Carl StephensonLeiningen Versus the Ants.docx

1、Carl Stephenson Leiningen Versus the AntsLeiningen Versus the Antsby Carl StephensonUNLESS they alter their course and theres no reason why they should, theyll reach your plantation in two days at the latest.Leiningen sucked placidly at a cigar about the size of a corncob and for a few seconds gazed

2、 without answering at the agitated District Commissioner. Then he took the cigar from his lips, and leaned slightly forward. With his bristling grey hair, bulky nose, and lucid eyes, he had the look of an aging and shabby eagle.Decent of you, he murmured, paddling all this way just to give me the ti

3、p. But youre pulling my leg of course when you say I must do a bunk. Why, even a herd of saurians couldnt drive me from this plantation of mine.The Brazilian official threw up lean and lanky arms and clawed the air with wildly distended fingers. Leiningen! he shouted. Youre insane! Theyre not creatu

4、res you can fight-theyre an elemental-an act of God! Ten miles long, two miles wide-ants, nothing but ants! And every single one of them a fiend from hell; before you can spit three times theyll eat a full-grown buffalo to the bones. I tell you if you dont clear out at once therell be nothing left o

5、f you but a skeleton picked as clean as your own plantation.Leiningen grinned. Act of God, my eye! Anyway, Im not an old woman; Im not going to run for it just because an elementals on the way. And dont think Im the kind of fathead who tries to fend off lightning with his fists either. I use my inte

6、lligence, old man. With me, the brain isnt a second blind gut; I know what its there for. When I began this model farm and plantation three years ago, I took into account all that could conceivably happen to it. And now Im ready for anything and everything-including your ants.The Brazilian rose heav

7、ily to his feet. Ive done my best, he gasped. Your obstinacy endangers not only yourself, but the lives of your four hundred workers. You dont know these ants!Leiningen accompanied him down to the river, where the Government launch was moored. The vessel cast off. As it moved downstream, the exclama

8、tion mark neared the rail and began waving its arms frantically. Long after the launch had disappeared round the bend, Leiningen thought he could still hear that dimming imploring voice, You dont know them, I tell you! You dont know them!But the reported enemy was by no means unfamiliar to the plant

9、er. Before he started work on his settlement, he had lived long enough in the country to see for himself the fearful devastations sometimes wrought by these ravenous insects in their campaigns for food. But since then he had planned measures of defense accordingly, and these, he was convinced were i

10、n every way adequate to withstand the approaching peril.Moreover, during his three years as a planter, Leiningen had met and defeated drought, flood, plague and all other acts of God which had come against him-unlike his fellow-settlers in the district, who had made little or no resistance. This unb

11、roken success he attributed solely to the observance of his lifelong motto: The human brain needs only to become fully aware of its powers to conquer even the elements. Dullards reeled senselessly and aimlessly into the abyss; cranks, however brilliant, lost their heads when circumstances suddenly a

12、ltered or accelerated and ran into stone walls, sluggards drifted with the current until they were caught in whirlpools and dragged under. But such disasters, Leiningen contended, merely strengthened his argument that intelligence, directed aright, invariably makes man the master of his fate.Yes, Le

13、iningen had always known how to grapple with life. Even here, in this Brazilian wilderness, his brain had triumphed over every difficulty and danger it had so far encountered. First he had vanquished primal forces by cunning and organization, then he had enlisted the resources of modern science to i

14、ncrease miraculously the yield of his plantation. And now he was sure he would prove more than a match for the irresistible ants.That same evening, however, Leiningen assembled his workers. He had no intention of waiting till the news reached their ears from other sources. Most of them had been born

15、 in the district; the cry The ants are coming! was to them an imperative signal for instant, panic-stricken flight, a spring for life itself. But so great was the Indians trust in Leiningen, in Leiningens word, and in Leiningens wisdom, that they received his curt tidings, and his orders for the imm

16、inent struggle, with the calmness with which they were given. They waited, unafraid, alert, as if for the beginning of a new game or hunt which he had just described to them. The ants were indeed mighty, but not so mighty as the boss. Let them come!They came at noon the second day. Their approach wa

