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But then Jupe remembered that the ants on the hillside were a new strain, perhaps mutants. Even Woolley knew little about them. Jupe had a sudden vision of ants swarming over his body, each taking a tiny bite out of him, eating him alive.

Jupe turned and fled into the bedroom. He rushed to the window and tried to fling it open. It didn’t budge. It was stuck fast!

Jupe yanked off a shoe and raised it high, intending to break the glass. But then he stopped. It would do no good. He hadn’t noticed before that the windows of the guest house were covered with iron grillework!

He spun around. The head of the merciless column of marching insects had flowed into the hallway just outside the bedroom.

Jupe was trapped!

Chapter 15

Fire!

THE RIVER OF ANTS flowed through the hallway like some thick, viscous liquid.

Jupe pressed the button on his walkie-talkie. “Pete! Bob!” he cried. “Ants! Millions of ants! In the guest house! Quick! Get Woolley!”

The ants poured through the bedroom door.

“Roger!” said Bob’s voice on the radio.

“Hurry!” cried Jupe. “I’m

trapped!”

He climbed up onto a bed,

yanked the bedspread clear of

the floor, and piled it in

rumpled folds in the middle of

the bed.

“Pete! Bob! Hurry!”

The tide of ants had spread.

It was nearer now, and Jupe

was screaming into the radio.

He stopped. Someone was

running outside the house.

“Good heavens!” exclaimed Charles Woolley.

“Jupe!” It was Bob calling out. “Where are you? You okay?”

“In the bedroom!” cried Jupe. “Hurry, will you?”

Jupe heard Mrs. Burroughs exclaiming loudly about nasty little creatures.

Burroughs told her to stand aside. Someone banged at the bedroom window.

Jupe left off watching the ants and looked across to see Pete looking in through the bars at him. Bob was beside Pete. He was reaching through the bars, trying to pry the window open.

“It’s stuck!” shouted Jupe. “I think it’s painted shut!”

Burroughs and Woolley appeared, and Bob and Pete stepped aside to make way for them. Woolley had a rock in his hand. He tossed it between the bars, and the window shattered.

“Here!” Woolley threw a can to Jupiter. It was insect spray. “This will stop any ants it can hit. Use it quick, and get to the window.”

“There’s a latch beside the window,” said Burroughs. “It will disengage the grille and you can get out.”

The first of the ants were crawling up the legs of the bed now, but the floor wasn’t completely covered with the insects. Jupe sprayed furiously, aiming the insecticide at the floor next to the bed. He stepped down and ants crunched under his feet. He shuddered, but kept working. Spray, take a step, spray, take another step.

Then he was walking on broken glass.

“The latch?” He looked wildly along the wall. “Where’s the latch?”

Burroughs pointed. “Pull the little chest of drawers away from the wall and you’ll see it.”

Jupe yanked at the small chest. It slid out, crushing ants as it came.

The latch was simple. A piece of steel came in through the wall — an extension of the grillework outside. It had a hole in it, and through this hole a bolt was inserted to hold it in place. Jupe pulled at the bolt and it came free.

“Got it!” he cried.

“Good boy!” said Woolley. He and Burroughs pulled the grillework away from the window.

A second later Jupiter was out on the grass. Mrs. Burroughs started clucking over him like a mother hen. Charles Woolley stood at the window and stared with fascination at the ants. They now almost covered the bed where Jupe had been stranded.

And then Letitia Radford came running down from the big house. In the lights that shone from the guest cottage, Jupe could see her face. It was convulsed with horror. She had a can in her hand — a red, square can that she carried by a handle on the top.

Jupe blinked, and suddenly he knew what she intended to do.

“Miss Radford, no!” he shouted.

“Keep back!” she cried. “Don’t you

come near me!”

There was a murderous edge to her

voice. She had the top off the can now,

and she made a move as if she would

hurl