they first learned that a few of Those Others still lived--even if
overseas.

"If that is their plan, they have not yet done it." Sssuri rolled over
on his back and stretched. He had lost that tenseness of a hound in
leash which had marked him the night before. "This was one of their
secret places, holding much of their knowledge. They may return here
on quest for that learning."

All at once Dalgard was conscious of a sense of urgency. Suppose that
what Sssuri suggested was the truth, that Those Others were attempting
to recover the skills which had brought on the devastating war that
had turned this whole eastern continent into a wilderness? Equipped
with even the crumbs of such discoveries, they would be enemies
against which the Terran colonists could not hope to stand. The few
weapons their outlaw ancestors had brought with them on their
desperate flight to the stars were long since useless, and they had
had no way of duplicating them. Since childhood Dalgard had seen no
arms except the bows and the sword-knives carried by all venturing
away from Homeport. And what use would a bow or a foot or two of
sharpened metal be against things which could kill from a distance or
turn rock itself into a flowing, molten river?

He was impatient to move on, to reach this city of forgotten knowledge
which Sssuri was sure lay before them. Perhaps the colonists could
draw upon what was stored there as well as Those Others could.

Then he remembered--not only remembered but was corrected by Sssuri.
"Think not of taking _their_ weapons into your hands." Sssuri did not
look up as he gave that warning. "Long ago your fathers' fathers knew