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.About her, Simon admitted, there mightcertainly have been things to attract the attention of a modern buccaneer."Carmen has been assisting me-she has a degree from Cambridge."He made no other unprompted reference to his researches; and Simon recognisedhim as the modern type of scientist whose carefully cultivated pose ofmatter-of-fact worldliness is just as fashionable an affectation as themystical and bearded eccentricity of his predecessors used to be.Dr.Sardontalked about politics, about his golf handicap, and about the art of pruningrose bushes.He was an entertaining and effective conversationalist but hemight never have heard of such a thing as biology until towards the close ofdinner Ivar Nordsten skilfully turned a discussion of gardening to the subjectof insect pests."Although, of course," he said, "you would not call them that."It was strange to see the dark glow that came into Sardon's eyes."As a popular term," he said in his deep vibrant voice, "I suppose it is toowell established for me to change it.But it would be much more reasonable forthe insects to talk about human pests."He turned to Simon."I expect Mr Nordsten has already warned you about the -bee in my bonnet," hesaid; but he used the phrase without smiling."Do you by any chance knowanything about the subject?""I had a flea once," said the Saint reminiscently."I called him Goebbels.Buthe left me.""Then you would be surprised to know how many of the most sensationalachievements of man were surpassed by the insects hundreds of years agowithout any artificial aids." The fingertips of his strong nervous handsplayed a tattoo against each other."You talk about the Age of Speed and Man'sconquest of the Air; and yet the fly Cephenomia, the swiftest living creature,can outpace the fastest of your boasted aeroplanes.What is the greatestscientific marvel of the century? Probably you would say, radio.But CountArco, the German radio expert, has proved the existence of a kind of wirelessPage 116 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmltelegraphy, or telepathy, between certain species of beetle, which makesnothing of a separation of miles.Lahkovsky claims to have demonstrated thatthis is common to several other insects.When the Redemanni termites buildtheir twenty-five foot conical towers topped with ten-foot chimneys, they areperforming much greater marvels of engineering than building an Empire StateBuilding.To match them, in proportion to our size, we should have to put upskyscrapers four thousand feet high-and do it without tools.""I knew the ants would come into it," said Nordsten sotto voce,Sardon turned on him with his hot piercing gaze."Termites are not true ants-the term 'white ants' is a misnomer.Actually theyare related to the cockroach.I merely mentioned them as one of the mostremarkable of the lower insects.They have a superb social organisation, andthey may even be superior strategists to the true ants; but they were neverdestined to conquer the globe.The reason is that they cannot stand light andthey cannot tolerate temperatures below twenty degrees centigrade.Thereforetheir fields of expansion are for ever limited.They are one of Nature's falsebeginnings.They are a much older species than man, and they have evolved asfar as they are likely to evolve.It is not the same with the true ants."He leaned forward over the table, with his face white and transfigured as ifin a kind of trance."The true ant is the destined ruler of the earth.Can you imagine a state ofsociety in which there was no idleness, no poverty, no unemployment, nounrest? We humans would say that it was an unattainable Utopia; and yet it wasin existence among the ants when man was a hairy savage scarcelydis-tinguishable from an ape.You may say that it is incompatible withprogress-that it could only be achieved in the same way that it is achieved bydomestic cattle.But the ant has the same instincts which have made man thetyrant of creation in his time.Lasius fuliginosus keeps and milks its owndomestic cattle, in the form of plant lice.Polyergus rufescens and Formicasanguinea capture slaves and put them to work.Messor barbarus, the harvestingant, collects and stores grain.The Attiini cultivate mushrooms in undergroundforcing-houses.And all these things are done, not for private gain, but forthe good of the community.Could man in any of his advances ever boast ofthat?""But if ants have so many advantages," said the Saint slowly, "and they'vebeen civilised so much longer than man, why haven't they conquered the earthbefore this?""Because Nature cheated them.Having given them so much, she made them waitfor the last essential-pure physical bulk.""The brontosaurus had enough of that," said Nordsten, "and yet man took itsplace."Sardon's thin lips curled."The difference in size between man and brontosaurus was nothing compared withthe difference in size between man and ant.There are limits to thesuperiority of brain over brawn-even to the superiority of the brain of anant, which in proportion to its size is twice as large as the brain of a man.But the time is coming --"His voice sank almost to a whisper; and in the dim light of the candle on thetable the smouldering luminousness of his eyes seemed to leave the rest of hisPage 117 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlface in deep shadow."With the ant, Nature overreached herself.The ant was ready to take his placeat the head of creation before creation was ready for him-before the solarsystem had progressed far enough to give him the conditions in which his body,and his brain with it, his brain which in all its intrinsic qualities is somuch finer than the brain of man, could grow to the brute size at which allits potentialities could be developed.Nevertheless when the solar system isolder, and the sun is red because the white heat of its fire is exhausted, andthe red light which will accelerate the growth of all living cells isstronger, the ant will be waiting for his turn.Unless Nature finds a swifterinstrument than Time to put right her miscalculation.""Does it matter?" asked the Saint lightly; and Sardon's face seemed to flameat him."It matters.That is only another thing which we can learn from the ant-thatindividual profit and ambition should count for nothing beside more enduringgood.Listen.When I was a boy, I loved small creatures.Among them I kept acolony of ants.In a glass box.I watched them in their busy lives.I studiedthem as they built their nest, I saw how they divided their labour and howthey lived and died so that their common life could go on.I loved them,because they were so much better than everyone else I knew.But the other boyscould not understand
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