Books: The Emancipatrix
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Homer Eon Flint >> The Emancipatrix
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Nevertheless, at the speaking of her lover's name, the older woman's
lips trembled despite themselves; and she said nothing further beyond a
brief "Sleep well." After which the two women turned in, and shortly
reached the drowsy point.
Thus it happened that Rolla, after a minute or two, once more aroused
Cunora in great excitement, and after securely closing the entrance to
the hut against all comers, proceeded to relate what she had seen. She
finished:
"The seed of the flower can be grown in the heart of rotting wood!" And
for hours afterward the two whispered excitedly in the darkness. It was
hard to have to wait till dawn.
As for Corrus and Dulnop, they even went so far as to search the heaps
of stone in the mineral yards, although neither really expected to find
what they sought.
But the four on the earth, not being able to do anything further until
morning, proceeded to make themselves at home in the doctor's house.
Smith and the doctor slept together, likewise Billie and Mrs. Kinney;
Van Emmon occupied the guest-room in lonely grandeur. When he came down
to breakfast he said he had dreamed that he was Corrus, and that he had
burned himself on a blazing cow.
Again in the trance state, the four found that Rolla and Cunora, after
reaching an understanding with Corrus and Dulnop, had already left their
huts in search of the required stone. Five bees accompanied them. Within
a few minutes however, Corrus and Dulnop set out together in the
opposite direction, as agreed upon; and shortly the guards were
withdrawn. This meant that the holiday was officially sanctioned, so
long as the two couples kept apart; but if they were to join forces
afterward, and be caught in the act, they would be severely punished.
Such was bee efficiency--and sentiment.
The doctor had impressed Rolla with the fact that she would find the
desired stone in a mountainous country. Cunora, however, was for
examining every rock she came to; Rolla was continually passing judgment
upon some specimen.
"Nay," said she, for the hundredth time. "'Tis a very bright stone we
seek, very small and very shiny, like sunlight on the water. I shall
know it when I see it, and I shall see it not until we reach the
mountains."
Soon Cunora's impatience wore off, and the two concentrated upon making
time. By midday they were well into the hills, following the course of a
very dry creek; and now they kept a sharp lookout at every step.
Van Emmon and Smith had similarly impressed Corrus and Dulnop with the
result that there was no loss of time in the beginning. The two men
reached the hills on their side of the valley an hour before the women
reached theirs.
And thus the search began, the strangest search, beyond a doubt, within
the history of the universe. It was not like the work of some of earth's
prehistoric men, who already knew fire and were merely looking up fresh
materials; it was a quest in which an idea, an idea given in a vision,
was the sole driving force. The most curious part of the matter was that
these people were mentally incapable of conceiving that there was
intelligence at work upon them from another world, or even that there
was another world.
"Ye saw the stars last night?" Corrus spoke to Dulnop. "Well, 'tis just
such stars as shall awaken the seed of the flower. Ye shall see!"
Both knew exactly what to look for: the brassy, regularly cut crystals
with the black stripings, such as has led countless men to go through
untold hardships in the belief that they had found gold. In fact, iron
pyrites is often called "fool gold," so deceptive is its glitter.
Yet, it was just the thing for the purpose. Flint they already had,
large quantities of it; practically all their tools, such as axes and
knives, were made of it. Struck against iron pyrites, a larger, fatter,
hotter spark could be obtained than with any other natural combination.
It was Dulnop's luck to see the outcropping. He found the mineral
exposed to plain view, a few feet above the bottom of the ravine the two
were ascending. With a shout of triumph he leaped upon the rock.
"Here, Corrus!" he yelled, dancing like mad. "Here is the gift of the
gods!"
The older man didn't attempt to hide his delight. He grabbed his
companion and hugged him until his ribs began to crack. Then, with a
single blow from his huge club, the herdsman knocked the specimen clear
of the slate in which it was set. Such was their excitement, neither
dreamed of marking the place in any way.
First satisfying themselves that the pyrites really could produce
"stars" from the flint, the two hurried down-stream, in search of the
right kind of wood. In half an hour Corrus came across a dead, worm-
eaten tree, from which he nonchalantly broke off a limb as big as his
leg. The interior was filled with a dry, stringy rot, just the right
thing for making a spark "live."
