Again we waited, now very much alarmed. And then finally we decided to return to the Great City for the night. Anina might have missed us some way, we thought, and flown directly home. She might be there waiting for us when we arrived. If not, we would return again with several hundred girls, and with them scour the country carefully back as near the Lone City as we dared go. With our hearts heavy with apprehension we started back across the channel. Lua, Mercer and Anina were separated from us. All had been captured, perhaps, by our enemies! Things were, indeed, in a very bad way. Without unusual incident we sighted the Light Country shore. Three girls were winging their way swiftly toward us. "They wish to speak with us, Alan," said Miela. "From the Great City they seem to come. Perhaps it is Anina." Our hopes were soon dispelled, for Anina was not one of them; they were three of the girls we had directed to patrol the seacoast. When they neared us Miela flew off the platform and joined them. They circled about for a time, flying close together, then Miela left them and returned to me, while they hovered overhead. Her face was clouded with anxiety as she alighted beside me. "They were near the Water City a short time ago. And they say the light-ray is being used there. They saw it flashing up, and dared not go closer." The light-ray in the Water City! My heart sunk with dismay. The cylinder I held in my hand I had thought the only one in use in all the Light Country. With it I felt supreme. And now they had it also in the Water City! One of the girls flung up her hand suddenly and called to Miela. "See, Alan--a boat!" I looked down to where Miela pointed. The sea was still rough from the storm, but no longer lashed into fury. Coming toward us, close inshore and from the direction of the Water City, I saw a boat speeding along over the spent waves. And as I looked, a narrow beam of light, green, shading into red, shot up from the boat and hung wavering in the air like a little search-light striving to pierce the gray mist of the sky! CHAPTER XXII. THE THEFT OF THE LIGHT-RAY. The touch of soft, cool hands on his face brought Mercer back to sudden consciousness. He opened his eyes; Anina was sitting beside him, regarding him gravely. "Wake up, my friend Ollie. Time now to wake up." He sat up, rubbing his eyes. The same dim twilight obscured everything around. For an instant he was confused. "Why, I've been asleep." He got to his feet. "Do you think it's been long, Anina? Maybe the men have started off. Let's go see." Anina had already been to see; she had awakened some little time before and, leaving Mercer asleep, had flown up ahead over the treetops. The men were just then breaking camp, and she had returned to wake up Mercer. They ate their last remaining pieces of bread, drank from the little pool of water, and were soon ready to start on after their quarry. "How long will it take them to reach the gorge, Anina?"