"Wonder if these walls were supposed to cut off the view?" speculated
the doctor. "I mean, do you suppose that the Mercurians were such short
people as that?" His question had to go unanswered.

They stepped into the nearest compartment, and were on the point of
pronouncing it bare, when Jackson, with an exclamation, excitedly
brushed away some of the dust and showed that the presumably solid walls
were really chests of drawers. Shallow things of that peculiar metal,
these drawers numbered several hundred to the compartment. In the whole
building there must have been millions.

Once more the dust was carefully removed, revealing a layer of those
curious rolls or reels, exactly similar to what had been found in the
tool chest in the shell works. A careful examination of the metallic
tape showed nothing whatever to the naked eye, although the doctor
fancied that he made out some strange characters on the little boxes
themselves.

His view was shortly proved. Finding drawer after drawer to contain a
similar display, varying from one to a dozen of the diminutive ribbons,
Van Emmon adopted the plan of gently blowing away the dust from the
faces of the drawers before opening them. This revealed the fact that
each of the shallow things was neatly labeled!

Instantly the three were intent upon this fresh clue. The markings were
very faint and delicate, the slightest touch being enough to destroy
them. To the untrained eye, they resembled ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphics; to the archeologist, they meant that a brand-new system
of ideographs had been found.