“So these were the discoverers,” commented Supreme.

“What is your will in their case?” the subordinate asked.

The commanding bee considered for a long time.  Finally she got an idea, such as bees are known to get once in a great while.  It was simply a new combination—­as all ideas are merely new combinations—­of two punishments which were commonly employed by the bees.

As a result, eight of the villagers were compelled to carry the two fire-finders to a certain spot on the bank of a nearby stream.  Here the two fragments of pyrites were thrown, under orders, into the water; so that the eight villagers might know just why the whole thing was being done.

Next the two men, still unconscious, were buried up to their necks.  Their heads, lolling helplessly, were all that was exposed.  So it was to be the Head Out punishment—­imprisonment of one day with their bodies rigidly held by the soil:  acute torture to an aborigine.  But was this all?

One of the villagers was driven to the nearest hut, where he was forced to secure two large stone axes.  Bringing these back to the “torture-place,” as the spot was called, the man was compelled to wield one of the clumsy tools while a companion used the other; and between them they cut down the tree whose branches had been waving over the prisoners’ heads.  Then the villagers were forced to drag the tree away.

All of which occurred in the darkness, and out of sight of Rolla and Cunora.  They could only guess what was going on.  Hours passed, and dawn approached.  Not till then did they learn just what had been done.

The villagers, now all awake, were driven by the bees to the place on the bank of the stream.  There, the eight men who had imprisoned the two discoverers told what had been done with the “magic stones.”  Each villager stared at the offenders, and at something which lay on the ground before them, and in sober silence went straight to his or her work in the fields.

Presently the huts were deserted.  All the people were on duty elsewhere.  Such bees as were not guarding the fields had returned to the hives.  Rolla and Cunora cautiously ventured forth, taking great care to avoid being seen.  They hurried fearfully to the stream.

Before they reached the spot Rolla gave an exclamation and stared curiously to one side, where the tree had been dragged.  Suddenly she gave a terrible cry and rushed forward, only to drop on her knees and cover her face with hands that shook as with the palsy.  At the same instant Cunora saw what had been done; and uttering a single piercing scream, fell fainting to the ground.

Heaped in front of the two prisoners was a large pile of pebbles.  There were thousands upon thousands in the heap.  Before each man, at a distance of a foot, was a large gourdful of water.  To the savages, these told the whole story; these, together with the tree dragged to one side.