ly beached the space-ship on the sloping expanse of sand,
running her nose a little way up above the water level while the light
surf lapped her dripping sides. Some giant crabs scurried away across
the beach in startled surprise.

"Want to go ashore, Angus?" Gerry asked as McTavish's red bearded face
came up through an escape hatch. The big engineer shook his head.

"I'll just stay aboard here and brood over my broken helicopters,
thanks. My last trip ashore took care of all my wanderlust for the
present."

Gerry took half the vessel's crew with him, leaving the other half on
guard. Closana went with the landing party. With their armor gleaming in
the golden light, ray-guns and other weapons ready, they tramped up
across the loose sand of the beach. Beyond the shore line was firmer
ground, a field of some low plants that grew in orderly yellow rows.

"I'll swallow my ray-tube if this isn't a field cultivated by man!
Nature was never that orderly," Steve Brent muttered. Gerry shrugged.

"Lord knows! If we ever get those helicopters fixed, I'm all for a quick
return to Earth. This planet is certainly no peaceful garden of Eden,
and I've had pretty near all I want of it. Savissa was the only place I
really liked. I wonder what's happening there now!"

"We'll know if anything very exciting turns up," Steve said. "When we
started out on our search after you disappeared that night, I left Tanda
behind with a portable radio to keep us posted. Sort of figured it was
our base on Venus, and anyway there was always the chance you might
wander back there."

"Great planetoids--I just thought of something! As soon as we get back
to the ship, remind me to radio Tanda to tell Rupin-Sang that the Scaly
Ones had learned to use the old sewers, and that he must either block
them off or place a heavy guard there."

For a mile they walked inland, across those odd fields. The orderly rows
of plants stretched off to the horizon on both sides. And then they came
to a kind of level plain. The ground before them was strange looking, so
strange that Gerry called a halt while he stared down the slight slope
at it.

* * * * *

Most of the plain was of bare rock, rock that was absolutely smooth and
level without any sign of weathering at all. Along the outer edge it was
pitted at regular intervals by what looked like shallow wells a foot in
diameter. Beyond that zone were many excavations of many sizes and