The Fire People Read online

  CHAPTER XXIV.

  THE WATER CITY.

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

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

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

  There was little of regularity about this extraordinary city, and noevidence of streets, for the houses were set down quite haphazard whereveropen space afforded. In some places they were more crowded together thanothers, although seldom closer than twenty or thirty feet.

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

  There were a few boats moving about--little punts hollowed out of logs andpropelled by long poles--and Mercer saw many others, some of them largerlike the one he and Anina were in, tied up by the houses. It was now thetime of the evening meal. The workers had returned from the terraces;there were few moving about the city. Occasionally a girl would dart upfrom one of the houses and wing her way to another, but beyond that therewere no signs of activity.

  Anina took command of the boat now, slowing it down and heading for thenearest of the houses, which were hardly more than quarter of a mile away.Mercer stretched himself out in the bottom of the boat, covering himselfwith a large piece of fabric that lay there. He felt that he would beunnoticed, even should a girl chance to pass directly overhead. But hecould see nothing of the city from where he was, and soon grew restlessand anxious to do something else.

  "I'm coming up, Anina," he said once. "Shucks! Nobody can do anything tous. Haven't I got this light-ray?"

  But Anina was obdurate, and made him stay where he was.

  They went slowly forward and were soon among the houses. On the frontplatform of one a man sat fishing. A little naked boy slid down into thewater from another, swimming as though born to the water. Both stared atAnina curiously as she passed slowly by, but they said nothing. A girllooked out of the window of another house and waved her hand in friendlygreeting, which Anina answered.

  Mercer, lying with all but his face covered by the cloth, could see onlythe sides of the boat, the bottom of the cross-seat over his head, andAnina as she sat above him in the stern.

  "Where do you suppose the Tao people hang out around here?" he suddenlyasked. "If we could--"

  The girl silenced him with a gesture.

  He lowered his voice. "Try and find out where they are, Anina," hewhispered.

  Anina steered the boat directly under several of the houses, which musthave been quite a usual proceeding, for it attracted no attention. A girlflew close to them once, and Anina called to her. The girl alighted on thestern of the boat for a moment; Mercer slid the cloth over his face andheld himself motionless. Then he heard Anina's voice calling to himsoftly. He slid the cloth back; the girl had gone.

  "She says Tao's men live, there--large house, of wood," said Anina,pointing off to one side.

  Mercer nearly rapped his head against the seat above him in hisexcitement.

  "You know which house? Let's go there. Maybe we can hear what they'resaying. Can we get under it?"

  She nodded.

  "Let's try, Anina," he said eagerly. "You steer us slow right under it,just as if you were going past. If there's nobody in sight you can stopunderneath, can't you? Maybe we can hear what they're saying."

  "I try," the girl said simply.

  "I'll lay still," encouraged Mercer. "Nobody will bother about you. Justsneak in and see what happens. If anybody sees you, keep going."

  He was all excitement, and in spite of Anina's protests wriggled aboutcontinually, trying to see where they were.

  The house that the girl had pointed out lay only a few hundred yardsahead. It was one of the largest of the wooden buildings--sixty or seventyfeet long at least--single story, with a high sloping thatched roof.

  It was raised on a platform some six feet above the water, which, infront, had a little flight of wooden steps leading down to the surface.There was a hundred feet of open water on all sides of the building. Theboat, moving slowly, slipped through the water almost without a sound.

  "Where are we now?" Mercer whispered impatiently. "Aren't we there yet?"

  The girl put a finger to her lips. "Almost there. Quiet now."

  She steered straight for the house. There was no one in sight, eitherabout the house itself or about those in its immediate vicinity. A momentmore and the boat slid beneath the building into semidarkness.

  Anina shut the power off and stood up. The floor of the house was justabove her head. In front of her, near the center of the building, she sawthe side walls of an inner inclosure some twenty feet square. These wallscame down to the surface, making a room like a basement to the dwelling. Abroad doorway, with a sliding door that now stood open, gave ingress.

