-" Soriki squinted against the sun. "Nothing stopped them,
did it? We want a road here and we'll get it! That sort of thing. Must
have been master engineers."

To Raf the straight highways suggested something else. Master
engineering, certainly. But a ruthlessness too, as if the builders,
who refused to accept any modifications of their original plans from
nature, might be as arrogant and self-assured in other ways. He did
not admire this relic of civilization; in fact it added to his vague
uneasiness.

The land was so still, under the whisper of the wind. He discovered
that he was listening--listening for the buzz of an insect, the squeak
of some grass dweller, anything which would mean that there was life
about them. As he chewed on the ration concentrate and drank sparingly
from his canteen, Raf continued to listen. Without result.

Hobart and Lablet were engrossed in speculation about what might lie
ahead. Soriki had gone back to the flitter to make his report to the
ship. The pilot sat where he was, content to be forgotten, but eager
to see an animal peering at him from cover, a bird winging through the
air.

"--if we don't hit it by nightfall--But we can't be that far away!
I'll stay out and try tomorrow." That was Hobart. And since he was
captain what he said was probably what they would do. Raf shied away
from the thought of spending the night in this haunted land. Though,
on the other hand, he would be utterly opposed to lifting the flitter
over those mountains again except in broad daylight.

But the problem did not arise, for they found their city in the
midafternoon, the road bringing them straight to an amazing collection
of buildings, which appeared doubly alien to their eyes since it did
not include any of the low domes they had seen heretofore.

Here were towers of needle slimness, solid blocks of almost windowless
masonry looking twice as bulky beside those same towers, archways
stringing at dizzy heights above the ground from one skyscraper to the
next. And here time and nature had been at work. Some of the towers
were broken off, a causeway displayed a gap--Once it had been a
breathtaking feat of engineering, far more impressive than the
highway, now it was a slowly collapsing ruin.

But before they had time to take it all in Soriki gave an exclamation.
"Something coming through on our wave band, sir!" He leaned forward to
dig fingers into Hobart's shoulder. "Message of some kind--I'd swear
t