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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lost Continent, by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Lost Continent
+
+Author: C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne
+
+Release Date: July 6, 2008 [EBook #285]
+Last Updated: November 8, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOST CONTINENT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Judith Boss
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LOST CONTINENT
+
+C. J. Cutliffe Hyne
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+          PREFATORY: THE LEGATEES OF DEUCALION
+           1  MY RECALL
+           2  BACK TO ATLANTIS
+           3  A RIVAL NAVY
+           4  THE WELCOME OF PHORENICE
+           5  ZAEMON’S CURSE
+           6  THE BITERS OF THE CITY WALLS
+           7  THE BITERS OF THE WALLS
+              (FURTHER ACCOUNT)
+           8  THE PREACHER FROM THE MOUNTAINS
+           9  PHORENICE, GODDESS
+          10  A WOOING
+          11  AN AFFAIR WITH THE BARBAROUS FISHERS
+          12  THE DRUG OF OUR LADY THE MOON
+          13  THE BURYING ALIVE OF NAIS
+          14  AGAIN THE GODS MAKE CHANGE
+          15  ZAEMON’S SUMMONS
+          16  SIEGE OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN
+          17  NAIS THE REGAINED
+          18  STORM OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN
+          19  DESTRUCTION OF THE ATLANTIS
+          20  ON THE BOSOM OF THE DEEP
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFATORY:
+
+THE LEGATEES OF DEUCALION
+
+
+We were both of us not a little stiff as the result of sleeping out in
+the open all that night, for even in Grand Canary the dew-fall and the
+comparative chill of darkness are not to be trifled with. For myself on
+these occasions I like a bit of a run as an early refresher. But here on
+this rough ground in the middle of the island there were not three yards
+of level to be found, and so as Coppinger proceeded to go through some
+sort of dumb-bell exercises with a couple of lumps of bristly lava, I
+followed his example. Coppinger has done a good deal of roughing it in
+his time, but being a doctor of medicine amongst other things--he takes
+out a new degree of some sort on an average every other year--he is
+great on health theories, and practises them like a religion.
+
+There had been rain two days before, and as there was still a bit of
+stream trickling along at the bottom of the barranca, we went down there
+and had a wash, and brushed our teeth. Greatest luxury imaginable, a
+toothbrush, on this sort of expedition.
+
+“Now,” said Coppinger when we had emptied our pockets, “there’s precious
+little grub left, and it’s none the better for being carried in a local
+Spanish newspaper.”
+
+“Yours is mostly tobacco ashes.”
+
+“It’ll get worse if we leave it. We’ve a lot more bad scrambling ahead
+of us.”
+
+That was obvious. So we sat down beside the stream there at the bottom
+of the barranca, and ate up all of what was left. It was a ten-mile
+tramp to the fonda at Santa Brigida, where we had set down our traps;
+and as Coppinger wanted to take a lot more photographs and measurements
+before we left this particular group of caves, it was likely we should
+be pretty sharp set before we got our next meal, and our next taste of
+the PATRON’S splendid old country wine. My faith! If only they knew down
+in the English hotels in Las Palmas what magnificent wines one could
+get--with diplomacy--up in some of the mountain villages, the old
+vintage would become a thing of the past in a week.
+
+Now to tell the truth, the two mummies he had gathered already quite
+satisfied my small ambition. The goatskins in which they were sewn up
+were as brittle as paper, and the poor old things themselves gave out
+dust like a puffball whenever they were touched. But you know what
+Coppinger is. He thought he’d come upon traces of an old Guanche
+university, or sacred college, or something of that kind, like the one
+there is on the other side of the island, and he wouldn’t be satisfied
+till he’d ransacked every cave in the whole face of the cliff. He’d
+plenty of stuff left for the flashlight thing, and twenty-eight more
+films in his kodak, and said we might as well get through with the job
+then as make a return journey all on purpose. So he took the crowbar,
+and I shouldered the rope, and away we went up to the ridge of the
+cliff, where we had got such a baking from the sun the day before.
+
+Of course these caves were not easy to come at, or else they would have
+been raided years before. Coppinger, who on principle makes out he
+knows all about these things, says that in the old Guanche days they
+had ladders of goatskin rope which they could pull up when they were at
+home, and so keep out undesirable callers; and as no other plan occurs
+to me, perhaps he may be right. Anyway the mouths of the caves were in
+a more or less level row thirty feet below the ridge of the cliff, and
+fifty feet above the bottom; and Spanish curiosity doesn’t go in much
+where it cannot walk.
+
+Now laddering such caves from below would have been cumbersome, but a
+light knotted rope is easily carried, and though it would have been hard
+to climb up this, our plan was to descend on each cave mouth from above,
+and then slip down to the foot of the cliffs, and start again AB INITIO
+for the next.
+
+Coppinger is plucky enough, and he has a good head on a height, but
+there is no getting over the fact that he is portly and nearer fifty
+than forty-five. So you can see he must have been pretty keen. Of course
+I went first each time, and got into the cave mouth, and did what I
+could to help him in; but when you have to walk down a vertical cliff
+face fly-fashion, with only a thin bootlace of a rope for support, it
+is not much real help the man below can give, except offer you his best
+wishes.
+
+I wanted to save him as much as I could, and as the first three caves
+I climbed to were small and empty, seeming to be merely store-places,
+I asked him to take them for granted, and save himself the rest. But
+he insisted on clambering down to each one in person, and as he decided
+that one of my granaries was a prison, and another a pot-making factory,
+and another a schoolroom for young priests, he naturally said he hadn’t
+much reliance on my judgment, and would have to go through the whole
+lot himself. You know what these thorough-going archaeologists are for
+imagination.
+
+But as the day went on, and the sun rose higher, Coppinger began clearly
+to have had enough of it, though he was very game, and insisted on going
+on much longer than was safe. I must say I didn’t like it. You see
+the drop was seldom less than eighty feet from the top of the cliffs.
+However, at last he was forced to give it up. I suggested marching off
+to Santa Brigida forthwith, but he wouldn’t do that. There were three
+more cave-openings to be looked into, and if I wouldn’t do them for him,
+he would have to make another effort to get there himself. He tried to
+make out he was conferring a very great favour on me by offering to take
+a report solely from my untrained observation, but I flatly refused to
+look at it in that light. I was pretty tired also; I was soaked with
+perspiration from the heat; my head ached from the violence of the sun;
+and my hands were cut raw with the rope.
+
+Coppinger might be tired, but he was still enthusiastic. He tried to
+make me enthusiastic also. “Look here,” he said, “there’s no knowing
+what you may find up there, and if you do lay hands on anything,
+remember it’s your own. I shall have no claim whatever.”
+
+“Very kind of you, but I’ve got no use for any more mummies done up in
+goatskin bags.”
+
+“Bah! That’s not a burial cave up there. Don’t you know the difference
+yet in the openings? Now, be a good fellow. It doesn’t follow that
+because we have drawn all the rest blank, you won’t stumble across a
+good find for yourself up there.”
+
+“Oh, very well,” I said, as he seemed so set on it; and away I stumbled
+over the fallen rocks, and along the ledge, and then scrambled up by
+that fissure in the cliff which saved us the two-mile round which we had
+had to take at first. I wrenched out the crowbar, and jammed it down
+in a new place, and then away I went over the side, with hands smarting
+worse at every new grip of the rope. It was an awkward job swinging into
+the cave mouth because the rock above overhung, or else (what came to
+the same thing) it had broken away below; but I managed it somehow,
+although I landed with an awkward thump on my back, and at the same time
+I didn’t let go the rope. It wouldn’t do to have lost the rope then:
+Coppinger couldn’t have flicked it into me from where he was below.
+
+Now from the first glance I could see that this cave was of different
+structure to the others. They were for the most part mere dens, rounded
+out anyhow; this had been faced up with cutting tools, so that all the
+angles were clean, and the sides smooth and flat. The walls inclined
+inwards to the roof, reminding me of an architecture I had seen before
+but could not recollect where, and moreover there were several rooms
+connected up with passages. I was pleased to find that the other
+cave-openings which Coppinger wanted me to explore were merely the
+windows or the doorways of two of these other rooms.
+
+Of inscriptions or markings on the walls there was not a trace, though I
+looked carefully, and except for bats the place was entirely bare. I
+lit a cigarette and smoked it through--Coppinger always thinks one is
+slurring over work if it is got through too quickly--and then I went
+to the entrance where the rope was, and leaned out, and shouted down my
+news.
+
+He turned up a very anxious face. “Have you searched it thoroughly?” he
+bawled back.
+
+“Of course I have. What do you think I’ve been doing all this time?”
+
+“No, don’t come down yet. Wait a minute. I say, old man, do wait a
+minute. I’m making fast the kodak and the flashlight apparatus on the
+end of the rope. Pull them up, and just make me half a dozen exposures,
+there’s a good fellow.”
+
+“Oh, all right,” I said, and hauled the things up, and got them inside.
+The photographs would be absolutely dull and uninteresting, but that
+wouldn’t matter to Coppinger. He rather preferred them that way. One has
+to be careful about halation in photographing these dark interiors, but
+there was a sort of ledge like a seat by the side of each doorway, and
+so I lodged the camera on that to get a steady stand, and snapped off
+the flashlight from behind and above.
+
+I got pictures of four of the chambers this way, and then came to one
+where the ledge was higher and wider. I put down the camera, wedged it
+level with scraps of stone, and then sat down myself to recharge the
+flashlight machine. But the moment my weight got on that ledge, there
+was a sharp crackle, and down I went half a dozen inches.
+
+Of course I was up again pretty sharply, and snapped up the kodak just
+as it was going to slide off to the ground. I will confess, too, I was
+feeling pleased. Here at any rate was a Guanche cupboard of sorts, and
+as they had taken the trouble to hermetically seal it with cement, the
+odds were that it had something inside worth hiding. At first there
+was nothing to be seen but a lot of dust and rubble, so I lit a bit of
+candle and cleared this away. Presently, however, I began to find that
+I was shelling out something that was not cement. It chipped away, in
+regular layers, and when I took it to the daylight I found that each
+layer was made up of two parts. One side was shiny stuff that looked
+like talc, and on this was smeared a coating of dark toffee-coloured
+material, that might have been wax. The toffee-coloured surface was
+worked over with some kind of pattern.
+
+Now I do not profess to any knowledge on these matters, and as a
+consequence took what Coppinger had told me about Guanche habits and
+acquirements as more or less true. For instance, he had repeatedly
+impressed upon me that this old people could not write, and having this
+in my memory, I did not guess that the patterns scribed through the
+wax were letters in some obsolete character, which, if left to myself,
+probably I should have done. But still at the same time I came to
+the conclusion that the stuff was worth looting, and so set to work
+quarrying it out with the heel of my boot and a pocket-knife.
+
+The sheets were all more or less stuck together, and so I did not go in
+for separating them farther. They fitted exactly to the cavity in which
+they were stored, but by smashing down its front I was able to get at
+the foot of them, and then I hacked away through the bottom layers with
+the knife till I got the bulk out in one solid piece. It measured some
+twenty inches by fifteen, by fifteen, but it was not so heavy as it
+looked, and when I had taken the remaining photographs, I lowered it
+down to Coppinger on the end of the rope.
+
+There was nothing more to do in the caves then, so I went down myself
+next. The lump of sheets was on the ground, and Coppinger was on all
+fours beside it. He was pretty nearly mad with excitement.
+
+
+“What is it?” I asked him.
+
+“I don’t know yet. But it is the most valuable find ever made in the
+Canary Islands, and it’s yours, you unappreciative beggar; at least what
+there is left of it. Oh, man, man, you’ve smashed up the beginning, and
+you’ve smashed up the end of some history that is probably priceless.
+It’s my own fault. I ought to have known better than set an untrained
+man to do important exploring work.”
+
+“I should say it’s your fault if anything’s gone wrong. You said there
+was no such thing as writing known to these ancient Canarios, and I
+took your word for it. For anything I knew the stuff might have been
+something to eat.”
+
+“It isn’t Guanche work at all,” said he testily. “You ought to have
+known that from the talc. Great heavens, man, have you no eyes? Haven’t
+you seen the general formation of the island? Don’t you know there’s no
+talc here?”
+
+“I’m no geologist. Is this imported literature then?”
+
+“Of course. It’s Egyptian: that’s obvious at a glance. Though how
+it’s got here I can’t tell yet. It isn’t stuff you can read off like
+a newspaper. The character’s a variant on any of those that have been
+discovered so far. And as for this waxy stuff spread over the talc,
+it’s unique. It’s some sort of a mineral, I think: perhaps asphalt. It
+doesn’t scratch up like animal wax. I’ll analyse that later. Why they
+once invented it, and then let such a splendid notion drop out of use,
+is just a marvel. I could stay gloating over this all day.”
+
+“Well,” I said, “if it’s all the same for you, I’d rather gloat over a
+meal. It’s a good ten miles hard going to the fonda, and I’m as hungry
+as a hawk already. Look here, do you know it is four o’clock already?
+It takes longer than you think climbing down to each of these caves, and
+then getting up again for the next.”
+
+Coppinger spread his coat on the ground, and wrapped the lump of sheets
+with tender care, but would not allow it to be tied with a rope for fear
+of breaking more of the edges. He insisted on carrying it himself too,
+and did so for the larger part of the way to Santa Brigida, and it was
+only when he was within an ace of dropping himself with sheer tiredness
+that he condescended to let me take my turn. He was tolerably ungracious
+about it too. “I suppose you may as well carry the stuff,” he snapped,
+“seeing that after all it’s your own.”
+
+Personally, when we got to the fonda, I had as good a dinner as was
+procurable, and a bottle of that old Canary wine, and turned into bed
+after a final pipe. Coppinger dined also, but I have reason to believe
+he did not sleep much. At any rate I found him still poring over the
+find next morning, and looking very heavy-eyed, but brimming with
+enthusiasm.
+
+“Do you know,” he said, “that you’ve blundered upon the most valuable
+historical manuscript that the modern world has ever yet seen? Of
+course, with your clumsy way of getting it out, you’ve done an infinity
+of damage. For instance, those top sheets you shelled away and
+spoiled, contained probably an absolutely unique account of the ancient
+civilisation of Yucatan.”
+
+“Where’s that, anyway?”
+
+“In the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. It’s all ruins to-day, but once it
+was a very prosperous colony of the Atlanteans.”
+
+“Never heard of them. Oh yes, I have though. They were the people
+Herodotus wrote about, didn’t he? But I thought they were mythical.”
+
+“They were very real, and so was Atlantis, the continent where they
+lived, which lay just north of the Canaries here.”
+
+“What’s that crocodile sort of thing with wings drawn in the margin?”
+
+“Some sort of beast that lived in those bygone days. The pages are full
+of them. That’s a cave-tiger. And that’s some sort of colossal bat.
+Thank goodness he had the sense to illustrate fully, the man who wrote
+this, or we should never have been able to reconstruct the tale, or at
+any rate we could not have understood half of it. Whole species have
+died out since this was written, just as a whole continent has been
+swept away and three civilisations quenched. The worst of it is, it was
+written by a highly-educated man who somewhat naturally writes a very
+bad fist. I’ve hammered at it all the night through, and have only
+managed to make out a few sentences here and there”--he rubbed his hands
+appreciatively. “It will take me a year’s hard work to translate this
+properly.”
+
+“Every man to his taste. I’m afraid my interest in the thing wouldn’t
+last as long as that. But how did it get there? Did your ancient
+Egyptian come to Grand Canary for the good of his lungs, and write it
+because he felt dull up in that cave?”
+
+“I made a mistake there. The author was not an Egyptian. It was the
+similarity of the inscribed character which misled me. The book was
+written by one Deucalion, who seems to have been a priest or general--or
+perhaps both--and he was an Atlantean. How it got there, I don’t know
+yet. Probably that was told in the last few pages, which a certain
+vandal smashed up with his pocketknife, in getting them away from the
+place where they were stowed.”
+
+“That’s right, abuse me. Deucalion you say? There was a Deucalion in the
+Greek mythology. He was one of the two who escaped from the Flood: their
+Noah, in fact.”
+
+“The swamping of the continent of Atlantis might very well correspond to
+the Flood.”
+
+“Is there a Pyrrha then? She was Deucalion’s wife.”
+
+“I haven’t come across her yet. But there’s a Phorenice, who may be the
+same. She seems to have been the reigning Empress, as far as I can make
+out at present.”
+
+I looked with interest at illustrations in the margin. They were quite
+understandable, although the perspective was all wrong. “Weird beasts
+they seem to have had knocking about the country in those days. Whacking
+big size too, if one may judge. By Jove, that’ll be a cave-tiger trying
+to puff down a mammoth. I shouldn’t care to have lived in those days.”
+
+“Probably they had some way of fighting the creatures. However, that
+will show itself as I get along with the translation.” He looked at his
+watch--“I suppose I ought to be ashamed of myself, but I haven’t been to
+bed. Are you going out?”
+
+“I shall drive back to Las Palmas. I promised a man to have a round at
+golf this afternoon.”
+
+“Very well, see you at dinner. I hope they’ve sent back my dress shirts
+from the wash. O, lord! I am sleepy.”
+
+I left him going up to bed, and went outside and ordered a carriage to
+take me down, and there I may say we parted for a considerable time.
+A cable was waiting for me in the hotel at Las Palmas to go home for
+business forthwith, and there was a Liverpool boat in the harbour which
+I just managed to catch as she was steaming out. It was a close thing,
+and the boatmen made a small fortune out of my hurry.
+
+Now Coppinger was only an hotel acquaintance, and as I was up to the
+eyes in work when I got back to England, I’m afraid I didn’t think very
+much more about him at the time. One doesn’t with people one just meets
+casually abroad like that. And it must have been at least a year later
+that I saw by a paragraph in one of the papers, that he had given the
+lump of sheets to the British Museum, and that the estimated worth of
+them was ten thousand pounds at the lowest valuation.
+
+Well, this was a bit of revelation, and as he had so repeatedly
+impressed on me that the things were mine by right of discovery, I wrote
+rather a pointed note to him mentioning that he seemed to have been
+making rather free with my property. Promptly came back a stilted letter
+beginning, “Doctor Coppinger regrets” and so on, and with it the English
+translation of the wax-upon-talc MSS. He “quite admitted” my claim,
+and “trusted that the profits of publication would be a sufficient
+reimbursement for any damage received.”
+
+Now I had no idea that he would take me unpleasantly like this, and
+wrote back a pretty warm reply to that effect; but the only answer I got
+to this was through a firm of solicitors, who stated that all further
+communications with Dr. Coppinger must be made through them.
+
+I will say here publicly that I regret the line he has taken over the
+matter; but as the affair has gone so far, I am disposed to follow out
+his proposition. Accordingly the old history is here printed; the credit
+(and the responsibility) of the translation rests with Dr. Coppinger;
+and whatever revenue accrues from readers, goes to the finder of the
+original talc-upon-wax sheets, myself.
+
+If there is a further alteration in this arrangement, it will be
+announced publicly at a later date. But at present this appears to be
+most unlikely.
+
+
+
+
+1. MY RECALL
+
+
+The public official reception was over. The sentence had been read, the
+name of Phorenice, the Empress, adored, and the new Viceroy installed
+with all that vast and ponderous ceremonial which had gained its pomp
+and majesty from the ages. Formally, I had delivered up the reins of my
+government; formally, Tatho had seated himself on the snake-throne, and
+had put over his neck the chain of gems which symbolised the supreme
+office; and then, whilst the drums and the trumpets made their
+proclamation of clamour, he had risen to his feet, for his first state
+progress round that gilded council chamber as Viceroy of the Province of
+Yucatan.
+
+With folded arms and bended head, I followed him between the glittering
+lines of soldiers, and the brilliant throng of courtiers, and chiefs,
+and statesmen. The roof-beams quivered to the cries of “Long Live
+Tatho!” “Flourish the Empress!” which came forth as in duty bound, and
+the new ruler acknowledged the welcome with stately inclinations of
+the head. In turn he went to the three lesser thrones of the lesser
+governors--in the East, the North, and the South, and received homage
+from each as the ritual was; and I, the man whom his coming had deposed,
+followed with the prescribed meekness in his train.
+
+It was a hard task, but we who hold the higher offices learn to carry
+before the people a passionless face. Once, twenty years before, these
+same fine obeisances had been made to me; now the Gods had seen fit to
+make fortune change. But as I walked bent and humbly on behind the heels
+of Tatho, though etiquette forbade noisy salutations to myself, it could
+not inhibit kindly glances, and these came from every soldier, every
+courtier, and every chief who stood there in that gilded hall, and
+they fell upon me very gratefully. It is not often the fallen meet such
+tender looks.
+
+The form goes, handed down from immemorial custom, that on these great
+ceremonial days of changing a ruler, those of the people being present
+may bring forward petitions and requests; may make accusations against
+their retiring head with sure immunity from his vengeance; or may state
+their own private theories for the better government of the State in the
+future. I think it may be pardoned to my vanity if I record that not a
+voice was raised against me, or against any of the items of my twenty
+years of rule. Nor did any speak out for alterations in the future.
+Yes, even though we made the circuit for the three prescribed times, all
+present showed their approval in generous silence.
+
+Then, one behind the other, the new Viceroy and the old, we marched with
+formal step over golden tiles of that council hall beneath the pyramid,
+and the great officers of state left their stations and joined in our
+train; and at the farther wall we came to the door of those private
+chambers which an hour ago had been mine own.
+
+Ah, well! I had no home now in any of those wondrous cities of Yucatan,
+and I could not help feeling a bitterness, though in sooth I should have
+been thankful enough to return to the Continent of Atlantis with my head
+still in its proper station.
+
+Tatho gave his formal summons of “Open ye to the Viceroy,” which the
+ritual commands, and the slaves within sent the massive stone valves of
+the door gaping wide. Tatho entered, I at his heels; the others halted,
+sending valedictions from the threshold; and the valves of the door
+clanged on the lock behind us. We passed on to the chamber beyond, and
+then, when for the first time we were alone together, and the forced
+etiquette of courts was behind us, the new Viceroy turned with meekly
+folded arms, and bowed low before me.
+
+“Deucalion,” he said, “believe me that I have not sought this office. It
+was thrust upon me. Had I not accepted, my head would have paid forfeit,
+and another man--your enemy--would have been sent out as viceroy in
+your place. The Empress does not permit that her will shall ever be
+questioned.”
+
+“My friend,” I made answer, “my brother in all but blood, there is no
+man living in all Atlantis or her territories to whom I had liefer hand
+over my government. For twenty years now have I ruled this country
+of Yucatan, and Mexico beyond, first under the old King, and then
+as minister to this new Empress. I know my colony like a book. I am
+intimate with all her wonderful cities, with their palaces, their
+pyramids, and their people. I have hunted the beasts and the savages in
+the forests. I have built roads, and made the rivers so that they will
+carry shipping. I have fostered the arts and crafts like a merchant; I
+have discoursed, three times each day, the cult of the Gods with
+mine own lips. Through evil years and through good have I ruled here,
+striving only for the prosperity of the land and the strengthening of
+Atlantis, and I have grown to love the peoples like a father. To you I
+bequeath them, Tatho, with tender supplications for their interests.”
+
+“It is not I that can carry on Deucalion’s work with Deucalion’s power,
+but rest content, my friend, that I shall do my humble best to follow
+exactly on in your footsteps. Believe me, I came out to this government
+with a thousand regrets, but I would have died sooner than take your
+place had I known how vigorously the supplanting would trouble you.”
+
+“We are alone here,” I said, “away from the formalities of formal
+assemblies, and a man may give vent to his natural self without fear of
+tarnishing a ceremony. Your coming was something of the suddenest.
+Till an hour ago, when you demanded audience, I had thought to rule on
+longer; and even now I do not know for what cause I am deposed.”
+
+“The proclamation said: ‘We relieve our well-beloved Deucalion of his
+present service, because we have great need of his powers at home in our
+kingdom of Atlantis.’”
+
+“A mere formality.”
+
+Tatho looked uneasily round the hangings of the chamber, and drew me
+with him to its centre, and lowered his voice.
+
+“I do not think so,” he whispered. “I believe she has need of you. There
+are troublous times on hand, and Phorenice wants the ablest men in the
+kingdom ready to her call.”
+
+“You may speak openly,” I said, “and without fear of eavesdroppers.
+We are in the heart of the pyramid here, built in every way by a man’s
+length of solid stone. Myself, I oversaw the laying of every course.
+And besides, here in Yucatan, we have not the niceties of your old world
+diplomacy, and do not listen, because we count it shame to do so.”
+
+Tatho shrugged his shoulders. “I acted only according to mine education.
+At home, a loose tongue makes a loose head, and there are those whose
+trade it is to carry tales. Still, what I say is this: The throne
+shakes, and Phorenice sees the need of sturdy props. So she has sent
+this proclamation.”
+
+“But why come to me? It is twenty years since I sailed to this colony,
+and from that day I have not returned to Atlantis once. I know little of
+the old country’s politics. What small parcel of news drifts out to us
+across the ocean, reads with slender interest here. Yucatan is another
+world, my dear Tatho, as you in the course of your government will
+learn, with new interests, new people, new everything. To us here,
+Atlantis is only a figment, a shadow, far away across the waters. It
+is for this new world of Yucatan that I have striven through all these
+years.”
+
+“If Deucalion has small time to spare from his government for brooding
+over his fatherland, Atlantis, at least, has found leisure to admire
+the deeds of her brilliant son. Why, sir, over yonder at home, your name
+carries magic with it. When you and I were lads together, it was the
+custom in the colleges to teach that the men of the past were the
+greatest this world has ever seen; but to-day this teaching is changed.
+It is Deucalion who is held up as the model and example. Mothers name
+their sons Deucalion, as the most valuable birth-gift they can make.
+Deucalion is a household word. Indeed, there is only one name that is
+near to it in familiarity.”
+
+“You trouble me,” I said, frowning. “I have tried to do my duty for its
+own sake, and for the country’s sake, not for the pattings and fondlings
+of the vulgar. And besides, if there are names to be in every one’s
+mouth, they should be the names of the Gods.”
+
+Tatho shrugged his shoulders. “The Gods? They occupy us very little
+these latter years. With our modern science, we have grown past the
+tether of the older Gods, and no new one has appeared. No, my Lord
+Deucalion, if it were merely the Gods who were your competitors on men’s
+lips, your name would be a thousand times the better known.”
+
+“Of mere human names,” I said, “the name of this new Empress should come
+first in Atlantis, our lord the old King being now dead.”
+
+“She certainly would have it so,” replied Tatho, and there was something
+in his tone which made me see that more was meant behind the words. I
+drew him to one of the marble seats, and bent myself familiarly towards
+him. “I am speaking,” I said, “not to the new Viceroy of Yucatan, but
+to my old friend Tatho, a member of the Priests’ Clan, like myself, with
+whom I worked side by side in a score of the smaller home governments,
+in hamlets, in villages, in smaller towns, in greater towns, as we
+gained experience in war and knowledge in the art of ruling people, and
+so tediously won our promotion. I am speaking in Tatho’s private abode,
+that was mine own not two hours since, and I would have an answer with
+that plainness which we always then used to one another.”
+
+The new Viceroy sighed whimsically. “I almost forget how to speak in
+plain words now,” he said. “We have grown so polished in these latter
+days, that mere bald truth would be hissed as indelicate. But for the
+memory of those early years, when we expended as much law and thought
+over the ownership of a hay-byre as we should now over the fate of a
+rebellious city, I will try and speak plain to you even now, Deucalion.
+Tell me, old friend, what is it?”
+
+“What of this new Empress?”
+
+He frowned. “I might have guessed your subject,” he said.
+
+
+“Then speak upon it. Tell me of all the changes that have been made.
+What has this Phorenice done to make her throne unstable in Atlantis?”
+
+Tatho frowned still. “If I did not know you to be as honest as our Lord
+the Sun, your questions would carry mischief with them. Phorenice has a
+short way with those who are daring enough to discuss her policies for
+other purpose than politely to praise them.”
+
+“You can leave me ignorant if you wish,” I said with a touch of chill.
+This Tatho seemed to be different from the Tatho I had known at home,
+Tatho my workmate, Tatho who had read with me in the College of Priests,
+who had run with me in many a furious charge, who had laboured with me
+so heavily that the peoples under us might prosper. But he was quick
+enough to see my change of tone.
+
+“You force me back to my old self,” he said with a half smile, “though
+it is hard enough to forget the caution one has learned during the last
+twenty years, even when speaking with you. Still, whatever may have
+happened to the rest of us, it is clear to see that you at least have
+not changed, and, old friend, I am ready to trust you with my life if
+you ask it. In fact, you do ask me that very thing when you tell me to
+speak all I know of Phorenice.”
+
+I nodded. This was more like the old times, when there was full
+confidence between us. “The Gods will it now that I return to Atlantis,”
+ I said, “and what happens after that the Gods alone know. But it would
+be of service to me if I could land on her shores with some knowledge of
+this Phorenice, for at present I am as ignorant concerning her as some
+savage from Europe or mid-Africa.”
+
+“What would you have me tell?”
+
+“Tell all. I know only that she, a woman, reigns, whereby the ancient
+law of the land, a man should rule; that she is not even of the Priestly
+Clan from which the law says all rulers must be drawn; and that, from
+what you say, she has caused the throne to totter. The throne was as
+firm as the everlasting hills in the old King’s day, Tatho.”
+
+“History has moved with pace since then, and Phorenice has spurred it.
+You know her origin?”
+
+“I know only the exact little I have told you.”
+
+“She was a swineherd’s daughter from the mountains, though this is never
+even whispered now, as she has declared herself to be a daughter of the
+Gods, with a miraculous birth and upbringing. As she has decreed it a
+sacrilege to question this parentage, and has ordered to be burnt all
+those that seem to recollect her more earthly origin, the fable passes
+current for truth. You see the faith I put in you, Deucalion, by telling
+you what you wish to learn.”
+
+“There has always been trust between us.”
+
+“I know; but this habit of suspicion is hard to cast off, even with you.
+However, let me put your good faith between me and the torture further.
+Zaemon, you remember, was governor of the swineherd’s province, and
+Zaemon’s wife saw Phorenice and took her away to adopt and bring up as
+her own. It is said that the swineherd and his woman objected; perhaps
+they did; anyway, I know they died; and Phorenice was taught the arts
+and graces, and brought up as a daughter of the Priestly Clan.”
+
+“But still she was an adopted daughter only,” I objected.
+
+“The omission of the ‘adopted’ was her will at an early age,” said Tatho
+dryly, “and she learnt early to have her wishes carried into fact. It
+was notorious that before she had grown to fifteen years she ruled not
+only the women of the household, but Zaemon also, and the province that
+was beyond Zaemon.”
+
+“Zaemon was learned,” I said, “and a devout follower of the Gods, and
+searcher into the higher mysteries; but, as a ruler, he was always a
+flabby fellow.”
+
+“I do not say that opportunities have not come usefully in Phorenice’s
+way, but she has genius as well. For her to have raised herself at all
+from what she was, was remarkable. Not one woman out of a thousand,
+placed as she was, would have grown to be aught higher than a mere wife
+of some sturdy countryman, who was sufficiently simple to care nothing
+for pedigree. But look at Phorenice: it was her whim to take exercise
+as a man-at-arms and practise with all the utensils of war; and then,
+before any one quite knows how or why it happened, a rebellion had
+broken out in the province, and here was she, a slip of a girl, leading
+Zaemon’s troops.”
+
+“Zaemon, when I knew him, was a mere derision in the field.”
+
+“Hear me on. Phorenice put down the rebellion in masterly fashion, and
+gave the conquered a choice between sword and service. They fell into
+her ranks at once, and were faithful to her from that moment. I tell
+you, Deucalion, there is a marvellous fascination about the woman.”
+
+“Her present historian seems to have felt it.”
+
+“Of course I have. Every one who sees her comes under her spell. And
+frankly, I am in love with her also, and look upon my coming here as
+detestable exile. Every one near to Phorenice, high and low, loves her
+just the same, even though they know it may be her whim to send them to
+execution next minute.”
+
+Perhaps I let my scorn of this appear.
+
+“You feel contempt for our weakness? You were always a strong man,
+Deucalion.”
+
+“At any rate you see me still unmarried. I have found no time to palter
+with the fripperies of women.”
+
+“Ah, but these colonists here are crude and unfascinating. Wait till you
+see the ladies of the court, my ascetic.”
+
+“It comes to my mind,” I said dryly, “that I lived in Atlantis before I
+came out here, and at that time I used to see as much of court life as
+most men. Yet then, also, I felt no inducement to marry.”
+
+Tatho chuckled. “Atlantis has changed so that you would hardly know the
+country to-day. A new era has come over everything, especially over
+the other sex. Well do I remember the women of the old King’s time, how
+monstrous uncomely they were, how little they knew how to walk or carry
+themselves, how painfully barbaric was their notion of dress. I dare
+swear that your ladies here in Yucatan are not so provincial to-day as
+ours were then. But you should see them now at home. They are delicious.
