. "By heaven!" he exclaimed. "Denny, _I think the
brown stuff is cracking_! Maybe it was never intended to be more than a
temporary bond, to hold an enemy helpless just long enough for it to be
killed! Maybe it hardens as it dries so that it loses all resiliency!
Maybe--"

He stopped. A faint quivering of the ruler's withered little legs
heralded its reawakening consciousness.

"Act helpless!" whispered Denny excitedly, as he too saw that faint stir
of awakening. "Don't let the thing get an idea of what we're thinking.
Because ... we _might_ get our moment of freedom...."

Both lay relaxed on the floor, eyes half closed. And in the hardening
substance that covered them all over like a shell of cloudy brown
bakelite, appeared more minute seams as it dried unevenly on the
flexible human flesh beneath it. Whether Jim's guess that it was only a
temporary bond was correct, or whether it had been developed to harden
relentlessly only over unyielding surfaces of horn such as the termites'
deadliest enemy, the ants, wear for armor, will never be known. But in a
matter of moments it became apparent that it was going to prove too
brittle to continue clamping flesh as elastic as that of the two humans!

* * * * *

By now the termite-ruler seemed to have recovered fully from its
gargantuan meal. And while, of course, there was no expression of any
kind to be read in the stony, dull eyes, its actions seemed once more to
indicate curiosity about these queer, two-legged bugs that wandered in
here where they had no business to be.

The team of workers bore it close again, lowered the great head close to
Denny. One of the team began chipping at the brown shell where it
encased and held immovably to his body Denny's left hand.

A bit of the shell dropped away, exposing the fingers. Delicately,
accurately, the worker's normal-sized but powerful mandibles edged the
little finger away from the rest--and closed down over it....

"Denny!" burst out Jim, who could just see, out of the corners of his
eyes, what was being done. "My God ... Denny...."

Dennis himself said nothing. His face went white as chalk, and great
drops of perspiration stood out on his forehead. But no sound came from
his tortured lips.

The finger was lifted to the terrible little mouth under the gigantic
head. The mouth received it; the worker nuzzled with its mandibles for
another finger. The monarch, having tried the taste of th