e Water City river!
See it there?"

The mouth of a broad estuary, with the waves rolling up into it, came
swiftly into view. They rounded the rocky headland and entered it, running
now almost directly before the wind. The river narrowed after a short
distance to a stream very much like the one they had left in the Twilight
Country.

Mercer turned to the quiet little girl beside him.

"Well, Anina, we've certainly had some trip. I wouldn't want to go through
it again."

Mercer thought the situation over. They could stay where they were in the
river for an hour or two until the storm was entirely over, and then go
back to the Great City. On the other hand, now that they were here, Mercer
felt a great curiosity to see this other city where Tao's men had created
trouble. Why should they not use these few hours of waiting to see it?

"We might get a line on how things stand up there to tell Alan when we get
back," Mercer said when he explained his ideas to Anina. "It won't take
long." Very probably it was the light-ray cylinder in his hand which
influenced his decision, for he added: "We can't get into any trouble, you
know; there's no light-ray here yet."

And so they went on.

There was a perceptible current coming down the river. The water was cold
and clear, and in the brighter light now he could see down into it in many
places to the bottom, six or eight feet below. The region seemed utterly
uninhabited; no sign of a house or even a boat on the river met them as
they advanced.

"Mightn't there be boats along here?" Mercer asked once. "How far up _is_
this place?"

"Not far now--beyond there."

The river appeared to terminate abruptly up ahead against the side of a
frowning brown cliff, but Mercer saw a moment later that it opened out
around a bend to the left.

"Around that next bend?"

She nodded.

It seemed incredible to Mercer that the second largest city in Mercury lay
hidden in the midst of this desolation.

"We'll meet boats," he said. "What will the people think of me? Don't
let's start anything if we can help it."

"You lie there." Anina indicated the bottom of the boat at her feet. "No
one see you then. I steer. They do not notice me. Nobody care who I am."

Mercer had still the very vaguest of ideas as to what they would do when
they got to the Water City. As a matter of fact, he really was more
curious just to see it than anything else. But there was another reason
that urged him on. Bot