THE WAR of THE ANTS

THE WAR OF THE ANTS.

THE PREPARATIONS FOR WAR.

LITTLE TOM BECOMES THE COMMANDER OF THE

BLACK TOWN.

THE AMBUSCADE OF THE REDHEADS.

LITTLE TOM'S VICTORY. THE PURSUIT OF THE ENEMY.

LITTLE TOM TAKEN CAPTIVE.

When they came to the square before the town, Tom told Mirmex of his doubts, but before the latter could answer they perceived an ant hurrying at great speed out of the moss and barely succeeding in staggering around them to the gate. Mirmex looked after him in astonishment, but, at this moment, a crowd of the workmen ran out, quickly divided themselves into groups, and took their stations on the roads in every direction.

The whole town was swarming with workmen, hurrying out, and with the nurses who were quickly carrying the chrysalises from the place where they had been sunning themselves, inside the mound. Some exciting message had set the town in an uproar.

Mirmex immediately disappeared through the gate and Tom was left to look on the excited turmoil. It seemed to him the wildest disorder, that every one was hustling and running around, as if bereft of reason; but he soon saw that all this bustling was part of a carefully directed plan and that something was being carried out that he did not understand.

From the gates were coming ants who stretched themselves in long, well-ordered lines and then disappeared in the moss. Work in the town ceased, and at once the whole surface was deserted; but from all the roads, crowds of ants came quickly into the square, where they formed themselves in battle array.

Tom finally recognized that the preparations were for battle. At that moment, Mirmex came up to him and started leading him into the town, telling him that news had come of a marauding expedition of the Redheads.

The guards on the borders had seen some Redheads spying about and had caught some black slaves, from whom they learned that, since early morning, the Redheads had been planning a most formidable expedition. At first, they thought the Redheads were planning to attack a small town by the brook, in the forest, but they sent out some spies of their own who came upon a great crowd of Redheads gathering by the stumps on the clearing leading to Black Town, and they at once sent in the messenger to give the alarm.

»This will be a battle such as we have never seen,« said Mirmex. »The Redheads have all gone into this attack in which they have formed great armies. In all probability, they wish to rob us, not only of our children but of our large harvests. They themselves live deep in the valley, where there is little grass and the country is not rich, while they know that we are close to the fields and gardens from which we have, this year, gathered great stores of food. This time it will be a fight for life or death. Fortunately, we have time to send out messengers and collect all our strength and to form our army.«

Tom was trembling with excitement and asked to be allowed to fight in the first rank and to help in the victory over the robbers. Mirmex thanked him. »You will be most welcome,« he said, »but you cannot go into the field, for you do not know our way of fighting. It is not a question of personal bravery but of a sound plan based on our knowledge of the ground. We are not afraid of the result, for we are well prepared and all that we need is the full strength of our numbers to equalize the greater weight and the better fighting equipment of our enemies. The only thing we fear is the treacherous attack of some reserve force, for the Redheads are very crafty and know how to conceal their plans and we are quite likely to be attacked in the town while our forces are all in the field.«

»We ought to leave a garrison to defend the town. Therefore, we will ask you to remain for its defense, in which case a small group with you will be sufficient. Then we will not fear that anything will happen behind our backs, while we are out in the field.«

Tom thanked Mirmex for this confidence and promised him that he would defend the town to his last breath.

In the meantime, the last divisions were disappearing in the moss and in the grass. The town became quiet; only some guards were running on the stones at the top and crawling up the flowers in the square. A small garrison remained at the crossroads and watched the last of the soldiers marching toward the depths of the wood. Mirmex quickly said good-bye and also disappeared. Tom returned to the town, as he wanted to mount to the top and take a look around the country.

Thus a terrible war started which completely changed Tom's fate.

The broad country around the ants' town was almost deserted. Tom saw only his garrison in the square, the guards hiding in the blossoms of hawkweed and grass stems, groups of workmen putting various things in order, and the nurses in perturbation, running all over the town and taking care of the entrances where they had placed the chrysalises.

Tom ran down from the top of the mound, saw that there were guards at the magazines and went out to take a look at the surroundings. At the gate, he met two guards who were leading his rose-bug steed out of the stall, having been ordered by Mirmex to get him ready, in case Tom should need him in the fight. Tom at once mounted and rode to the heather, to see if there was any danger threatening the town in that direction.

