The Raid on the Termites

nibalis

and resolve to die as expensively as possible. But then, as a few seconds elapsed during which

ad fallen that all the men could see was their struggling bodies.

hemselves! At any rate, they were not hurrying to atta

ennae weaving wildly, and their deadly jaws crashing open and shut along the floor, they were fairly wallowing about that s

to get in and down. In stark astonishment, the two men watched the inexplicable conflict-and wond

sters around the spot, a memory struggled to be recognized. He had see

on-and all the possibilities of deliverance it suggested-he

hting over the carcass of a horse in the desert. The mad pushing, the slashing and rend

n, so ingenious in letting nothing of possible value go to waste, would almost i

In that moment of death or helplessness-was it being fallen upon and eaten by the horde of savage things it normally ruled? Did the termite hordes

g fed by the workers, with mandibles too huge to permit of normal self-feeding, they would probably be able to hardly more than strain clu

the soldier termites were not trying to help their fallen monarch, b

erlooked; that even if he were wrong, they might as well die trying to get

said Jim, astounded. "Why, we

ve-we won't be bothered. If a pair of jaws crushes us, it will probably be

nsane, Jim tarried no longer. He began to edge h

insects tried to attack them. But even so that journey to the exit, a dis

anitic heads against others of their kind, was ear-splitting. The monsters, in their effort to indulge the cannibalistic instinct-

and like loose ice cakes in a flood, every now and then one was forced clear up off its fee

hings as relatively weak and soft as men to find a

hings. Once Jim only saved himself from a pair of terrific, snapping jaws that rushed his way, by using his short spear as a pole and vaulting up and

last call of their ruling, master mind. But only a few stragglers were to be seen, and these, called to the grim feast

from their trip in, raced up this, hearts pounding wildly with the growing hope of actuall

lant, were five more tunnels! Like spokes of a wheel, they radiated out and up; and no man could have told which t

inth! How can we ever find

ng on-and up," said Denny,

sages, and walked swiftly along it. And now they began to com

p collapsing sections of tunnel wall, or at carrying staggering large loads of food from one unknown place to

command of the ruler," said Jim, warily watching lest one of the gigantic guards end the queer truce and rush th

. It's simple mathematics: if all the soldiers in the mound tried to get in that room back there where the ruler was, they'd get jammed immovably in the tunnels near-by. The king-ter

y are working by habit and instinct only, carrying burdens, building new wall sections, accor

ve a good chance to getting out of h

nd of this size there must be many paths leading to the upper world, and there is no reason-with th

out they were to blunder into the one place in all the mound which was-death or no death of the ruling power-absolutely deadly to them; and were to arouse the terrible race about them to frenzies