Part of a smashed Taube propeller hung near.
As for the western side of _Niss'rosh_, this space between the two broad windows that looked out over the light-spangled city, the Hudson and the Palisades, was occupied by a magnificent Mercator's Projection of the world.

This projection was heavily annotated with scores of comments penciled by a firm, virile hand.

Lesser spaces were occupied by maps of the campaigns in Mesopotamia and the Holy Land.

One map, larger than any save the Mercator, showed the Arabian Peninsula.

A bold question-mark had been impatiently flung into the great, blank stretch of the interior; a question-mark eager, impatient, challenging.
It was at this map that the master of _Niss'rosh_, the eagle's nest, was peering as the curtain rises on our story.