AN ARMY OF THE LITTLE People! Jim and I stood blankly listening while Venta told us what she and Meeta had been planning. A myriad of Midges could be rallied now. And they had human intelligence.... Only a foot high, or less. But, especially the females, they could fly with the agility of humming birds.
“And we can be armed,” Meeta cried. She hummed away, came back in a moment. In her tiny hand there was a thorn. It was no more than two inches long, but to her it was a sword, stiff and sharp as a needle.
“The poisoned enta-thorn!” Venta exclaimed. “But I did not know that any of the enta-shrub was near here.”
“I found it,” Meeta said proudly. “There is much of it.”
“What’s that noise?” Jim abruptly demanded.
With my nerves taut, I stood tense. A faint thrumming was audible. We had lef
