“ They? Are those they ?”

“Ah, never! Never! I’d rather put my head straight into the Machine.⁠ ⁠…”

“Silence! Are you crazy?”

On the corner the doors of the auditorium were ajar, a heavy column of about fifty people⁠—. The word “people” is not the right one. These were heavy-wheeled automatons bound in iron and moved by an invisible mechanism. Not people but a sort of human-like tractor. Over their heads, floating in the air⁠—a white banner with a golden sun embroidered on it, and the rays of the sun: “We are the first! We have already been operated upon! Follow us, all of you!”