Not until they reached the head of the valley which had been her home did Rolla ask Somat as to the plan.  He answered: 

“Ye and the other woman shall stay here with me, on this hill.”  He produced a telescope.  “We will watch with this eye-tube.  The other nine men will go ahead and do the work.”

“And will they separate?”

“Nay.  They intend to conquer this colony first; then, after your people are freed and safely on the way to my country, the conquerors will proceed to the next valley, and so on until all are released.”  He kept his word not to warn Rolla of the proposed captivity.  “In that way the fear of them will go ahead and make their way easy.”

Meanwhile the nine were getting ready for their unprecedented conquest.  They put on heavy leather clothes, also leather caps, gloves and boots.  Around their faces were stiff wire nets, such as annoyed them all exceedingly and would have maddened Cunora or Rolla.  But it meant safety.

As for weapons, they relied entirely upon fire.  Each man carried a little wood alcohol in a flask, in case it was necessary to burn wet or green wood.  Otherwise, their equipment was matches, with an emergency set of flint and steel as well.  There could be no resisting them.

“We’ll wait here till we’ve seen that you’ve succeeded,” Somat told Deltos and Sorplee.  “Then we’ll follow.”

The nine left the hills.  The hours passed with Rolla and Cunora amusing themselves at the “eye-tube.”  They could see the very spot where their lovers were being punished; but some intervening bushes prevented seeing the men themselves.  The other villagers were at work quite as usual; so it was plain that, although the bees were invisible, yet they were still the masters.

Hardly had the nine reached the first low-growing brush before they encountered some of the bees.  None attempted to attack, but turned about and flew back to report.  It was not long before Supreme, and therefore Billie, knew of the approaching raiders.

“They are doubtless provided with the magic flower,” Supreme told her lieutenants.  “You will watch the blossom as it sways in the wind, and keep always on the windward side of it.  In this way you can attack the inferiors.”

The word was passed, bee-fashion, until every soldier and worker in the colony knew her duty.  The stingers were to keep back and watch their chance, while the workers harassed the attackers.  Moreover, with the hives always uppermost in her mind, Supreme planned to keep the actual conflict always at a distance from the “city.”

It was late in the day when the nine reached the stream in whose bed rested the pyrites taken from Corrus and Dulnop.  This stream, it will be remembered, flowed not far from the torture-place.  Deltos’s plan was to rescue these two men before doing anything else; this, because it would strengthen the villagers’ regard for the conquerors.