The officer turned and beckoned one of the group behind him. "His Majesty wishes to know who is the pilot of the sentinel machine?" he asked.
The officer addressed raised his face to the heavens with a little frown.
"The other machine, general?" he repeated. "There is no other machine."
He focused his glasses on the tiniest black spot in the skies. Long and seriously he viewed the lonely watcher, then:
"General," he said hastily, "it is advisable that his Majesty should go."
"Huh?"
"I can not distinguish the machine, but it looks suspicious."
"Whoom! Whoom!"
A field away, two great brown geysers of earth leaped up into the air and two deafening explosions set the bare branches of the trees swaying.