17、s announced by the wild unrest of the horses, scarcely controllable now either in stall or under rider, scenting from afar a vapor instinct with horror.It was announced by a stampede of animals, timid and savage, hurtling past each other; jaguars and pumas flashing by nimble stags of the pampas, bul

18、ky tapirs, no longer hunters, themselves hunted, outpacing fleet kinkajous, maddened herds of cattle, heads lowered, nostrils snorting, rushing through tribes of loping monkeys, chattering in a dementia of terror; then followed the creeping and springing denizens of bush and steppe, big and little r

19、odents, snakes, and lizards.Pell-mell the rabble swarmed down the hill to the plantation, scattered right and left before the barrier of the water-filled ditch, then sped onwards to the river, where, again hindered, they fled along its bank out of sight.This water-filled ditch was one of the defence

20、 measures which Leiningen had long since prepared against the advent of the ants. It encompassed three sides of the plantation like a huge horseshoe. Twelve feet across, but not very deep, when dry it could hardly be described as an obstacle to either man or beast. But the ends of the horseshoe ran

21、into the river which formed the northern boundary, and fourth side, of the plantation. And at the end nearer the house and outbuildings in the middle of the plantation, Leiningen had constructed a dam by means of which water from the river could be diverted into the ditch.So now, by opening the dam,

22、 he was able to fling an imposing girdle of water, a huge quadrilateral with the river as its base, completely around the plantation, like the moat encircling a medieval city. Unless the ants were clever enough to build rafts. they had no hope of reaching the plantation, Leiningen concluded.The twel

23、ve-foot water ditch seemed to afford in itself all the security needed. But while awaiting the arrival of the ants, Leiningen made a further improvement. The western section of the ditch ran along the edge of a tamarind wood, and the branches of some great trees reached over the water. Leiningen now

24、 had them lopped so that ants could not descend from them within the moat.The women and children, then the herds of cattle, were escorted by peons on rafts over the river, to remain on the other side in absolute safety until the plunderers had departed. Leiningen gave this instruction, not because h

25、e believed the non-combatants were in any danger, but in order to avoid hampering the efficiency of the defenders. Critical situations first become crises, he explained to his men, when oxen or women get excited.Finally, he made a careful inspection of the inner moat-a smaller ditch lined with concr

26、ete, which extended around the hill on which stood the ranch house, barns, stables and other buildings. Into this concrete ditch emptied the inflow pipes from three great petrol tanks. If by some miracle the ants managed to cross the water and reached the plantation, this rampart of petrol, would be

27、 an absolutely impassable protection for the besieged and their dwellings and stock. Such, at least, was Leiningens opinion.He stationed his men at irregular distances along the water ditch, the first line of defense. Then he lay down in his hammock and puffed drowsily away at his pipe until a peon

28、came with the report that the ants had been observed far away in the South.Leiningen mounted his horse, which at the feel of its master seemed to forget its uneasiness, and rode leisurely in the direction of the threatening offensive. The southern stretch of ditch-the upper side of the quadrilateral

29、-was nearly three miles long; from its center one could survey the entire countryside. This was destined to be the scene of the outbreak of war between Leiningens brain and twenty square miles of life-destroying ants.It was a sight one could never forget. Over the range of hills, as far as eye could

30、 see, crept a darkening hem, ever longer and broader, until the shadow spread across the slope from east to west, then downwards, downwards, uncannily swift, and all the green herbage of that wide vista was being mown as by a giant sickle, leaving only the vast moving shadow, extending, deepening, a

31、nd moving rapidly nearer.When Leiningens men, behind their barrier of water, perceived the approach of the long-expected foe, they gave vent to their suspense in screams and imprecations. But as the distance began to lessen between the sons of hell and the water ditch, they relapsed into silence. Be

32、fore the advance of that awe-inspiring throng, their belief in the powers of the boss began to steadily dwindle.Even Leiningen himself, who had ridden up just in time to restore their loss of heart by a display of unshakable calm, even he could not free himself from a qualm of malaise. Yonder were thousands of millions of voracious jaws bearing down upon him and only a suddenly insignificant, narrow ditch lay between him and his men and being gnawed to the bones before you can spit three times.Hadnt this brain for once taken on more than it could manage? If the