+And above all in charm is the Empress. Oh, Deucalion, you shall see
+Phorenice in all her glorious beauty and her magnificence one of these
+fine days soon, and believe me you will go down on your knees and
+repent.”
+
+“I may see, and (because you say so) I may alter my life’s ways. The
+Gods make all things possible. But for the present I remain as I am,
+celibate, and not wishful to be otherwise; and so in the meantime I
+would hear the continuance of your history.”
+
+“It is one long story of success. She deposed Zaemon from his government
+in name as well as in fact, and the news was spread, and the Priestly
+Clan rose in its wrath. The two neighbouring governors were bidden join
+forces, take her captive, and bring her for execution. Poor men! They
+tried to obey their orders; they attacked her surely enough, but in
+battle she could laugh at them. She killed both, and made some slaughter
+amongst their troops; and to those that remained alive and became her
+prisoners, she made her usual offer--the sword or service. Naturally
+they were not long over making their choice: to these common people one
+ruler is much the same as another: and so again her army was reinforced.
+
+“Three times were bodies of soldiery sent against her, and three times
+was she victorious. The last was a final effort. Before, it had been
+customary to despise this adventuress who had sprung up so suddenly. But
+then the priests began to realise their peril; to see that the throne
+itself was in danger; and to know that if she were to be crushed, they
+would have to put forth their utmost. Every man who could carry arms was
+pressed into the service. Every known art of war was ordered to be put
+into employment. It was the largest army, and the best equipped army
+that Atlantis then had ever raised, and the Priestly Clan saw fit to put
+in supreme command their general, Tatho.”
+
+“You!” I cried.
+
+“Even myself, Deucalion. And mark you, I fought my utmost. I was not her
+creature then; and when I set out (because they wanted to spur me to the
+uttermost) the High Council of the priests pointed out my prospects. The
+King we had known so long, was ailing and wearily old; he was so wrapped
+up in the study of the mysteries, and the joy of closely knowing them,
+that earthly matters had grown nauseous to him; and at any time he might
+decide to die. The Priestly Clan uses its own discretion in the election
+of a new king, but it takes note of popular sentiment; and a general who
+at the critical time could come home victorious from a great campaign,
+which moreover would release a harassed people from the constant
+application of arms, would be the idol of the moment. These things were
+pointed out to me solemnly and in the full council.”
+
+“What! They promised you the throne?”
+
+“Even that. So you see I set out with a high stake before me. Phorenice
+I had never seen, and I swore to take her alive, and give her to be the
+sport of my soldiery. I had a fine confidence in my own strategy then,
+Deucalion. But the old Gods, in whom I trusted then, remained old,
+taught me no new thing. I drilled and exercised my army according to the
+forms you and I learnt together, old comrade, and in many a tough fight
+found to serve well; I armed them with the choicest weapons we knew of
+then, with sling and mace, with bow and spear, with axe and knife, with
+sword and the throwing fire; their bodies I covered with metal plates;
+even their bellies I cared for, with droves of cattle driven in the rear
+of the fighting troops.
+
+“But when the encounter came, they might have been men of straw for all
+the harm they did. Out of her own brain Phorenice had made fire-tubes
+that cast a dart which would kill beyond two bowshots, and the fashion
+in which she handled her troops dazzled me. They threatened us on one
+flank, they harassed us on the other. It was not war as we had been
+accustomed to. It was a newer and more deadly game, and I had to watch
+my splendid army eaten away as waves eat a sandhill. Never once did I
+get a chance of forcing close action. These new tactics that had come
+from Phorenice’s invention, were beyond my art to meet or understand. We
+were eight to her one, and our close-packed numbers only made us so much
+the more easy for slaughter. A panic came, and those who could fled.
+Myself, I had no wish to go back and earn the axe that waits for the
+unsuccessful general. I tried to die there fighting where I stood. But
+death would not come. It was a fine melee, Deucalion, that last one.”
+
+“And so she took you?”
+
+“I stood with three others back to back, with a ring of dead round us,
+and a ring of the enemy hemming us in. We taunted them to come on. But
+at hand-to-hand courtesies we had shown we could hold our own, and so
+they were calling for fire-tubes with which they could strike us down
+in safety from a distance. Then up came Phorenice. ‘What is this to-do?’
+says she. ‘We seek to kill Lord Tatho, who led against you,’ say they.
+‘So that is Tatho?’ says she. ‘A fine figure of a man indeed, and a
+pretty fighter seemingly, after the old manner. Doubtless he is one
+who would acquire the newer method. See now Tatho,’ says she, ‘it is my
+custom to offer those I vanquish either the sword (which, believe me,
+was never nearer your neck than now) or service under my banner. Will
+you make a choice?’
+
+“‘Woman,’ I said, ‘fairest that ever I saw, finest general the world
+has ever borne, you tempt me sorely by your qualities, but there is a
+tradition in our Clan, that we should be true to the salt we eat. I am
+the King’s man still, and so I can take no service from you.’
+
+“‘The King is dead,’ says she. ‘A runner has just brought the tidings,
+meaning them to have fallen into your hands. And I am the Empress.’
+
+“‘Who made you Empress?’ I asked.
+
+“‘The same most capable hand that has given me this battle,’ says she.
+‘It is a capable hand, as you have seen: it can be a kind hand also, as
+you may learn if you choose. With the King dead, Tatho is a masterless
+man now. Is Tatho in want of a mistress?’
+
+“‘Such a glorious mistress as you,’ I said, ‘Yes.’ And from that moment,
+Deucalion, I have been her slave. Oh, you may frown; you may get up from
+this seat and walk away if you will. But I ask you this: keep back your
+worst judgment of me, old friend, till after you have seen Phorenice
+herself in the warm and lovely flesh. Then your own ears and your own
+senses will be my advocates, to win me back your old esteem.”
+
+
+
+
+2. BACK TO ATLANTIS
+
+
+The words of Tatho were no sleeping draught for me that night. I began
+to think that I had made somewhat a mistake in wrapping myself up so
+entirely in my government of Yucatan, and not contriving to keep more in
+touch with events that were passing at home in Atlantis. For many years
+past it had been easy to see that the mariner folk who did traffic
+across the seas spoke with restraint, and that only what news the
+Empress pleased was allowed to ooze out beyond her borders. But, as
+I say, I was fully occupied with my work in the colony, and had no
+curiosity to pull away a veil intentionally placed. Besides, it has
+always been against my principles to put to the torture men who had
+received orders for silence from their superiors, merely that they shall
+break these orders for my private convenience.
+
+However, the iron discipline of our Priestly Clan left me no choice
+of procedure. As was customary, I had been deprived of my office at a
+moment’s notice. From that time on, all papers and authority belonged to
+my successor, and, although by courtesy I might be permitted to remain
+as a guest in the pyramid that had so recently been mine, to see another
+sunrise, it was clearly enjoined that I must leave the territory then at
+the topmost of my speed and hasten to report in Atlantis.
+
+Tatho, to give him credit, was anxious to further my interests to the
+utmost in his power. He was by my side again before the dawn, putting
+all his resources at my disposal.
+
+I had little enough to ask him. “A ship to take me home,” I said, “and I
+shall be your debtor.”
+
+The request seemed to surprise him. “That you may certainly have if you
+wish it. But my ships are foul with the long passage, and are in need
+of a careen. If you take them, you will make a slow voyage of it to
+Atlantis. Why do you not take your own navy? The ships are in harbour
+now, for I saw them there when we came in. Brave ships they are too.”
+
+“But not mine. That navy belongs to Yucatan.”
+
+“Well, Deucalion, you are Yucatan; or, rather, you were yesterday, and
+have been these twenty years.”
+
+I saw what he meant, and the idea did not please me. I answered stiffly
+enough that the ships were owned by private merchants, or belonged to
+the State, and I could not claim so much as a ten-slave galley.
+
+Tatho shrugged his shoulders. “I suppose you know your own policies
+best,” he said, “though to me it seems but risky for a man who has
+attained to a position like yours and mine not to have provided himself
+with a stout navy of his own. One never knows when a recall may be sent,
+and, through lack of these precautions, a life’s earnings may very well
+be lost in a dozen hours.”
+
+“I have no fear for mine,” I said coldly.
+
+“Of course not, because you know me to be your friend. But had another
+man been appointed to this vice-royalty, you might have been sadly
+shorn, Deucalion. It is not many fellows who can resist a snug hoard
+ready and waiting in the very coffers they have come to line.”
+
+“My Lord Tatho,” I said, “it is clear to me that you and I have grown to
+be of different tastes. All of the hoard that I have made for myself in
+this colony, few men would covet. I have the poor clothes you see me
+in this moment, and a box of drugs such as I have found useful to the
+stomach. I possess also three slaves, two of them scribes and the third
+a sturdy savage from Europe, who cooks my victual and fills for me the
+bath. For my maintenance during my years of service, here, I have bled
+the State of a soldier’s ration and nothing beyond; and if in my name
+any man has mulcted a creature in Yucatan of so much as an ounce of
+bronze, I request you as a last service to have that man hanged for me
+as a liar and a thief.”
+
+Tatho looked at me curiously. “I do not know whether I admire you most
+or whether I pity. I do not know whether to be astonished or to despise.
+We had heard of much of your uprightness over yonder in Atlantis, of
+your sternness and your justice, but I swear by the old Gods that no
+soul guessed you carried your fancy so far as this. Why, man, money is
+power. With money and the resources money can buy, nothing could stop
+a fellow like you; whilst without it you may be tripped up and trodden
+down irrevocably at the first puny reverse.”
+
+“The Gods will choose my fate.”
+
+“Possibly; but for mine, I prefer to nourish it myself. I tell you with
+frankness that I have not come here to follow in the pattern you have
+made for a vice-royalty. I shall govern Yucatan wisely and well to the
+best of my ability; but I shall govern it also for the good of Tatho,
+the viceroy. I have brought with me here my navy of eight ships and a
+personal bodyguard. There is my wife also, and her women and her slaves.
+All these must be provided for. And why indeed should it be otherwise?
+If a people is to be governed, it should be their privilege to pay
+handsomely for their prince.”
+
+“We shall not agree on this. You have the power now, and can employ it
+as you choose. If I thought it would be of any use, I should like to
+supplicate you most humbly to deal with lenience when you come to tax
+these people who are under you. They have grown very dear to me.”
+
+“I have disgusted you with me, and I am grieved for it. But even to
+retain your good opinion, Deucalion--which I value more than that of any
+man living--I cannot do here as you have done. It would be impossible,
+even if I wished it. You must not judge all other men by your own
+strong standard: a Tatho is by no means a colossus like a Deucalion. And
+besides, I have a wife and children, and they must be provided for, even
+if I neglect myself.”
+
+“Ah, there,” I said, “it does seem that I possess the advantage. I have
+no wife, to clog me.”
+
+He caught up my word quickly. “It seems to me you have nothing that
+makes life worth living. You have neither wife, children, riches, cooks,
+retinue, dresses, nor anything else in proportion to your station. You
+will pardon my saying it, old comrade, but you are plaguey ignorant
+about some matters. For example, you do not know how to dine. During
+every day of a very weary voyage, I have promised myself when sitting
+before the meagre sea victual, that presently the abstinence would be
+more than repaid by Deucalion’s welcoming feast. Oh, I tell you that
+feast was one of the vividest things that ever came before my eyes. And
+then when we get to the actuality, what was it? Why, a country farmer
+every day sits down to more delicate fare. You told me how it was
+prepared. Well, your savage from Europe may be lusty, and perchance is
+faithful, but he is a devil-possessed cook. Gods! I have lived better on
+a campaign.
+
+“I know this is a colony here, without any of the home refinements; but
+if in the days to come, the deer of the forest, the fish of the stream,
+and the other resources of the place are not put to better use than
+heretofore, I shall see it my duty as ruler to fry some of the
+kitchen staff alive in grease so as to encourage better cookery. Gods!
+Deucalion, have you forgotten what it is to have a palate? And have
+you no esteem for your own dignity? Man, look at your clothes. You are
+garbed like a herdsman, and you have not a gaud or a jewel to brighten
+you.”
+
+“I eat,” I said coldly, “when my hunger bids me, and I carry this one
+robe upon my person till it is worn out and needs replacement. The
+grossness of excessive banqueting, and the effeminacy of many clothes
+are attainments that never met my fancy. But I think we have talked here
+over long, and there seems little chance of our finding agreement. You
+have changed, Tatho, with the years, and perhaps I have changed also.
+These alterations creep imperceptibly into one’s being as time advances.
+Let us part now, and, forgetting these present differences, remember
+only our friendship of twenty years agone. That for me, at any rate, has
+always had a pleasant savour when called up into the memory.”
+
+Tatho bowed his head. “So be it,” he said.
+
+“And I would still charge myself upon your bounty for that ship. Dawn
+cannot be far off now, and it is not decent that the man who has ruled
+here so long, should walk in daylight through the streets on the morning
+after his dismissal.”
+
+“So be it,” said Tatho. “You shall have my poor navy. I could have
+wished that you had asked me something greater.”
+
+“Not the navy, Tatho; one small ship. Believe me, more is wasted.”
+
+“Now, there,” said Tatho, “I shall act the tyrant. I am viceroy here
+now, and will have my way in this. You may go naked of all possessions:
+that I cannot help. But depart for Atlantis unattended, that you shall
+not.”
+
+And so, in fine, as the choice was set beyond me, it was in the “Bear,”
+ Tatho’s own private ship, with all the rest of his navy sailing in
+escort, that I did finally make my transit.
+
+But the start was not immediate. The vessels lay moored against the
+stone quays of the inner harbour, gutted of their stores, and with crews
+exhausted, and it would have been suicide to have forced them out then
+and there to again take the seas.
+
+So the courtesies were fulfilled by the craft whereon I abode hauling
+out into the entrance basin, and anchoring there in the swells of the
+fairway; and forthwith she and her consorts took in wood and water,
+cured meat and fish ashore, and refitted in all needful ways, with all
+speed attainable.
+
+For myself there came then, as the first time during twenty busy years,
+a breathing space from work. I had no further connection with the
+country of my labours; indeed, officially, I had left it already. Into
+the working of the ship it was contrary to rule that I should make
+any inspection or interest, since all sea matters were the exclusive
+property of the Mariners’ Guild, secured to them by royal patent, and
+most jealously guarded.
+
+So there remained to me in my day, hours to gaze (if I would) upon the
+quays, the harbours, the palaces, and the pyramids of the splendid city
+before me which I had seen grow stone by stone from its foundations; or
+to roam my eye over the pastures and the grain lands beyond the walls,
+and to look longingly at the dense forests behind, from which field by
+field we had so tediously ripped our territory.
+
+Would Tatho continue the work so healthily begun? I trusted so, even in
+spite of his selfish words. And at all hours, during the radiance of
+our Lord the Sun, or under the stars of night, I was free to pursue
+that study of the higher mysteries, on which we of the Priests’ Clan are
+trained to set our minds, without aid of book or instrument, of image or
+temple.
+
+The refitting of the navy was gone about with speed. Never, it is said,
+had ships been reprovisioned and caulked, and remanned with greater
+speed for the over-ocean voyage. Indeed, it was barely over a month from
+the day that they brought up in the harbour, they put out beyond the
+walls, and began their voyage eastward over the hills and dale of the
+ocean.
+
+Rowing-slaves from Europe for this long passage of sea are not taken
+now, owing to the difficulty in provisioning them, for modern humanity
+forbids the practice of letting them eat one another according to the
+home custom of their continent; sails alone are but an indifferent stand
+by; but modern science has shown how to extract force from the Sun, when
+He is free from cloud, and this (in a manner kept secret by mariners) is
+made to draw sea-water at the forepart of the vessel, and eject it with
+such force at the stern that she is appreciably driven forward, even
+with the wind adverse.
+
+In another matter also has navigation vastly improved. It is not
+necessary now, as formerly, to trust wholly to a starry night (when
+beyond sight of land) to find direction. A little image has been made,
+and is stood balanced in the forepart of every vessel, with an arm
+outstretched, pointing constantly to the direction where the Southern
+Cross lies in the Heavens. So, by setting an angle, can a just course be
+correctly steered. Other instruments have they also for finding a true
+position on the ocean wastes, for the newer mariner, when he is at sea,
+puts little trust in the Gods, and confides mightily in his own thews
+and wits.
+
+Still, it is amusing to see these tarry fellows, even in this modern
+day, take their last farewell of the harbour town. The ship is stowed,
+and all ready for sea, and they wash and put on all their bravery of
+attire. Ashore they go, their faces long with piety, and seek some
+obscure temple whose God has little flavour with shore folk, and here
+they make sacrifice with clamour and lavish outlay. And, finally, there
+follows a feast in honour of the God, and they arrive back on board, and
+put to sea for the most part drunken, and all heavy and evil-humoured
+with gluttony and their other excesses.
+
+The voyage was very different to my previous sea-going. There was no
+creeping timorously along in touch with the coasts. We stood straight
+across the open gulf in the direction of home, came up with the band of
+the Carib Islands, and worked confidently through them, as though they
+had been signposts to mark the sea highway; and stopped only twice
+to replenish with wood, water, and fruit. These commodities, too, the
+savages brought us freely, so great was their subjection, and in
+neither place did we have even the semblance of a fight. It was a great
+certificate of the growing power of Atlantis and her finest over-sea
+colony.
+
+Then boldly on we went across the vast ocean beyond, with never a
+sacrifice to implore the Gods that they should help our direction. One
+might feel censure towards these rugged mariners for their impiety, but
+one could not help an admiration for their lusty skill and confidence.
+
+The dangers of the desolate sea are dealt out as the Gods will, and man
+can only take them as they come. Storms we encountered, and the mariners
+fought them with stubborn endurance; twice a blazing stone from Heaven
+hissed into the sea beside us, though without injuring any of our ships;
+and, as was unavoidable, the great beasts of the sea hunted us with
+their accustomed savagery. But only once did we suffer material loss
+from these last, and that was when three of the greater sea lizards
+attacked the “Bear,” the ship whereon I travelled, at one and the same
+time.
+
+The hour of their onset was during the blazing midday heat, and the Sun
+being at the full of His power, our machines were getting full force
+from Him. The vessel was travelling forward faster than a man on dry
+land could walk. But for the power escape she might as well have been
+standing still when the beasts sighted her. There were three of them,
+as I have said, and we saw them come up over the curve of the horizon,
+beating the sea into foam with their flappers, and waving their great
+necks like masts as they swam. Our navy was spread out in a long line
+of ships, and in olden days each of the beasts would have selected a
+separate prey, and proceeded for it; but, like man, these beasts have
+learned the necessities of warfare, and they hunt in pack now and do not
+separate their forces.
+
+It was plain they were making for our ship, and Tob, the captain, would
+have had me go into the after-castle, and there be secure from their
+marauding. He was responsible to the Lord Tatho, he said, for my safe
+conduct; it was certain that the beasts would contrive to seize some of
+the ship’s company before they were satiated; and if the hap came to the
+Lord Deucalion, he (the captain) would have to give himself voluntarily
+to the beasts then, to escape a very painful death at Tatho’s hands
+later on.
+
+However, my mind was set. A man can never have too much experience in
+fighting enemies, whether human or bestial, and the attack of these
+creatures was new to me, and I was fain to learn its method. So I gave
+the captain a letter to Tatho, saying how the matter lay (and for which,
+it may be mentioned, the rude fellow seemed little enough grateful), and
+stayed in my chair under the awning.
+
+The beasts surged up to us with champing jaws, and all the shipmen
+stood armed on their defence. They came up alongside, two females (the
+smaller) on the flank of the ship, the giant male by himself on the
+other. Their great heads swooped about, as high as the yards that held
+the sails, and the reek from them gave one physical sickness.
+
+The shipmen faced the monsters with a sturdy courage. Arrows were
+useless against the smooth, bull-like hides. Even the throwing fire
+could not so much as singe them; nothing but twenty axe blows delivered
+on an attacking head together could beat it back, and even these
+succeeded only through sheer weight of metal, and did not make so much
+as the scratch of a wound.
+
+During all time beasts have disputed with man the mastery of the earth,
+and it is only in Atlantis and Egypt and Yucatan that man has dared to
+hold his own, and fight them with a mind made strong by many previous
+victories. In Europe and mid-Africa the greater beasts hold full
+dominion, and man admits his puny number and force, and lives in earth
+crannies and the higher tree-tops, as a fugitive confessed. And upon the
+great oceans, the beasts are lords, unchecked.
+
+Still here, upon this desolate sea, although the giant lizards were new
+to me, it was a pleasure to pit my knowledge of war against their brute
+strength and courage. Ever since the first men did their business upon
+the great waters, they fulfilled their instincts in fighting the beasts
+with desperation. Hiding coward-like in a hold was useless, for if this
+enemy could not find men above decks to glut them, they would break
+a ship with their paddles, and so all would be slain. And so it was
+recognised that the fight should go forward as desperately as might be,
+and that it could only end when the beasts had got their prey and had
+gone away satisfied.
+
+It was in a one-sided conflict after this fashion then, that I found
+myself, and felt the joy once more to have my thews in action. But after
+my axe had got in some dozen lusty blows, which, for all the harm they
+did, might have been delivered against some city wall, or, indeed,
+against the ark of the Mysteries itself, I sought about me till I found
+a lance, and with that made very different play.
+
+The eyes of these lizards are small, and set deep in a bony socket, but
+I judged them to be vulnerable, and it was upon the eyes of the beast
+that I made my attack. The decks were slippery with the horrid slime of
+them. The crew surged about in their battling, and, moreover, constantly
+offered themselves as a rampart before me by reason of Tob, the
+captain’s threats. But I gave a few shrewd progues with the lance to
+show that I did not choose my will to be overridden, and presently was
+given room for manoeuvre.
+
+Deliberately I placed myself in the sight of one of the lizards, and
+offered my body to its attack. The challenge was accepted. It swooped
+like a dropping stone, and I swerved and drove in the lance at its oozy
+eye.
+
+I thanked the Gods then that I had been trained with the lance till
+certain aim was a matter of instinct with me. The blade went true to
+its mark and stuck there, and the shaft broke in my hand. The beast drew
+off, blinded and bellowing, and beating the sea with its paddles. In a
+great cataract of foam I saw it bend its great long neck, and rub its
+head (with the spear still fixed) against its back, thereby enduring new
+agonies, but without dislodging the weapon. And then presently, finding
+this of no avail, it set off for the place from which it came with
+extraordinary quickness, and rapidly grew smaller against the horizon.
+
+The male and the other female lizard had also left us, but not in
+similar plight. Tob, the captain, seeing my resolve to take hazards,
+deliberately thrust a shipman into the jaws of each of the others,
+so that they might be sated and get them gone. It was clear that Tob
+dreaded very much for his own skin if I came by harm, and I thought with
+a warming heart of the threats that Tatho must have used in his kind
+anxiety for my safety. It is pleasant when one’s old friends do not omit
+to pay these little attentions.
+
+
+
+
+3. A RIVAL NAVY
+
+
+Now, when we came up with the coasts of Atlantis, though Tob, with
+the aid of his modern instruments, had made his landfall with most
+marvellous skill and nearness, there still remained some ten days’ more
+journey in which we had to retrace our course, till we came to that arm
+of the sea up which lies the great city of Atlantis, the capital.
+
+The sight of the land, and the breath of earth and herbage which came
+off from it with the breezes, were, I believe, under the Gods, the
+means of saving the lives of all of us. For, as is necessary with long
+cross-ocean voyages, many of our ships’ companies had died, and still
+more were sick with scurvy through the unnatural tossing, or (as some
+have it) through the salt, unnatural food inseparable from shipboard.
+But these last, the sight and the smells of land heartened up in
+extraordinary fashion, and from being helpless logs, unable to move even
+under blows of the scourge, they became active again, able to help in
+the shipwork, and lusty (when the time came) to fight for their lives
+and their vessels.
+
+From the moment that I was deposed in Yucatan, despite Tatho’s
+assurances, there had been doubts in my mind as to what nature would
+be my reception in Atlantis. But I had faced this event of the future
+without concern: it was in the hands of the Gods. The Empress Phorenice
+might be supreme on earth; she might cause my head to be lopped from its
+proper shoulders the moment I set foot ashore; but my Lord the Sun was
+above Phorenice, and if my head fell, it would be because He saw best
+that it should be so. On which account, therefore, I had not troubled
+myself about the matter during the voyage, but had followed out my calm
+study of the higher mysteries with an unloaded mind.
+
+But when our navy had retraced sufficiently the course that had been
+overrun, and came up with the two vast headlands which marked the
+entrance to the inland waters, there, a bare two days from the Atlantis
+capital, we met with another navy which was, beyond doubt, waiting to
+give us a reception. The ships were riding at anchor in a bay which lent
+them shelter, but they had scouts on the high land above, who cried
+the alarm of our approach, and when we rounded the headland, they were
+standing out to dispute our passage.
+
+Of us there were now but five ships, the rest having been lost in
+storms, or fallen behind because all their crews were dead from the
+scurvy; and of the strangers there were three fine ships, and three
+galleys of many oars apiece. They were clean and bright and black; our
+ships were storm-ragged and weather-worn, and had bottoms that were foul
+with trailing ocean weed. Our ships hung out the colours and signs of
+Tatho and Deucalion openly and without shame, so that all who looked
+might know their origin and errand; but the other navy came on without
+banner or antient, as though they were some low creatures feeling shame
+for their birth.
+
+Clear it seemed also that they would not let us pass without a fight,
+and in this there was nothing uncommon; for no law carries out over the
+seas, and a brother in one ship feels quite free to harry his brother
+in another vessel if he meets him out of earshot of the beach--more
+especially if that other brother be coming home laden from foray or
+trading tour. So Tob, with system and method, got our vessel into
+fighting trim, and the other four captains did the like with theirs,
+and drew close in to us to form a compact squadron. They had no wish to
+smell slavery, now that the voyage had come so near to its end.
+
+Our Lord the Sun shone brilliantly, giving full speed to the machines,
+as though He was fully willing for the affair to proceed, and the two
+navies approached one another with quickness, the three galleys holding
+back to stay in line with their consorts. But when some bare hundred
+ship-lengths separated us, the other navy halted, and one of the
+galleys, drawing ahead, flew green branches from her masts, seeking for
+a parley.
+
+The course was unusual, but we, in our sea-battered state, were no navy
+to invite a fight unnecessarily. So in hoarse sea-bawls word was passed,
+and we too halted, and Tob hoisted a withered stick (which had to do
+duty for greenery), to show that we were ready for talk, and would
+respect the person of an ambassador.
+
+The galley drew on, swung round, and backed till its stern rasped on our
+shield rail, and one of her people clambered up and jumped down upon
+our decks. He was a dandily rigged-out fellow, young and lusty, and all
+healthy from the land and land victual, and he looked round him with a
+sneer at our sea-tatteredness, and with a fine self-confidence. Then,
+seeing Tob, he nodded as one meets an acquaintance. “Old pot-mate,” he
+said, “your woman waits for you up by the quay-side in Atlantis yonder,
+with four youngsters at her heels. I saw her not half a month ago.”
+
+“You didn’t come out here to tell me home news,” said Tob; “that I’ll be
+sworn. I’ve drunk enough pots with you, Dason, to know your pleasantries
+thoroughly.”
+
+“I wanted to point out to you that your home is still there, with your
+wife and children ready to welcome you.”
+
+“I am not a man that ever forgets it,” said Tob grimly; “and because
+I’ve got them always at the back of my mind, I’ve sailed this ship over
+the top of more than one pirate, when, if I’d been a single man, I might
+have been e’en content to take the hap of slavery.”
+
+“Oh, I know you’re a desperate enough fellow,” said Dason, “and I’m free
+to confess that if it does come to blows we are like to lose a few
+men before we get you and your cripples here, and your crazy ships
+comfortably sunk. Our navy has its orders to carry out, and the cause of
+my embassage is this: we wish to see if you will act the sensible part
+and give us what we want, and so be permitted to go on your way home,
+with a skin that is unslit and dry?”
+
+“You have come to the wrong bird here for a plucking,” said Tob with a
+heavy laugh. “We took no treasure or merchandise on board in Yucatan. We
+stayed in harbour long enough to cure our sea victual and fill with food
+and water, and no longer. We sail back as we sailed out, barren ships.
+You will not believe me, of course; I would not have believed you had
+our places been changed; but you may go into the holds and search if
+you choose. You will find there nothing but a few poor sailormen half in
+pieces with the scurvy. No, you can steal nothing here but blows, Dason,
+and we will give you those with but little asking.”
+
+“I am glad to see that you state your cargo at such slender value,” said
+the envoy, “for it is the cargo I must take back with me on the galley,
+if you are to earn your safe conduct to home.”
+
+Tob knit his brows. “You had better speak more plain,” he said. “I am a
+common sailor, and do not understand fancy talk.”
+
+“It is clear to see,” said Dason, “that you have been set to bring
+Deucalion back to Atlantis as a prop for Phorenice. Well, we others find
+Phorenice hard enough to fight against without further reinforcements,
+and so we want Deucalion in our own custody to deal with after our own
+fashion.”
+
+“And if I do the miser, and deny you this piece of my freight?”
+
+The spruce envoy looked round at the splintered ship, and the battered
+navy beside her. “Why, then, Tob, we shall send you all to the fishes
+in very short time, and instead of Deucalion standing before the Gods
+alone, he will go down with a fine ragged company limping at his heels.”
+
+“I doubt it,” said Tob, “but we shall see. As for letting you have my
+Lord Deucalion, that is out of the question. For see here, pot-mate
+Dason; in the first place, if I went to Atlantis without Deucalion, my
+other lord, Tatho, would come back one of these days, and in his hands I
+should die by the slowest of slow inches; in the second, I have seen
+my Lord Deucalion kill a great sea lizard, and he showed himself such a
+proper man that day that I would not give him up against his will, even
+to Tatho himself; and in the third place, you owe me for your share in
+our last wine-bout ashore, and I’ll see you with the nether Gods before
+I give you aught till you’ve settled that score.”
+
+“Well, Tob, I hope you’ll drown easy. As for that wife of yours, I’ve
+always had a fancy for her myself, and I shall know how to find a use
+for the woman.”
+
+“I’ll draw your neck for that, you son of a European,” said Tob; “and
+if you do not clear off this deck I’ll draw it here. Go,” he cried, “you
+father of monkey children! Get away, and let me fight you fairly, or by
+my honour I’ll stamp the inwards out of you, and make your silly crew
+wear them as necklaces.”
+
+Upon which Dason went to his galley.
+
+Promptly Tob set going the machine on our own “Bear,” and bawled his
+orders right and left to the other ships. The crew might be weak with
+scurvy, but they were quick to obey. Instantly the five vessels were all
+started, and because our Lord the Sun was shining brightly, got soon to
+the full of their pace. The whole of our small navy converged, singling
+out one ship of their opponents, and she, not being ready for so swift
+an attack, got flurried, and endeavoured to turn and run for room,
+instead of trying to meet us bows on. As a consequence, the whole of our
+five ships hit her together on the broadside, tearing her planking with
+their underwater beaks, and sinking her before we had backed clear from
+the engage.
+
+But if we thus brought the enemy’s number down to five, and so equal to
+our own, the advantage did not remain with us for long. The three nimble
+galleys formed into line: their boatswains’ whips cracked as the slaves
+bent to their oars, and presently one of our own ships was gored and
+sunk, the men on her being killed in the water without hope of rescue.
+
+And then commenced a tight-locked melee that would have warmed the heart
+of the greatest warrior alive. The ships and the galleys were forced
+together and lay savagely grinding one another upon the swells, as
+though they had been sentient animals. The men on board them shot their
+arrows, slashed with axes, thrust and hacked with swords, and hurled the
+throwing fire. But in every way the fight converged upon the “Bear.” It
+was on her that the enemy spent the fiercest of their spite; it was to
+the “Bear,” that the other crews of Tatho’s navy rallied as their own
+vessels caught fire, or were sunk or taken.
+
+Battle is an old acquaintance with us of the Priestly Clan, and for
+those of us who have had to carve out territories for the new colonies,
+it comes with enough frequency to cloy even the most chivalrous
+appetite. So I can speak here as a man of experience. Up till that time,
+for half a life-span, I had heard men shout “Deucalion” as a battlecry,
+and in my day had seen some lusty encounters. But this sea-fight
+surprised even me in its savage fierceness. The bleak, unstable element
+which surrounded us; the swaying decks on which we fought; the throwing
+fire, which burnt flesh and wood alike with its horrid flame; the
+great gluttonous man-eating birds that hovered in the sky overhead;
+the man-eating fish that swarmed up from the seas around, gnawing and
+quarrelling over those that fell into the waters, all went to make up a
+circumstance fit to daunt the bravest men-at-arms ever gathered for an
+army.
+
+But these tarry shipmen faced it all with an indomitable courage, and
+never a cry of quailing. Life on the seas is so hard, and (from the
+beasts that haunt the great waters) so full of savage dangers, that
+Death has lost half his terrors to them through sheer familiarity.
