"City lights. Well." Louis swallowed. It had come too suddenly. "So it's not all dead. We can get help."

"I do not think so. This may be difficult to find … ah."

"Finagle's black mind!"

The castle, obviously their own castle, floated serenely above a field of light. Windows, neon, streams of floating light motes which must be vehicles … oddly shaped floating buildings … lovely.

"Tapes. Tanjit! We're watching old tapes. I thought they must be live transmissions." For one glorious moment it had seemed that their search was over — lighted, bustling cities, pinpointed on a map for them … but these pictures must be ages old, civilizations old.

"I thought so also, for many hours last night. I did not suspect the truth until I failed to find the thousands of miles of meteor crater slashed by the Liar's landing."

Louis, speechless, thwacked the kzin on his nude pink- and-lavender shoulder. It was as high as he could reach.

The kztn ignored the liberty. "After I had located the castle, things proceeded quickly. Observe." He caused the view to slide rapidly to port. The dark land blurred, lost all detail. Then they were over black ocean.

The camera seemed to back up …

"You see? A bay of one of the major salt owans falls across our path to the rim wall. The ocean itself is several times as large as any on Kzin or Earth. The bay is as large as our largest ocean."

"More delay! Can't we go over it?"

"Perhaps we can. But we face greater delay than that." The kzin reached for a knob.

"Hold it. I want a closer look at those groups of islands!"

"Why, Louis? That we might stop for provisions?"

"No … Do you see how they tend to form clusters, with wide stretches of deep water between? Take that grouping there." Louis's forefinger circled images on the screen. "Now look up at that map."

"I do not understand."

"And that grouping in what you called a bay, and that map behind you. The continents in the conic projections are a little distorted … See it now? Ten worlds, ten clusters of islands. They aren't one-to-one scale; but I'll bet that island is as big as Australia, and the original continent doesnot look any bigger than Eurasia on the globe."

"What a macabre jest. Louis, does this represent a typically human sense of humor?"

"No, no, no. Sentiment! Unless -"

"Yes?"

"I hadn't thought of that. The first generation — they had to throw away their own worlds, but they wanted to keep something of what they were losing. Three generations later it would be funny. It's always that way."

When the kzin was sure Louis had finished, he asked somewhat diffidently, "Do you humans feel that you understand kzinti?"

Louis smiled — and shook his head.

"Good," said the kzin, and changed the subject. "I spent some time last night examining the nearest spaceport."

They stood at the hub of the miniature Ringworld, looking through a rectangular window into the past.

The past they saw was one of magnificent achievement. Speaker had focused the screen on the spaceport, a wide projecting ledge on the spaceward side of the rim wall. They watched as an enormous blunt-ended cylinder, alight with a thousand windows, was landed in electromagnetic cradling fields. The fields glowed in pastel shades, probably so that the operators could manipulate them visually.

"The tape is looped," said Speaker. "I watched it for some time last night. The passengers seem to walk directly into the rim wall, as if a kind of osmosis process were being used."

"Yeah." Louis was badly depressed. The spaceport ledge was far to spinward of them — a distance to dwarf the distance they had already traveled.

"I watched a ship take off. They did not use the linear accelerator. They use it only for landings, to match the velocity of the ship to that of the spaceport. For takeoffs they simply tumble the ship off into space.

"It was as the leaf-eater guessed, Louis. Remember the trap door arrangement? The Ringworld spins easily fast enough for a ramscoop field to operate. Louis, are you listening?"

Louis shook himself. "Sorry. All I can think about is that this adds about seven hundred thousand miles to our trip."

"It may be possible to use the main transport system, the small linear accelerator at the top of the rim wall."

"Not a chance. It's probably wrecked. Civilization tends to spread, if there's a transport system to spread it. And even if we can got it working, we aren't moving toward an elevator shaft."

"That is true," said the kzin. "I looked for one."

In the rectangular screen, the ship was down. Floating trucks ran a jointed tube to the ship's main lock. Passengers spilled into the tube.

"Shall we change our goal?"

"We can't. The spaceport is still our best chance."

"Is it?"

"Yes, tanjit! Big as it is, the Ringworld is a colony world. Civilization always centers around the spaceport on a colony world."

"Because craft come from the home world, carrying news of technological innovations. We surmise that the Ringworlders have abandoned their home world."

"But the ships can still come in," Louis said doggedly. "From the abandoned worlds! From centuries ago! Ramships are subject to relativity, to time dilation."

"You hope to find old spacemen trying to teach the old skills to savages who have forgotten them. And you may be right," said Speaker. "But I weary of this structure, and the spaceport is very far. What else can I show you on the map screen?"

Suddenly Louis asked, "How far have we come since we left the Liar?"

"I told you I could not find our impact crater. Your guess is as accurate as mine. But I know how far we must go. From the castle to the rim is approximately two hundred thousand miles."

"A long way … But you must have found the mountain."

"No."

"The big one. Fist-of-God. We crashed practically on its slope."

"No."

"I don't like that. Speaker, is there any way we could have gotten off course? You should have found Fist-of-God just by backtracking starboard from the castle."

"But I did not," Speaker said with finality. "Do you wish to see anything more? For example, there are blank areas. Probably they are due only to worn tape, but I wondered if they might not conceal places on the Ringworld whose nature is secret."

"But we'd have to go there ourselves to find out."

Speaker suddenly turned to face the double doors, his ears spread like fans. Silently he dropped to all fours, and leapt.

Louis blinked. What could have caused that? And then he heard it …

Considering its age, the castle machinery had been remarkably silent. Now there came a low-pitched hum from outside the double doors.

Speaker was out of sight. Louis drew his flashlight-laser and followed cautiously.

He found the kzin at the head of the stairs. He put the weapon away; and together they watched Teela ride up.

"They only go up," Teela told them. "Not down. The one between the sixth and seventh floors won't go at all."

Louis asked the obvious question. "How do you make them move?"

"You just grip the banister and push forward. That way it won't go unless you're hanging on. Safer. I only found out by accident."

"You would. I climbed ten flights of stairs this morning. How many did you climb before you found out?"

"None. I was going up for breakfast, and I tripped on the first step and grabbed for the banister."

"Right. it figures."

Teela looked hurt. "It's not my fault if you -"

"Sorry. Did you get your breakfast?"

"No. I've been watching people move around below us. Did you know there's a public square just under the building?"

Speakees ears opened wide. "Is there? And it is not deserted?"