IV

Ndomi Sulewayo had pursued his occupation on terraces of Earth's

Grand Canyon, on cliffsides of Fomalhaut Four's highest range and in

badlands on the dimly lighted Antares Twelve. The physical hazards of

his present position troubled him little. McLaughlin had agreed that

the ledge where the paleontologist had been left was inaccessible to

the larger carnivores, and had merely issued a final warning about

poisonous "lizards." The primary danger, as nearly as Sulewayo could

see, was that something might happen to the helicopter. He certainly

could not rejoin the others on foot. He was facing a sheer wall some

sixty feet high. A score of yards behind him the terrace ended in

another straight drop of several hundred feet. A quarter of a mile on

either side, the flat surface ended; to the west, by narrowing until

the two walls became one; at the other end, it was cut off as far as he

was concerned by a joint penetrating apparently the full depth of the

canyon.

There were several other cracks in the wall facing him. Like those in

the tributary canyon explored by Krendall and Mitsuitei, these were

packed with volcanic detritus. This was hard to reconcile with the

suggestion that erosion had been long at work. In such a case, the

higher portions should have washed away long before the material found

at the canyon bottom.

Examination at close range suggested a possible explanation. The tuff

at this point was fairly well cemented. It seemed reasonable to suppose

that the joints had been present before the mountains had started to

rise; that a volcanic mud flow had filled them with detritus; that the

new material had then been cemented by dissolved material coming from

above. This would make the top levels of the tuff more resistant than

those lower down, where the cementing minerals had not reached, and

account for what had been seen so far.

The hypothesis also implied a plentiful supply of fossils. Volcanic

mud flowing into a crack in the ground should carry plenty with it.

Sulewayo set to work with a hammer, and was presently soaking with

perspiration.

He was tempted to remove some of his clothing; but this had been

treated chemically to repel Viridian insects and caution prevailed.

McLaughlin had not mentioned any dangerous biters or stingers, and

in all probability his blood would not be to the taste of any such

creatures on this world--but if the mosquito or tick did not learn that

fact until after it had tried, Sulewayo would hardly profit by it. In

any case the temptation to strip passed quickly. In only a few minutes,

his attention was fully occupied by his work; for the expected fossils

proved to be present in very satisfactory numbers.

Most seemed rather fragmentary. Apparently the original creatures had

been tumbled about rather badly before the medium hardened. However,

the remains were definitely bones, as he had expected and hoped. For

some time Sulewayo was occupied alternately digging out more fragments

and trying to fit the more hopeful-looking specimens together, although

he had no success at the latter job. Then evidence of a more complete

set of remains appeared, and he instantly slowed down to the incredibly

meticulous procedure which marks a paleontologist anywhere in the

universe.

At this time he had cut perhaps a foot into the tuff for the full

three-foot width of the crack and from terrace level up to about his

own height. In spite of its apparently firm texture, the rock was

extremely soft; and the old question about erosion was reappearing. Big

pockets of extremely crumbly material had been responsible for most of

his speed. Now, however, with the usual perversity of the inanimate,

a firmer substance was encountered, apparently encasing the bones he

suspected of existing a little farther on. This combined with his

increased care to bring almost to a halt the removal of rock from the

cleft.

* * * * *

The bones were there. Perhaps they had been betrayed by a discoloration

of the rock too faint for him to have noticed consciously; perhaps

something more subtle is involved in the makeup of a successful field

worker in paleontology, but as flake after flake of the matrix fell

away under his attack a shape gradually took form.

At first a single bone which might have been an unusually short

digit or an unusually long carpal--or, of course, something totally

unrelated to either--was outlined. Then another, close enough to

suggest that their lifetime relationship might have been maintained.

And another--Sulewayo failed to hear the approach of the helicopter

until its rotor wash from a hundred feet above lifted the dust about

his ankles.

Knowing that Lampert would be having trouble holding that close to the

cliffside, the paleontologist reluctantly hooked his equipment to his

belt and started up the ladder. Five minutes later they were back in

the camp, with Krendall listening eagerly to Sulewayo's description of

his find.

"It's certainly a vertebrate, Hans. That stuff can't possibly be shell

or wood. It's almost certainly a land dweller--"

"Likely enough in that sort of rock, anyway."

"--because I got enough uncovered to be nearly certain that it's a

foot. Certainly a limb that would not be needed by a swimmer."

