Perhaps it was due to the total lack of
street-cars and surface machinery in general. Certainly the space
between the sidewalks was used for little else than the parking of
flying-machines. The buildings housed a variety of stores, all built
on a large scale. There were no small shops at all.
Smith's agent quickly reached his own flier, a small two-seater
ornithopter finished in dull gray--Smith's favorite color,
incidentally--and in a minute or two he was well under way. Smith
had a chance to watch, at close range, the distorted S-motion of the
machine's wings. But the flight lasted only a few minutes, and
presently the craft was again at rest.
This time it was parked under a tremendously long shed, which Smith
afterward saw was really a balcony, one of a tier of ten. Opposite
the spot was a large building, like a depot; and over its roof Smith
saw the huge bulk of an airship.
It was, of course, the Cobulus; and it was when Smith's agent passed
through a checking-in room that his name was heard for the first
time.
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