They reached the ship in safety, and, having dinner started the machinery and took the Mermaid up into the air.
“We’ll travel on and see if we can’t find some human beings,” the professor said.
All that afternoon they sailed, the country below them unfolding like a panorama. They passed over big lakes, sailing on the surface of some, and over rivers, and vast stretches of forest and dreary plains. But they never saw a sign of human inhabitants.
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.