay, now half buried +in the ground. The loose earth cast up about her body had begun to fall +in little rivulets upon her. One of her shoulders was already screened +from view. + +Burl passed on, unseeing. He was puzzling over the direction from which +he had seen the particular section of countryside before him. Perhaps a +little farther on he would come to the place. He hurried a little. In a +moment he recognized his location. There was the great edible mushroom, +half broken away, from which the tribe had been feeding. There were the +mining bee burrows. + +His feet stirred up a fine dust, and he stopped short. A red mushroom +had covered the earth with a thin layer of its impalpable, deadly +powder. Burl understood why the tribe had gone, and a cold sweat came +upon his body. Was Saya safe, or had the whole tribe succumbed to the +poisonous stuff? Had they all, men and women and children, died in +convulsions of gasping strangulation? + +He hurried to retrace his footsteps. There was a fragment of mushrooms +on the ground. Here was a spear, cast away by one of the tribesmen in +his flight. Burl broke into a run. + +The little excavation into which Saya was sinking, inch by inch, was all +of twenty-five feet to the right of the path. Burl dashed on, frantic +with anxiety about the tribe, but most of all about Saya. Saya's body +quivered and sank a fraction more into the earth. + +Half a dozen little rivulets of dirt were tumbling upon her body now. In +a matter of minutes she would be hidden from view. Burl ran madly past +her, too busy searching the mushroom thickets before him with his eyes +to dream of looking upon the ground. + +Twenty yards from a huge toadstool thicket a noise arrested him sharply. +There was a crashing and breaking of the brittle, spongy growths. Twin +tapering antennæ appeared, and then a monster beetle lurched into the +open space, its horrible, gaping jaws stretched wide. + +It was all of eight feet long, and its body was held up from the ground +by six crooked, saw-toothed limbs. Its huge multiple eyes stared with +machinelike preoccupation at the world. + +It advanced deliberately, with a clanking and clashing as of a hideous +machine. Burl fled on the instant, running as madly away from the beetle +as he had a moment before been running toward it. + +A little depression in the earth was before him. He did not swerve, but +made to leap it. As he shot over it, however, the glint of pink skin +caught his eye, and there was impressed upon his brain with photographic +completeness the picture of Saya, lying limp and helpless, sinking +slowly into the ground, with tiny rills of earth falling down the sides +of the excavation upon her. It seemed to Burl's eye that she quivered +slightly as he saw. + +There was a terrific struggle within Burl. Behind him the colossal +meat-eating beetle. Beneath him Saya, whom he loved. There was certain +death lurching toward him on evilly glittering legs, and there was life +for his race and tribe lying in the shallow pit. + +He turned, aware with a sudden reckless glow that he was throwing away +his life, aware that he was deliberately giving himself over to death, +and stood on the side of the little pit nearest the great beetle, his +puny spear held defiantly at the ready. In his left hand he held just +such a leg as those which bore the living creature toward him. He had +torn it from the body of just such a monster but a few hours ago, a +monster in whose death he had had a share. With a yell of insane +defiance, he flung the fiercely toothed limb at his advancing opponent. + +The sharp teeth cut into the base of one of the beetle's antennæ, and it +ducked clumsily, then seized the missile in its fierce jaws and crushed +it in frenzy of rage. There was meat within it, sweet and juicy meat +that pleased the beetle's palate. + +It forgot the man, standing there, waiting for death. It crunched the +missile that had attacked it, eating the palatable contents of the horny +armor, confusing the blow with the object that had delivered it, and +evidently satisfied that an enemy had been conquered and was being +devoured. A moment later it turned and lumbered off to investigate +another mushroom thicket. + +And Burl turned quickly and dragged Saya's limp form from the grave that +had been prepared for it by the busy insect scavengers. Earth fell from +her shoulders, from her hair, and from the mass of yellow fur about her +middle, and three little beetles with black and red markings scurried in +terrified haste for cover, while Burl bore Saya to a resting-place of +soft mold. + +Burl was an ignorant savage, and to him Saya's deathlike unconsciousness +was like death itself, but dumb misery smote him, and he laid her down +gently, while tears came to his eyes and he called her name again and +again in an agony of grief. + +For an hour he sat there beside her, a man so lately pleased with +himself above all creatures for having slain one huge beetle and put +another to flight, as he would have looked upon it, now a +broken-hearted, little pink-skinned man, weeping like a child, hunched +up and bowed over with sorrow. + +Then Saya slowly opened her eyes and stirred weakly. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +The Forest of Death + + +They were oblivious to everything but each other, Saya resting in still +half-incredulous happiness against Burl's shoulder while he told her in +little, jerky sentences of his pursuit of the colossal flying beetle, of +his search for the tribe, and then his discovery of her apparently +lifeless body. + +When he spoke of the monster that had lurched from the mushroom thicket, +and of the desperation with which he had faced it, Saya pressed close +and looked at him with wondering and wonderful eyes. She could +understand his willingness to die, believing her dead. A little while +before she had felt the same indifference to life. + +A timid, frightened whisper roused them from their absorption, and they +looked up. One of the tribesmen stood upon one foot some distance away, +staring at them, almost convinced that he looked upon the living dead. A +sudden movement on the part of either of them would have sent him in a +panic back into the mushroom forest. Two or three blond heads bobbed and +vanished among the tangled stalks. Wide and astonished eyes gazed at the +two they had believed the prey of malignant creatures. + +The tribe had come slowly back to the mushroom they had been eating, +leaderless, and convinced that Saya had fallen a victim to the deadly +dust. Instead, they found her sitting by the side of their chief, +apparently restored to them in some miraculous fashion. + +Burl spoke, and the pink-skinned people came timorously from their +hiding-places. They approached warily and formed a half-circle before +the seated pair. Burl spoke again, and presently one of the bravest +dared approach and touch him. Instantly a babble of the crude and labial +language spoken by the tribe broke out. Awed questions and exclamations +of thankfulness, then curious interrogations filled the air. + +Burl, for once, showed some common sense. Instead of telling them in his +usual