+They were fellows who from pure lust for a fray would fight to a finish
+amongst themselves in the taverns ashore; and so here, in this desperate
+sea-battle, the passion for killing burned in them, as a fire stone
+from Heaven rages in a forest; and they took even their death-wounds
+laughing.
+
+On our side the battle-cry was “Tob!” and the name of this obscure
+ship-captain seemed to carry a confidence with it for our own crews that
+many a well-known commander might have envied. The enemy had a
+dozen rallying cries, and these confused them. But as their other
+ship-commanders one by one were killed, and Dason remained, active
+with mischief, “Dason!” became the shout which was thrown back at us in
+response to our “Tob!”
+
+However, I will not load my page with farther long account of this
+obscure sea-fight, whose only glory was its ferocity. One by one all the
+ships of either side were sunk or lay with all their people killed, till
+finally only Dason’s galley and our own “Bear” were left. For the moment
+we were being mastered. We had a score of men remaining out of all those
+that manned the navy when it sailed from Yucatan, and the enemy had
+boarded us and made the decks of the “Bear” the field of battle. But
+they had been over busy with the throwing fire, and presently, as we
+raged at one another, the smoke and the flame from the sturdy vessel
+herself let us very plainly know that she was past salvation.
+
+But Tob was nothing daunted. “They may stay here and fry if they
+choose,” he shouted with his great boisterous laugh, “but for ourselves
+the galley is good enough now. Keep a guard on Deucalion, and come with
+me, shipmates!”
+
+“Tob!” our fellows shouted in their ecstasy of fighting madness, and I
+too could not forbear sending out a “Tob!” for my battle-cry. It was a
+change for me not to be leader, but it was a luxury for once to fight
+in the wake of this Tob, despite his uncouthness of mien and plan. There
+was no stopping this new rush, though progress still was slow. Tob with
+his bloody axe cut the road in front, and we others, with the lust of
+battle filling us to the chin, raged like furies in his wake. Gods! but
+it was a fight.
+
+Ten of us won to the galley, with the flames and the smoke from the poor
+“Bear” spurting at our heels. We turned and stabbed madly at all who
+tried to follow, and hacked through the grapples that held the vessels
+to their embrace. The sea-swells spurned the “Bear” away.
+
+The slaves chained to the rowing-galley’s benches had interest neither
+one way nor the other, and looked on the contest with dull concern, save
+when some stray missile found a billet amongst them. But a handful of
+the fighting men had scrambled desperately on board the galley after us,
+preferring any fate to a fiery death on the “Bear,” and these had to be
+dealt with promptly. Three, with their fighting fury still red-hot in
+them, had most wastefully to be killed out of mischief’s way; five, who
+had pitched their weapons into the sea, were chained to oar looms, in
+place of slaves who were dead; and there remained only Dason to have a
+fate apportioned.
+
+The fight had cooled out of him, and he had thrown his arms to the sea,
+and stood sullenly ready for what might befall; and to him Tob went up
+with an exulting face.
+
+“Ho, pot-mate Dason,” cried he, “you made a lot of talk an hour ago
+about that woman of mine, who lives with her brats on the quay-side in
+Atlantis yonder. Now, I’ll give you a pleasant choice; either I’ll
+take you along home, and tell her what you said before the whole ship’s
+company (that are for the most part dead now, poor souls!), and I’ll
+leave her to perform on your carcase as she sees fit by way of payment;
+or, as the other choice, I’ll deal with you here now myself.”
+
+“I thank you for the chance,” said Dason, and knelt and offered his neck
+to the axe. So Tob cut off his head, sticking it on the galley’s beak as
+an advertisement of what had been done. The body he threw over the side,
+and one of the great man-eating birds that hovered near, picked it up
+and flew away with it to its nest amongst the crags. And so we were
+free to get a meal of the fruits and the fresh meats which the galley
+offered, whilst the oar-slaves sent the galley rushing onwards towards
+the capital.
+
+There was a wine-skin in the after-castle, and I filled a horn and
+poured some out at Tob’s feet in salutation. “My man,” I said, “you have
+shown me a fight.”
+
+“Thanks,” said he, “and I know you are a judge. ‘Twas pretty whilst it
+lasted; and, seeing that my lads were, for the most, scurvy-rotten, I
+will say they fought with credit. I have lost my Lord Tatho’s navy, but
+I think Phorenice will see me righted there. If those that are against
+her took so much trouble to kill my Lord Deucalion before he could come
+to her aid, I can fancy she will not be niggard in her joy when I put
+Deucalion safe, if somewhat dented and blood-bespattered, on the quay.”
+
+“The Gods know,” I said, for it is never my custom to discuss policies
+with my inferiors, even though etiquette be for the moment loosened,
+as ours was then by the thrill of battle. “The Gods will decide what
+is best for you, Tob, even as they have decided that it is best that I
+should go on to Atlantis.”
+
+The sailor held a horn filled from the wine-skin in his hand, and I
+think was minded to pour a libation at my feet, even as I had done at
+his. But he changed his mind, and emptied it down his throat instead.
+“It is thirsty work, this fighting,” he said, “and that drink comes very
+useful.”
+
+I put my hand on his blood-smeared arm. “Tob,” I said, “whether I step
+into power again, or whether I go to the block to-morrow, is another
+matter which the Gods alone know, but hear me tell you now, that if a
+chance is given me of showing my gratitude, I shall not forget the way
+you have served me in this voyage, and the way you have fought this
+day.”
+
+Tob filled another brimming horn from the wine-skin and splashed it at
+my feet. “That’s good enough surety for me,” he said, “that my woman and
+brats never want from this day onward. The Lord Deucalion for the block,
+indeed!”
+
+
+
+
+4. THE WELCOME OF PHORENICE
+
+
+Now I can say it with all truth that, till the rival navy met us in the
+mouth of the gulf, I had thought little enough of my importance as a
+recruit for the Empress. But the laying in wait for us of those ships,
+and the wild ferocity with which they fought so that I might fall into
+their hands, were omens which the blindest could not fail to read. It
+was clear that I was expected to play a lusty part in the fortunes of
+the nation.
+
+But if our coming had been watched for by enemies it seemed that
+Phorenice also had her scouts; and these saw us from the mountains, and
+carried news to the capital. The arm of the sea at the head of which the
+vast city of Atlantis stands, varies greatly in width. In places where
+the mountains have over-boiled, and sent their liquid contents down to
+form hard stone below, the channel has barely a river’s wideness, and
+then beyond, for the next half-day’s sail it will widen out into a lake,
+with the sides barely visible. Moreover, its course is winding, and so
+a runner who knows his way across the flats, and the swamps, and between
+the smoking hills which lie along the shore, and did not get overcome by
+fire-streams, or water, or wandering beasts, could carry news overland
+from seacoast to capital far speedier than even the most shrewdly
+whipped of galleys could ferry it along the water.
+
+Of course there were heavy risks that a lone traveller would not make
+a safe passage by this land route, if he were bidden to sacrifice all
+precautions to speed. But Phorenice was no niggard with her couriers.
+She sent a corps of twenty to the headland that overlooks the
+sea-entrance to the straits; they started with the news, each on his own
+route; and it says much for their speed and cleverness, that no fewer
+than seven of these agile fellows came through scathless with their
+tidings, and of the others it was said that quite three were known to
+have survived.
+
+Still, about this we had no means of knowing at the time, and pushed
+on in fancy that our coming was quite unheralded. The slaves on the
+galley’s row-banks were for the most part savages from Europe, and the
+smell of them was so offensive that the voyage lost all its pleasures;
+and as, moreover, the wind carried with it an infinite abundance of
+small grit from some erupting fire mountain, we were anxious to linger
+as little as possible. Besides, if I may confess to such a thing without
+being unduly degraded, although by my priestly training I had been
+taught stoicism, and knew that all the future was in the hands of the
+Gods, I was frailly human still to have a very vast curiosity as to
+what would be the form of my own reception at Atlantis. I could imagine
+myself taken a formal prisoner on landing, and set on a formal trial
+to answer for my cure of the colony of Yucatan; I could imagine myself
+stepping ashore unknown and unnoticed, and after a due lapse, being
+sent for by the Empress to take up new duties; but the manner of my real
+welcome was a thing I did not even guess at.
+
+We came in sight of the peak of the sacred mountain, with its glare of
+eternal fires which stand behind the city, one morning with the day’s
+break, and the whips of the boatswains cracked more vehemently, so that
+those offensive slaves should give the galley a final spurt. The wind
+was adverse, and no sail could be spread, but under oars alone we made
+a pretty pace, and the sides of the sacred mountain grew longer, and
+presently the peaks of the pyramids in the city, the towers of the
+higher buildings, began to show themselves as though they floated upon
+the gleaming water. It was twenty years since I had seen Atlantis
+last, and my heart glowed with the thought of treading again upon her
+paving-stones.
+
+The splendid city grew out of the sea as we approached, and to every
+throb of the oars, the shores leaped nearer. I saw the temple where I
+had been admitted first to manhood; I saw the pyramid in whose heart
+I had been initiated to the small mysteries; and then (as the lesser
+objects became discernible) I made out the house where a father and a
+mother had reared me, and my eyes became dim as the memories rose.
+
+We drew up outside the white walls of the harbour, as the law was, and
+the slaves panted and sobbed in quietude over the oar-looms. For vessels
+thus stationed there is, generally, a sufficiency of waiting, for a
+port-captain is apt to be so uncertain of his own dignity, that he must
+e’en keep folks waiting to prove it to them. But here for us it might
+have been that the port-captain’s boat was waiting. The signal was
+sounded from the two castles at the harbour’s entrance, the chain which
+hung between them was dropped, and a ten-oared boat shot out from behind
+the walls as fast as oars could drive her. She raced up alongside and
+the questions were put:
+
+“That should be Dason’s galley?”
+
+“It was,” said Tob.
+
+“Oh, I saw Dason’s head on your beak,” said the port-captain. “You were
+Tatho’s captain?”
+
+“And am still. Tatho’s fleet was sent by Dason and his friends to the
+sea-floor, and so we took this stinking galley to finish the voyage in,
+seeing that it was the only craft left afloat.”
+
+The port-captain was roving his eye over the group of us who stood on
+the after-deck. “I fear me, captain, that you’ll have but a dangerous
+reception. I do not see my Lord Deucalion. Or does he come with some
+other navy? Gods, captain, if you have let him get killed whilst under
+your charge, the Empress will have the skin torn slowly off you living.”
+
+“What with Phorenice and Tatho both so curious for his welfare,” said
+Tob, “my Lord Deucalion seems but a dangerous passenger. But I shall
+save my hide this voyage.” He jerked at me with his thumb. “He’s there
+to put in a word for me himself.”
+
+The port-captain stared for a moment, as if unbelieving, and then, as
+though satisfied, made obeisance like a fellow well used to ceremonial.
+“I trust my lord, in his infinite strength, will pardon my sin in not
+knowing him by his nobleness before. But truth to tell, I had looked to
+see my lord more suitably apparelled.”
+
+“Pish,” I said; “if I choose to dress simply, I cannot object to being
+mistaken for a simple man. It is not my pleasure to advertise my quality
+by the gauds on my garb. If you think amends are due to me, I pray of
+your charity that this inquisition may end.”
+
+The fellow was all bows and obsequiousness. “I am the humblest of my
+lord’s servants,” he said. “It will be my exceeding honour to pilot my
+lord’s galley into the berth appointed in harbour.”
+
+The boat shot ahead, and our galley-slaves swung into stroke again. Tob
+watched me with a dry smile as he stood directing the men at the helms.
+
+“Well,” I said, humouring his whim, “what is it?”
+
+“I’m thinking,” said Tob, “that my Lord Deucalion will remember me
+only as a very rude fellow when he steps ashore amongst all this fine
+gentility.”
+
+“You don’t think,” said I, “anything of the kind.”
+
+“Then I must prove my refinement,” said Tob, “and not contradict.” He
+picked up my hand in his huge, hard fist, and pressed it. “By the Gods,
+Deucalion, you may be a great prince, but I’ve only known you as a
+man. You’re the finest fighter of beasts and men that walks this world
+to-day, and I love you for it. That spear-stroke of yours on the lizard
+is a thing the singers in the taverns shall make chaunts about.”
+
+We drew rapidly into the harbour, the soldiers in the entrance castle
+blowing their trumpets in welcome as we passed between them. The captain
+of the port had run up my banner to the masthead of his boat, having
+been provided with one apparently for this purpose of announcement, and
+from the quays, across the vast basin of the harbour, there presently
+came to us the noises of musicians, and the pale glow of welcoming
+fires, dancing under the sunlight. I was almost awed to think that an
+Empress of Atlantis had come to such straits as to feel an interest like
+this in any mere returning subject.
+
+It was clear that nothing was to be done by halves. The port-captain’s
+boat led, and we had no choice but to follow. Our galley was run up
+alongside the royal quay and moored to its posts and rings of gold, all
+of which are sacred to the reigning house.
+
+“If Dason could only have foreseen this honour,” said Tob, with grisly
+jest, “I’m sure he’d have laid in a silken warp to make fast on the
+bollards instead of mere plebeian hemp. I’m sure there’d be a frown on
+Dason’s head this minute, if the sun hadn’t scorched it stiff. My Lord
+Deucalion, will you pick your way with niceness over this common ship
+and tread on the genteel carpet they’ve spread for you on the quay
+yonder?”
+
+The port-captain heard Tob’s rude banter and looked up with a face of
+horror, and I remembered, with a small sigh, that colonial freedom would
+have no place here in Atlantis. Once more I must prepare myself for all
+the dignity of rank, and make ready to tread the formalities of vast and
+gorgeous ceremonial.
+
+But, be these things how they may, a self-respecting man must preserve
+his individuality also, and though I consented to enter a pavilion of
+crimson cloth, specially erected to shelter me till the Empress should
+deign to arrive, there my complaisance ended. Again the matter of
+clothes was harped upon. The three gorgeously caparisoned chamberlains,
+who had inducted me to the shelter, laid before me changes of raiment
+bedecked with every imaginable kind of frippery, and would have me
+transform myself into a popinjay in fashion like their own.
+
+Curtly enough, I refused to alter my garb, and when one of them
+stammeringly referred to the Empress’s tastes I asked him with plainness
+if he had got any definite commands on this paltry matter from her
+mightiness.
+
+Of course, he had to confess that there were none.
+
+Upon which I retorted that Phorenice had commanded Deucalion, the man,
+to attend before her, and had sent no word of her pleasure as to his
+outer casing.
+
+“This dress,” I said, “suits my temper well. It shields my poor body
+from the heat and the wind, and, moreover, it is clean. It seems to
+me, sirs,” I added, “that your interfering savours somewhat of an
+impertinence.”
+
+With one accord the chamberlains drew their swords and pushed the hilts
+towards me.
+
+“It would be a favour,” said their spokesman, “if the great Lord
+Deucalion would take his vengeance now, instead of delivering us to the
+tormentors hereafter.”
+
+“Poof,” I said, “the matter is forgotten. You make too much of a
+little.”
+
+Nevertheless, their action gave me some enlightenment. They were
+perfectly in earnest in offering me the swords, and I recognised that
+this was a different Atlantis that I had come home to, where a man had
+dread of the torture for a mere difference concerning the cut of a coat.
+
+There was a bath in the pavilion, and in that I regaled myself gladly,
+though there was some paltry scent added to the water that took away
+half its refreshing power; and then I set myself to wait with all
+outward composure and placidity. The chamberlains were too well-bred to
+break into my calm, and I did not condescend to small talk. So there we
+remained, the four of us, I sitting, they standing, with our Lord the
+Sun smiting heavily on the scarlet roof of the pavilion, whilst the
+music blared, and the welcoming fires dispersed their odours from the
+great paved square without, which faced upon the quay.
+
+It has been said that the great should always collect dignity by keeping
+those of lesser degree waiting their pleasure, though for myself I must
+say I have always thought the stratagem paltry and beneath me. Phorenice
+also seemed of this opinion, for (as she herself told me later) at the
+moment that Tob’s galley was reported as having its flank against the
+marble of the royal quay, at that precise moment did she start out from
+the palace. The gorgeous procession was already marshalled, bedecked,
+and waiting only for its chiefest ornament, and as soon as she had
+mounted to her steed, trumpets gave the order, and the advance began.
+
+Sitting in the doorway of the pavilion, I saw the soldiery who formed
+the head of this vast concourse emerge from the great broad street where
+it left the houses. They marched straight across to give me the salute,
+and then ranged themselves on the farther side of the square. Then came
+the Mariners’ Guild, then more soldiers, all making obeisance in
+their turn, and passing on to make room for others. Following were the
+merchants, the tanners, the spear-makers and all the other acknowledged
+Guilds, deliberately attired (so it seemed to me) that they might make
+a pageant; and whilst most walked on foot, there were some who proudly
+rode on beasts which they had tamed into rendering them this menial
+service.
+
+But presently came the two wonders of all that dazzling spectacle. From
+out of the eclipse of the houses there swung into the open no less a
+beast than a huge bull mammoth. The sight had sufficient surprise in it
+almost to make me start. Many a time during my life had I led hunts
+to kill the mammoth, when a herd of them had raided some village or
+cornland under my charge. I had seen the huge brutes in the wild ground,
+shaggy, horrid, monstrous; more fierce than even the cave-tiger or the
+cave-bear; most dangerous beast of all that fight with man for dominion
+of the earth, save only for a few of the greater lizards. And here
+was this creature, a giant even amongst mammoths, yet tame as any
+well-whipped slave, and bearing upon its back a great half-castle of
+gold, stamped with the outstretched hand, and bedecked with silver
+snakes. Its murderous tusks were gilded, its hairy neck was garlanded
+with flowers, and it trod on in the procession as though assisting at
+such pageantry was the beginning and end of its existence. Its tameness
+seemed a fitting symbol of the masterful strength of this new ruler of
+Atlantis.
+
+Simultaneously with the mammoth, there came into sight that other and
+greater wonder, the mammoth’s mistress, the Empress Phorenice. The beast
+took my eye at the first, from its very uncouth hugeness, from its
+show of savage power restrained; but the lady who sat in the golden
+half-castle on its lofty back quickly drew away my gaze, and held it
+immovable from then onwards with an infinite attraction.
+
+I stood to my feet when the people first shouted at Phorenice’s
+approach, and remained in the porchway of my scarlet pavilion till her
+vast steed had halted in the centre of the square, and then I advanced
+across the pavement towards her.
+
+“On your knees, my lord,” said one of the chamberlains behind me, in a
+scared whisper.
+
+“At least with bent head,” urged another.
+
+But I had my own notions of what is due to one’s own self-respect in
+these matters, and I marched across the bare open space with head erect,
+giving the Empress gaze for gaze. She was clearly summing me up. I was
+frankly doing the like by her. Gods! but those few short seconds made me
+see a woman such as I never imagined could have lived.
+
+I know I have placed it on record earlier in this writing that, during
+all the days of a long official life, women have had no influence over
+me. But I have been quick to see that they often had a strong swaying
+power over the policies of others, and as a consequence I have made it
+my business to study them even as I have studied men. But this woman who
+sat under the sacred snakes in her golden half-castle on the mammoth’s
+back, fairly baffled me. Of her thoughts I could read no single
+syllable. I could see a body slight, supple, and beautifully moulded; in
+figure rather small. Her face was a most perfect book of cleverness, yet
+she was fair, too, beyond belief, with hair of a lovely ruddiness, cut
+short in the new fashion, and bunching on her shoulders. And eyes! Gods!
+who could plumb the depths of Phorenice’s eyes, or find in mere tint a
+trace of their heaven-made colour?
+
+It was plain, also, that she in her turn was searching me down to
+my very soul, and it seemed that her scrutiny was not without its
+satisfaction. She moved her head in little nods as I drew near, and when
+I did the requisite obeisance permitted to my rank, she bade me in
+a voice loud and clear enough for all at hand to hear, never to put
+forehead on the ground again on her behalf so long as she ruled in
+Atlantis.
+
+“For others,” she said, “it is fitting that they should do so, once,
+twice, or several times, according to their rank and station, for I am
+Empress, and they are all so far beneath me; but you are Deucalion, my
+lord, and though till to-day I knew you only from pictures drawn with
+tongues, I have seen you now, and have judged for myself. And so I make
+this decree: Deucalion is above all other men in Atlantis, and if there
+is one who does not render him obedience, that man is enemy also of
+Phorenice, and shall feel her anger.”
+
+She made a sign, and a stair was brought, and then she called to me, and
+I mounted and sat beside her in the golden half-castle under the canopy
+of royal snakes. The girl who stood behind in attendance fanned us both
+with perfumed feathers, and at a word from Phorenice the mammoth was
+turned, bearing us back towards the royal pyramid by the way through
+which it had come. At the same time also all the other machinery of
+splendour was put in motion. The soldiers and the gaudily bedecked civil
+traders fell into procession before and behind, and I noted that a body
+of troops, heavily armed, marched on each of the mammoth’s flanks.
+
+Phorenice turned to me with a smile. “You piqued me,” she said, “at
+first.”
+
+“Your Majesty overwhelms me with so much notice.”
+
+“You looked at my steed before you looked at me. A woman finds it hard
+to forgive a slight like that.”
+
+“I envied you the greatest of your conquests, and do still. I have
+fought mammoths myself, and at times have killed, but I never dared even
+to think of taking one alive and bringing it into tameness.”
+
+“You speak boldly,” she said, still smiling, “and yet you can turn a
+pretty compliment. Faugh! Deucalion, the way these people fawn on me
+gives me a nausea. I am not of the same clay as they are, I know; but
+just because I am the daughter of Gods they must needs feed me on the
+pap of insincerity.”
+
+So Tatho was right, and the swineherd was forgotten. Well, if she chose
+to keep up the fiction she had made, it was not my part to contradict
+her. Rightly or wrongly I was her servant.
+
+“I have been pining this long enough for a stronger meat than they can
+give,” she went on, “and at last I have sent for you. I have been at
+some pains to procure my tongue-pictures of you, Deucalion, and though
+you do not know me yet, I may say I knew you with all thoroughness even
+before we met. I can admire a man with a mind great enough to forego the
+silly gauds of clothes, or the excesses of feasts, or the pamperings of
+women.” She looked down at her own silks and her glittering jewels. “We
+women like to carry colours upon our persons, but that is a different
+matter. And so I sent for you here to be my minister, and bear with me
+the burden of ruling.”
+
+“There should be better men in broad Atlantis.”
+
+“There are not, my lord, and I who know them all by heart tell you so.
+They are all enamoured of my poor person; they weary me with their empty
+phrases and their importunities; and, though they are always brimming
+with their cries of service, their own advancement and the filling of
+their own treasuries ever comes first with them. So I have sent for you,
+Deucalion, the one strong man in all the world. You at least will not
+sigh to be my lover?”
+
+I saw her watching for my answer from the corner of her eyes. “The
+Empress,” I said, “is my mistress, and I will be an honest minister to
+her. With Phorenice, the woman, it is likely that I shall have little
+enough to do. Besides, I am not the sort that sports with this toy they
+call love.”
+
+“And yet you are a personable man enough,” she said rather thoughtfully.
+“But that still further proves your strength, Deucalion. You at least
+will not lose your head through weak infatuation for my poor looks and
+graces.”--She turned to the girl who stood behind us.--“Ylga, fan not so
+violently.”
+
+Our talk broke off then for the moment, and I had time to look about
+me. We were passing through the chief street in the fairest, the most
+wonderful city this world has ever seen. I had left it a score of years
+before, and was curious to note its increase.
+
+In public buildings the city had certainly made growth; there were
+new temples, new pyramids, new palaces, and statuary everywhere. Its
+greatness and magnificence impressed me more strongly even than usual,
+returning to it as I did from such a distance of time and space, for,
+though the many cities of Yucatan might each of them be princely, this
+great capital was a place not to be compared with any of them. It was
+imperial and gorgeous beyond descriptive words.
+
+Yet most of all was I struck by the poverty and squalor which stood in
+such close touch with all this magnificence. In the throngs that lined
+the streets there were gaunt bodies and hungry faces everywhere. Here
+and there stood one, a man or a woman, as naked as a savage in Europe,
+and yet dull to shame. Even the trader, with trumpery gauds on his coat,
+aping the prevailing fashion for display, had a scared, uneasy look to
+his face, as though he had forgotten the mere name of safety, and hid a
+frantic heart with his tawdry outward vauntings of prosperity.
+
+Phorenice read the direction of my looks.
+
+“The season,” she said, “has been unhealthy of recent months. These
+lower people will not build fine houses to adorn my city, and because
+they choose to live on in their squalid, unsightly kennels, there have
+been calentures and other sicknesses amongst them, which make them
+disinclined for work. And then, too, for the moment, earning is not
+easy. Indeed, you may say trade is nearly stopped this last half-year,
+since the rebels have been hammering so lustily at my city gates.”
+
+I was fairly startled out of my decorum.
+
+“Rebels!” I cried. “Who are hammering at the gates of Atlantis? Is the
+city in a state of siege?”
+
+“Of their condescension,” said Phorenice lightly, “they are giving us
+holiday to-day, and so, happily, my welcome to you comes undisturbed.
+If they were fighting, your ears would have told you of it. To give them
+their due, they are noisy enough in all their efforts. My spies say they
+are making ready new engines for use against the walls, which you may
+sally out to-morrow and break if it gives you amusement. But for to-day,
+Deucalion, I have you, and you have me, and there is peace round us, and
+some prettiness of display. If you ask for more I will give it you.”
+
+“I did not know of this rebellion,” I said, “but as Your Majesty has
+made me your minister, it is well that I should know all about its scope
+at once. This is a matter we should be serious upon.”
+
+“And do you think I cannot take it seriously also?” she retorted.
+“Ylga,” she said to the girl that stood behind, “set loose my dress at
+the shoulder.”
+
+And when the attendant had unlinked the jewelled clasp (as it seemed to
+me with a very ill grace), she herself stripped down the fabric, baring
+the pure skin beneath, and showing me just below the curve of the left
+breast a bandage of bloodstained linen.
+
+“There is a guarantee of my seriousness yesterday, at any rate,” she
+said, looking at me sidelong. “The arrow struck on a rib and that saved
+me. If it had struck between, Deucalion would have been standing beside
+my funeral pyre to-day instead of riding on this pretty steed of mine
+which he admires so much. Your eye seems to feast itself most on the
+mammoth, Deucalion. Ah, poor me. I am not one of your shaggy creatures,
+and so it seems I shall never be able to catch your regard. Ylga,” she
+said to the girl behind, “you may link my dress up again with its clasp.
+My Lord Deucalion has seen wounds before, and there is nothing else here
+to interest him.”
+
+
+
+
+5. ZAEMON’S CURSE
+
+
+It appeared that for the present at any rate I was to have my residence
+in the royal pyramid. The glittering cavalcade drew up in the great
+paved square which lies before the building, and massed itself in
+groups. The mammoth was halted before the doorway, and when a stair had
+been brought, the trumpets sounded, and we three who had ridden in the
+golden half-castle under the canopy of snakes, descended to the ground.
+
+It was plain that we were going from beneath the open sky to the
+apartments which lay inside the vast stone mazes of the pyramid, and
+without thinking, the instinct of custom and reverence that had become
+part of my nature caused me to turn to where the towering rocks of the
+Sacred Mountain frowned above the city, and make the usual obeisance,
+and offer up in silence the prescribed prayer. I say I did this thing
+unthinking, and as a matter of common custom, but when I rose to my
+feet, I could have sworn I heard a titter of laughter from somewhere in
+that fancifully bedecked crowd of onlookers.
+
+I glanced in the direction of the scoffers, frowningly enough, and
+then I turned to Phorenice to demand their prompt punishment for the
+disrespect. But here was a strange thing. I had looked to see her in the
+act and article of rising from an obeisance; but there she was, standing
+erect, and had clearly never touched her forehead to the ground.
+Moreover, she was regarding me with a queer look which I could not
+fathom.
+
+But whatever was in her mind, she had no plan to bawl about it then
+before the people collected in the square. She said to me, “Come,”
+ and, turning to the doorway, cried for entrance, giving the secret word
+appointed for the day. The ponderous stone blocks, which barred the
+porch, swung back on their hinges, and with stately tread she passed
+out of the hot sunshine into the cool gloom beyond, with the fan-girl
+following decorously at her heels. With a heaviness beginning to grow
+at my heart, I too went inside the pyramid, and the stone doors, with a
+sullen thud, closed behind us.
+
+We did not go far just then. Phorenice halted in the hall of waiting.
+How well I remembered the place, with the pictures of kings on its red
+walls, and the burning fountain of earth-breath which blazed from a jet
+of bronze in the middle of the flooring and gave it light. The old King
+that was gone had come this far of his complaisance when he bade
+me farewell as I set out twenty years before for my vice-royalty in
+Yucatan. But the air of the hall was different to what it had been in
+those old days. Then it was pure and sweet. Now it was heavy with some
+scent, and I found it languid and oppressive.
+
+“My minister,” said the Empress, “I acquit you of intentional insult;
+but I think the colonial air has made you a very simple man. Such an
+obeisance as you showed to that mountain not a minute since has not been
+made since I was sent to reign over this kingdom.”
+
+“Your Majesty,” I said, “I am a member of the Priests’ Clan and was
+brought up in their tenets. I have been taught, before entering a house,
+to thank the Gods, and more especially our Lord the Sun, for the good
+air that He and They have provided. It has been my fate more than once
+to be chased by streams of fire and stinking air amongst the mountains
+during one of their sudden boils, and so I can say the prescribed prayer
+upon this matter straight from my heart.”
+
+“Circumstances have changed since you left Atlantis,” said Phorenice,
+“and when thanks are given now, they are not thrown at those old Gods.”
+
+I saw her meaning, and almost started at the impiety of it. If this was
+to be the new rule of things, I would have no hand in it. Fate might
+deal with me as it chose. To serve truly a reigning monarch, that I was
+prepared for; but to palter with sacrilege, and accept a swineherd’s
+daughter as a God, who should receive prayers and obeisances, revolted
+my manhood. So I invited a crisis.
+
+“Phorenice,” I said, “I have been a priest from my childhood up,
+revering the Gods, and growing intimate with their mysteries. Till I
+find for myself that those old things are false, I must stand by that
+allegiance, and if there is a cost for this faithfulness I must pay it.”
+
+She looked at me with a slow smile. “You are a strong man, Deucalion,”
+ she said.
+
+I bowed.
+
+“I have heard others as stubborn,” she said, “but they were converted.”
+ She shook out the ruddy bunches of her hair, and stood so that the light
+of the burning earth-breath might fall on the loveliness of her face and
+form. “I have found it as easy to convert the stubborn as to burn them.
+Indeed, there has been little talk of burning. They have all rushed to
+conversion, whether I would or no. But it seems that my poor looks and
+tongue are wanting in charm to-day.”
+
+“Phorenice is Empress,” I said stolidly, “and I am her servant.
+To-morrow, if she gives me leave, I will clear away this rabble which
+clamours outside the walls. I must begin to prove my uses.”
+
+“I am told you are a pretty fighter,” said she. “Well, I hold some small
+skill in arms myself, and have a conceit that I am something of a judge.
+To-morrow we will take a taste of battle together. But to-day I
+must carry through the honourable reception I have planned for you,
+Deucalion. The feast will be set ready soon, and you will wish to make
+ready for the feast. There are chambers here selected for your use, and
+stored with what is needful. Ylga will show you their places.”
+
+We waited, the fan-girl and I, till Phorenice had passed out of the glow
+of the light-jet, and had left the hall of waiting through a doorway
+amongst the shadows of its farther angle, and then (the girl taking a
+lamp and leading) we also threaded our way through the narrow mazes of
+the pyramid.
+
+Everywhere the air was full of perfumes, and everywhere the passages
+turned and twisted and doubled through the solid stone of the pyramid,
+so that strangers might have spent hours--yes, or days--in search before
+they came to the chamber they desired. There was a fine cunningness
+about those forgotten builders who set up this royal pyramid. They had
+no mind that kings should fall by the hand of vulgar assassins who might
+come in suddenly from outside. And it is said also that the king of the
+time, to make doubly sure, killed all that had built the pyramid, or
+seen even the lay of its inner stones.
+
+But the fan-girl led the way with the lamp swinging in her hand, as one
+accustomed to the mazes. Here she doubled, there she turned, and here
+she stopped in the middle of a blank wall to push a stone, which swung
+to let us pass. And once she pressed at the corner of a flagstone on the
+floor, which reared up to the thrust of her foot, and showed us a stair
+steep and narrow. That we descended, coming to the foot of an inclined
+way which led us upward again; and so by degrees we came unto the
+chamber which had been given for my use.
+
+“There is raiment in all these chests which stand by the walls,”
+ said the girl, “and jewels and gauds in that bronze coffer. They are
+Phorenice’s first presents, she bid me say, and but a small earnest of
+what is to come. My Lord Deucalion can drop his simplicity now, and fig
+himself out in finery to suit the fashion.”
+
+“Girl,” I said sharply, “be more decorous with your tongue, and spare me
+such small advice.”
