THE ROBBER ANTS 177 



enemy ants piled by the door, making forty in all that ours 

 killed in the fight before being driven from home. That 

 is, we know of that many. 



CECIL. The battle was sixty to forty against ours, 

 then. Well, I'm glad our ants put up a stiff fight, anyhow. 

 And, no doubt, some of these savage ones were still in the 

 old home while our undertaker made her 125 dangerous 

 trips all alone. 



KENNETH. Yes, and she may have carried out the 

 forty bodies of the enemy besides. 



CECIL. You say this ant worked five hours one day 

 without stopping, but I think ants can work longer than 

 that when the weather is right. I suppose she worked, too, 

 when there was no queen in the nest. If so, this is interest- 

 ing. 



DOROTHY. That undertaker must belong to the First 

 Aid Corps, or to the Ambulance Corps, or to the Red Cross. 



FLORENCE. Just think of it ! She was one of a thou- 

 sand brave enough to do it. Blind and alone, she went 

 down into that dark house of the dead, probably among the 

 fierce enemy, to search for and rescue the bodies of her 

 murdered sisters. 



DOROTHY. I can hardly believe it. 



FLORENCE. A hundred and twenty-five times did she 

 enter that "gloomy abode of the dead," to carry a com- 

 rade's head or body from no-man's-land to a more decent 

 resting place. She had no guard to protect her, no queen 

 present to encourage her, and no ant at the door to wel- 

 come her return. 



CECIL. You're becoming serious. 



FLORENCE. No fear of spooks or enemy's jaws, stings, 

 or poison could keep her from doing her duty to the dead 

 at the risk of her life. Yet, she will never get any credit 



