is one room at hand. And _he_
had the light-ray--the only one in the city.

A sudden madness possessed him. He tore away from Anina and, climbing up
the steps of the stairway, leaped into the room above.

Twenty or thirty men faced him, most of them about the table. Several had
started hastily to their feet; two or three chairs were overturned.

The man who had been looking down into the opening darted back as Mercer
came up, and shouted again.

Mercer saw it was Baar.

THE WATER CITY.

The men around the table were now all on their feet. One of them picked up
a huge metal goblet and flung it at Mercer's head. The last remaining bit
of reason Mercer had left fled from him. Without thought of what he was
about, he raised the metal cylinder; his thumb found the little button and
pressed it hard; he waved the cylinder back and forth before him.

It was over in an instant. Mercer relaxed his pressure on the button and
staggered back. He was sick and faint from what he had seen--with the
realization of what he had done. Flames were rising all about him. The
room was full of smoke. He held his breath, finding his way back somehow
to the stairway, with the agonized screams of the men ringing in his
ears. He caught a glimpse of Anina's white face as she stood there where
he had left her.

"Good God. Anina! Go back! Go back! I'm coming!"

He tripped near the top of the stairs and fell in a heap onto the platform
below, but he still held the cylinder clutched tightly in his hand.

Anina groped her way down to him. He gripped her by the arm. He was
trembling like a leaf. The crackling of the burning house above came down
to him; the cries of the men were stilled.

"Come, Anina," he half whispered. "Hurry--let's get away, anywhere.
Home--out of this cursed city."

Lua was still in the boat. Her calm, steady glance brought Mercer back to
his senses. They shoved the boat out from under the house, and in a moment
more were heading back through the city. The building they had left was
now a mass of flames, with a great cloud of smoke, rolling up from it. A
woman stood on the front platform an instant, and then, screaming, flung
herself into the water.

The city was in commotion. Faces appeared at windows; girls flew up and
gathered in a frightened flock, circling about the burning building; boats
miraculously appeared from everywhere. Lua was steering their boat on its
tortuous way between the houses. She put the boat