"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.
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