Then came a real difficulty. It will be better appreciated when the
men's childish nature is borne in mind. Their patience was terribly
strained in their attempts to make the sparks fly into the tinder. Again
and again one of them would throw the rocks angrily to the ground,
fairly snarling with exasperation.
However, the other would immediately take them up and try again. Neither
man had a tenth the deftness that is common to adults on the earth. In
size and strength alone they were men; otherwise--it cannot too often be
repeated--they were mere children. All told, it was over two hours
before the punk began to smolder.
"By Mownoth!" swore the herdsman, staring reverently at the smoke. "We
have done a miracle, Dulnop--ye and I! Be ye sure this is no dream?"
Quite in human fashion, Dulnop seriously reached out and pinched the
herdsman's tremendous arm. Corrus winced, but was too well pleased with
the result to take revenge, although the nature of these men was such as
to call for it.
"It be no dream!" he declared, still awestruck.
"Nay," agreed Dulnop. "And now--to make the flower grow!"
It was Corrus's lungs which really did the work. His prodigious chest
was better than a small pair of bellows, and he blew just as he had been
told in the vision. Presently a small flame appeared in the tinder, and
leaped eagerly upward. Both men jumped back, and for lack of enough air
the flame went out.
"Never mind!" exclaimed Dulnop at Corrus's crestfallen look. "I remember
that we must be ready with leaves, and the like, as soon as the blossom
appears. Blow, ye great windmaker, and I shall feed the flower!"
And thus it came about that two men of Sanus, for the first time in the
history of the planet, looked upon fire itself. And when they had got it
to burning well, each of them stared at his hands, and from his hands to
the little heap of "flowers"; from hands to fire they looked, again and
again; and then gazed at one another in awe.
X
AT HALF COCK
Rolla and Cunora searched for hours. They followed one creek almost to
its very beginning, and then crossed a ridge on the left and came down
another stream. Again and again Cunora found bits of mineral such as
would have deceived any one who had been less accurately impressed than
Rolla. As it afterward turned out, the very accuracy of this impression
was a great error, strange though that may seem.
Finally Rolla glanced up at the sun and sighed. "We will have to give it
up for this day," she told Cunora. "There be just time enough to return
before night." Neither said anything about the half-rations upon which
they would be fed in punishment for running away.
So the two started back, making their way in gloomy silence through the
woods and fields of the valley. Cunora was greatly disappointed, and
soon began to show it as any child would, by maintaining a sullenness
which she broke only when some trifling obstacle, such as a branch, got
in her way. Then she would tear the branch from the tree and fling it as
far as she could, meanwhile screaming with anger. Rolla showed more
control.
It was nearing nightfall when they came within sight of the huts. At a
distance of perhaps half a mile they stopped and stared hard at the
scene ahead of them.
"Hear ye anything, Cunora?" asked the older woman.
The girl's keen ears had caught a sound. "Methinks something hath
aroused our people. I wonder--"
"Cunora!" gasped Rolla excitedly. "Think ye that Corrus and Dulnop have
succeeded in growing the flower?"
They ran nearer. In a moment it was clear that something most certainly
was arousing the people. The village was in an uproar.
"Stay!" cautioned Rolla, catching her friend's arm. "Let us use cunning!
Mayhap there be danger!"
They were quite alone in the fields, which were always deserted at that
hour. Crouching behind a row of bushes, they quickly drew near to the
village, all without being seen. Otherwise, this tale would never be
told.
For Corrus and Dulnop, after having satisfied themselves that the
wondrous flowering flower would live as long as they continued to feed
it, had immediately decided to carry it home. To do so they first tried
building the fire on a large piece of bark. Of course it burned through,
and there had been more delay. Finally Corrus located a piece of slate,
so large that a small fire could be kept up without danger of spilling.
The two men had hurried straight for the village. Not once did either of
them dream what a magnificent spectacle they made; the two skin-clad
aborigines, bearing the thing which was to change them from slaves into
free beings, with all the wonders of civilization to come in its train.
Behind them as they marched, if they but knew it, stalked the principles
of the steam engine, of the printing-press, of scientific agriculture
and mechanical industry in general. Look about the room in which you sit
as you read this; even to the door-knobs every single item depends upon
fire, directly or indirectly. But Corrus and Dulnop were as ignorant of
this as their teeth were devoid of fillings.