vainglorious fashion of the adventures he had undergone, he merely +cast down the two long and tapering antennæ from the flying beetle that +he had torn from its dead body. They looked at them, and recognized +their origin. Amazement and admiration showed upon their faces. Then +Burl rose and abruptly ordered two of the men to make a chair of their +hands for Saya. She was weak from the effects of the blow she had +received. The two men humbly advanced and did as they were bid. + +Then the march was taken up again, more slowly than before, because of +Saya as a burden, but none the less steadily. Burl led his people across +the country, marching in advance and with every nerve alert for signs of +danger, but with more confidence and less timidity than he had ever +displayed before. + +All that noontime and that afternoon they filed steadily along, the +tribesfolk keeping in a compact group close behind Burl. The man who had +thrown away his spear had recovered it on an order from Burl, and the +little party fairly bristled with weapons, though Burl knew well that +they were liable to be cast away as impediments if flight should be +necessary. + +He was determined that his people should learn to fight the great +creatures about them, instead of depending upon their legs for escape. +He had led them in an attack upon great slugs, but they were defenseless +creatures, incapable of more dangerous maneuvers than spasmodic jerkings +of their great bodies. + +The next time danger should threaten them, and especially if it came +while their new awe of him held good, he was resolved to force them to +join him in fighting it. + +He had not long to wait for an opportunity to strengthen the spirit of +his followers by a successful battle. The clouds toward the west were +taking on a dull-red hue, which was the nearest to a sunset that was +ever seen in the world of Burl's experience, when a bumble bee droned +heavily over their heads, making for its hive. + +The little group of people on the ground looked up and saw a scanty load +of pollen packed in the stiff bristles of the insect's hind legs. The +bees of the world had a hard time securing food upon the nearly +flowerless planet, but this one had evidently made a find. Its crop was +nearly filled with hard-gathered, viscous honey destined for the hival +store. + +It sped onward, heavily, its almost transparent wings mere blurs in the +air from the rapidity of their vibration. Burl saw its many-faceted eyes +staring before it in worried preoccupation as it soared in laborious +speed over his head, some fifty feet up. + +He dropped his glance, and then his eyes lighted with excitement. A +slender-bodied wasp was shooting upward from an ambush it had found in a +thicket of toadstools. It darted swiftly and gracefully upon the bee, +which swerved and tried to flee. The droning buzz of the bee's wings +rose to a higher note as it strove to increase its speed. The more +delicately formed wasp headed the clumsier insect back. + +The bee turned again and fled in terror. Each of the insects was +slightly more than four feet in length, but the bee was much the +heavier, and it could not attain the speed of which the wasp was +capable. + +The graceful form of the hunting insect rapidly overhauled its fleeing +prey, and the wasp dashed in and closed with the bee at a point almost +over the heads of the tribesmen. In a clawing, biting tangle of +thrashing, transparent wings and black bodies, the two creatures tumbled +to the earth. They fell perhaps thirty yards from where Burl stood +watching. + +Over and over the two insects rolled, now one uppermost, and then the +other. The bee was struggling desperately to insert her sting in the +more supple body of her adversary. She writhed and twisted, fighting +with jaw and mandible, wing and claw. + +The wasp was uppermost, and the bee lay on her back, fighting in +panic-stricken desperation. The wasp saw an opening, her jaws darted in, +and there was an instant of confusion. Then suddenly the bee, dazed, was +upright with the wasp upon her. A movement too quick for the eye to +follow--and the bee collapsed. The wasp had bitten her in the neck where +all the nerve-cords passed, and the bee was dead. + +Burl waited a moment more, aflame with excitement. He knew, as did all +the tribefolk, what might happen next. When he saw the second act of the +tragedy well begun, Burl snapped quick and harsh orders to his +spear-armed men, and they followed him in a wavering line, their weapons +tightly clutched. + +Knowing the habits of the insects as they were forced to know them, they +knew that the venture was one of the least dangerous they could +undertake with fighting creatures the size of the wasp, but the idea of +attacking the great creatures whose sharp stings could annihilate any of +them with a touch, the mere thought of taking the initiative was +appalling. Had their awe of Burl been less complete they would not have +dreamed of following him. + +The second act of the tragedy had begun. The bee had been slain by the +wasp, a carnivorous insect normally, but the wasp knew that sweet honey +was concealed in the half-filled crop of the bee. Had the bee arrived +safely at the hive, the sweet and sticky liquid would have been +disgorged and added to the hival store. Now, though the bee's journey +was ended and its flesh was to be crunched and devoured by the wasp, the +honey was the first object of the pirate's solicitude.[1] The dead +insect was rolled over upon its back, and with eager haste the slayer +began to exploit the body. + +[Footnote 1: The pirate is the _Philanthus Apivorus_.] + +Burl and his men were creeping nearer, but with a gesture Burl bade them +halt for a moment. The wasp's first move was to force the disgorgement +of the honey from the bee's crop, and with feverish eagerness it pressed +upon the limp body until the shining, sticky liquid appeared. Then the +wasp began in ghoulish ecstasy to lick up the sweet stuff, utterly +absorbed in the feast. + +Many thousands of years before, the absorption of the then tiny insect +had been noticed when engaged in a similar feat, and it was recorded in +books moldered into dust long ages before Burl's birth that its rapture +was so great that it had been known to fall a victim to a second bandit +while engaged in the horrible banquet. + +Burl had never read the books, but he had been told that the pirate +would continue its feast even though seized by a greater enemy, unable +to tear itself from the nectar gathered by the creature it had slain. + +The tribesmen waited until the wasp had begun its orgy, licking up the +toothsome stuff disgorged by its dead prey. It ate in gluttonous haste, +blind to all sights, deaf to all sounds, able to think of nothing, +conceive of nothing, but the delights of the liquid it was devouring. + +At a signal the tribesmen darted forward. They wavered when near the +slender-waisted gourmet, however, and Burl was the first to thrust his +spear with all his strength into the thinly armored body. + +Then the others took courage. A short, horny spear penetrated the very +vitals of the wasp. A club fell with terrific