"I know. Perfectly preserved--the skin soft--all normal fluid still present in the body. Nothing's wrong with him except that he's dead." Rex touched the soft tissue. It was cool. "How can you figure the time?" "He came in on a food freighter--in a cargo of potatoes that was sent from a farmer's market at a place called New Iowa in the heart of the Martian farm belt." "Not far from the forbidden polar circle," Rex said. "I thought you didn't know anything about Mars." "When things were dull on Pluto, I studied timetables." "That's interesting. I'll issue them to all agents." "Of course you've got no proof that the body was put aboard at Iowa." "Yes we have. The hold was locked and sealed there. The body was inside. The seal was unbroken." The closed eyes of Professor Spencer made Rex almost as uncomfortable as the closed lips. "All right. I've got the picture. What do we do? Send in a battalion to question the Martian taste in gift packages?" "We've got no proof the Martians did this." "Who else?" "Maybe some transplanted Terran farmer took up taxidermy on the side." "The odds are way against it." "So are the odds against a solar eclipse, but they happen." "Then we make no hostile gestures?" "Not until we know the score. That's what I want you to do, Rex--go out to Mars and find the score." "Okay, Chief." Rex took a last look at the body. "And if I come back in that shape, check my pockets. There might be time to write a note." "Don't be such a pessimist," Malloy growled. * * * * * (_From the diary of Tommy Wilks_) _The first thing you miss on Mars is the green. The things hardest to get used to are the reds and the yellows and the tired browns. Never is there any bright rich green filled with the promise of spring as I grew used to in Kentucky back on Terra. Because this is a dying planet and even when the Martian spring does come, there is a feeling of tiredness in the air._ _And the warm rain on your face. You miss that too because there is no rain on Mars. You keep looking at the sky, hunting for the big black thunderheads that sent people running for cover back in Kentucky. You look and look until your eyes ache and even the sting of icy cold rain would be nice._ _The water here is all underground and in the canals. It is good water, running down through the bogs and the rivers and the marshes in spring when the big northern ice cliffs melt._ _It is very funny about the ice cliffs. Up there it snows in the winter I guess because they get higher and higher until they are like mountains. Then in spring, they melt in a few days. Nobody knows much about the ice mountains because they are in the middle of the forbidden polar zone. It is said there are Martian people up in the forbidden circle but I don't think so. Because why would anybody live in such a place when the level lands and the old sea bottoms and the canals are down here!_