  The boat had now almost lost headway. Anina nosed its bow into thisdoorway, and grasping one of the pilings near at hand, brought it to rest.

  Mercer, at a signal from her, climbed cautiously to his feet, stillholding the little light-ray cylinder in his hand.

  "What's that in there?" he whispered.

  Beyond the doorway, through which the bow of the boat projected, there wascomplete darkness.

  "Lower room," Anina whispered back. "Store things in there. And boatlanding, too."

  "Let's go in and see."

  Mercer started toward the bow of the boat. Six feet or more of it wasinside the doorway. He made his way carefully into the bow, and foundhimself inside the basement of the house.

  In the dimness of this interior he could just make out the outlines ofthings around. The doorway was located at a corner of the inclosure. Infront lay a small open space of water. At one side a platform about twofeet above the surface formed the floor of the room. A tiny punt laymoored to it. Farther back a small, steep flight of steps led up through arectangular opening to the building above.

  Most of the light in this lower room came down through this opening; andnow, as Mercer stood quiet looking about him, he could hear plainly thevoices of men in the room above.

  Anina was beside him.

  "They're up there," he whispered, pointing. "Let's land and see if we canget up those stairs a ways and hear what they're saying."

  They stood a moment, undecided, and then from the silence and darknessabout them they distinctly heard a low muffled sound.

  "What's that?" whispered Mercer, startled. "Didn't you hear that, Anina?There's something over there by the bottom of the steps."

  They listened, but only the murmur of the voices from above, and anoccasional footstep, broke the stillness.

  "I tell you I heard something," Mercer persisted. "There's something overthere." He rattled a bit of rope incautiously, as if to startle a rat fromits hiding place. "Let's tie up, Anina."

  They made the boat fast, but in such a way that they could cast it loosequickly.r />
  "We might want to get out of here in a hurry," Mercer whispered with agrin. "You never can tell, Anina."

  He stood stock still. The sound near at hand was repeated. It wasunmistakable this time--a low, stifled moan.

  Mercer stepped lightly out of the boat onto the platform. A few boxes, acoil of rope, and other odds and ends stood about. He felt his way forwardamong them toward the bottom of the steps. He heard the moan again, andnow he saw the outlines of a human figure lying against the farther wall.

  Anina was close behind him.

  "There's somebody over there," he whispered. "Hurt or sick, maybe."

  They crept forward.

  It was a woman, bound hand and foot and gagged. Mercer bent over and torethe cloth from her face. In another instant Anina was upon her knees,sobbing softly, with her mother's head in her lap.

  They loosed the cords that held her, and chaffed her stiffened limbs. Shesoon recovered, for she was not injured. She told Anina her storythen--how Baar had captured her in her home while she was waiting forMiela and me, and how two of his men had brought her here to the WaterCity by boat at once.

  That was all she knew, except that this house was the headquarters ofTao's emissaries, who, it appeared, were now allied with Baar and hisparty.

  Anina whispered all this to Mercer when her mother had finished.

  "Let's get out of here," said Mercer.

  The responsibility of two women, especially the elder Lua, who could notfly, weighed suddenly upon him, and his first thought was to get back tothe Great City at once.

  Anina helped her mother into the boat.

  "Wait," she whispered to Mercer. "I hear what they say. You wait here."

  She went to the foot of the steps and began climbing them cautiously.

  "Not on your life, I won't wait here," Mercer muttered to himself, and,gripping the light-ray cylinder firmly as though he feared it might getaway from him, he joined Anina on the stairway.

  Slowly, cautiously they made their way upward. The steps were fairly wide,and they went up almost side by side. From near the top they could see aportion of the room above.

  The corner of a table showed, around which a number of men were gathered,eating. A woman was moving about the room serving them.

  Their words, from here, were plainly audible. Mercer would have gone astep or two higher, without thought of discovery, but Anina held him back."Wait, Ollie. I hear now what they say."

