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.
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