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.

It was a tremendous affair.  As the flying-machine mounted higher, Billie continually revised her guesses; finally she concluded that London itself was not as large.  Nevertheless her astonishment was mainly directed at the character, not the number of the buildings.

They were all alike!  Every one was a duplicate of that she had first seen:  cube-shaped, plain finished, flat of wall and roof.  Even in color they were alike; in time the four came to call the place the “White City.”  However, the buildings were arranged quite without any visible system.  And they were vastly puzzled, later on in their studies, to find every other Sanusian city precisely the same as this one.

However, there was one thing which distinguished each building from the rest.  It was located on the roof; a large black hieroglyphic, set in a square black border, which Billie first thought to be all alike.  Whether it meant a name or a number, there was no way to tell.[Footnote:  Since writing the above, further investigations have proved that these Sanusian house-labels are all numbers.]

Billie turned her attention to her agent.  She seemed to belong to the same type as Smith’s and Van Emmon’s; otherwise she was certainly much more active, much more interested in her surroundings, and possessed of a far more powerful machine.  She was continually changing her direction; and Billie soon congratulated herself upon her luck.  Beyond a doubt, this party was no mere slave to orders; it was she who gave the orders.

Before one minute had passed she was approached by a Sanusian in a big, clumsy looking machine.  Although built on the bee plan, it possessed an observation tower right on top of its “head.” (The four afterward established that this was the sort of a machine that Smith’s agent had operated.) The occupant approached to within a respectful distance from Billie’s borrowed eyes, and proceeded to hum the following through his antennae: 

“Supreme, I have been ordered to report for Number Four.”

“Proceed.”

“The case of insubordinancy which occurred in Section Eighty-five has been disposed of.”

“Number Four made an example of her?”

“Yes, Supreme.”

“Whereupon the operator flew away, having not only kept his body totally out of sight all the while, but having failed by the slightest token to indicate, by his manner of communicating that he had the slightest particle of personal interest in his report.  For that matter, neither did Supreme.”

Scarcely had this colloquy ended than another subordinate approached.  This one used a large and very fine machine.  She reported: