Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/407

 he never strikes unless he has persuaded himself that the last sacrifice is demanded of him on behalf of the hive. Accordingly the clouds of insects had settled all over my Malay, had investigated him closely, and then had passed on leaving him unhurt. It was exasperating to realize that we had had our frantic stampede, our fight, our suffocation under water, and the pains we were then enduring for nothing, and that all might have been avoided by the exercise of presence of mind coupled with a sufficiency of cool nerve. The latter, of course, was the really vital possession and fresh from my recent encounter, I questioned whether I had enough of courage in me to enable me to sit calmly under a load of investigating bees, knowing that a single voluntary movement would entail a peculiarly pain- ful and ugly death. Therefore, I sat in silence, listening to my follower's account of his proceedings, while he picked six and thirty stings out of my felt hat and more than a hundred out of my flannel shirt.

The bees, he said, were irascible and unreasonable creatures. Their nest had, on this occasion, been swooped down upon by a kite, which had borne off a portion of the nursery before the fighting part of the population had become aware of the danger. Then the standing army had been called out, and sinee we elianced to be the next living thing to come their way, they had mistaken us for the thieves and had promptly declared war upon us. Therefore we had been made to bear the punishment due for the