building. The former architect was not able to inspect it minutely; but
she afterwards said that it impressed her as being entirely plain, and
almost a perfect cube. Its walls were white and quite without ornament;
there was only one entrance, an extremely low and broad, flat archway,
extending across one whole side. The structure was about a hundred yards
each way. In front was a terrace, seemingly paved with enormous slabs of
stone; it covered a good many acres.

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