+
+“If my Lord Deucalion thinks this a rudeness, he can give a word to
+Phorenice, and I shall be whipped. If he asks it, I can be stripped and
+scourged before him. The Empress will do much for Deucalion just now.”
+
+“Girl,” I said, “you are nearer to that whipping than you think for.”
+
+“I have got a name,” she retorted, looking at me sullenly from under her
+black brows. “They call me Ylga. You might have heard that as we rode
+here on the mammoth, had you not been so wrapped up in Phorenice.”
+
+I gazed at her curiously. “You have never seen me before,” I said, “and
+the first words you utter are those that might well bring trouble to
+yourself. There is some object in all this.”
+
+She went and pushed to the massive stone that swung in the doorway of
+the chamber. Then she put her little jewelled fingers on my garment and
+drew me carefully away from the airshaft into the farther corner. “I am
+the daughter of Zaemon,” she said, “whom you knew.”
+
+“You bring me some message from him?”
+
+“How could I? He lives in the priests’ dwellings on the Mountain you did
+obeisance to. I have not put eyes on him these two years. But when I
+saw you first step out from that red pavilion they had pitched at the
+harbour side, I--I felt a pity for you, Deucalion. I remembered you were
+my father’s, Zaemon’s, friend, and I knew what Phorenice had in store.
+She has been plotting it all these two months.”
+
+“I cannot hear words against the Empress.”
+
+“And yet--”
+
+“What?”
+
+She stamped her sandal upon the stone of the floor. “You must be a very
+blind man, Deucalion, or a very daring one. But I shall not interfere
+further; at least not now. Still, I shall watch, and if at any time you
+seem to want a friend I will try and serve you.”
+
+“I thank you for your friendship.”
+
+“You seem to take it lightly enough. Why, sir, even now I do not believe
+you know my power, any more than you guess my motive. You may be first
+man in this kingdom, but let me tell you I rank as second lady. And
+remember, women stand high in Atlantis now. Believe me, my friendship is
+a commodity that has been sought with frequence and industry.”
+
+“And as I say, I am grateful for it. You seem to think little enough of
+my gratitude, Ylga; but, credit me, I never have bestowed it on a woman
+before, and so you should treasure it for its rarity.”
+
+“Well,” she said, “my lord, there is an education before you.” She left
+me then, showing me how to call slaves when I wished for their help, and
+for a full minute I stood wondering at the words I had spoken to her.
+Who was the daughter of Zaemon that she should induce me to change the
+habit of a lifetime?
+
+The slaves came at my bidding, and showed themselves anxious to deck
+me with a thousand foolishnesses in the matter of robes and gauds, and
+(what seemed to be the modern fashion of their class) holding out the
+virtues of a score of perfumes and unguents. Their manner irritated
+me. Clean I was already, and shaved; my hair was trim, and my robe was
+unsoiled; and, considering these pressing attentions of theirs something
+of an impertinence, I set them to beat one another as a punishment,
+promising that if they did not do it with thoroughness, I would hand
+them on to the brander to be marked with stripes which would endure.
+It is strange, but a common menial can often surpass even a rebellious
+general in power of ruffling one.
+
+I had seen many strange sights that day, and undergone many new
+sensations; but of all the things which came to my notice, Phorenice’s
+manner of summoning the guests to her feast surprised me most. Nay, it
+did more; it shocked me profoundly; and I cannot say whether amazement
+at her profanity, or wonder at her power, was for the moment strongest
+in my breast. I sat in my chamber awaiting the summons, when gradually,
+growing out of nothing, a sound fell upon my ear which increased in
+volume with infinitely small graduations, till at last it became a
+clanging din which hurt the ear with its fierceness; and then (I guessed
+what was coming) the whole massive fabric of the pyramid trembled and
+groaned and shook, as though it had been merely a child’s wooden toy
+brushed about by a strong man’s sandal.
+
+It was the portent served out yearly by the chiefs of the Priests’ Clan
+on the Sacred Mountain, when they bade all the world take count of their
+sins. It was the sacred reminder that from roaring, raging fire, and
+from the agony of monstrous earth-tremors, man had been born, and that
+by these same agencies he would eventually be swallowed up--he and
+the sins within his breast. And here the Empress was prostituting its
+solemnities into a mere call to gluttony, and sign for ribald laughter
+and sensuous display.
+
+But how had she acquired the authority to do this thing? Who was she
+that she should tamper with those dimly understood powers, the forces
+that dwell within the liquid heart of our mother earth? Had there been
+treachery? Had some member of the Priests’ Clan forgotten his sacred
+vows, and babbled to this woman matters concerning the holy mysteries?
+Or had Phorenice discovered a key to these mysteries with her own agile
+brain?
+
+If that last was the case, I could continue to serve her with silent
+conscience. Though she might be none of my making, at least she was
+Empress, and it was my duty to give her obedience. But if she had
+suborned some weaker member of the Clan on the Sacred Mount, that would
+be a different matter. For be it remembered that it was one of the
+elements of our constitution to preserve our secrets and mysteries
+inviolate, and to pursue with undying hatred both the man who had dared
+to betray them, and the unhappy recipient of his confidence.
+
+It was with very undecided feelings, then, that I obeyed the summons of
+the earth-shaking, and bade the slaves lead me through the windings of
+the pyramid to the great banqueting-hall. The scene there was dazzling.
+The majestic chamber with its marvellous carvings was filled with a
+company decked out with all the gauds and colours that fancy could
+conceive. Little recked they of the solemn portent which had summoned
+them to the meal, of the death and misery that stalked openly through
+the city wards without, of the rebels which lay in leaguer beyond the
+walls, of the neglected Gods and their clan of priests on the Sacred
+Mountain. They were all gluttonous for the passions of the moment; it
+was their fashion and conceit to look at nothing beyond.
+
+Flaming jets of earth-breath lit the great hall to the brightness of
+midday; and when I stepped out upon the pavement, trumpets blared, so
+that all might know of my coming. But there was no roar of welcome.
+“Deucalion,” they lisped with mincing voices, bowing themselves
+ridiculously to the ground so that all their ornaments and silks might
+jangle and swish. Indeed, when Phorenice herself appeared, and all
+sent up their cries and made lawful obeisance, there was the same
+artificiality in the welcome. They meant well enough, it is true;
+but this was the new fashion. Heartiness had come to be accounted a
+barbarism by this new culture.
+
+A pair of posturing, smirking chamberlains took me in charge, and
+ushered me with their flimsy golden wands to the dais at the farther
+end. It appeared that I was to sit on Phorenice’s divan, and eat my meat
+out of her dish.
+
+“There is no stint to the honour the Empress puts upon me,” I said, as I
+knelt down and took my seat.
+
+She gave me one of her queer, sidelong looks. “Deucalion may have more
+beside, if he asks for it prettily. He may have what all the other men
+in the known world have sighed for, and what none of them will ever
+get. But I have given enough of my own accord; he must ask me warmly for
+those further favours.”
+
+“I ask,” I said, “first, that I may sweep the boundaries clear of this
+rabble which is clamouring against the city walls.”
+
+“Pah,” she said, and frowned. “Have you appetite only for the sterner
+pleasures of life? My good Deucalion, they must have been rustic folk
+in that colony of yours. Well, you shall give me news now of the
+toothsomeness of this feast.”
+
+Dishes and goblets were placed before us, and we began to eat, though I
+had little enough appetite for victual so broken and so highly spiced.
+But if this finicking cookery and these luscious wines did not appeal
+to me, the other diners in that gorgeous hall appreciated it all to the
+full. They sat about in groups on the pavement beneath the light-jets
+like a tangle of rainbows for colour, and according to the new custom
+they went into raptures and ecstasies over their enjoyment. Women and
+men both, they lingered over each titillation of the palate as though it
+were a caress of the Gods.
+
+Phorenice, with her quick, bright eyes, looked on, and occasionally
+flung one or another a few words between her talk with me, and now and
+again called some favoured creature up to receive a scrap of viand
+from the royal dish. This the honoured one would eat with extravagant
+gesture, or (as happened twice) would put it away in the folds of his
+clothes as a treasure too dear to be profaned by human lips.
+
+To me, this flattery appeared gross and disgustful, but Phorenice,
+through use, perhaps, seemed to take it as merely her due. There was,
+one had to suppose, a weakness in her somewhere, though truly to the
+outward seeing none was apparent. Her face was strong enough, and it was
+subtle also, and, moreover, it was wondrous comely. All the courtiers in
+the banqueting-hall raved about Phorenice’s face and the other beauties
+of her body and limbs, and though not given to appreciation in these
+matters, I could not but see that here at least they had a groundwork
+for their admiration, for surely the Gods have never favoured mortal
+woman more highly. Yet lovely though she might be, for myself I
+preferred to look upon Ylga, the girl, who, because of her rank, was
+privileged to sit on the divan behind us as immediate attendant. There
+was an honesty in Ylga’s face which Phorenice’s lacked.
+
+They did not eat to nutrify their bodies, these feasters in the
+banqueting-hall of the royal pyramid, but they all ate to cloy
+themselves, and they strutted forth new usages with every platter and
+bowl that the slaves brought. To me some of their manners were
+closely touching on disrespect. At the halfway of the meal, a gorgeous
+popinjay--he was a governor of an out-province driven into the capital
+by a rebellion in his own lands--this gorgeous fop, I say, walked up
+between the groups of feasters with flushed face and unsteady gait, and
+did obeisance before the divan. “Most astounding Empress,” cried he,
+“fairest among the Goddesses, Queen regnant of my adoring heart, hail!”
+
+Phorenice with a smile stretched him out her cup. I looked to see him
+pour respectful libation, but no such thing. He set the drink to his
+lips and drained it to the final drop. “May all your troubles,” he
+cried, “pass from you as easily, and leave as pleasant a flavour.”
+
+The Empress turned to me with one of her quick looks. “You do not like
+this new habit?”
+
+To which I replied bluntly enough that to pour out liquor at a person’s
+feet had grown through custom to be a mark of respect, but that drinking
+it seemed to me mere self-indulgence, which might be practised anywhere.
+
+“You still keep to the old austere teachings,” she said. “Our newer code
+bids us enjoy life first, and order other things so as not to meddle
+with our more immediate pleasure.”
+
+And so the feast went on, the guests practising their gluttonies and
+their absurdities, and the guards standing to their arms round the
+circuit of the walls as motionless and as stern as the statues carven
+in the white stone beyond them. But a term was put to the orgy with
+something of suddenness. There was a stir at the farther doorway of the
+banqueting-hall, and a clash, as two of the guards joined their spears
+across the entrance. But the man they tried to stop--or perhaps it was
+to pin--passed them unharmed, and walked up over the pavement between
+the lights, and the groups of feasters. All looked round at him; a few
+threw him ribald words; but none ventured to stop his progress. A few,
+women chiefly, I could see, shuddered as he passed them by, as though a
+wintry chill had come over them; and in the end he walked up and stood
+in front of Phorenice’s divan, and gazed fixedly on her, but without
+making obeisance.
+
+He was a frail old man, with white hair tumbling on his shoulders, and
+ragged white beard. The mud of wayfaring hung in clots on his feet and
+legs. His wizened body was bare save for a single cloth wound about
+his shoulders and his loins, and he carried in his hand a wand with the
+symbol of our Lord the Sun glowing at its tip. That wand went to show
+his caste, but in no other way could I recognize him.
+
+I took him for one of those ascetics of the Priests’ Clan, who had
+forsworn the steady nurtured life of the Sacred Mountain, and who lived
+out in the dangerous lands amongst the burning hills, where there is
+daily peril from falling rocks, from fire streams, from evil vapours,
+from sudden fissuring of the ground, and from other movements of those
+unstable territories, and from the greater lizards and other monstrous
+beasts which haunt them. These keep constant in the memory the might of
+the Holy Gods, and the insecurity of this frail earth on which we have
+our resting-place, and so the sojourners there become chastened in the
+spirit, and gain power over mysteries which even the most studious and
+learned of other men can never hope to attain.
+
+A silence filled the room when the old man came to his halt, and
+Phorenice was the first to break it. “Those two guards,” she said, in
+her clear, carrying voice, “who held the door, are not equal to their
+work. I cannot have imperfect servants; remove them.”
+
+The soldiers next in the rank lifted their spears and drove them home,
+and the two fellows who had admitted the old man fell to the ground. One
+shrieked once, the other gave no sound: they were clever thrusts both.
+
+The old man found his voice, thin, and high, and broken. “Another crime
+added to your tally, Phorenice. Not half your army could have hindered
+my entrance had I wished to come, and let me tell you that I am here to
+bring you your last warning. The Gods have shown you much favour; they
+gave you merit by which you could rise above your fellows, till at last
+only the throne stood above you. It was seen good by those on the Sacred
+Mountain to let you have this last ambition, and sit on this throne
+that has as long and honourably been filled by the ancient kings of
+Atlantis.”
+
+The Empress sat back on the divan smiling. “I seemed to get these things
+as I chose, and in spite of your friends’ teeth. I may owe to you, old
+man, a small parcel of thanks, though that I offered to repay; but for
+my lords the priests, their permission was of small enough value when
+it came. I would have you remember that I was as firm on the throne of
+Atlantis as this pyramid stands upon its base when your worn-out priests
+came up to give their tottering benediction.”
+
+The old man waved aside her interruption. “Hear me out,” he said. “I am
+here with no trivial message. There is nothing paltry about the threat
+I can throw at you, Phorenice. With your fire-tubes, your handling of
+troops, and your other fiendish clevernesses, you may not be easy to
+overthrow by mere human means, though, forsooth, these poor rebels who
+yap against your city walls have contrived to hold their ground for long
+enough now. It may be that you are becoming enervated; I do not know.
+It may be that you are too wrapped up in your feastings, your dressings,
+your pomps, and your debaucheries, to find leisure to turn to the art
+of war. It may be that the man’s spirit has gone out from your arm and
+brain, and you are a woman once more--weak, and pleasure-loving; again I
+do not know.
+
+“But this must happen: You must undo the evil you have done; you must
+give bread to the people who are starving, even if you take it from
+these gluttons in this hall; you must restore Atlantis to the state in
+which it was entrusted to you: or else you must be removed. It cannot
+be permitted that the country should sink back into the lawlessness
+and barbarism from which its ancient kings have digged it. You hear,
+Phorenice. Now give me true answer.”
+
+“Speak him fair. Oh! For the sake of your fortune, speak him fair,” came
+Ylga’s voice in a hurried whisper from behind us. But the Empress took
+no notice of it. She leaned forward on the cushions of the divan with a
+knit brow.
+
+“Do you dare to threaten me, old man, knowing what I am?”
+
+“I know your origin,” he said gravely, “as well as you know it yourself.
+As for my daring, that is a small matter. He need be but a timid man who
+dares to say words that the High Gods put on his lips.”
+
+“I shall rule this kingdom as I choose. I shall brook interference from
+no creature on this earth, or beneath it, or in the sky above. The Gods
+have chosen me to be Their regent in Atlantis, and They do not depose me
+through such creatures as you. Go away, old man, and play the fanatic in
+another court. It is well that I have an ancient kindliness for you, or
+you would not leave this place unharmed.”
+
+“Now, indeed, you are lost,” I heard Ylga murmur from behind, and the
+old man in front of us did not move a step. Instead, he lifted up the
+Symbol of our Lord the Sun, and launched his curse. “Your blasphemy
+gives the reply I asked for. Hear me now make declaration of war on
+behalf of Those against whom you have thrown your insults. You shall be
+overthrown and sent to the nether Gods. At whatever cost the land shall
+be purged of you and yours, and all the evil that has been done to it
+whilst you have sullied the throne of its ancient kings. You will not
+amend, neither will you yield tamely. You vaunt that you sit as firm on
+your throne as this pyramid reposes on its base. See how little you
+know of what the future carries. I say to you that, whilst you are yet
+Empress, you shall see this royal pyramid which you have polluted
+with your debaucheries torn tier from tier, and stone from stone, and
+scattered as feathers spread before a wind.”
+
+“You may wreck the pyramid,” said Phorenice contemptuously. “I myself
+have some knowledge of the earth forces, as I have shown this night. But
+though you crumble every stone above us now and grind it into grit and
+dust, I shall still be Empress. What force can you crazy priests bring
+against me that I cannot throw back and destroy?”
+
+“We have a weapon that was forged in no mortal smithy,” shrilled the
+old man, “whereof the key is now lodged in the Ark of the Mysteries. But
+that weapon can be used only as a last resource. The nature of it even
+is too awful to be told in words. Our other powers will be launched
+against you first, and for this poor country’s sake I pray that they may
+cause you to wince. Yet rest assured, Phorenice, that we shall not step
+aside once we have put a hand to this matter. We shall carry it through,
+even though the cost be a universal burning and destruction. For know
+this, daughter of the swineherd, it is agreed amongst the most High Gods
+that you are too full of sin to continue unchecked.”
+
+“Speak him fairly,” Ylga urged from behind. “He has a power at which you
+cannot even guess.”
+
+The Empress made to rise, but Ylga clung to her skirt. “For the sake of
+your fame,” she urged, “for the sake of your life, do not defy him.” But
+Phorenice struck her fiercely aside, and faced the old man in a tumult
+of passion. “You dare call me a blasphemer, who blaspheme yourself? You
+dare cast slurs upon my birth, who am come direct from the most high
+Heaven? Old man, your craziness protects you in part, but not in all.
+You shall be whipped. Do you hear me? I say, whipped. The lean flesh
+shall be scourged from your scraggy bones, and you shall totter away
+from this place as a red and bleeding example for those who would dare
+traduce their Empress. Here, some of you, I say, take that man, and let
+him be whipped where he stands.”
+
+Her cry went out clearly enough. But not a soul amongst those glittering
+feasters stirred in his place. Not a soldier amongst the guards stepped
+from his rank. The place was hung in a terrible silence. It seemed as
+though no one within the hall dared so much as to draw a breath. All
+felt that the very air was big with fate.
+
+Phorenice, with her head crouched forward, looked from one group to
+another. Her face was working. “Have I no true servants,” she asked,
+“amongst all you pretty lip-servers?”
+
+Still no one moved. They stood, or sat, or crouched like people
+fascinated. For myself, with the first words he had uttered, I had
+recognized the old man by his voice. It was Zaemon, the weak governor
+who had given the Empress her first step towards power; that earnest
+searcher into the mysteries, who knew more of their powers, and more
+about the hidden forces, than any other dweller on the Sacred Mountain,
+even at that time when I left for my colony. And now, during his strange
+hermit life, how much more might he not have learned? I was torn by
+warring duties. I owed much to the Priests’ Clan, by reason of my oath
+and membership; it seemed I owed no less to Phorenice. And, again, was
+Zaemon the truly accredited envoy of the high council of the priests of
+the Sacred Mountain? And was the Empress of a truth deposed by the High
+Gods above, or was she still Empress, and still the commander of my
+duty? I could not tell, and so I sat in my seat awaiting what the event
+would sow.
+
+Phorenice’s fury was growing. “Do I stand alone here?” she cried. “Have
+I pampered you creatures out of all touch with gratitude? It seems that
+at last I want a new chief to my guards. Ho! Who will be chief of the
+guards of the Empress?”
+
+There was a shifting of eyes, a hesitation. Then a great burly form
+strode up from the farther end of the hall, and a perceptible shudder
+went up from all the others as they watched him.
+
+“So, Tarca, you prefer to take the risks, and remain chief of the guard
+yourself?” she said with an angry scoff. “Truly there did not seem to be
+many thrusting forward to strip you of the office. I shall have a fine
+sorting up of places in payment for this night’s work. But for the
+present, Tarca, do your duty.”
+
+The man came up, obviously timorous. He was a solidly made fellow, but
+not altogether unmartial, and though but little of his cheek showed
+above his decorated beard, I could see that he paled as he came near
+to the priest. “My lord,” he said quietly, “I must ask you to come with
+me.”
+
+“Stand aside,” said the old man, thrusting out the Symbol in front of
+him. I could see his eyes gather on the soldier and his brows knit with
+a strain of will.
+
+Tarca saw this too, and I thought he would have fallen, but with an
+effort he kept his manhood, and doggedly repeated his summons. “I must
+obey the command of my mistress, and I would have you remember, my lord,
+that I am but a servant. You must come with me to the whip.”
+
+“I warn you!” cried the old man. “Stand from out of my path, you!”
+
+It must have been with the courage of desperation that the soldier dared
+to use force. But the hand he stretched out dropped limply back to his
+side the moment it touched the old man’s bare shoulder, as though it had
+been struck by some shock. He seemed almost to have expected some such
+repulse; yet when he picked up that hand with the other, and looked
+at it, and saw its whiteness, he let out of him a yell like a wounded
+beast. “Oh, Gods!” he cried. “Not that. Spare me!”
+
+But Zaemon was glowering at him still. A twitching seized the man’s
+face, and he put up his sound hand to it and plucked at his beard,
+which was curled and plaited after the new fashion of the day. A woman
+standing near screamed as the half of the beard came off in his fingers.
+Beneath was silver whiteness over half his face. Zaemon had smitten him
+with a sudden leprosy that was past cure.
+
+Yet the punishment was not ended even then. Other twitchings took him
+on other parts of the body, and he tore off his armour and his foppish
+clothes, and always where the bare flesh showed, there had the horrid
+plague written its white mark; and in the end, being able to endure no
+more, the man fell to the pavement and lay there writhing.
+
+Zaemon said no further word. He lifted the Symbol before him, set
+his eyes on the farther door of the banqueting-hall and walked for
+it directly, all those in his path shrinking away from him with open
+shudders. And through the valves of the door he passed out of our sight,
+still wordless, still unchecked.
+
+I glanced up at Phorenice. The loveliness of her face was drawn and
+haggard. It was the first great reverse, this, she had met with in
+all her life, and the shock of it, and the vision of what might follow
+after, dazed her. Alas, if she could only have guessed at a tenth of the
+terrors which the future had in its womb, Atlantis might have been saved
+even then.
+
+
+
+
+6. THE BITERS OF THE CITY WALLS
+
+
+Here then was the manner of my reception back in the capital of
+Atlantis, and some first glimpse at her new policies. I freely confess
+to my own inaction and limpness; but it was all deliberate. The old ties
+of duty seemed lost, or at least merged in one another. Beforetime, to
+serve the king was to serve the Clan of the Priests, from which he had
+been chosen, and whose head he constituted. But Phorenice was self-made,
+and appeared to be a rule unto herself; if Zaemon was to be trusted,
+he was the mouthpiece of the Priests, and their Clan had set her at
+defiance; and how was a mere honest man to choose on the instant between
+the two?
+
+But cold argument told me that governments were set up for the good
+of the country at large, and I said to myself that there would be my
+choice. I must find out which rule promised best of Atlantis, and do my
+poor best to prop it into full power. And here at once there opened up
+another path in the maze: I had heard some considerable talk of rebels;
+of another faction of Atlanteans who, whatever their faults might be,
+were at any rate strong enough to beleaguer the capital; and before
+coming to any final decision, it would be as well to take their claims
+in balance with the rest. So on the night of that very same day on which
+I had just re-planted my foot on the old country’s shores, I set out to
+glean for myself tidings on the matter.
+
+No one inside the royal pyramid gainsaid me. The banquet had ended
+abruptly with the terrible scene that I have set down above on these
+tablets, for with Tarca writhing on the floor, and thrusting out the
+gruesome scars of his leprosy, even the most gluttonous had little
+enough appetite for further gorging. Phorenice glowered on the feasters
+for a while longer in silent fury, but saying no further word; and then
+her eyes turned on me, though softened somewhat.
+
+“You may be an honest man, Deucalion,” she said, at length, “but you are
+a monstrous cold one. I wonder when you will thaw?” And here she smiled.
+“I think it will be soon. But for now I bid you farewell. In the morning
+we will take this country by the shoulders, and see it in some new
+order.”
+
+She left the banqueting-hall then, Ylga following; and taking
+precedence of my rank, I went out next, whilst all others stood and made
+salutation. But I halted by Tarca first, and put my hand on his unclean
+flesh. “You are an unfortunate man,” I said, “but I can admire a brave
+soldier. If relief can be gained for your plague, I will use interest to
+procure it for you.”
+
+The man’s thanks came in a mumble from his wrecked mouth, and some of
+those near shuddered in affected disgust. I turned on them with a
+black brow: “Your charity, my lords, seems of as small account as
+your courage. You affected a fine disbelief of Zaemon’s sayings, and
+a simpering contempt for his priesthood, but when it comes to laying
+a hand on him, you show a discretion which, in the old days, we should
+have called by an ugly name. I had rather be Tarca, with all his
+uncleanness, than any of you now as you stand.”
+
+With which leave-taking I waited coldly till they gave me my due
+salutation, and then walked out of the banqueting-hall without offering
+a soul another glance. I took my way to the grand gate of the pyramid,
+called for the officer of the guard, and demanded exit. The man was
+obsequious enough, but he opened with some demur.
+
+“My lord’s attendants have not yet come up?”
+
+“I have none.”
+
+“My lord knows the state of the streets?”
+
+“I did twenty years back. I shall be able to pick my way.”
+
+“My lord must remember that the city is beleaguered,” the fellow
+persisted. “The people are hungry. They prowl in bands after nightfall,
+and--I make no question that my lord would conquer in a fight against
+whatever odds, but--”
+
+“Quite right. I covet no street scuffle to-night. Lend me, I pray you,
+a sufficiency of men. You will know best what are needed. For me, I am
+accustomed to a city with quiet streets.”
+
+A score of sturdy fellows were detailed off for my escort, and with them
+in a double file on either hand, I marched out from the close perfumed
+air of the pyramid into the cool moonlight of the city. It was my
+purpose to make a tour of the walls and to find out somewhat of the
+disposition of these rebels.
+
+But the Gods saw fit to give me another education first. The city, as I
+saw it during that night walk, was no longer the old capital that I had
+known, the just accretion of the ages, the due admixture of comfort and
+splendour. The splendour was there, vastly increased. Whole wards had
+been swept away to make space for new palaces, and new pyramids of the
+wealthy, and I could not but have an admiration for the skill and the
+brain which made possible such splendid monuments.
+
+And, indeed, gazing at them there under the silver of the moonlight,
+I could almost understand the emotions of the Europeans and other
+barbarous savages which cause them to worship all such great buildings
+as Gods, since they deem them too wonderful and majestic to be set up by
+human hands unaided.
+
+Still, if it was easy to admire, it was simple also to see plain
+advertisement of the cost at which these great works had been reared.
+From each grant of ground, where one of these stately piles earned
+silver under the moon, a hundred families had been evicted and left to
+harbour as they pleased in the open; and, as a consequence, now every
+niche had its quota of sleepers, and every shadow its squad of fierce
+wild creatures, ready to rush out and rob or slay all wayfarers of less
+force than their own.
+
+Myself, I am no pamperer of the common people. I say that, if a man be
+left to hunger and shiver, he will work to gain him food and raiment;
+and if not, why then he can die, and the State is well rid of a
+worthless fellow. But here beside us, as we marched through many wards,
+were marks of blind oppression; starved dead bodies, with the bones
+starting through the lean skin, sprawled in the gutter; and indeed
+it was plain that, save for the favoured few, the people of the great
+capital were under a most heavy oppression.
+
+But at this, though I might regret it abominably, I could make no strong
+complaint. By the ancient law of the land all the people, great and
+small, were the servants of the king, to be put without question to what
+purposes he chose; and Phorenice stood in the place of the king. So I
+tried to think no treason, but with a sigh passed on, keeping my eyes
+above the miseries and the squalors of the roadway, and sending out my
+thoughts to the stars which hung in the purple night above, and to
+the High Gods which dwelt amongst them, seeking, if it might be, for
+guidance for my future policies. And so in time the windings of the
+streets brought us to the walls, and, coursing beside these and giving
+fitting answer to the sentries who beat their drums as we passed, we
+came in time to that great gate which was a charge to the captain of the
+garrison.
+
+Here it was plain there was some special commotion. A noise of laughter
+went up into the still night air, and with it now and again the snarl
+and roar of a great beast, and now and again the shriek of a hurt man.
+But whatever might be afoot, it was not a scene to come upon suddenly.
+The entrance gates of our great capital were designed by their ancient
+builders to be no less strong than the walls themselves. Four pairs
+of valves were there, each a monstrous block of stone two man-heights
+square, and a man-height thick, and the wall was doubled to receive
+them, enclosing an open circus between its two parts. The four gates
+themselves were set one at the inner, one at the outer side of each of
+these walls, and a hidden machinery so connected them, that of each set
+one could not open till the other was closed; and as for forcing them
+without war engines, one might as foolishly try to push down the royal
+pyramid with the bare hand.
+
+My escort made outcry with the horn which hung from the wall inviting
+such a summons, and a warder came to an arrow-slit, and did inspection
+of our persons and business. His survey was according to the ancient
+form of words, which is long, and this was made still more tedious by
+the noise from within, which ever and again drowned all speech between
+us entirely.
+
+But at last the formalities had been duly complied with, and he shot
+back the massive bars and bolts of stone, and threw ajar one monstrous
+stone valve of the door. Into the chamber within--a chamber made from
+the thickness of the wall between the two doors--I and my fellows
+crowded, and then the warder with his machines pulled to the valve which
+had been opened, and came to me again through the press of my escort,
+bowing low to the ground.
+
+“I have no vail to give you,” I said abruptly. “Get on with your duty.
+Open me that other door.”
+
+“With respect, my lord, it would be better that I should first announce
+my lord’s presence. There is a baiting going forward in the circus, and
+the tigers are as yet mere savages, and no respecters of persons.”
+
+“The what?”
+
+“The tigers, if my lord will permit them the name. They are baiting a
+batch of prisoners with the two great beasts which the Empress (whose
+name be adored) has sent here to aid us keep the gate. But if my
+lord will, there are the ward rooms leading off this passage, and the
+galleries which run out from them commanding the circus, and from there
+my lord can see the sport undisturbed.”
+
+Now, the mere lust for killing excites only disgust in me, but I
+suspected the orders of the Empress in this matter, and had a curiosity
+to see her scheme. So I stepped into the warder’s lodge, and on into
+the galleries which commanded the circus with their arrow-slits. The old
+builders of the place had intended these for a second line of defence,
+for, supposing the outer doors all forced, an enemy could be speedily
+shot down in the circus, without being able to give a blow in return,
+and so would only march into a death-trap. But as a gazing-place on a
+spectacle they were no less useful.
+
+The circus was bright lit by the moonlight, and the air which came in to
+me from it was acrid with the reek of blood. There was no sport in
+what was going forward: as I said, it was mere killing, and the sight
+disgusted me. I am no prude about this matter. Give a prisoner his
+weapons, put him in a pit with beasts of reasonable strength, and let
+him fight to a finish if you choose, and I can look on there and applaud
+the strokes. The war prisoner, being a prisoner, has earned death by
+natural law, and prefers to get his last stroke in hot blood than to
+be knocked down by the headsman’s axe. And it is any brave man’s luxury
+either to help or watch a lusty fight. But this baiting in the circus
+between the gates was no fair battle like that.
+
+To begin with, the beasts were no fair antagonists for single men. In
+fact, twenty men armed might well have fled from them. When the warder
+said tigers, I supposed he meant the great cats of the woods. But here,
+in the circus, I saw a pair of the most terrific of all the fur-bearing
+land beasts, the great tigers of the caves--huge monsters, of such
+ponderous strength that in hunger they will oftentimes drag down a
+mammoth, if they can find him away from his herd.
+
+How they had been brought captive I could not tell. Hunter of beasts
+though I had been for all my days, I take no shame in saying that
+I always approached the slaying of a cave-tiger with stratagem and
+infinite caution. To entrap it alive and bring it to a city on a chain
+was beyond my most daring schemes, and I have been accredited with more
+new things than one. But here it was in fact, and I saw in these captive
+beasts a new certificate for Phorenice’s genius.
+
+The purpose of these two cave-tigers was plain: whilst they were in
+the circus, and loose, no living being could cross from one gate to
+the other. They were a new and sturdy addition to the defences of the
+capital. A collar of bronze was round the throat of each, and on the
+collar was a massive chain which led to the wall, where it could be
+payed out or hauled in by means of a windlass in one of the hidden
+galleries. So that at ordinary moments the two huge beasts could be
+tethered, one close to either end of the circus, as the litter of bones
+and other messes showed, leaving free passage-way between the two sets
+of doors.
+
+But when I stood there by the arrow-slit, looking down into the
+moonlight of the circus, these chains were slackened (though men stood
+by the windlass of each), and the great striped brutes were prowling
+about the circus with the links clanking and chinking in their wake.
+Lying stark on the pavement were the bodies of some eight men, dead
+and uneaten; and though the cave-tigers stopped their prowlings now and
+again to nuzzle these, and beat them about with playful paw-blows, they
+made no pretence at commencing a meal. It was clear that this cruel
+sport had grown common to them, and they knew there were other victims
+yet to be added to the tally.
