The lights went off and the screen in the wall beside Manning lit up with a reproduction of one of the Hirlaji structures out on the Flat.  It stood in the shadow of an overhanging rock-cliff, protected from the planet’s heavy winds on three sides.  Larsborg had apparently set up lights for a clearer picture; the whole building stood out sharply against the shadows of the background.

“This look familiar to any of you?” Manning said quietly.

For a moment Rynason continued to stare uncomprehending at the picture.  He had seen a lot of the Hirlaji buildings since they’d landed; this one was better preserved but not essentially different in design.  Larsborg had cleared away most of the dirt and sand which had been packed up against its sides, exposing the full height of the structure, and he’d apparently sand-blasted the carved designs over the entrance, but....

Then he realized what he was seeing.  The angle of the photo was a bit different than that from which he’d seen the other structure back on Tentar XI, but the similarity was unmistakable.  This was a reproduction in stone of that same building, the one they’d reconstructed two years before.

He heard a wave of voices growing around the room, and Manning’s voice cut-through it with:  “That’s right, gentlemen:  it’s an Outsiders building.  It’s not in that crazy, damned metal or alloy or whatever it was that they used, but it’s the same design.  Take a good long look at it before we go on to the next photo.”

Rynason looked ... closely.  Yes, it was the same design a bit cruder, and the carvings weren’t the same, but the lines of the doorway and the cornice....

The next picture flashed onto the screen.  It was a closeup of the designs over the entrance, shot in sharp relief so that they stood out starkly.  The room was so quiet that Rynason could hear the hum behind the screen in the wall.

“That’s Outsiders stuff too,” said Breune.  “It’s not quite the same, though ... distorted.”

“It’s carved in stone, not stamped in metal,” Manning said.  “It’s the same thing, all right.  Anybody disagree?”

No one did.

“All right, then; let’s have the lights back up again.”

The lights came on and once more there was a murmur of talking around the room.  Rynason shifted his position on the seat and tried to catch the thought that had slipped through his mind just before the screen had faded.  There was another similarity....  Well, he’d seen a lot of the Outsider buildings in the past few years; it wasn’t necessary to trace all the evidences right now.

“What I want to know is, why didn’t any of the rest of you see this?” said Manning angrily.  “Have you all got plastic for brains?  Over a dozen men spend weeks researching these damn horsefaces, and only one of you has the sense to see the evidence of his own eyes!”

“Maybe we should turn in our spades,” said Stoworth.