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 nearly to full speed, and as they swept past a house nearly collided with a punt that was crossing 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 the air. Somebody might try and stop us. That'll scare them. Careful you don't hit anything!"