Astounding British Edition, Vol. 9, No. 10 — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

18 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION only way they could have matched Lack- land’s in resolving power would be to use shorter wave lengths of light—and even the brighter component of 61 Cygni radiates less ultraviolet than does Sol. The fainter sun of the pair is too distant from Mesklin at its closest to help much, and is even redder than its companion. For two or three minutes, while the sun moved far enough to reveal most of the areas previously in shadow, they waited and watched; but nothing except the shadows moved, and finally Lackland started the tank once more. The sun set while they were descending the slope. The tank had only one searchlight, which Lackland kept aiming at the ground in his path; so they could not see what went on among the stones above, Sunrise found them just crossing another brook, and tension mounted as they headed uphill once more. For a minute-or two nothing was visible, as the sun was directly ahead of the travelers; then it rose far enough to permit clear for- ward vision. None of the eyes fastened on the hilltop could detect any change from its appearance of the night before. There was a vague impression, which Lackland found was shared by the Mesklinites, that there were now more stones; but since no oné had attempted to make a count of them before, this could not be proved. There was still no visible motion. It took five or six minutes to climb the hill at the tank’s five-mile speed so the sun was definitely behind them when they reached the top. Lackland found that several of the gaps between the larger stones were wide enough for the tank and sled, and he angled toward one of these as he approached the crest of the ridge. He crunched over some of the smaller boulders, and for a moment Don- dragmer, on the ship behind, thought one of them must have damaged the tank; for the machine came to an abrupt halt before the sled was far enough up for its occupants to see into the next valley. Barlennan could be seen still on top of the vehicle, all his eyes fixed on the scene below him; the Flyer was not visible, of course, but after a moment the Bree’s mate decided that he, too, must be so interested in the valley beyond as to have forgotten about driving. “Captain! What is it?” Dondragmer hurled the question even as he gestured the weapons crew to the flame tanks. The rest of the crew distributed them- selves along the outer rafts, clubs, knives, and spears in readiness, without orders. For a long moment Barlennan gave no answer, and the mate was on the point of ordering a party overboard to cover the tank—he knew nothing of the nature of the jury-rigged quick-firer at. Lack- land’s disposal—when his captain turned, and gave a reassuring gesture. “It’s all right, I guess,” he said. “We can see no one moving, but it looks a little like a town. Just a moment and the Flyer will pull you forward so that you can see without going overboard.” He shifted back to English and made this request to Lackland, who promptly com- plied. This action produced an abrupt change in the situation. What Lackland had seen at first—and Barlennan, less clearly—was a_ broad, shallow bowllike valley entirely surrounded by hills of the type they were on. There should, Lackland felt, have been a lake at the bottom; there was no visible means of escape for rain or melted snow. Then he noticed that there was no snow on the inner slopes of the hills; their topography was bare. And strange topography it was. It could not possibly have been natural. Starting a short distance below the ridges were broad, shallow channels. They were remarkably regular in arrangement; a cross section of the hills taken just below where they started would have suggested a very pretty series of ocean waves. As the channels led on downhill toward the center of the valley they grew narrower and deeper, as though designed to lead rain water toward a central reservoir. Unfortunately for this hypothesis, they did not even all reach it, though all got as far as the relatively level, small floor of the valley. More interesting than the channels — themselves were the elevations separating them. These, naturally, also grew more pronounced as the channels grew deeper; on the upper half of the slopes they were smoothly rounded ridges, but as the eye COMME OO KS5E@