They Found Atlantis

By the time they had finished the earthshine had dimmed to its lowest limit and there was only just sufficient light for them to see comfortably. To read by it would not have been possible but they could still see each other's faces as they would have in the gentle starlight of an August night in that upper world so far above their heads. Behind the pool the gardens were filled with shadows and the large trees were now black shapes, rising from mysterious scented belts of darkness, yet the air remained warm and still.

The plates and dishes were removed and then Nahou produced fresh goblets and half a dozen flasks from which he poured a thick, dark-golden liquid.

'This is our wine for festivals,* he said. 'I hope that you 284

will find it compares favourably with those of the upper world. I am chief vintager and responsible for its keeping.'

Doctor Tisch's eyes grew round with pleasure as he sipped it. 'This is Rhine Wine,' he declared, 'and the finest which I haf ever tasted although it has a something different flavour also. No Palatinate, even in the greatest years, could be so rich.'

'More like Chateau Y'Quem I should have said,' remarked the McKay with relish. 'Chateau Y'Quem, my friend, with a dash of old sherry flavour to it.'

'We call it Nektar,' said Nahou with quiet satisfaction. 'It has been known under that name from the beginning of time. It is made by allowing the grapes to hang on the vines until all their water has been absorbed by the earthshine. They become wrinkled then, like raisins, so that all their flavour and sweetness is condensed.'

Vladimir gave a long-drawn happy sigh. 'A rose between two other thorns can smell as good,' he misquoted solemnly. 'This is not Hock, Y'Quem, or Sherry—it is Imperial Tokay and vintaged similarly.'

He swung round then with a great laugh to Camilla and raised his goblet in the air. 'Drink my sweet beautiful! for God is gracious to his child Vladimir Renescu. Gracious indeed to give me wine, that I never thought to taste again, for my wedding's night. Drink! and later we will make great happiness together. Drink, all of you, I beg. Pledge us in this so magnificent Tokay.'

Both his friends and the Atlanteans responded with the utmost heartiness. The former loved him for the brave simple soul they knew him to be and the people of the island were already attached to him more than to any of the other strangers, with the exception of Lulluma's preference for Axel, because his spontaneous gaiety fitted in so well with their own nature. Even Nicky raised a cheer, for now that Camilla was stripped of her millions she no longer held the glamour she had had for him and was no more than just a very pretty girl such as he had dallied with by the dozen in the past. Besides he was sitting next the auburn-haired Rahossis so Vladimir could have Camilla, and Sally into the bargain, as far as Nicky was concerned.

As the plaudits and good wishes ceased Nahou refilled the goblets and Menes held up his hand for silence.

'Dear children,' he said. 'None of us have yet heard more than a garbled version of the manner in which our friends arrived here. To come down through the sea and then through the black lands of the fish-eaters must indeed have been a desperate venture. You are all on tenterhooks I know to hear particulars of this wonderful journey.' He glanced at the McKay whom he had placed, quite naturally, as the leader of the party, 'Will you not entertain us by an account of your great achievement?'

'Well, Sir,' the McKay hesitated, 'I'd be only too pleased to tell you, but spinning a yarn about the adventure in which we've been involved is not my strong suit—Count Axel now is a born raconteur. He'd make a far better job of it than I should.'

The Count was persuaded without any difficulty and, with Lulluma nestling against his shoulder, thrilled by his every word, he told their story from the day of Doctor Tisch's arrival in Madeira.

The Atlanteans listened absorbedly, refraining courteously from interruptions except when Menes asked for a point to be explained—much as a judge does who may already know the answer but wishes that a, possibly ignorant, jury may be further informed.

When the tale was done many questions were put to Axel and the Atlanteans regarded the newcomers with a new admiration now that they understood to the full their fortitude and courage in the perils they had shared. Then Axel bowed to Menes;

'We too, Sir, have an even greater curiosity—since you at least knew of our race, whereas we were totally ignorant of yours. Is it permitted that we ask some questions in our turn?'

Menes inclined his high polished beautifully proportioned forehead; 'Ask, and you shall be answered my son.'

'These fish-eaters, as you call them,' Axel began. 'Are they human or animal?'

'They are neither—and to explain them I must go back many centuries,' Menes smiled. 'Perhaps it would be best if I recounted to you something of Atlantean history and explain how it is that although our great race were almost annihilated by the cataclysm, we twelve descendants of it live now, a mile beneath the ocean, at the present day.'

There were eager murmurs from Axel and his party and so the benign old man went on:

'The birth of our nation goes back into the mists of antiquity, further even than we can ever know. We can only say that we possess twenty-nine thousand years of recorded history. That is to say, our people had reached a sufficient degree of civilisation to hand down the story of their doings eighteen thousand years before the Flood, although of course in those early days they can have been little more than barbarians who elected chieftains, one of whom was strong enough to become paramount above the rest and keep the peace in order that progress towards true culture might begin.

'Those of you who believed in the legend which still lingers in the upper world of a great island, lying at one time in the centre of the North Atlantic, are correct. It was there that, for countless generations, safely secured from extermination by the savage hordes who populated the whole of the outer world through our surrounding seas, we advanced in all things to such a state that, apart from your mechanical inventions of the last hundred and fifty years, you can still show us nothing new.

'We domesticated many animals training them to our uses and, with patient care, converted the wild grasses into cereal crops. The larger portion of our island consisted of a great plain which lay to the southward under almost constant sunshine and which was blessed with an unusual degree of fertility, so that there was abundant food for all and yet still room for wild forests in which our ancestors preseved every sort of game.

'To tell you one tenth of the marvels of that country in the days before the cataclysm would take a year. Let it suffice that our architecture was advanced far beyond anything which man has yet achieved; our system of supply regulated to a degree in which no man ever needed to go hungry but no troublesome surplus ever arose; and that the systems of law and morality which we evolved through so many centuries have never been equalled for their justice and toleration.

'The time came, alas! when evil powers filled our people with greed and sloth. They began to accumulate riches, which in themselves could bring them no more than they

already had, and they were no longer content to work, even

their easy hours, in the mines or fields.

'As with all other nations we had had in our midst from the beginning certain persons who practised what, for want of a better name, I will call the Black Art. At first they were comparatively harmless, dealing only in spells, love-tokens and minor witchcraft, but the time came when they began to concern themselves with what you call "science" and that proved the most unholy alliance which has ever entered the world.

'To secure our precious metals we had mines in those days as deep, and even deeper than you have now. Some of them ran to eleven or twelve thousand feet below the surface of the earth, but we lacked your wonderful mechanical lifts which I have observed with interest on my spiritual journeys to the upper world. In consequence the shifts of miners could be relieved only in batches of a few hundred every day. They went down for a period of two weeks and on their return to the sunshine had to be hauled up those many thousand feet by hand.

'You can well imagine how loathed and dreaded this twice yearly period of duty in the mines became to our people—for none was exempted—not even the sons of the inherited as does always the eldest male here.'

He paused for a moment and laid his hand on the shoulder of the gracious white-haired lady who sat next him. 'Semiramis, too, inherits her title from the great queens of those days, and when she dies, her daughter Tzarinska will take the name instead, just as my dear son Nahou will be known as Menes after my death—of what was I speaking, though?'

'Of the miners,' prompted Sally gently.

'Ah, yes. It was in this ever growing labour, as the mines grew deeper year by year, that the sorcerer-scientists saw their great chance to corrupt our people with their evil arts. They carried out many experiments in order to see if they could not succeed in creating life without the sanction of the Gods. "Black" Magicians in your upper world have endeavoured to do the same and have, as you may know, at times been partially successful. Such creatures are incubated in large glass containers and are termed Homunculii. They have the rudimentary form of man yet lack that God-given flame which you call the Soul. Our masters of Evil succeeded in the dread mystery at last, thus introducing a new and hideous race upon the earth. Beasts which moved and talked and functioned just like men although, unlike the lowest forms of true animal, they had not the faintest spark of the divine nature in them.'

'Those are the submen then,' murmured the McKay.

Menes nodded 'Yes. You of course, only saw their descendants after nearly a thousand generations, for they had the power to breed like other species, although they come to maturity very rapidly and their lives are short. Their first ancestors were sent down into the mines and trained to hew and carry so that our forefathers might be relieved of that irksome but health-giving labour. Later they were driven to work in droves and the only Atlanteans who remained in the mines were experts who directed the operations and overseers who supervised the slave gangs.' He sighed and paused; his audience waited patiently until he went on.

'The Gods move slowly but they miss nothing and when they found that man had usurped their privilege of giving life they were exceeding wrath. They gathered in their strength and might and power to discuss the evil which had been done by bringing brute beasts into the world, and they decided to destroy utterly our portion of the earth.

'Once they had made this decision they acted swiftly and in a single day and night of untold horror the greatest civilisation the world has ever known was blotted out. Thunderbolts streaked the air; the fountains of the deep gushed up, the floodgates of Heaven were opened, the rivers rose and overflowed their banks. Great winds carried men, houses, animals and trees like chaff before them through the torrential rain. The Palaces and Pyramids were shaken to their foundations and cracked as the earth shuddered beneth them. The earth sank into the ocean bed and vast tidal waves swept it from end to end. One, perhaps, out of every hundred thousand of our people escaped alive, the rest perished utterly—and after, the Empire of Atlantis became only a name—a legend which men speculate upon over their evening fires just as they would tell again an oft told fairy tale.'

Menes sank into silence again, the horror of this colossal t.f.a.—k 289

destruction of a mighty race, which he had conjured up and which they now knew to be true history, strong upon him.

It was only after what seemed a long while that Axel plucked up courage to ask: 'Would you tell us, Sir, how your own ancestors managed to escape this terrible calamity?'

'Surely, my son. Menes' gentle smile lit his face once more. 'You have traversed some portion of these big chambers and their connecting galleries. They were our mines. The chambers were concentration points where stores were kept and the slave gangs mustered. In certain of them Atlanteans resided permanently or almost so, for as I have said the Gods move slowly and a hundred years or more had elapsed between the introduction of the beast men and the great destruction.

'The earthshine had already been tapped to light the workings several thousand years before and this enabled the mine superintendents to live in some comfort. On this island site of ours there lived then an Atlantean named Petru. He had a house here with offices from which he administered his section of the mines—also, for our eternal blessing—a small garden.

'When the cataclysm came huge sections of the earth's crust were torn away and slid southward. All the upper galleries of the mines were, naturally, destroyed, but the lower workings remained unharmed and the sideways movement of the earth above sealed certain of the shafts, thus mercifully preventing these regions from being flooded.'

'You are the descendants of Petru then?' the McKay enquired as Menes paused for a drink from his goblet.

'Partly, but not altogether. As Petru's employment kept him underground for many months of the year his wife and sister lived here with him, also his family consisting of one son and three daughters. But, it chanced that when the calamity occurred they had several visitors. Petru's cousin was a learned priest named Zakar. All teaching whether civil or religious was given by the priests in those times and Zakar, who was a wise and upright man, held a high appointment in the College of Mines. In order to give certain of his more advanced students practical instruction he had brought four of them to stay for a few days with his cousin Petru, so that when the chastisement of the Gods occurred there were twelve Atlanteans—men, women and children—imprisoned here.

'Petru's sister, and his three daughters when they grew up, bore children to Zakar's students and that is the fount from which we spring.'

Axel nodded. 'We saw many females among the brute race which of course accounts for its survival, when they were imprisoned, too.'

'Yes. Females may not be as strong as males but their work on mechanical tasks in fields and mines is more consistent. Immediately it was discovered that these brute men could reproduce themselves the Black Scientists gave them their own women to labour with them. By so doing the complicated preparations and immense concentration of thought necessary to produce Homunculii in the laboratories were no longer required after a time. You tell me that these creatures are now blind. They were not so originally but many generations having lived in total darkness from birth to death they would naturally lose the faculty of sight by evolution.'

'You've made it wonderfully clear so far Sir,' said the McKay, 'but what I don't understand is how we got here.'

'That I think I can explain,' Menes answered. 'From the earliest times it was necessary to bring air into the mines and my forefathers devised a very efficient system. You will be aware that water has, mainly, the same constituents as air and that the gills of a fish are only a cleverly constructed piece of mechanism which enables it to extract what you call oxygen from this medium. A gigantic shaft was made down which, when it was opened, many thousand tons of water would descend from the sea—distant only sixty miles from the Atlantean capital. This water was filtered through many layers of rock and mineral deposits then evaporated by currents of the earthshine until the oxygen was extracted and renewed the air even in the deepest workings of our mines.'

'But wasn't the whole plant smashed up in the earthquake? asked Nicky.

'A truly wonderful arrangement,' Axel commented; 'but the essential part of this great filter—forty miles in extent— was ten thousand feet, below the surface of the earth and so remained unimpaired. It works to this day, just as a mighty dam would still check the course of a river although the nation which had made it were long since dead. Your sphere was swept from the ocean bed and carried to these subterranean regions by the inrush of the waters.'

'But they can't keep rushing in,' objected the McKay; 'once this deep shaft was filled with water there would only be gentle percolation at the bottom and therefore very little downward current from the top.'

Menes shook his head. 'I fear you underestimate the wonderful scientific achievements of my ancestors. The shaft is comparatively narrow at the sea bed and when it is filled the pressure of the water, striking its bottom with tremendous force, sets a series of immense lever stones in motion which close its top. They are released in turn, every twelve hours, when the tunnel has emptied, by the action of the tide. The whole process is automatic therefore and operates without the aid of man.'

'A truly wonderful arrangement,' Axel commented, 'but surely, without attention or replacement any such mechanism would have worn out by now?'

Menes smiled again and the slightly superior note in his voice was softened by its gentleness. 'My son, you are but as little children striving in the dark compared with that great people who were swept away. The Pyramids of Egypt, which far surpass any monuments you have yet erected, are small by comparison with the great works which my nation undertook. They only represent a feeble effort made by a few survivors from the cataclysm to copy a state which it is not possible for your minds, as yet, to conceive. Those little pyramids have lasted for five thousand years, virtually unimpaired, and you still have no true knowledge of the reason for their building. In another ten thousand years they will still be there, neither man nor nature—short of another vast upheaval—has power to destroy them. How then can you even suggest that similar works upon a far greater scale, operated by natural causes, the turning of the tides and the bi-diurnal releasing of cataracts greater than any waterfalls you know, should become worn out in the time which has elapsed since their installation.'