+
+Presently, sure enough, as I watched, a valve of the farther gate swung
+back an arm’s length, and a prisoner, furiously resisting, was thrust
+out into the circus. He fell on his face, and after one look around him
+he lay resolutely still, with eyes on the ground passively awaiting
+his fate. The ponderous stone of the gate clapped to in its place; the
+cave-tigers turned in their prowlings; and a chatter of wagers ran to
+and fro amongst the watchers behind the arrow-slits.
+
+It seemed there were niceties of cruelty in this wretched game. There
+was a sharp clank as the windlasses were manned, and the tethering
+chains were drawn in by perhaps a score of links. One of the cave-tigers
+crouched, lashed its tail, and launched forth on a terrific spring.
+The chain tautened, the massive links sang to the strain, and the great
+beast gave a roar which shook the walls. It had missed the prone man by
+a hand’s breadth, and the watchers behind the arrow-slits shrieked forth
+their delight. The other tiger sprang also and missed, and again there
+were shouts of pleasure, which mingled with the bellowing voices of the
+beasts. The man lay motionless in his form. One more cowardly, or
+one more brave, might have run from death, or faced it; but this poor
+prisoner chose the middle course--he permitted death to come to him, and
+had enough of doggedness to wait for it without stir.
+
+The great cave-tigers were used, it appeared, to this disgusting sport.
+There were no more wild springs, no more stubbings at the end of the
+massive chains. They lay down on the pavement, and presently began to
+purr, rolling on to their sides and rubbing themselves luxuriously. The
+prisoner still lay motionless in his form.
+
+By slow degrees the monstrous brutes each drew to the end of its chain
+and began to reach at the man with out-stretched forepaw. The male could
+not touch him; the female could just reach him with the far tip of a
+claw; and I saw a red scratch start up in the bare skin of his side at
+every stroke. But still the prisoner would not stir. It seemed to me
+that they must slack out more links of one of the tigers’ chains, or let
+the vile play linger into mere tediousness.
+
+But I had more to learn yet. The male tiger, either taught by his
+own devilishness, or by those brutes that were his keepers, had still
+another ruse in store. He rose to his feet and turned round, backing
+against the chain. A yell of applause from the hidden men behind
+the arrow-slits told that they knew what was in store; and then the
+monstrous beast, stretched to the utmost of its vast length, kicked
+sharply with one hind paw.
+
+I heard the crunch of the prisoner’s ribs as the pads struck him, and at
+that same moment the poor wretch’s body was spurned away by the blow, as
+one might throw a fruit with the hand. But it did not travel far. It was
+clear that the she-tiger knew this manoeuvre of her mate’s. She caught
+the man on his bound, nuzzling over him for a minute, and then tossing
+him high into the air, and leaping up to the full of her splendid height
+after him.
+
+Those other onlookers thought it magnificent; their gleeful shouts said
+as much. But for me, my gorge rose at the sight. Once the tigers
+had reached him, the man had been killed, it is true, without any
+unnecessary lingering. Even a light blow from those terrific paws would
+slay the strongest man living. But to see the two cave-tigers toying
+with the poor body was an insult to the pride of our race.
+
+However, I was not there to preach the superiority of man to the
+beasts, and the indecency and degradation of permitting man to be unduly
+insulted. I had come to learn for myself the new balance of things
+in the kingdom of Atlantis, and so I stood at my place behind the
+arrow-slit with a still face. And presently another scene in this
+ghastly play was enacted.
+
+The cave-tigers tired of their sport, and first one and then the other
+fell once more to prowling over the littered pavements, with the heavy
+chains scraping and chinking in their wake. They made no beginning to
+feast on the bodies provided for them. That would be for afterwards. In
+the present, the fascination of slaughter was big in them, and they
+had thought that it would be indulged further. It seemed that they knew
+their entertainers.
+
+Again the windlass clanked, and the tethering chains drew the great
+beasts clear of the doorway; and again a valve of the farther door swung
+ajar, and another prisoner was thrust struggling into the circus. A
+sickness seized me when I saw that this was a woman, but still, in view
+of the object I had in hand, I made no interruption.
+
+It was not that I had never seen women sent to death before. A general,
+who has done his fighting, must in his day have killed women equally
+with men; yes, and seen them earn their death-blow by lusty battling.
+Yet there seemed something so wanton in this cruel helpless sacrifice
+of a woman prisoner, that I had a struggle with myself to avoid
+interference. Still it is ever the case that the individual must be
+sacrificed to a policy, and so as I say, I watched on, outwardly cold
+and impassive.
+
+I watched too (I confess it freely) with a quickening heart. Here was no
+sullen submissive victim like the last. She may have been more cowardly
+(as some women are), she may have been braver (as many women have shown
+themselves); but, at any rate, it was clear that she was going to make a
+struggle for her life, and to do vicious damage, it might be, before
+she yielded it up. The watchers behind the arrow-slits recognized this.
+Their wagers, and the hum of their appreciation, swept loudly round the
+ring of the circus.
+
+They stripped their prisoners, before they thrust them out to this
+death, of all the clothes they might carry, for clothes have a value;
+and so the woman stood there bare-limbed in the moonlight.
+
+She clapped her back to the great stone door by which she had entered,
+and faced fate with glowing eye. Gods! there have been times in early
+years when I could have plucked out sword and jumped down, and fought
+for her there for the sheer delight of such a battle. But now policy
+restrained me. The individual might want a helping hand, but it was
+becoming more and more clear that Atlantis wanted a minister also; and
+before these great needs, the lesser ones perforce must perish. Still,
+be it noted that, if I did not jump down, no other man there that night
+had sufficient manhood remaining to venture the opportunity.
+
+My heart glowed as I watched her. She picked a bone from the litter on
+the pavement and beat off its head by blows against the wall. Then with
+her teeth she fashioned the point to still further sharpness. I could
+see her teeth glisten white in the moonrays as she bit with them.
+
+The huge cave-tigers, which stood as high as her head as they walked,
+came nearer to her in their prowlings, yet obviously neglected her. This
+was part of their accustomed scheme of torment, and the woman knew it
+well. There was something intolerable in their noiseless, ceaseless
+paddings over the pavement. I could see the prisoner’s breast heave as
+she watched them. A terror such as that would have made many a victim
+sick and helpless.
+
+But this one was bolder than I had thought. She did not wait for a
+spring: she made the first attack herself. When the she-tiger made its
+stroll towards her, and was in the act of turning, she flung herself
+into a sudden leap, striking viciously at its eye with her sharpened
+bone. A roar from the onlookers acknowledged the stroke. The
+cave-tiger’s eye remained undarkened, but the puny weapon had dealt it
+a smart flesh wound, and with a great bellow of surprise and pain it
+scampered away to gain space for a rush and a spring.
+
+But the woman did not await its charge. With a shrill scream she sped
+forward, running at the full of her speed across the moonlight directly
+towards that shadowed part of the encircling wall within whose thickness
+I had my gazing place; and then, throwing every tendon of her body into
+the spring, made the greatest leap that surely any human being
+ever accomplished, even when spurred on by the utmost of terror and
+desperation. In an after day I measured it, and though of a certainty
+she must have added much to the tally by the sheer force of her run,
+which drove her clinging up the rough surface of the wall, it is a sure
+thing that in that splendid leap her feet must have dangled a man-height
+and a half above the pavement.
+
+I say it was prodigious, but then the spur was more than the ordinary,
+and the woman herself was far out of the common both in thews and
+intelligence; and the end of the leap left her with five fingers lodged
+in the sill of the arrow-slit from which I watched. Even then she must
+have slipped back if she had been left to herself, for the sill sloped,
+and the stone was finely smooth; but I shot out my hand and gripped
+hers by the wrist, and instantly she clambered up with both knees on the
+sills, and her fingers twined round to grip my wrist in her turn.
+
+And now you will suppose she gushed out prayers and promises, thinking
+only of safety and enlargement. There was nothing of this. With savage
+panting wordlessness she took fresh grip on the sharpened bone with her
+spare hand, and lunged with it desperately through the arrow-slit. With
+the hand that clutched mine she drew me towards her, so as to give the
+blows the surer chance, and so unprepared was I for such an attack, and
+with such fierce suddenness did she deliver it, that the first blow was
+near giving me my quietus. But I grappled with the poor frantic creature
+as gently as might be--the stone of the wall separating us always--and
+stripped her of her weapon, and held her firmly captive till she might
+calm herself.
+
+“That was an ungrateful blow,” I said. “But for my hand you’d have
+slipped and be the sport of a tiger’s paw this minute.”
+
+“Oh, I must kill some one,” she panted, “before I am killed myself.”
+
+“There will be time enough to think upon that some other day; but for
+now you are far enough off meeting further harm.”
+
+“You are lying to me. You will throw me to the beasts as soon as I loose
+my grip. I know your kind: you will not be robbed of your sport.”
+
+“I will go so far as to prove myself to you,” said I, and called out for
+the warder who had tended the doors below. “Bid those tigers be tethered
+on a shorter chain,” I ordered, “and then go yourself outside into the
+circus, and help this lady delicately to the ground.”
+
+The word was passed and these things were done; and I too came out into
+the circus and joined the woman, who stood waiting under the moonlight.
+But the others who had seen these doings were by no means suited at the
+change of plan. One of the great stone valves of the farther door opened
+hurriedly, and a man strode out, armed and flushed. “By all the Gods!”
+ he shouted. “Who comes between me and my pastime?”
+
+I stepped quietly to the advance. “I fear, sir,” I said, “that you must
+launch your anger against me. By accident I gave that woman sanctuary,
+and I had not heart to toss her back to your beasts.”
+
+His fingers began to snap against his hilt.
+
+“You have come to the wrong market here with your qualms. I am captain
+here, and my word carries, subject only to Phorenice’s nod. Do you
+hear that? Do you know too that I can have you tossed to those striped
+gate-keepers of mine for meddling in here without an invitation?” He
+looked at me sharp enough, but saw plainly that I was a stranger. “But
+perhaps you carry a name, my man, which warrants your impertinence?”
+
+“Deucalion is my poor name,” I said, “but I cannot expect you will know
+it. I am but newly landed here, sir, and when I left Atlantis some score
+of years back, a very different man to you held guard over these gates.”
+ He had his forehead on my feet by this time. “I had it from the Empress
+this night that she will to-morrow make a new sorting of this kingdom’s
+dignities. Perhaps there is some recommendation you would wish me to lay
+before her in return for your courtesies?”
+
+“My lord,” said the man, “if you wish it, I can have a turn with those
+cave-tigers myself now, and you can look on from behind the walls and
+see them tear me.”
+
+“Why tell me what is no news?”
+
+“I wish to remind my lord of his power; I wish to beg of his clemency.”
+
+“You showed your power to these poor prisoners; but from what remains
+here to be seen, few of them have tasted much of your clemency.”
+
+“The orders were,” said the captain of the gate, as though he thought a
+word might be said here for his defence, “the orders were, my lord, that
+the tigers should be kept fierce and accustomed to killing.”
+
+“Then, if you have obeyed orders, let me be the last to chide you.
+But it is my pleasure that this woman be respited, and I wish now to
+question her.”
+
+The man got to his feet again with obvious relief, though still bowing
+low.
+
+“Then if my lord will honour me by sitting in my room that overlooks the
+outer gate, the favour will never be forgotten.”
+
+“Show the way,” I said, and took the woman by the fingers, leading her
+gently. At the two ends of the circus the tigers prowled about on short
+chains, growling and muttering.
+
+We passed through the door into the thickness of the outer wall, and the
+captain of the gate led us into his private chamber, a snug enough box
+overlooking the plain beyond the city. He lit a torch from his lamp
+and thrust it into a bracket on the wall, and bowing deeply and walking
+backwards, left us alone, closing the door in place behind him. He was
+an industrious fellow, this captain, to judge from the spoil with
+which his chamber was packed. There could have come very few traders in
+through that gate below without his levying a private tribute; and so,
+judging that most of his goods had been unlawfully come by, I had little
+qualm at making a selection. It was not decent that the woman, being
+an Atlantean, should go bereft of the dignity of clothes, as though
+she were a mere savage from Europe; and so I sought about amongst the
+captain’s spoil for garments that would be befitting.
+
+But, as I busied myself in this search for raiment, rummaging amongst
+the heaps and bales, with a hand and eye little skilled in such
+business, I heard a sound behind which caused me to turn my head, and
+there was the woman with a dagger she had picked from the floor, in the
+act of drawing it from the sheath.
+
+She caught my eye and drew the weapon clear, but seeing that I made no
+advance towards her, or move to protect myself, waited where she was,
+and presently was took with a shuddering.
+
+“Your designs seem somewhat of a riddle,” I said. “At first you
+wished to kill me from motives which you explained, and which I quite
+understood. It lay in my power next to confer some small benefit
+upon you, in consequence of which you are here, and not--shall we
+say?--yonder in the circus. Why you should desire now to kill the only
+man here who can set you completely free, and beyond these walls, is a
+thing it would gratify me much to learn. I say nothing of the trifle of
+ingratitude. Gratitude and ingratitude are of little weight here. There
+is some far greater in your mind.”
+
+She pressed a hand hard against her breasts. “You are Deucalion,” she
+gasped; “I heard you say it.”
+
+“I am Deucalion. So far, I have known no reason to feel shame for my
+name.”
+
+“And I come of those,” she cried, with a rising voice, “who bite against
+this city, because they have found their fate too intolerable with the
+land as it is ordered now. We heard of your coming from Yucatan. It was
+we who sent the fleet to take you at the entrance to the Gulf.”
+
+“Your fleet gave us a pretty fight.”
+
+“Oh, I know, I know. We had our watchers on the high land who brought us
+the tidings. We had an omen even before that. Where we lay with our army
+before the walls here, we saw great birds carrying off the slain to the
+mountains. But where the fleet failed, I saw a chance where I, a woman,
+might--”
+
+“Where you might succeed?” I sat me down on a pile of the captain’s
+stuffs. It seemed as if here at last that I should find a solution for
+many things. “You carry a name?” I asked.
+
+“They call me Nais.”
+
+“Ah,” I said, and signed to her to take the clothes that I had sought
+out. She was curiously like, so both my eyes and hearing said, to Ylga,
+the fan-girl of Phorenice, but as she had told me of no parentage I
+asked for none then. Still her talk alone let me know that she was bred
+of none of the common people, and I made up my mind towards definite
+understanding. “Nais,” I said, “you wish to kill me. At the same time I
+have no doubt you wish to live on yourself, if only to get credit from
+your people for what you have done. So here I will make a contract with
+you. Prove to me that my death is for Atlantis’ good, and I swear by our
+Lord the Sun to go out with you beyond the walls, where you can stab me
+and then get you gone. Or the--”
+
+“I will not be your slave.”
+
+“I do not ask you for service. Or else, I wished to say, I shall live
+so long as the High Gods wish, and do my poor best for this country. And
+for you--I shall set you free to do your best also. So now, I pray you,
+speak.”
+
+
+
+
+7. THE BITERS OF THE WALLS (FURTHER ACCOUNT)
+
+
+“You will set me free,” she said, regarding me from under her brows,
+“without any further exactions or treaty?”
+
+“I will set you free exactly on those terms,” I answered, “unless indeed
+we here decide that it is better for Atlantis that I should die, in
+which case the freedom will be of your own taking.”
+
+“My lord plays a bold game.”
+
+“Tut, tut,” I said.
+
+“But I shall not hesitate to take the full of my bond, unless my
+theories are most clearly disproved to me.”
+
+“Tut,” I said, “you women, how you can play out the time needlessly.
+Show me sufficient cause, and you shall kill me where and how you
+please. Come, begin the accusation.”
+
+“You are a tyrant.”
+
+“At least I have not paraded my tyrannies in Atlantis these twenty
+years. Why, Nais, I did but land yesterday.”
+
+“You will not deny you came back from Yucatan for a purpose.”
+
+“I came back because I was sent for. The Empress gives no reasons for
+her recalls. She states her will; and we who serve her obey without
+question.”
+
+“Pah, I know that old dogma.”
+
+“If you discredit my poor honesty at the outset like this, I fear we
+shall not get far with our unravelling.”
+
+“My lord must be indeed simple,” said this strange woman scornfully, “if
+he is ignorant of what all Atlantis knows.”
+
+“Then simple you must write me down. Over yonder in Yucatan we were too
+well wrapped up in our own parochial needs and policies to have
+leisure to ponder much over the slim news which drifted out to us from
+Atlantis--and, in truth, little enough came. By example, Phorenice
+(whose office be adored) is a great personage here at home; but over
+there in the colony we barely knew so much as her name. Here, since I
+have been ashore, I have seen many new wonders; I have been carried by a
+riding mammoth; I have sat at a banquet; but in what new policies there
+are afoot, I have yet to be schooled.”
+
+“Then, if truly you do not know it, let me repeat to you the common
+tale. Phorenice has tired of her unmated life.”
+
+“Stay there. I will hear no word against the Empress.”
+
+“Pah, my lord, your scruples are most decorous. But I did no more than
+repeat what the Empress had made public by proclamation. She is minded
+to take to herself a husband, and nothing short of the best is good
+enough for Phorenice. One after another has been put up in turn as
+favourite--and been found wanting. Oh, I tell you, we here in Atlantis
+have watched her courtship with jumping hearts. First it was this one
+here, then it was that one there; now it was this general just returned
+from a victory, and a day later he had been packed back to his camp, to
+give place to some dashing governor who had squeezed increased revenues
+from his province. But every ship that came from the West said that
+there was a stronger man than any of these in Yucatan, and at last the
+Empress changed the wording of her vow. ‘I’ll have Deucalion for my
+husband,’ said she, ‘and then we will see who can stand against my
+wishes.’”
+
+“The Empress (whose name be adored) can do as she pleases in such
+matters,” I said guardedly; “but that is beside the argument. I am here
+to know how it would be better for Atlantis that I should die?”
+
+“You know you are the strongest man in the kingdom.”
+
+“It pleases you to say so.”
+
+“And Phorenice is the strongest woman.”
+
+“That is beyond doubt.”
+
+“Why, then, if the Empress takes you in marriage, we shall be under a
+double tyranny. And her rule alone is more cruelly heavy than we can
+bear already.”
+
+“I pass no criticism on Phorenice’s rule. I have not seen it. But I
+crave your mercy, Nais, on the newcomer into this kingdom. I am strong,
+say you, and therefore I am a tyrant, say you. Now to me this sequence
+is faulty.”
+
+“Who should a strong man use strength for, if not for himself? And if
+for himself, why that spells tyranny. You will get all your heart’s
+desires, my lord, and you will forget that many a thousand of the common
+people will have to pay for them.”
+
+“And this is all your accusation?”
+
+“It seems to be black enough. I am one that has a compassion for my
+fellow-men, my lord, and because of that compassion you see me what I am
+to-day. There was a time, not long passed, when I slept as soft and ate
+as dainty as any in Atlantis.”
+
+I smiled. “Your speech told me that much from the first.”
+
+“Then I would I had cast the speech off, too, if that is also a livery
+of the tyrant’s class. But I tell you I saw all the oppression myself
+from the oppressor’s side. I was high in Phorenice’s favour then.”
+
+“That, too, is easy of credence. Ylga is the fan-girl to the Empress
+now, and second lady in the kingdom, and those who have seen Ylga could
+make an easy guess at the parentage of Nais.”
+
+“We were the daughters of one birth; but I do not count with either
+Zaemon or Ylga now. Ylga is the creature of Phorenice, and Phorenice
+would have all the people of Atlantis slaves and in chains, so that
+she might crush them the easier. And as for Zaemon, he is no friend of
+Phorenice’s; he fights with brain and soul to drag the old authority
+to those on the Sacred Mountain; and that, if it come down on us again,
+would only be the exchange of one form of slavery for another.”
+
+“It seems to me you bite at all authority.”
+
+“In fact,” she said simply, “I do. I have seen too much of it.”
+
+“And so you think a rule of no-rule would be best for the country?”
+
+“You have put it plainly in words for me. That is my creed to-day. That
+is the creed of all those yonder, who sit in the camp and besiege this
+city. And we number on our side, now, all in Atlantis save those in the
+city and a handful on the priests’ Mountain.”
+
+I shook my head. “A creed of desperation, if you like, Nais, but,
+believe me, a silly creed. Since man was born out of the quakings and
+the fevers of this earth, and picked his way amongst the cooler-places,
+he has been dependent always on his fellow-men. And where two are
+congregated together, one must be chief, and order how matters are to be
+governed--at least, I speak of men who have a wish to be higher than the
+beasts. Have you ever set foot in Europe?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“I have. Years back I sailed there, gathering slaves. What did I see? A
+country without rule or order. Tyrants they were, to be sure, but they
+were the beasts. The men and the women were the rudest savages, knowing
+nothing of the arts, dressing in skins and uncleanness, harbouring in
+caves and the tree-tops. The beasts roamed about where they would, and
+hunted them unchecked.”
+
+“Still, they fought you for their liberty?”
+
+“Never once. They knew how disastrous was their masterless freedom. Even
+to their dull, savage brains it was a sure thing that no slavery could
+be worse; and to that state you, and your friends, and your theories,
+will reduce Atlantis, if you get the upper hand. But, then, to argue
+in a circle, you will never get it. For to conquer, you must set up
+leaders, and once you have set them up, you will never pull them down
+again.”
+
+“Aye,” she said with a sigh, “there is truth in that last.”
+
+The torch had filled the captain’s room with a resinous smoke, but the
+flame was growing pale. Dawn was coming in greyly through a slender
+arrow-slit, and with it ever and again the glow from some mountain out
+of sight, which was shooting forth spasmodic bursts of fire. With it
+also were mutterings of distant falling rocks, and sullen tremblings,
+which had endured all the night through, and I judged that earth was in
+one of her quaking moods, and would probably during the forthcoming day
+offer us some chastening discomforts.
+
+On this account, perhaps, my senses were stilled to certain evidences
+which would otherwise have given me a suspicion; and also, there is no
+denying that my general wakefulness was sapped by another matter. This
+woman, Nais, interested me vastly out of the common; the mere presence
+of her seemed to warm the organs of my interior; and whilst she was
+there, all my thoughts and senses were present in the room of the
+captain of the gate in which we sat.
+
+But of a sudden the floor of the chamber rocked and fell away beneath
+me, and in a tumult of dust, and litter, and bales of the captain’s
+plunder, I fell down (still seated on the flagstone) into a pit which
+had been digged beneath it. With the violence of the descent, and the
+flutter of all these articles about my head, I was in no condition for
+immediate action; and whilst I was still half-stunned by the shock, and
+long before I could get my eyes into service again, I had been seized,
+and bound, and half-strangled with a noose of hide. Voices were raised
+that I should be despatched at once out of the way; but one in authority
+cried out that, killing me at leisure, and as a prisoner, promised more
+genteel sport; and so I was thrust down on the floor, whilst a whole
+army of men trod in over me to the attack.
+
+What had happened was clear to me now, though I was powerless to do
+anything in hindrance. The rebels with more craft than any one had
+credited to them, had driven a galley from their camp under the ground,
+intending so to make an entrance into the heart of the city. In their
+clumsy ignorance, and having no one of sufficient talent in mensuration,
+they had bungled sadly both in direction and length, and so had ended
+their burrow under this chamber of the captain of the gate. The great
+flagstone in its fall had, it appeared, crushed four of them to death,
+but these were little noticed or lamented. Life was to them a bauble of
+the slenderest price, and a horde of others pressed through the opening,
+lusting for the fight, and recking nothing of their risks and perils.
+
+Half-choked by the foul air of the galley, and trodden on by this great
+procession of feet, it was little enough I could do to help my immediate
+self much less the more distant city. But when the chief mass of the
+attackers had passed through, and there came only here and there one
+eager to take his share at storming the gate, a couple of fellows
+plucked me up out of the mud on the floor, and began dragging me down
+through the stinking darkness of the galley towards the pit that gave it
+entrance.
+
+Twenty times we were jostled by others hastening to the attack, either
+from hunger for fight, or from appetite for what they could steal.
+But we came to the open at last, and half-suffocated though I was, I
+contrived to do obeisance, and say aloud the prescribed prayer to the
+most High Gods in gratitude for the fresh, sweet air which They had
+provided.
+
+Our Lord the Sun was on the verge of rising for His day, and all things
+were plainly shown. Before me were the monstrous walls of the capital,
+with the heads of its pyramids and higher buildings showing above them.
+And on the walls, the sentries walked calmly their appointed paces, or
+took shelter against arrows in the casemates provided for them.
+
+The din of fighting within the gate rose high into the air, and the
+heavy roaring of the cave-tigers told that they too were taking their
+share of the melee. But the massive stonework of the walls hid all the
+actual engagement from our view, and which party was getting the upper
+hand we could not even guess. But the sounds told how tight a fight was
+being hammered out in those narrow boundaries, and my veins tingled to
+be once more back at the old trade, and to be doing my share.
+
+But there was no chivalry about the fellows who held me by my bonds.
+They thrust me into a small temple near by, which once had been a fane
+in much favour with travellers, who wished to show gratitude for the
+safe journey to the capital, but which now was robbed and ruined, and
+they swung to the stone entrance gate and barred it, leaving me to
+commune with myself. Presently, they told me, I should be put to death
+by torments. Well, this seemed to be the new custom of Atlantis, and I
+should have to endure it as best I could. The High Gods, it appeared,
+had no further use for my services in Atlantis, and I was not in the
+mood then to bite very much at their decision. What I had seen of the
+country since my return had not enamoured me very much with its new
+conditions.
+
+The little temple in which I was gaoled had been robbed and despoiled of
+all its furnishments. But the light-slits, where at certain hours of the
+day the rays of our Lord the Sun had fallen upon the image of the God,
+before this had been taken away, gave me vantage places from which I
+could see over the camp of these rebel besiegers, and a dreary prospect
+it was. The people seemed to have shucked off the culture of centuries
+in as many months, and to have gone back for the most part to sheer
+brutishness. The majority harboured on the bare ground. Few owned
+shelter, and these were merely bowers of mud and branches.
+
+They fought and quarrelled amongst themselves for food, eating their
+meat raw, and their grain (when they had it) unground. Many who passed
+my vision I saw were even gnawing the soft inside of tree bark.
+
+The dead lay where they fell. The sick and the wounded found no hand
+to tend them. Great man-eating birds hovered about the camp or skulked
+about, heavy with gorging, amongst the hovels, and no one had public
+spirit enough to give them battle. The stink of the place rose up to
+heaven as a foul incense inviting a pestilence. There was no order, no
+trace of strong command anywhere. With three hundred well-disciplined
+troops it seemed to me that I could have sent those poor desperate
+hordes flying in panic to the forest.
+
+However, there was no very lengthy space of time granted me for thinking
+out the policy of this matter to any great depth. The attack on the gate
+had been delivered with suddenness; the repulse was not slow. Of what
+desperate fighting took place in the galleries, and in the circus
+between the two sets of gates, the detail will never be told in full.
+
+At the first alarm the great cave-tigers were set loose, and these raged
+impartially against keeper and foe. Of those that went in through the
+tunnel, not one in ten returned, and there were few of these but what
+carried a bloody wound. Some, with the ruling passion still strong in
+them, bore back plunder; one trailed along with him the head of the
+captain of the gate; and amongst them they dragged out two of the
+warders who were wounded, and whom revenge had urged them to take as
+prisoners.
+
+Over these two last a hubbub now arose, that seemed likely to boil over
+into blows. Every voice shouted out for them what he thought the most
+repulsive fate. Some were for burning, some for skinning, some for
+impaling, some for other things: my flesh crept as I heard their
+ravenous yells. Those that had been to the trouble of making them
+captive were still breathless from the fight, and were readily thrust
+aside; and it seemed to me that the poor wretches would be hustled into
+death before any definite fate was agreed upon, which all would pass as
+sufficiently terrific. Never had I seen such a disorderly tumult, never
+such a leaderless mob. But, as always has happened, and always will, the
+stronger men by dint of louder voices and more vigorous shoulders got
+their plans agreed to at last, and the others perforce had to give way.
+
+A band of them set off running, and presently returned at snails’ pace,
+dragging with them (with many squeals from ungreased wheels) one of
+those huge war engines with which besiegers are wont to throw great
+stones and other missiles into the cities they sit down against. They
+ran it up just beyond bowshot of the walls, and clamped it firmly down
+with stakes and ropes to the earth. Then setting their lean arms to the
+windlasses, they drew back the great tree which formed the spring till
+its tethering place reached the ground, and in the cradle at its head
+they placed one of the prisoners, bound helplessly, so that he could not
+throw himself over the side.
+
+Then the rude, savage, skin-clad mob stood back, and one who had
+appointed himself engineer knocked back the catch that held the great
+spring in place.
+
+With a whir and a twang the elastic wood flung upwards, and the bound
+man was shot away from its tip with the speed of a lightning flash.
+He sang through the air, spinning over and over with inconceivable
+rapidity, and the great crowd of rebels held their breath in silence as
+they watched. He passed high above the city wall, a tiny mannikin in the
+distance now, and then the trajectory of his flight began to lower. The
+spike of a new-built pyramid lay in the path of his terrific flight, and
+he struck it with a thud whose sound floated out to us afterwards,
+and then he toppled down out of our sight, leaving a red stain on the
+whiteness of the stone as he fell.
+
+With a roar the crowd acknowledged the success of their device, and
+bellowed out insults to Phorenice, and insults to the Gods: a poor
+frantic crowd they showed themselves. And then with ravening shouts,
+they fell upon the other captive warder, binding him also into a compact
+helpless missile, and meanwhile getting the engine in gear again for
+another shot.
+
+But for my part I saw nothing of this disgusting scene. I heard the bolt
+grate stealthily against the door of the little temple in which I was
+imprisoned, and was minded to give these brutish rebels somewhat of a
+surprise. I had rid myself of my bonds handily enough; I had rubbed
+my limbs to that perfect suppleness which is always desirable before a
+fight; and I had planned to rush out so soon as the door was swung, and
+kill those that came first with fist blows on the brow and chin.
+
+They had not suspected my name, it was clear, for my stature and garb
+were nothing out of the ordinary; but if my bodily strength and fighting
+power had been sufficient to raise me to a vice-royalty like that of
+Yucatan, and let me endure alive in that government throughout twenty
+hard-battling years, why, it was likely that this rabble of savages
+would see something that was new and admirable in the practice of arms
+before the crude weight of their numbers could drag me down. Nay, I did
+not even despair of winning free altogether. I must find me a weapon
+from those that came up to battle, with which I could write worthy
+signatures, and I must attempt no standing fights. Gods! but what a glow
+the prospect did send through me as I stood there waiting.
+
+A vainer man, writing history, might have said that always, before
+everything else, he held in mind the greater interests before the less.
+But for me--I prefer to be honest, and own myself human. In my glee
+at that forthcoming fight--which promised to be the greatest and most
+furious I had known in all a long life of battling--I will confess that
+Atlantis and her differing policies were clean forgot. I should go out
+an unknown man from the little cell of a temple, I should do my work,
+and then, whether I took freedom with me, or whether I came down at last
+myself on a pile of slain, these people would guess without being told
+the name, that here was Deucalion. Gods! what a fight we would have
+made!
+
+But the door did not open wide to give me space for my first rush. It
+creaked gratingly outwards on its pivots, and a slim hand and a white
+arm slipped inside, beckoning me to quietude. Here was some woman. The
+door creaked wider, and she came inside.
+
+“Nais,” I said.
+
+“Silence, or they will hear you, and remember. At present those who
+brought you here are killed, and unless by chance some one blunders into
+this robbed shrine, you will not be found.”
+
+“Then, if that is so, let me go out and walk amongst these people as one
+of themselves.”
+
+She shook her head.
+
+“But, Nais, I am not known here. I am merely a man in very plain and
+mud-stained robe. I should be in no ways remarkable.”
+
+A smile twitched her face. “My lord,” she said, “wears no beard; and his
+is the only clean chin in the camp.”
+
+I joined in her laugh. “A pest on my want of foppishness then. But I am
+forgetting somewhat. It comes to my mind that we still have unfinished
+that small discussion of ours concerning the length of my poor life.
+Have you decided to cut it off from risk of further mischief, or do you
+propose to give me further span?”
+
+She turned to me with a look of sharp distress. “My lord,” she said,
+“I would have you forget that silly talk of mine. This last two hours I
+thought you were dead in real truth.”
+
+“And you were not relieved?”
+
+“I felt that the only man was gone out of the world--I mean, my lord,
+the only man who can save Atlantis.”
+
+“Your words give me a confidence. Then you would have me go back and
+become husband to Phorenice?”
+
+“If there is no other way.”
+
+“I warn you I shall do that, if she still so desires it, and if it seems
+to me that that course will be best. This is no hour for private likings
+or dislikings.”
+
+“I know it,” she said, “I feel it. I have no heart now, save only for
+Atlantis. I have schooled myself once more to that.”
+
+“And at present I am in this lone little box of a temple. A minute
+ago, before you came, I had promised myself a pretty enough fight to
+signalise my changing of abode.”
+
+“There must be nothing of that. I will not have these poor people
+slaughtered unnecessarily. Nor do I wish to see my lord exposed to a
+hopeless risk. This poor place, such as it is, has been given to me
+as an abode, and, if my lord can remain decorously till nightfall in a
+maiden’s chamber, he may at least be sure of quietude. I am a person,”
+ she added simply, “that in this camp has some respect. When darkness
+comes, I will take my lord down to the sea and a boat, and so he may
+come with ease to the harbour and the watergate.”
+
+
+
+
+8. THE PREACHER FROM THE MOUNTAINS
+
+
+It was long enough since I had found leisure for a parcel of sleep,
+and so during the larger part of that day I am free to confess that I
+slumbered soundly, Nais watching me. Night fell, and still we remained
+within the privacy of the temple. It was our plan that I should stay
+there till the camp slept, and so I should have more chance of reaching
+the sea without disturbance.
+
+The night came down wet, with a drizzle of rain, and through the slits
+in the temple walls we could see the many fires in the camp well cared
+for, the men and women in skins and rags toasting before them, with
+steam rising as the heat fought with their wetness. Folk seated in
+discomfort like this are proverbially alert and cruel in the temper, and
+Nais frowned as she looked on the inclemency of the weather.
+
+“A fine night,” she said, “and I would have sent my lord back to the
+city without a soul here being the wiser; but in this chill, people
+sleep sourly. We must wait till the hour drugs them sounder.”
+
+And so we waited, sitting there together on that pavement so long
+unkissed by worshippers, and it was little enough we said aloud. But
+there can be good companionship without sentences of talk.
+
+But as the hours drew on, the night began to grow less quiet. From the
+distance some one began to blow on a horn or a shell, sending forth a
+harsh raucous note incessantly. The sound came nearer, as we could tell
+from its growing loudness, and the voices of those by the fires made
+themselves heard, railing at the blower for his disturbance. And
+presently it became stationary, and standing up we could see through the
+slits in the walls the people of the camp rousing up from their uneasy
+rest, and clustering together round one who stood and talked to them
+from the pedestal of a war engine.
+
+What he was declaiming upon we could not hear, and our curiosity on
+the matter was not keen. Given that all who did not sleep went to weary
+themselves with this fellow, as Nais whispered, it would be simple for
+me to make an exit in the opposite direction.
+
+But here we were reckoning without the inevitable busybody. A dozen
+pairs of feet splashing through the wet came up to the side of the
+little temple, and cried loudly that Nais should join the audience. She
+had eloquence of tongue, it appeared, and they feared lest this speaker
+who had taken his stand on the war engine should make schisms amongst
+their ranks unless some skilled person stood up also to refute his
+arguments.
+
+Here, then, it seemed to me that I must be elbowed into my skirmish by
+the most unexpected of chances, but Nais was firmly minded that there
+should be no fight, if courage on her part could turn it. “Come out with
+me,” she whispered, “and keep distant from the light of the fires.”
+
+“But how explain my being here?”
+
+“There is no reason to explain anything,” she said bitterly. “They will
+take you for my lover. There is nothing remarkable in that: it is the
+mode here. But oh, why did not the Gods make you wear a beard, and curl
+it, even as other men? Then you could have been gone and safe these two
+hours.”
+
+“A smooth chin pleases me better.”
+
+“So it does me,” I heard her murmur as she leaned her weight on the
+stone which hung in the doorway, and pushed it ajar; “your chin.” The
+ragged men outside--there were women with them also--did not wait to
+watch me very closely. A coarse jest or two flew (which I could have
+found good heart to have repaid with a sword-thrust) and they stepped
+off into the darkness, just turning from time to time to make sure we
+followed. On all sides others were pressing in the same direction--black
+shadows against the night; the rain spat noisily on the camp fires as we
+passed them; and from behind us came up others. There were no sleepers
+in the camp now; all were pressing on to hear this preacher who stood on
+the pedestal of the war engine; and if we had tried to swerve from the
+straight course, we should have been marked at once.
+
+So we held on through the darkness, and presently came within earshot.
+
+Still it was little enough of the preacher’s words we could make out at
+first. “Who are your chiefs?” came the question at the end of a fervid
+harangue, and immediately all further rational talk was drowned in
+uproar. “We have no chiefs,” the people shouted, “we are done with
+chiefs; we are all equal here. Take away your silly magic. You may kill
+us with magic if you choose, but rule us you shall not. Nor shall
+the other priests rule. Nor Phorenice. Nor anybody. We are done with
+rulers.”
+
+The press had brought us closer and closer to the man who stood on the
+war engine. We saw him to be old, with white hair that tumbled on his
+shoulders, and a long white beard, untrimmed and uncurled. Save for a
+wisp of rag about the loins, his body was unclothed, and glistened in
+the wet.
+
+But in his hand he held that which marked his caste. With it he pointed
+his sentences, and at times he whirled it about bathing his wet,
+naked body in a halo of light. It was a wand whose tip burned with an
+unconsuming fire, which glowed and twinkled and blazed like some star
+sent down by the Gods from their own place in the high heaven. It was
+the Symbol of our Lord the Sun, a credential no one could forge, and one
+on which no civilised man would cast a doubt.
+
+Indeed, the ragged frantic crew did not question for one moment that
+he was a member of the Clan of Priests, the Clan which from time out
+of numbering had given rulers for the land, and even in their loudest
+clamours they freely acknowledged his powers. “You may kill us with your
+magic, if you choose,” they screamed at him. But stubbornly they refused
+to come back to their old allegiance. “We have suffered too many
+things these later years,” they cried. “We are done with rulers now for
+always.”
+
+But for myself I saw the old man with a different emotion. Here was
+Zaemon that was father to Nais, Zaemon that had seen me yesterday seated
+on the divan at Phorenice’s elbow, and who to-day could denounce me as
+Deucalion if so he chose. These rebels had expended a navy in their
+wish to kill me four days earlier, and if they knew of my nearness, even
+though Nais were my advocate, her cold reasoning would have had little
+chance of an audience now. The High Gods who keep the tether of our
+lives hide Their secrets well, but I did not think it impious to be sure
+that mine was very near the cutting then.
+
+The beautiful woman saw this too. She even went so far as to twine her
+fingers in mine and press them as a farewell, and I pressed hers in
+return, for I was sorry enough not to see her more. Still I could not
+help letting my thoughts travel with a grim gloating over the fine mound
+of dead I should build before these ragged, unskilled rebels pulled me
+down. And it was inevitable this should be so. For of all the emotions
+that can ferment in the human heart, the joy of strife is keenest, and
+none but an old fighter, face to face with what must necessarily be his
+final battle, can tell how deep this lust is embroidered into the very
+foundations of his being.
+
+But for the time Zaemon did not see me, being too much wrapped in his
+outcry, and so I was free to listen to the burning words which he spread
+around him, and to determine their effect on the hearers.
+
+The theme he preached was no new one. He told that ever since the
+beginning of history, the Gods had set apart one Clan of the people
+to rule over the rest and be their Priests, and until the coming of
+Phorenice these had done their duties with exactitude and justice.
+They had fought invaders, carried war against the beasts, and studied
+earth-movements so that they were able to foretell earthquakes and
+eruptions, and could spread warnings that the people might be able
+to escape their devastations. They are no self-seekers; their aim was
+always to further the interest of Atlantis, and so do honour to the
+kingdom on which the High Gods had set their special favour. Under the
+Priestly Clan, Atlantis had reached the pinnacle of human prosperity and
+happiness.
+
+“But,” cried the old man, waving the Symbol till his wet body glistened
+in a halo of light, “the people grew fat and careless with their easy
+life. They began to have a conceit that their good fortune was earned
+by their own puny brains and thews, and was no gift from the Gods above;
+and presently the cult of these Gods became neglected, and Their temples
+were barren of gifts and worshippers. Followed a punishment. The Gods
+in Their inscrutable way decreed that a wife of one of the Priests (that
+was a governor of no inconsiderable province) should see a woman child
+by the wayside, and take it for adoption. That child the Gods in their
+infinite wisdom fashioned into a scourge for Atlantis, and you who have
+felt the weight of Phorenice’s hand, know with what completeness the
+High Gods can fashion their instruments.
+
+“Yet, even as they set up, so can they throw down, and those that
+shall debase Phorenice are even now appointed. The old rule is to
+be re-established; but not till you who have sinned are sufficiently
+chastened to cry to it for relief.” He waved the mysterious glowing
+Symbol before him. “See,” he cried in his high old quavering voice, “you
+know the unspeakable Power of which that is the sign, and for which I
+am the mouthpiece. It is for you to make decision now. Are the Gods to
+throw down this woman who has scorned Them and so cruelly trodden on
+you? Or are you to be still further purged of your pride before you are
+ripe for deliverance?”
+
+The old priest broke off with a gesture, and his ragged white beard
+sank on to his chest. Promptly a young man, skin clad and carrying his
+weapon, elbowed up through the press of listeners, and jumped on to the
+platform beside him. “Hear me, brethren!” he bellowed, in his strong
+young voice. “We are done with tyrants. Death may come, and we all of us
+here have shown how little we fear it. But own rulers again we will not,
+and that is our final say. My lord,” he said, turning to the old man
+with a brave face, “I know it is in your power to kill me by magic if
+you choose, but I have said my say, and can stand the cost if needs be.”
+
+“I can kill you, but I will not,” said Zaemon. “You have said your
+silliness. Now go you to the ground again.”
+
+“We have free speech here. I will not go till I choose.”
+
+“Aye, but you will,” said the old man, and turned on him with a sudden
+tightening of the brows. There was no blow passed; even the Symbol,
+which glowed like a star against the night, was not so much as lifted in
+warning; but the young man tried to retort, and, finding himself smitten
+with a sudden dumbness, turned with a spasm of fear, and jumped back
+whence he had come. The crowd of them thrilled expectantly, and when no
+further portent was given, they began to shout that a miracle should be
+shown them, and then perchance they would be persuaded back to the old
+allegiance.
+
+The old man stooped and glowered at them in fury. “You dogs,” he cried,
+“you empty-witted dogs! Do you ask that I should degrade the powers of
+the Higher Mysteries by dancing them out before you as though they were
+a mummers’ show? Do you tickle yourselves that you are to be tempted
+back to your allegiance? It is for you to woo the Gods who are so
+offended. Come in humility, and I take it upon myself to declare that
+you will receive fitting pardon and relief. Remain stubborn, and the
+scourge, Phorenice, may torment you into annihilation before she in turn
+is made to answer for the evil she has put upon the land. There is the
+choice for you to pick at.”
+
+The turmoil of voices rose again into the wetness of the night, and
+weapons were upraised menacingly. It was clear that the party for
+independence had by far the greater weight, both in numbers and
+lustiness; and those who might, from sheer weariness of strife, have
+been willing for surrender, withheld their word through terror of the
+consequence. It was a fine comment on the freedom of speech, about which
+these unruly fools had made their boast, and, with a sly malice, I could
+not help whispering a word on this to Nais as she stood at my elbow. But
+Nais clutched at my hand, and implored me for caution. “Oh, be silent,
+my lord,” she whispered back, “or they will tear you in pieces. They are
+on fire for mischief now.”
+
+“Yet a few hours back you were for killing me yourself,” I could not
+help reminding her.
+
+She turned on me with a hot look. “A woman can change her mind, my lord.
+But it becomes you little to remind her of her fickleness.”
+
+A man in the press beside me wrenched round with an effort, and stared
+at me searchingly through the darkness. “Oh!” he said. “A shaved chin.
+Who are you, friend, that you should cut a beard instead of curling it?
+I can see no wound on your face.”
+
+I answered him civilly enough that, with “freedom” for a watchword, the
+fashion of my chin was a matter of mere private concern. But as that did
+not satisfy him, and as he seemed to be one of those quarrelsome fellows
+that are the bane of every community, I took him suddenly by the throat
+and the shoulder, and bent his neck with the old, quick turn till I
+heard it crack, and had unhanded him before any of his neighbours had
+seen what had befallen. The fierce press of the crowd held him from
+slipping to the ground, and so he stood on there where he was, with his
+head nodded forward, as though he had fallen asleep through heaviness,
+or had fainted through the crushing of his fellows. I had no desire to
+begin that last fight of mine in a place like this, where there was no
+room to swing a weapon, nor chance to clear a battle ring.
+
+But all this time the lean preacher from the mountains was sending forth
+his angry anathemas, and still holding the strained attention of the
+people. And next he set forth before them the cult of the Gods in the
+ancient form as is prescribed, and they (with old habit coming back to
+them) made response in the words and in the places where the old ritual
+enjoins. It was weird enough sight, that time-honoured service of
+adoration, forced upon these wild people after so long a period of
+irreligion.
+
+They warmed to the old words as the high shrill voice of the priest
+cried them forth, and as they listened, and as they realised how
+intimate was the care of the Gods for the travails and sorrows of their
+daily lives, so much warmer grew their responses.
+
+“... WHO STILLED THE BURNING OF THE MOUNTAINS, AND MADE COOL PLACES ON
+THE EARTH FOR US TO LIVE!--PRAISE TO THE MOST HIGH GODS.
+
+“WHO GAVE US MASTERY OVER THE LESSER BEASTS AND SKILL OF TEN TIMES TO
+PREVAIL!--PRAISE TO THE MOST HIGH GODS....”
+
+“WHO GAVE US MASTERY OVER THE LESSER BEASTS AND SKILL OF TEN TIMES TO
+PREVAIL!--PRAISE TO THE MOST HIGH GODS....”
+
+It thrilled one to hear their earnestness; it sorrowed one to know that
+they would yet be obdurate and not return to their old allegiance.
+For this is the way with these common people; they will work up an
+enthusiasm one minute, and an hour later it will have fled away and left
+them cold and empty.
+
+But Zaemon made no further calls upon their loyalty. He finished the
+prescribed form of sentences, and stepped down off the platform of the
+war engine with the Symbol of our Lord the Sun thrust out resolutely
+before him. To all ordinary seeming the crowd had been packed so that no
+further compression was possible, but before the advance of the Symbol
+the people crushed back, leaving a wide lane for his passage.
+
+And here came the turning point of my life. At first, like, I take
+it, every one else in that crowd, I imagined that the old man, having
+finished his mission, was making a way to return to the place from which
+he had come. But he held steadily to one direction, and as that was
+towards myself, it naturally came to my mind that, having dealt with
+greater things, he would now settle with the less; or, in plainer words,
+that having put his policy before the swarming people, he would now
+smite down the man he had seen but yesterday seated as Phorenice’s
+minister. Well, I should lose that final fight I had promised myself,
+and that mound of slain for my funeral bed. It was clear that Zaemon was
+the mouthpiece of the Priests’ Clan, duly appointed; and I also was a
+priest. If the word had been given on the Sacred Mountain to those who
+sat before the Ark of the Mysteries that Atlantis would prosper more
+with Deucalion sent to the Gods, I was ready to bow to the sentence with
+submissiveness. That I had regret for this mode of cutting off, I will
+not deny. No man who has practised the game of arms could abandon the
+promise of such a gorgeous final battle without a qualm of longing.
+
+But I had been trained enough to show none of these emotions on my face,
+and when the old man came up to me, I stood my ground and gave him the
+salutation prescribed between our ranks, which he returned to me with
+circumstance and accuracy. The crowd fell back, being driven away by the
+ineffable force of the Symbol, leaving us alone in the middle of a
+ring. Even Nais, though she was a priest’s daughter, was ignorant of the
+Mysteries, and could not withstand its force. And so we two men stood
+there alone together, with the glow of the Symbol bathing us, and
+lighting up the sea of ravenous faces that watched.
+
+The people were quick to put their natural explanation on the scene. “A
+spy!” they began to roar out. “A spy! Zaemon salutes him as a Priest!”
+
+Zaemon faced round on them with a queer look on his grim old face.
+“Aye,” he said, “this is a Priest. If I give you his name, you might
+have further interest. This is the Lord Deucalion.”
+
+The word was picked up and yelled amongst them with a thousand emotions.
+But at least they were loyal to their policy; they had decided that
+Deucalion was their enemy; they had already expended a navy for his
+destruction; and now that he was ringed in by their masses, they lusted
+to tear him into rags with their fingers. But rave and rave though they
+might against me, the glare from the Symbol drove them shuddering back
+as though it had been a lava-stream; and Zaemon was not the man to hand
+me over to their fury until he had delivered formal sentence as the
+emissary of our Clan on the Sacred Mount. So the end was not to be yet.
+
+The old man faced me and spoke in the sacred tongue, which the common
+people do not know. “My brother,” he said, “which have you come to
+serve, Deucalion or Atlantis?”
+
+“Words are a poor thing to answer a question like that. You will know
+all of my record. According to the Law of the Priests, each ship from
+Yucatan will have carried home its sworn report to lay at the feet of
+their council, and before I went to that vice-royalty, what I did was
+written plain here on the face of Atlantis.”
+
+“We know your doings in the past, brother, and they have found approval.
+You have governed well, and you have lived austerely. You set up
+Atlantis for a mistress, and served her well; but then, you have had no
+Phorenice to tempt you into change and fickleness.”
+
+“You can send me where I shall see her no more, if you think me frail.”
+
+“Yes, and lose your usefulness. No, brother, you are the last hope which
+this poor land has remaining. All other human means that have been tried
+against Phorenice have failed. You have returned from overseas for the
+final duel. You are the strongest man we have, and you are our final
+champion. If you fail, then only those terrible Powers which are locked
+within the Ark of the Mysteries remains to us, and though it is not
+lawful to speak even in this hidden tongue of their scope, you at least
+have full assurance of their potency.”
+
+I shrugged my shoulders. “It seems that you would save time and pains
+if you threw me to these wolves of rebels, and let them end me here and
+now.”
+
+The old man frowned on me angrily. “I am bidding you do your duty. What
+reason have you for wishing to evade it?”
+
+“I have in my memory the words you spoke in the pyramid, when you came
+in amongst the banqueters. ‘PHORENICE,’ was your cry, ‘WHILST YOU ARE
+YET EMPRESS, YOU SHALL SEE THIS ROYAL PYRAMID, WHICH YOU HAVE POLLUTED
+WITH YOUR DEBAUCHERIES, TORN TIER FROM TIER, AND STONE FROM STONE,
+AND SCATTERED AS FEATHERS BEFORE A WIND.’ It seems that you foresee my
+defeat.”
+
+The old man shuddered. “I cannot tell what she may force us to do. I
+spoke then only what it was revealed to me must happen. Perhaps when
+matters have reached that pass, she will repent and submit. But in the
+meanwhile, before we use the more desperate weapons of the Gods, it is
+fitting that we should expend all human power remaining to us. And so
+you must go, my brother, and play your part to the utmost.”
+
+“It is an order. So I obey.”
+
+“You shall be at Phorenice’s side again by the next dawn. She has sent
+for you from Yucatan as a husband, and as one who (so she thinks,
+poor human conqueror) has the weight of arm necessary to prolong her
+tyrannies. You are a Priest, brother, and you are a man of convincing
+tongue. It will be your part to make her stubborn mind see the
+invincible power that can be loosed against her, to point out to her the
+utter hopelessness of prevailing against it.”
+
+“If it is ordered, I will do these things. But there is little enough
+chance of success. I have seen Phorenice, and can gauge her will. There
+will be no turning her once she has made a decision. Others have tried;
+you have tried yourself; all have failed.”
+
+“Words that were wasted on a maiden may go home to a wife. You have been
+brought here to be her husband. Well, take your place.”
+
+The order came to me with a pang. I had given little enough heed to
+women through all of a busy life, though when I landed, the taking of
+Phorenice to wife would not have been very repugnant to me if policy had
+demanded it. But the matters of the last two days had put things in a
+different shape. I had seen two other women who had strangely attracted
+me, and one of these had stirred within me a tumult such as I had never
+felt before amongst my economies.
+
+To lead Phorenice in marriage would mean a severance from this other
+woman eternally, and I ached as I thought of it. But though these
+thoughts floated through my system and gave me harsh wrenches of pain, I
+did not thrust my puny likings before the command of the council of the
+Priests. I bowed before Zaemon, and put his hand to my forehead. “It is
+an order,” I said. “If our Lord the Sun gives me life, I will obey.”
+
+“Then let us begone from this place,” said Zaemon, and took me by the
+arm and waved a way for us with the Symbol. No further word did I have
+with Nais, fearing to embroil her with these rebels who clustered round,
+but I caught one hot glance from her eyes, and that had to suffice
+for farewell. The dense ranks of the crowd opened, and we walked
+away between them scathless. Fiercely though they lusted for my life,
+brimming with hate though they made their cries, no man dared to rush
+in and raise a hand against me. Neither did they follow. When we reached
+the outskirts of the crowd, and the ranks thinned, they had a mind, many
+of them, to surge along in our wake; but Zaemon whirled the Symbol back
+before their faces with a blaze of lurid light, and they fell to their
+knees, grovelling, and pressed on us no more.
+
+The rain still fell, and in the light of the camp fires as we passed
+them, the wet gleamed on the old man’s wasted body. And far before us
+through the darkness loomed the vast bulk of the Sacred Mountain, with
+the ring of eternal fires encincturing its crest. I sighed as I thought
+of the old peaceful days I had spent in its temple and groves.
+
+But there was to be no more of that studious leisure now. There was work
+to be done, work for Atlantis which did not brook delay. And so when we
+had progressed far out into the waste, and there was none near to view
+(save only the most High Gods), we found the place where the passage
+was, whose entrance is known only to the Seven amongst the Priests; and
+there we parted, Zaemon to his hermitage in the dangerous lands, and I
+by this secret way back into the capital.
+
+
+
+
+9. PHORENICE, GODDESS
+
+
+Now the passage, though its entrance had been cunningly hidden by man’s
+artifice, was one of those veins in which the fiery blood of our mother,
+the Earth, had aforetime coursed. Long years had passed since it carried
+lava streams, but the air in it was still warm and sulphurous, and there
+was no inducement to linger in transit. I lit me a lamp which I found
+in an appointed niche, and walked briskly along my ways, coughing, and
+wishing heartily I had some of those simples which ease a throat that
+has a tendency to catarrh. But, alas! all that packet of drugs which
+were my sole spoil from the vice-royalty of Yucatan were lost in the
+sea-fight with Dason’s navy, and since landing in Atlantis there had
+been little enough time to think for the refinements of medicine.
+
+The network of earth-veins branched prodigiously, and if any but one of
+us Seven Priests had found a way into its recesses by chance, he would
+have perished hopelessly in the windings, or have fallen into one of
+those pits which lead to the boil below. But I carried the chart of the
+true course clearly in my head, remembering it from that old initiation
+of twenty years back, when, as an appointed viceroy, I was raised to the
+highest degree but one known to our Clan, and was given its secrets and
+working implements.
+
+The way was long, the floor was monstrous uneven, and the air, as I have
+said, bad; and I knew that day would be far advanced before the signs
+told me that I had passed beneath the walls, and was well within
+the precincts of the city. And here the vow of the Seven hampered my
+progress; for it is ordained that under no circumstances, whatever the
+stress, shall egress be made from this passage before mortal eye. One
+branch after another did I try, but always found loiterers near the
+exits. I had hoped to make my emergence by that path which came inside
+the royal pyramid. But there was no chance of coming up unobserved here;
+the place was humming like a hive. And so, too, with each of the
+five next outlets that I visited. The city was agog with some strange
+excitement.
+
+But I came at last to a temple of one of the lesser Gods, and stood
+behind the image for a while making observation. The place was empty;
+nay, from the dust which robed all the floors and the seats of the
+worshippers, it had been empty long enough; so I moved all that was
+needful, stepped out, and closed all entry behind me. A broom lay
+unnoticed on one of the pews, and with this I soon disguised all route
+of footmark, and took my way to the temple door. It was shut, and priest
+though I was, the secret of its opening was beyond me.
+
+Here was a pretty pass. No one but the attendant priests of the temple
+could move the mechanism which closed and opened the massive stone which
+filled the doorway; and if all had gone out to attend this spectacle,
+whatever it might be, that was stirring the city, why there I should be
+no nearer enlargement than before.
+
+There was no sound of life within the temple precincts; there were
+evidences of decay and disuse spread broadcast on every hand; but
+according to the ancient law there should be eternally one at least on
+watch in the priests’ dwellings, so down the passages which led to them
+I made my way. It would have surprised me little to have found even
+these deserted. That the old order was changed I knew, but I was only
+then beginning to realise the ruthlessness with which it had been swept
+away, and how much it had given place to the new.
+
+However, there can be some faithful men remaining even in an age of
+general apostasy, and on making my way to the door of the dwelling
+(which lay in the roof of the temple) I gave the call, and presently it
+was opened to me. The man who stood before me, peering dully through
+the gloom, had at least remained constant to his vows, and I made the
+salutation before him with a feeling of respect.
+
+His name was Ro, and I remembered him well. We had passed through the
+sacred college together, and always he had been known as the dullard.
+He had capacity for learning little of the cult of the Gods, less of
+the arts of ruling, less still of the handling of arms; and he had been
+appointed to some lowly office in this obscure temple, and had risen to
+being its second priest and one of its two custodians merely through the
+desertion of all his colleagues. But it was not pleasant to think that a
+fool should remain true where cleverer men abandoned the old beliefs.
+
+Ro did before me the greater obeisance. He wore his beard curled in the
+prevailing fashion, but it was badly done. His clothing was ill-fitting
+and unbrushed. He always had been a slovenly fellow. “The temple door
+is shut,” he said, “and I only have the secret of its opening. My lord
+comes here, therefore, by the secret way, and as one of the Seven. I am
+my lord’s servant.”
+
+“Then I ask this small service of you. Tell me, what stirs the city?”
+
+“That impious Phorenice has declared herself Goddess, and declares that
+she will light the sacrifice with her own divine fire. She will do it,
+too. She does everything. But I wish the flames may burn her when she
+calls them down. This new Empress is the bane of our Clan, Deucalion,
+these latter days. The people neglect us; they bring no offerings; and
+now, since these rebels have been hammering at the walls, I might have
+gone hungry if I had not some small store of my own. Oh, I tell you, the
+cult of the true Gods is well-nigh oozed quite out of the land.”
+
+“My brother, it comes to my mind that the Priests of our Clan have been
+limp in their service to let these things come to pass.”
+
+“I suppose we have done our best. At least, we did as we were taught.
+But if the people will not come to hear your exhortations, and neglect
+to adore the God, what hold have you over their religion? But I tell
+you, Deucalion, that the High Gods try our own faith hard. Come into the
+dwelling here. Look there on my bed.”
+
+I saw the shape of a man, untidily swathed in reddened bandages.
+
+“This is all that is left of the poor priest that was my immediate
+superior in this cure. It was his turn yesterday to celebrate the weekly
+sacrifice to our Lord the Sun with the circle of His great stones.
+Faugh! Deucalion, you should have seen how he was mangled when they
+brought him back to me here.”
+
+“Did the people rise on him? Has it come to that?”
+
+“The people stayed passive,” said Ro bitterly, “what few of them had
+interest to attend; but our Lord the Sun saw fit to try His minister
+somewhat harshly. The wood was laid; the sacrifice was disposed upon it
+according to the prescribed rites; the procession had been formed round
+the altar, and the drums and the trumpets were speaking forth, to let
+all men know that presently the smoke of their prayer would be wafted
+up towards Those that sit in the great places in the heavens. But then,
+above the noise of the ceremonial, there came the rushing sound of
+wings, and from out of the sky there flew one of those great featherless
+man-eating birds, of a bigness such as seldom before has been seen.”
+
+“An arrow shot in the eye, or a long-shafted spear receives them best.”
+
+“Oh, all men know what they were taught as children, Deucalion; but
+these priests were unarmed, according to the rubric, which ordains that
+they shall intrust themselves completely to the guardianship of the
+High Gods during the hours of sacrifice. The great bird swooped down,
+settling on the wood pyre, and attacked the sacrifice with beak and
+talon. My poor superior here, still strong in his faith, called loudly
+on our Lord the Sun to lend power to his arm, and sprang up on the altar
+with naught but his teeth and his bare arms for weapons. It may be
+that he expected a miracle--he has not spoke since, poor soul, in
+explanation--but all he met were blows from leathery wings, and rakings
+from talons which went near to disembowelling him. The bird brushed him
+away as easily as we could sweep aside a fly, and there he lay bleeding
+on the pavement beside the altar, whilst the sacrifice was torn and
+eaten in the presence of all the people. And then, when the bird was
+glutted, it flew away again to the mountains.”
+
+“And the people gave no help?”
+
+“They cried out that the thing was a portent, that our Lord the Sun
+was a God no longer if He had not power or thought to guard His own
+sacrifice; and some cried that there was no God remaining now, and
+others would have it that there was a new God come to weigh on the
+country, which had chosen to take the form of a common man-eating bird.
+But a few began to shout that Phorenice stood for all the Gods now in
+Atlantis, and that cry was taken up till the stones of the great
+circle rang with it. Some may have made proclamations because they were
+convinced; many because the cry was new, and pleased them; but I am sure
+there were not a few who joined in because it was dangerous to leave
+such an outburst unwelcomed. The Empress can be hard enough to those who
+neglect to give her adulation.”
+
+“The Empress is Empress,” I said formally, “and her name carries
+respect. It is not for us to question her doings.”
+
+“I am a priest,” said Ro, “and I speak as I have been taught, and defend
+the Faith as I have been commanded. Whether there is a Faith any longer,
+I am beginning to doubt. But, anyway, it yields a poor enough livelihood
+nowadays. There have been no offerings at this temple this five months
+past, and if I had not a few jars of corn put by, I might have starved
+for anything the pious of this city cared. And I do not think that the
+affair of that sacrifice is likely to put new enthusiasm into our cold
+votaries.”
+
+“When did it happen?”
+
+“Twenty hours ago. To-day Phorenice conducts the sacrifice herself.
+That has caused the stir you spoke about. The city is in the throes of
+getting ready one of her pageants.”
+
+“Then I must ask you to open the temple doors and give me passage. I
+must go and see this thing for myself.”
+
+“It is not for me to offer advice to one of the Seven,” said Ro
+doubtfully.
+
+“It is not.”
+
+“But they say that the Empress is not overpleased at your absence,” he
+mumbled. “I should not like harm to come in your way, Deucalion,” he
+said aloud.
+
+“The future is in the hands of the most High Gods, Ro, and I at least
+believe that They will deal out our fates to each of us as They in Their
+infinite wisdom see best, though you seem to have lost your faith. And
+now I must be your debtor for a passage out through the doors. Plagues!
+man, it is no use your holding out your hand to me. I do not own a coin
+in all the world.”
+
+He mumbled something about “force of habit” as he led the way down
+towards the door, and I responded tartly enough about the unpleasantness
+of his begging customs. “If it were not for your sort and your customs,
+the Priests’ Clan would not be facing this crisis to-day.”
+
+“One must live,” he grumbled, as he pressed his levers, and the massive
+stone in the doorway swung ajar.
+
+“If you had been a more capable man, I might have seen the necessity,”
+ said I, and passed into the open and left him. I could never bring
+myself to like Ro.
+
+A motley crowd filled the street which ran past the front of this
+obscure temple, and all were hurrying one way. With what I had been
+told, it did not take much art to guess that the great stone circle of
+our Lord the Sun was their mark, and it grieved me to think of how many
+venerable centuries that great fane had upreared before the weather and
+the earth tremors, without such profanation as it would witness to-day.
+And also the thought occurred to me, “Was our Great Lord above drawing
+this woman on to her destruction? Would He take some vast and final act
+of vengeance when she consummated her final sacrilege?”
+
+But the crowd pressed on, thrilled and excited, and thinking little
+(as is a crowd’s wont) on the deeper matters which lay beneath the bare
+spectacle. From one quarter of the city walls the din of an attack from
+the besiegers made itself clearly heard from over the house, and the
+temples and the palaces intervening, but no one heeded it. They had
+grown callous, these townsfolk, to the battering of rams, and the flight
+of fire-darts, and the other emotions of a bombardment. Their nerves,
+their hunger, their desperation, were strung to such a pitch that little
+short of an actual storm could stir them into new excitement over the
+siege.
+
+All were weaponed. The naked carried arms in the hopes of meeting some
+one whom they could overcome and rob; those that had a possession walked
+ready to do a battle for its ownership. There was no security, no trust;
+the lesson of civilisation had dropped away from these common people as
+mud is washed from the feet by rain, and in their new habits and their
+thoughts they had gone back to the grade from which savages like those
+of Europe have never yet emerged. It was a grim commentary on the
+success of Phorenice’s rule.
+
+The crowd merged me into their ranks without question, and with them I
+pressed forward down the winding streets, once so clean and trim, now so
+foul and mud-strewn. Men and women had died of hunger in these streets
+these latter years, and rotted where they lay, and we trod their bones
+underfoot as we walked. Yet rising out of this squalor and this misery
+were great pyramids and palaces, the like of which for splendour and
+magnificence had never been seen before. It was a jarring admixture.
