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The Battle

DONALD R. ZAUCHE

The scorpion has an elongated body and a segmented, lashing
. tail with a venomous curved sting at its tip. It is no more than three

inches long, yet it carries enough poison in its sack to raise a lump
as large as a robin's egg in human flesh. Recently I witnessed a
battle-a kind of Custer's last stand-between two valiant scorpions
and a nest of red ants.

The sun burned, as it often does in Texas, through a cloudless
sky, and two scorpions proceeded cautiously over the rocky ground.
One was somewhat larger than the other and a little darker in color,
but aside from this they were very much the same. They crawled along
until they came to a narrow passageway between two stones. The
passage was not wide enough for the two to proceed abreast, so,
mechanically, one stopped and allowed the other to go first. When
the first had reached the opposite end of the passageway, he came to
a halt, as if he sensed danger. Suddenly, from a hole in the ground
which looked like a miniature volcano, crawled a tiny red ant, who,
upon espying the scorpions, reversed himself and darted back into
the hole.

Several seconds elapsed, during which time the two scorpions
remained motionless. Then, as if a Volcanic eruption had taken place,
the ants poured out of their nest, three and four at a time, until
there were nearly two hundred of them crawling over the ground.
Some of the ants moved toward the scorpions, while others scrambled
about in a confused mass.

The scorpions still did not move. Like rattlesnakes, they waited
to make a strike. Three or four ants came close enough to touch the
monsters, and then the action started. Like lightning, the scorpions
struck, never missing, killing one ant after another by puncturing
them with their sting and poisoning them. One by one the victims
collapsed and died.

The ants now swarmed to the battle. They climbed onto the
backs of the scorpions, only to be stung and killed. Their numbers
were increasing, however, and many of them were able to get close
enough to bite the scorpions before they themselves were stung.

The battle continued for twenty scorching minutes before the
turning point came. One ant-undoubtedly the most stout-hearted
ant in Texas, or perhaps in the world-upon receiving his fatal wound,

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