The Hunting Wasps 



perlment on the public road, where, when the 

 long-awaited event occurs at last, the arrival 

 of a wayfarer is likely to disturb or ruin 

 opportunities that may never return ! I rise, 

 anxiously, to make way for the conscripts; I 

 stand back in the osier-bed and leave the 

 narrow passage free. To do more would 

 have been unwise. To say, " Don't go this 

 way, my good lads," would have made bad 

 worse. They would have suspected some 

 trap hidden under the sand, giving rise to 

 questions to which no reply that I could have 

 made would have sounded satisfactory. Be- 

 sides, my request would have turned those 

 idlers into lookers-on, very embarrassing com- 

 pany in such studies. I therefore got up 

 without speaking and trusted to my lucky star. 

 Alas and alack, my star betrayed me: the 

 heavy regulation boot came straight down 

 upon the ceiling of the Sphex ! A shudder 

 ran through me as though I myself had re- 

 ceived the impress of the hobnailed sole. 



When the conscripts had passed, I pro- 

 ceeded to save what I could of the ruined 

 burrow's contents. The Sphex was there, 

 crushed and mangled; and with her not only 

 the Locust whom I had seen carried down, 

 but two others as well, making three Locusts 

 124 



