nd and will die a brigand.-- But to
keep up the battle now would be madness. What good would it do
us if we destroyed the whole hive, and none of us came back
alive?" Turning to the messenger, he cried:

"Give us back our dead. We will withdraw."

A dead silence fell. The messenger flew off.

"We must be prepared for a fresh piece of trickery, though I
don't think the hornets are in a fighting mood at present," said
the queen bee when she heard the hornets' decision. She gave
orders for the rear-guard, wax-generators, and honey-carriers to
remove the dead from the city while two fresh regiments guarded
the entrance.

Her orders were carried out. Over mountains of the dead one
brigand's body after another was dragged to the entrance and
thrown to the ground outside.

In gloomy silence the troop of hornets waited on the silver-fir
and saw the corpses of their fallen warriors drop one by one to
the earth.

The sun arose upon a scene of endless desolation. Twenty-one
slain, who had died a glorious death, made a heap in the grass
under the city of the bees. Not a drop of honey, not a single
prisoner had been taken by the enemy. The hornets picked up
their dead and flew away, the battle was over, the bees had
conquered.

But at what a cost! Everywhere lay fallen bodies, in the streets
and corridors, in the dim places before the brooders and
honey-cupboards. Sad was the work in the hive on that lovely
morning of summer sunshine and scented blossoms. The dead had to
be disposed of, the wounded had to be bandaged and nursed. But
before the hour of noon had struck, the regular tasks were
begun; for the bees neither celebrated their victory nor spent
time mourning their dead. Each bee carried his pride and his
grief locked quietly in his breast and went about his work.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XVII

THE QUEEN'S FRIEND

The noise of battle awoke Maya out of a brief sleep. She jumped
up and straightway wanted to dash out to help defend the city,
but soon realized that she was too weak to be of any help.

A group of struggling combatants came rolling toward her. One of
them was a strong young hornet, an officer, Maya judged by his
badge, who was defending himself unaided against an overwhelming
number of bees. The struggling knot drew nearer. To Maya's
horror it left one dead bee after another in its wake. But
numbers finally told against the giant: whole clusters of bees,
ready t