In half a minute the first of the invaders was down, his head crushed by a mattock in the hands of a bee-tormented native. In a single minute all were gone but two; and a moment later, Deltos alone, because he had chanced to secure a long club, was alive of all that crew.
For a minute he kept them off by sheer strength. He swung the stick with such vigor that he fairly cleared a circle for himself. The natives paused, howling and shrieking, before the final rush.
An inspiration came to Deltos. He tore his cap from his head and his net from his face.
"Look!" he screamed, above the uproar. "I am a man, like yourselves!
Do not kill!"
Next second he froze in his tracks. The next he was writhing in the death agony, and the bees were supreme once more.
Supreme herself had stung Deltos.
XV
OVERLOOKED
Of the four on the earth, Smith was the first to make any comment. He had considerable difficulty in throwing his thought to the others; somehow he felt slightly dazed.
"This is—unbelievable!" he said, and repeated it twice. "To think that those insects are still the masters!"