For a moment they were silent all striving to adjust their 292

minds to such a gigantic undertaking accomplished by the puny hands of man. Then the McKay said slowly:

'You'll forgive me, Sir, but I'm still in the dark about how we arrived in the middle of a great haul of fish.'

'That too I can explain,' Menes turned towards him. 'When the brute creatures had been created in large numbers it became something of a problem to feed them, for all supplies had to be transported to such a great depth in the mines. In order to save themselves this labour our ancestors conceived the idea of utilising the tunnel by which the water is conveyed to the filter beds giving us air, to trap large quantities of fish.

'You doubtless know that oil means death to all sea creatures, so gushers were conducted to points which formed a circle half a mile in diameter round the opening of the tunnel in the ocean bed. When the work was completed tlie inrush of the first waters at each tide forced up the oil from the lower earth, forming a circular wall of polluted water. The fish could not pass through it and so fled to the centre of the circle and, except for those who escaped by swimming upwards were caught in the current and drawn down through the narrow opening into harbours especially constructed to take the catch. It was your good fortune to be engulfed in such a haul when the main tunnel was nearly full and thus conveyed safely through the automatic locks, instead of being swept below in the first great spate of waters. If that had happened you would have been carried past the harbour entrance and dashed to pieces, or left submerged in the miles of underground cisterns which feed the filters. Have I now made the reason for your miraculous escape quite clear?'

The McKay smiled a little wryly. Man-planned construction on such a tremendous scale was at first a little difficult to grasp, but he recalled Doctor Tisch's statement that the artificial irrigation works of Moeris, in Egypt, were four hundred and fifty miles in circumference and three hundred and fifty feet deep. Yet the Egyptians were considered by these people as only decadent imitators of their race. He thought too of the underground railway systems which serve the teeming millions of the great modern capitals and had to confess to himself that there was nothing at all impossible in a civilisation which had lasted eighteen thousand years before the Flood engineering this wonderful network of subterranean canals.

'Yes, I understand that Sir,' he said at last, 'and obviously it must be so. We couldn't have got here in any other manner but there's one point I'm not quite clear on yet. Granting the big air-filtering reservoirs and harbour, and the locks, were all safe thousands of feet under the ground, and that your ancestors had harnessed natural forces like the tides and oil-gushers to work the system so that it is still working—surely the earthquake jammed the whole caboodle at the upper end when Atlantis met its Waterloo'?'

'You speak in riddles my son, but my mind, now attuned to yours, picks up your meaning. You are right of course. Over fifty miles of the tunnel leading to the original sea bed was shorn away, the oil-gushers—no longer checked— leaked into the ocean, polluting the water for a hundred miles around instead of spurting only for a few moments each half-day so that the currents could cleanse the area for fresh shoals of fish between catches. But Zakar saved us. Zakar took command and fought death in the darkness for the salvation of his people through forty days and forty nights of terror and confusion.

'By far the greater portion of our mines were flooded and destroyed. Only this comparatively small area was saved through the accidental blockage of shafts and channels. Whole legions of .the brute creatures with their Atlantean overseers died almost immediately, others must have been imprisoned in galleries and chambers by falls of rock and compelled to surrender to death a few days later. Yet in the section which remained there were forty thousand of the beast slaves and Zakar had the power to direct their energies through his will.

'The earthshine had burst into a roaring volcano two miles from here, thus plunging this area into total darkness. Ten thousand slaves were burnt to death in the endeavour to restore it to its proper channels, but at last Zakar got it under control again. Then he drove his brute battalions to the task of capping the oil-gushers so that they would throw up their fountains only under pressure. Lastly he cleared the locks of fallen debris, blocked the new tunnel entrance on the ocean floor, drained out the water into now useless chambers, and reconstructed its opening on the original lines. When all was done no more than a few hundred slaves remained alive but their twice-daily supply of fish was assured to them and the twelve Atlanteans settled down to live on this site in Petru's house.'

'By Jove, Zakar must have been a great fellow,' murmured the McKay. 'I wonder though that, knowing there was still land left up in the Azores he did not attempt to dig a tunnel up to them and get out safely after all?'

'He did attempt it, years later, in his old age, but you must remember that none of the survivors had any idea at first that some portion of our land remained above water. Spirit travel was almost unknown then, and nearly as rudimentary as it is with you today. Zakar was its first practical exponent. When he was very old he dreamed much and, had it not been for the respect in which he was held he would have been laughed at for his insistence that the Atlantean mountain tops still protruded above the ocean in the form of islands. The direction of each peak was known, of course, to a half point of the compass and one of the larger abandoned mine galleries ran towards the island which you call Pico. He explored it for some miles and then set the slave creatures who had bred and multiplied again after this lapse of fifty years, to the task of clearing the passage. Much of the work was done but Zakar was never able to lead his people out into the sunshine because he was killed by a fall of rock before his last great effort was completed.'

'Why didn't the others carry on?' asked Sally.

'Because my child a great slab of stone barred the way and, with the death of Zakar we lost our power to control the slave creatures who might have moved it. He was a High Priest and what you would call a White Magician of the first order. Mass hypnosis may be known to you and is even practised by some people of the upper world upon a few dozen subjects at a time, but to dominate thousands so that they give their lives to your will requires very exceptional mental endowments. Zakar had those, and, unfortunately, believing that he still had many years to live, he had only just begun to train his successor. At his death the slaves turned hostile and revolted. The Atlanteans were forced to take refuge here. Between them they had just sufficient power to prevent the hordes entering this chamber, but that was all—and none of their descendants since, have ever left it.'

'I see,' the McKay nodded, 'then that's the reason for your defences—the deep ditch and the cactus hedge?'

'Yes, at first there were attacks when the earthshine was dim at night so these barriers were erected. The slaves cannot swim so the fifteen foot canal became a trap for them and the thorn hedge made it impossible for them to land if they did succeed in floundering to the other side. Now they remain as an almost unnecessary precaution from surprise for it is thousands of years since the slaves made any attempt upon us. Like true animals they guzzle the two meals of fish a day which arrive, as far as they know by a natural process, and for the rest they breed and sleep without thought, governed only by their brute instincts.'

Menes paused again and it seemed that the tale was done when Camilla spoke in her most persuasive voice: 'Won't you tell us more about the making of this island?'

He smiled at her. 'There is little more to tell my child. The debacle occurred on November the 1st, in your calendar, which is the new year with us. On that date the memory of the great destruction was perpetuated by those who escaped into the Upper World as the Feast of the Dead. Egyptians, Persians, Mexicans, Eskimos, Celts, all kept that festival during the first days of November long after its origin had been forgotten. When the Christian Church rose to Power they encountered what they considered to be this pagan rite, both in Europe and America. Since they could not suppress it they gave a legal cloak to its celebration by calling it "All Saints Day". Yet, even then, they found that their converts gave more thought to the Dead than to the Saints, so strongly ingrained is custom in mankind. Very reluctantly, at last, they admitted "All Souls Day' to their calendar as well, making it the 2nd of November since, to go back on their previous decision of giving November 1st to the Saints, was hardly politic. So you see that those little cakes which are baked and eaten, or left for the spirits of the dead, in a million peasant homes on both sides of the Atlantic still are not offered on that one day in all the year by chance, but in unconscious awe on the anniversary of the most terrible calamity which has ever befallen mankind.

'Under the earth here, immediately the remaining Atlan-296

teans found that they were cut off from the upper world, Zakar ordered the strictest supervision of all stores. Then, a few days later, when they realised that they were permanently entombed he directed that nothing should be consumed without a full examination as to its future usefulness. Petru's garden was enlarged to the full extent of the cavern, pips and fruit stones were saved, dried and planted in it, corn and vegetable roots were likewise husbanded. Since then many new varieties have been evolved but all our trees and plants are descendants of his original stock. The lake was dug and suitable species of fish bred in it; the first of course being taken from the subterranean harbour. Very gradually they were acclimatised to fresh water instead of salt to save the labour of carting tanks of sea water through the tunnels. That was accomplished before Zakar's death. The ancestors of our little herd of deer were originally kept in the mines because they were very sensitive to poisonous gases, so were stalled in new workings to give warning of such dangers. Later they were concentrated here and carefully tended by Zakar's orders. After his death the island was fenced about to protect our people from the rebellious slaves as 1 have told you. The number of its population was fixed and the sexes regulated, so that the number of men and women should be equal. Since then Atlantis has passed into that happy state where it no longer has any history to record.'

'Happy state indeed,' Doctor Tisch nodded solemnly, 'for history is only a record of man's brutality and folly caused by fear. The murder of Kings—the butcheries inspired by religious fanaticism—or senseless slaughters to pile up more possessions or gold—all caused by fear. That is history. But tell please mein Herr how you have managed to regulate the sexes for it seems you have no marriage here and must be all one family.'

'It was not difficult,' Menes assured him. 'Of the six women each bears two children only, generation by generation, a boy and a girl. Thus the original strains are perpetually intermingled at their most distant point of relationship —having regard to age.'

'How then are you related to each other mein Herri'

'Listen and I will tell you for these are the generations of Atlantis in our day.

'Semiramis is the eldest amongst us and to her uncle— now dead—she bore a daughter, Tzarinska. Then twelve years later to me, her half-brother, she bore a son, Nahou.

'Tzarinska bore to me her uncle a daughter, Laotzii— then twelve years later to her half-brother Nahou, she bore a son, Quet.

'Laotzii bore to her uncle Nahou a daughter, Rahossis— then twelve years later to her half-brother Quet, she bore a son, Peramon.

'Rahossis bore to her uncle Quet a daughter, Lulluma— then twelve years later to her half-brother Peramon she bore a son, Karnoum.

'Lulluma bore to her uncle Peramon a daughter, Danoe —then twelve years later to her half-brother Karnoum, she bore a son, Ciston.'

The doctor inclined his bristly head in his formal little bow. 'I thank you mein Herr, but tell me one thing more—-You are one family, yet you defy the laws of heredity. No one of you bears any resemblance to another. You range in type from Fraulein Danoe who might be a maiden of East Prussia to young Herr Karnoum who appears to be of African descent or yourself who has the features of one of our Biblical patriarchs. How can this be?'

'Because, my son, we have passed into that stage of evolution where, although the physical is still necessary, the mental plays a much greater part in conception. We all spend two-thirds of our lives in spirit travel as you know— therefore our women study types in the upper world before they decided which they will bear. Then during many months they concentrate and their thoughts produce the colouring, every shade of which lies dormant in our bodies from past ancestors, and mould the form of the child that they desire. Semiramis was inspired to create Tzarinska by the sight of a Russian dancing girl. Tzarinska roamed further afield and produced a masterpiece for me in our dear Laotzii, from the study of a half-caste Chinese maiden who had been fathered by an Englishman in Hong Kong. Thus are our features and forms determined and our women's greatest pride is to present to our island, in each of her children, a new and distinctive form of loveliness.'

Doctor Tisch was about to speak again but Menes held up his hand: 'May the Gods give you many days to ask all the questions you will, my son, and grant me time to answer them, but for tonight we have talked enough of serious things. There is a ceremony to be performed between two of you is there not? Nahou, my child, fill our cups that we may do honour to this custom of our brothers.'

When they had drunk again they moved to the other end of the pool where, with the Atlantean's help, a temporary altar had been arranged before it was generally known that an adverse decision at the Council of the Gods might render it a terrible cynicism for those who were compelled to leave the island and go out to die.

Now all thought of that was past and Doctor Tisch took up his position before it. Camilla had asked the McKay to give her away and Vladimir chose Axel as his best man since the McKay, who found himself embarrassingly popular, was otherwise engaged. Sally was the only bridesmaid and Nicky, with all the Atlanteans made up the congregation.

Doctor Tisch gabbled the lines a little as it was many years since he had performed such a service and he was no longer quite word perfect, but Camilla did not notice that. She only felt a very real satisfaction as Vladimir slipped his signet ring over her finger.

Afterwards more toasts were drunk to the health and happiness of the newly married pair, then everybody wished them good night, the Atlanteans with unrestrained enthusiasm and good cheer, the others with a certain shyness. There could be no official 'going away' for there was nowhere except Lulluma's quarters, which she had placed at their disposal, for them to go to but they retired there after a little time.

Thus, in the unusual surroundings of the dusk-laden flower scented garden, Camilla at last became the Princess Renescu and Vladimir got his heart's desire.

When they had departed the others resumed the feast. Rahossis danced for them and Karnoum sang. The wine circulated with more rapidity. An hour sped by and the scene had become Bacchanalian. Semiramis had crowned Doctor Tisch's bristly pate with a wreath of flowers. Nicky was lolling against Rahossis and telling that Junoesque lady that she was 'just the sweetest lil' thing'. Axel held Lulluma in the curve of his arm and was gazing down into her dark starry eyes as though he could never feast his gaze upon her long enough. Peramon had wandered off into the shadows with Ladtzii. Menes sat enthroned in their centre, benignly smiling on them all—a jovial Zeus now rather than the Old Testament Patriarch to whom the doctor had likened him and, as Quet began to dance a wild Mexican reel he clapped with surprisingly youthful enthusiasm.

The McKay shot an anxious glance at Sally. 'How about it me'dear. The pace is getting a bit hot for respectable people like you and me isn't it?' he said under his breath. 'Like me to take you away?*

'I wish you would,' she whispered quickly.

As they left the party nobody seemed particularly interested in their going. Quet was spinning like a teetotum. Tzarinska had joined in and was dancing opposite to him. The dusky skinned handsome Karnoum was letting Dande's wonderful golden hair slide through his fingers while she gently caressed his cheek. The rest were gaily applauding the dancers.

'Phew 1' Sally whistled when they were out of earshot. 'It was getting pretty thick wasn't it. I'm not used to those sort of parties and I'm jolly glad you took me out of it.'

'Do you want to go to bed—or to sleep rather on one of those mattresses they've laid out for us?' he asked.

'No, I'm not a bit tired. I was only frightened that at any minute one of them might come up and start mauling me about.'

'Theyre a decent crowd really. They don't mean the least harm—it's just their natural way of living.'

'I know, but it's not mine I'm afraid, and that's going to make things a bit difficult.'

'Let's sit down under this tree,' he suggested, 'and decide what you're going to do with yourself.'

'All right,' she seated herself beside him and stared out into the darkness, 'how do you mean though—decide what I'm going to do with myself?'

