this."

He got out of the car and followed Walden around to the door of the
first building. Another man, almost as old as Walden, came toward them
smiling. The two men shook hands and stood happily perceiving each
other.

"This is Eric," Walden said aloud. "Eric, this is Prior, the caretaker
here. He was one of my schoolmates."

"It's been years since we've perceived short range," Prior said. "Years.
But I suppose the boy wants to look around inside?"

Eric nodded, although he didn't care too much. He was too disappointed
to care. There was nothing here that he hadn't seen a hundred times
before.

They went inside, past some scale models of the old cities. The same
models, though a bit bigger, that Eric had seen in the three-dimensional
view-books. Then they went into another room, lined with thousands of
books, some very old, many the tiny microfilmed ones from the middle
periods of the old race.

"How do you like it, Eric?" the caretaker said.

"It's fine," he said flatly, not really meaning it. He was angry at
himself for feeling disappointment. Walden had told him what to expect.
And yet he'd kept thinking that he'd walk into one of the old cities and
be able to imagine that it was ten thousand years ago and others were
around him. Others like him....

Ruins. Ruins covered by dirt, and no one of the present race would even
bother about uncovering them.

Prior and Walden looked at each other and smiled. "Did you tell him?"
the caretaker telepathed.

"No. I thought we'd surprise him. I knew all the rest would disappoint
him."

"Eric," the caretaker said aloud. "Come this way. There's another room I
want to show you."

He followed them downstairs, down a long winding ramp that spiraled
underground so far that he lost track of the distance they had
descended. He didn't much care anyway. Ahead of him, the other two were
communicating, leaving him alone.

"Through here," Prior said, stepping off the ramp.

They entered a room that was like the bottom of a well, with smooth
stone sides and far, far above them a glass roof, with clouds apparently
drifting across its surface. But it wasn't a well. It was a vault,
forever preserving the thing that had been the old race's masterpiece.

It rested in the center of the room, its nose pointing up at the sky. It
was like the pictures, and unlike them. It was big, far bigger than Eric
had ever visualized it. It was tall and smooth and as new looking as if
its bu