or this groove--"

He put his hands on the top of the stone and lifted. As he had half
expected, it separated at the horizontal groove. The top of the stone
was the lid of a box. Inside lay a plastic container.

"Some kind of plastic we don't make any more," muttered Sam.

"Aren't you going to open it?" asked Mark eagerly. "Maybe it tells about
the grave and the dog's name."

The plastic came open at a slight tug. Inside were several strong
sheets of paper. Sam stared at them and said, "It's writing, sure
enough. But in some language I don't understand."

"We can put it in our mechanical translator," said Mark. "That can tell
us what it means."

"That's what we'll do."

"Aren't we going to take the dog with us, Pop?"

"No, we'll leave him here. He'll come to in a little while."

* * * * *

Walking back to their ship, Mark continued to show an excitement that
was unusual for him. "You know what?" he said. "I'll bet we're going to
learn what the dog's name is."

"I doubt if whoever wrote this thing would bother about a trifle like
that."

"But that's important. You'll see, Pop, you'll see!"

At the ship, Sam inserted the sheets into the reader section of his
translator and started the motor. The selector swung into action.

"Before it can translate, it has to decide what language this is," he
explained.

"Will that take long?"

"A few minutes if we're lucky, a couple of hours if we're not. After
that, I think the translation itself shouldn't take more than a few
minutes. While we're waiting, we might as well eat."

"I'm not hungry," said Mark.

"You'd better eat anyway."

"Just a little bit, maybe. You know what I think, Pop? When I call the
dog by his name, he'll know I'm his friend and he'll come to me. Then
he'll really be my pet."

"Don't count too much on it," said Sam. And thought once more how lonely
his son must be, to center so much hope in a half-wild beast.

A light glowed suddenly in the translator. The selector had found the
proper language. Now it began to translate.

Twenty minutes later, its work had been completed. As Sam silently began
to read, Mark bumped against him, knocking the translation from his
hand. Sam's first reaction was anger at the boy's clumsiness. Then he
became aware of the hope and the fear that lay behind Mark's excitement,
and bit back the angry words which had almost reached his lips.

"Easy, Mark, easy," he said. He picked