h he and Anina were hungry.

They had eaten very little since leaving the Great City the night before;
and now that it was again evening, they were famished. They had rummaged
the boat thoroughly, but evidently the men had taken all their supplies
ashore with them, for nothing was in the boat.

"We'll have to dope out some way to get something to eat," said Mercer.

They came upon the sharp bend in the river Anina had indicated. Following
close against one rocky shore, they swept around the bend, and the Water
City lay spread out before Mercer's astonished eyes.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE WATER CITY.

It had stopped raining; the sky overhead was luminous with diffused
sunlight; the scene that lay before Mercer was plainly visible. The river
had opened abruptly into a broad, shallow, nearly circular lake, some five
or six miles across. The country here showed an extraordinary change from
that they had passed through. The lake appeared to occupy a depression in
the surrounding hills, like the bottom of a huge, shallow bowl. From the
water's edge on all sides the ground sloped upward. It was no longer a
barren, rocky land, but seemingly covered with a rich heavy soil, dotted
with tropical trees. That it was under a high state of cultivation was
evident. Mercer saw tier upon tier of rice terraces on the hillsides.

But what astonished him most was the city itself. It covered almost the
entire surface of the lake--a huge collection of little palm-thatched
shacks built upon platforms raised above the water on stilts. Some of the
houses were larger and built of stone, with their foundations in the
water.

Off to one side were two or three little islands, an acre or less in
extent, fringed with palms and coconut trees. In nearly the center of the
lake stood a stone castle, two stories in height, with minarets
ornamenting its corners. An open stretch of water surrounded it.

There was little of regularity about this extraordinary city, and no
evidence of streets, for the houses were set down quite haphazard wherever
open space afforded. In some places they were more crowded together than
others, although seldom closer than twenty or thirty feet.

Around the larger ones there was a little more open water, as though the
owners controlled it and forbade building there. Some of the smaller
houses were connected by little wooden bridges. Anina said this was where
two or more families of relatives had located together.

T