Presumably, the
observer sat or stood within this "head."
But otherwise it was wonderfully like a drone bee. Van Emmon was
strongly reminded of what he had once viewed under a powerful lens.
The fragile semitransparent wings, the misshapen legs, and even the
jointed body with its scale-like segments, all were carefully
duplicated on a large scale. Imagine a bee thirty feet long!
At first the geologist was puzzled to find that it carried a pair of
many-jointed antennae. He could not see how any intelligent being
would make use of them; they were continually waving about, much as
bees wave theirs. Evidently these were the loose objects he had
already noted. "Now," he wondered, "why in thunder did the builders
go to so much trouble for the sake of mere realism?"
Then he saw that the antennae served a very real purpose. There was
no doubt about it; they were wireless antennae!
For presently the newcomer, who so far had not shown himself at any
point on his machine, sent out a message which was read as quickly
as it was received by Van Emmon's agent, and as unconsciously
translated:
"Number Eight Hundred Four, you are wanted on Plot Seventeen.
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