Shann's eyes widened. He absently rubbed the fingers which had held the bone coin--if it was a coin--back and forth across the torn front of his blouse. That tingle ... did he still feel it? Or was his imagination at work again? But an object not listed in the exhaustive Survey Archives would mean some totally new civilization, a new stellar race. "It is definitely a created article," the Survey officer continued. "And it was found on the beach of one of those sea islands." "Throg?" But Shann already knew the answer to that. "Throg work--_this_?" Thorvald was openly scornful. "Throgs have no conception of such art. You must have seen their metal plates--those are the beetle-heads' idea of beauty. Have those the slightest resemblance to this?" "Then who made it?" "Either Warlock has--or once had--a native race advanced enough in a well-established form of civilization to develop such a sophisticated type of art, or there have been other visitors from space here before us and the Throgs. And the latter possibility I don't believe----" "Why?" "Because this was carved of bone or an allied substance. We haven't been quite able to identify it in the labs, but it is basically organic material. It was found exposed to the weather and yet it is in perfect condition, could have been carved any time within the past five years. It has been handled, yes, but not roughly. And we have come across evidences of no other star-cruising races or species save ourselves and the Throgs. No, I say this was made here on Warlock, not too long ago, and by intelligent beings of a very high grade of civilization." "But they would have cities," protested Shann. "We've been here for months, explored all over this continent. We would have seen them or some traces of them." "An old race, maybe," Thorvald mused, "a very old race, perhaps in decline, reduced to a remnant in numbers with good reason to retire into hiding. No, we've discovered no cities, no evidence of a native culture past or present. But this--" he touched the front of his blouse--"was found on the shore of an island. We may have been looking in the wrong place for our natives." "The sea...." Shann glanced with new interest at the green water surging in wavelets along the edge of the fiord. "Just so, the sea!" "But scouts have been here for more than a year, one team or another. And nobody saw anything or found any traces." "All four of our base camps were set inland, our explorations along the coast were mainly carried out by flitter, except for one party--the one which found this. And there may be excellent local reasons why any native never showed himself to us. For that matter, they may not be able to exist on land at all, any more than we could live without artificial aids in the sea." "Now----?" "Now we must make a real attempt to find them if they do exist anywhere near here. A friendly native race could make all the difference in the world in any struggle with the Throgs."