impact upon the slender +waist. There was a crackling, and the long, spidery limbs quivered and +writhed, while the tribesmen fell back in fear, but without cause. + +Burl struck again, and the wasp fell into two writhing halves, helpless +for harm. The pink-skinned men danced in triumph, and the women and +children ventured near, delighted. + +Only Burl noticed that even as the wasp was dying, sundered and pierced +with spears, its slender tongue licked out in one last, ecstatic taste +of the nectar that had been its undoing. + +Burdened with the pollen-covered legs of the giant bee, and filled with +the meat from choice portions of the wasp's muscular limbs, the tribe +resumed its journey. This time Burl had men behind him, still timid, +still prone to flee at the slightest alarm, but infinitely more +dependable than they had been before. + +They had attacked and slain a wasp whose sting would have killed any of +them. They had done battle under the leadership of Burl, whose spear had +struck the first blow. Henceforth they were sharers, in a mild way, of +his transcendent glory, and henceforth they were more like followers of +a mighty chief and less like spineless worshipers of a demigod whose +feats they were too timid to emulate. + +That night they hid among a group of giant puff-balls, feasting on the +loads of meat they had carried thus far with them. Burl watched them now +without jealousy of their good spirits. He and Saya sat a little apart, +happy to be near each other, speaking in low tones. After a time +darkness fell, and the tribefolk became shapeless bodies speaking in +voices that grew drowsy and were silent. The black forms of the +toadstool heads and huge puff-balls were but darker against a dark sky. + +The nightly rain began to fall, drop by drop, drop by drop, upon the +damp and humid earth. Only Burl remained awake for a little while, and +his last waking thought was of pride, disinterested pride. He had the +first reward of the ruler, gratification in the greatness of his people. + +The red mushrooms had continued to show their glistening heads, though +Burl thought they were less numerous than in the territory from which +the tribe had fled. All along the route, now to the right, now to the +left, they had burst and sent their masses of deadly dust into the air. + +Many times the tribefolk had been forced to make a detour to avoid a +slowly spreading cloud of death-dealing spores. Once or twice their +escapes had been narrow indeed, but so far there had been no deaths. + +Burl had observed that the mushrooms normally burst only in the daytime, +and for a while had thought of causing his followers to do their +journeying in the night. Only the obvious disadvantages of such a +course--the difficulty of discovering food, and the prowling spiders +that roamed in the darkness--had prevented him. The idea still stayed +with him, however, and two days after the fight with the hunting wasp he +put it in practise. + +The tribe came to the top of a small rise in the ground. For an hour +they had been marching and counter-marching to avoid the suddenly +appearing clouds of dust. Once they had been nearly hemmed in, and only +by mad sprinting did they escape when three of the dull-red clouds +seemed to flow together, closing three sides of a circle. + +They came to the little hillock and halted. Before them stretched a +plain all of four miles wide, colored a brownish brick-red by masses of +mushrooms. They had seen mushroom forests before, and knew of the +dangers they presented, but there was none so deadly as the plain before +them. To right and left it stretched as far as the eye could see, but +far away on its farther edge Burl caught a glimpse of flowing water. + +Over the plain itself a dull-red haze seemed to float. It was nothing +more or less than a cloud of the deadly spores, dispersed and +indefinite, constantly replenished by the freshly bursting red +mushrooms. + +While the people stood and watched a dozen thick columns of dust rose +into the air from scattered points here and there upon the plain, +settling slowly again, but leaving behind them enough of their finely +divided substance to keep the thin red haze over the whole plain in its +original, deadly state. + +Burl had seen single red mushrooms before, and even small thickets of +two and three, but here was a plain of millions, literally millions upon +millions of the malignant growths. Here was one fungoid forest through +whose aisles no monster beetles stalked, and above whose shadowed depths +no brightly colored butterflies fluttered in joyous abandon. There were +no loud-voiced crickets singing in its hiding-places, nor bodies of +eagerly foraging ants searching inquisitively for bits of food. It was a +forest of death, still and silent, quiet and motionless save for the +sullen columns of red dust that ever and again shot upward from the torn +and ragged envelope of the bursting mushroom. + +Burl and his people watched in wonderment and dismay, but presently a +high resolve came to Burl. The mushrooms never burst at night, and the +deadly dust from a subsided cloud was not deadly in the morning. As a +matter of fact the rain that fell every night made it no more than a +sodden, thin film of reddish mud by daybreak, mud which dried and caked. + +Burl did not know what occurred, but knew the result. At night or in +early morning, the danger from the red mushrooms was slight. Therefore +he would lead his people through the very jaws of death that night. He +would lead them through the deadly aisles of this, the forest of +malignant growths, the place of lurking annihilation. + +It was an act of desperation, and the resolution to carry it through +left Burl in a state of mind that kept him from observing one thing that +would have ended all the struggles of his tribe at once. Perhaps a +quarter-mile from the edge of the red forest three or four giant +cabbages grew, thrusting their colossal leaves upward toward the sky. + +And on the cabbages a dozen lazy slugs fed leisurely, ignoring +completely the red haze that was never far from them and sometimes +covered them. Burl saw them, but the oddity of their immunity from the +effects of the red dust did not strike him. He was fighting to keep his +resolution intact. If he had only realized the significance of what he +saw, however-- + +The slugs were covered with a thick soft fur. The tribespeople wore +garments of that same material. The fur protected the slugs, and could +have made the tribe immune to the deadly red dust if they had only +known. The slugs breathed through a row of tiny holes upon their backs, +as the mature insects breathed through holes upon the bottom of their +abdomens, and the soft fur formed a mat of felt which arrested the fine +particles of deadly dust, while allowing the pure air to pass through. +It formed, in effect, a natural gas-mask which the tribesmen should have +adopted, but which they did not discover or invent. + +The remainder of that day they waited in a curious mixture of resolve +and fear. The tribe was rapidly reaching a point where it would follow +Burl over a thousand-foot cliff, and it needed