"We ought to learn something there," the doctor said after a while,
pointing out a particularly large, squat, irregularly built affair on
the edge of the "business district." The architect, however, was in
favor of an exceptionally large, high building in the isolated group
previously noted in the "suburbs." But because it was nearer, they
maneuvered first in the direction of the doctor's choice.

The sky-car came to rest in a large plaza opposite what appeared to be
the structure's main entrance. From their window the explorers saw that
the squat effect was due only to the space the edifice covered; for it
was an edifice, a full five stories high.

The doctor was impatient to go. Smith was willing enough to stay behind;
he was already joyously examining the strange machine he had found. Two
minutes later Kinney, Van Emmon, and Jackson were standing before the
portals of the great building.

There they halted, and no wonder. The entire face of the building could
now be seen to be covered with a mass of carvings; for the most part
they were statues in bas relief. All were fantastic in the extreme, but
whether purposely so or not, there was no way to tell. Certainly any
such work on the part of an earthly artist would have branded him either
as insane or as an incomprehensible genius.

Directly above the entrance was a group which might have been labeled,
"The Triumph of the Brute." An enormously powerful man, nearly as broad
as he was tall, stood exulting over his victim, a less robust figure,
prostrate under his feet. Both were clad in armor. The victor's face was
distorted into a savage snarl, startlingly hideous by reason of the