yphics, even after they had the Rosetta Stone."

Sachiko smiled. "Yes. I know. But they did have the Rosetta Stone."

"And we don't. There is no Rosetta Stone, not anywhere on Mars. A whole
race, a whole species, died while the first Cro-Magnon cave-artist was
daubing pictures of reindeer and bison, and across fifty thousand years
and fifty million miles there was no bridge of understanding.

"We'll find one. There must be something, somewhere, that will give us
the meaning of a few words, and we'll use them to pry meaning out of
more words, and so on. We may not live to learn this language, but we'll
make a start, and some day somebody will."

Sachiko took her hands from her eyes, being careful not to look toward
the unshaded light, and smiled again. This time Martha was sure that it
was not the Japanese smile of politeness, but the universally human
smile of friendship.

"I hope so, Martha: really I do. It would be wonderful for you to be the
first to do it, and it would be wonderful for all of us to be able to
read what these people wrote. It would really bring this dead city to
life again." The smile faded slowly. "But it seems so hopeless."

"You haven't found any more pictures?"

Sachiko shook her head. Not that it would have meant much if she had.
They had found hundreds of pictures with captions; they had never been
able to establish a positive relationship between any pictured object
and any printed word. Neither of them said anything more, and after a
moment Sachiko replaced the loup and bent her head forward over the
book.

* * * * *

Selim von Ohlmhorst looked up from his notebook, taking his pipe out of
his mouth.

"Everything finished, over there?" he asked, releasing a puff of smoke.

"Such as it was." She laid the notebooks and sketches on the table.
"Captain Gicquel's started airsealing the building from the fifth floor
down, with an entrance on the sixth; he'll start putting in oxygen
generators as soon as that's done. I have everything cleared up where
he'll be working."

Colonel Penrose looked up quickly, as though making a mental note to
attend to something later. Then he returned his attention to the pilot,
who was pointing something out on a map.

Von Ohlmhorst nodded. "There wasn't much to it, at that," he agreed. "Do
you know which building Tony has decided to enter next?"

"The tall one with the conical thing like a candle extinguisher on top,
I t