some such blind +confidence to make them prepare to go through the forest of the million +deadly mushrooms. + +The waiting was a strain, but the actual journey was a nightmare. Burl +knew that the toadstools did not burst of themselves during the night, +but he knew that the beetle on which he had taken his involuntary ride +had crashed against one in the darkness, and that the fatal dust had +poured out. He warned his people to be cautious, and led them down the +slope of the hill through the blackness. + +For hours they stumbled on in utter darkness, with the pungent, acrid +odor of the red growths constantly in their nostrils. They put out their +hands and touched the flabby, damp stalks of the monstrous things. They +stumbled and staggered against the leathery skins of the malignant +fungoids. + +Death was all about them. At no time during all the dark hours of the +night was there a moment when they could not reach out their hands and +touch a fungus growth that might burst at their touch and fill the air +with poisonous dust, so that all of them would die in gasping, choking +agony. + +And worst of all, before half an hour was past they had lost all sense +of direction, so that they stumbled on blindly through the utter +blackness, not knowing whether they were headed toward the river that +might be their salvation or were wandering hopelessly deeper and deeper +into the silent depths of the forest of strangled things. + +When day came again and the mushrooms sent their columns of fatal dust +into the air would they gasp and fight for breath in the red haze that +would float like a tenuous cloud above the forest? Would they breathe in +flames of firelike torment and die slowly, or would the red dust be +merciful and slay them quickly? + +They felt their way like blind folk, devoid of hope and curiously +unafraid. Only their hearts were like heavy, cold weights in their +breasts, and they shouldered aside the swollen sacs of the red mushrooms +with a singular apathy as they followed Burl slowly through the midst of +death. + +Many times in their journeying they knew that dead creatures were near +by--moths, perhaps, that had blundered into a distended growth which +had burst upon the impact and killed the thing that had touched it. + +No busy insect scavengers ventured into this plain of silence to salvage +the bodies, however. The red haze preserved the sanctuary of malignance +inviolate. During the day no creature might hope to approach its red +aisles and dust-carpeted clearings, and at night the slow-dropping rain +fell only upon the rounded heads of the mushrooms. + +In all the space of the forest, only the little band of hopeless people, +plodding on behind Burl in the velvet blackness, callously rubbed +shoulders with death in the form of the red and glistening mushrooms. +Over all the dank expanse of the forest, the only sound was the dripping +of the slow and sodden rainfall that began at nightfall and lasted until +day came again. + +The sky began to grow faintly gray as the sun rose behind the banks of +overhanging clouds. Burl stopped short and uttered what was no more than +a groan. He was in a little circular clearing, and the twisted, +monstrous forms of the deadly mushrooms were all about. There was not +yet enough light for colors to appear, and the hideous, almost obscene +shapes of the loathsome growths on every side showed only as mocking, +leering silhouettes as of malicious demons rejoicing at the coming doom +of the gray-faced, huddled tribefolk. + +Burl stood still, drooping in discouragement upon his spear, the +feathery moth's antennæ bound upon his forehead shadowed darkly against +the graying sky. Soon the mushrooms would begin to burst-- + +Then, suddenly, he lifted his head, encouragement and delight upon his +features. He had heard the ripple of running water. His followers looked +at him with dawning hope. Without a word, Burl began to run, and they +followed him more slowly. His voice came back to them in a shout of +delight. + +Then they, too, broke into a jog-trot. In a moment they had emerged from +the thick tangle of brownish-red stalks and were upon the banks of a +wide and swiftly running river, the same river whose gleam Burl had +caught the day before from the farther side of the mushroom forest. + +Once before Burl had floated down a river upon a mushroom raft. Then his +journey had been involuntary and unlooked for. He had been carried far +from his tribe and far from Saya, and his heart had been filled with +desolation. + +Now he viewed the swiftly running current with eager delight. He cast +his eyes up and down the bank. Here and there the river-bank rose in a +low bluff, and thick shelf-growths stretched out above the water. + +Burl was busy in an instant, stabbing the hard growths with his spear +and striving to wrench them free. The tribesmen stared at him, +uncomprehending, but at an order from him they did likewise. + +Soon a dozen thick masses of firm, light fungus lay upon the shore where +it shelved gently into the water. Burl began to explain what they were +to do, but one or two of the men dared remonstrate, saying humbly that +they were afraid to part from him. If they might embark upon the same +thing with him, they would be safe, but otherwise they were afraid. + +Burl cast an apprehensive glance at the sky. Day was coming rapidly on. +Soon the red mushrooms would begin to shoot their columns of deadly dust +into the air. This was no time to pause and deliberate. Then Saya spoke +softly. + +Burl listened, and made a mighty sacrifice. He took his gorgeous velvet +cloak from his shoulders--it was made from the wing of a great moth--and +tore it into a dozen long, irregular pieces, tearing it along the lines +of the sinews that reinforced it. He planted his spear upright in the +largest piece of shelf-fungus and caused his followers to do likewise, +then fastened the strips of sinew and velvet to his spear-shaft, and +ordered them to do the same to the other spears. + +In a matter of minutes the dozen tiny rafts were bobbing on the water, +clustered about the larger, central bit. Then, one by one, the tribefolk +took their places, and Burl shoved off. + +The agglomeration of cranky, unseaworthy bits of shelf-fungus moved +slowly out from the shore until the current caught it. Burl and Saya sat +upon the central bit, with the other trustful but somewhat frightened +pink-skinned people all about them. And, as they began to move between +the mushroom-lined banks of the river and the mist of the night began to +lift from its surface, far in the interior of the forest of the red +fungoids a column of sullen red leaped into the air. The first of the +malignant growths had cast its cargo of poisonous dust into the +still-humid atmosphere. + +The conelike column spread out and grew thin, but even after it had sunk +into the earth, a reddish taint remained in the air about the place +where it had been. The deadly red haze that hung all through the day +over the red forest was in process of formation. + +But by that time the unstable fungus rafts were far down the river, +bobbing and twirling in the current, with