Not until then did it occur to the four watchers on the earth that there
was anything premature about the affair. It was Smith who first
observed:
"Say, Van, I never thought to impress Dulnop with any plan for using the
fire. How about you and Corrus?"
"By George!" seriously, from the geologist. And immediately the two set
to work trying to reach their agents' minds.
They failed! Dulnop and Corrus were both too excited, far too wide
awake, to feel even the united efforts of all four on the earth. And the
two Sanusians marched straight into the village without the remotest
idea of how they should act.
"It is a flower!" he shrieked, frantic with joy. "The flower has come!"
the shout was passed along. "Corrus and Dulnop have found the flowering
blossom!"
Within a single minute the two men were surrounded by the whole human
population of the place. For the most part the natives were too awe-
struck to come very near; they were content to stand off and stare at
the marvel, or fall upon their knees and worship it. It was now so dark
that the flames fairly illumined their faces.
Shortly one or two got up courage enough to imitate Dulnop as he "fed
the flower;" and presently there were several little fires burning
merrily upon the ground. As for the aborigines, they let themselves
loose; never before did they shout and dance as they shouted and danced
that night. It was this Rolla and Cunora heard.
Before five minutes had passed, however, a scout awakened Supreme.
Billie could see that the bee was angry at having been disturbed, but
swiftly collected herself as she realized the significance of the
scout's report.
"So they have found the terror," she reflected aloud. "Very well. Arouse
all except the egg-layers and the drones. We can make use of the food-
gatherers as well as the fighters."
The hive was soon awake. Billie was sure that every last bee was greatly
afraid; their agitation was almost pitiful. But such was their
organization and their automatic obedience to orders, there was
infinitely less confusion than might be supposed. Another five minutes
had not passed before not only that hive, but all within the "city" were
emptied; and millions upon millions of desperate bees were under way
toward the village.
Rolla and Cunora knew of it first. They heard the buzzing of that winged
cloud as it passed through the air above their heads; but such was the
bees' intent interest in the village ahead, the two women were not spied
as they hid among the bushes.
By this time twilight was half gone. The firelight lit up the crowd of
humans as they surged and danced about their new deity. For, henceforth,
fire would replace Mownoth as their chief god; it was easy to see that.
Moreover, both Corrus and Dulnop, as primitive people will, had been
irresistibly seized by the spirit of the mob. They threw their burden
down and joined in the frenzy of the dance. Louder and louder they
shouted; faster and faster they capered. Already one or two of their
fellow villagers had dropped, exhausted, to the ground. Never had they
had so good an excuse for dancing themselves to death!
And into this scene came the bees. Not one of them dared go within ten
yards of the flames; for a while, all they did was to watch the humans.
Such was the racket no one noticed the sound of the wings.
"Shall we attack those on the edge of the crowd?" one of Supreme's
lieutenants wanted to know. The commandant considered this with all the
force of what mental experience she had had.
"No," she decided. "We shall wait a little longer. Just now, they are
too jubilant to be frightened; we would have to kill them all, and that
would not be good policy."
Of course, the bee had the pollen crop, nothing more, in mind when she
made her decision; yet it was further justified. There was no let-up in
the rejoicing; if anything, it became more frantic than before. Darkness
fell upon a crowd which was reeling in self-induced mental intoxication.
Rolla and Cunora came a little nearer; and still remaining hidden, saw
that more than half their friends had succumbed. One by one the
remainder dropped out; their forms lay all about what was left of the
fire. The two women could easily see what their friends were blind to:
the bees were simply biding their time.
"Ought we not to rush in and warn them?" whispered Cunora to Rolla.
"Surely the flower hath driven them mad!"
"Hush!" warned the older woman. "Be quiet! Everything depends upon our
silence!"
It was true. Only two of the villagers remained upon their feet, and
shortly one of these staggered and fell in his tracks. The one who was
left was Corrus himself, his immense vitality keeping him going. Then
he, too, after a final whoop of triumph and defiance, absolutely
unconscious of the poison-laden horde that surrounded him, fell
senseless to the earth. Another minute, and the whole crowd was still.
AND THE FIRE HAD GONE OUT.
The bees came closer. Several thousands of them were stricken by smoke
from the embers, and the rest of the swarm took good care to avoid it.