+
+In time we came to the open space in the centre of the city, which even
+Phorenice had not dared to encroach upon with her ambitious building
+schemes, and stood on the secular ground which surrounds the most
+ancient, the most grand, and the breast of all this world’s temples.
+
+Since the beginning of time, when man first emerged amongst the beasts,
+our Lord the Sun has always been his chiefest God, and legend says that
+He raised this circle of stones Himself to be a place where votaries
+should offer Him worship. It is the fashion amongst us moderns not to
+take these old tales in a too literal sense, but for myself, this one
+satisfies me. By our wits we can lift blocks weighing six hundred men,
+and set them as the capstones of our pyramids. But to uprear the stones
+of that great circle would be beyond all our art, and much more would
+it be impossible to-day, to transport them from their distant quarries
+across the rugged mountains.
+
+There were nine-and-forty of the stones, alternating with spaces, and
+set in an accurate circle, and across the tops of them other stones were
+set, equally huge. The stones were undressed and rugged; but the huge
+massiveness of them impressed the eye more than all the temples and
+daintily tooled pyramids of our wondrous city. And in the centre of the
+circle was that still greater stone which formed the altar, and round
+which was carved, in the rude chiselling of the ancients, the snake and
+the outstretched hand.
+
+The crowd which bore me on came to a standstill before the circle of
+stones. To trespass beyond this is death for the common people; and for
+myself, although I had the right of entrance, I chose to stay where I
+was for the present, unnoticed amongst the mob, and wait upon events.
+
+For long enough we stood there, our Lord the Sun burning high and
+fiercely from the clear blue sky above our heads. The din of the rebels’
+attack upon the walls came to us clearly, even above the gabble of the
+multitude, but no one gave attention to it. Excitement about what was to
+befall in the circle mastered every other emotion.
+
+I learned afterways that so pressing was the rebels’ attack, and so
+destructive the battering of their new war engines, that Phorenice had
+gone off to the walls first to lend awhile her brilliant skill for its
+repulse, and to put heart into the defenders. But as it was, the day had
+burned out to its middle and scorched us intolerably, before the noise
+of the drums and horns gave advertisement that the pageant had formed in
+procession; and of those who waited in the crowd, many had fainted with
+exhaustion and the heat, and not a few had died. But life was cheap in
+the city of Atlantis now, and no one heeded the fallen.
+
+Nearer and nearer drew the drums and the braying of the other music,
+and presently the head of a glittering procession began to arrive and
+dispose itself in the space which had been set apart. Many a thousand
+poor starving wretches sighed when they saw the wanton splendour of it.
+But these lords and these courtiers of this new Atlantis had no concern
+beyond their own bellies and their own backs, except for their one alien
+regard--their simpering affection for Phorenice.
+
+I think, though, their loyalty for the Empress was real enough, and
+it was not to be wondered at, since everything they had came from her
+lavish hands. Indeed, the woman had a charm that cannot be denied, for
+when she appeared, riding in the golden castle (where I also had ridden)
+on the back of her monstrous shaggy mammoth, the starved sullen faces
+of the crowd brightened as though a meal and sudden prosperity had been
+bestowed upon them; and without a word of command, without a trace of
+compulsion, they burst into spontaneous shouts of welcome.
+
+She acknowledged it with a smile of thanks. Her cheeks were a little
+flushed, her movements quick, her manner high-strung, as all well
+might be, seeing the horrible sacrilege she had in mind. But she was
+undeniably lovely; yes, more adorably beautiful than ever with her
+present thrill of excitement; and when the stair was brought, and she
+walked down from the mammoth’s back to the ground, those near fell
+to their knees and gave her worship, out of sheer fascination for her
+beauty and charm.
+
+Ylga, the fan-girl, alone of all that vast multitude round the Sun
+temple contained herself with her formal paces and duties. She looked
+pained and troubled. It was plain to see, even from the distance where
+I stood, that she carried a heavy heart under the jewels of her robe.
+It was fitting, too, that this should be so. Though she had been long
+enough divorced from his care and fostered by the Empress, Ylga was
+a daughter of Zaemon, and he was the chiefest of our Lord the Sun’s
+ministers here on earth. She could not forget her upbringing now at
+this supreme moment when the highest of the old Gods was to be formally
+defied. And perhaps also (having a kindness for Phorenice) she was not a
+little dreadful of the consequences.
+
+But the Empress had no eye for one sad look amongst all that sea of
+glowing faces. Boldly and proudly she strode out into the circle, as
+though she had been the duly appointed priest for the sacrifice. And
+after her came a knot of men, dressed as priests, and bearing the
+victim. Some of these were creatures of her own, and it was easy to
+forgive mere ignorant laymen, won over by the glamour of Phorenice’s
+presence. But some, to their shame, were men born in the Priests’ Clan,
+and brought up in the groves and colleges of the Sacred Mountain, and
+for their apostasy there could be no palliation.
+
+The wood had already been stacked on the altar-stone in the due form
+required by the ancient symbolism, and the Empress stood aside whilst
+those who followed did what was needful. As they opened out, I saw that
+the victim was one of the small, cloven-hoofed horses that roam the
+plains--a most acceptable sacrifice. They bound its feet with metal
+gyves, and put it on the pyre, where, for a while, it lay neighing. Then
+they stepped aside, and left it living. Here was an innovation.
+
+The false priests went back to the farther side of the circle, and
+Phorenice stood alone before the altar. She lifted up her voice, sweet,
+tuneful, and carrying, and though the din of the siege still came from
+over the city, no ear there lost a word of what was spoken.
+
+She raised her glance aloft, and all other eyes followed it. The heaven
+was clear as the deep sea, a gorgeous blue. But as the words came from
+her, so a small mist was born in the sky, wheeling and circling like a
+ball, although the day was windless, and rapidly growing darker and more
+compact. So dense had it become, that presently it threw a shadow on
+part of the sacred circle and soothed it into twilight, though all
+without where the people stood was still garish day. And in the ball of
+mist were little quick stabs and splashes of noiseless flame.
+
+She spoke, not in the priests’ sacred tongue--though such was her wicked
+cleverness, that she may very well have learned it--but in the common
+speech of the people, so that all who heard might understand; and she
+told of her wondrous birth (as she chose to name it), and of the
+direct aid of the most High Gods, which had enabled her to work so many
+marvels. And in the end she lifted both of her fair white arms towards
+the blackness above, and with her lovely face set with the strain of
+will, she uttered her final cry:
+
+“O my high Father, the Sun, I pray You now to acknowledge me as Your
+very daughter. Give this people a sign that I am indeed a child of the
+Gods and no frail mortal. Here is sacrifice unlit, where mortal priests
+with their puny fires had weekly, since the foundation of this land,
+sent savoury smoke towards the sky. I pray You send down the heavenly
+fire to burn this beast here offered, in token that though You still
+rule on high, You have given me Atlantis to be my kingdom, and the
+people of the Earth to be my worshippers.”
+
+She broke off and strained towards the sky. Her face was contorted. Her
+limbs shook. “O mighty Father,” she cried, “who hast made me a God and
+an equal, hear me! Hear me!”
+
+Out of the black cloud overhead there came a blinding flash of light,
+which spat downwards on to the altar. The cloven-hoofed horse gave one
+shrill neigh, and one convulsion, and fell back dead. Flames crackled
+out from the wood pile, and the air became rich with the smell of
+burning flesh. And lo! in another moment the cloud above had melted into
+nothingness, and the flames burnt pale, and the smoke went up in a thin
+blue spiral towards the deeper blueness of the sky.
+
+Phorenice, the Empress, stood there before the great stone, and before
+the snake and the outstretched hand of life which were inscribed upon
+it, flushed, exultant, and once more radiantly lovely; and the knot of
+priests within the circle, and the great mob of people without, fell to
+the ground adoring.
+
+“Phorenice, Goddess!” they cried. “Phorenice, Goddess of all Atlantis!”
+
+But for myself I did not kneel. I would have no part in this apostasy,
+so I stood there awaiting fate.
+
+
+
+
+10. A WOOING
+
+
+A murmur quickly sprang up round me, which grew into shouts. “Kneel,”
+ one whispered, “kneel, sir, or you will be seen.” And another cried:
+“Kneel, you without beard, and do obeisance to the only Goddess, or by
+the old Gods I will make myself her priest and butcher you!” And so the
+shouts arose into a roar.
+
+But presently the word “Deucalion” began to be bandied about, and there
+came a moderation in the zeal of these enthusiasts. Deucalion, the man
+who had left Atlantis twenty years before to rule Yucatan, they might
+know little enough about, but Deucalion, who rode not many days back
+beside the Empress in the golden castle beneath the canopy of snakes,
+was a person they remembered; and when they weighed up his possible
+ability for vengeance, the shouts died away from them limply.
+
+So when the silence had grown again, and Phorenice turned and saw me
+standing alone amongst all the prostrate worshippers, I stepped out from
+the crowd and passed between two of the great stones, and went across
+the circle to where she stood beside the altar. I did not prostrate
+myself. At the prescribed distance I made the salutation which she
+herself had ordered when she made me her chief minister, and then hailed
+her with formal decorum as Empress.
+
+“Deucalion, man of ice,” she retorted.
+
+“I still adhere to the old Gods!”
+
+“I was not referring to that,” said she, and looked at me with a
+sidelong smile.
+
+But here Ylga came up to us with a face that was white, and a hand that
+shook, and made supplication for my life. “If he will not leave the old
+Gods yet,” she pleaded, “surely you will pardon him? He is a strong
+man, and does not become a convert easily. You may change him later. But
+think, Phorenice, he is Deucalion; and if you slay him here for this
+one thing, there is no other man within all the marches of Atlantis who
+would so worthily serve--”
+
+The Empress took the words from her. “You slut,” she cried out. “I have
+you near me to appoint my wardrobe, and carry my fan, and do you dare
+to put a meddling finger on my policies? Back with you, outside this
+circle, or I’ll have you whipped. Ay, and I’ll do more. I’ll serve you
+as Zaemon served my captain, Tarca. Shall I point a finger at you, and
+smite your pretty skin with a sudden leprosy?”
+
+The girl bowed her shoulders, and went away cowed, and Phorenice turned
+to me. “My lord,” she said, “I am like a young bird in the nest that has
+suddenly found its wings. Wings have so many uses that I am curious to
+try them all.”
+
+“May each new flight they take be for the good of Atlantis.”
+
+“Oh,” she said, with an eye-flash, “I know what you have most at heart.
+But we will go back to the pyramid, and talk this out at more leisure. I
+pray you now, my lord, conduct me back to my riding beast.”
+
+It appeared then that I was to be condoned for not offering her worship,
+and so putting public question on her deification. It appeared also that
+Ylga’s interference was looked upon as untimely, and, though I could not
+understand the exact reasons for either of these things, I accepted
+them as they were, seeing that they forwarded the scheme that Zaemon had
+bidden me carry out.
+
+So when the Empress lent me her fingers--warm, delicate fingers they
+were, though so skilful to grasp the weapons of war--I took them
+gravely, and led her out of the great circle, which she had polluted
+with her trickeries. I had expected to see our Lord the Sun take
+vengeance on the profanation whilst it was still in act; but none had
+come: and I knew that He would choose his own good time for retribution,
+and appoint what instrument He thought best, without my raising a puny
+arm to guard His mighty honour.
+
+So I led this lovely sinful woman back to the huge red mammoth which
+stood there tamely in waiting, and the smell of the sacrifice came
+after us as we walked. She mounted the stair to the golden castle on the
+shaggy beast’s back, and bade me mount also and take seat beside her.
+But the place of the fan-girl behind was empty, and what we said as we
+rode back through the streets there was none to overhear.
+
+She was eager to know what had befallen me after the attack on the gate,
+and I told her the tale, laying stress on the worthiness of Nais,
+and uttering an opinion that with care the girl might be won back to
+allegiance again. Only the commands that Zaemon laid upon me when he
+and I spoke together in the sacred tongue, did I withhold, as it is
+not lawful to repeat these matters save only in the High Council of the
+Priests itself as they sit before the Ark of the Mysteries.
+
+“You seem to have an unusual kindliness for this rebel Nais,” said
+Phorenice.
+
+“She showed herself to me as more clever and thoughtful than the common
+herd.”
+
+“Ay,” she answered, with a sigh that I think was real enough in its way,
+“an Empress loses much that meaner woman gets as her common due.”
+
+“In what particular?”
+
+“She misses the honest wooing of her equals.”
+
+“If you set up for a Goddess--” I said.
+
+“Pah! I wish to be no Goddess to you, Deucalion. That was for the common
+people; it gives me more power with them; it helps my schemes. All you
+Seven higher priests know that trick of calling down the fire, and it
+pleased me to filch it. Can you not be generous, and admit that a woman
+may be as clever in finding out these natural laws as your musty elder
+priests?”
+
+“Remains that you are Empress.”
+
+“Nor Empress either. Just think that there is a woman seated beside you
+on this cushion, Deucalion, and look upon her, and say what words
+come first to your lips. Have done with ceremonies, and have done with
+statecraft. Do you wish to wait on as you are till all your manhood
+withers? It is well not to hurry unduly in these matters: I am with you
+there. Yet, who but a fool watches a fruit grow ripe, and then leaves it
+till it is past its prime?”
+
+I looked on her glorious beauty, but as I live it left me cold. But I
+remembered the command that had been laid upon me, and forced a smile.
+“I may have been fastidious,” I said, “but I do not regret waiting this
+long.”
+
+“Nor I. But I have played my life as a maid, time enough. I am a woman,
+ripe, and full-blooded, and the day has come when I should be more than
+what I have been.”
+
+I let my hand clench on hers. “Take me to husband then, and I will be a
+good man to you. But, as I am bidden speak to Phorenice the woman now,
+and not to the Empress, I offer fair warning that I will be no puppet.”
+
+She looked at me sidelong. “I have been master so long that I think
+it will come as enjoyment to be mastered sometimes. No, Deucalion, I
+promise that--you shall be no puppet. Indeed, it would take a lusty lung
+to do the piping if you were to dance against your will.”
+
+“Then, as man and wife we will live together in the royal pyramid, and
+we will rule this country with all the wit that it has pleased the High
+Gods to bestow on us. These miserable differences shall be swept aside;
+the rebels shall go back to their homes, and hunt, and fight the beasts
+in the provinces, and the Priests’ Clan shall be pacified. Phorenice,
+you and I will throw ourselves brain and soul into the government, and
+we will make Atlantis rise as a nation that shall once more surpass all
+the world for peace and prosperity.”
+
+Petulantly she drew her hand away from mine. “Oh, your conditions, and
+your Atlantis! You carry a crudeness in these colonial manners of yours,
+Deucalion, that palls on one after the first blunt flavour has worn
+away. Am I to do all the wooing? Is there no thrill of love under all
+your ice?”
+
+“In truth, I do not know what love may be. I have had little enough
+speech with women all these busy years.”
+
+“We were a pair, then, when you landed, though I have heard sighs and
+protestations from every man that carries a beard in all Atlantis. Some
+of them tickled my fancy for the day, but none of them have moved me
+deeper. No, I also have not learned what this love may be from my own
+personal feelings. But, sir, I think that you will teach me soon, if you
+go on with your coldness.”
+
+“From what I have seen, love is for the poor, and the weak, and for
+those of flighty emotions.”
+
+“Then I would that another woman were Empress, and that I were some
+ill-dressed creature of the gutter that a strong man could pick up by
+force, and carry away to his home for sheer passion. Ah! How I could
+revel in it! How I could respond if he caught my whim!” She laughed.
+“But I should lead him a sad life of it if my liking were not so strong
+as his.”
+
+“We are as we are made, and we cannot change our inwards which move us.”
+
+She looked at me with a sullen glance. “If I do not change yours, my
+Deucalion, there will be more trouble brewed for this poor Atlantis
+that you set such store upon. There will be ill doings in this coming
+household of ours if my love grows for you, and yours remains still
+unborn.”
+
+I believe she would have had me fondle her there in the golden castle on
+the mammoth’s shabby back, before the city streets packed with curious
+people. She had little enough appetite for privacy at any time. But for
+the life of me I could not do it. The Gods know I was earnest enough
+about my task, and They know also how it repelled me. But I was a true
+priest that day, and I had put away all personal liking to carry out the
+commands which the Council had laid upon me. If I had known how to set
+about it, I would have fallen in with her mood. But where any of those
+shallow bedizened triflers about the court would have been glibly in his
+element, I stuck for lack of a dozen words.
+
+There was no help for it but to leave all, save what I actually felt,
+unsaid. Diplomacy I was trained in, and on most matters I had a glib
+enough tongue. But to palter with women was a lightness I had always
+neglected, and if I had invented would-be pretty speeches out of my
+clumsy inexperience, Phorenice would have seen through the fraud on the
+instant. She had been nurtured during these years of her rule on a
+pap of these silly protestations, and could weigh their value with an
+expert’s exactness.
+
+Nor was it a case where honest confession would have served my purpose
+better. If I had put my position to her in plain words, it would have
+made relations worse. And so perforce I had to hold my tongue, and
+submit to be considered a clown.
+
+“I had always heard,” she said, “that you colonists in Yucatan were far
+ahead of those in Egypt in all the arts and graces. But you, sir, do
+small credit to your vice-royalty. Why, I have had gentry from the Nile
+come here, and you might almost think they had never left their native
+shores.”
+
+“They must have made great strides this last twenty years, then. When
+last I was sent to Egypt to report, the blacks were clearly masters of
+the land, and our people lived there only on sufferance. Their pyramids
+were puny, and their cities nothing more than forts.”
+
+“Oh,” she said mockingly, “they are mere exiles still, but they remember
+their manners. My poor face seemed to please them, at least they all
+went into raptures over it. And for ten pleasant words, one of them cut
+off his own right hand. We made the bargain, my Egyptian gallant and
+I, and the hand lies dried on some shelf in my apartment to-day as a
+pleasant memento.”
+
+But here, by a lucky chance for me, an incident occurred which saved me
+from further baiting. The rebels outside the walls were conducting their
+day’s attack with vigour and some intelligence. More than once during
+our procession the lighter missiles from their war engines had sung
+up through the air, and split against a building, and thrown splinters
+which wounded those who thronged the streets. Still there had been
+nothing to ruffle the nerves of any one at all used to the haps of
+warfare, or in any way to hinder our courtship. But presently, it seems,
+they stopped hurling stones from their war engines, and took to loading
+them with carcases of wood lined with the throwing fire.
+
+Now, against stone buildings these did little harm, save only that they
+scorched horribly any poor wretch that was within splash of them when
+they burst; but when they fell upon the rude wooden booths and rush
+shelters of the poorer folk, they set them ablaze instantly. There was
+no putting out these fires.
+
+These things also would have given to either Phorenice or myself little
+enough of concern, as they are the trivial and common incidents of
+every siege; but the mammoth on which we rode had not been so properly
+schooled. When the first blue whiff of smoke came to us down the
+windings of the street, the huge red beast hoisted its trunk, and began
+to sway its head uneasily. When the smoke drifts grew more dense, and
+here and there a tongue of flame showed pale beneath the sunshine, it
+stopped abruptly and began to trumpet.
+
+The guards who led it, tugged manfully at the chains which hung from the
+jagged metal collar round its neck, so that the spikes ran deep into its
+flesh, and reminded it keenly of its bondage. But the beast’s terror
+at the fire, which was native to its constitution, mastered all its
+new-bought habits of obedience. From time unknown men have hunted the
+mammoth in the savage ground, and the mammoth has hunted men; and the
+men have always used fire as a shield, and mammoths have learned to
+dread fire as the most dangerous of all enemies.
+
+Phorenice’s brow began to darken as the great beast grew more restive,
+and she shook her red curls viciously. “Some one shall lose a head for
+this blundering,” said she. “I ordered to have this beast trained to
+stand indifferent to drums, shouting, arrows, stones, and fire, and the
+trainers assured me that all was done, and brought examples.”
+
+I slipped my girdle. “Here,” I said, “quick. Let me lower you to the
+ground.”
+
+She turned on me with a gleam. “Are you afraid for my neck, then,
+Deucalion?”
+
+“I have no mind to be bereaved before I have tasted my wedded life.”
+
+“Pish! There is little enough of danger. I will stay and ride it out. I
+am not one of your nervous women, sir. But go you, if you please.”
+
+“There is little enough chance of that now.”
+
+Blood flowed from the mammoth’s neck where the spikes of the collar tore
+it, and with each drop, so did the tameness seem to ooze out from it
+also. With wild squeals and trumpetings it turned and charged viciously
+down the way it had come, scattering like straws the spearmen who
+tried to stop it, and mowing a great swath through the crowd with its
+monstrous progress. Many must have been trodden under foot, many killed
+by its murderous trunk, but only their cries came to us. The golden
+castle, with its canopy of royal snakes, was swayed and tossed, so that
+we two occupants had much ado not to be shot off like stones from a
+catapult. But I took a brace with my feet against the front, and one
+arm around a pillar, and clapped the spare arm round Phorenice, so as to
+offer myself to her as a cushion.
+
+She lay there contentedly enough, with her lovely face just beneath my
+chin, and the faint scent of her hair coming in to me with every breath
+I took; and the mammoth charged madly on through the narrow streets. We
+had outstripped the taint of smoke, and the original cause of fear, but
+the beast seemed to have forgotten everything in its mad panic. It
+held furiously on with enormous strides, carrying its trunk aloft, and
+deafening us with its screams and trumpetings. We left behind us quickly
+all those who had trod in that glittering pageant, and we were carried
+helplessly on through the wards of the city.
+
+The beast was utterly beyond all control. So great was its pace that
+there was no alternative but to try and cling on to the castle. Up there
+we were beyond its reach. To have leapt off, even if we had avoided
+having brains dashed out or limbs smashed by the fall, would have been
+to put ourselves at once at a frightful disadvantage. The mammoth would
+have scented us immediately, and turned (as is the custom of these
+beasts), and we should have been trampled into a pulp in a dozen
+seconds.
+
+The thought came to me that here was the High God’s answer to
+Phorenice’s sacrilege. The mammoth was appointed to carry out Their
+vengeance by dashing her to pieces, and I, their priest, was to be human
+witness that justice had been done. But no direct revelation had been
+given me on this matter, and so I took no initiative, but hung on to the
+swaying castle, and held the Empress against bruises in my arms.
+
+There was no guiding the brute: in its insanity of madness it doubled
+many times upon its course, the windings of the streets confusing it.
+But by degrees we left the large palaces and pyramids behind, and got
+amongst the quarters of artisans, where weavers and smiths gaped at
+us from their doors as we thundered past. And then we came upon the
+merchants’ quarters where men live over their storehouses that do
+traffic with the people over seas, and then down an open space there
+glittered before us a mirror of water.
+
+“Now here,” thought I, “this mad beast will come to sudden stop, and as
+like as not will swerve round sharply and charge back again towards the
+heart of the city.” And I braced myself to withstand the shock, and took
+fresh grip upon the woman who lay against my breast. But with louder
+screams and wilder trumpetings the mammoth held straight on, and
+presently came to the harbour’s edge, and sent the spray sparkling in
+sheets amongst the sunshine as it went with its clumsy gait into the
+water.
+
+But at this point the pace was very quickly slackened. The great sewers,
+which science devised for the health of the city in the old King’s
+time, vomit their drainings into this part of the harbour, and the solid
+matter which they carry is quickly deposited as an impalpable sludge.
+Into this the huge beast began to sink deeper and deeper before it could
+halt in its rush, and when with frightened bellowings it had come to
+a stop, it was bogged irretrievably. Madly it struggled, wildly it
+screamed and trumpeted. The harbour-water and the slime were churned
+into one stinking compost, and the golden castle in which we clung
+lurched so wildly that we were torn from it and shot far away into the
+water.
+
+Still there, of course, we were safe, and I was pleased enough to be rid
+of the bumpings.
+
+Phorenice laughed as she swam. “You handle yourself like a sore man,
+Deucalion. I owe you something for lending me the cushion of your body.
+By my face! There’s more of the gallant about you when it comes to the
+test than one would guess to hear you talk. How did you like the ride,
+sir? I warrant it came to you as a new experience.”
+
+“I’d liefer have walked.”
+
+“Pish, man! You’ll never be a courtier. You should have sworn that with
+me in your arms you could have wished the bumping had gone on for ever.
+Ho, the boat there! Hold your arrows. Deucalion, hail me those fools in
+that boat. Tell them that, if they hurt so much as a hair of my mammoth,
+I’ll kill them all by torture. He’ll exhaust himself directly, and when
+his flurry’s done we’ll leave him where he is to consider his evil ways
+for a day or so, and then haul him out with windlasses, and tame him
+afresh. Pho! I could not feel myself to be Phorenice, if I had no fine,
+red, shaggy mammoth to take me out for my rides.”
+
+The boat was a ten-slave galley which was churning up from the farther
+side of the harbour as hard as well-plied whips could make oars drive
+her, but at the sound of my shouts the soldiers on her foredeck stopped
+their arrowshots, and the steersman swerved her off on a new course to
+pick us up. Till then we had been swimming leisurely across an angle of
+the harbour, so as to avoid landing where the sewers outpoured; but we
+stopped now, treading the water, and were helped over the side by most
+respectful hands.
+
+The galley belonged to the captain of the port, a mincing figure of
+a mariner, whose highest appetite in life was to lick the feet of the
+great, and he began to fawn and prostrate himself at once, and to wish
+that his eyes had been blinded before he saw the Empress in such deadly
+peril.
+
+“The peril may pass,” said she. “It’s nothing mortal that will ever kill
+me. But I have spoiled my pretty clothes, and shed a jewel or two, and
+that’s annoying enough as you say, good man.”
+
+The silly fellow repeated a wish that he might be blinded before the
+Empress was ever put to such discomfort again.
+
+But it seemed she could be cloyed with flattery. “If you are tired of
+your eyes,” said she, “let me tell you that you have gone the way to
+have them plucked out from their sockets. Kill my mammoth, would you,
+because he has shown himself a trifle frolicsome? You and your sort want
+more education, my man. I shall have to teach you that port-captains and
+such small creatures are very easy to come by, and very small value when
+got, but that my mammoth is mine--mine, do you understand?--the property
+of Goddess Phorenice, and as such is sacred.”
+
+The port-captain abased himself before her. “I am an ignorant fellow,”
+ said he, “and heaven was robbed of its brightest ornament when Phorenice
+came down to Atlantis. But if reparation is permitted me, I have two
+prisoners in the cabin of the boat here who shall be sacrificed to the
+mammoth forthwith. Doubtless it would please him to make sport with
+them, and spill out the last lees of his rage upon their bodies.”
+
+“Prisoners you’ve got, have you? How taken?”
+
+“Under cover of last night they were trying to pass in between the two
+forts which guard the harbour mouth. But their boat fouled the chain,
+and by the light of the torches the sentries spied them. They were
+caught with ropes, and put in a dungeon. There is an order not to abuse
+prisoners before they have been brought before a judgment?”
+
+“It was my order. Did these prisoners offer to buy their lives with
+news?”
+
+“The man has not spoken. Indeed, I think he got his death-wound in being
+taken. The woman fought like a cat also, so they said in the fort, but
+she was caught without hurt. She says she has got nothing that would be
+of use to tell. She says she has tired of living like a savage outside
+the city, and moreover that, inside, there is a man for whose nearness
+she craves most mightily.”
+
+“Tut!” said Phorenice. “Is this a romance we have swum to? You see what
+affectionate creatures we women are, Deucalion.”--The galley was brought
+up against the royal quay and made fast to its golden rings. I handed
+the Empress ashore, but she turned again and faced the boat, her
+garments still yielding up a slender drip of water.--“Produce your woman
+prisoner, master captain, and let us see whether she is a runaway
+wife, or a lovesick girl mad after her sweetheart. Then I will deliver
+judgment on her, and as like as not will surprise you all with my
+clemency. I am in a mood for tender romance to-day.”
+
+The port-captain went into the little hutch of a cabin with a white
+face. It was plain that Phorenice’s pleasantries scared him. “The man
+appears to be dead, Your Majesty. I see that his wounds--”
+
+“Bring out the woman, you fool. I asked for her. Keep your carrion where
+it is.”
+
+I saw the fellow stoop for his knife to cut a lashing, and presently who
+should he bring out to the daylight but the girl I had saved from the
+cave-tigers in the circus, and who had so strangely drawn me to her
+during the hours that we had spent afterwards in companionship. It was
+clear, too, that the Empress recognised her also. Indeed, she made no
+secret about the matter, addressing her by name, and mockingly making
+inquiries about the menage of the rebels, and the success of the
+prisoner’s amours.
+
+“This good port-captain tells me that you made a most valiant attempt to
+return, Nais, and for an excuse you told that it was your love for
+some man in the city here which drew you. Come, now, we are willing to
+overlook much of your faults, if you will give us a reasonable chance.
+Point me out your man, and if he is a proper fellow, I will see that he
+weds you honestly. Yes, and I will do more for you, Nais, since this day
+brings me to a husband. Seeing that all your estate is confiscate as a
+penalty for your late rebellion, I will charge myself with your dowry,
+and give it back to you. So come, name me the man.”
+
+The girl looked at her with a sullen brow. “I spoke a lie,” she said;
+“there is no man.”
+
+I tried myself to give her advocacy. “The lady doubtless spoke what came
+to her lips. When a woman is in the grip of a rude soldiery, any excuse
+which can save her for the moment must serve. For myself, I should think
+it like enough that she would confess to having come back to her old
+allegiance, if she were asked.”
+
+“Sir,” said the Empress, “keep your peace. Any interest you may show in
+this matter will go far to offend me. You have spoken of Nais in your
+narrative before, and although your tongue was shrewd and you did not
+say much, I am a woman and I could read between the lines. Now regard,
+my rebel, I have no wish to be unduly hard upon you, though once
+you were my fan-girl, and so your running away to these ill-kempt
+malcontents, who beat their heads against my city walls, is all the
+more naughty. But you must meet me halfway. You must give an excuse
+for leniency. Point me out the man you would wed, and he shall be your
+husband to-morrow.”
+
+“There is no man.”
+
+“Then name me one at random. Why, my pretty Nais, not ten months ago
+there were a score who would have leaped at the chance of having you for
+a wife. Drop your coyness, girl, and name me one of those. I warrant
+you that I will be your ambassadress and will put the matter to him with
+such delicacy that he will not make you blush by refusal.”
+
+The prisoner moistened her lips. “I am a maiden, and I have a maiden’s
+modesty. I will die as you choose, but I will not do this indecency.”
+
+“Well, I am a maiden too, and though because I am Empress also,
+questions of State have to stand before questions of my private modesty,
+I can have a sympathy for yours--although in truth it did not obtrude
+unduly when you were my fan-girl, Nais. No, come to think of it, you
+liked a tender glance and a pretty phrase as well as any when you were
+fan-girl. You have grown wild and shy, amongst these savage rebels, but
+I will not punish you for that.
+
+“Let me call your favourites to memory now. There was Tarca, of course,
+but Tarca had a difference with that ill-dressed father of yours, and
+wears a leprosy on half his face instead of that beard he used to trim
+so finely. And then there is Tatho, but Tatho is away overseas. Eron,
+too, you liked once, but he lost an arm in fighting t’other day, and I
+would not marry you to less than a whole man. Ah, by my face! I have it,
+the dainty exquisite, Rota! He is the husband! How well I remember the
+way he used to dress in a change of garb each day to catch your proud
+fancy, girl. Well, you shall have Rota. He shall lead you to wife before
+this hour to-morrow.”
+
+Again the prisoner moistened her lips. “I will not have Rota, and spare
+me the others. I know why you mock me, Phorenice.”
+
+“Then there are three of us here who share one knowledge.”--She turned
+her eyes upon me. Gods! who ever saw the like of Phorenice’s eyes, and
+who ever saw them lit with such fire as burned within them then?--“My
+lord, you are marrying me for policy; I am marrying you for policy, and
+for another reason which has grown stronger of late, and which you may
+guess at. Do you wish still to carry out the match?”
+
+I looked once at Nais, and then I looked steadily back to Phorenice. The
+command given by the mouth of Zaemon from the High Council of the Sacred
+Mountain had to outweigh all else, and I answered that such was my
+desire.
+
+“Then,” said she, glowering at me with her eyes, “you shall build me up
+the pretty body of Nais beneath a throne of granite as a wedding gift.
+And you shall do it too with your own proper hands, my Deucalion, whilst
+I watch your devotion.”
+
+And to Nais she turned with a cruel smile. “You lied to me, my girl,
+and you spoke truth to the soldiers in the harbour forts. There is a man
+here in the city you came after, and he is the one man you may not have.
+Because you know me well, and my methods very thoroughly, your love for
+him must be very deep, or you would not have come. And so, being here,
+you shall be put beyond mischief’s reach. I am not one of those who see
+luxury in fostering rivals.
+
+“You came for attention at the hands of Deucalion. By my face! you shall
+have it. I will watch myself whilst he builds you up living.”
+
+
+
+
+11. AN AFFAIR WITH THE BARBAROUS FISHERS
+
+
+So this mighty Empress chose to be jealous of a mere woman prisoner!