"Like an ichthyosaur?" queried Lampert innocently. Sulewayo grinned.

"Quite possibly. More likely one of our ubiquitous amphibids, though.

Certainly something worth getting out, since the general idea is to get

an evolutionary sequence of some sort."

"I suppose that means you'll want me to date the eruption which filled

all these cracks with detritus, then."

"Sure. But there's no hurry. Tomorrow will do." Lampert found he had no

answer to this, and Mitsuitei managed to edge into the discussion. He

had spent the day with McLaughlin, as he had hoped; and mere failure to

find paving stones had not damped his ardor.

"I suppose you and Hans will both want to go up the cliff tomorrow," he

remarked. "In that case, Rob might as well stay with String and me. It

will speed up the digging back at my hill."

"Are you still scraping dirt off that thing?" asked Sulewayo in mock

surprise. "Didn't one day indicate that it was a joint pattern like the

rest?"

"Not yet. We haven't gotten down to rock over any place where your

cracks should be. The root tangle of the taller trees slows the

digging. I admit the rock is limestone like the cliff, but there's

still no evidence why those trees grow so regularly."

"That's just what we've been saying all along; but you keep looking for

the remains of a city."

"I gathered, Ndomi, from your recent conversation that you were digging

for a land animal on the basis of three bones. Either you are working

on hunch, which destroys your right to criticize, or you are reasoning

from knowledge not available to the rest of us. In the latter case,

you should be at least open-minded enough to credit me with equivalent

knowledge in my own field."

It was Sulewayo's turn to have nothing to say; he had honestly supposed

that the archaeologist had been taking the "city" hypothesis no more

seriously than the rest. He apologized at once, and peace was restored.

Lampert sealed it by agreeing to Mitsuitei's suggestion.

The rest of the evening was spent in detail planning by the two

groups. At sunset, all turned in to sleep behind the protection of

the electrified fence. Even the guide regarded this as an adequate

safeguard.

* * * * *

Apparently his opinion was shared by at least one other. The Felodon

had spent most of the day under water, part of the time in the canyon

fairly close to Lampert and Krendall and later down the stream by the

site where the guide and archaeologist had been working. At neither

place had it emerged, or shown the slightest sign of wanting to attack.

McLaughlin's reference to the strange instinct of the creatures seemed

justified. It certainly could not see the men, but just as certainly

was aware of their presence.

What it was about the alien visitors which exercised such an influence

on the minute brain of the carnivore, no one could have said--then. Any

watcher who had supposed, from its earlier actions, that it was moved

by a desire for new and different taste sensations would have had to

discard the notion now.

With the men safely settled down behind their fence, the beast suddenly

turned back downstream. It had returned to the camp site at the end of

the working day. In an hour it was in the jungle below the canyon; in

another it had killed, and was feeding as it had the moment before the

hum of the helicopter had first attracted its attention. This time it

finished the meal in peace; and once finished, did not show immediate

signs of its former obsession.

Instead it sought a lair and relaxed, blending so perfectly into the

undergrowth and remaining so silent that within a few minutes small

animals were passing only feet away from the concealed killer.

Robin Lampert was only a fair statistician, but if he had been

acquainted with the moves of that Felodon during the last few days,

even he would have been willing to take oath that more than chance was

involved. He would probably have wanted to dissect the animal in search

of whatever mechanism was controlling it.

But Robin Lampert knew nothing of the creature. Neither did Takehiko

Mitsuitei; and that was rather unfortunate, for the lair it had

selected was on the same hill as the archaeologist's digging site, and

a scant quarter mile away from the pit Mitsuitei had left.

* * * * *

The rising of the green sun was not visible the next morning. The

ever-present mist had thickened into a solid layer of cloud, and

hissing rain cut the visibility to a few hundred yards. The helicopter

felt its way down to the hill with radar, landed on the river, taxied

on its floats to the bank and was moored. Lampert, McLaughlin and

Mitsuitei emerged, the scientists laden with apparatus, and started up

the hill toward the site. The guide carried only his weapons.

The equipment was not of the sort Mitsuitei was accustomed to using.

It actually belonged to Lampert. Normally it would not be used in an

archaeological dig, any more than it would have been had they been

fossil hunting; for neither activity takes kindly to any sort of

automatic digging machinery. Lampert had suggested its use, however,

in order to get a rapid idea of the nature of the soil cover, bed rock

and joint structure of the hill. If evidence warranted, it would be

abandoned for the slower methods of digging. If not, a few hours would

permit them to learn as much about the area as many days of work with

slower equipment.

