es."

The pallor on the man's face was dreadful, but he continued to stare at
the Messenger coolly enough.

"It's a damned outrage!" he began thickly. "I had a pass from your
Colonel----"

"If you don't keep quiet I'll have to tie up your face," observed the
Messenger, dismounting and flinging aside her cloak.

Then, as she walked toward the little row of beehives, carrying only her
riding whip, the farmer's eyes grew round and a dull flush empurpled his
face and neck.

"By God!" he gasped; "it's _her_!" and said not another word.

She advanced cautiously toward the hives; very carefully, with the butt
of her whip, she closed the sliding door over every exit, then seated
herself in the grass within arm's length of the hives and, crossing her
spurred boots, leaned forward, expectant, motionless.

A bee arrived, plunder-laden, dropped on the sill and began to walk
toward the closed entrance of his hive. Finding it blocked, the insect
buzzed angrily. Another bee whizzed by her and lit on the sill of
another hive; another came, another, and another.

Very gingerly, as each insect alighted, she raised the sliding door and
let it enter. Deal watched her, fascinated.

An hour passed; she had admitted hundreds of bees, always closing the
door behind each new arrival. Then something darted through the range of
her vision and alighted, buzzing awkwardly on the sill of a hive--an
ordinary, yellow-brown honey bee, yet differing from the others in that
its thighs seemed to be snow-white.

Quick as a flash the Messenger leaned forward and caught the insect in
her gloved fingers, holding it by the wings flat over the back.

Its abdomen dilated and twisted, and the tiny sting was thrust out,
vainly searching the enemy; but the Messenger, drawing a pin from her
jacket, deftly released the two white encumbrances from the insect's
thighs--two thin cylinders of finest tissue paper, and flung the angry
insect high into the air. It circled, returned to the hive, and she let
it in.

There was a groan from the manacled man under the trees; she gave him a
rapid glance, shook her head in warning, and, leaning forward, deftly
lifted a second white-thighed bee from the hive over which it was
scrambling in a bewildered sort of way.

A third, fourth, and fifth bee arrived in quick succession; she robbed
them all of their tissue-paper cylinders. Then for a while no more
arrived, and she wondered whether her guess had been correct, tha