Kroner scanned the list, noting with fading hope the vocabulary he had to work with. "Wish we had more verbs!" he said. "They're the hardest, always," said Craig. "Active ones are easy enough, though the tenses and irregularities can be tough, but the non-active--the intransitive--can't be demonstrated the way actions and things can." "Well, we've got _Mars_, and _city_, and--that's a good one--_men_. That's them?" Craig nodded. "Hey, weren't there _eight_ of those guys a while back? We're two short!" "What?" said Lloyd, looking over at the aliens. "You're right, Kroner! Ulkay's gone, and--let me see--that heavy-set one with the big shoulder-span. Where the hell--?" Tandy and Harrison came up at that moment. "Sir," Tandy looked disgusted, "we can't find out a thing from the rubble. No heavy radiation present, so it kind of discounts an atomic war, although--" "Never mind the surmises for now," said Lloyd. "Tell me just what you know for sure." One side of Tandy's mouth twisted. "Yes, sir. Very little of the rubble seems to be due to any _heavy_ damage. I mean, no buildings have collapsed or anything like that. It's just as though time had crumbled off a brick hole here and there, and nobody bothered sweeping the street." "The city gates were knocked down," Lloyd protested. * * * * * Tandy shook his head. "Not knocked down, sir--fallen. It's my opinion this place is just obsolete, a sort of last-year's model that needs a new coat of paint and an engine overhaul. Except for all the dust, sand and crumbled material, it's in pretty good shape." "You mean it's unfashionable but serviceable?" said Kroner. "Like a spring-driven phonograph?" "That's about it, Sergeant," Tandy nodded. "Anything else, you're going to have to ask the Martians themselves." "Which brings me back to my earlier apprehension," said Kroner. "I don't like the idea of two of those guys being missing. Hold on--there they come! And with a small cannon, unless I miss my guess!" The Earthmen were all on their feet now, facing the pair of aliens who lugged a heavy contraption with a tubular nozzle on the front of it up the street toward the waiting group. "It can't be a cannon," said Lloyd, puzzled. "Why would they bother, when hand-weapons would do?" By that time, Ulkay and his crony had the gadget set down on a tripod base and were turning dials on its side. The Earthmen, every one of them, loosened pistols in their holsters, but only Tandy actually brought his out. Then they jumped as a metallic voice came out through the gadget's nozzle. "Men!" said the voice. "Do not possess fear." "A miracle!" gasped Craig. "It's a translating machine!" He rushed forward to view this thing, his face glowing with delight. Lloyd, recovering from his start, saw that Ulkay was speaking into a tube at the side of the machine, and realized that his translated voice had been the one heard.