ly mean things like hydrogen and
helium and boron and oxygen? How do you know that their table of
elements was anything like ours?"

Tranter and Penrose and Sachiko all looked at him in amazement.

"That isn't just the Martian table of elements; that's _the_ table of
elements. It's the only one there is." Mort Tranter almost exploded.
"Look, hydrogen has one proton and one electron. If it had more of
either, it wouldn't be hydrogen, it'd be something else. And the same
with all the rest of the elements. And hydrogen on Mars is the same as
hydrogen on Terra, or on Alpha Centauri, or in the next galaxy--"

"You just set up those numbers, in that order, and any first-year
chemistry student could tell you what elements they represented."
Penrose said. "Could if he expected to make a passing grade, that is."

The old man shook his head slowly, smiling. "I'm afraid I wouldn't make
a passing grade. I didn't know, or at least didn't realize, that. One of
the things I'm going to place an order for, to be brought on the
_Schiaparelli_, will be a set of primers in chemistry and physics, of
the sort intended for a bright child of ten or twelve. It seems that a
Martiologist has to learn a lot of things the Hittites and the Assyrians
never heard about."

Tony Lattimer, coming in, caught the last part of the explanation. He
looked quickly at the walls and, having found out just what had
happened, advanced and caught Martha by the hand.

"You really did it, Martha! You found your bilingual! I never believed
that it would be possible; let me congratulate you!"

He probably expected that to erase all the jibes and sneers of the past.
If he did, he could have it that way. His friendship would mean as
little to her as his derision--except that his friends had to watch
their backs and his knife. But he was going home on the _Cyrano_, to be
a big shot. Or had this changed his mind for him again?

"This is something we can show the world, to justify any expenditure of
time and money on Martian archaeological work. When I get back to Terra,
I'll see that you're given full credit for this achievement--"

On Terra, her back and his knife would be out of her watchfulness.

"We won't need to wait that long," Hubert Penrose told him dryly. "I'm
sending off an official report, tomorrow; you can be sure Dr. Dane will
be given full credit, not only for this but for her previous work,
which made it possible to exploit this discovery."

"And