"Practical value! My dear young lady, of course not! It is purely a labor of love. Knowledge for the sake of pure knowledge. Er ... scientia gratia scientiarum, you know ... that sort of thing. Of course—" He shrugged—"once in a while the research of my learned colleagues does contribute a share to the understanding of man's more mundane pursuits, but such occasions are, I hasten to assure you, quite incidental—"
Colonel Graham had recovered his composure.
"Mythology, eh? Well, what sort of legends interest you, Doctor? Fairy tales? Ghost stories?"
"Well—no," said Rocky pedantically. "The tales of greatest interest are those of fabulous monsters ... incredible beings endowed with fantastic powers or attributes. Such may be found in the mythologies of any race or clan. Not only on Earth, but on all the planets have we heard such stories. It is our delight to track down these tales and unearth the germ of underlying truth which created them."
"You mean," queried the girl, "that behind each folk tale lies a true cause or event or—or creature?"
"Exactly. For instance—well, let me see—you are familiar with the Earthly legend of the phoenix, aren't you?"
"The bird which was supposed to have had a life-span of a thousand years, at the end of which time it threw itself into a blazing pyre, from the ashes of which it was reborn?"
"That," nodded Dr. Rocky, "is the legend. Quoted as you have told it, it made no sense to Earthmen for thousands of years. Until, in fact, the year 1987 A.D., when the first Martian expedition visited the desert planet. The members of this expedition were amazed to discover a rara avis upon Mars impervious to extremes of both heat and cold. A bird with an astonishing life-span in excess of a thousand Earthly years. In short ... the archetype of the fabled phoenix!"
Colonel Graham looked interested in spite of himself.