t, toward the puny adversary
that had outwitted them. Then both, as though at a spoken command,
stopped dead still. Next instant they crashed to the floor, shaking it
in their fall.

* * * * *

For a second Jim could only stand there and gaze at their monstrous
bodies. His plan had succeeded beyond all belief; and realization of
this success left him dazed for an instant. But it was only for an
instant.

Recovering himself, he raced to the acid vat to recover the spear he'd
punctured it with--only three feet of it was left: the rest had been
eaten away by the powerful stuff--and then wheeled to help Denny.

By now the crackling brown stuff had fallen from Denny, too--enough, at
least for him to struggle to his feet and hasten its cracking by tearing
at it with partially loosened hands. As Jim reached him, he freed
himself entirely save for the last few bits that stuck to him as bits of
shell cling to a newborn chick.

They turned together toward the corner where the termite-ruler was
cowering behind the guards that surrounded it. Intellect to a degree
phenomenal for an insect, this thing might have; but of the blind fierce
courage possessed by its subjects, it assuredly had none! In proof of
this was the fact that when the half dozen specialized soldiers ringing
it round might have leaped to the aid of the two clumsy door guards and
probably have ended the uneven fight in a few minutes, the craven
monarch had ordered them to stay at their guard-posts rather than take
the risk of remaining unguarded and defenseless for a single moment!
Increasing intelligence apparently had resulted (as only too often it
does in the world of men) in decreasing bravery!

An attack on the thing, closely guarded as it was, seemed hopeless.
Those enormous, flat-topped heads held ready to present their steely
surfaces as shields! Those armored terrors with the syringe-heads--one
of which still held a full cargo of the terrible brown fluid that at a
touch could bind the limbs of the men once more in the straitjacket
embrace! What could the two do against that barrier?

* * * * *

Nevertheless, without a word being spoken, and without a second's
hesitation, Jim and Denny advanced on the bristling ring--and the heart
of termite power it enclosed. Not only was the slimmest of hopes of
escape rendered impossible while the super-termite lived to direct its
subjects against them