Astounding Science Fiction (UK Edition) — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

BLIND MAN’S BUFF 7 awaying stanchions to keep from being tossed off the ship. But the earthquake, though severe, did not last long. It died out in a series of shuddering tremors and then there was quiet again—the watery quiet of splashing rain and gurgling ravines. “Log the time of that,’ Travis called down the hatch to Lorimer. “Ready to ride,” announced Hartley, promptly putting the earthquake out of his mind and going back to the machine. “Let’s make this first try accurate. They'll be more like to accept the later abbreviated ones if we can show them all our paces. I'll start with the underlying igneous rocks and fill in above as I go. Use black for that.” Travis filled the panto quills with a tarry substance that when exuded hardened quickly into a dark glass. That was the symbol that stood for granite in their code. ‘He had other plastics for the other rocks— dark red for sandstone, olive green for shale, a dirty yellow for limestone, and so on. Hartley cut in the juice. It took the Maggy an hour to lay the foundation for their work. The weaving pantos worked in and out in an ever widen- ing arc as directed by the operator, squirt- ing the colored plastics onto those laid before. Where volcanic necks intervened— and there were many—Hartley stepped up the current so as to force the reluctant radiation through, since when it was set to be reflected by basalt it would bounce back from the nearer surface. It took skill and understanding, but in the end they were well pleased with the result. What stood in their: box was the skeleton of what was to be a diorama of their sur- roundings—so far just the naked land on which they rested. One could walk around the crystal box and see just how far down the basic magma lay, and. how the strati- fied rocks above were twisted, folded, and faulted. It was the geologist’s dream come true. If they had been interested in ores, they would have had only to adjust the radiation to the proper setting and de- lineated it neatly in any special color they chose. As it was, in case of challenge, a simple drill rig could vertify their claim in a short time. Hartley stopped long enough to have a smoke, though the sodden tobacco did not draw well. Then he changed his tuning slightly and ran in the mantle of soil and mud that clothed the bedrock. Toward the sea the alluvial muck was quite deep. “Say,” said Travis, “we have to put up with the ship’s shadow, but what is that thing up there?” He pointed to a narrow pointed, irregular wedge lying sidewise on the model’s sur- face. It was a wedge of emptiness, in which nothing had registered. Except for its queer shape, it was the counterpart of the conical hollow in the very center of the model. That was the shadow cast vertically down- ward by the hull of the ship itself, since no amount of power would push the magnet- rons through that thickness of alloy steel. Hence the pantos could only build an 1r- regular empty cone topped off by the cigar- shaped upper contours of the vessel. Hartley scrutinized the wedge of vacancy. “It may be thrown by a moraine. Who knows, they may have had glaciers here once upon a time. Put the black pigment in and I'll test for granite.” The result he got was surprising. “That’s a funny thing,” frowned Travis. “No action of ice or water ever lett detritus like that, and I can’t think of any normal upheaval that would cause it.” The cause of the shadow was granite, but in a form most unnatural. Far away from any known outcropping, it lay there in thin slabs. In the scale model they were of paper thinness, meaning that actually they were less than a yard thick. They were about ten times wider and occurred in all lengths up to several hundred yards. Not only did the slabs exist contrary to all known laws of granite cleavage, but their disposition was unorthodox. They lay roughly end to end, though by no means continuously since in spots there were wide vacancies. The pattern was that of a circuitous line that sometimes wound around low hills and at others went straight over them. “What do you make of it?” asked Hart- ley. “The remnants of an old wall, perhaps, overthrown by an earthquake?” “Too thin for a wall,” shrugged Travis, “but let it go just now. When we extend the survey we will have to go up that way and then we'll take a look. Let’s get on with the rest of the topography now. The light is getting dimmer and this rain is chilly.” Hartley put the Maggy to defining water, and the irregularities of the Venusian sur- face swiftly filled with clear plastic. Ravines turned into streams and saucerlike depres- sions into lakes. It was necessary for them to know the depths of the water hazards before they set out later in the crawler. And comiclooks.€©