For the first time in a long while, Rolla was temporarily off her guard.  The doctor was able to impress her with the idea of “Follow this road!” and to his intense gratification the woman started away from the river at once.

Soon the novelty of the thing wore off enough for her to concern herself with fresh food.  She discovered plenty of berries, also three kinds of nuts; all were strange to her, yet she ate them without question, and suffered nothing as a result, so far as the doctor could see.

The sun was less than an hour from the horizon when the road, after passing over a slight rise, swung in a wide arc through the woods and thus unveiled a most extraordinary landscape.  It was all the more incredible because so utterly out of keeping with what Rolla had just passed through.  She had been in the wilderness; now—­

A vast city lay before her.  Not a hundred yards away stood a low, square building of some plain, gray stone.  Beyond this stretched block upon block—­mile upon mile rather—­of bona-fide residences, stores and much larger buildings.  It is true that the whole place was badly overgrown with all sorts of vegetation; yet, from that slight elevation, there was no doubt that this place was, or had been, a great metropolis.

Presently it became clear that “had been” was the correct term.  Nothing but wild life appeared.  Rolla looked closely for any signs of human occupancy, but saw none.  To all appearances the place was deserted; and it was just as easy to say that it had been so for ten centuries as for one.

“There seems no good reason why I should not go farther,” commented Rolla aloud, to boost her courage.  “Perchance I shall find the magic stone in this queer place.”

It speaks well for her self-confidence that, despite the total strangeness of the whole affair—­a city was as far out of her line as aviation to a miner—­she went forward with very little hesitation.  None of the wild creatures that scuttled from her sight alarmed her at all; the only things she looked at closely were such bees as she met.  The insects ignored her altogether, except to keep a respectful distance.  “These masters,” observed Rolla with satisfaction, “know nothing of me.  I shall not obey them till they threaten me.”  But there was no threatening.

For the most part the buildings were in ruins.  Here and there a structure showed very little damage by the elements.  In more than one case the roof was quite intact.  Clearly the materials used were exceptional, or else the place had not been deserted very long.  The doctor held to the latter opinion, especially after seeing a certain brown-haired dog running to hide behind a heap of stones.

“It was a dog!” the doctor felt sure.  To Rolla, however, the animal was even more significant.  She exclaimed about it in a way which confirmed the doctor’s guess.  On she went at a faster rate, plainly excited and hopeful of seeing something further that she could recognize.