connections. Neither of them could claim that he or she had previously
guessed a tenth of its whole, ghastly nature.

The "cane" which Smith had seen had not been cane at all; it had been
grass. The "beetle" in the stream had not been the giant thing he had
visualized it; neither had that fish been the size he had thought.

Van Emmon's "gold mine" had not been a pit in any sense of the word; it
had been the inside of the blossom of a very simple, poppy-like flower.
The "nuggets" had been not mineral, but pollen. As for the incredible
thing which Van Emmon had seen on the ground; that living statue; that
head without a body--the body had been buried out of sight beneath the
soil; and the man had been an ordinary human, being punished in this
manner for misconduct.

Instead of being aircraft built in imitation of insects, the machines
had been constructed by nature herself, and there had been nothing
unusual in their size. No; they were the real thing, differing only
slightly from what might have been found anywhere upon the earth.

In short, it had all been simply a matter of view-point. The supreme
creature of Sanus was, not the human, but the bee. A poisonous bee,
superior to every other form of Sanusian life! What was more--

"The damned things are not only supreme; THE HUMANS ARE THEIR SLAVES!"




VI