h a queer sort of mushroom growth
linking them together--a large, gray-white ball borne mutually on their
backs. But that was all. The listing of those two workers concluded the
roll-call of termites in the chamber as far as the two men could see.
And the two were--just ordinary workers.

"I guess His Majesty is out," said Jim. But his voice, in spite of the
attempted levity of the words, was low-pitched and somber. "Most
impolite to keep us waiting--"

He stopped as Denny sharply threw up his hand. And he too gazed at the
maneuver that had caught Denny's wary attention.

* * * * *

This was nothing save that the various soldiers in the chamber--seven of
them, besides the two that never left their stations at the door--had
moved. But they had moved in concert, almost as harmoniously in unison
as if performing some sort of drill.

In a single line they filed across the rows of inert, palpitating,
paralyzed bodies; and in a line they surrounded Jim and Denny in a
hollow square about twenty feet across. There they took up their
stations, the three soldiers with the syringe-heads, and the four with
the unwieldy craniums that resembled bungs.

So perfectly had the move been executed, so perfectly and in unison had
it been timed, that there could be little doubt it had resulted from a
direct order. But where was the thing to give the command? Where was the
head-general? In some far place, on his way to inspect the new and odd
kind of prisoners, and giving orders to hold them yet more closely in
anticipation of that inspection?

Jim turned to Denny and started to voice some of his thoughts. But the
words were killed by the light that had appeared suddenly in Denny's
eyes. In them had appeared a gleam of almost superstitious terror.

"Jim!" gasped Denny, raising his hand and pointing with trembling
forefinger. "Jim--_look_!"

Jim turned to gaze, and his spear, clutched with almost convulsive
desperation till this moment, sagged to the floor from his limp hinds.

* * * * *

The thing Denny had pointed at was the curious, large mushroom growth
supported jointly on the backs of the two worker termites. It had been
across the chamber from them when they first saw it. Now it was moving
toward them, steadily, borne by the team of workers. And now, clearly,
for the first time, they saw what it really was.

It was a head, that mushroom growth. Rather, the whiti