He sprinted after them. But he did not overtake them till they had emerged in a cavern unlike any he had seen before.
"Okay! Stop! Stop, that's right."
They halted, motionless. Garth looked behind him, but there was no trace of the Zarno.
This cavern was lighted like the others. But there were fewer machines. Row after row of the giant four-armed robots stood like an army on the dark-metal floor. The walls were jeweled, thousands of pearly disks studding them. A low humming came from a machine nearby, a tripod with lenses surmounting a square box.
Garth walked through it. He hesitated, glanced around again, and then peered through the lenses.
A voice seemed to speak within his brain.
"—invoked the rule of silence. After that, Genjaro Lo declared that space travel was inevitable and might solve the natural problems of our civilization—"
It had spoken in the Ancient Tongue. And, at the same time, Garth had seen a picture of a huge, four-armed being with a bulging, yet oddly symmetrical head, standing on a rostrum addressing a multitude—
"Ed!" The voice rang through the silent cavern. "Ed Garth! You made it!"
Garth whirled. A man had emerged from a cavern-mouth nearby, a short, slight man with white hair and a lined, tired face. He ran forward, his ragged garments flapping, his eyes shining.