Rolla inspected the shoots, and then, with her stone knife, she made
a final notch in the wood on the edge of the trough. There were
twenty-odd of these notches; whereas, on other troughs which the
doctor had a chance to see, there were over thirty in many cases,
and still no shoots.
The place, then, was an experimental station. This was proven by
Rolla's next move. She went outside the yard and studied five heaps
of soil, each of a different appearance, also three smaller piles of
pulverized mineral--nitrates, for all that the doctor knew. And
before Kinney severed his connection with the Sanusian, she had
begun the task of mixing up a fresh combination of these ingredients
in a new trough. In the midst of this she heard a sound; and turning
about, waved a hand excitedly toward a distant figure on the far
side of a nearby field.
Meanwhile Smith had managed to get in touch with Dulnop. He found
the young man engaged in work which did not, at first, become clear
to the engineer.
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