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