There were two sets, going in opposite directions. She wore no shoes, and the length of both the foot and the stride, measured against the anatomy of the ice figure, suggested a creature about three meters tail. They could distinguish six toes on each foot, which was also consistent. "Almost as if," Hutch said, "the thing climbed down and went for a walk."

Chilling thought, that. They both glanced reflexively behind them.

One set of tracks proceeded west into the uplands.

The other wheeled out across the plain, on a course well north of the artifact. Astronaut prints, and ramps, followed in both directions. Richard and Hutch turned north.

"The bare feet shook them up," said Richard. "Now, you and I could match the trick, if we wanted."

After about a quarter-kilometer, the prints stopped dead in the middle of the snow. Both sets, coming and going. "There must have been a ship here," Hutch said.

"Apparently." The snow beyond the prints was untouched.

The ramp circled the area, marking off a space about the size of a baseball diamond. Richard walked completely around the circle, stopping occasionally to examine the surface. "You can see holes," he said, pointing them out. "The ship must have been mounted on stilts. The prints show us where the creature first appeared. It—she—walked off the way we've come, and went up into the hills. She cut a slab of rock and ice out of a wall up there. We'll go take a look at the spot. She fashioned the figure, put it back on board, and flew it to the site." He looked in the direction of the ice figure. "There are holes back there, too."

"Why haul it at all? Why not leave it up in the hills?"

"Who knows? Why put something here and not there? Maybe it would have been too easy." He tapped the ramp with his toe. "We're in a valley. It's hard to see, because the sides are low, and the curve of the land is so sharp. But it's there. The ice figure is located precisely in the center."