"Shpotted?" echoed Putz. "Vot vas shpotted?"

"The desert was spotted — with buildings! Not one of the mud cities of the canals, although a canal went through it. From the map we figured the canal was a continuation of the one Schiaparelli called Ascanius.

"We were probably too high to be visible to any inhabitants of the city, but also too high for a good look at it, even with the glasses. However, it was nearly sunset, anyway, so we didn't plan on dropping in. We circled the place; the canal went out into the Mare Australe, and there, glittering in the south, was the melting polar ice-cap! The canal drained it; we could distinguish the sparkle of water in it. Off to the southeast, just at the edge of the Mare Australe, was a valley — the first irregularity I'd seen on Mars except the cliffs that bounded Xanthus and Thyle II. We flew over the valley — " Jarvis paused suddenly and shuddered; Leroy, whose color had begun to return, seemed to pale. The chemist resumed, "Well, the valley looked all right — then! Just a gray waste, probably full of crawlers like the others.

"We circled back over the city; say, I want to tell you that place was — well, gigantic! It was colossal; at first I thought the size was due to that illusion I spoke of — you know, the nearness of the horizon — but it wasn't that. We sailed right over it, and you've never seen anything like it!

"But the sun dropped out of sight right then. I knew we were pretty far south — latitude 60 — but I didn't know just how much night we'd have."

Harrison glanced at a Schiaparelli chart. "About 60 — eh?" he said. "Close to what corresponds to the Antarctic circle. You'd have about four hours of night at this season. Three months from now you'd have none at all."

"Three months!" echoed Jarvis, surprised. Then he grinned. "Right! I forget the seasons here are twice as long as ours. Well, we sailed out into the desert about twenty miles, which put the city below the horizon in case we overslept, and there we spent the night.