The Emancipatrix | Page 7

the craft contained other specimens of the
unknown creatures. But there was no change in the vigilant watch
which was being kept upon the sky.
Suddenly the engineer became exceedingly alert. He had noticed
something new--something so highly different from anything he had
expected to learn that it was some minutes before he could believe it
true.
His borrowed eyes had no eyelids! At least, if they did, they were never
used. Not once did they flicker in the slightest; not once did they blink
or wink, much less close themselves for a momentary rest from the
sun's glare. They remained as stonily staring as the eyes of a marble
statue.
Then something startling happened. With the most sickening
suddenness the aircraft came to an abrupt halt. Smith's senses swam

with the jolt of it. All about him was a confused jumble of blurred
figures and forms; it was infinitely worse than his first ride in a hoist.
In a moment, however, he was able to examine things fairly well.
The aircraft had come to a stop in the middle of what looked like a cane
brake. On all sides rose yellowish-green shafts, bearing leaves
characteristic of the maize family. Smith knew little about cane, yet felt
sure that these specimens were a trifle large. "Possibly due to difference
in gravitation," he thought.
However, he could not tell much about the spot on which the machine
had landed. For a moment it was motionless; the engine had been
stopped, and all was silent except for the gentle rustling of the cane in
the field. The unknown operator did not change his position in the
slightest. Then the craft began to move over the surface, in a jerky
lurching fashion which indicated a very rough piece of ground. At the
same time a queer, leathery squeaking came to the engineer's borrowed
ears; he concluded that the machine was being sorely strained by the
motion. At the time he was puzzled to account for the motion itself.
Either there was another occupant of the craft, who had climbed out
and was now pushing the thing along the ground, or else some form of
silent mechanism was operating the wheels upon which, presumably,
the craft was mounted. Shortly the motion stopped altogether.
It was then that Smith noticed something he had so far ignored because
he knew his own dinner hour was approaching. His agent was hungry,
like himself. He noticed it because, just then, he received a very
definite impression of the opposite feeling; the agent was eating lunch
of some sort, and enjoying it. There was no doubt about this. All that
Smith could do was to wish, for the hundredth time, that he could look
around a little and see what was being eaten, and how.
The meal occupied several minutes. Not once did the strange occupant
of that machine relax his stony stare at the sky, and Smith tried to
forget how hungry he was by estimating the extent of his vision. He
decided that the angle subtended about a hundred and sixty degrees, or
almost half a circle; and he further concluded that if his agent possessed
a nose, it was a pretty trifling affair, too small to be noticed. It was

obvious, too, that the fellow's mouth was located much lower in the
face than normal. He ate without showing a single particle of food, and
did it very quietly.
At length hunger was satisfied. There was complete stillness and
silence for a moment, then another short lurching journey through the
cane; and next, with an abruptness that made the engineer's senses
swim again, the fellow once more took to the air. The speed with which
he "got away" was enough to make a motorcyclist, doing his best, seem
to stand still.
It took time for Smith to regain his balance. When he did, the same
unbroken expanse of sky once more met his gaze; but it was not long
until, out of the corners of those unblinking eyes, he could make out
bleary forms which shortly resolved themselves into mountain tops. It
was odd, the way things suddenly flashed into full view. One second
they would be blurred and unrecognizable; the next, sharply outlined
and distinct as anything the engineer had ever seen. Yet, there seemed
to be no change in the focus of those eyes. It wasn't as though they
were telescopic, either. Not until long afterward did Smith understand
the meaning of this.
The mountains grew higher and nearer. Before long it seemed as
though the aircraft was entering some sort of a canon. Its sides were
only sparsely covered with vegetation, and all of it was quite brown, as
though the season were autumn. For the most part the surface was of
broken rock and