The Commanding Officer, noting the tight faces about him, laid down his scalpel and said, "This throws a grave light on the situation of course, but it isn't as bad as it seems. In fact, the discovery turns the tide in our favor. Obviously they came down some years ago and did away with the residents of Mesa Flat when there was possibly only a handful of people in the village. These they recreated in the form of androids through a process we are not familiar with and then began adding to the population by feeding in more androids. Maybe there were more than just a few natives in the beginning because our spot check caught four authentic backgrounds." "But if they can create human beings--" Frank Brooks said. "The main thing is they evidently cannot destroy us by frontal assault. Thus this attempt at infiltration. Obviously the project is in its experimental stage. And knowing what to look for, we can take it from here." The commanding Officer smiled at Frank Brooks and Tom Brazier. "Good work, you two." "But I had nothing to do with it, sir," Frank Brooks said. "The meeting's adjourned...." * * * * * Outside, Frank Brooks turned on his partner. "I had no right to any of the credit. Why didn't you let me say it?" "You said it," Brazier grinned. "Besides--it was a team job." "Like hell! I don't even know what tipped you off. You had no reason to jump out of bed in the middle of the night and go hunting for that machine. Or did you?" "Remember when I said there was something wrong with that town?" "I remember, but--" "Figure it out. The original life of the town was only a few months, so up to that time it had a right to be without one." "Without one what?" "But with a continuous population for ten years, it certainly should have had one." "One _what_, damn it?" "A graveyard." Brooks mouth dropped open. "Say--that's right. There wasn't a tombstone anywhere around!" Tom Brazier was grinning. "So the superintelligent aliens defeated themselves by being too meticulously careful. They destroyed the bodies of the natives they killed and tripped themselves up." "When all they had to do to really camouflage the layout was to bury them." "They ought to give you a medal, man!" Frank Brooks said fervently. "I'll settle for a cup of coffee. Come on."