It was indeed fortunate that the termites had abandoned their home; had it swarmed with its multitudes of voracious Neuroptera, the ant-hill would have been utterly untenable for human beings. Cousin Benedict's curiosity was awakened, and he was intensely interested in the question of the evacuation, so that he proceeded at once to investigate, if he could, whether the emigration had been recent or otherwise. He took the lantern, and as the result of his scrutiny he soon discovered in a recess what he described as the termites' "storehouse," or the place where the indefatigable insects keep their provisions. It was a large cavity, not far from the royal cell, which, together with the cells for the reception of the young larvae, had been destroyed by Hercules in the course of his flooring operations. Out of this receptacle Benedict drew a considerable quantity of gum and vegetable juices, all in a state so liquid as to demonstrate that they had been deposited there quite recently.
"They have only just gone," he exclaimed, with an air of authority, as if he imagined that some one was about to challenge his assertion.
"We are not going to dispute your word, Mr. Benedict," said Dick; "here we are; we have taken their place, and shall be quite content for them to keep out of the way, without caring when they went, or where they have gone."
"But we must care," retorted Benedict testily; "why they have gone concerns us a good deal; these juices make it evident, from the liquid state in which we find them, that the ants were here this morning, they have not only gone, but they have carried off their young larvae with them; they have been sagacious enough to take warning of some impending danger."
"Perhaps they heard that we were coming," said Hercules, laughing.
A look of withering scorn was the only answer that the entomologist deigned to give.
"Yes, I say," repeated Hercules, "perhaps they heard that we were coming."
"Pshaw!" said Benedict contemptuously; "do you imagine they would be afraid of you? they would reduce your carcase to a skeleton in no time, if they found it across their path."
"No doubt, if I were dead," replied Hercules, "they could pick my bones pretty clean; but while I had the use of my limbs I think I could crush them by thousands."
"Thousands!" ejaculated Benedict, with increasing warmth; "you think you could demolish thousands; but what if they were hundreds of thousands, millions, hundreds of millions? Alive as much as dead, I tell you, they wouldn't be long in consuming every morsel of you."