“It shall be done!”

Such methods were well known to Rolla and Cunora.  Had not their fellow villagers, many of them, tried time after time to escape from bondage?  And had they not inevitably been apprehended and driven back, to be tortured as an example to the rest?  It would never do to be caught!

So they made it a practice to travel only during twilight and dawn, remaining hidden through the day.  Invariably one stood watch while the other slept.  The bees were—­everywhere!

Upon crossing the range of mountains going down the other side, Cunora and Rolla began to feel hopeful of two things—­first, that their luck would change, and the wonderful stone be found; and second, that they would be in no danger from the bees in this new country, which seemed to be a valley much like the one they had quit.  It was all quite new and strange to them, and in their interest they almost forgot at times that each had a terrible score to settle when her chance finally came.

Twice they had exceedingly narrow escapes.  Always they kept carefully hid, but on the third day Cunora, advancing cautiously through some brush, came suddenly upon two bees feeding.  She stopped short and held her breath.  Neither saw her, so intent were they upon their honey; yet Cunora felt certain that each had been warned to watch out for her.  This was true; Billie learned that every bee on the planet had been told.  And so Cunora silently backed away, an inch at a time, until it was safe to turn and run.

On another occasion Rolla surprised a big drone bee, just as she bent to take a drink of water from a stream.  The insect had been out of her sight, on the other side of a boulder.  It rose with an angry buzz as she bent down; a few feet away from her it hung in the air, apparently scrutinizing her to make sure that she was one of the runaways.  Her heart leaped to her mouth.  Suppose they were reported!

She made a lightninglike grab at the thing, and very nearly caught it.  Straight up it shot, taken by surprise, and dashed blindly into a ledge of rock which hung overhead.  For a second it floundered, dazed; and that second was its last.  Cunora gave a single bound forward, and with a vicious swing of a palm-leaf, which she always carried, smashed the bee flat.

Before they had been free five days they came to an exceedingly serious conclusion:  that it was only a question of time until they were caught.  Sooner or later they must be forced to return; they could not hope to dodge bees much longer.  When Rolla fully realized this she turned gravely to the younger girl.

“Methinks the time has come for us to make a choice, Cunora.  Which shall it be:  live as we have been living for the past four days, with the certainty of being caught in time or—­face the unknown perils on the edge of the world?”

Cunora dropped the piece of stone she had been inspecting and shivered with fear.  “A dreadful choice ye offer, Rolla!  Think of the horrible beasts we must encounter!”