he thought her joints were broken. It was a
laugh she would never forget, like a vile taunt out of hellish
darkness. Mingling with it was another gruesome sound, the awful
clanking of armor.

Thomas let go with all his legs at once and tumbled head over
heels through the branches into the water-butt.

"I doubt if you get away alive," he called back. But the poor
little bee no longer heard.

She couldn't see her assailant, her neck was caught in too firm
a grip, but a gilt-sheathed arm passed before her eyes, and a
huge head with dreadful pincers suddenly thrust itself above her
face. She took it at first to belong to a gigantic wasp, but
then realized that she had fallen into the clutches of a hornet.
The black-and-yellow striped monster was surely four times her
size.

Maya lost sight, hearing, speech; every nerve in her body went
faint. At length her voice came back, and she screamed for help.

"Never mind, girlie," said the hornet in a honey-sweet tone that
was sickening. "Never mind. It'll last until it's over." He
smiled a baleful smile.

"Let go!" cried Maya. "Let me go! Or I'll sting you in your
heart."

"In my heart right away? Very brave. But there's time for that
later."

Maya went into a fury. Summoning all her strength, she twisted
herself around, uttered her shrill battle-cry, and directed her
sting against the middle of the hornet's breast. To her
amazement and horror, the sting, instead of piercing his breast,
swerved on the surface. The brigand's armor was impervious.

Wrath gleamed in his eyes.

"I could bite your head off, little one, to punish you for your
impudence. And I would, too, I would indeed, but for our queen.
She prefers fresh bees to dead carcasses. So a good soldier
saves a juicy morsel like you to bring to her alive."

The hornet, with Maya still in his grip, rose into the air and
made directly for the fortress.

"This is too awful," thought the poor little bee. "No one can
stand this." She fainted.

When she came to her senses, she found herself in half darkness,
in a sultry dusk permeated by a horrid, pungent smell. Slowly
everything came back to her. A great paralyzing sadness settled
in her heart. She wanted to cry: the tears refused to come.

"I haven't been eaten up yet, but I may be, any moment," she
thought in a tremble.

Through the walls of her prison she caught the distinct sound of
voices, and soon she noticed that a little light filtered
through a narr