'Well, I mean!' he spread his hands out in rather a hopeless gesture. 'You've got to face it sometimes me'dear—and sometime soon. If you want to go native there are plenty of good-looking chaps about and nobody's going to think any the worse of you for it.'

'But I don't,' Sally protested quickly. 'I'm not like these 300

girls here. They're awfully sweet but they're different. 1 should hate to be handed on from man to man and have romps between whiles with the others.'

The McKay shrugged his shoulders. 'Well, I mean . . .' he repeated, 'it's not in their nature to stick to any one woman for more than a couple of years from what I hear and you can hardly expect them to make you the Virgin Queen—besides you've never given me the impression that you're that sort of girl at all!'

'I'm not,' declared Sally firmly. 'I want one man whom I can love and stick to. I'm old-fashioned enough to want to be married like Camilla—for keeps.'

'Well, Axel's a bit old for you, although he seems to have taken a new lease of life and is on the point of going off the deep end with Lulluma—how long that will last goodness knows! Still there's Nicky. Rahossis doesn't strike me as the sort of woman who'll want to have him playing around for long—she's got her eye on that dark bloke—Quet.'

'Nicky!' echoed Sally contemptuously. 'I wouldn't marry Nicky for ten million dollars.'

'They wouldn't be much use to you if you did,' the McKay commented unhelpfully. 'That only leaves the Doctor and ...'

'Yes—go on,' she prompted, 'and ... ?'

'Why me! but I'm too old for you Sally.'

'Oh you brute, she suddenly began to sob. 'Haven't you any feelings at all. Have I just got to go down on my knees and ask you?'

'Sally!' his voice had fallen to an awed whisper. 'I've been adoring the very sound of your foot-falls for weeks—but, well I never thought you could care a hoot for . ..'

'Oh stop talking you dear fool!' sobbed Sally, 'stop talking and take me in your arms.'

The Coming of the Serpent

On the following morning little dark-haired Ciston had the island to himself. None of his elders had thought of sleep before the small hours and it was the custom of the Atlan-teans that no work, other than the necessary preparation of meals, should be done on the day after a Feast.

Like a slim golden-brown faun he ran on tiptoe from one grove to another until he had discovered the resting places of all his family and the newcomers whose arrival had amazed everyone so much. When he was older he too would be able to join in these revels at which the grown-ups laughed and sang far into the night but in the meantime he knew what he could do to please his beautiful mother and all these wonderful people who never seemed too busy to play with him and tell him stories.

He climbed on the kitchen table and took eighteen plates from the racks, picked a selection of fresh fruit, laid it out, and carried the plates one by one to the places where his elders slept, putting them carefully within easy reach. Then he got cups and, staggering round the island with a great jug of fruit juice, poured a draught into each. Lastly he gathered eighteen little bunches of flowers and laid them beside the fruit, after which good work he felt entitled to turn a couple of noiseless somersaults and dive into the pool for his morning swim, carefully refraining from his usual splashings in case he woke the sleepers.

It was not till after midday that his elders began to stir. Then they sat up drowsily, drank their fruit juice so thoughtfully provided by Ciston, nibbled the fruit, smelled the flowers, kissed their companions and made for the bathing pool. Soon there were a dozen of them laughing, shouting and plunging in the clear cool waters, or reclining on cushions along its marble sides.

Sally and the McKay declared their intention of being married that night upon which Menes decreed another Feast. Some of the Atlanteans did not at first see the reason for this, but Menes told them that as it was a custom in the upper world he desired to honour their new friends by its observance.

Quet laughed impishly and said: 'If we adopted such a custom here it would bring us to starvation, for every day would be a feast day and no work would ever be done,' but everyone welcomed Menes' gesture and made a fuss of the couple who were to play the principal parts in the ceremony.

Only dark-haired serious Tzarinska remarked privately to Rahossis that she thought it rather barbarous to make such a fuss about such a very normal thing and that it savoured somewhat of savage exhibitionism.

In the latter part of the afternoon most of them slept again but Semiramis invited Camilla and Sally to her apartment. She was a picturesque old lady with a fine head of silver hair and a high bridged Roman nose. The girls thought that she must have been extremely good-looking in her youth.

After some little courtesies she told Camilla that she fully appreciated the differences between the woman of the upper world and her own. She would have spoken the day before, she said, but one day was of small importance out of a life-time, particularly as she understood that Camilla had been married before.

Then she proceeded to give them both the benefit of the cumulative experience of the women of her race and, by the time she had finished they were both convinced that she could have made the Professors of Psychology in Vienna and the British Medical Council look like first year students.

She had a deep throaty chuckle and a shrewd witty humour which saved her conversation from any resemblance to a lecture and the two girls listened with immense interest as pearls of wisdom regarding the handling of their menfolk rolled continuously from her tongue.

When she had done she kissed them both, made the sign of the Swastika on their foreheads, breasts, and thighs with a curiously scented oil from a tiny bottle, then bundled them out with instructions to rest until the evening.

Sally and Camilla were both a little silent as they walked away. The old lady had told them that their coming involved a readjustment in the population of the island, but that was a matter which would be settled when the Gods gave Menes enlightenment, as they surely would in due course. In the meantime she would perform a magical ceremony which would cause their unions to be sterile. Later they would not be robbed of their right to have children but they must be trained in the tremendous responsibility of the task, since in the years to come their stock would mingle with that of the Atlanteans.

That night there was another banquet. Afterwards Doctor Tisch married the McKay and Sally before their assembled friends, then the feast was resumed and Carnival reigned as King until the small hours of the morning.

The next day they slept late and lazed again but on the following morning the work of the island was resumed. Semiramis and Menes were exempted by their age and rank from all manual labour, also the two newly-married couples for the Atlanteans considered their honeymoons in the same light as when a real love affair occurred between two of their own people. All the others set about the varied tasks of tending their crops, laundering their tunics and tidying the pleasances.

The work was not heavy because it was so admirably organised through long centuries of custom and they sang, bandied jests, and laughed while they toiled. After the first meal in the morning they played games for a spell which necessitated the incorporation of certain exercises and holding the breath in a particular manner, to ensure their continued fitness. After the midday meal they slept for an hour or so, the rest of the day they worked until they gathered for the evening meal after which, in the scented dusk of the dimmed earthshine, they told stories or discussed the histories and religious beliefs of many nations.

Conversation was conducted principally in English in deference to the newcomers and most of the Atlanteans spoke it fluently. The younger ones understood enough to follow the talk and to contribute their share in broken accents.

Quet, alone, always spoke French—a language for which he had a passion, while Danoe and Karnoum often addressed each other in Spanish as they were practising that tongue together.

The new arrivals were called on to answer innumerable questions of a fantastically varied nature. Some showed an extreme astuteness or were on subjects of which the upper world party were completely ignorant, others were of such a childlike simplicity that they amazed the people who were questioned.

It transpired that in their spiritual journeys the Atlanteans witnessed many happenings, the true significance of which entirely escaped them. Nearly all of them had been horrified spectators of certain phases of the last great war, but it had taken them many months to discover exactly who was fighting whom and for what reason. They had no means of getting inside books or newspapers and could only read the printed page if it was spread out before them and if their knowledge of the language proved sufficient. In consequence they had constantly placed wrong constructions on past events from being unable to learn their context. Since broadcasting had been general however they were far better informed as they could listen in to any set which was functioning at their leisure.

Rather surprisingly their principal interests did not centre in world events or such problems as to why many people in the great industrial centres remained permanently unemployed, or in slum clearance, or needless mortality in childbirth. They accepted these as ills common throughout the centuries to a civilisation which they considered to be a comparatively low state of evolution, and were far more inclined to follow the fate of individuals. For weeks on end, it seemed, they would watch the romance of a pair of young lovers in some obscure township, or a domestic drama in one of the luxurious homes of a modern capital. Such scenes from human destinies were their story books, their theatres, their talking pictures, and on their return to the island, so they said, it was their practice to recount the stages of these comedies or dramas which they had witnessed, in such detail that the others also felt they knew the protagonists in them, not only by name but by the minutest particulars of their daily lives and surroundings.

It was a slow method perhaps of satisfying that craving for stories common to all humanity, but the very details intensified the plots and the instalments followed each other from time to time like the longed for portions of a serial.

Every one in the island at the present time was on tenterhooks to know if a certain Esteban Manillo, who dwelt in a sleepy old-fashioned Spanish town would have secured the job he was after and be able to marry his Juanita, or if her loathsome stepfather would throw her out of the house while Esteban was still penniless—and the latest moves in half a dozen other life dramas which various members of the community would be able to report upon after their next visit to the upper world.

Doctor Tisch spent most of his time happily discussing a thousand problems with Menes whom the McKay had christened the Admiral. The Doctor had also started a collection of botanical specimens—presumably for his own satisfaction for they would never be shown to anyone except the people who already knew them so well.

Axel and Lulluma had become inseparable and spent every waking moment in each other's company, apparently in a kind of blissful dream state. The others employed themselves more actively with their work, loves, and hobbies.

Only Nicky failed to find contentment in this Paradise and he became more moody and irritable as the days wore on. He had fallen a victim to one of those wild unreasoning passions common to such natures and its object was Rahossis.

If she had treated him harshly from the beginning he might not have taken it so badly, but she had been extremely kind. On those first two nights of feasting she had, on each occasion, become just mildly and happily tipsy on Tokay—or Nektar as the Atlanteans preferred to call it. She had been intrigued a little by his strangeness too and flattered by his unconcealed admiration, therefore she had shown no hesitation whatever in abandoning herself to his embraces and more, returned them with all the ardour suggested by her Titian hair.

Having twice tasted of these joys Nicky, somewhat naturally, expected their continuance, so he was surprised and hurt when Rahossis proceeded to treat his further advances with the utmost casualness once the feasts were over.

Worse, she showed a decided preference for the impish and amusing Quet and it was quite evident that a serious affair was boiling up between them.

Nicky attempted facetious gaiety, prowled, sulked and postured, but all in vain. Rahossis treated him with the same friendliness she showed the others but simply could not be induced to favour him again with any special interest.

Whenever he did succeed in catching her alone she was always busy on some small task which, she declared, could not be put aside at the moment, and daily these frustrations were adding fuel to Nicky's passion.

It was in the early evening after work, but while there was still an hour to go before the nightly meal that, just a week after Sally's wedding, he at last found Rahossis alone and unoccupied, seated on the grass in front of her apartment.

'I suppose as soon as I sit down you'll find you've got to get up and do something?' he said with heavy sarcasm.

Rahossis looked surprised. 'No,' she said, 'I have nothing to do at the moment if you wish to talk to me.'

Nicky sat down, put his chin on his knees; and muttered moodily: 'Why are you so horrid to me now?'

Rahossis laughed indulgently. 'I am not horrid to you. Be sensible my dear and you will become as happy as all the others here.'

'Happy!' he exclaimed. 'How can I be happy when you don't take any interest in me?'

'What is there to interest me in you?' she said lightly. 'You seem like a rather spoilt child to me.' Then, because to give pain was quite contrary to her Atlantean nature she added quickly: 'I did not mean that, it is I who am too old now to appreciate your youth. Tell me your life story; I should like to hear it.'

Nicky was pacified at once. He loved talking about Nicky Costello and plunged into the completely fictitious autobiography that he knew so well; having forgotten already his confession of his true origin made to his friends in the bathysphere when they all thought they were going to die.

'I was rather a cute little chap I believe,' he began modestly, 'mop of golden curls you know and big eyes. Everyone used to turn and look at me in the streets. My father was in Real Estate, an ordinary middle class business man—and ma was just a sweet homely woman. It's all owing to her influence that I am what I am today. She kept me straight as a lad.'

'With exercises?' asked Rahossis brightening. 'Perhaps you can show us some new ones?'

Nicky compressed his lips. 'No, not exercises—prayers!' he replied in a faintly superior and snubbing tone.

'Oh—I'm sorry,' apologised Rahossis meekly.

'I was never any good at my books,' he continued with the gay laugh which reporters like to hear. 'I'm afraid I wore the dunce's cap many times and was my bottom sore?'

'Was it?' asked Rahossis with polite interest.

This time he ignored the interruption; 'My poor old father lost all his money one fine day and there was the family on the rocks—Nicky told them not to worry and got a job as an errand boy to a theatrical costumiers. Yes folks! You can all see what's coming. But stop a minute—father got ill, then mother got ill and little Nicky did his job by day and looked after the old folks, who had given him their lives, by night. Well—it's no use dwelling on unhappiness— there's enough of that in this little world—the old folks got better but meanwhile Nicky had walked into the Film Studios one day and asked for a part. There was a nerve you'll say—well something had to be done. No one can support three people on the few dimes I got for being an errand boy.

'The casting director helped me out of his office with the toe of his boot, although he has to listen to me now, then little Nicky lost his way in the passages of that vast palace of sets and dressing-rooms and quite by accident he found himself in the back of one of the Caravans they were using for a big film for the new Juvenile Star—a kid called Coral Pacific.

'When she trundled on to the set Nicky hops on to the box and she catches sight of him—she was a passionate little creature and spoilt then—though she's got over all that now. "Plumok," she yells at her director, "I want that boy in my scene instead of that scrubby little hobo you tried out yesterday." She knew good stuff when she saw it.

'Then they discovered my voice,' Nicky announced impressively. He always treated his voice as if it had been a second American Continent though the role of Columbus varied according to the public he was appealing to at the time. 'They were amazed. Such a perfect crooning voice had never been heard before—and then of course 1 had to do my training—hard work there—at it all day, and studying all night to get through college. No one can say that film stars don't work for their living. But it is all worth it if we can give the great generous public even an hour's relief from the problems which beset them—a little laughter makes life easier, and all the world loves a lover if the stuff is put over with genuine feeling and discretion—no hot stuff about Nicky Costello's films. Keep it clean was my old mother's motto and it still hangs over my bed.'

'That reminds me,' said Rahossis.

'What of?'he asked.

'To put an extra cushion on your bed—you seemed to be tossing about so uncomfortably when I walked past you early this morning.'

Nicky did not consider that his poignant history of suffering and victory had been received with enough applause. 'I wish my mother had known you,' he said.

'I wish I had known here,' Rahossis replied politely. 'We should have been about the same age.'

'Good God! Don't keep reminding me of that!' he exclaimed furiously. Then he glanced quickly at his companion's lovely face. He had just thought of a plan to interest her.