The hole Mitsuitei had already dug was part way up the hill, in a space

cleared of underbrush by a flamethrower. Several other such clearings

were in the neighborhood. As the archaeologist had said, he had made

more than one attempt at digging which had been frustrated by roots.

Somewhat to Lampert's surprise, it was possible to tell even from

ground level the orientation of the taller trees which had been so

prominent from the air. Even the smaller plants showed signs of some

underground influence. Between the tallest trees, tracing out the

straight lines the men had seen from above, the underbrush formed an

almost impenetrable wall. Elsewhere foot travel was easy, though the

surface was by no means barren. Lampert understood how there might

indeed have been difficulty in digging on one of the fertile lines, and

admitted as much.

"That's the trouble," responded Mitsuitei. "I'd like to get down

right at such a point, to see what's underneath. It seems to me that

paving might be responsible, if they'd used the right materials. Lots

of civilizations have used organic substances which decay to good

fertilizer. Then there might be the remains of a sewage system, which

would account for richer soil--"

"After the time which must have passed since the place was buried?"

"It has happened. In such a case, of course, trace elements rather than

nitrates or phosphates are responsible. That's what I suspect here."

"But wouldn't it be better to dig where you actually have--in the

middle of a block, if that's what it is? Then you'd be fairly certain

to hit a building, which should be richer ground than a street."

"Only if you actually strike artifacts. The building itself might be

much less well preserved than a paved street. However, you are the one

who's handling that mechanical mole. Dig where you want, and see what

you can learn about this hilltop. Just get me at least a couple of

cores from my 'streets' before you're done, please."

Lampert nodded and proceeded to assemble his equipment. The "mole" was

a cylinder about five centimeters in diameter and three times as long.

A cutter-lined mouth occupied one end, while the other was attached

to a snaky appendage which was wound on a fair sized drum. A set of

control knobs and indicators were mounted near the center of the drum.

The geophysicist set the cylinder on the ground mouth downward, pushing

it into the soft earth far enough to assure its remaining upright. Then

he turned to his controls and after a moment, with very little noise,

the cylinder began to sink into the ground. In a few seconds it was out

of sight, trailing its snaky neck after it.

The men watched it in silence. Perhaps thirty seconds after it

disappeared, there was a minor convulsion in the neck, a momentarily

rising hum from the machinery, and a plug of dirt about two centimeters

in diameter and five long was ejected from a port in the center of the

drum. This was seized by Lampert and examined briefly, then tossed

aside. "The soil is pretty deep," he remarked.

"How far down did that come from?" asked Mitsuitei.

"One meter. That's the sampling interval I've set in it, for now. If

it meets anything much harder or easier to penetrate, it will warn me

and I'll grab them more frequently." Conversation lapsed while two

more samples arrived and were inspected. Then a light flickered on the

panel, and Lampert reset one of his knobs; and almost immediately a

core of light gray limestone was produced.

"Apparently the same stuff as the cliffs," said Lampert after examining

the specimen. "Do you want to go any deeper, or drill a few more holes

to get an idea of the contour?"

"How fast will that thing go through limestone?"

"A couple of centimeters per minute. It's too small to pack a real

power unit."

"Give it five minutes, just to make sure it isn't a building block."

"Ten centimeters wouldn't give you a whole building block."

"A sample from that far inside one would tell me what I want to know.

You rock-chippers don't seem to think that archaeology is a science

yet. Let me have that first core, too." Mitsuitei looked confident

to the point of being cocky, and Lampert let the mole burrow on. The

second core came in due time, and the little man set merrily to work

with tiny chips from the two stone cylinders, a pinch of the lowest

soil sample which had been acquired, a small comparison microscope and

a kit full of tiny reagent bottles. Lampert used the time the tests

consumed in reversing the mole and resetting the equipment on a new

spot. By the time the little mechanism had gnawed its way once more to

rock, Mitsuitei was forced to admit that the formation appeared to be

natural.

He did not seem as disheartened by the discovery as might have been

expected. He simply waited for more cores, his narrow face reflecting

nothing but the utter absorption Lampert knew he experienced whenever a

problem arose in his line. In spite of his apparent tendency to jump to

conclusions, Takehiko Mitsuitei was an experienced and respected member

of his profession. Lampert knew enough about his record to be perfectly

willing to accept his instructions for the present.

