Explore "Consider Her Ways" by Frederick Philip Grove on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
[Containing the story of the joke played by Assa-ree on the Ponerines, a picture of the Parthian battle against Pseudomyrmex, fought for the possession of the Acacia tree; a report of the ants that keep cattle as well as of our falling in with the fire-ants; the tale of our disastrous hibernation in a human building; and an account of the marvellous commonwealth of the Myrmecocysts in the Garden of the Gods.]
Again we had been travelling for weeks and weeks, yes, months and months, first at night, then in daytime. The number of our High Command had been sorely reduced from 162, exclusive of Assa-ree, to 129. The army was unimpaired in strength and fighting power; but I suspected even then that this was due to Assa-ree's machinations in recruiting new soldiers as we went. Her facility in ingratiating herself with members of alien races had long since made me think that there was at least some truth in those rumours that had been current with regard to her. Yet I saw no reason to interfere; so far even her possible treasons served the ends of the expedition.