“I fulfilled my bargain,” he said, “when I showed you the princess. Now I owe you no more. Those Formians are my fellow countrymen, and I have saved one of them, at least, from the horrible death.”
“And lost me my princess,” I shouted angrily.
We were now surrounded by my squad with drawn rifles, but they did not dare fire, for fear of hitting me. I was at the mercy of our guide. He had too much respect for the dum-dum bullets, however, and was easily hauled off of me and placed under arrest.
My men then proceeded to hack their way into the dungeon, and we at once followed the trail of the princess. This was not easy, for the city was a total wreck. A hundred ways presented themselves, through which her captor might have crawled. So we withdrew and threw a cordon around the entire city, dispatching a few searching parties again into the interior. This was made possible by additional reenforcements from headquarters.
As luck would have it, the ant-man finally made his appearance, with Lilla held tightly in his jaws, at the very point in the line of sentries where I happened to be. Instantly a dozen rifles covered him.
But he radiated the peremptory command: “Stop! Put down your rifles.”
“Put them down!” I ordered.
“Now,” he continued, “if a rifle is raised again, I bite, and the princess dies. She lives only on condition that I am given safe passage, with her as my prisoner. Once within our lines she will be treated well, for she will prove a valuable hostage to support the demands of Formis for a return to power.”
“Formis is dead,” I objected.
“One Formis is dead,” he replied. “But there are always maggots which we can fatten to make a new queen.”