gles. There was a
pungent taste on his lips. Once he stretched his hand out toward a
trilobite that seemed to be crawling up to his feet--and he felt the
coarse surface of the shell before he pulled his hand back again.

The picture changed once more, centering on a ruddy planet that swept
toward them while Portok exclaimed at the sight of Mars in the ancient
days before the planets were built. Men and women walked its smooth
fields, among the flaming scarlet flowers. Music and laughter and the
voices of women drifted on the scented winds. But Mars was changing. It
was drying up. Life could no longer be the same. Some of the people were
beginning to draft the plans for the great canals that were to conserve
the planet's failing supply of water, but others took to space-ships and
sailed off into the void.

Then, for the first time, they saw the planet Venus as the Martian
space-ships dropped down through the veiling clouds. They saw those
first pioneers of space land on Venus, and subjugate the natives, and
build mighty cities in the plains. But something happened to the
birth-rate, and most of the science of the Old Ones was lost when a
series of great quakes swept the planet. The holdings of the descendants
of those interplanetary travelers of long ago dwindled to only the city
of Larr and the land of Savissa itself.

The humming of the Tempora-scope died away. The big metal disc again
became blank. The machine had ceased to function, and the illusion of
the reality of the past was gone. They were simply in a shaded tower
room with a tired old man who sat on a carved throne.

"And that is the tale of the rise and decline of our people, _hiziren_,"
he said sadly. "Now the sands of our nation run low. I am half inclined
to believe that the old prophecy will come true, and that this is the
twilight of Savissa and its people. But--enough of that. Raise the
blinds again, Rotosa, so that we may have light while we can. And I ask
you visitors from afar to dine with me tonight before you go back to
your space-ship."

* * * * *

The banquet table was set on the ground floor of the Arrow-Tower, in a
room where an open colonnade looked out on a walled garden behind the
palace of the rulers of Savissa. A carved wooden table was set with
golden plates. Faint music came from some hidden source. In the garden
outside, night birds sang softly and there was a constant sound of
running water from ma