One day Henry made the mistake of dropping the jar containing the bee on a concrete walk. The glass was shattered into a large finite number of minute slivers and the yellow jacket was set free. Henry attempted to step on the unfortunate creature, but with a great final effort the bee rose from the ground and thrust its needle-like tail projection into Henry's left eyelid. The bee died in the exchange but the eye, in a surprising short time, became a large, red lump of pain.

According to Henry, prior to this incident he had borne no especial dislike for the yellow and black species of bee. But now a great hatred was ignited, the increasing pain of the sting intensifying the heat of the flame. Henceforth Henry dedicated himself to eradicating as many of the six-legged creatures as he possibly could. As time passed his hatred grew and his mode of attack became concerned with large scale operations. He burned bee hives He clothed himself in bee-proof attire and ravished entire colonies. One operation he especially enjoyed was to move a hive, dig a hole where the hive had been, and fill the hole with water. Bees normslly send scouts out to gage the distance between a source of honey and the hive. Thus when the worker bees return with honey, the distance to the hive and the weight of the honey having been taken into considerstion, their stamina just suffices to get them back to the hive. In moving the hive back a few feet and replacing it with a pool of water, Henry had anticipated that the bees would fall short of the hive and drop into the water, exhausted.

People who knew Henry regarded him as a fanatic. Those who kept bees would try to keep him from setting foot on their land. But he would accomplish his missions under the cover of night. When the owners later found the dead bees they would know for sure that Henry had been responsible, but nothing could be proven against him.

One afternoon in late summer Henry, exhauted by his nocturnal activities, took a short dip in his private swimming pool and then stretched out on a lounge to get some sun. The sun's heat brought sweat to his brow and he became drowsy and dropped off to sleep. He was awakened by a gentle breeze and a monotonous humming noise. Feeling chilled by what would seem to be a cloud blocking off the sons rays, he rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. The last thing Henry ever saw was a large cloud of black and yellow bodies descending on him on masse.