THE BIG CITY Finally our day for the trip has arrived. The chieftain came from his village to go with us. He and two of the white boys will be our companions on this trip. The others are remaining in camp to await our return. Our ship rose into the air with great ease. We are flying according to the directions being given by the dark chieftain and it isn't long, flying at an altitude of forty thousand feet in the direction of the city, when we spotted it. "Is that the one?" Bob asked. "Yes," replies our guide. As we reach the city and circle it for our first view, we might say it was built half on the light side and half on the dark side of the Moon. That is, about half of the territory looks like desert, while the other half is fertile land lying at the foot of and extending quite a ways up the side of a range of mountains. There are some very large buildings in both sections while most of the homes seem to be built as a community in a flat area a short distance away from the base of the mountain, yet in the dark side. Dr. Johnston estimates that probably half a million people could be living here. We want to land but we can't locate an airfield or any place to land, and the chieftain doesn't know whether there is one here. Since we haven't seen anything of the kind, we are not too surprised for as Johnny pointed out, "an airport would mean these people have airplanes. Maybe they don't even know what such things are; our native friends didn't seem to. Neither have we seen or heard any planes flying overhead during all the time we have been here." "And those people in that city we flew over on the first trip we made, were all so frightened," cut in Bob. "So maybe we are out of luck as far as airfields are concerned." Nevertheless we were disappointed for we had hoped to visit this city, meet the people living here and learn what we could of their way of living. As Bob slowly circles in air, he and George discuss the advisability of landing out there somewhere on the sands of the desert, as close as possible to one of those buildings when Johnny suddenly spots a ship coming from a distance towards the city. Our native friends are as surprised as we. It is coming in at a terrific speed, so Bob continues circling to see where it is going. This is a very large ship, larger than we have ever seen anywhere and without wings. It resembles somewhat a V2 type rocket. As it came directly towards us without apparently slowing its speed we didn't know what to expect, whether it was going to attack us or what was going to happen. It, too, made a circle, giving us the once over then turned and began to lower just a little ways outside the city in the desert area. Now we know we are not going to be attacked. Finally it landed and many men got out of it. Three of them are going to a large building close by while the others are staying by the ship and watching us. This ship is about seven hundred feet in length.