The thing that changed his mind was another aircraft. It approached
from behind, making even more noise than the other, and proceeded to
draw abreast of it. From time to time Van Emmon's agent turned his
mysterious periscope so as to take it all in, and the geologist was
able to watch his fill. Whereupon he became converted to a new idea:
The birds that Smith and he had seen had not been birds at all, but
aircraft built in imitation of them. For this new arrival had been
made in almost perfect imitation of a bee! It was very close to an
exact reproduction. For one exception, it did not have the hairy
appearance so characteristic of bees; the body and "legs" were
smooth and shiny. (Later, Van Emmon saw machines which went so far
as even to imitate the hairs.) Also, instead of trying to duplicate
the two compound eyes which are found, one on each side of a bee's
head, a perfectly round representation of a single eye was built,
like a conning tower, toward the front of the bow.
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