'Would you like me to sing to you?' he suggested and without waiting for her assent he sat down on the grass and drew her down too. Tilting his face towards the radiance of the earthshine he closed his eyes. Nicky had very fine eyelashes. Then he lifted up the muted cross between a tenor and alto, which he called his voice and started to croon.

Fortunately Nicky kept his eyes closed in growing ecstasy as he sang: 'Dear Baby ... God gave me ... I'm holding .. * your hands!' Rahossis had never been called a baby before but she was always ready for a new experience. She was a little perplexed however when, having finished the last sob-note of 'Dear Baby' he embarked on 'In all the World . . . Mother-r-r-r . . . there's no one like you!' The tune of the second song was much the same as the first—both variations on about five notes and written specially for Nicky's particular talent.

He sang on—really enjoying himself now and plunging deeper and deeper into the part he had selected, being no psychologist, as most likely to soften and attract Rahossis.

Suddenly he ceased and buried his face in his hands; Rahossis jumped, for he had broken off in the middle of a long wriggle on middle C, and said anxiously, 'Are you not well Nicky—what is the matter?'

'Matter?' he muttered and gave his famous hollow laugh; 'the matter is that I'm miserable because I love you so— and you will never be mine!' The part did not quite fit but it served Nicky's purpose.

Rahossis looked relieved. 'But I have been yours,' she corrected him gently. 'Twice.'

'Words! . . . words!' he exclaimed tragically, now visualising himself in the role of betrayed lover. 'Rahossis—you are driving me to despair—I love you—I want you—we were made for each other. What is it that has come between us? You were so sweet to me only a few nights ago and now . . . ! You are flirting with that man Quet—don't deny it!'

'Oh I just find him amusing,' Rahossis said lightly.

'Don't lie to me! Not that! I could not bear it.' Nicky drew his hand across his eyes as the old cliches came back. 'Tell me the truth—I am brave and I can bear that, although life will never be the same again.' He groaned just as beautifully as he had in 'All for Love'. 'I am only just a poor man who loves you—I've worked my way up from nothing—I know that—but I love you Rahossis. I love you more than words can say.'

Rahossis was kind and generous to a fault and for the moment she was not bored. This was just like one of those romances which she and her companions were always following on their journeys—it was interesting to hear it at first hand. What odd words and gestures the people of the upper world use to make love—she thought. But Nicky was waiting there with a look like a hungry spaniel.

'Dear Nicky,' she said, 'I cannot always be alone" with you here—the life we lead is so different from yours.' She put up her hand and touched his face caressingly. He seized and kissed it, slipping into the role of the 'other' man like an eel into mud.

'Rahossis—dearest—you must leave all this—let's go away together. I'll take care of you I swear it. We'll start life anew. Just you and I in some place where no one knows us —It will be heaven to have you with me always. Poor little girl—you've had a rotten deal!'

Rahossis' expression had changed as these singularly inapt lines flowed from Nicky's beautifully curved mouth. His artistic temperament which always dominated his mentality at such times was his undoing.

She rose to her feet with dignity, pulled down her tunic and said coldly, 'I think you are jesting. You know we could not leave Atlantis, even if we wished, and I am neither poor nor a little girl.'

Nicky blinked as he realised the mess he had made and Rahossis turned to enter her apartment.

She walked into her room and sat down on her bed, but he followed, flinging himself at her knees.

'Rahossis!' he cried. 'I'm sorry—please forgive me—God knows I do love you and I'm nearly mad with wanting you. I can't sleep or eat—or think of anything else!' Then, without acting, he burst into tears.

Rahossis was horrified. She gathered him up in her arms as if he had been Ciston and held his head against her breast. 'Darling,' she murmured, 'there . . . there . . . there.'

But no amount of petting soothed Nicky's sobs. He was on a good thing and he was going to stay on it as long as he could. So he sobbed and sobbed until poor tender-hearted Rahossis grew anxious. She gave him a drink of water but still he sobbed. 'Come near me—let me love you ... darling —don't leave me!'

His hands started fumbling at her tunic and she had not the heart to stop him.

If Nicky had not been so fully occupied he might have noticed his ears burning for several of his friends were discussing him just then.

Axel and Lulluma had begun to stroll hand in hand towards the jungle directly their work for the day was over, but Sally and the McKay were seated by the lake-side in the meadow, so they paused to speak to them on the way.

The newly-married pair were engaged in what the Atlan-311

teans regarded as a most curious pastime. Having discovered that neither of them were allowed to do anything but amuse each other during the period of their honeymoon, the McKay had collected an odd assortment of items on the first day that the Atlanteans went back to work; two long, tapering, bamboo canes, two lengths of yarn from the weaving shop, a couple of sharp bent nails from Nahou and some little pieces of silvery dress material provided by Lulluma. With the addition of a couple of pieces of cane for floats he and Sally had constructed a couple of rough fishing rods and had spent a good portion of the last three afternoons by the placid waters of the lake, trying in vain for a catch.

The Atlanteans had been tremendously intrigued, breaking off their labours and coming to stare over the kitchen garden fence at this strange spectacle of two lovers solemnly gazing at the water in which they had dropped a bent hook covered in dough with a tiny bit of tinsel above it.

To polite enquiries the McKay had replied that they were 'fishing'—which the Atlanteans regarded as a gigantic joke.

Nahou, courteous as ever, had offered to operate the concealed dragnet which would enable them to secure as many fish as they wished, adding that they could throw back any they did not require into the lake again, but when the McKay rejected the suggestion it became quite evident to their new friends that they could not be fishing whatever else they might be up to.

Atlantean opinion then became divided into two camps. One school of thought inclined to the theory that the lovers could not be happy because they remained so quiet and that this offering of a small piece of dough on a string must be a propitiatory rite to some barbarous water god they followed. The other side postulated that there must be some queer hidden pleasure in the game which might add to the enjoyment of their own honeymoons if they could only find it out.

Lulluma inclined to the first belief. As she came up with Axel she paused beside Sally and eyed the rods dubiously for a moment. Then she stooped and said in a swift whisper: 'I'm so sorry you're unhappy darling—is there anything I can do?'

'But I'm not unhappy!' Sally lifted her face in swift 312

astonishment. 'I'm having a glorious time. I never dreamed that life could be so good—surely I look happy don't I?'

'Yes,' Luiluma agreed cautiously. 'It is only seeing you spend so much time at this queer game you play that made me wonder if you were ...'

'It was sweet of you to worry for me.' Sally caught her hand and pressed it gratefully. 'Sooner or later we'll really catch a fish—you'll see. The difficulty makes it all the more exciting in a way—but I am happy—divinely and deliriously so. Who could be otherwise in your enchanted island?'

The McKay, puffing contentedly at an Atlantean bamboo pipe, for he had now accustomed himself to their tobacco which had been introduced to him at his first banquet in the island, was explaining to Axel that they were getting plenty of bites but could not manage to land a catch owing to the indifferent hooks.

They both heard Sally's last words and Axel turned to her; 'I know one person who is by no means happy and it is worrying me very much indeed!'

'You mean Nicky eh?' The McKay shot him a swift glance from under his shaggy brows.

'That poor boy hankers after Rahossis,' remarked Luiluma.

'Hanker is a mild word me'dear,' the McKay took her up. 'I'm sorry for the lad of course as he's got it so badly, but he ought to learn to control himself. It's downright indecent for any man to make an exhibition of himself tagging after a woman with his tongue hanging out like that!'

'It's his temper that I'm afraid of,' said Axel slowly. 'You remember the violent rages he used to get in with Vladimir about Camilla? And now he is positively consumed with jealousy because Rahossis prefers Quet. Well, Vladimir was so strong that he could afford to laugh but the Atlantean is quite a slim fellow so Nicky might go for him and then one of them would probably get badly hurt.'

'You think so eh?' the McKay grunted, lifting his dripping line out of the water to inspect the bait. 'Well, I promised the Admiral I'd keep you all in order and by Gad I'll tan that young man's hide if he starts creating any trouble here.'

Sally laughed. 'You are a bellicose person darling! How 313

I dared to marry you I can't think—you'll be beating me next.'

'That's it,' he assured her with an adoring grin. 'For two pins I'd cut off that long hair of yours so that you shouldn't look quite so attractive to anyone except myself.'

Lulluma smiled and, catching Axel's hand, led him away. 'I'm happier about them now,' she said when they were out of hearing. 'They do love each other an awful lot—far more than I'd supposed.'

He nodded. 'You needn't worry your sweet head about them—or those two nice pagans Vladimir and Camilla. They're both as happy as the day is long and the Doctor is as contented as can be collecting his specimens and talking ancient religions with Menes. It's Nicky who is going to cause trouble before we're much older.'

'It is so difficult to know what to do in such a case,' Lulluma said as they entered the jungle. 'You see he is a very stupid young man—extremely conceited, and a bore— so how could any woman be expected to like him?'

'He's a fine strapping chap and very good-looking,' ventured Axel.

£he shrugged her plump shoulders disdainfully. 'Who isn't? We're all of us that but one needs something else beside health and good looks to be really attractive in this life.'

'Of course,' he agreed as they sat down side by side in front of the statue of Priapus where he had first seen Danoe sleeping, 'anyhow for people like ourselves, but this affair of Nicky's does raise a general problem. You seem to have solved the usual evils that wreck human happiness here—-except this one thing—jealousy and unrequited love. What happens if one of you falls in love with another who does not return that love. Doesn't that sometimes lead to tragedy?'

She shook her dark curls. 'No, such a situation never occurs. You see time is on our side here. None of us can escape physically from our island and if one of us feels drawn to another who is having an affair with someone else we check our incipient passion and travel at once. If the affair is still in progress when we return or the person for whom our love is growing is asleep, we travel again—distracting our minds with new scenes and interests; but we meet at the harvests or the sowings and are free to develop our romance, if the other one is all over by that time. Often, the longer we have to subdue our longings the greater is the joy of their realisation in the end.'

'Yes, I understand that,' Axel gazed down upon her fondly as she stretched herself out on the grass with her hands behind her head. 'By such cultivated restraint you may practically eliminate jealousy. Especially if you are quite certain of achieving your object in the long run, but what happens if you return time and time again only to find that the other person doesn't love you and is never likely to?'

Lulluma grunted. She did at times and Axel loved to hear the sound because it was a certain indication that she was in her happiest and most contented mood.

For a moment she stared up at him, a wicked little smile just lifting the corners of her full lips, then she said: 'I'll tell you if you wish. In most cases just being together a lot during the harvest and a little fooling at the Festival is enough, but if that fails we resort to other measures. There are what you would call electric currents which pass between people and either attract or repel. Those have to be manipulated. It is part of the lore passed down to us from that antediluvian world which contained such an enormous store of wisdom. By a secret ceremony privately performed we set certain vibrations in motion and then concentrate our thoughts. Such means never fail and the woman who employs them will be sure of receiving a gift of flowers from the lover of her desire the day afterwards, or a man tender looks from the woman of his choice.'

Axel nodded. 'A love spell eh? Then you have made heaven on earth indeed. Not a single trouble is left to mar your perfect joy.'

'You are happy here?' she asked softly.

'Yes—infinitely. It is like having been born again fully grown into a new and better existence—yet I would not be happy if it were not for you.'

She shifted her position slightly and stretched up one bare arm to place it round his neck. Her breast was heaving gently against his side. 'You do not know how I honour you for the restraint you must have placed upon yourself at those two Festivals,' she murmured, 'and all this week that we have been together.'

'Honour,' he repeated with gentle mockery, 'but I would have something more. How I wish that 1 had been born an Atlantean.'

'Why?' she enquired with a flutter of her dark curling eyelashes.

Because they have qualities which would commend me to you in a different way.'

She shook her head. 'I prefer you as you are. Our life is so limited here in spite of our spirit journeys whereas you have really travelled and read much. You lack some of our special powers perhaps but your mind is deeper. I could laugh and talk with you for years; with our men only for a few months.'

'Only talk?' he whispered as he caressed her hair.

'And laugh,' she reminded him, her breath warm on his cheek.

He bent close above her and his voice trembled as he said: 'Won't you teach me that secret sorcery Lulluma so that I can cast a spell on youT

'My dear one,' her eyes were moist and languorous, her breathing a little fast. 'Forgive me that I made the test so hard for you; it was only because I wished our love to last. No spells are necessary between us two.'

Three and a half weeks slipped by as though they had only been as many days and nights for the three pairs of lovers in that enchanted island. Almost imperceptibly the strangers from the upper world dropped into the easy carefree Atlantean habits; accustoming themselves to light meals, healthy exercise, dreamless sleep and the spirit of laughter which seemed to lurk behind every bush and tree.

The Atlanteans went no more upon their spiritual journeys for the time being. They were still far too interested in talking to and questioning the new settlers in their island to wish to observe their counterparts, with whom they could not speak, in the world above. In addition one of their harvest periods had come round, for which, in any case, they would have returned to get in their crops.

Lulluma and Axel alone refrained from helping since she had claimed from Menes an Atlantean honeymoon for them both. They held interminable conversations together in the gardens and slept each night in a recess of the jungle. At meal times they seemed dreamy and abstracted, only anxious to get away to one of their retreats so that Semir-amis commented upon it; chiding Luiluma with gentle humour because they missed her deep chuckling laughter and feared that she had become serious for life. Axel could have informed them however that his warm passionate sweetheart had lost none of her divine merriment but reserved it for himself.

The McKay, Vladimir, Camilla and Sally had curtailed their life of complete idleness by their own wish and found the work allotted, which sometimes separated them for an hour or two, only lent fresh stimulus to their passion and gave a new interest to their lives.

Nicky had been passably good humoured for a few days after his last private encounter with Rahossis and she treated him on all occasions now with a special gentleness, but when the harvest time came he sank back into his previous discontented mood.

He prowled uneasily about the garden on his own, cast scowling looks at Quet, and alone among the people in the island behaved on occasion with downright discourtesy. The happiness of his friends, which they could hardly have concealed had they wished, drove him to silent frenzies of envy at their lot. Lulluma's passion for Axel particularly goaded him into sneers and bitter witticisms with which he fruitlessly endeavoured to irritate these two whom he termed contemptuously 'the turtle doves'. The thought that one of the beautiful Atlantean girls could surrender her every moment to 'that dry stick of a Count who was not even really handsome', which was his view of Axel, while another would not even grant him half an hour alone, was a never ceasing torture.

