watched the lights of Manhattan and Greater New York twinkling below.
The Empire State Building tower was still above us, as the plane
banked over the East River.

We climbed quickly, and the familiar outline of Manhattan took shape
like a map pin-pointed with millions of lights.

Any large city seen from the air at night has a certain magic, New
York most of all. Looking down, I thought: What would a spaceman
think, seeing this brilliantly lighted city, the towering skyscrapers?
Would other planets have such cities, or would it be something new and
puzzling to a visitor from space?

Turning back to the old reports, I skipped through until I found the
American sightings. One of the first was an incident at Bonham, Texas,
in the summer of 1873.

It was broad daylight when a strange, fast-moving object appeared in
the sky, southwest of the town. For a moment, the people of Bonham
stared at the thing, not believing their eves. The only flying device
then known was the drifting balloon. But this thing was tremendous,
and speeding so fast its outlines were almost a blur.

Terrified farmers dived under their wagons. Townspeople fled indoors.
Only a few hardy souls remained in the streets. The mysterious object
circled Bonham twice, then raced off to the cast and vanished.
Descriptions of the strange machine varied from round or oval to
cigar-shaped. (The details of the Bonham sighting were later confirmed
for me by Frank Edwards, Mutual network newscaster, who investigated
this case.)