oblems that the City posed. Not because
there weren't plenty of men who would have sacrificed their time and
efforts to further the work, but because the planet, being hostile to
Man, simply would not support very many investigators. It was not
economically feasible to pour more men and material into the project
after the point of diminishing returns had been reached. Theoretically,
it would have been possible to re-seal the City's dome and pump in an
atmosphere that human beings could live with, but, aside from every
other consideration, it was likely that such an atmosphere would ruin
many of the artifacts within the City.

Besides, the work in the City was heady stuff. Investigation of the City
took a particular type of high-level mind, and that kind of mind did not
occur in vast numbers.

It was not, Turnbull thought, his particular dish of tea. The physical
sciences were not his realm, and the work of translating the alien
writings could be done on Earth, from 'stat copies, if he'd cared to do
that kind of work.

* * * * *

Sirius VI was a busy planet--a planet that was as Earthlike as a planet
could be without being Earth itself. It had a single moon, smaller than
Earth's and somewhat nearer to the planet itself. The _Oriona_ landed
there, and Dave Turnbull took a shuttle ship to Sirius VI, dropping down
at the spaceport near Noiberlin, the capital.

It took less than an hour to find that Scholar Duckworth had gone no
farther on his journey to Mendez than Sirius VI. He hadn't cashed in his
ticket; if he had, they'd have known about it on Earth. But he certainly
hadn't taken a ship toward the Central Stars, either.

Turnbull got himself a hotel room and began checking through the
Noiberlin city directory. There it was, big as life and fifteen times as
significant. Rawlings Scientific Corporation.

Turnbull decided he might as well tackle them right off the bat; there
was nothing to be gained by pussyfooting around.

He used the phone, and, after browbeating several of the employees and
pulling his position on a couple of executives, he managed to get an
appointment with the Assistant Director, Lawrence Drawford. The
Director, Scholar Jason Rawlings, was not on Sirius VI at the time.

The appointment was scheduled for oh nine hundred the following morning,
and Turnbull showed up promptly. He entered through the big main door
and walked to the reception desk.

"Yes?" said th