* * * * *

A series of holes was drilled, from the original position toward one of

the "streets" forty yards away from it. After each the archaeologist

admitted with perfect cheerfulness that there was nothing inconsistent

with the idea that the hill was a perfectly natural formation. He still

insisted, however, that the regular lines of trees, reinforced as they

were by the undergrowth pattern, required explanation.

Lampert admitted this, but felt that he knew what the explanation would

be. After all, volcanic residue is more than likely to contain the

trace elements vegetation requires, even on Viridis.

Finally the time came to get verification--or the opposite. The

flamethrower had to be used this time, and for several minutes clouds

of steam swirled about the men as its blue-white tongue fought the

sappy, rain-soaked undergrowth. Then the mole and its controls were

wheeled into place, and the little robot once more nosed its way out of

sight.

"I don't suppose you want any samples above the regular rock level, do

you?" asked Lampert as the machine disappeared.

"I think it would be best if we took them as usual," was the reply.

"For one thing, we should try to learn the depth at which the soil

composition changes--we are at least agreed that it changes in some

manner, after all."

"True enough." The geophysicist set his controls, and the process

continued--a process familiar now to McLaughlin as well as the

scientists, for the guide had caught numerous glimpses of what was

going on while he prowled about the work area on self-imposed guard

duty.

Mitsuitei took the crumbly soil cores as they came, examined them

quickly--they were arriving every few seconds--and filed them in

numbered compartments in a specimen case he had opened. Detailed

stratigraphy would come later. For some time there was no gross

evidence of change in the soil; not, in fact, until his first case had

been filled.

"Can you stop that thing for a moment, Rob?" he asked at this point.

"I don't want to lose track of these, and will have to hold up while I

open a new case."

"All right. I thought you'd want to stop for thought soon anyway."

"Why?"

"Because the mole is nearly four meters down, well below the depth at

which we hit bedrock before, and is still in soil."

"Eh? But--but it's still ordinary soil; none of your volcanic ash."

"Tuff had been eroded out of a lot of the joints in the cliffs. There's

no reason to expect it to be at the same level as the surrounding rock."

"That's true." Mitsuitei paused in thought for a moment. "If we keep

on going straight down, we may just be working into a natural crack,

as you say. Might it not be better to drill several holes within a few

square yards here, to determine whether it is a narrow joint such as

you expect or an actual edge to the rock at this level?"

"Maybe the edge of a roof, eh?" Lampert chuckled, but spoke in a manner

which could give no offense. "I can do better than that. Don't need to

pull up and start over; simply drill horizontally from where we are

now. Shouldn't take long to get dimensions, if that's all you want."

He halted the robot momentarily, and from a compartment in the drum

removed something like a small theodolite mounting. This he set up

on a short tripod over the point where the neck of the mole emerged

from the ground, and set a pointer at right angles to the line of tall

trees. Then he started the digging again.

V

Four starts in as many different directions and twenty minutes of

time showed fairly conclusively that the line of vegetation which had

given rise to the "street" theory was growing along a straight crack,

apparently a fairly ordinary joint, in the limestone. While several

more holes would have to be drilled to prove it, even Mitsuitei was

willing to admit that in all probability the remaining lines would be

found to be over similar cracks.

"You must admit, though, that the regularity of this joint pattern is

pretty unusual," the archaeologist said at length.

"It's far from being unknown," Lampert replied. "I got my first large

taste of it in my student days back on Earth. Fly over the mesa country

in southwestern North America sometime. Most of the joints there are

invisible from a distance, of course; but at the edge of a butte where

weathering is most prominent the blocks have frequently started to

separate, and the thing looks as though it had been put together from

outsize bricks."

"Hmph. Seem to remember something of the sort myself, now that you

mention it. I did some digging in that area, too. I shouldn't have

connected that sort of country with what we have here, though."

"Different meat; same skeleton," replied Lampert.

"But how about this volcanic ash, or mud, or whatever it is, which at

least fills the joints we saw in the cliff? That's not so usual, is it?"

