ragged contour of hills and join them; a third plane was in the air, associating with them. The girl again?
I became able to see them not as specks but as monoplanes with wings and tail and pontoons—and pilots. The plane, which had arisen from some hole in the hills, closely accompanied one of the others.
Whether this one was the pilot plane or the slave machine, I could not see; for I could not distinguish them. I could keep the third airplane, newly arisen, separate from the other two; that was all.
The third plane put itself directly above the one which it had chosen for its attention; and, as I rushed up, I saw a speck, which was a man, descend from the upper airplane to the lower.
This told me which was the slave machine. It told me, too, that though the automaton, by radio direction, could fly and manœuver the monoplane, it could not make the delicate manipulations necessary for the landing; a living pilot must be put aboard. So the third
