'We talk about ourselves,' he said, 'as though we were
the end of creation. I get tired listening to myself sometimes.
Pah!' he continued, 'for all we know the human race may die out
utterly and another insect take our place, as possibly we pushed
out and took the place of a former race of beings. I wonder if the
ant tribe may not be the future inheritors of the earth. They
understand combination, and already have an extra sense that we
lack. If in the courses of evolution they grow bigger in brain and
body, they may become powerful rivals, who knows?' Curious to hear
old Leman talking like that, wasn't it?"
"What made you call him 'Pyramids'?" I asked of Dick.
"I don't know," he answered, "I suppose because he looked so old.
The name came to me."
I leaned across and looked into the great green eyes, and the
creature, never winking, never blinking, looked back into mine,
until the feeling came to me that I was being drawn down into the
very wells of time. It seemed as though the panorama of the ages
must have passed in review before those expressionless orbs--all
the loves and hopes and desires of mankind; all the everlasting
truths that have been found false; all the eternal faiths
discovered to save, until it was discovered they damned.
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