paring coffee
for the interviewees, now assembling in the corridor, the four members
of the Committee arranged themselves at the larger of the tables.
Notepaper lay before them.

Mr. Tucker lighted a cigar and fingered it. "A rather good meal," he
said.

The others nodded.

"I may as well start off, while we're waiting," Mr. Wallace said. "I'll
summarize my somewhat contradictory observations.

"Superficially, the cultural level of the natives appeared quite
primitive. The absence of tools would normally be indicative. On the
other hand, the city was carved from rock in a way so as to suggest a
very sophisticated technology. And writing, while apparently not
practiced to any considerable extent, was known--or, if not writing as
we understand it, some advanced decorative technique. We've found two
lines of it, at least.

"Again superficially, the city would suggest a nomadic tradition, but
for its craftsmanship. It seems independent of any obvious supply of
food and their equivalent of water, if any. Nor were any provisions in
evidence for the disposal of waste products. Yet the city had the
appearance of age and continual usage. If you notice, the floor of the
recess was worn unevenly toward the center by what I should guess to be
the traffic of several centuries.

"The thought naturally occurs that the aliens were the rather decadent
relics of a highly developed technological civilization existing on the
planet in the not too distant past. Yet Miracastle offers no evidence
for the existence of a prior technology--no ruins, no residual
radioactivity from atomic operations. In short, the city has no apparent
genesis in the past.

"The alternative arises: perhaps the natives were not natives at all,
but immigrants or colonists like ourselves. Yet the age of the city
contradicts this.

"Perhaps there is a simple explanation, although it does not occur to
me. But I do have this feeling. The city was utilitarian. To me, it
calls to mind one of those exquisite etchings of Picasso. The severe
economy of line suggests simplicity. Yet, on further inspection, you see
that each line contributes to a rather bewildering variety of
perspectives. I strongly suspect that the city and the people of
Miracastle will remain one of the great, unsolved mysteries of the
universe."

Mr. Wallace was finished with his remarks.

Mr. Ryan nodded. "Perhaps I'm deficient in sensibilities, but I find
that the most ... agonizing ... thi