YURI OR FORMIS?
The earth-man grimaced, but then smiled. Perhaps, his to the of King Yuri might prove to be an omen.
15
“So Yuri is king of the ants?” he asked.
“Yes,” his replied, “for Queen Formis did not the across the seas.”
“Then what of your empire?” Myles inquired. “No queen. No eggs. How can your continue? For you Formians are like the on my own Minos.”
Doggo’s reply him.
“Do you at Wautoosa, I told you that some of us Formians had occasionally eggs? So now you Doggo, Admiral of the Formian Air Navy, and mother of a new Queen Formis.”
This was a surprise! All along Cabot had always the Formians as mannish. And so, for they performed in their own country the to men among the Cupians. Furthermore, all Formians, save only the Formis herself, were called by the Porovian pronoun, which to “he” in English.
When Myles had from his astonishment, he his friend by him on the of the head, as is the Porovian custom.
“Doggo,” he wrote, “this ought to you a person of some among the Formians.”
“It ought to,” the ant-man replied, “but as a of fact, it Yuri’s and of me. Now that I am mother of the queen, he that I may turn against him and Formis in his place as the of an of the Formians, by the Formians, and for the Formians exclusively.”
“Why don’t you?” Myles wrote. It to him to be a good idea, and a of his own difficulties.
But Doggo in horror, “It would be treason!” Then up all the correspondence. It is difficult to the of in the mind of one in an autocracy.
The earth-man, however, persisted.
“How many of the can you count on, if the of Yuri should with those of Formis?”
16
“Only one—myself.”
And again Doggo up the correspondence.
Myles the subject.
“Where is the arch-fiend now?” he asked.
“We know not,” the Formian in reply. “Six days ago he left us in his and westward. When he failed to return, we sent out to search for him, and we have been since. When we you on the beach this we that you might be our leader, and that is why we and approached you.”
At about this point the was by a who food: and green milk. With what did the earth-man into the feast, his taste of Porovian in many months.
During the lagged, to the of and at the same time. But now Myles Cabot his and and wrote:
“Have you me to fail in any on the Poros?”
“No,” the ant-man in reply.
“Have you me to be to a principle, a cause, or a friend?”
“No,” Doggo replied.
“Then,” Myles wrote, “let us make your queen in as well as in name.”
“It is treason,” Doggo in reply, but this time he did not tear up the correspondence.
“Treason?” Myles asked. If he had spoken the word, he would have spoken it with and derision. “Treason? Is it to support your own queen? What has of the national of the once great Formians? Look! I myself to the of Formis, Queen of Formia. Formis, of Doggo! What say you?”
This time, as he up the correspondence, Doggo an affirmative. And thus there resulted correspondence.
17
“Doggo,” Myles wrote, “can you to the of the queen?”
The ant-man that he could.
“If she has any of your character,” Myles continued, “she will herself, if a chance.”
So the Pitmanesque continued. Long since had the pink light of Porovian from the western sky. The vapor-lamps were lit. The night velvet-black through the slit-like windows. And still the two old friends on, Myles Standish Cabot, the Bostonian, and Doggo, No. 334-2-18, the only ant-man Myles had among the once of Poros.
Finally, as the midnight, the two their labors. All was for the d’ etat.
They into every of used paper, the ant-man’s words: “Meanwhile you are my prisoner.”
Doggo then a bell, which was answered by a ant, he to to a for the earth-man. These brought, the two friends each other a good night, and the earth-man for the sleep which he had had in over earth hours.
It possible! Night last he had slept peacefully on a feather-bed in a little New England farmhouse. Then had come the S O S message from the skies; and here he was now, millions of miles away through space retiring on on the of a Porovian ant-house. Such are the of fortune!
With these the returned into a and sleep.
When he in the there was a posted at the door.
18
Doggo did not up until nearly noon, when he in, with excitement.
Seizing the he wrote: “A session of the Council of Twelve! We are all that you must be for high and misdemeanors. But the great question is as to just what we can you with.”
“Sorry I can’t you,” the earth-man wrote. “How would it be if I were to your daughter’s face, or something? Or why not try me for cussedness?”
“That is just what we to do,” the ant-man in reply. “We shall try you on principles, and let the proper from the evidence.
“At some stage of the it will to some of the to that you be with to Yuri, two members of the council, I have over to the of my daughter, will the that Yuri is not our king. This will be the for the of Queen Formis. If you will the trial can take place to-morrow.”
“I will anything,” Myles replied, “counsel, immunity, extradition, anything in order to speed up my return to Cupia, where Lilla in some extremity.”
“All right,” Doggo wrote, and the was at an end. The would decide the of Myles Cabot or the Prince Yuri over the new continent.