The island was not large enough for him to get clear of the others for any length of time, and he was constantly coming upon them in attitudes which did not shock him in the least but inflamed his jealousy and desire. His cup of misery was filled to the brim by the knowledge that he was a prisoner there for life.

For a few days he played up to Danoe. Partly in the hope of making Rahossis jealous and partly because he felt that a success with her would restore his self-respect and ease his feelings, although her slender golden beauty did not attract him half as much as more vital girls of the same type whom he had toyed with in the past at Hollywood.

Danoe, however, was having a purely platonic affair with Karnoum, her dark apparently boyish uncle, by whom she would bear her first child in a few years' time. She was by no means inexperienced already for Nicky had learned that girls did not reach even the physical age of twenty in Atlantis without having been initiated into the arts of love, but her relations with the Egyptian looking Karnoum appeared to be perfectly innocent. As they were both learning Spanish they spent a good portion of their time talking together in that language in order to practise it.

In response to Nicky's suggestions, Danoe turned an enormous pair of blue eyes upon him which showed mild surprise and, after what he considered the infuriating courtesies that all these people used, told him very sweetly that she thanked him for his offer but would be too busy with her Spanish to accept it for some months to come.

'They're all a damn sight too highbrow in this place,' Nicky told himself furiously. He forgot that, just as Camilla had become of no more interest to him than a bathing beauty now she could no longer attract him by the lure of her millions so he, robbed of his glamour as a film star, had little power to appeal to women on his looks alone. He had never been even a passably good lover in actual fact, since he was a hopeless psychologist and had never had to study women with a view to pleasing them. His easy successes in the past had all been temporary affairs with doll-like females who had become infatuated by his face and voice on the talking screen. Those casual conquests were an added handicap now for they had given him a completely false picture of himself and fostered both his impatience and conceit.

After his failure with Danoe he returned to Rahossis, upon whom the Danoe episode had had a completely negative result. She only noticed it to bless herself that she was rid of his constant spying whenever she was alone with Quet.

Once only did he succeed in getting her on his own during the harvest fortnight and that by invading her apartment in the middle of the night. She kept her temper remarkably well in the circumstances even allowing for the fact that she, and all her people, had been trained to a consideration for others as a first rule of their lives since, not content with breaking in and rousing her from her sleep he kept her up for a couple of hours with a repetition of all his old tricks.

She let him rave, posture, and weep but this time she was quite firm about the matter. Finally she told him that she had no intention of allowing him to make love to her any more, at least for three or four years to come, by which time he might have acquired some manners and a little sense. The possible time limit in her declaration shattered him more than any flat refusal. It silenced his weeping and sent him out into the night convinced that all the Atlanteans were stark staring mad and that this woman Rahossis could have no conception she was rejecting the world-famous screen star—Nicholas Costello whose fan mail was immense.

That check served to sober him for a day or two and both Axel and Menes, who were observing him shrewdly, felt that he had calmed down. He might then even have sunk into an apathetic despair had not the Harvest Festival Banquet come along.

At the Feast they were all assembled and ate heavily as before. By midnight the wine was passing freely and a joyous Saturnalia beginning. The lovers sat with arms entwined feeding each other titbits of dessert and pledging each other in the Nektar of the Gods. Camilla was lolling against Vladimir; both had approached nearer to the Atlanteans than any other members of their party in all but wisdom now, and Vladimir, who absolutely revelled in playing at being a cave man, had made a bedroom for them by arranging a platform in the fork of a high tree. Even Sally, safely embraced by the muscular arm of the McKay, had had as much wine as she could carry and no longer saw anything improper in the love dance which Peramon and Laotzii were performing as a turn in the unofficial cabaret.

Nicky squatted a little apart from the rest watching Rahossis and Quet with brooding eyes. They had not sat near each other at the meal but proceeded to do so shortly afterwards. As he watched every tentative movement in the age-old game they played together his jealousy flamed up into a burning hatred. In spite of Nahou's gentle remonstrance he insisted on abandoning the Nektar for that potent green liqueur with which they had been fortified on their exhausted arrival in the island.

At length Quet and Rahossis stood up, just a shade unsteadily, and left the Feast. Nicky rapidly swallowed a fifth portion of that fiery liquid which made his inside feel like a furnace as it went down, then he got to his feet and followed.

No one paid any attention to the departure of the three but Menes, who looked at Semiramis and then pointed to Nicky's form retreating in the shadows.

'That youth needs guidance and help. I will speak to him tomorrow and explain that he must restrain his desires for a little time. Then, if Rahossis still proves obdurate when her passion for Quet is ended you had best teach him the secret rites which will ensure her willing acceptance of him.'

Had Axel been present and seen Nicky's state, he would not have left the matter until the next day but gone after him at once, in order to intervene if necessary. As it was he and Lulluma had left the party hours before, passing into the darkness as two silent shadows wrapped in a divine content.

Rahossis and Quet made their way to the jungle and finding a convenient spot sat down. Nicky stole after them, his drunken brain seething with chaotic thoughts engendered by his pent-up passion.

He'd show this laughter maker! he told himself. He'd show him who was who! Yes Sir—an' how. The dirty wisecracking Mexican dago—and that would learn Rahossis too. Every woman liked a man who was a man. Someone who wasn't afraid to fight for her. They loved that, damn their hard little souls. Particularly these savages. That 'ud get her for sure. He'd show her— Yes Sir and the world. Why the hell hadn't he thought of this before?

He nearly fell into the lake but recovered and stumbled on until, directed by their voices, he found Rahossis and Quet lying side by side in one of the jungle clearings.

Rahossis gave a heavy sigh as he appeared. 'Oh, dear, it's you again! This is too much. Why must you follow me even here?'

'Want to talk to you,' said Nicky thickly.

He had ignored Quet for the moment but the dark man stood up apparently in a high good humour.

'You wish to speak with Rahossis?' he said in the English which did not come at all naturally to him. 'You choose a curious time. However—' he gave a shrug which was purely French and broke into that language—■ 'Messieurs les Anglais tirez le premier.'

Nicky did not understand the jest and thought that Quet was carrying Atlantean politeness to extremes because he was frightened of a fight.

Actually the Atlantean was completely certain of himself and the situation. As he parted the bushes to walk away he said to Rahossis in their own tongue:

'This fool becomes a positive nuisance. I must speak to Menes about him in the morning. Get rid of him as quickly as you can and in the meantime I will bring fruit for our breakfast.

'Huh!' exclaimed Nicky with disgust on Quet's departure. 'You see he's yellow. That's what he is—yellow. Good thing for him he cleared out when he did though—otherwise I would have shown him.'

'You are an unpleasant creature and extremely stupid,' said Rahossis quietly. 'If Quet wished he could paralyse you with one glance from his eyes.'

'What me!' Nicky did not take her words literally and only thought she meant that Quet could scare him with a look. He laughed contemptuously. 'Jus' let him put his dirty head roun' the bushes again an' I'll show him! I'm not a feller to be trifled with. I'll show you too—by God I will.'

Without further preamble he fell upon her.

Rahossis was big limbed and muscular. There was never the least likelihood that she would be the victim of Nicky's assault before Quet's return. Disdaining to cry out she fought her attacker off as he ripped her tunic from breast to thigh. But the panting struggle only lasted a moment. There was a rustling of the shrubs and Doctor Tisch appeared. In one glance he had taken in the full significance of the scene.

After copious potations of Tokay at the Feast he had suddenly remembered that there was one Atlantean flower which he particularly wished to see and that it only blossomed at night. He had collected his torch and come to the jungle in search of it.

t.f.a.—l 321

'Why, Nicky!' he exclaimed. 'What do you do! This is not right!'

Nicky staggered to his feet and confronted the little doctor. 'Get to hell out of here, you dirty spy,' he yelled, swaying drunkenly.

The Doctor held his ground. 'But, Nicky . . he expostulated.

'Get out, you little rat!' Losing all control Nicky followed up his words with a smashing blow.

It caught the Doctor full in the face. He dropped his torch, staggered and fell, his head coming into collision with the trunk of a tree.

Little Doctor Tisch lay quite still where he had fallen. Nicky grabbed up the torch and flashed it on him. A trickle of blood was oozing from his temple.

Rahossis turned over on her face and moaned just as though she had received the blow herself. In a moment her moans had become a wild wailing.

Nicky, terribly sober now, propped up the Doctor's body and strove to rouse him, but he remained limp and silent. The blood fell in slow drops on Nicky's hands and it seemed to him that they fell in time to Rahossis' heartrending cries.

The Doctor was quite dead. In his fall he had cracked his skull upon the tree against which Axel had leaned when a little over a month before he had said so thoughtlessly to Luiluma :

'This is like Eden—to make it complete you only need the Serpent.'

Death in the Garden

Axel and Lulluma were sleeping peacefully, her dark head pillowed on his shoulder, when Rahossis' screams roused them to the awful knowledge that some terrible thing had shattered the peace of the island.

Without a word they sprang up and raced along the tortuous paths through the jungle towards the sound of that dreadful wailing. They found the small clearing and pulled up with a jerk in its entrance. One glance was enough to tell them what had happened. For a second they stood there silent, too overwhelmed to speak, then Axel gasped:

'Good God, man! What have you done? You've killed him.'

Nicky still held the torch and was kneeling by the Doctor. 'I—I didn't mean to,' he stammered. 'It was his fault—he tried to interfere but—Oh, God, I didn't mean to.'

Lulluma was clinging to Axel's arm. Her eyes were distended with terror, then the beam of the torch lit the Doctors head again.

'Blood!' she whispered. 'Blood!' and her voice trailed away into a whisper.

'Beloved!' Axel sought to comfort her, passing his arm round her waist so that he could press her closer. 'Don't look if it frightens you. We'll—we'll . . .' He broke off not knowing what next to say and she began to wail like Rahossis; just as though she were about to die.

The bushes rustled and Quet thrust his way through into the other side of the glade. He said something in Atlantean which neither Axel nor Nicky understood. His accent was harsh yet held a note of underlying terror. Only Lulluma caught the meaning of his exclamation.

'Blood!—blood has been spilled—Who caused this awtul thing?'

He looked at Axel with dark fiery eyes and Axel made a helpless gesture towards Nicky.

'I couldn't help it,' Nicky said heavily. 'I only hit him, then he fell and cracked his head against that tree. I never meant to kill him! It was an accident, I tell you.'

Without a word Quet fixed his eyes upon him and held his gaze. To Nicky those eyes seemed to become Quet's whole body, the rest of it became shadowy and was swallowed up; the bushes and the clearing disappeared. Those eyes were forcing him down into black depths of unconsciousness. He struggled for a second, whimpered and slipped to the ground beside the Doctor.

'Did—did you do something to him—or has he fainted?* Axel asked shakily.

'I have placed him so that he can bring no more evil among us for the moment,' Quet answered in a hushed voice.

Danoe and Karnoum appeared. Immediately their glance fell on the Doctor's face Karnoum began to tremble and the girl added her wailing to that of Rahossis and Lulluma.

It was a dreadful sound. Axel felt he had never heard anything so terrible. The high piercing note seemed to drag at bis very heart-strings. Within five minutes every member of the island's population was gathered about the clearing and other voices had been added to that ghastly chorus.

None of these screaming women had ever had more than a casual friendliness for the poor little doctor and it was not for him they beat their breasts and tore their lungs in such uncontrollable grief and terror. It was because 'blood' had been spilled in anger.

Even Menes, when he arrived, seemed stupefied by the shock and quite incompetent to deal with the situation. In consequence the McKay took charge and the rest, as usual, accepted his orders without any question.

The Doctor's body and Nicky's unconscious form were carried back to the centre of the island. There, the wailing Atlantean women claimed the former and insisted on taking it into the temple. For a moment it occurred to Sally that, as a good Christian, the Doctor might not care to have

pagan rites performed over his body, but even the McKay

found it impossible to resist the distraught importunity of Semiramis and the females of her family. On learning that the burial would not take place until the following day, he felt that the temple was as good a place as any for the corpse to remain the night, so he let them have their way.

He enquired then what Menes wished done with Nicky, but the old man shook his head as though hopelessly bewildered.

Quet spoke to him in Atlantean and evidently told him what he had done to the evil-doer in the grove. Menes then made certain passes over Nicky's head and said:

'I have caused him to pass into a natural sleep. He will not wake until tomorrow night.'

The McKay escorted Menes to his apartment. The male Atlanteans walked slowly away with downcast heads. Sally, Camilla, Vladimir and Axel remained in a silent stricken group beside the pool.

After a few moments the McKay joined them again.

'Well?'whispered Sally.

'The poor old Admiral's all to pieces,' he replied tone-lessly. 'You see there hasn't been a murder here since 1066 —no, since the Flood I mean. All these people always die a natural death, so they're shocked out of their senses. Just listen to those women now!'

Piercing long-drawn cries coming from the direction of the temple made the night hideous. There was something about that eerie persistent wailing which made their flesh creep and the top of their scalps prickle.

Axel shuddered. 'It is the spilling of blood which has affected them so profoundly.'

'Oh, it's horrible.' Camilla dabbed her eyes. 'Just to think of the Doctor being dead now when he was laughing with us only an hour ago at supper.'

'Yes,' said Sally. 'Yes, it's awful. He was such a harmless little man, but all the same,' she added practically, 'terrible as this is for everybody, he was our friend more than theirs. I don't see why they should be so utterly distracted. They must have seen bloodshed before on their travels in the upper world.'

'Maybe, me'dear,' the McKay replied, 'and you've read 325

of ghosts or the Devil appearing in stories, but you'd get a pretty nasty shock if Satan stood before you in the flesh one night—cloven hooves and all.'

'I forgot that. Of course, they only see the people in our upper world as though they were acting in a sort of motion picture and the happenings there aren't truly real to them at all.'

'No, only as stories for cocks and bulls,' muttered Vladimir miserably.

They sank again into a tense silence. All five of them had been marvellously happy during these past weeks. They had accepted the life in this heaven that they had found so completely that it almost seemed now as if they had never known any other, and it had become unthinkable that any event should suddenly leap out upon them to mar their perfect joy.

'What would the Atlanteans do to Nicky?' 'Could life in the island ever be quite so carefree and wonderful again?' Those were the thoughts which agitated them to the very depths of their beings, but they shrank from putting their fears into words.

Obviously there was nothing to be done for the moment so they took a despondent leave of each other and separated, but none of them was to get much sleep that night.