They hovered over the prostrate forms of the aborigines and made sure
that they were unconscious.
"Is there nothing we can do?" whispered Cunora, straining her eyes to
see.
"Nothing, save to watch and wait," returned Rolla, her gaze fixed upon
the dark heap which marked her lover's form. And thus an hour passed,
with the four on the earth quite unable to take a hand in any way.
Then one of the villagers--the first, in fact, who had dropped out of
the dance--stirred and presently awakened. He sat up and looked about
him, dazed and dizzy, for all the world like a drunken man. After a
while he managed to get to his feet.
No sooner had he done this than a dozen bees were upon him. Terror-
stricken, he stood awaiting their commands. They were not long in
coming.
By means of their fearful buzzing, the deadly insects guided him into
the nearest hut, where they indicated that he should pick up one of the
rude hoelike took which was used in the fields. With this in hand, he
was driven to the little piles of smoldering ashes, where the fires had
flickered an hour before.
Hardly knowing what he was doing, but not daring to disobey, the man
proceeded to heap dirt over the embers. Shortly he had every spark of
the fire smothered beneath a mound as high as his knees. Not till then
did any of the others begin to revive.
As fast as they recovered the bees took charge of them. Not a human had
courage enough to make a move of offense; it meant certain death, and
they all knew it only too well. As soon as they were wide awake enough
to know what they were doing, they were forced to search the bodies of
those still asleep.
"We must find the means for growing the flower," said Supreme, evidently
convinced that a seed was a seed, under any circumstances. And presently
they found, tucked away in Corrus's lion-skin, a large chunk of the
pyrites, and a similar piece on Dulnop.
"So these were the discoverers," commented Supreme.
"What is your will in their case?" the subordinate asked.
The commanding bee considered for a long time. Finally she got an idea,
such as bees are known to get once in a great while. It was simply a new
combination--as all ideas are merely new combinations--of two
punishments which were commonly employed by the bees.
As a result, eight of the villagers were compelled to carry the two
fire-finders to a certain spot on the bank of a nearby stream. Here the
two fragments of pyrites were thrown, under orders, into the water; so
that the eight villagers might know just why the whole thing was being
done.
Next the two men, still unconscious, were buried up to their necks.
Their heads, lolling helplessly, were all that was exposed. So it was to
be the Head Out punishment--imprisonment of one day with their bodies
rigidly held by the soil: acute torture to an aborigine. But was this
all?
One of the villagers was driven to the nearest hut, where he was forced
to secure two large stone axes. Bringing these back to the "torture-
place," as the spot was called, the man was compelled to wield one of
the clumsy tools while a companion used the other; and between them they
cut down the tree whose branches had been waving over the prisoners'
heads. Then the villagers were forced to drag the tree away.
All of which occurred in the darkness, and out of sight of Rolla and
Cunora. They could only guess what was going on. Hours passed, and dawn
approached. Not till then did they learn just what had been done.
The villagers, now all awake, were driven by the bees to the place on
the bank of the stream. There, the eight men who had imprisoned the two
discoverers told what had been done with the "magic stones." Each
villager stared at the offenders, and at something which lay on the
ground before them, and in sober silence went straight to his or her
work in the fields.
Presently the huts were deserted. All the people were on duty elsewhere.
Such bees as were not guarding the fields had returned to the hives.
Rolla and Cunora cautiously ventured forth, taking great care to avoid
being seen. They hurried fearfully to the stream.
Before they reached the spot Rolla gave an exclamation and stared
curiously to one side, where the tree had been dragged. Suddenly she
gave a terrible cry and rushed forward, only to drop on her knees and
cover her face with hands that shook as with the palsy. At the same
instant Cunora saw what had been done; and uttering a single piercing
scream, fell fainting to the ground.
Heaped in front of the two prisoners was a large pile of pebbles. There
were thousands upon thousands in the heap. Before each man, at a
distance of a foot, was a large gourdful of water. To the savages, these
told the whole story; these, together with the tree dragged to one side.
Corrus and Dulnop were to be buried in that spot every day for as many
days as there were pebbles in the heap; in other words, until they died.
Every night they would be dug up, and every morning buried afresh. And
to keep them from telling any of the villagers where they had found the
pyrites, they were to be deprived of water all day long. By night their
tongues would be too swollen for speech. For they had been sentenced to
the No Shade torture, as well; their heads would be exposed all day long
to the burning sun itself.
