246 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
roots, and thus valuable lives would go down with 
the worthless. The sole object seems to be to 
rid the hives as effectively as possible of the 
presence of the drones; and the disablement of 
one wing appears to be all that is necessary, and 
therefore all for which the deft assassin strives. 
With some bee-races the massacre of the drones 
is carried through in an incredibly short space of 
time ; with others the agony of the thing is drawn 
out for days together. The wretched sires of the 
hive are caught between two evils, each as fatal as 
the other. If they fly off to the fields, starvation 
and the night-chills will swiftly bring about their 
end. If they return to the hive, a still speedier 
death awaits them. Night and day, at this time, 
the guard-bees are doubled and re-doubled at the 
city-gates ; and there is little chance of the wiliest 
drone outwitting them. But he usually takes the 
home-hazard ; and sooner or later comes blunder- 
ing in, receiving with open arms, as it were, his 
share of the knife, as Huddlestone faced the 
Carbonari. 
All this is the common way with the bee- 
republic, when the season goes as it should ; and 
the hive is in possession of a mother-bee—young, 
strong, and of proved fecundity. But there are 
times when the drones—for all their great expense 
and drain on the wealth of the colony—are suffered 
to live on until the late autumn, or even to remain 
unmolested throughout the winter and following 