the wide-eyed people upon them +gazing in wonderment at the shores as they glided by. The red mushrooms +grew less numerous upon the banks. Other growths took their places. +Molds and rusts covered the ground as grass had done in ages past. +Mushrooms showed their creamy, rounded heads. Malformed things with +swollen trunks and branches in strange mockery of the trees they had +superseded made their appearance, and once the tribesmen saw the dark +bulk of a hunting spider outlined for a moment upon the bank. + +All the long day they rode upon the current, while the insect life that +had been absent in the neighborhood of the forest of death made its +appearance again. Bees once more droned overhead, and wasps and +dragon-flies. Four-inch mosquitoes made their appearance, to be fought +off by the tribefolk with lusty blows, and glittering beetles and +shining flies, whose bodies glittered with a metallic luster, buzzed and +flew above the water. + +Huge butterflies once more were seen, dancing above the steaming, +festering earth in an apparent ecstasy from the mere fact of existence, +and all the thousand and one forms of insect life that flew and crawled, +and swam and dived, showed themselves to the tribesmen on the raft. + +Water-beetles came lazily to the surface, to snap with sudden energy at +mosquitoes busily laying their eggs in the nearly stagnant water by the +river-banks. Burl pointed out to Saya, with some excitement, their +silver breast-plates that shone as they darted under the water again. +And the shell-covered boats of a thousand caddis-worms floated in the +eddies and back-waters of the stream. Water-boatmen and +whirligigs--almost alone among insects in not having shared in the +general increase of size--danced upon the oily waves. + +The day wore on as the shores flowed by. The tribefolk ate of their +burdens of mushroom and meat, and drank from the fresh water of the +river. Then, when afternoon came, the character of the country about the +stream changed. The banks fell away, and the current slackened. The +shores became indefinite, and the river merged itself into a swamp, a +vast swamp from which a continual muttering came which the tribesmen +heard for a long time before they saw the swamp itself. + +The water seemed to turn dark, as black mud took the place of the clay +that had formed its bed, and slowly, here and there, then more +frequently, floating green things that were stationary, and did not move +with the current, appeared. They were the leaves of water-lilies, that +had remained with the giant cabbages and a very few other plants in the +midst of a fungoid world. The green leaves were twelve feet across, and +any one of them would have floated the whole of Burl's tribe. + +Presently they grew numerous so that the channel was made narrow, and +the mushroom rafts passed between rows of the great leaves, with here +and there a colossal, waxen blossom in which three men might have hidden +and which exhaled an almost over-powering fragrance into the air. + +And the muttering that had been heard far away grew in volume to an +intermittent, incredibly deep bass roar. It seemed to come from the +banks on either side, and actually was the discordant croaking of the +giant frogs, grown to eight feet in length, which lived and loved in the +huge swamp, above which golden butterflies danced in ecstasy, and which +the transcendently beautiful blossoms of the water-lilies filled with +fragrance. + +The swamp was a place of riotous life. The green bodies of the colossal +frogs--perched upon the banks in strange immobility and only opening +their huge mouths to emit their thunderous croakings--the green bodies +of the frogs blended queerly with the vivid color of the water-lily +leaves. Dragon-flies fluttered in their swift and angular flight above +the black and reeking mud. Green-bottles and blue-bottles and a hundred +other species of flies buzzed busily in the misty air, now and then +falling prey to the licking tongues of the frogs. + +Bees droned overhead in flight less preoccupied and worried than +elsewhere flitting from blossom to blossom of the tremendous +water-lilies, loading their crops with honey and the bristles of their +legs with yellow pollen. + +Everywhere over the mushroom-covered world the air was never quite free +from mist, and the steaming exhalations of the pools, but here in the +swamps the atmosphere was so heavily laden with moisture that the bodies +of the tribefolk were covered with glistening droplets, while the wide, +flat water-lily leaves glittered like platters of jewels from the +"steam" that had condensed upon their upper surfaces. + +The air was full of shining bodies and iridescent wings. Myriads of tiny +midges--no more than three or four inches across their wings--danced +above the slow-flowing water. And butterflies of every imaginable shade +and color, from the most delicate lavender to the most vivid carmine, +danced and fluttered, alighting upon the white water-lilies to sip +daintily of their nectar, skimming the surface of the water, enamored of +their brightly tinted reflections. + +And the pink-skinned tribesfolk, floating through this fairyland on +their mushroom rafts, gazed with wide eyes at the beauty about them, and +drew in great breaths of the intoxicating fragrance of the great white +flowers that floated like elfin boats upon the dark water. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Out of Bondage + + +The mist was heavy and thick, and through it the flying creatures darted +upon their innumerable businesses, visible for an instant in all their +colorful beauty, then melting slowly into indefiniteness as they sped +away. The tribefolk on the clustered rafts watched them as they darted +overhead, and for hours the little squadron of fungoid vessels floated +slowly through the central channel of the marsh. + +The river had split into innumerable currents which meandered +purposelessly through the glistening black mud of the swamp, but after a +long time they seemed to reassemble, and Burl could see what had caused +the vast morass. + +Hills appeared on either side of the stream, which grew higher and +steeper, as if the foothills of a mountain chain. Then Burl turned and +peered before him. + +Rising straight from the low hills, a wall of high mountains rose toward +the sky, and the low-hanging clouds met their rugged flanks but half-way +toward the peaks. To right and left the mountains melted into the +tenuous haze, but ahead they were firm and stalwart, rising and losing +their heights in the cloud-banks. + +They formed a rampart which might have guarded the edge of the world, +and the river flowed more and more rapidly in a deeper and narrower +current toward a cleft between two rugged giants that promised to +swallow the water and all that might swim in its depths or float upon +its surface. + +Tall, steep hills rose from either side of the swift current, their +sides covered with flaking molds of an exotic shade of rose-pink, +mingled here and there with lavender and purple. Rocks, not hidden +beneath a coating of fungus, protruded their angular heads from the +hillsides. The river