The keening of the women in the temple continued unabated and all the doctor's friends were saddened with the thought that they would never hear his guttural laugh again. They felt too, now, that they had never taken the trouble to be quite as nice to him as they should have been when he was alive. As Sally had said, he was such a harmless little man. His only vice was the apparently crazy desire to discover Atlantis, which had ended for them in this unique experience and, latterly, his eagerness to form a collection of the island's leaves and flowers.

Camilla wept passionately on Vladimir's broad chest when he had carried her up to that absurd tree-top home which had caused the Atlanteans so much amusement but which they had had such fun in making together. Sally wept too, in spite of all the McKay's efforts to comfort her with theoretical assurances that death was not a thing to be afraid of after all, and that where the Doctor had gone he had probably forgotten all about them now through being busy with the collection of another lot of flowers. Axel went back to the jungle, but he could not face his usual vine-hung couch without Lulluma and she was with the other women mourning for the dead. Like a lean ghost he roamed the island, haunting the scenes of his past happiness, while darkness lasted. Nicky the evil-doer alone slept peacefully, deep in the oblivion into which Menes had bade him pass by those signs of power made across his unconscious head.

In the morning everyone was astir early. Pale and exhausted, their beautiful faces haggard now from the stress of their emotion, the women came out of the temple. The Atlantean men crouched on its steps in dull apathy. None of them made any attempt to get themselves breakfast, so the McKay ordered his party to pick some ripe fruit and serve it as though nothing had happened, but the Atlanteans refused to eat. The women, who all seemed to have aged ten years in a single night, flung themselves down where they were to sleep and the men sat unmoving, silent and heavy eyed.

Nicky slept on, a huddled figure beside the pool, the Doctor's blood still staining his guilty hands. After a little Sally could bear the sight no longer and strove to wake him, but Menes' hypnotic power held him in its spell. Failing in her efforts she washed his limp hands before them all, tidied his golden hair, and arranged him more comfortably. The McKay walked away behind some bushes while she did it in order that none of the others should see his face. He rated himself furiously because he was 'blubbing like a stupid kid' and such a thing hadn't happened to him in a quarter of a century, but he just couldn't help it, he loved her so much.

When he had cursed himself into renewed composure and Sally had completed her self-appointed task, he gathered his party together and led them off into the depths of the garden.

The flowers blossomed just as they had yesterday, some were fading but new varieties were bursting from their buds in those Elysian fields that held eternal Spring, but somehow there was a subtle difference. The spirit of death brooded over the secret enclosures. The leaves of the trees still hung motionless in the windless air, yet they seemed to whisper to one another: 'Death and decay—death and decay.'

The McKay halted in an open space and sat down on the grass. The others followed suit.

'Look here,' he said, 'I couldn't sleep a wink last night and I've been thinking. Quite apart from anything the Admiral may decide we've got to make up our own minds what our attitude is going to be about Nicky's crime—and then hang together.'

'Our own laws may not be perfect, but in this they are the only guide we have,' suggested Axel.

'That's my view, but the point is—did Nicky commit murder?'

'I would interpret murder as a deliberate attempt to kill another human being,' declared the Count, 'and Nicky said this was an accident. I believe him too.'

'So do I,' agreed Camilla, 'and anyhow he was tight when he did it.'

'Of course he was tight, but that would not be accepted as an excuse in any court of law,' rejoined the McKay abruptly. 'If you kill anybody when you're driving a car and you've had one over the odds it's manslaughter in the first degree, but this is worse unfortunately. We have to remember that Nicky struck a blow in anger and that blow caused the Doctor's death.'

'He didn't mean to kill him though,' protested Sally.

'Perhaps not, but the fact is that he did.'

'He made a smashing most unfortunate as I might have done myself,' said Vladimir, 'but what do you think the Atlanteans will treat him to?'

The McKay shrugged. 'It's impossible to say. They may have some form of trial. If so it's my view that we ought to let their law take its course. It's the usual thing to accept the decision of the courts in whatever country you happen to be, and this place belongs to the Atlanteans after all.'

'If there is a trial I don't see how they can say it was anything but manslaughter,' Sally argued, 'but even if they did there won't be any question of—of an execution. They are far too gentle.'

Axel backed her up. 'They would shrink from that for their own sakes I am certain, but if they sent him to Coventry it would only be asking for more trouble, and in such a small place it is hardly practical to put him in prison with everyone taking turns at jailer. It is just possible that they might turn him out of the island though.'

'They couldn't!' exclaimed Camilla.

'No—no,' Vladimir followed her horrified protest. 'I have never liked that Nicky but he has been through as much as us. It would be death twice times out there in the black dark. I would wring his so stupid neck myself rather than he should suffer such awfulness.'

'That's how I feel,' muttered the McKay. 'He is one of us so, rotten little blackguard as he is, we've got to do our best for him. The Doctor wasn't a vengeful man and I'm sure he would say the same if he were here to speak for himself.'

'What will you do if Menes decrees some punishment for him of which we have no thought?' Axel enquired slowly.

'Providing it's humane things must run their course. Nicky will have to take his medicine, I'm afraid.'

'Even—even if they do say it was murder and want to— to . . .' Camilla's voice trailed away at the awful thought of the fair handsome Nicky who had so often made love to her in his own conceited way, being led out to die.

'I think so, if it's a fair trial, although of course it's up to us to do every mortal thing we can to get him off. You see . . .' the McKay paused and then went on again more slowly. 'I hope I haven't pushed myself forward, but in a way you seem to have looked to me as the leader of the party ever since we got stuck in the bathysphere, and the old Admiral appears to regard me in that way too—so I feel a certain responsibility towards you all. That's why I take that view. If the law here decrees that Nicky is "for it" we can hardly say the verdict isn't just, so we have no real moral grounds for using force in order to save him. If we did the Atlanteans would be quite entitled to retaliate in any way they chose. Well, they at all events are completely innocent and they have been marvellously kind, so it would be the basest ingratitude on our part to start a scrap in which some of them would be certain to get pretty badly hurt; but there's worse to it than that. If it came to a showdown the odds are in their favour, so we might even have to kill some of them before we succeeded in getting control of the island; or they may have something up their sleeve, seeing the way Quet laid Nicky out, which would make a mess of us—and we've got Sally and Camilla to consider. I'm sorry for Nicky, just because he's been with us from the beginning, although he's a vicious little brute, but my sympathies are with the Admiral and his pals. In any case though, even if I liked Nicky a lot better than 1 do, I couldn't advise the sacrifice of innocent lives to save him from justice, and I've no intention of imperilling the safety of the Atlanteans or our party in that way.'

Axel nodded. 'The thought of starting a civil war here is too horrible to contemplate and, as we should be the aggressors, totally unjustified. Whatever Nicky's punishment it will not be barbarous—we can be sure of that— therefore we have no possible right to interfere.'

'Oh, poor Nicky!' Camilla suddenly burst into tears.

The conference ended then. Everyone felt that the McKay was right. They could do no more for Nicky than plead his jealousy and drunkenness as extenuating circumstances. There was nothing else to be said.

The leaden hours of the morning drifted by at last, but when midday came the Atlanteans again refused all offers of food. The others had no heart to cook a meal and nibbled at the fresh fruit without a thought as to its flavour.

In the early afternoon Lulluma awoke and Axel managed to get her to himself for a few moments behind one of the blocks of buildings.

She stared at him in dumb agony, her big eyes ringed by deep purple circles. On his questioning her she clung to him like a frightened child and became almost incoherent.

All he could gather was that the Doctor's funeral would take place at twilight and after that she saw everything 'Black—black—black.'

The island now seemed to have become unreal again. It was held in the thrall of a horrid silence. To all the McKay's party the time of waiting seemed interminable. At length the earthshine began to dim and Nahou approached them.

'Menes says that you may come to the temple if you wish,' was all he said. Then he turned away as though reluctant to have further speech with them.

They stood up at once and followed him to the temple steps where the Atlanteans had already gathered, then the whole population of the island except Nicky, who still slept, Dassed through its golden doors.

None of the McKay's party had been inside the temple before. It was small but exceedingly magnificent. Only the dim light prevented their eyes being dazzled by the pure red gold of its walls and ceiling, while countless gems glittered dully in its furniture.

Two lines, each of six throne-like stalls, faced each other across the choir, but none of these were now occupied, the whole congregation stood bunched together just inside the doors while Menes, robed in white, occupied a position before the altar, which was quite plain, having only an inscription in Atlantean above it.

In the middle of the choir there was a gorgeous bier upon which lay the still form of the Doctor. At each of its corners stood a blue stone jar about a foot in height, and Axel guessed rightly that these held the brains, heart, liver and intestines which had been removed from the body by the women during the night. It was evident that they meant to embalm and mummify Doctor Tisch, hence the necessity for the immediate removal of these perishable parts, later his corpse would be soaked in bitumen, and this was only a preliminary service.

Menes muttered in Atlantean. The congregation bowed as if in assent, then they broke into a doleful dirge. After that came an interminable litany, more chanting, more mutterings from Menes and deep obeisances from the rest. Next Menes sealed the nine openings of the Doctor's body, with ritualistic signs, so that no evil thing might enter into it.

Little Ciston came forward from the crowd and stood behind the head of the bier, Menes took up a position at its foot and began to ask questions in a loud voice to each of which Ciston made the same response. Axel's knowledge of Egyptian beliefs, which had been based on this earlier religion, enabled him to guess that Menes was playing the part of the Forty-Two Assessors of the Dead, each of which would ask the departed soul if it had been guilty of some particular sin when it reached the 'other world'; and Ciston was taking the doctor's place by replying to each interrogation : 'I am innocent.' Then there was another litany, more dirges and further anointing of the body.

Sally, Camilla and Vladimir found it an incredibly wearisome business, so also did the McKay, and only a sense of respect held him rigid through the two and a half hours of what he considered senseless mummery. Axel's interest alone was held by following this ritual which had been practised when the world was young.

At last it was over. Menes made a sign and the Atlanteans suddenly changed their tone, bursting into a paean of praise and glory as though the very gates of heaven were opening before their eyes.

Nahou, Quet, Peramon, and Karnoum lifted the four corners of the bier and followed Menes through a door at the back of the temple. Semiramis led the women after them, Tzarinska, Laotzii, Rahossis, and Lulluma, each carrying one of the four canopic jars. The others came in a little bunch behind.

They all descended a broad flight of stairs to the crypt, a great apartment, far exceeding the temple above in size. In height it was at least twenty feet and in breadth fifty. Its ends could not be seen, but were hidden in a sepulchral gloom as they ran towards the extremities of the island underground. Along the walls were ranged tier upon tier of great gilded sarcophagi, containing the mummies of all the generations of Atlantis which had survived the Flood.

Sally made a rough calculation—if a child had been born every twelve years there must be over nine hundred of them buried there—then, for the first time, she saw the Doctor's face.

His head had been shaven and the injury to his temple repaired so skilfully that under a gloss of wax it no longer showed. His features held a tranquillity and dignity which they had never displayed in life. Axel knew that every scrap of brain and mucus had been removed from the dead man's skull down the nostrils with delicate hooked implements, yet no trace remained to suggest that this skilful operation had been performed.

The bier was set down in the centre of the deep crypt below the altar, then they silently filed up the stairs. One by one the Atlanteans took their places on the twelve thrones which lined the choir until only Nahou was left standing. He made a gesture towards the temple door and said: 'The service is over and we are about to take Council with the Gods.'

The five friends passed out into the Atlantean night and Nahou closed the golden door with a clang behind them.

'Phew!' exclaimed the McKay. 'Thank the Lord that's over—1 thought it would never end.'

Must on three hours,' said Axel as he walked down the temple steps beside him. 'Anyhow they seem more normal now and much more cheerful.'

Sally nodded. 'I can't think they'll do anything really serious to Nicky, and the awful thing he's done will be a most terrible lesson to him. He will probably become a model of all the virtues in consequence, then after a time things will settle down again.'

'Oh, I do hope so.' Camilla squeezed her arm. 'We've all been so wonderfully happy here.'

'We'll be happy again, m'dear, once this tragedy's blown over. It's part of God's goodness that we're so made as to forget such things in time.' The McKay spoke with a new confidence and they all felt a little cheered.

The Council of the Gods did not last long. In less than a quarter of an hour the temple doors opened again and the Atlanteans came out upon its steps.

There was a stirring in the shadows by the pool and Nicky roused at last as though he had received a summons. He saw his friends walking in a little group towards the temple and came up silently, unnoticed by them, in their rear.

Menes stood before the temple surrounded by his family. The McKay and the. others halted at the bottom of the steps facing him and waited with strained expectancy for the pronouncement which he appeared ready to make.

After a moment he spoke. 'On your arrival here from the upper world I was gravely troubled, yet I made no mention of my fears, for to cast shadows is to invite black thoughts which often breed evil actions. We accepted your coming only because in humanity we could not thrust you forth into the darkness again without a trial.

'Blood has now been spilled in anger by one of you, but he is only the instrument symbolising the impurities which have not yet been eradicated from the natures of you all. Had he not struck this blow, sooner or later another of you would have committed a lesser or greater evil; for at our first Council, although we were allowed to accept you, the auguries showed me no state of permanence in your relation with my people.

'This is the judgment of the Council of the Gods, and from it there is no appeal. You have brought lust, and anger, and death, into the Garden, so you must go hence— even as you came—before the morning light appears.'

Out of Paradise

The McKay woke in pitch black darkness. He blinked to assure himself that he really was awake and then memory flooded back to him.

He heard again Menes' terrible pronouncement: 'You have brought lust and anger and death into the Garden, so you must go hence—even as you came—before the morning light appears.'

He saw his friends distraught and pleading—the Atlantean women covering their faces in pity for them—the men firm and unbending, now that the awful judgment of the Gods had been given for the preservation of their own race from evil.

He recalled every detail of the scene when he had stilled the clamour by yelling for silence. The way he had reasoned and argued with Menes, insisting that he simply could not send them all out to die of starvation or be murdered by the fish eaters and finally—since the old man proved immovable—his ultimatum, that if one hand was laid upon himself or his friends to compel their departure he would blow the Atlantean temple down with dynamite.

After that something queer had happened. The McKay did not quite clearly remember what. Menes' eyes had seemed to grow very large and bright then his own knees had given way under him—the rest was blotted out.

He thought of Sally. A numb ache seemed to grip him in the stomach. Where was she? What in God's name had become of her? He rolled over and sat up.

