Now, off at the left, behind the shimmer of the wondrous sight that seemed a fantastic city of dreams, long black cliffs had become visible--surely some spur of the Iron Mountains, making to southward at the eastern edge of the plain.

This line of crags faded, in remote distance, into the brown vapors that ringed the mystic horizon.
"The city ?" asked Bohannan.

"That--can't be the city, can it, now?
Faith, if it _is_, we're too late.

Damn me, sir, but the whole infernal place is on fire! Just our rotten luck, eh ?" The Master made no reply.

As if he would devour the place with his eyes, he was leaning over the rail, boring through those powerful glasses at the dazzle and bright sheen of the wonder-city now every moment becoming more clearly visible.
That it was in truth a city could no longer be doubted.