eart to
express his thoughts to Jarvis.

They drifted on. Suddenly Dave dived into the cabin and returned with a
pair of powerful binoculars. He turned these on the spot where the shining
City of Gold had been.

What he saw brought an exclamation to his lips. It died there unuttered.
"After all," he thought to himself, "it may be nothing, just nothing at
all."

What he had seen was still brownish gray in color, but instead of the flat
even surface of a rock broken here and there by irregular fissures, he had
seen innumerable squares, placed as regularly as the roofs of a house.
"Nature does not build that way. Man must have had a hand in it. Here's
hoping." Such were his mental comments as he saw land rise up to meet
them. Were they nearing an inhabited land?

He did not have long to wait for the answer. As the balloon drifted in
over the land, figures ran across the snow, in evident pursuit of the
drifting "sausage."

Jarvis, who had taken the glass, let out a roar. "It's 'uman's, me lad,
'uman bein's it is, and if it's no one but the bloody, bloomin' 'eathen,
I'll be glad to see 'em."

He was right. As the anchor, catching in a claybank, jerked the balloon to
a sudden halt, they could see the people racing toward the point where the
car was sure to land.

Dave's mind was in a whirl. First his right hand gripped his automatic,
next it hung limp at his side. What manner of people were they, anyway? If
that broad flat surface of little squares meant the roof of a building,
then these certainly were not natives, Chukches or Eskimos. Those always
lived in houses of deer skin or snow. And, if it was a house, what an
immense thing it must be. A hundred feet long, perhaps two hundred, and
half as wide.

There was little time for speculation. The balloon carriage dropped
rapidly. Their daft professor hung to the rail, babbling incoherent things
about returning to the mouth of the Anadir. Jarvis was silent. Evidently
there was but one thing to do; to trust themselves to the tender mercies
of these people.

As the cabin bumped the snowy tundra, Dave sprang over the rail, followed
by Jarvis, who assisted the still feeble professor.

They found themselves at once in the midst of a curious-eyed group of
people. These, with their long beards and droll clothing and droll
manners, made Dave feel as if he were another Rip Van Winkle entering a
land of dreams.

In the crowd there were some twenty men, slowly straggling in