'Darling!' came a swift whisper in the darkness. 'Darling —Oh, thank goodness you've come round—are you all right?'

The numb ache faded. With unutterable relief he stretched out a hand and found Sally crouching there beside him.

'I'm all right, dearest,' he muttered. 'But what happened to me?'

Axel's voice came from a few feet away. 'Menes hypnotised you and sent you to sleep. He did the same with Vladimir when he tried to fight. The rest of us went quietly because it seemed more sensible to remain conscious so that we could collect food and things, before we left, than to be carried out. We're all here together.'

'Where's here?' demanded the McKay.

'About two miles from the island. The Atlanteans escorted us this far and helped us in carting you along.'

'Two miles eh. We'll go back then and force an entry with the two bombs I've got left. Thank God I can feel them still in the pockets of my coat. I suppose some of you dressed me.' The McKay struggled to his feet. 'Come on— which way is it. To attack and take the place is our only chance of life.'

'It's no good,' muttered Nicky. 'I got the wind up after they left us here and tried to beat it back to the island. I could see the light in the entrance of this tunnel all right but I couldn't reach it. My head became swimmy and my legs gave way. Those devils are sitting there and they've put up some sort of thought-force barrier like the old man told us his people did ages ago to keep out the fish eaters.'

'They are not devils and they have every right to protect themselves from swine like you,' said Axel with unusual fierceness. If you do not speak of Lulluma's people with respect I will choke you.'

'And I with my so great hands will hold him for you, Count,' added Vladimir. 'The cad pig who runs to make comebacks while our Captain and myself are unable to make defences for our ladies, because we are sleeping as though drug drunk.'

'I didn't mean to—I was frightened,' whimpered Nicky. 'I don't want to die here in the dark—I don't want to die.'

'Shut up,' snapped the McKay angrily.

'You're brave—I'm not,' Nicky protested with a whining snarl. 'I know you all blame me for this but what about the Doctor? Didn't he let us in for the whole business in the leginning? He's lucky to have got out of it so easily—that's what I say. We'll stagger round these passages for a few days until we've finished the fruit we've brought, then when were too weak to resist them those filthy beast men will creep up and eat us. I can't face it. I can't—I can't!'

'Shut up damn you!' roared the McKay. 'Aren't things bad enough without our having to listen to your snivelling!'

'All right! All right!' Nicky muttered then he suddenly gasped, 'What's that!' and next second gave a piercing scream.

Vladimir had crept forward fumbling in the darkness and, as his hands touched Nicky, reached up and grabbed him round the neck.

'Help!' gurgled Nicky. 'He—lp! he's strangling—me.'

Camilla had been the first to realise what was happening and she flung herself forward on the struggling pair.

'Vladimir. Stop!' she cried imperatively, wrenching at his great shoulders. 'I won't have you a murderer—for God's sake stop!'

He obeyed her almost before the others had time to move and turning took her in his arms.

'There—my so beautiful,' he soothed her. 'Our Public Cad Number One is frightened so it gives me pleasure to present him with something to be frightened for. If he opens his teeth again I will kick him as I have often thought to do with both boots of my feet—which someone has put on while I slept.'

'We all got into our original clothes before we came away,' Axel remarked, 'and naturally we dressed you and the McKay too. We have our old weapons as well and enough food to last us a week.'

'How about the torches?' asked the McKay. 'They're more important almost than anything. For God's sake don't say you forgot them, or have the batteries run down?'

'No, we have them here. I'm economising light—that's all.'

'That is not necessary,' Axel replied softly, 'we have one without showing a flash now and then?'

'That is not necessary,' Axel replied softly, 'we have on blessing at least though I would have robbed you of it if I could. Lulluma insisted on coming with us. Her mental faculties can penetrate this pitch black night and she will warn us in good time of the approach of anything evil.'

'Luiluma!' exclaimed the McKay.

'I am here,' her low voice came out of the impenetrable gloom close by. 'I have not quarrelled with my people and have done my duty to them, giving a man child and a girl so, though they grieved, they could not refuse to let me go. Your chances will be more than doubled by having me with you and, is it not said in your world above that a woman shall leave all and cleave unto the man she loves?'

'You are a daughter who would make proudness in the heart of Kings,' Vladimir declared while the McKay was left speechless with admiration at her courage, but Nicky caught at the word 'chances' and muttered churlishly.

'Luiluma and Axel talked about chances early this morning before we left the island. I overheard them—but now we're out here they say our hopes are slender as a thread.'

'Slender!' cried the McKay. 'What in heaven's name d'you mean! Is there any chance for us at all?'

Axel heaved a heavy sigh. 'You mustn't count on it please. The odds are so terribly against our scheme being practical, but after Menes' decree last night, when you were all down and out, I thought of it and Luiluma did the rest. She took me to the library—a place that none of us knew before—in a secret room at the back of the temple. There were hundreds of books there—at least writings done with a fine iron point on sheets of copper.'

'Go on man,' urged the McKay.

'Well, we worked frantically all night there and at last we found a plan of the original Atlantean mine workings. You remember what Menes told us about Zakar's attempt to break out. This is the gallery that he travelled when he made his great effort to reach the mountain peaks still remaining above water that we call the Azores.'

Camilla trembled. 'There is a hope for us then. There is a hope?'

'A faint one, no more. Zakar or his companions had actually used the map we found and marked ail sorts of things upon it. The water-logged galleries and chambers are clearly etched in. This road to the upper world which he tried to clear had many notes beside it. Luiluma translated them for me. They show the places where he drove the beast men that he had under his control into clearing great falls of rock, sometimes several yards in length. They show too the spot where tragedy overtook him. He was very near the surface then but the passage is still blocked. The Atlanteans of his own generation could not clear it, after he was killed, without slave labour but there is just a possibility that we might succeed by using our dynamite.'

'Good God man! Why didn't you say this before,' the McKay exclaimed. 'Come on now all of you—which way does this passage run?'

Axel flashed his torch to the northwestward but his voice was still heavy with doubt as he went on. 'I do beg you all not to count on this. Even if we can blast our way through the blockage that held up Zakar's friends, there may be others beyond which are quite impassable.'

'No matter,' cried the McKay. 'I'll not throw in the sponge until I know myself we're sunk for good,' and grabbing Sally's arm he began to stride along the tunnel.

'Better go steady,' Axel advised as he followed with the rest. 'We've got the best part of ten miles to cover before we even reach the place where the tunnel's marked as choked and every yard of it will be uphill.'

The McKay checked his pace a little, but pressed on eagerly with a brief remark. 'We'll rest for ten minutes in every hour we have to march.'

For half an hour they progressed, almost in silence, through the long straight upward sloping mine galleries which turned at sharp angles now and again—flashing their torches every few moments—then Lulluma said:

'Be careful. We come to a great- chasm soon here.'

Axel's torch picked it up a hundred yards further on. It was one of the rifts in the earth where the land had sunk. Across a black gulf only a blank wall of rock showed ahead, but Zakar had made steps in the cliff face and clinging to each other in couples they descended into the crevasse.

At a depth of eighty feet or more the tunnel showed again, its entrance supported by great blocks of masonry. They entered it and pressed forward, coming to one of the lofty chambers shortly after.

Here they took their first rest, but Lulluma startled them just as they started off again by saying, 'The beast men have

been here quite recently. I can feel it. They are not far

away.'

Only the occasional flash of a torch stabbed the darkness as they tramped on, but they moved more warily now, filled with apprehension.

A broken section where the roof of a gallery had fallen in impeded their progress for a little and Vladimir swore loudly, having stubbed his toe against a sharp piece of rock.

Another chasm, this time of lesser depth, was negotiated, and then they entered a seemingly endless tunnel which sloped steeply uphill. A mile up it they paused to rest again, but they had hardly regained their breath when Lulluma pressed against Axel and whispered, 'The beast men. They have crossed our trail and scented it. They are following us now.'

McKay heard her and called for silence, but although they all strained their ears to listen they could not catch the faintest sound. The very silence of the grave brooded over those chill black catacombs untrodden by man for over a hundred centuries.

'Are you sure you're not mistaken?' he asked after a moment.

'I am certain,' she insisted. 'I hear with my mind which is more delicately attuned than any human ear. They are coming after us. The soft padding of their naked feet comes quite clearly to me.'

'All right!' he said. 'We'd best move on again.'

After a further mile of uphill going the tunnel ended in another chamber.

'For God's sake stop,' gasped Nicky as they entered it; 'the pace you set is frightful. We can outdistance those brutes if they come up just as we did before. Let's take a breather now.'

The McKay knew that from fear of what lay behind them they must have walked the last lap at nearly five miles an hour in spite of the gradient. Sally was panting heavily beside him and Camilla in his rear. Of the women only Lulluma seemed unaffected. Common sense told him that he had got to suit the pace to the weakest members of the party. Reluctantly he halted and announced, 'Very well then, well take a spell.'

They sat down on the rocky floor and endeavoured to 340

control their laboured breaching but, before the ten minutes were up they were spurred on again.

Faint, almost imperceptible at first, yet gradually quite clearly they heard the steady pad—pad—pad of running feet approaching up the tunnel they had just traversed.

The flickering torches showed that the cavern they were now in had many entrances but Lulluma did not hesitate a moment. With Axel beside her she dived into one and almost unconsciously they all broke from a quick walk: into a trot, as they followed.

The floor sloped upward again and it was heavy going. Nicky puffed and laboured in their rear in spite of his boasted fitness.

Another mile, or perhaps two, for they could only judge the distances roughly, was covered, and the sound of following footsteps had died away when Lulluma suddenly exclaimed:

'Be careful—we are approaching another earth rift.'

They dropped back into a rapid walk and, within a few yards, found that her peculiar gifts of judging direction and determining localities in the darkness from her memory of the mine plan, had not deceived her. A crevasse opened up before them.

This time it had no steps to descend in order to reach a continuation of the tunnel lower down. That gaped opposite to them, open and black in the beam of the torches.

In past centuries a bridge of stones had perhaps spanned the chasm but, if so, it had fallen away. The gulf yawned wide and deep at their feet.

'We've got to jump it,' declared the McKay. 'It's not much over two yards—a child could do it.'

He was not far out in his estimate but eight feet is a lot when a slip means being dashed to death in a fathomless pit shrouded by darkness.

'Give us a lead Sally me'dear!' To ask her to go first was perhaps the most courageous thing he had ever done, but he knew that he had got to get the women over somehow and not even Vladimir could have carried their weight as well as his own in such a jump.

'Stand back,' gasped Sally, 'and I'll do it!'

She took a run. The McKay's heart seemed to rise and choke his throat, while others focused their torches on the opposite edge. Sally sprang high in the air, and landed a good four feet clear over the gap, barking her knees on the hard rock as she fell but in an ample margin of safety.

'Bravo 1' called Axel, 'now the next; Luiluma darling you could jump twice that distance easily.'

Without a word Lullurna took a flying leap and landed on the further brink, where Sally pulled her to her feet.

Camilla had one of the torches and, in flashing it round, noticed a jutting snag of rock waist high in the tunnel wall at their side. She swung out on it as Luiluma reached the other brink and next moment she was over.

Axel and the McKay followed. Only Vladimir and Nicky were left, the latter goggling at the crevasse in horror.

The Prince caught a glimpse of Nicky's face in the wavering torchlight. 'Now Public Cad Number one, do you jump or do I kick you,' he said with grim delight.

'I—I can't,' stuttered Nicky. 'I'm weighted down—the stuff I'm carrying is so heavy.'

'What stuff?' snapped the McKay from the further side.

'Food and—and when I overheard Axel talking to Luiluma of a chance to get away I—I took a few souvenirs.'

'Souvenirs I' the biting contempt in the McKay's voice cut the darkness like a whip, but Vladimir had seized Nicky again and thrust a hand into his coat pocket.

As he pulled it out the torchlight showed the dull gleam of gold between his fingers. Then as he opened them they saw in his palm a lump of the rich metal encrusted with precious stones.

'So that's where he disappeared to just before we left,' Axel exclaimed angrily. 'The dirty little thief was busy robbing the temple.'

Vladimir hurled the gem studded piece of gold down into the abyss then he grabbed Nicky by the scruff of the neck.

'Do you go over dog-cur—or do I hurl you after your loot with one great tossing?'

Nicky wrenched himself free and leapt. He landed heavily on the further edge. The McKay jerked him to his feet and shook him.

'If you've got any more of that stuff you'd better get rid of it. You'll be caught for certain if you lag behind—and gold weighs mighty heavy.'

'Don't I know it,' Nicky panted, and obediently pro-342

ducing four more pieces from various pockets, he dropped them down the shaft.

Vladimir had crossed at a bound but clearing the gulf and the altercation with Nicky had lost them precious precious moments. As they started off they could all hear again that stealthy patter made by the herd that followed in their rear.

The going was harder than ever now since the gradient was still steeper but the McKay encouraged them as they ran by panting: 'we're safe from those brutes now. They'll never be able to cross that chasm.'

'Won't they,' gasped Camilla a moment later. 'They will —if they find that snag of rock—by which—I swung myself over.'

'Courage,' cried Lulluma in a low voice. 'Have courage. We are not far now from the place where the tunnel is blocked—if we can only get through that....'

Another hundred yards and they reached it. The roof had fallen in and a heap of great stones barred further progress.

'Show all your lights,' cried the McKay and he began to make a quick examination.

One large rock supported many others; there was a space beneath it but only a child could have wriggled through.

'That's the fellow we've got to shift,' he said. 'Then we can only pray to God that there are not others like it further on.'

'Will you use both bombs?' asked Axel.

'No, one should be enough to smash this up. If I keep the other it means one more chance of getting through.'

While the women held the lights the McKay placed the bomb and adjusted its detonator. The rest gathered all the scattered rocks they could lay their hands on and piled them round the opening to concentrate the force of the explosion.

'Now! back you go—all of you,' rapped out the McKay. 'A hundred yards at least. I'll be with you in a moment.'

They had scarcely covered the distance when he came racing towards them.

As he clutched at Sally a blinding flame leapt out of the darkness. There was a thunderous roar which echoed down

the tunnel for minutes afterwards punctuated by the clink

and thud of falling stones.

On the McKay's word they dashed forward again. The big rock was shattered but its splintering had brought down all the smaller stuff from above and a great heap of debris now faced them.

