The Kentons had just risen from the supper table after a wonderful meal that had featured fresh fruits and vegetables from their own garden. Two days had passed since the adventure in the Great Martian Forest. This was a night of celebration, and Mr. Matthews was present.
“Now tell us the surprise you had for us, Father,” Jill begged, as they all sat in the living room together. Mrs. Kenton had left cleaning up until later in order to be in on the exciting talk of the evening.
“Not until I know for sure,” Dr. Kenton replied. “I’ll get a phone call in a few minutes about it.”
“Can’t you even tell us what it’s about?” Jill went on.
“I wouldn’t want to build up false hopes for nothing, Jill,” her father said. “You can wait a little while.”
“It was a privilege to eat in such celebrated company tonight,” Mr. Matthews said, with a wink at the children. “You kids will even get your name in the schoolbooks for finding that fabulous city.”
“It’s the pilot and Mr. Garland who got us to bail out that should get the credit,” Ted said, with a grin. “If it weren’t for them, we’d never have found the underground city.”
“The mural showing the great events in the lives of the ancient Martians was the most important thing of all,” Dr. Kenton remarked. “I was beginning to believe that the greatest riddle of Mars was never going to be solved.” Dr. Kenton had gone to the underground city as soon as he met the young explorers and had heard about their outstanding discovery.
Ted, Jill, and Randy knew the answer now, as did every other colonist on the red planet. The paintings on the wall of the shrine had revealed the baffling riddle. It was simply and clearly portrayed in pictures, just as though the Martians had expected someone someday to know their story. The revelation was that hundreds of years ago all Martians had left their world in large space ships because of Mars’s disappearing oxygen. Apparently there still existed somewhere the remains of a supercivilization which had built these space craft.
“Do you think the animals on Mars will finally die out, Dad?” Ted asked, “as the rest of the oxygen combines with the rocks?”