valley became a gorge, and then little more than a +cañon, with beetling sides that frowned down upon the swift current +running beneath them. + +The small flotilla passed beneath an overhanging cliff, and then shot +out to where the cliffsides drew apart and formed a deep amphitheater, +whose top was hidden in the clouds. + +And across this open space, on cables all of five hundred feet long, a +banded spider had flung its web. It was a monster of its tribe. Its +belly was swollen to a diameter of no less than two yards, and its +outstretched legs would have touched eight points of a ten-yard circle. + +It was hanging motionless in the center of the colossal snare as the +little group of tribefolk passed underneath, and they saw the broad +bands of yellow and black and silver upon its abdomen. They shivered as +their little crafts were swept below. + +Then they came to a little valley, where yellow sand bordered the river +and there was a level space of a hundred yards on either side before the +steep sides of the mountains began their rise. Here the cluster of +mushroom rafts were caught in a little eddy and drawn out of the swiftly +flowing current. Soon there was a soft and yielding jar. The rafts had +grounded. + +Led by Burl, the tribesmen waded ashore, wonderment and excitement in +their hearts. Burl searched all about with his eyes. Toadstools and +mushrooms, rusts and molds, even giant puff-balls grew in the little +valley, but of the deadly red mushrooms he saw none. + +A single bee was buzzing slowly over the tangled thickets of fungoids, +and the loud voice of a cricket came in a deafening burst of sound, +reechoed from the hillsides, but save for the far-flung web of the +banded spider a mile or more away, there was no sign of the deadly +creatures that preyed upon men. + +Burl began to climb the hillside with his tribefolk after him. For an +hour they toiled upward, through confused masses of fungus of almost +every species. Twice they stopped to seize upon edible fungi and break +them into masses they could carry, and once they paused and made a wide +detour around a thicket from which there came a stealthy rustling. + +Burl believed that the rustling was merely the sound of a moth or +butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, but was unwilling to take any +chances. He and his people circled the mushroom thicket and mounted +higher. + +And at last, perhaps six or seven hundred feet above the level of the +river, they came upon a little plateau, going back into a small pocket +in the mountainside. Here they found many of the edible fungoids, and no +less than a dozen of the giant cabbages, on whose broad leaves many +furry grubs were feeding steadily in placid contentment with themselves +and all the world. + +A small stream bubbled up from a tiny basin and ran swiftly across the +plateau, and there were dense thickets of toadstools in which the +tribesmen might find secure hiding-places. The tribe would make itself a +new home here. + +That night they hid among inextricably tangled masses of mushrooms, and +saw with amazement the multitude of creatures that ventured forth in the +darkness. All the valley and the plateau were illumined by the shining +beacons of huge but graceful fireflies, who darted here and there in +delight and--apparently--in security. + +Upon the earth below, also, many tiny lights glowed. The larvæ of the +fireflies crawled slowly but happily over the fungus-covered +mountainside, and great glow-worms clambered upon the shining tops of +the toadstools and rested there, twin broad bands of bluish fire burning +brightly within their translucent bodies. + +They were the females of the firefly race, which never attain to legs +and wings, but crawl always upon the earth, merely enlarged creatures in +the forms of their own larvæ. Moths soared overhead with mighty, +throbbing wing-beats, and all the world seemed a paradise through which +no evil creatures roamed in search of prey. + +And a strange thing came to pass. Soon after darkness fell upon the +earth and the steady drip-drop of the rain began, a musical tinkling +sound was heard which grew in volume, and became a deep-toned roar, +which reechoed and reverberated from the opposite hillsides until it was +like melodious and long-continued thunder. For a long time the people +were puzzled and a little afraid, but Burl took courage and +investigated. + +He emerged from the concealing thicket and peered cautiously about, +seeing nothing. Then he dared move in the direction of the sound, and +the gleam from a dozen fireflies showed him a sheet of water pouring +over a vertical cliff to the river far below. + +The rainfall, gentle as it was, when gathered from all the broad expanse +of the mountainside, made a river of its own, which had scoured out a +bed, and poured down each night to plunge in a smother of spray and foam +through six hundred feet of empty space to the swiftly flowing river in +the center of the valley. It was this sound that had puzzled the +tribefolk, and this sound that lulled them to sleep when Burl at last +came back to allay their fears. + +The next day they explored their new territory with a boldness of which +they would not have been capable a month before. They found a single +great trap-door in the earth, sure sign of the burrow of a monster +spider, and Burl resolved that before many days the spider would be +dealt with. He told his tribesmen so, and they nodded their heads +solemnly instead of shrinking back in terror as they would have done not +long since. + +The tribe was rapidly becoming a group of men, capable of taking the +aggressive. They needed Burl's rash leadership, and for many generations +they would need bold leaders, but they were infinitely superior to the +timid, rabbit-like creatures they had been. They bore spears, and they +had used them. They had seen danger, and had blindly followed Burl +through the forest of strangled things instead of fleeing weakly from +the peril. + +They wore soft, yellow fur about their middles, taken from the bodies of +giant slugs they had slain. They had eaten much meat, and preferred its +succulent taste to the insipid savor of the mushrooms that had once been +their steady diet. They knew the exhilaration of brave adventure--though +they had been forced into adventure by Burl--and they were far more +worthy descendants of their ancestors than those ancestors had known for +many thousand years. + +The exploration of their new domain yielded many wonders and a few +advantages. The tribefolk found that the nearest ant-city was miles +away, and that the small insects would trouble them but rarely. (The +nightly rush of water down the sloping sides of the mountain made it +undesirable for the site of an ant colony.) + +And best of all, back in the little pocket in the mountainside, they +found old and disused cells of hunting wasps. The walls of the pocket +were made of soft sandstone with alternate layers of clay, and the wasps +had found digging easy. + +There were a dozen or more burrows, the shaft of each some four feet in +diameter and going back into the cliff for nearly thirty feet, where +they branched out into a number of cells. Each of the cells had once +held a grub which had grown fat and large upon its hoard of paralyzed +crickets, and then had broken away to the outer world to emerge as a +full-grown wasp. + +Now, however, the laboriously tunneled caverns would furnish a +hiding-place for the tribe of men, a far more secure hiding-place than +the center of the mushroom thickets. And, furthermore, a hiding-place +which, because more permanent, would gradually become a possession for +which the men would fight. + +It is a curious thing that the advancement of a people from a state of +savagery and continual warfare to civilization and continual peace is +not made by the elimination of the causes of strife, but by the addition +of new objects and ideals, in defense of which that same people will +offer battle. + +A single chrysalis was found securely anchored to the underside of a +rock-shelf, and Burl detached it with great labor and carried it into +one of the burrows, though the task was one that was almost beyond his +strength. He desired the butterfly that would emerge for his own use. + +He preempted, too, a solitary burrow a little distant from the others, +and made preparations for an event that was destined to make his plans +wiser and more far-reaching than before. + +His followers were equally busy with their various burrows, gathering +stores of soft growth for their couches, and later--at Burl's +suggestion--even carrying within the dark caverns the radiant heads of +the luminous mushrooms to furnish illumination. The light would be dim, +and after the mushroom had partly dried it would cease, but for a people +utterly ignorant of fire it was far from a bad plan. + +Burl was very happy for that time. His people looked upon him as a +savior, and obeyed his least order without question. He was growing to +repose some measure of trust in them, too, as men who began to have some +glimmerings of the new-found courage that had come to him, and which he +had striven hard to implant in their breasts. + +The tribe had been a formless gathering of people. There were six or +seven men and as many women, and naturally families had come into +being--sometimes after fierce and absurd fights among the men--but the +families were not the sharply distinct agreements they would have been +in a tribe of higher development. + +The marriage was but an agreement, terminable at any time, and the men +had but little of the feeling of parenthood, though the women had all +the fierce maternal instinct of the insects about them. + +These burrows in which the tribefolk were making their homes would put +an end to the casual nature of the marriage bonds. They were homes in +the making--damp and humid burrows without fire or heat, but homes, +nevertheless. The family may come before the home, in the development of +mankind, but it invariably exists when the home has been made. + +The tribe had been upon the plateau for nearly a week when Burl found +that stirrings and strugglings were going on within the huge cocoon he +had laid close beside the burrow he had chosen for his own. He cast +aside all other work, and waited patiently for the thing he knew was +about to happen. He squatted on his haunches beside the huge, oblong +cylinder, his spear in his hand, waiting patiently. From time to time he +nibbled at a bit of edible mushroom. + +Burl had acquired many new traits, among which a little foresight was +most prominent, but he had never conquered the habit of feeling hungry +at any and every time that food was near at hand. He had to wait. He had +food. Therefore, he ate. + +The sound of scrapings came from the closed cocoon, caked upon its outer +side with dirt and mold. The scraping and scratching continued, and +presently a tiny hole showed, which rapidly enlarged. Tiny jaws and a +dry, glazed skin became visible, the skin looking as if it had been +varnished with many coats of brown shellac. Then a malformed head forced +its way through and stopped. + +All motion ceased for a matter of perhaps half an hour, and then the +strange, blind head seemed to become distended, to be swelling. A crack +appeared along its upper part, which lengthened and grew wide. And then +a second head appeared from within the first. + +This head was soft and downy, and a slender proboscis was coiled beneath +its lower edge like the trunk of one of the elephants that had been +extinct for many thousand years. Soft scales and fine hairs alternated +to cover it, and two immense, many-faceted eyes gazed mildly at the +world on which it was looking for the first time. The color of the whole +was purest milky-white. + +Slowly and painfully, assisting itself by slender, colorless legs that +seemed strangely feeble and trembling, a butterfly crawled from the +cocoon. Its wings were folded and lifeless, without substance or color, +but the body was a perfect white. The butterfly moved a little distance +from its cocoon and slowly unfurled its wings. With the action, life +seemed to be pumped into them from some hidden spring in the insect's +body. The slender antennæ spread out and wavered gently in the warm air. +The wings were becoming broad expanses of snowy velvet. + +A trace of eagerness seemed to come into the butterfly's actions. +Somewhere there in the valley sweet food and joyous companions awaited +it. Fluttering above the fungoids of the hillsides, surely there was a +mate with whom the joys of love were to be shared, surely upon those +gigantic patches of green, half hidden in the haze, there would be laid +tiny golden eggs that in time would hatch into small, fat grubs. + +Strength came to the butterfly's limbs. Its wings were spread and +closed with a new assurance. It spread them once more, and raised them +to make the first flight of this new existence in a marvelous world, +full of delights and adventures--Burl struck home with his spear. + +The delicate limbs struggled in agony, the wings fluttered helplessly, +and in a little while the butterfly lay still upon the fungus-carpeted +earth, and Burl leaned over to strip away the great wings of snow-white +velvet, to sever the long and slender antennæ, and then to call his +tribesmen and bid them share in the food he had for them. + +And there was a feast that afternoon. The tribesmen sat about the white +carcass, cracking open the delicate limbs for the meat within them, and +Burl made sure that Saya secured the choicest bits. The tribesmen were +happy. Then one of the children of the tribe stretched a hand aloft and +pointed up the mountainside. + +Coming slowly down the slanting earth was a long, narrow file of living +animals. For a time the file seemed to be but one creature, but Burl's +keen eyes soon saw that there were many. They were caterpillars, each +one perhaps ten feet long, each with a tiny black head armed with sharp +jaws, and with dull-red fur upon their backs. The rear of the procession +was lost in the mist of the low-hanging cloud-banks that covered the +mountainside some two thousand feet above the plateau, but the foremost +was no more than three hundred yards away. + +Slowly and solemnly the procession