Rolla and Cunora came a little nearer; and still remaining hidden, saw that more than half their friends had succumbed.  One by one the remainder dropped out; their forms lay all about what was left of the fire.  The two women could easily see what their friends were blind to:  the bees were simply biding their time.

“Ought we not to rush in and warn them?” whispered Cunora to Rolla.  “Surely the flower hath driven them mad!”

“Hush!” warned the older woman.  “Be quiet!  Everything depends upon our silence!”

It was true.  Only two of the villagers remained upon their feet, and shortly one of these staggered and fell in his tracks.  The one who was left was Corrus himself, his immense vitality keeping him going.  Then he, too, after a final whoop of triumph and defiance, absolutely unconscious of the poison-laden horde that surrounded him, fell senseless to the earth.  Another minute, and the whole crowd was still.

And the fire had gone out.

The bees came closer.  Several thousands of them were stricken by smoke from the embers, and the rest of the swarm took good care to avoid it.  They hovered over the prostrate forms of the aborigines and made sure that they were unconscious.

“Is there nothing we can do?” whispered Cunora, straining her eyes to see.

“Nothing, save to watch and wait,” returned Rolla, her gaze fixed upon the dark heap which marked her lover’s form.  And thus an hour passed, with the four on the earth quite unable to take a hand in any way.

Then one of the villagers—­the first, in fact, who had dropped out of the dance—­stirred and presently awakened.  He sat up and looked about him, dazed and dizzy, for all the world like a drunken man.  After a while he managed to get to his feet.

No sooner had he done this than a dozen bees were upon him.  Terror-stricken, he stood awaiting their commands.  They were not long in coming.

By means of their fearful buzzing, the deadly insects guided him into the nearest hut, where they indicated that he should pick up one of the rude hoelike took which was used in the fields.  With this in hand, he was driven to the little piles of smoldering ashes, where the fires had flickered an hour before.

Hardly knowing what he was doing, but not daring to disobey, the man proceeded to heap dirt over the embers.  Shortly he had every spark of the fire smothered beneath a mound as high as his knees.  Not till then did any of the others begin to revive.

As fast as they recovered the bees took charge of them.  Not a human had courage enough to make a move of offense; it meant certain death, and they all knew it only too well.  As soon as they were wide awake enough to know what they were doing, they were forced to search the bodies of those still asleep.

“We must find the means for growing the flower,” said Supreme, evidently convinced that a seed was a seed, under any circumstances.  And presently they found, tucked away in Corrus’s lion-skin, a large chunk of the pyrites, and a similar piece on Dulnop.