Van Emmon looked closer. At the bottom of this bulge was a queer fringe
of the same kind of grass that showed on top of it. Van Emmon looked
from one to the other, and all of a sudden the thing dawned upon him.
This stupendous affair was no mountainside; it was neither more nor less
than the head of a colossal statue! A mammoth edition of the Goddess of
Liberty; and the aircraft had presumed to alight upon its cheek!
The machine clung there, motionless, for some time, quite as though the
airman knew that Van Emmon would like to look a long while. He gazed
from side to side as far as he could see, making out a small section of
the nose, also the huge curves of a dust-covered ear. It was wonderfully
life-like.
Next second came the earthquake. The whole statue rocked and swayed; Van
Emmon looked to see the machine thrown off. From the base of the
monument came a single terrific sound, a veritable roar, as though the
thing was being wrenched from the heart of the earth. From somewhere on
top came a spurt of water that splashed just beside the craft.
Then came the most terrible thing. Without the slightest warning the
statue's great eye opened! Opened wide, revealing a prodigious pupil
which simply blazed with wrath!
The statue was alive!
Next second the Sanusian shot into the air. A moment and Van Emmon was
able to look again, and as it happened, the craft was now circling the
amazing thing it had just quit, so that the geologist could truthfully
say that he was dead sure of what he saw.
He was justified in wanting to be absolutely sure. Resting on the solid
earth was a human head, about fifty yards wide and proportionately as
tall. It was alive; but IT WAS ONLY THE HEAD, NOTHING MORE.
V
THE SUPER-RACE
It will be remembered that Billie wanted to get in touch with a creature
having the characteristic which she had said she admired: supremacy--"A
worker who is the boss!" Bearing this in mind, her experience will
explain itself, dumfounding though it was.
Her first sight of the Sanusian world was from the front of a large
building. The former architect was not able to inspect it minutely; but
she afterwards said that it impressed her as being entirely plain, and
almost a perfect cube. Its walls were white and quite without ornament;
there was only one entrance, an extremely low and broad, flat archway,
extending across one whole side. The structure was about a hundred yards
each way. In front was a terrace, seemingly paved with enormous slabs of
stone; it covered a good many acres.
Presumably Billie's agent had just brought her machine from the
building, for, within a few seconds, she took flight in the same abrupt
fashion which had so badly upset Smith and Van Emmon. When Billie was
able to look closely, she found herself gazing down upon a Sanusian
city.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account