"Not in my experience. But granting the joints and the volcanoes,

there's nothing really surprising about it. Incidentally, we don't know

that this crack we're standing on has the same filling. We'd better

bore down again to make sure. At least we may get some idea of the date

of the volcanic action compared to that of the orogeny that tilted

the block where we're camped. If there's tuff down here too, it will

substantiate the idea that the vulcanism is the older."

"Why? Couldn't ash have settled down here as well as up there at

substantially the same time?"

"It could. But I'd bet a fairly respectable sum that the tuff we saw

in the canyon was from a mud flow, not a fall of airborne ash. That

could hardly have reached the top of the cliffs--actually, the opposite

slope of the mountains, where Sulewayo is working--and this area

simultaneously."

"Maybe from different eruptions? I get the impression that this world

has a slight tendency to produce volcanic fields rather than individual

cones or flows."

"Might be. Chemistry will probably settle that question." During the

latter part of this discussion Lampert had directed the mole once more

downwards, and every half meter of travel another core was added to the

collection. At six and a half meters below the soil the first solid

specimen arrived; the others had been held together only by roots.

This one, however, caused the two scientists to look at each other.

Lampert nodded slowly, with a smile. Mitsuitei gave a shrug, and let an

expression of resignation play over his usually impassive features.

The core was tuff, apparently identical with that in the cliffs to the

east. It even contained fossils.

* * * * *

"I guess this whole dig might as well be taken over by the paleontology

department," Lampert commented finally. "I suppose they'll at least

want to compare fossils in the tilted and level strata."

"I suppose so." Mitsuitei was turning the little cylinder over and over

in his hand. "Tell me, Rob, what's this little speck of green?"

"Copper salts of one sort or another, I suppose." Lampert was not

greatly interested. "A lot of secondary minerals form in and under

volcanic detritus. On this world, carbonates like malachite should form

quite readily."

"Why should it form in a regular thread like this?"

"You mean a vein? Hard to tell precisely. Varying rates of water

seepage, varying degrees of oxygen or carbon dioxide penetration,

varying degrees of compactness in the rock where the stuff is formed--"

"I don't mean a vein. This is in a cylindrical body going right through

the core from one side to the other, as though there had been a copper

wire there originally which had been attacked by soil acids."

"Let's see. You're right. It's hardly an ordinary vein, though your

suggestion seems a trifle far fetched. The paleontologists can probably

furnish an idea. Maybe a vine or even a worm buried in the mud flow

acted as the precipitating agent for copper salts in the subsequent

seepage--I've seen beautiful fossils of pyrite which had been formed

that way."

"But this shows no trace of structure, except for its exterior shape."

"Isn't a really well preserved structure the exception rather than the

rule in fossils?"

"I suppose so. Still, I'd like to know just how far, and which way,

this green thread goes. I'd also like to know whether there are dilute

copper deposits spread through this rock, which could be concentrated

in the way you suggest."

"The first could be learned by taking enough cores. The other would

call for some very careful analysis of samples which had been selected

with a very sedulous eye kept on the stratigraphy. You know that; you

must have done that sort of thing looking for carbon-fourteen samples,

at times."

"Yes, I see that. Could you make such analyses here?"

"No, except for the mere presence of copper. The cores would have to

go back to a well equipped lab. Still, if you want to get them, it's

all right with me. Problems were made to be solved. I'll admit this

one doesn't seem very exciting to me, but I can use your data after

you finish for work of my own. You should wind up with material for a

pretty complete geochemical picture of this neighborhood. Shall I get

the cores for you?"

"Yes, please."

"Silly question. All right." The mole was drawn up a short distance,

and sent questing downward once more at an angle to the original shaft,

branching off a short distance above the level from which the copper

deposit had come. Again and again the process was repeated, each time

at a slightly different bearing from the central hole; and Mitsuitei

examined each core for traces of green. At last he found it, piercing

the little cylinder of rock as the other had done; and then, at his

suggestion, Lampert reset the mole to get a sample in the opposite

direction from the one which had furnished the new specimen.

* * * * *

This also checked positive; and four more samples, taken along the same

line at various distances, all did the same.

Apparently the line of green extended for some distance, about parallel

both to the surface of the ground and the trend of the joint in which

it was buried. Mitsuitei was radiant.

"I'm going down to that level if I have to come back with an expedition

of my own! If that's a fossil worm, it's worth getting the whole length

anyway--but I don't believe it is. I--"

"That will take a lot of time, you know," Lampert pointed out mildly.

