e thrown into
intensified exploration of the lower sea bottoms, and the bio-science
boys and girls were wild with excitement and making new discoveries on
each flight.

The University was left to Selim and Martha and Tony Lattimer, the
latter keeping to himself while she and the old Turco-German worked
together. The civilian specialists in other fields, and the Space Force
people who had been holding tape lines and making sketches and snapping
cameras, were all flying to lower Syrtis to find out how much oxygen
there was and what kind of life it supported.

Sometimes Sachiko dropped in; most of the time she was busy helping Ivan
Fitzgerald dissect specimens. They had four or five species of what
might loosely be called birds, and something that could easily be
classed as a reptile, and a carnivorous mammal the size of a cat with
birdlike claws, and a herbivore almost identical with the piglike thing
in the big _Darfhulva_ mural, and another like a gazelle with a single
horn in the middle of its forehead.

The high point came when one party, at thirty thousand feet below the
level of Kukan, found breathable air. One of them had a mild attack of
_sorroche_ and had to be flown back for treatment in a hurry, but the
others showed no ill effects.

The daily newscasts from Terra showed a corresponding shift in interest
at home. The discovery of the University had focused attention on the
dead past of Mars; now the public was interested in Mars as a possible
home for humanity. It was Tony Lattimer who brought archaeology back
into the activities of the expedition and the news at home.

Martha and Selim were working in the museum on the second floor,
scrubbing the grime from the glass cases, noting contents, and
grease-penciling numbers; Lattimer and a couple of Space Force officers
were going through what had been the administrative offices on the other
side. It was one of these, a young second lieutenant, who came hurrying
in from the mezzanine, almost bursting with excitement.

"Hey, Martha! Dr. von Ohlmhorst!" he was shouting. "Where are you?
Tony's found the Martians!"

Selim dropped his rag back in the bucket; she laid her clipboard on top
of the case beside her.

"Where?" they asked together.

"Over on the north side." The lieutenant took hold of himself and spoke
more deliberately. "Little room, back of one of the old faculty
offices--conference room. It was locked from the inside, and we had to
burn it down