unlike a
miniature monkey in that it had hind legs on which it walked erect and
forepaws, well clawed for digging purposes, which it used with as much
skill and dexterity as a man used hands. Its body was hairless and it
was able to assume, chameleon-like, the color of the soil and rocks
where it denned. The head was set directly on its bowed shoulders
without vestige of neck; and it had round bubbles of eyes near the top
of its skull, a nose which was a single vertical slit, and a wide mouth
fanged for crushing the shelled creatures on which it fed. All in all,
to Terran eyes, it was a vaguely repulsive creature, but as far as the
settlers had been able to discover it was the highest form of land life.
The smaller rodentlike things, the two species of wingless diving birds,
and an odd assortment of reptiles and amphibians sharing the island were
all the burrowers' prey.

A world of sea and islands, what type of native intelligent life had it
once supported? Or had this been only a galactic colony, with no native
population before the coming of the stellar explorers? Ross hovered
above a dark pocket where the bottom had suddenly dipped into a
saucer-shaped depression. The sea growth about the rim rippled in the
water raggedly, but there was something about its general outline....

Ross began a circumference of that hollow. Allowing for the distortion
of the growths which had formed lumpy excrescences or reached turrets
toward the surface--yes, allowing for those--this was decidedly
something out of the ordinary! The depression was too regular, too even,
Ross was certain of that. With a thrill of excitement he began a descent
into the cup, striving to trace signs which would prove his suspicion
correct.

How many years, centuries, had the slow coverage of the sea life
gathered there, flourished, died, with other creatures to build anew on
the remains? Now there was only a hint that the depression had other
than a natural beginning.

Anchoring with a one-handed grip on a spike of Hawaikan coral--smoother
than the Terran species--Ross aimed the butt of his spear-gun at the
nearest wall of the saucer, striving to reach into a crevice between two
lumps of growth and so probe into what might lie behind. The spear
rebounded; there was no breaking that crust with such a fragile tool.
But perhaps he would have better luck lower down.

The depression was deeper than he had first judged. Now the light which
existed in the sh