This
was true; Billie learned that every bee on the planet had been told. And
so Cunora silently backed away, an inch at a time, until it was safe to
turn and run.
On another occasion Rolla surprised a big drone bee, just as she bent to
take a drink of water from a stream. The insect had been out of her
sight, on the other side of a boulder. It rose with an angry buzz as she
bent down; a few feet away from her it hung in the air, apparently
scrutinizing her to make sure that she was one of the runaways. Her
heart leaped to her mouth. Suppose they were reported!
She made a lightninglike grab at the thing, and very nearly caught it.
Straight up it shot, taken by surprise, and dashed blindly into a ledge
of rock which hung overhead. For a second it floundered, dazed; and that
second was its last. Cunora gave a single bound forward, and with a
vicious swing of a palm-leaf, which she always carried, smashed the bee
flat.
Before they had been free five days they came to an exceedingly serious
conclusion: that it was only a question of time until they were caught.
Sooner or later they must be forced to return; they could not hope to
dodge bees much longer. When Rolla fully realized this she turned
gravely to the younger girl.
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