came on, the black head of the second +touching the rear of the first, and the head of the third touching the +rear of the second. In faultless alignment, without intervals, they +moved steadily down the slanting side of the mountain. + +Save the first, they seemed absorbed in maintaining their perfect +formation, but the leader constantly rose upon his hinder half and waved +the fore part of his body in the air, first to the right and then to the +left, as if searching out the path he would follow. + +The tribefolk watched in amazement mingled with terror. Only Burl was +calm. He had never seen a slug that meant danger to man, and he reasoned +that these were at any rate moving slowly so that they could be +distanced by the fleeter-footed human beings, but he also meant to be +cautious. + +The slow march kept on. The rear of the procession of caterpillars +emerged from the cloud-bank, and Burl saw that a shining white line was +left behind them. No less than eighty great caterpillars clad in white +and dingy red were solemnly moving down the mountainside, leaving a path +of shining silk behind them. Head to tail, in single file, they had no +eyes or ears for anything but their procession. + +The leader reached the plateau, and turned. He came to the cluster of +giant cabbages, and ignored them. He came to a thicket of mushrooms, and +passed through it, followed by his devoted band. Then he came to an open +space where the earth was soft and sandy, where sandstone had weathered +and made a great heap of easily moved earth. + +The leading caterpillar halted, and began to burrow experimentally in +the ground. The result pleased him, and some signal seemed to pass +along the eight-hundred-foot line of creatures. The leader began to dig +with feet and jaws, working furiously to cover himself completely with +the soft earth. Those immediately behind him abandoned their formation, +and pressed forward in haste. Those still farther back moved more +hurriedly. + +All, when they reached the spot selected by the leader, abandoned any +attempt to keep to their line, and hastened to find an unoccupied spot +in the open space in which to bury themselves. + +For perhaps half an hour the clearing was the scene of intense activity, +incredible activity. Huge, ten-foot bodies burrowed desperately in the +whitish earth, digging frantically to cover themselves. + +After the half-hour, however, the last of the caterpillars had vanished. +Only an occasional movement of the earth from the struggle of a buried +creature to bury itself still deeper, and the freshly turned surface +showed that beneath the clearing on the plateau eighty great slugs were +preparing themselves for the sleep of metamorphosis. The piled-up earth +and the broad, white band of silk, leading back up the hillside until it +became lost in the clouds, alone remained to tell of the visitation. + +The tribesmen had watched in amazement. They had never seen these +creatures before, but they knew, of course, why they had entombed +themselves. Had they known what the scientists of thirty thousand years +before had written in weighty and dull books, they would have deduced +from the appearance of the processionary caterpillars--or +pine-caterpillars--that somewhere above the banks of clouds there were +growing trees and sunlight, that a moon shone down, and stars twinkled +from the blue vault of a cloudless sky. + +But the tribesmen did not know. They only knew that there, beneath the +soft earth, was a mighty store of food for them when they cared to dig +for it, that their provisions for many months were secure, and that +Burl, their leader, was a great and mighty man for having led them to +this land of safety and plenty. + +Burl read their emotions in their eyes, but better than their amazement +and wonderment was a glance that had nothing whatever to do with his +leadership of the tribe. And then Burl rose, and took the two +snowy-white velvet cloaks from the wings of the white butterfly. One of +them he flung about his own shoulders, and the other he flung about +Saya. And then those two stood up before the wide-eyed tribesmen, and +Burl spoke: + +"This is my mate, and my food is her food, and her wrath is my wrath. My +burrow is her burrow, and her sorrow, my sorrow. + +"Men whom I have led to this land of plenty, hear me. As ye obey my +words, see to it that the words of Saya are obeyed likewise, for my +spear will loose the life from any man who angers her. Know that as I am +great beyond all other men, so Saya is great beyond all other women, for +I say it, and it is so." + +And he drew Saya toward him, trembling slightly, and put his arm about +her waist before all the tribe, and the tribesmen muttered in +acquiescent whispers that what Burl said was true, as they had already +known. + +Then, while the pink-skinned men feasted on the meat Burl had provided +for them, he and Saya went toward the burrow he had made ready. It was +not like the other burrows, being set apart from them, and its entrance +was bordered on either side by mushrooms as black as night. All about +the entrance the black mushrooms clustered, a strange species that grew +large and scattered its spores abroad and then of its own accord melted +into an inky liquid that flowed away, sinking slowly into the ground. + +In a little hollow below the opening of the burrow an inky pool had +gathered, which reflected the gray clouds above and the shapes of the +mushrooms that overhung its edges. + +Burl and Saya made their way toward the burrow in silence, a picturesque +couple against the black background of the sable mushrooms and the earth +made dark by the inky liquid. Both of their figures were swathed in +cloaks of unsmirched whiteness and wondrous softness, and bound to +Burl's forehead were the feathery, lacelike antenna of a great moth, +making flowing plumes of purest gold. His spear seemed cast from +bronze, and he was a proud figure as he led Saya past the black pool and +to the doorway of their home. + +They sat there, watching, while the darkness came on and the moths and +fireflies emerged to dance in the night, and listened when the rain +began its slow, deliberate dripping from the heavy clouds above. +Presently a gentle rumbling began--the accumulation of the rain from all +the mountainside forming a torrent that would pour in a six-hundred-foot +drop to the river far below. + +The sound of the rushing water grew louder, and was echoed back from the +cliffs on the other side of the valley. The fireflies danced like fairy +lights in the chasm, and all the creatures of the night winged their way +aloft to join in the ecstasy of life and love. + +And then, when darkness was complete, and only the fitful gleams of the +huge fireflies were reflected from the still surface of the black pool +beneath their feet, Burl reached out his hand to Saya, sitting beside +him in the darkness. She yielded shyly, and her soft, warm hand found +his in the obscurity. And Burl bent over and kissed her on the lips. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Red Dust, by Murray Leinster + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41586 *** |