XI
THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
It is significant that Billie, because of her connection with the bee,
Supreme, was spared the sight that the doctor saw from Rolla's point of
view. Otherwise, the geologist's wife might have had a different opinion
of the matter. As it was--
"Corrus and Dulnop," said she as cooly as Supreme herself might have
spoken, "are not the first to suffer because they have discovered
something big."
Whereupon her husband's wrath got beyond his grip. "Not the first! Is
that all you can say?" he demanded hotly. "Why, of all the damnably
cruel, cold-blooded creatures I ever heard of, those infernal bees--"
Van Emmon stopped, unable to go on without blasphemy.
The doctor had got over the horror of what he had seen. "We want to be
fair, Van. Look at this matter from the bees' view-point for awhile.
What were they to do? They had to make sure, as far as possible, that
their supremacy would never be threatened again. Didn't they?"
"Oh, but--damn it all!" cried Van Emmon. "There's a limit somewhere!
Such cruelty as that--no one could conceive of it!"
"As for the bees," flared Billie, "I don't blame 'em! And unless I'm
very much mistaken, the ruling class ANYWHERE, here on the earth or
wherever you investigate, will go the limit to hold the reins, once they
get them!"
The expression on Van Emmon's face was curious to see. There was no fear
there, only a puzzled astonishment. Strange as it may seem, Billie had
told him something that had never occurred to him before. And he
recognized it as truth, as soon as she had said it.
"Just a minute," remarked Smith in his ordinary voice; "just a minute.
You're forgetting that we don't really know whether Rolla and Cunora are
safe. Everything depends upon them now, you know."
In silence the four went back into telepathic connection. Now, of
course, Smith and Van Emmon were practically without agents. The
prisoners could tell them nothing whatever except the tale of increasing
agony as their torture went on. All that Van Emmon and Smith could do
was lend the aid of their mentality to the efforts of the other two, and
for a while had to be content with what Billie, through Supreme, and the
doctor, through Rolla, were able to learn. However, Kinney did suggest
that one of the other two men get in touch with Cunora.
"Good idea," said Smith. "Go to it, Van Emmon."
The geologist stirred uneasily, and avoided his wife's eyes. "I--I'm
afraid not, Smith. Rather think I'd prefer to rest a while. You do it!"
Smith laughed and reddened. "Nothing doing for an old bach like me.
Cunora might--well, you know--go in bathing, for instance. It's all
right for the doctor, of course; but--let me out!"
Meanwhile the two women on Sanus, taking the utmost care, managed to
retreat from the river bank without being discovered. Keeping their eyes
very wide open and their ears strained for the slightest buzz, the two
contrived to pass through the village, out into the fields, and thence,
from cover to cover, into the foothills on that side of the valley where
their lovers had found the pyrites.
"If only we knew which stream they ascended!" lamented Cunora, as they
stood in indecision before a fork in the river.
"But we don't!" Rolla pointed out philosophically. "We must trust to
luck and Mownoth, ye and I."
And despite all the effort the doctor could put forth to the contrary,
the two women picked out the wrong branch. They searched as diligently
as two people possibly could; but somehow the doctor knew, just because
of the wrong choice that had been made, that their search would be
unsuccessful. He thought the matter over for a few moments, and finally
admitted to his three friends:
"I wonder if I haven't been a little silly? Why should I have been so
precious specific in impressing Rolla about the pyrites? Pshaw! Almost
any hard rock will strike sparks from flint!"
"Why, of course!" exploded Van Emmon. "Here--let's get busy and tell
Rolla!"
But it proved astonishingly difficult. The two women were in an
extraordinary condition now. They were continually on the alert. In
fact, the word "alert" scarcely described the state of mind, the keen,
desperate watchfulness which filled every one of their waking hours, and
caused each to remain awake as long as possible; so that they invariably
fell to sleep without warning. They could not be caught in the drowsy
state!
For they knew something about the bees which the four on the earth did
not learn until Billie had overheard Supreme giving some orders.
"Set a guard on that river bank," she told her subordinate, "and
maintain it night and day. If any inferior attempts to recover the magic
stone, deal with him or her in the same manner in which we punished the
finders of the deadly flower."
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