[ CHAPTER XIV]
THE SENTINEL
Soon, however, the little bee’s despair yielded to a definite resolve. It was as though she once more called to mind that she was a bee.
“Here I am weeping and wailing,” she thought, “as if I had no brains and as if I were a weakling. Oh, I’m not much of an honor to my people and my queen. They are in danger. I am doomed anyhow. So since death is certain one way or another, I may as well be proud and brave and do everything I can to try to save them.”
It was as though Maya had completely forgotten the long time that had passed since she left her home. More strongly than ever she felt herself one of her people; and the great responsibility that suddenly devolved upon her, through the knowledge of the hornets’ plot, filled her with fine courage and determination.
“If my people are to be vanquished and killed, I want to be killed, too. But first I must do everything in my power to save them.”
“Long live my queen!” she cried.
“Quiet in there!” clanged harshly from the outside.
Ugh, what an awful voice!—The watchman making his rounds.—Then it was already late in the night.
As soon as the watchman’s footsteps had died away, Maya began to widen the chink through which she had peeped into the hall. It was easy to bite away the brittle stuff of the partition, though it took some time before the opening was large enough to admit her body. At length, in the full knowledge that discovery would cost her her life, she squeezed through into the hall. From remote depths of the fortress echoed the sound of loud snoring.