The next landmark, a crescent-shaped range of sawtooth mountains near the far end of the canyon, showed up plainly, since shadows were lengthening across the face of the planet. A dozen valleys meandered off from the hills in a southerly direction and Archer aimed for the fourth from the south. At last, one third of its length from the south end of the valley, the ship stood over the spot corresponding to the X-mark on the map and settled slowly on its jets. According to the scrawled notation, the jade deposit would be not more than half a mile away, near the valley's east wall. Archer delayed the impatient Stokely long enough to provide Dr. Grimwood and himself with packs of food and water from the ship's stores, trading on the doctor's promise to help locate the jade. Once it was found, Archer did not intend to remain at Stokely's mercy long enough to return to the ship. All four of the men donned their pressure-suits, primarily as a barrier against the deadly "jade" virus, but incidentally as a protection from all manner of unpleasant insects and tentacular, stinging plants. Also, there was an abundance of scurrying, cold-blooded little horrors, reminiscent of Terran reptiles or batrachians, but by those standards grotesquely misshapen. Vega VII was a planet whose surface had been prematurely desiccated by a broiling sun, although there was still considerable water available in underground lakes, but the excess of hard radiation had spurred evolutionary processes to improbable extremes. Just now, the outsized, glaring white orb was low in the sky and the temperature was becoming tolerable. Before morning, in this dry air, it would probably drop far below freezing. * * * * * Stokely made Archer and the doctor walk ahead, at a difficult pace over the rough ground. They went willingly, however, since failure to find the jade in the next hour or so would mean spending the whole night in untrustworthy company. The final fixing of the location was accomplished by aligning the tip of a rocky promontory resembling a human nose with a farther peak and walking directly away from it until a small ravine was encountered. The deposit was 75 yards farther on, according to the instructions, in a direction a little south of east. All four men paced it off with extended strides, ending up in a scattered configuration, with no two of them more than ten yards apart. * * * * * The men faced each other and looked about. It was a rock-strewn area similar to a dozen others they had passed through on the way here. But closer inspection revealed one difference. Here and there were piles of dry, gray bones of different sizes, some of them crumbled almost into dust. "Looks something like an animal graveyard," said Dr. Grimwood. "But I rather imagine it's less purposeful than that, and most of them simply made the mistake of sleeping here."