Without a moments delay they attacked the barrier, hurling the loose metal behind them. The task seemed endless but after half an hour a hole eight feet deep had been made below the larger rocks which were still jammed above.

'You must be quick,' announced Lulluma tremulously. 'The beast men were scared by the explosion, but they have recovered now and are crossing the chasm by the spur— one by one. I can hear their twittering as they mass on this side before advancing.'

The workers redoubled their efforts tearing their nails and fingers as they wrenched out the jagged stones. The McKay lay on his face passing back the loose shale while Vladimir performed prodigies in increasing the size of the opening so that their leader could work more freely.

'Be quick—be quick!' cried Lulluma. 'The herd are coming!'

The McKay gave a yell of triumph almost at the same moment.

'I'm through,' he called. 'I'm through if only I can shift this blasted lump next to my shoulders.'

Two terrible moments followed. They could hear the brutes now padding towards them, but Sally was terrified for the McKay. She feared that in moving the block he might bring down another fall of rock which would crush him.

'I've done it!' he shouted. 'Down on your tummies— through you come.' Then the beast men were upon them.

Axel pushed Lulluma down into the hole as he turned with Vladimir and Nicky to face the attack. They still had their steel levers which they had taken from the bathysphere and they used them savagely as the white leprous faces showed up in the torchlight.

The McKay, with his shoulders thrust into the far end of the passage he had made, grabbed Lulluma's hands and pulled her through, then Sally, then Camilla; Nicky abandoned the fight and wriggled in hard on Camilla's heels. The five of them waited with pounding hearts for the others.

After a moment Axel's head appeared and he held out his hand. 'Your gun,' he gasped to the McKay, 'quick—give it to me.'

Bozo's pistol held three bullets, the part-reload that the McKay had kept in his pocket. He thrust it on Axel without a second's delay and the Count squirmed back through the hole to the far side of the barrier where Vladimir was fighting for his life against the score of skinny clawlike hands that sought to drag him down.

There were three deafening reports, then silence. Almost immediately afterwards Axel appeared again and Vladimir after him. The shots had temporarily quelled the herd and enabled them to get away before the foul creatures recovered.

'We'll remain here, knock them out one by one as they come through, muttered the McKay and he had hardly spoken when the first parrot-beaked brute thrust its narrow head through the opening.

Vladimir clove the head at a single blow, and it died without a whimper. The body was pulled back and another head appeared. They killed its owner too and a half dozen others that came after him. Then the attempts ceased but the clink and fall of rock could be heard from the side where the herd were gathered.

'They're enlarging the opening so that five or six of them can come at us together,' said Axel. 'We may slaughter half a hundred but they'll wear us down before we can kill one tenth of them.'

'You're right. We'd best block the hole this end as best we can—then go on,' the McKay responded. 'It will take them some time to shift the whole barrier.'

They did as he suggested, then marched up the hill again but their speed decreased in an alarming manner. Zakar had only cleared the tunnels as far as the point where he had met his death; from there on the whole floor was littered with masses of stones and rubble over which they stumbled, and in some places there were belts of debris shoulder high that could only be crossed by clambering on all fours.

These painful delays held a new menace, for where before they had been able easily to outdistance the herd by running, they could no longer do so. Once their pursuers were through the barrier the lead held by the hunted humans could not be increased again.

Another barrier reared itself up before them and their hearts almost stopped beating. For a second it looked as if they were finally trapped, but it was found that the stones did not quite reach the roof.

Luiluma had not spoken for an hour but, without her warning, they knew that their apparently implacable enemies were after them again. They could hear them slithering over the rocks behind and their horrid bird-like twitter.

The McKay scaled the new barrier and reported that they could get through under the roof as far as he could see. Utterly weary now the others hauled themselves up beside him and wriggled along over the sharp corners on their stomachs.

The blockage continued for fifty yards and downward-jutting rocks in the roof made the passage still more difficult. Before they had reached its further end they could smell the stench of the fish eaters entering it behind them.

Camilla dropped exhausted on the far side of the rocks. Vladimir picked her up, slung her over his shoulder and pushed on, leading now; Axel and Nicky were in the rear both sobbing for breath as they staggered up the steep stony uneven way.

Other passages began to branch off from the tunnel. They passed twenty openings in less than five minutes but Luiluma never hesitated, calling directions to Vladimir as she followed swiftly on his heels.

'I can't go on,' yelled Nicky suddenly.

The McKay turned and flashed his torch upon him as he ran. His eyes were glaring, his face dead white and ghastly, his fair hair matted on his forehead.

'What the hell's the matter with you man,' shouted the McKay. 'Didn't you unload all that gold as I told you to?'

'No,' sobbed Nicky. 'No—all I could—but—but the rest's tied round my waist and legs—to—to distribute the weight. I've had no chance to—get—rid—of—it.'

Vladimir was carrying Camilla. Luiluma ran with set teeth just behind them. The McKay had Sally by the arm and was still thrusting her on although she was half fainting.

Axel was nearly done himself and finding it a terrible effort to keep up with the party. None of them could help Nicky now.

He gave a despairing cry and pitched forward on his face —picked himself up and lurched on again—but he had lost a dozen yards, and the beast men, their feet hardened to these stony floors were close behind.

A wild burst of exultant gibbering came as Nicky fell again, the stench of rotting fish was all about him, and then they were tearing at him with their talons.

The others were so desperately pressed that they did not realise what had happened until it was too late to attempt his rescue. While the front ranks of the herd ripped him to pieces the other humans gained a momentarily increased lead, but Axel's strength was failing.

Lulluma felt it instinctively and paused till he came up— then she flung out a hand to pull him forward.

'It's not far now,' she breathed. 'It's not far now. We'll do it unless we are stopped by another barrier.'

His breath came in choking sobs as he grabbed her hand and pressed it. 'The chart of the mines—it weighs me down so. I'll have to drop it.'

'What!—you took that?' she pulled up with a jerk. Her tone held indescribable horror and reproach.

'Yes,' his voice was thick and rasping as he halted beside her. 'In case we lost our way—I—went back to the temple for it—afterwards.'

Yet as he spoke he knew he had not told all the truth. Even the slender chance that they might escape had filled him with an overwhelming desire to bring something back to the upper world which would definitely prove the existence of Atlantis. The chart of the mine galleries was composed of twelve sheets of heavy copper delicately hinged so that it could be spread out like a map and engraved upon it were countless directions and phrases inscribed with the utmost care in Atlantean hieroglyphics; that lost language which Doctor Tisch had so stoutly maintained was the root of both Egyptian and the Maya of Central America—linking them to their common parent.

Just as Nicky's god had been Gold so Axel, through all his life, had worshipped Wisdom. The thought of needing the chart to find their way had been sufficient to excuse him to himself when he took it, because he did not know that Lulluma would prove so sure a guide, but now, as he faced her in the darkness, he knew that he would have told her that he meant to do so if he had not been impelled to the theft by a second motive.

'Give it to me,' she said.

He pulled it from beneath his shirt where he had been carrying it and handed it to her.

A shout came from the McKay further up the passage. 'Come on—what the hell are you two waiting for?'

'What—what are you going to do?' stammered Axel his heart contracting in a hideous fear.

'Take it back,' she said simply. 'I must. It is one of the sacred documents of the Temple.'

'You can't,' he cried. 'You can't. It's too late—the herd will get you.'

'Come on!' yelled the McKay again his voice coming from a greater distance. 'There's daylight ahead—daylight.'

'I can,' said Lulluma. 'I shall hide in one of these passages until the lish eaters have gone, I can travel more swiftly than they can and my senses will warn me if they are near. I must go back Axel.'

The herd were pelting up the hill. Their gibbering filled Axel's ears, the stink of them was strong in his nostrils.

He grabbed Lulluma by the shoulders and tried to thrust her in the direction the rest of the party had taken, but she slipped away from him.

The McKay was holloaing, nearer again now. 'Where in God's name are you?'

Half stunned by distress Axel groped for Lulluma in the darkness. He caught a whisper.

'Axel. If I get back I shall never—what you call marry again—bless you.'

Then she had gone, diving into one of those side passages which she could discern but he could not.

He sank down on the ground and there, a second later, the beam of the McKay's torch found him.

'Lulluma's gone—gone back to her people,' he gasped as the McKay hauled him to his feet by his coat collar.

With shrill cries of triumph the beast men launched themselves upon them but the McKay held the half conscious Axel under the armpit and was literally forcing him along

as the herd clamoured at their heels. He knew now that daylight and safety lay ahead if only they could reach it.

Neither ever knew how they covered those last four hundred yards but in the latter part they were slipping and stumbling over seaweed.

Vladimir, carrying Love alone, had got Camilla up through a narrow gap in the rocks on to a long desolate shore lit by the afternoon sunshine.

Then he had dragged Sally out beside her. Now he returned into the entrance of the cave and grabbed Axel as he fell senseless.

The McKay scrambled up after them—then he turned and flung his last bomb into the opening. They heard the dull boom as the rocks lifted. The roof of the tunnel caved in and buried the first hundred of the beast men. The entrance of the passage seemed to tremble as though seen through a haze of heat then it dissolved into a mass of rocks, indistinguishable from those about it.

They had all reached the limit of endurance. Sally, Camilla and Axel sprawled senseless in a heap. Vladimir just witnessed the closing of the road that led downwards to Atlantis before his great legs gave way and he fell beside them.

For a moment the McKay stood there, his feet squarely planted, as he drank in the gentle breeze, the salt sea air, the blessed sunlight, then he pitched forward—unconscious but triumphant.

The following is an extract from a letter written some considerable time later by Count Axel Fersan on Pico Island to Mrs. N. A. McKay—then in the United States of America.

Another season has passed and I am again compelled to abandon any search owing to the great gales which now sweep the beaches here.

You might well imagine that I know every yard of the desolate south and east coasts of Pico by this time, but when you and your beloved Captain come to stay with me next summer, as you have promised, you will appreciate the immense difficulty of my task.

The rocky promontories and innumerable coves all look so much alike that even I, who have spent so many weary months here, still find it hard to distinguish one from another except by continual checking on my map.

At times I utterly despair of ever finding the exact spot where we were picked up half dead by the crew of the fishing boat, and even that would be only a beginning since, in our delirium, we wandered, probably several miles, along the shore after the McKay blew in the entrance of the tunnel; but those black moods never last and I am already longing for our short winter to be over so that I can get down to my search again.

For the rest, owing to your splendid generosity, I live in epicurean comfort. The Roman Villa which you had built to my design is not large as you know but, now that its gardens provide a suitable setting, very beautiful.

The nine fruit trees which I grew from the stones we saved are doing well. They occupy a little sheltered court containing nothing else, just below my window. I tend them with a more devoted care than any horticulturist ever gave to a black tulip or a blue rose, since they are the only tangible thing remaining of our journey to Atlantis. When you are here they will be in blossom and recall to you with startling vividness the beauty and the fragrance of my dear Luiluma.

You will be prepared, of course, for a very quiet time. There is hardly an educated person on the island but that suits me, since it eliminates the necessity for a tiresome exchange of visits and wasting time among people who would probably have little in common with myself. How ever, I do not lead a completely useless life as, owing once more to your generosity, I have been able to do much for the fisher folk along the coast.

They think me a little mad owing to my obsession with the foreshore but not entirely so. In fact they endeavour to ignore my eccentricity, with the natural politeness found among common people, and in other ways have come to regard me as a sort of overlord.

Instead of carrying their disputes to the courts or resorting to private vengeance they have formed the habit of bringing them to me and accepting my decisions as a basis for settlement. In return I could always have as much free labour as I wished—if I needed it—and hardly a morning passes without a gift of fruit or vegetables being left at my door by someone to whom I have had the good fortune to be of assistance.

My last mail brought me one of those delightfully humorous effusions from Vladimir. He and his 'so beautiful Princess' beg me again to visit them in Bucharest in order to see my little godson but, great as is the temptation, I cannot bring myself to leave the islands even for a month.

He tells me that plausible rogue Slinger is out of prison and that they met him a few weeks ago in Paris. When I am feeling very low I can still revive my sense of humour by thinking of Kate's rage when he realised how completely he had been fooled by two young women. No wonder you were so scared of his return, and so certain that he would come back vowing vengeance immediately he discovered that neither the carefully thought out letter to your lawyer nor the signature to the will itself were in the Duchess da Solento-Ragina's writing.

How infinitely wise you were my dear, after your first tragic marriage, to decide on changing identities with your cousin and how fortunate that you did so before Slinger came on the scene.

How marvellously too your plan to secure a husband who loved you for yourself, instead of a fortune hunter, succeeded. As long as I live I shall never forget the McKay's face when he learned that it was he who had married the real heiress to the Hart millions.

It is good to think of these things as I laugh little in these days.

My conviction that Lulluma got back safely remains unshakable. I believe that in all her spirit travels she comes to me here and at times I can almost feel the warmth of her beside me. But even if that is sheer imagination she was carrying enough fruit to satisfy her hunger and thirst for a week and I doubt if she had to remain hidden more than a few hours. The herd would certainly have returned to the harbour for their next feed of fish and after that the road would have been clear for her to repass the barrier.

Immediate discovery after she had left us was her only 351

real danger, but she was swifter of foot than the beast men and possessed those special senses, to guide her through that maze of tunnels.

She is living still—I know it—less than twelve miles distant from where I am writing now—safe in that secret island blessed by eternal Spring.

If I could once locate the wrecked entrance to the underworld, through which we returned to pick up the threads of our previous lives again, the rest would be easy. In company with a few stout fellows armed with machine guns those brutes which are neither animals nor men would prove no serious obstacle. Within four hours' march of this barren shore I should be able to look upon Lulluma's face again—the only thing I live for.

That I am so near her and yet separated from her by a barrier more difficult to cross than the seas from pole to pole causes me, at times, to go almost frantic with frustration, but my life is pledged to finding my way back to that enchanted garden where she dwells.

She was less than divine yet more than human and it never ceases to amaze me that one so infinitely gentle could be so splendidly courageous. For all those years she had known a faultless existence yet she abandoned it willingly in order to save us as, without her guidance, we would never have come through.

That she gave me her love, even for a brief season, has lifted me too a little toward the gods.

I crave for the sound of her laughter as a man lost in the desert thirsts for water and, whether I find her again in this life or die here first, all that was my heart remains for ever with Lulluma.

If you would like a complete list of Arrow books please send a postcard to

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