What did it suggest?
That was it--the nest of the army ants, the city of the army ants, that Beebe had studied in the South American jungles and once described to me.

After all, was this more wonderful, more unbelievable than that--the city of ants which was formed by their living bodies precisely as this was of the bodies of the Cubes?
How had Beebe * phrased it--"the home, the nest, the hearth, the nursery, the bridal suite, the kitchen, the bed and board of the army ants." Built of and occupied by those blind and dead and savage little insects which by the guidance of smell alone carried on the most intricate operations, the most complex activities.

Nothing here was stranger than that, I reflected--if once one could rid the mind of the paralyzing influence of the shapes of the Metal Things.

Whence came the stimuli that moved THEM, the stimuli to which THEY reacted?
* William Beebe, Atlantic Monthly, October, 1919.
Well then--whence and how came the orders to which the ANTS responded; that bade them open THIS corridor in their nest, close THAT, form this chamber, fill that one?
Was one more mysterious than the other?
Breaking into my current of thoughts came consciousness that I was moving with increased speed; that my body was fast growing lighter.
Simultaneously with this recognition I felt myself lifted from the floor of the corridor and levitated with considerable rapidity forward; looking down I saw that floor several feet below me.

Drake's arm wound itself around my shoulder.
"Closing up behind us," he muttered.