"Certainly I know! Even if I use your fast excavator down to the tuff

level, I'll have to do detail work from then on. What of it?"

"Well, the others may have jobs they want to do--"

"Then they can do them! What are we here for, anyway? I thought it

was to investigate the past of this planet! Ndomi and Hans are doing

that their own way right now. Why can't I? I'm an archaeologist, and I

came along to do any archaeological work that presented itself to do;

this is the only thing of the sort anyone's seen so far. I know what

you're thinking. Maybe you're partly right. I certainly won't bet any

money that this thread of green is a fossil telephone wire; but it's as

likely to be that as anything else you've suggested, and I'm going down

to that level and sift the whole volume. Hans and Ndomi can have any

fossils I find if that will make you happier--and if one of them says

he has no use for fossils he didn't dig himself, I'll make him eat his

words. I can identify, locate and report on anything that turns up in a

rock as well as any of those jigsaw-puzzle people; and I can do it in

mud, too, which is more than any of them could manage."

"Don't get hot under the collar. If you can help it on this planet.

You sound as though one of the boys had been giving you a lecture on

the importance of knowing what strata a given series of specimens

represent."

"Not one of our boys--they have a little more sense. But there was

a young paleontologist when I was covering the Antares worlds whose

memory still makes my blood pressure go up. Never mind me; that's not

important. But I want to make this dig."

"It will tie up machines, however freely we can spare time," Lampert

said slowly. "I'll tell you: how about this? We spend the rest of

the day getting cores from other points along these cracks. For one

thing, we ought to know more about the structure of the hill, and for

another, we might find more of your 'wires.' After all, the chance of

our hitting the only one around is pretty remote. I can't quite see a

single dropped piece of copper wire showing up in the first two days of

a project like this."

"I neither said nor implied that this should be the only piece. I don't

doubt for a moment that there are others, whether they are wires or

worms."

"Sorry. Well, we take these cores back to camp this evening, together

with any others we find of the same sort, and let Hans and Ndomi

look them over. If they don't turn out to be something that the boys

recognize and can classify right off the bat, we come back tomorrow

with all the digging machinery you want, and dig until you either

find all you want, satisfy yourself that there's nothing here or find

something which obviously requires more specialized attention than we

can give it. All right?"

"Nothing could be fairer. Let's go!"

* * * * *

The discussion in camp that evening was animated beyond anything the

guide had heard. His original estimate of these men as relatively

quiet specimens underwent a sharp revision. Mitsuitei's report of

the day's activity at his site had, it is true, been delivered quite

calmly; but from then on matters grew progressively livelier. This was

not caused by opposition to the archaeologist's plans. The others were

all in favor of remaining, for their own reasons. However, the question

of just what was likely to be found gave rise to much rather barbed

comment on Sulewayo's part. "I don't see how you can expect to find any

trace of civilized work here," he said flatly at one point. "The animal

and plant life of this planet is at a stage of evolution corresponding

to something like Earth's Pennsylvanian age, when the amphibians were

the highest known forms of life. I'm not saying that there couldn't

be such a thing as an intelligent amphibian. But I do say that the

normal set of evolutionary forces which, on both Earth and Viridis,

produced creatures of the amphibian pattern could have done that _or_

produced an intelligent fish; not both. If the latter ever evolved, it

failed; for the amphibians--pardon me, amphibids--are here. To get an

intelligent amphibid on this world will--or would, if the sun were to

last long enough--require another orogenic period with the accompanying

climatic changes. Then you'd stand a considerably higher chance of

getting reptiles instead, if the comparative work done on over four

hundred planets carries any meaning."

"I don't doubt the value of the work at all. You are very probably

correct. It did not occur to me to expect remains of intelligent

amphibians. I saw no reason to pre-suppose that anything in the way

of artifacts which I might find would necessarily be native to this

planet."

"You think there were other visitors from outside the Beta Librae

system?"

"The possibility certainly exists. Here we are."

"But for Pete's sake! Do you really expect that they stayed long enough

to build a city, or do you think you have the remains of a camp like

ours, or what?"

"I don't think anything. It has been suggested that such people did

come, and stayed long enough to--"

"And you think you've found them."

