t of till now, was brought home to them.

"God! The place is a labyrinth! How can we ever find, our way out?"
groaned Jim.

"All we can do is keep going on--and up," said Denny, with a shake of
his head.

At random, they picked the center of the five underground passages, and
walked swiftly along it. And now they began to come in contact again
with the normal life of the vast mound city.

Here soldiers were patrolling up and down with seeming aimlessness,
while near-by workers labored at shoring up collapsing sections of
tunnel wall, or at carrying staggering large loads of food from one
unknown place to another. But now there seemed to be a certain lack of
system, of coordination, in the movements of the termites.

"Damned funny these soldiers aren't joining in the rush with the rest to
get to the laboratory in answer to the command of the ruler," said Jim,
warily watching lest one of the gigantic guards end the queer truce and
rush them. "And look at the way the workers move--just running aimlessly
back and forth with their loads. I don't get it."

* * * * *

"I think I do," said Denny. He pitched his voice low, and signed for Jim
to walk more slowly, on tiptoe. "These soldiers aren't with the rest
because only a certain number was called. It's simple mathematics: if
all the soldiers in the mound tried to get in that room back there where
the ruler was, they'd get jammed immovably in the tunnels near-by. The
king-termite, with all the astounding reasoning power it must have had,
called only as many as could crowd in, in order to avoid a jam in which
half the soldiers in the city might be killed.

"As for the aimless way the workers are moving--you forget they haven't
a leader any more. They are working by habit and instinct only, carrying
burdens, building new wall sections, according to blind custom alone,
and regardless of whether the carrying and building are necessary."

"In that case," sighed Jim, "we'd have a good chance to getting out of
here--if we could only find the path!"

"I'm sure we can find the path, and I'm sure we can get out," said Denny
confidently. "For in a mound of this size there must be many paths
leading to the upper world, and there is no reason--with the omnipotent
ruling brain dead and eaten--why any of these creatures should try to
stop or fight us."

Which was good logic--but which left entirely out of consideration that
one factor which man so