'But the metal―'
'Damn the metal. There's plenty more—we can't move fast and carry the stuff. Till this blows over, we can go home and lie doggo for a bit.'
The three crossed the clearing at top speed. In the shelter of the opposite trees, they paused to look back. A vast funnel of flame was belching into the heavens and, above it, thick clouds of smoke broadened, mushroom-like. Jim shook a rueful head.
'Ain't that just our darned luck?' he growled.
There followed several weeks, uneventful to the castaways. Roy and Jim had returned to the scene of their fight, on the following day, and made encouraging discoveries. The first was that the fire started by Roy's lost tube had spread only a very little distance beyond its raging centre. With no wind to fan them, the flames had dwindled away, and finally snuffed out. The tube itself was irretrievably lost, somewhere in a crater of its own making. It had melted the ground and the rocks beneath it, and sunk out of sight into the molten pool. Whether it had destroyed itself, or whether it was still digging deeper and deeper into the earth, neither of the men knew, nor cared to any extent. They were far too elated at finding that the machines they had vanquished still lay where they had fallen.
'Wonder why they haven't taken them away?' Roy had said. Jim snorted.
'You're always wondering about the things. What's the use of tryin' to get inside an insect's mind, anyway? You couldn't do it in a life-time. Maybe they never repair—only build new machines. The thing that counts, now, is that here's the metal just waiting for us to carry it off.'
With the help of most of the party, the transport had been successfully accomplished; though more than once on the journey it was necessary to drop their burdens and take to the trees, to avoid wandering machines. A growing acquaintance with the dangers of the world about them, and with the limited capabilities of their enemies, began to have a tonic effect on the party. Jim Hollis had never shown anything more than contempt for what he called 'walking tinware,' and the rest were fast adopting his point of view.
Del, with Kal for an assistant, had gone to work right away on the construction of a new time-traveller, once he had assured himself that the metals were suitable. Ril, whose offers of assistance had been refused on the ground that more than one helper would lead to confusion, busied himself in experimenting with the least damaged of the captured machines, a pursuit in which he was joined by Julian. Jim Hollis was appointed head of the foraging staff and, with the help of the two Numen, saw that a plentiful supply of fruit and water was maintained.
Jessica and Roy found themselves much together. Since the ant-machines were seldom to be seen in the immediate vicinity of the cliffs, they had formed the habit of taking their strolls in the neighbourhood. Roy, after a month or more of this existence, had come to accept their way of life as a commonplace rather than an adventure. He discovered, with a sense of surprise, that Jessica did not share this view.
'How long,' she asked him one morning, 'do you think it will be before Del completes his machine?'
Roy looked at her doubtfully. There was something in her tone that he could not place. It was not exactly an eagerness for release from this strange world, and yet...
'Not more than a day or two, now, I believe; but he is not sure that some further adjustments won't be necessary. You're feeling homesick?'
Jessica failed to reply for a moment. She held her gaze fixed straight ahead, and there was a slight petulance in the line of her mouth. At length she answered, in a dull voice:
'I suppose I am. After all, one could hardly wish to stay here for ever. Sometimes, at nights, it comes over me in a perfect wave of longing. I look out and see nothing but the dimness of the stars, and hear nothing but the stirring of the trees; then I long for our bustling twenty-third century. I want to see the sky split by the green fire at the tail of an Asia-bound rocket, or the red gush from the Europe express.
'Sometimes, on clear nights, we could see from our house the pure-white flames streaming from the Mars space-ship as it spurted from its cradle. And then, too, there was never this terrible quiet. Even when one was shut away, there was always a sense of movement, of a world where men and their machines all worked to some purpose—a rustling sense of life even in the quietest places. I feel a horrible sense of futility that it has all come only to this—to the insects.'
'I'm sure you are wrong there. If we had found men still existing at this date, I should feel that it did seem futile. It would mean that man must die when the world dies. But, since there is no sign of him. I am convinced that he achieved his true end—whatever that may have been—and gone on his way, leaving the world to other forms of life so that they may in turn achieve their ends.'
'I think you are an optimist, Roy, but I hope you are right. I confess, I don't feel very cheerful about anything just now.'
'While I seem to feel happier than I ever remember, I could almost hope that Del's machine should turn out a failure. I wish ...' He stopped abruptly. A light crept into Jessica's eyes. The corners of her mouth lifted, ever so slightly.
'Yes?' she prompted, gently. But Roy was not looking; he did not see the change that had come over her.
'I don't know. It seems so unnecessary that we should go back to our own centuries—and yet, we must.'
'Must?'
'Well, imagine what a misfit I should be in Del's century.'
Jessica sighed to herself over the obtuseness of men. 'I can't imagine you in Del's century,' she said. But Roy missed the emphasis which was laid upon the word 'Del,' and took the statement at its face value. Jessica let the subject drop. She had learned what she wanted to know; the rest was a matter of careful handling. She might even have to propose herself, in the end....
Half an hour later, as they were returning to the cave, Roy announced that there was a surprise awaiting her. Ril and Julian, in their experiments with the captured ant-machine, had succeeded in making it workable. The machinery cased in the lower part of the ovoid body, and partitioned off, had been found to be intact. It had not been a great labour, with the help of the heat-rays, to braise on salvaged legs in place of those shorn away. Then, more to give themselves employment than for any other reason, the two men had set about adapting the controls for human use. To this end. they had applied themselves to the solution of a number of ingenious problems which turned out, in most cases, less difficult than they had expected. Much of the work consisted merely of clearing away many of the stages necessary for insect manipulation.
'What I mean is,' said Roy, explaining, 'a man might need a block and tackle to lift a heavy log which an elephant would lift direct. This time, Ril and Julian were in the position of the elephant—they could dispense with much of the intermediate mechanical aid. They're as pleased with the thing as a child with a new toy. It's going to be ready to show off its tricks when we get back.'
'But what's the good of it?'
'None, I think. They merely felt an interest in the thing, and it gave them something to do. They solved it as one might solve any other puzzle. You'll see it soon.'
His words were borne out, a few hundred yards from home. They saw the glittering machine approach, slowly scrabbling over the ground towards them. It stopped as they came into view, and stood still, its tentacles waving in the usual manner of the ant-operated craft. Roy gave a chuckling laugh.
'A pretty good imitation. If I hadn't been expecting it, I'd have rayed the thing right off—and that would have been very uncomfortable for Ril and Julian.'