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Updated: June 6, 2025
If we can handle her people rightly the future of the race is assured." Somat thought it was simple enough. "All we need to do is send this woman back with a supply of matches, and implicit instructions as to how best to proceed against the bees. Once released, their friends can make their way over the edge and settle among us. Let the bees keep their country."
He fell silent; and Rolla, after waiting as long as her patience would allow, finally put the question temporarily uppermost in her mind: "It is true that I have crossed the edge of the world. And yet, I understand it not at all. Can ye explain the nature of this strange world we live upon, Somat?"
But she had hidden it in the folds of her skirt. Next moment the doctor warned them to be quiet; Somat and Rolla were talking again. He was telling her about his world. She learned that his people, who had never concerned themselves with her side of the planet, had progressed enormously beyond the Sanusians.
"Nay," answered Rolla, and proceeded to explain, in the wrong order, as a child might, by relating first the crossing of the ridge, the flight from the bees, the "masters'" cruel method of dealing with Corrus and Dulnop, and finally the matter of the fire itself, the real cause of the whole affair. Somat was intelligent enough to fill in such details as Rolla omitted.
However," impatiently, "give me the food ye promised; I can talk after my stomach be filled." "Of a surety," replied Somat apologetically. "I were too interested to remember thy hunger." He spoke a word or two, and one of his companions brought another stool, also dishes and table utensils. Whereupon the watchers on the earth got a first-class surprise.
He fell silent; and Rolla, after waiting as long as her patience would allow, finally put the question temporarily uppermost in her mind: "It is true that I have crossed the edge of the world. And yet, I understand it not at all. Can ye explain the nature of this strange world we live upon, Somat?"
She decided to add to the scene. "I have been away from my people for many days," and she held up one hand with the five fingers spread out, opening and closing them four times, to indicate twenty. "Ye came over the edge of the world!" marveled Somat. "It were a dangerous thing to do, stranger!" "Aye," agreed Rolla, "but less dangerous than that from which I fled.
All told, there were a couple of hundred of the villagers, and all were armed with tools they knew how to use very well. "Who shall do the honors?" asked Sorplee. "Wish Somat was here, to explain for us." "Don't need him," reminded Deltos. "All we've got to do is to show these two fellows we dug up."
The two who had seconded him before again showed agreement. Sorplee and Deltos, however, together with the other seven, were distinctly opposed to the method. "Somat," protested Deltos, as though surprised, "you forget that there's an enormous population over there. Let them come in of their own free will? Why, they would overrun our country! What would become of us?"
"And," pursued Rolla, "will ye give me the magic stone, that I may take the flowing blossoms back to my people, and release my loved one from the masters' cruelty?" The great question was put! Rolla waited in tremulous anxiety for the answer. "Aye, stranger!" replied Somat vigorously. "More; ye shall have some of the little sticks!" Whereupon Rolla leaped to her feet and danced in sheer delight.
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