It was getting on to five o’clock, the hour when the brilliant lights usually disappeared, when Mark, who was steering in the conning tower, gave a cry. “What is it?” asked the professor, looking up from a rude map he was making of the land they had just traversed. “It looks like a town before us,” said the boy. Mr. Henderson and Jack looked to where Mark pointed. A few miles ahead and below them were great mounds, not unlike that from which the geyser had spouted. But they were arranged in regular form, like houses on a street, row after row of them. And, as they approached nearer, they could see that the mounds had doors and windows to them. Some of the mounds were larger than others, and some were of double and triple formation. “It’s a city! The first city of the new world!” cried Jack. “It is a deserted village!” said the professor. “We have found where the people live, but we have not found them.” And he was right, for there was not a sign of life about the place, over which the airship was now suspended. CHAPTER XXIV THE GIANTS “Let’s go down and investigate,” suggested Jack. “Better wait,” counseled the professor. “It will soon be dark, and, though we will have moonlight, we can not see to advantage. I think it will be best to keep the ship in the air to-night, and descend in the morning. Then we can look about and decide on what to do.” They all agreed this was the best plan, and, after making a circle above the deserted village, and noting no signs of life, the _Mermaid_ was brought to a halt over the centre of the town, and about three hundred feet above it. There the travelers would be comparatively safe. It was deemed best to keep watch that night, and so, Mark, Jack, Bill and Tom took turns, though there was nothing for them to do, as not a thing happened. With the first appearance of dawn Mr. Henderson gave orders to have the ship lowered, and it came to rest in the middle of what corresponded to a street in the queer mound village. “Now to see what kind of people have lived here!” cried Jack. “They must have been a queer lot. Something like the Esquimaux, only they probably had more trouble keeping cool than the chaps up at the north pole do.” Now that they were down among the mound houses, they saw that the dwellings were much larger than they had supposed. They towered high above the boys’ heads, and some of them were large enough in area to have accommodated a company of soldiers. “Say, the chaps who lived in these must have been some pumpkins,” said Jack. “Why the ceilings are about fifteen feet high, and the doors almost the same! Talk about giants! I guess we’ve struck where they used to hang out, at any rate.”