ife along the seal two inches below the top."

"Here's the seal," said Rack. He took his pick, and thrusting the point
of it into a soft metal strip that ran around the chest, tore it away
with one long hard tug. The Mink finished the job on sides and back;
"Read!" he said.

"Lift off the top." She glanced at Revel. "This is almost exactly like
Orbish," she said. "Only those queer words--"

"Philosophize in the corner," he said, pushing her aside. "Rack, lend me
your brawn." Together they lifted the top, which was about the weight of
a woods lion, and with much groaning and puffing, hurled it clear.

* * * * *

Below them, within the chest and under a sheet of the transparent stuff
they had seen in other parts of the cave, lay a man. He was
young-looking, though if Revel understood the words on the chest, he had
been sixty-four when he was hidden away here. His skin was brown,
smooth, and his closed eyes were unwrinkled. A short oddly-cut beard of
brindled gray and black fringed his chin. His hands, folded on the
chest, were big and sinewy, fighter's hands.

"What now?" panted Revel.

"Provided that the atmosphere is still a mixture of 21 parts oxygen to
78 parts nitrogen, with 1% made of small amounts of the gases neon,
helium, krypton--none of these words make sense."

"Skip them, then. Find something that does."

"Let's see ... swing the front of the casket up, and unhinge it so that
it comes off." They figured out what was meant, and did it. The front of
the metal case, very light compared with the top, fell with a clang.
"Insert a crowbar under the glass that covers the man and lift it
carefully away."

"Crowbar? Glass?"

"This almost invisible stuff covers him, it must be the 'glass'," said
Jerran. "Let's try to lift it off."

It took Revel and Rack and two miners, but in a matter of five minutes,
they had removed the plate of glass, the thin curved sheet that had
protected this man of the Ancient Kingdom. "Next?"

"Provided that it is no later than the year 3284, Doctor Klapham should
revive within an hour. If not, take the hypodermic from the white case
below him and inject 2cc.... Do you understand this at all?" she asked.

"Only that the man, whose name is evidently Doctor Klapham, ought to
wake up shortly." The Mink shook his great brown head. "If only we'd
found this cave in a quiet time! If only the gods and the gentry weren't
to be dealt with! Have we the tim