ips together to lock in a furious retort when Hubert Penrose
answered for her.

"Dr. Dane's been doing as much work, and as important work, as you
have," he said brusquely. "More important work, I'd be inclined to say."

Von Ohlmhorst was visibly distressed; he glanced once toward Sid
Chamberlain, then looked hastily away from him. Afraid of a story of
dissension among archaeologists getting out.

"Working out a system of pronunciation by which the Martian language
could be transliterated was a most important contribution," he said.
"And Martha did that almost unassisted."

"Unassisted by Dr. Lattimer, anyway," Penrose added. "Captain Field and
Lieutenant Koremitsu did some work, and I helped out a little, but
nine-tenths of it she did herself."

"Purely arbitrary," Lattimer disdained. "Why, we don't even know that
the Martians could make the same kind of vocal sounds we do."

"Oh, yes, we do," Ivan Fitzgerald contradicted, safe on his own ground.
"I haven't seen any actual Martian skulls--these people seem to have
been very tidy about disposing of their dead--but from statues and busts
and pictures I've seen. I'd say that their vocal organs were identical
with our own."

"Well, grant that. And grant that it's going to be impressive to rattle
off the names of Martian notables whose statues we find, and that if
we're ever able to attribute any placenames, they'll sound a lot better
than this horse-doctors' Latin the old astronomers splashed all over the
map of Mars," Lattimer said. "What I object to is her wasting time on
this stuff, of which nobody will ever be able to read a word if she
fiddles around with those lists till there's another hundred feet of
loess on this city, when there's so much real work to be done and we're
as shorthanded as we are."

That was the first time that had come out in just so many words. She was
glad Lattimer had said it and not Selim von Ohlmhorst.

"What you mean," she retorted, "is that it doesn't have the publicity
value that digging up statues has."

For an instant, she could see that the shot had scored. Then Lattimer,
with a side glance at Chamberlain, answered:

"What I mean is that you're trying to find something that any
archaeologist, yourself included, should know doesn't exist. I don't
object to your gambling your professional reputation and making a
laughing stock of yourself; what I object to is that the blunders of one
archaeologist discredit the whole subject i