Nobody ever mentioned to him any function it
could perform except the hiding of children from a spaceship that
happened to have crashed on Antarctica. But he guessed that if atomic
war should ever burst on Earth, that rockets rising from this place and
others like it would avenge the destruction done to America.

* * * * *

Presently Gail and the children were installed in a remarkably ordinary
small cottage, and Soames frowned. They'd arrived at the village by
elevator from a tunnel hundreds of feet underground, but the village in
which the cottage stood looked exactly like any other remote and sleepy
settlement. Soames began a protest against Gail being so isolated and so
much alone. But, unsmilingly, he was shown that there was an electrified
fence, with guards, and another a mile beyond, and a third still
farther, with watch-posts beyond that. Nobody would intrude upon the
village. But from the air it would look perfectly commonplace. There was
no indication at all of shafts from deep underground to what appeared an
ordinary country general store. There was no sign of tunnels from the
different houses to that merchandising mart.

Soames went off to be assigned other quarters. He wanted to work on some
items that had come into his mind during the last hours of the flight.
He'd guessed, to Gail, that the children came out of remotest time.
There was evidence for it, but it need not be true. So he'd made a
test.

When the children had breakfasted he drew on a sketch-pad a diagram of
part of the solar system. A dot for the sun, and a circle with a dot on
it for Mercury, the innermost planet. Another dot on a circle for Venus,
the second world out. A third circle and a dot for Earth and its orbit,
and beside the dot indicating Earth he drew a crescent, for the moon.
Alongside the dot standing for Mars he drew two crescents, because Mars
has two tiny moons.

The children discussed the diagram. Zani ended it with a decisive remark
in the language they used. Fran drew a fifth circle, placed a dot to
indicate a fifth planet, and put four crescents beside it, then drew a
sixth circle with a large dot and drew twelve crescents beside that.

Soames drew a deep breath. The twelve-moon planet was certainly Jupiter,
which is now next out from the sun after Mars. The number of moons made
it unmistakable. But Fran put a Fifth Planet, with four moons, where now
there is only planetary debris, the