the same, that's what it was. I wish I had a shovel here. I seem
to remember burying something near my stone. If I could find that it
would prove I really remember."
"Why don't you forget it?" Dotty pleaded. "After all, even if it were
true, what does it matter _now_?"
"It matters to me. Ever since we arrived here I've seen familiar things.
Too familiar to be coincidence. I never felt this way before. I always
considered reincarnation as ancient superstitious belief, just like
everyone else. But not any more. I _know_. I lived here when all this
was new."
"But can't you just be satisfied to feel that you did and let it go at
that?" Dotty asked. "I'm afraid of what they would do to you if they
found out what you're thinking."
"Hah!" Herb snorted. "I have a feeling that before we leave Mars I'll be
able to prove it to them. Somewhere in this city is something that only
I know exists. It's hidden under stones that haven't been disturbed
since man first set foot on the planet. It isn't entirely clear yet, but
it will come--it will come. Then I'll make them listen. They'll dig, and
they'll find what I say is there. You wait and see."
"They'll lock you up, darling," Dotty said. "They won't believe you."
The guide was calling everyone back to the bus. I watched Herb scowl
fiercely at the stone marker that he believed to have been his, open his
mouth to say something, then turn away so that his lips were out of
sight. Regretfully I put the mirroscope away and went back to the bus.
* * * * *
I knew where we were going next, and I was uneasy about it. Herb and
Dotty managed to sit together and I got a place right behind them where
I could eavesdrop. But they sat in silence.
The bus had left the ancient city behind, to head out over the desert
toward one of the few structures on Mars which had withstood the ravages
of time without crumbling. An immense dome of solid concrete reinforced
with pure copper rods harder than steel. The Martians had known what
Earth civilization didn't learn until around the year three thousand:
that copper can't be tempered, but pure copper becomes tempered of
itself in a thousand years.
That immense dome was a honeycomb of passageways and rooms, some of
which were not open to tourists. It would be a natural for Herb.
The bus stopped. The people were piling out and staring curiously at the
smooth surface of the dome. Especially at places where the re
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