  They stood silent. The men were talking earnestly. Mercer could hear theirwords, but of course understood nothing he heard.

  "What do they say, Anina?" he whispered impatiently after a moment.

  "Baar is here with two or three of his men. He talks with Tao's men. Theytalk about men from Twilight Country. Waiting for them now. Speak ofstorm. Worried--because men do not come. Waiting for light-ray."

  "They'll have a long wait," Mercer chuckled. "Let's get out of here,Anina."

  He must have made a slight noise, or perhaps he and Anina, crouching thereon the stairs, were seen by some one above. He never knew quite how itoccurred, but, without warning, a man stood at the opening, looking downat them.

  There was a shout, and the room above was in instant turmoil. Mercer losthis head. Anina pulled at him and said something, but he did not hear her.He only knew that they had been discovered, and that most of their enemiesin the Water City were crowded together in this 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 upthe steps of the stairway, leaped into the room above.

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

  The man who had been looking down into the opening darted back as Mercercame 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 upa huge metal goblet and flung it at Mercer's head. The last remaining bitof reason Mercer had left fled from him. Without thought of what he wasabout, he raised the metal cylinder; his thumb found the little button andpressed it hard; he waved the cylinder back and forth before him.

  It was over in an instant. Mercer relaxed his pressure on the button andstaggered back. He was sick and faint from what he had seen--with therealization of what he had done. Flames were rising all about him. Theroom was full of smoke. He held his breath, finding his way back somehowto the stairway, with the agonized screams of the men ringing in hisears. He caught a glimpse of Anina's white face as she stood there wherehe 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 platformbelow, 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 wastrembling like a leaf. The crackling of the burning house above came downto 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 tohis senses. They shoved the boat out from under the house, and in a momentmore were heading back through the city. The building they had left wasnow a mass of flames, with a great cloud of smoke, rolling up from it. Awoman stood on the front platform an instant, and then, screaming, flungherself into the water.

  The city was in commotion. Faces appeared at windows; girls flew up andgathered in a frightened flock, circling about the burning building; boatsmiraculously appeared from everywhere. Lua was steering their boat on itstortuous way between the houses. She put the boat nearly to full speed,and as they swept past a house nearly collided with a punt that wascrossing behind it.

  Mercer's nerves were still shaken. He handed Anina the light-ray cylinder.

  "Here--take it, Anina. I don't want the cursed thing. Shoot it up into theair. Somebody might try and stop us. That'll scare them. Careful you don'thit anything!"

  Anina played the light about in the air for a time, but soon there were somany girls flying about she had to shut it off. A few minutes more andthey had passed the last of the houses, swept around the bend in theriver, and left the frightened city out of sight behind them.

  They had left the river and, following close along shore, headed for thebayous that led up to the Great City. The storm had now entirely passed,leaving the daylight unusually bright and a fresh coolness in the air. Thesea was still rough, although not alarmingly so, and the boat madecomparatively slow progress. It was two hours or more--to Mercer it seemeda whole day--before they were nearing the bayous. Anina was sitting by hisside in the center of the boat. Lua was steering.

  "You hungry, Ollie?" the girl asked, smiling.

  Mercer shook his head. He had forgotten they had intended to eat in theWater City.

  "I very hungry. Soon we--"

  She stopped abruptly, staring up into the sky ahead of them.

  Mercer followed her glance. A little black blob showed against the gray;off to one side two other smaller black dots appeared.

  "What's that?" cried Mercer, alarmed.

  They watched a few moments in silence. Then Mercer took the cylinder, andflashed its light into the air.

  "If it's anybody connected with Tao, that'll show they'd better keepaway," he explained grimly.

  Anina smiled. "Tao people cannot fly, Ollie."

  A few moments more and they saw what it was. And within ten minutes theyhad landed at the mouth of one of the bayous, and Miela and I were withthem.