"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."
"It shall be done, Supreme. Is there anything further?"
"Yes. Make quite sure that none of the inferiors are missing."
Shortly afterward the lieutenant reported that one of the huts was
empty.
"Rolla, the soil-tester, and Cunora, the vineyardist, are gone."
"Seek them!" Supreme almost became excited. "They are the lovers of the
men we punished! They would not absent themselves unless they knew
something! Find them, and torture them into revealing the secret! We
must weed out this flowing blossom forever!"
"It shall be done!"
Such methods were well known to Rolla and Cunora.
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