On the way, he thought of his friends and wondered how they were getting on in the fight; then he thought of Chrysomela and decided that after the battle he would send her a message, lest she should worry about him.

As he rode through the moss, he saw behind a stone at one side, two little red spots moving. They seemed, at first, only two dry twigs, but their movement was suspicious. He rode along slowly as if he did not see them, but when he had come up to them, he jumped down suddenly and with drawn sword threw himself behind the stone; there he found a Redhead whom he cut in two. The moss moved and there were two other Redheads running away. Tom left them, mounted hurriedly and rode back to the town as fast as he could go. It was high time.

The reserves of the Redhead army were stealing through the heather to the town, hoping to find it weakly guarded and to plunder it. When a messenger reached them reporting how a giant had killed one of their spies, they were greatly surprised; but they did not suspect that Tom was an ally of the Black Ants, so they became quieted, thinking that the giant had met their spies only by accident, and started forward toward the town.

Tom ordered all the guards to be brought back to the town, so that they should not be surprised by the attack of the Redheads, and placed part of the garrison on top of the town and the rest in the grass close by. He already knew whence the attack would come and was prepared to meet it.

The Redheads crawled carefully through the moss and when they did not encounter any guards, they thought that the Black Ants did not suspect that they had reserves. They soon came out on the square and ran in a great crowd to the town which seemed to be deserted. As soon as they came close, Tom sent the garrison hidden by the gates to attack them. Although taken by surprise, the Redheads defended themselves bravely.

They struck the defenders with their long, sharp jaws and in a compact body, pushed forward toward the main gate. At this moment, out of the gate came Tom with his band of selected workers, and wherever he struck with his sword, off flew a red head or a foot. Then, two or three of his companions would throw themselves on the red fighters, biting their feet and backs. The Redheads became afraid and leaving many dead and wounded on the square, ran headlong for the moss.

At this moment, a great company of Black Ants that had hidden in the grass, came out and met them. A terrible fight followed and only a few of the Redheads were able to beat their way through the black ranks and return as best they could to the rest of their army.

Tom was not satisfied with this victory. He sat on his rose-bug and, in his rage, wished to exterminate the Redheads altogether. All his friends begged him not to leave the town, but he was burning for revenge. Leaving the older men on guard, he chose a group of young, enthusiastic workers and hurried with them after the retreating enemy.

Moss, red and blue berries, sped by them as they hastened on and, whenever they came to one of their foes lagging behind, they immediately cut him to pieces. The rose-bug, who also became enthusiastic over the fight, was soon running at the head of the scattered crowd and wherever he saw a Redhead easily overtook him, when Little Tom would cut him down with his sword. So they ran blindly ahead, paying little heed to anything, intoxicated with their victory.

Now brave Little Tom did not know the sly cunning of his foes. The fleeing ones scattered broadly as they made for their home. The strongest among them, however, stopped a moment and, hiding themselves, noticed that Tom was riding almost alone, having outridden his own troop. Then they ran as fast as they could to their home, where they found a swarm of slaves awaiting the results of the main battle. With them were many of their masters in great excitement. They had received many discouraging reports. Many fighters had been lost and the army was being pressed back, step by step.

Tom was really dreaming how he would attack the deserted Red Town, start a revolt of the black slaves and fall upon their army in the rear, thus completing the victory. He did not even wait for his scattered party to catch up with him and, as soon as he saw the black slaves, immediately urged his steed after them. The slaves became frightened at the sight of this victorious giant on a golden horse and turned around, running in desperate fright with Tom galloping after them.

At this moment, some of those who were retreating came up and reported that just behind them was a great giant at the head of a band of Black fighters, heading straight for their town. Immediately, they gathered themselves together and, hiding all along the path, sent some black slaves toward Tom. They knew these slaves could not fight, but would start to run away from Tom and thus draw him on.

Already, before him, appeared the town and he was almost on the square in front of it, when the Red fighters came out of their ambush and threw themselves on the rose-bug. He stopped. Tom struck around him into the red bodies which squirmed under his blows; but the clever fighters, protected by the bodies of their fallen comrades, attacked him by biting his feet with their powerful jaws, until he slipped and fell to the ground.

Before he could get up, they rendered him unconscious and ordered the slaves to drag him victoriously into the town. There they took away everything that he had, bit his clothes to pieces and left him unconscious in a dark dungeon.

CHAPTER TEN.