"I think nothing, except that I have found, with Rob's help, something

which neither his professional knowledge, nor mine, nor even yours, is

able to explain; and I think an explanation is desirable. I hope you

won't consider me discourteous for pointing out that each time you have

tried to accuse me of jumping to conclusions, you have been able to

do so only by jumping to some yourself. I might further add that the

suggestion that this planet had been stocked with its present supply

of life types by visitors from space was advanced by a paleontologist,

not by one of my colleagues. I gather he could not understand how life

could evolve to the state it shows in the thirty-odd million years

that the planet seems to have been solid. I neither support nor deride

the idea; I simply want to gather data, in an attempt to explain a

much simpler question--why are narrow threads of copper compounds to

be found every few feet in the volcanic tuff filling the joints in

a certain limestone hill, and why are those threads always nearly

horizontal? You and Hans say they are not organic fossils, and I

accept your conclusion. Rob says that there is no copper in that rock,

detectable with his equipment, except within a few millimeters of the

green threads. I say nothing except that I have never seen such a thing

before. Under the circumstances, I fail to understand where you get

the idea that I think there is a city built by the people who stocked

this world thirty million years ago buried under that hill. I know I

said 'city' when I first saw it, and I still think I was justified in

the opinion; I have now seen evidence which causes me to admit that

the vegetation pattern was not caused by artificial structures, and

I dismiss the original hypothesis. I still want to dig there, and in

accordance with Rob's agreement I am going to dig there, with the

assistance of anyone who chooses to help. I know you want to go back to

your set of leg bones in the cliff, and have no objection to your doing

so. Even I can now see, on the basis of your description, that you are

uncovering the fossil of a land animal; and I agree that it is of great

importance to get it out intact, if possible. But if I can see the

importance and even the nature of your work, why can't you do the same

for mine?" The little man was leaning forward and staring intensely

into Sulewayo's face by the time he finished this harangue, and Ndomi

once more felt a trifle ashamed of himself. Lampert, however, saved him

the need of formulating an apology.

* * * * *

"I'm sure Ndomi didn't mean to ridicule your work in any way, Take,"

he said. "We all realize perfectly that an underground phenomenon

which cannot be explained at sight either by geology, paleontology or

archaeology is something which requires investigation. I imagine that

the best plan will be for String and me to go with you tomorrow, while

the others continue their stone-cutting. Hans, just how far along are

you, anyway?"

The older paleontologist thought for a moment.

"We don't really know," he said at last. "Of course, we aren't trying

to get the individual bones completely free of the matrix; that

will take somebody months or years. We're uncovering just enough to

determine the extent of the specimen, so we can take it all out in one

block--or more, of course, if it's too big. So far we can only guess at

how big it is. We've uncovered with certainty two feet, and gone about

half a meter along one of the attached legs. They seem to be extending

straight back into the cliff, so in effect we're cutting a tunnel

beside the thing. Assuming it had two main leg sections, as most of the

present animals on both Earth and Viridis appear to have, we're about

halfway between knee and hip joint. Of course, it might turn out to

be the Viridian equivalent of a horse or chicken. In that case, we're

about half way between ankle and knee. We certainly have several feet

yet to penetrate before we can outline the whole block, assuming that

the specimen is essentially complete. Several days, I would guess."

"Can you use any sort of power apparatus for any of your cuts?"

"I don't like to, on general principles, but--yes, we could, with

actually very little risk. If you have some sort of rock saw whose

cutting part can get fine control, I'd be willing to use it for parts

of the tunnel away from the actual specimen."

"I have. We'll take you up there first thing in the morning, and I'll

go down with you and show you how to use it before going on with Take

and String."

"Who holds the 'copter in place while you climb down the ladder, give

your lesson and come back?" asked the guide.

"Hmph. I forgot about that. All right, I'll break out the machinery and

give the lesson right now." He got up and strode to the helicopter.

McLaughlin covered him from the fence to the aircraft, but nothing

dangerous appeared. The geophysicist disappeared inside, and returned

a moment later with a compact metal case under his arm. The guide

holstered his weapon as the gate in the fence closed once more....

Actually, the Felodon was miles downstream. It had spent the day in its

chosen lair, apparently indifferent to the doings of the men a few

hundred yards away. With the coming of darkness--real darkness this

time, for the rain clouds cut off both the moonlight and the night

glow from the upper atmosphere--it had emerged, hunted, killed and fed

as before, apparently unhampered by the lack of light. By midnight it

was back in the same lair, paunch distended, as close to sleep as its

coldblooded kind ever came.