+
+Now my mind has been trained to work with a soldierly quickness in these
+moments of stress, and I decided on my proper course on the instant the
+words had left her lips. I was sacrificing myself for Atlantis by
+order of the High Council of the Priests, and, if needful, Nais must
+be sacrificed also, although in the same flash a scheme came to me for
+saving her.
+
+So I bowed gravely before the Empress, and said I, “In this, and in all
+other things where a mere human hand is potent, I will carry out your
+wishes, Phorenice.” And she on her part patted my arm, and fresh waves
+of feeling welled up from the depths of her wondrous eyes. Surely the
+Gods won for her half her schemes and half her battles when they gave
+Phorenice her shape, and her voice, and the matters which lay within the
+outlines of her face.
+
+By this time the merchants, and the other dwellers adjacent to this part
+of the harbour, where the royal quay stands, had come down, offering
+changes of raiment, and houses to retire into. Phorenice was all
+graciousness, and though it was little enough I cared for mere wetness
+of my coat, still that part of the harbour into which we had been thrown
+by the mammoth was not over savoury, and I was glad enough to follow her
+example. For myself, I said no further word to Nais, and refrained even
+from giving her a glance of farewell. But a small sop like this was no
+meal for Phorenice, and she gave the port-captain strict orders for the
+guarding of his prisoner before she left him.
+
+At the house into which I was ushered they gave me a bath, and I eased
+my host of the plainest garment in his store, and he was pleased enough
+at getting off so cheaply. But I had an hour to spend outside on the
+pavement listening to the distant din of bombardment before Phorenice
+came out to me again, and I could not help feeling some grim amusement
+at the face of the merchant who followed. The fellow was clearly ruined.
+He had a store of jewels and gauds of the most costly kind, which were
+only in fraction his own, seeing that he had bought them (as the custom
+is) in partnership with other merchants. These had pleased Phorenice’s
+eye, and so she had taken all and disposed them on her person.
+
+“Are they not pretty?” said she, showing them to me. “See how they flash
+under the sun. I am quite glad now, Deucalion, that the mammoth gave us
+that furious ride and that spill, since it has brought me such a bonny
+present. You may tell the fellow here that some day when he has earned
+some more, I will come and be his guest again. Ah! They have brought us
+litters, I see. Well, send one away and do you share mine with me, sir.
+We must play at being lovers to-day, even if love is a matter which will
+come to us both with more certainty to-morrow. No; do not order more
+bearers. My own slaves will carry us handily enough. I am glad you
+are not one of your gross, overfed men, Deucalion. I am small and slim
+myself, and I do not want to be husbanded by a man who will overshadow
+me.”
+
+“Back to the royal pyramid?” I asked.
+
+“No, nor to the walls. I neither wish to fight nor to sit as Empress
+to-day, sir. As I have told you before, it is my whim to be Phorenice,
+the maiden, for a few hours, and if some one I wot of would woo me now,
+as other maidens are wooed, I should esteem it a luxury. Bid the slaves
+carry us round the harbour’s rim, and give word to these starers that,
+if they follow, I will call down fire upon them as I did upon the
+sacrifice.”
+
+Now, I had seen something of the unruliness of the streets myself, and
+I had gathered a hint also from the officer at the gate of the royal
+pyramid that night of Phorenice’s welcoming banquet. But as whatever
+there was in the matter must be common knowledge to the Empress, I did
+not bring it to her memory then. So I dismissed the guard which had
+come up, and drove away with a few sharp words the throng of gaping
+sightseers who always, silly creatures, must needs come to stare at
+their betters; and then I sat in the litter in the place where I was
+invited, and the bearers put their heads to the pole.
+
+They swung away with us along the wide pavement which runs between the
+houses of the merchants and the mariner folk and the dimpling waters of
+the harbour, and I thought somewhat sadly of the few ships that floated
+on that splendid basin now, and of the few evidences of business that
+showed themselves on the quays. Time was when the ships were berthed
+so close that many had to wait in the estuary outside the walls, and
+memorials had been sent to the King that the port should be doubled in
+size to hold the glut of trade. And that, too, in the old days of oar
+and sail, when machines drawing power from our Lord the Sun were but
+rarely used to help a vessel speedily along her course.
+
+The Egypt voyage and a return was a matter of a year then, as against a
+brace of months now, and of three ships that set out, one at least could
+be reckoned upon succumbing to the dangers of the wide waters and the
+terrible beasts that haunt them. But in those old days trade roared with
+lusty life, and was ever growing wider and more heavy. Your merchant
+then was a portly man and gave generously to the Gods. But now all
+the world seemed to be in arms, and moreover trade was vulgar. Your
+merchant, if he was a man of substance, forgot his merchandise, swore
+that chaffering was more indelicate than blasphemy and curled his beard
+after the new fashion, and became a courtier. Where his father had spent
+anxious days with cargo tally and ship-master, the son wasted hours in
+directing sewing men as they adorned a coat, and nights in vapouring at
+a banquet.
+
+Of the smaller merchants who had no substance laid by, taxes and the
+constant bickerings of war had wellnigh ground them into starvation.
+Besides, with the country in constant uproar, there were few markets
+left for most merchandise, nor was there aught made now which could be
+carried abroad. If your weaver is pressed as a fire-tube man he does not
+make cloth, and if your farmer is playing at rebellion, he does not buy
+slaves to till his fields. Indeed, they told me that a month before my
+return, as fine a cargo of slaves had been brought into harbour as ever
+came out of Europe, and there was nothing for it but to set them ashore
+across the estuary, and leave them free to starve or live in the wild
+ground there as they chose. There was no man in all Atlantis who would
+hold so much as one more slave as a gift.
+
+But though I was grieved at this falling away, all schemes for remedy
+would be for afterwards. It would only make ill worse to speak of it as
+we rode together in the litter. I was growing to know Phorenice’s moods
+enough for that. Still, I think that she too had studied mine, and did
+her best to interest me between her bursts of trifling. We went out to
+where the westernmost harbour wall joins the land, and there the panting
+bearers set us down. She led me into a little house of stone which stood
+by itself, built out on a promontory where there is a constant run of
+tide, and when we had been given admittance, after much unbarring, she
+showed me her new gold collectors.
+
+In the dry knowledge taught in the colleges and groves of the Sacred
+Mountain it had been a common fact to us that the metal gold was present
+in a dissolved state in all sea water, but of plans for dragging it
+forth into yellow hardness, none had ever been discussed. But here this
+field-reared upstart of an Empress had stumbled upon the trick as though
+it had been written in a book.
+
+She patted my arm laughingly as I stared curiously round the place. “I
+tell all others in Atlantis that only the Gods have this secret,” said
+she, “and that They gave it to me as one of themselves. But I am no
+Goddess to you, am I, Deucalion? And, by my face! I have no other
+explanation of how this plan was invented. We’ll suppose I must have
+dreamed it. Look! The sea-water sluices in through that culvert, and
+passes over these rough metal plates set in the floor, and then flows
+out again yonder in its natural course. You see the yellow metal caught
+in the ridges of the plates? That is gold. And my fellows here melt it
+with fire into bars, and take it to my smith’s in the city. The tides
+vary constantly, as you priests know well, as the quiet moon draws them,
+and it does not take much figuring to know how much of the sea passes
+through these culverts in a month and how much gold to a grain should be
+caught in the plates. My fellows here at first thought to cheat me, but
+I towed two of them in the water once behind a galley till the cannibal
+fish ate them, and since then the others have given me credit for--for
+what do you think?”
+
+“More divinity.”
+
+“I suppose it is that. But I am letting you see how it is done. Just
+have the head to work out a little sum, and see what an effect can be
+gained. You will be a God yet yourself, Deucalion, with these silly
+Atlanteans, if only you will use your wit and cleverness.”
+
+Was she laughing at me? Was she in earnest? I could not tell. Sometimes
+she pointed out that her success and triumphs were merely the reward
+of thought and brilliancy, and next moment she gave me some impossible
+explanation and left me to deduce that she must be more than mortal or
+the thing could never have been found. In good truth, this little woman
+with her supple mind and her supple body mystified me more and more the
+longer I stayed by her side; and more and more despairing did I grow
+that Atlantis could ever be restored by my agency to peace and the
+ancient Gods, even after I had carried out the commands of the High
+Council, and taken her to wife.
+
+Only one plan seemed humanly possible, and that was to curb her further
+mischievousness by death and then leave the wretched country naturally
+to recover. It was just a dagger-stroke, and the thing was done. Yet the
+very idea of this revolted me, and when the desperate thought came to my
+mind (which it did ever and anon), I hugged to myself the answer that if
+it were fitting to do this thing, the High Gods in Their infinite wisdom
+would surely have put definite commands upon me for its carrying out.
+
+Yet, such was the fascination of Phorenice, that when presently we
+left her gold collectors, and stumbled into such peril, that a little
+withholding of my hand would have gained her a passage to the nether
+Gods, I found myself fighting when she called upon me, as seldom I have
+fought before. And though, of course, some blame for this must be laid
+upon that lust of battle which thrills even the coldest of us when blows
+begin to whistle and war-cries start to ring, there is no doubt also
+that the pleasure of protecting Phorenice, and the distaste for seeing
+her pulled down by those rude, uncouth fishers put special nerve and
+vehemence into my blows.
+
+The cause of the matter was the unrest and the prevalency to street
+violence which I have spoken of above, and the desperate poverty of
+the common people, which led them to take any risk if it showed them a
+chance of winning the wherewithal to purchase a meal. We had once more
+mounted the litter, and once more the bearers, with their heads beneath
+the pole, bore us on at their accustomed swinging trot. Phorenice was
+telling me about her new supplies of gold. She had made fresh sumptuary
+laws, it appeared.
+
+“In the old days,” said she, “when yellow gold was tediously dredged up
+grain by grain from river gravels in the dangerous lands, a quill
+full would cost a rich man’s savings, and so none but those whose high
+station fitted them to be so adorned could wear golden ornaments. But
+when the sea-water gave me gold here by the double handful a day, I
+found that the price of these river hoards decreased, and one day--could
+you credit it?--a common fellow, who was one of my smiths, came to me
+wearing a collar of yellow gold on his own common neck. Well, I had
+that neck divided, as payment for his presumption; and as I promised
+to repeat the division promptly on all other offenders, that special
+species of forwardness seems to be checked for the time. There are many
+exasperations, Deucalion, in governing these common people.”
+
+She had other things to say upon the matter, but at this point I saw two
+clumsy boats of fishers paddling to us from over the ripples, and at the
+same time amongst the narrow lanes which led between the houses on
+the other side of us, savage-faced men were beginning to run after the
+litter in threatening clusters.
+
+“With permission,” I said, “I will step out of the conveyance and
+scatter this rabble.”
+
+“Oh, the people always cluster round me. Poor ugly souls, they seem
+to take a strange delight in coming to stare at my pretty looks. But
+scatter them. I have said I did not wish to be followed. I am taking
+holiday now, Deucalion, am I not, whilst you learn to woo me?”
+
+I stepped to the ground. The rough fishers in the boats were beginning
+to shout to those who dodged amongst the houses to see to it that we
+did not escape, and the numbers who hemmed us in on the shore side were
+increasing every moment. The prospect was unpleasant enough. We had come
+out beyond the merchants’ quarters, and were level with those small
+huts of mud and grass which the fishing population deem sufficient for
+shelter, and which has always been a spot where turbulence might be
+expected. Indeed, even in those days of peace and good government in
+the old King’s time, this part of the city had rarely been without its
+weekly riot.
+
+The life of the fisherman is the most hard that any human toilers have
+to endure. Violence from the wind and waves, and pelting from firestones
+out of the sky are their daily portion; the great beasts that dwell in
+the seas hunt them with savage persistence, and it is a rare day when
+at least some one of the fishers’ guild fails to come home to answer the
+tally.
+
+Moreover, the manner which prevails of catching fish is not without its
+risks.
+
+To each man there is a large sea-fowl taken as a nestling, and
+trained to the work. A ring of bronze is round its neck to prevent its
+swallowing the spoil for which it dives, and for each fish it takes and
+flies back with to the boat, the head and tail and inwards are given to
+it for a reward, the ring being removed whilst it makes the meal.
+
+The birds are faithful, once they have got a training, and are seldom
+known to desert their owners; but, although the fishers treat them more
+kindly than they do their wives, or children of their own begetting, the
+life of the birds is precarious like that of their masters. The larger
+beasts and fish of the sea prey on them as they prey on the smaller
+fish, and so whatever care may be lavished upon them, they are most
+liable to sudden cutting off.
+
+And here is another thing that makes the life of the fisher most
+precarious: if his fishing bird be slain, and the second which he has
+in training also come by ill fortune, he is left suddenly bereft of all
+utensils of livelihood, and (for aught his guild-fellows care) he may go
+starve. For these fishers hold that the Gods of the sea regulate their
+craft, and that if one is not pleasing to Them They rob him of his
+birds; after which it would be impious to have any truck or dealing
+with such a fellow; and accordingly he is left to starve or rob as he
+chooses.
+
+All of which circumstances tend to make the fishers rude, desperate
+men, who have been forced into the trade because all other callings have
+rejected them. They are fellows, moreover, who will spend the gains of
+a month on a night’s debauch, for fear that the morrow will rob them of
+life and the chance of spending; and, moreover, it is their one point of
+honour to be curbed in no desire by an ordinary fear of consequences. As
+will appear.
+
+I went quickly towards the largest knot of these people, who were
+skulking behind the houses, leaving the litter halted in the path behind
+me, and I bade them sharply enough to disperse. “For an employment,”
+ I added, “put your houses in order, and clean the fish offal from the
+lanes between them. To-morrow I will come round here to inspect, and put
+this quarter into a better order. But for to-day the Empress (whose name
+be adored) wishes for a privacy, so cease your staring.”
+
+“Then give us money,” said a shrill voice from amongst the huts.
+
+“I will send you a torch in an hour’s time,” I said grimly, “and rig you
+a gallows, if you give me more annoyance. To your kennels, you!”
+
+I think they would have obeyed the voice of authority if they had been
+left to themselves. There was a quick stir amongst them. Those that
+stood in the sunlight instinctively slipped into the shadow, and many
+dodged into the houses and cowered in dark corners out of sight. But the
+men in the two hide-covered fisher-boats that were paddling up, called
+them back with boisterous cries.
+
+I signed to the litter-bearers to move on quickly along their road.
+There was need of discipline here, and I was minded to deal it out
+myself with a firm hand. I judged that I could prevent them following
+the Empress, but if she still remained as a glittering bait for them to
+rob, and I had to protect her also, it might be that my work would not
+be done so effectively.
+
+But it seems I was presumptuous in giving an order which dealt with the
+person of Phorenice. She bade the bearers stand where they were, and
+stepped out, and drew her weapons from beneath the cushions. She came
+towards me strapping a sword on to her hip, and carrying a well-dinted
+target of gold on her left forearm. “An unfair trick,” cries she,
+laughing. “If you will keep a fight to yourself now, Deucalion, where
+will your greediness carry you when I am your shrinking, wistful little
+wife? Are these fools truly going to stand up against us?”
+
+I was not coveting a fight, but it seemed as if there would be no
+avoidance of it now. The robe and the glittering gauds of which
+Phorenice had recently despoiled the merchant, drew the eyes of these
+people with keen attraction. The fishers in the boats paddled into
+the surf which edged the beach, and leaped overside and left the frail
+basket-work structures to be spewed up sound or smashed, as chance
+ordered. And from the houses, and from the filthy lanes between them,
+poured out hordes of others, women mixed with the men, gathering round
+us threateningly.
+
+“Have a care,” shouted one on the outskirts of the crowd. “She called
+down fire for the sacrifice once to-day, and she can burn up others here
+if she chooses.”
+
+“So much the more for those that are left,” retorted another. “She
+cannot burn all.”
+
+“Nay, I will not burn any,” said Phorenice, “but you shall look upon my
+sword-play till you are tired.”
+
+I heard her say that with some malicious amusement, knowing (as one of
+the Seven) how she had called down the fires of the sky to burn that
+cloven-hoofed horse offered in sacrifice, and knowing too, full well,
+that she could bring down no fire here. But they gave us little enough
+time for wordy courtesies. Their Empress never went far unattended, and,
+for aught the wretches knew, an escort might be close behind. So what
+pilfering they did, it behoved them to get done quickly.
+
+They closed in, jostling one another to be first, and the reek of their
+filthy bodies made us cough. A grimy hand launched out to seize some of
+the jewels which flashed on Phorenice’s breast, and I lopped it off
+at the elbow, so that it fell at her feet, and a second later we were
+engaged.
+
+“Your back to mine, comrade,” cried she, with a laugh, and then drew and
+laid about her with fine dexterity. Bah! but it was mere slaughter, that
+first bout.
+
+The crowd hustled inwards with such greediness to seize what they could,
+that none had space to draw back elbow for a thrust, and we two kept a
+circle round us by sheer whirling of steel. It is necessary to do one’s
+work cleanly in these bouts, as wounded left on the ground unnoticed
+before one are as dangerous as so many snakes. But as we circled round
+in our battling I noted that all of Phorenice’s quarry lay peaceful
+and still. By the Gods! but she could play a fine sword, this dainty
+Empress. She touched life with every thrust.
+
+Yes, it was plain to see, now an example was given, that the throne of
+Atlantis had been won, not by a lovely face and a subtle tongue alone;
+and (as a fighter myself) I did not like Phorenice the less for the
+knowledge. I could but see her out of the corner of my eye, and that
+only now and again, for the fishers, despite their ill-knowledge of
+fence, and the clumsiness of their weapons, had heavy numbers, and most
+savage ferocity; and as they made so confident of being able to pull
+us down, it required more than a little hard battling to keep them from
+doing it. Ay, by the Gods! it was at times a fight my heart warmed to,
+and if I had not contrived to pluck a shield from one fool who came too
+vain-gloriously near me with one, I could not swear they would not have
+dragged me down by sheer ravening savageness.
+
+And always above the burly uproar of the fight came very pleasantly to
+my ears Phorenice’s cry of “Deucalion!” which she chose as her battle
+shout. I knew her, of course, to be a past-mistress of the art of
+compliment, and it was no new thing for me to hear the name roared out
+above a battle din, but it was given there under circumstances which
+were peculiar, and for the life of me I could not help being tickled by
+the flattery.
+
+Condemn my weakness how you will, but I came very near then to liking
+the Empress of Atlantis in the way she wished. And as for that other
+woman who should have filled my mind, I will confess that the stress of
+the moment, and the fury of the engagement, had driven both her and her
+strait completely out beyond the marches of my memory. Of such frail
+stuff are we made, even those of us who esteem ourselves the strongest.
+
+Now it is a temptation few men born to the sword can resist, to throw
+themselves heart and soul into a fight for a fight’s sake, and it seems
+that women can be bitten with the same fierce infection. The attack
+slackened and halted. We stood in the middle of a ring of twisted dead,
+and the rest of the fishers and their women who hemmed us in shrank back
+out of reach of our weapons.
+
+It was the moment for a truce, and the moment when a few strong words
+would have sent them back cowering to their huts, and given us free
+passage to go where we chose. But no, this Phorenice must needs sing a
+hymn to her sword and mine, gloating over our feats and invulnerability;
+and then she must needs ask payment for the bearers of her litter whom
+they had killed, and then speak balefully of the burnings, and the
+skinnings, and the sawings asunder with which this fishers’ quarter
+would be treated in the near future, till they learned the virtues of
+deportment and genteel manners.
+
+“It makes your backs creep, does it?” said Phorenice. “I do not wonder.
+This severity must have its unpleasant side. But why do you not put it
+beyond my power to give the order? Either you must think yourselves Gods
+or me no Goddess, or you would not have gone on so far. Come now, you
+nasty-smelling people, follow out your theory, and if you make a good
+fight of it, I swear by my face I will be lenient with those who do not
+fall.”
+
+But there was no pressing up to meet our swords. They still ringed us
+in, savage and sullen, beyond the ring of their own dead, and would
+neither run back to the houses, nor give us the game of further fight.
+There was a certain stubborn bravery about them that one could not but
+admire, and for myself I determined that next time it became my duty
+to raise troops, I would catch a handful of these men, and teach them
+handiness with the utensils of war, and train them to loyalty and
+faithfulness. But presently from behind their ranks a stone flew, and
+though it whizzed between the Empress and myself, and struck down a
+fisher, it showed that they had brought a new method into their attack,
+and it behoved us to take thought and meet it.
+
+I looked round me up and down the beach. There was no sign of a rescue.
+“Phorenice,” I said in the court tongue, which these barbarous fishers
+would know little enough of, “I take it that a whiff of the sea-breeze
+would come very pleasant after all this warm play. As you can show such
+pretty sword work, will you cut me a way down to the beach, and I will
+do my poor best to keep these creatures from snapping at our heels?”
+
+“Oh!” cried she. “Then I am to have a courtier for a husband after all.
+Why have you kept back your flattering speeches till now? Is that your
+trick to make me love you?”
+
+“I will think out the reason for it another time.”
+
+“Ah, these stern, commanding husbands,” said she, “how they do press
+upon their little wives!” and with that leaped over the ring of dead
+before her, and cut and stabbed a way through those that stood between
+her and the waters which creamed and crashed upon the beach. Gods!
+what a charge she made. It made me tingle with admiration as I followed
+sideways behind her, guarding the rear. And I am a man that has spent so
+many years in battling, that it takes something far out of the common to
+move me to any enthusiasm in this matter.
+
+There were two boats creaking and washing about in the edge of the surf,
+but in one, happily, the wicker-work which made its frame was crushed
+by the weight of the waves into a shapeless bundle of sticks, and would
+take half a day to replace. So that, let us but get the other craft
+afloat, and we should be free from further embroiling. But the fishers
+were quick to see the object of this new manoeuvre. “Guard the boat,”
+ they shouted. “Smash her; slit her skin with your knives! Tear her with
+your fingers! Swim her out to sea! Oh, at least take the paddles!”
+
+But, if these clumsy fishers could run, Phorenice was like a legged
+snake for speed. She was down beside the boat before any could reach
+it, laughing and shouting out that she could beat them at every point.
+Myself, I was slower of foot; and, besides, there was some that offered
+me a fight on the road, and I was not wishful to baulk them; and
+moreover, the fewer we left clamouring behind, the fewer there would be
+to speed our going with their stones. Still I came to the beach in good
+order, and laid hands on the flimsy boat and tipped her dry.
+
+“Fighting is no trade for, me,” I cried, “whilst you are here,
+Phorenice. Guard me my back and walk out into the water.”
+
+I took the boat, thrusting it afloat, and wading with it till two lines
+of the surf were past. The fishers swarmed round us, active as fish in
+their native element, and strove mightily to get hands on the boat and
+slit the hides which covered it with their eager fingers. But I had a
+spare hand, and a short stabbing-knife for such close-quarter work, and
+here, there, and everywhere was Phorenice the Empress, with her thirsty
+dripping sword. By the Gods! I laughed with sheer delight at seeing her
+art of fence.
+
+But the swirl of a great fish into the shallows, and the squeal of
+a fisher as he was dragged down and home away into the deep, made me
+mindful of foes that no skill can conquer, and no bravery avoid. Without
+taking time to give the Empress a word of warning, I stooped, and flung
+an arm round her, and threw her up out of the water into the boat, and
+then thrust on with all my might, driving the flimsy craft out to
+sea, whilst my legs crept under me for fear of the beasts which swam
+invisible beneath the muddied waters.
+
+To the fishers, inured to these horrid perils by daily association,
+the seizing of one of their number meant little, and they pressed on,
+careless of their dull lives, eager only to snatch the jewels which
+still flaunted on Phorenice’s breast. Of the vengeance that might come
+after they recked nothing; let them but get the wherewithal for one
+night’s good debauch, and they would forget that such a thing as the
+morning of a morrow could have existence.
+
+Two fellows I caught and killed that, diving down beneath, tried to slit
+the skin of the boat out of sight under the water; and Phorenice cared
+for all those that tried to put a hand on the gunwales. Yes, and she did
+more than that. A huge long-necked turtle that was stirred out of the
+mud by the turmoil, came up to daylight, and swung its great horn-lipped
+mouth to this side and that, seeking for a prey. The fishers near it
+dodged and dived. I, thrusting at the stern of the boat, could only hope
+it would pass me by and so offered an easy mark. It scurried towards
+me, champing its noisy lips, and beating the water into spray with its
+flippers.
+
+But Phorenice was quick with a remedy and a rescue. She passed her sword
+through one of the fishers that pressed her, and then thrust the body
+towards the turtle. The great neck swooped towards it; the long slimy
+feelers which protruded from its head quivered and snuffled; and then
+the horny green jaws crunched on it, and drew it down out of sight.
+
+The boat was in deep water now, and Phorenice called upon me to come in
+over the side, she the while balancing nicely so that the flimsy thing
+should not be overset. The fishers had given up their pursuit, finding
+that they earned nothing but lopped-off arms and split faces by coming
+within swing of this terrible sword of their Empress, and so contented
+themselves with volleying jagged stones in the hopes of stunning us or
+splitting the boat. However, Phorenice crouched in the stern, holding
+the two shields--her own golden target, and the rough hide buckler I
+had won--and so protected both of us whilst I paddled, and though many
+stones clattered against the shields, and hit the hide covering of the
+boat, so that it resounded like a drum, none of them did damage, and we
+drew quickly out of their range.
+
+
+
+
+12. THE DRUG OF OUR LADY THE MOON
+
+
+Our Lord the Sun was riding towards the end of His day, and the smoke
+from a burning mountain fanned black and forbidding before His face.
+Phorenice wrung the water from her clothes and shivered. “Work hard with
+those paddles, Deucalion, and take me in through the water-gate and let
+me be restored to my comforts again. That merchant would rue if he saw
+how his pretty garments were spoiled, and I rue, too, being a woman,
+and remembering that he at least has no others I can take in place of
+these.” She looked at me sidelong, tossing back the short red hair from
+her eyes. “What think you of my wisdom in coming where we have come
+without an escort?”
+
+“The Empress can do no wrong,” I quoted the old formula with a smile.
+
+“At least I have shown you that I can fight. I caught you looking your
+approval of me quite pleasantly once or twice. You were a difficult man
+to thaw, Deucalion, but you warm perceptibly as you keep on being near
+me. La, sir, we shall be a pair of rustic sweethearts yet, if this
+goes on. I am glad I thought of the device of going near those smelly
+fishers.”
+
+So she had taken me out in the litter unattended for the plain purpose
+of inviting a fight, and showing me her skill at arms, and perhaps, too,
+of seeing in person how I also carried myself in a moment of stress.
+Well, if we were to live on together as husband and wife, it was good
+that each should know to a nicety the other’s powers; and also, I am too
+much of an old battler and too much enamoured with the glorious handling
+of arms to quarrel very deeply with any one who offers me a tough
+upstanding fight. Still for the life of me, I could not help comparing
+Phorenice with another woman. With a similar chance open before us, Nais
+had robbed me of the struggle through a sheer pity for those squalid
+rebels who did not even call her chieftain; whilst here was this Empress
+frittering away two score of the hardiest of her subjects merely to
+gratify a whim.
+
+Yet, loyal to my vow as a priest, and to the commands set upon me by the
+high council on the Sacred Mountain, I tried to put away these wayward
+thoughts and comparisons. As I rowed over the swingings of the waves
+towards the forts which guard the harbour’s mouth, I sent prayers to the
+High Gods to give my tongue dexterity, and They through Their love for
+the country of Atlantis, and the harassed people, whom it was my deep
+wish to serve, granted me that power of speech which Phorenice loved.
+Her eyes glowed upon me as I talked.
+
+This beach of the fishers where we had had our passage at arms is safe
+from ship attack from without, by reason of a chain of jagged rocks
+which spring up from the deep, and run from the harbour side to the end
+of the city wall. The fishers know the passes, and can oftentimes get
+through to the open water beyond without touching a stone; or if they
+do see a danger of hitting on the reef, leap out and carry their light
+boats in their hands till the water floats them again. But here I had
+neither the knowledge nor the dexterity, and, thought I, now the High
+Gods will show finally if They wish this woman who has defiled them to
+reign on in Atlantis, and if also They wish me to serve as her husband.
+
+I cried these things in my heart, and waited to receive the omen. There
+was no half-answer. A great wave rose in the lagoon behind us, a wave
+such as could have only been caused by an earth tremor, and on its sleek
+back we were hurled forward and thrown clear of the reefs with their
+seaweeds licking round us, without so much as seeing a stone of the
+barrier. I bowed my head as I rowed on towards the harbour forts. It was
+plain that not yet would the High Gods take vengeance for the insults
+which this lovely woman had offered Them.
+
+The sentries in the two forts beat drums at one another in their
+accustomed rotation, and in the growing dusk were going to pay little
+enough attention to the fishingboat which lay against the great chain
+clamouring to have it lowered. But luckily a pair of officers were
+taking the air of the evening in a stone-dropping turret of the roof
+of the nearer fort, and these recognised the tone of our shouts. They
+silenced the drums, torches were lowered to make sure of our faces, and
+then with a splash the great chain was dropped into the water to give us
+passage.
+
+A galley lay inside, nuzzling the harbour wall, and presently the ladder
+of ropes was let down from the top of the nearest fort, and a crew came
+down to man the oars. There were the customary changes of raiment too,
+given as presents by the officers of the fort, and these we put on in
+the cabin of the galley in place of the sodden clothes we wore. There
+are fevers to be gained by carrying wet clothes after sunset, and though
+from personal experience I have learned that these may be warded off
+with drugs, I noticed with some grim amusement that the Empress had
+sufficiently little of the Goddess about her to fear very much the
+ailments which are due to frail humanity.
+
+The galley rowed swiftly across the calm waters of the harbour, and made
+fast to the rings of gold on the royal quay, and whilst we were waiting
+for litters to be brought, I watched a lantern lit in the boat
+which stood guard over Phorenice’s mammoth. The huge red beast stood
+shoulder-deep in the harbour water, with trunk up-turned. It was tamed
+now, and the light of the boat’s lantern fell on the little ripples sent
+out by its tremblings. But I did not choose to intercede or ask
+mercy for it. If the mammoth sank deeper in the harbour mud, and was
+swallowed, I could have borne the loss with equanimity.
+
+To tell the truth, that ride on the great beast’s back had impressed me
+unfavourably. In fact, it put into me a sense of helplessness that
+was wellnigh intolerable. Perhaps circumstances have made me unduly
+self-reliant: on that others must judge. But I will own to having a
+preference for walking on my own proper feet, as the Gods in fashioning
+our shapes most certainly intended. On my own feet I am able to guard my
+own head and neck, and have done on four continents, throughout a long
+and active life, and on many a thousand occasions. But on the back of
+that detestable mammoth, pah! I grew as nervous as a child or a dastard.
+
+However, I had little enough leisure for personal megrims just then.
+Whilst we waited, Phorenice asked the port-captain (who must needs come
+up officiously to make his salutations) after the disposal of Nais,
+and was told that she had been clapped into a dungeon beneath the royal
+pyramid, and the officer of the guard there had given his bond for her
+safe-keeping.
+
+“It is to be hoped he understands his work,” said the Empress. “That
+pretty Nais knows the pyramid better than most, and it may be he will
+be sent to the tormentors for putting her in a cell which had a secret
+outlet. You would feel pleasure if the girl escaped, Deucalion?”
+
+“Assuredly,” said I, knowing how useless it would be to make a secret of
+the matter. “I have no enmity against Nais.”
+
+“But I have,” said she viciously, “and I am still minded to lock your
+faith to me by that wedding gift you know of.”
+
+“The thing shall be done,” I said. “Before all, the Empress of
+Atlantis.”
+
+“Poof! Deucalion, you are too stiff and formal. You ought to be mightily
+honoured that I condescend to be jealous of your favours. Your hand,
+sir, please, to help me into the litter. And now come in beside me,
+and keep me warm against the night air. Ho! you guards there with the
+torches! Keep farther back against the street walls. The perfume you are
+burning stifles me.”
+
+Again there was a feast that night in the royal banqueting-hall; again I
+sat beside Phorenice on the raised dais which stands beneath the symbols
+of the snake and the out-stretched hand. What had been taken for granted
+before about our forthcoming relationship was this time proclaimed
+openly; the Empress herself acknowledged me as her husband that was to
+be; and all that curled and jewelled throng of courtiers hailed me as
+greater than themselves, by reason of this woman’s choice. There was
+method, too, in their salutation. Some rumour must have got about of my
+preference for the older and simpler habits, and there was no drinking
+wine to my health after the new and (as I considered) impertinent
+manner. Decorously, each lord and lady there came forward, and each in
+turn spilt a goblet at my feet; and when I called any up, whether man
+or woman, to receive tit-bits from my platter, it was eaten simply and
+thankfully, and not kissed or pocketed with any extravagant gesture.
+
+The flaring jets of earth-breath showed me, too, so I thought, a plainer
+habit of dress, and a more sober mien amongst this thoughtless mob
+of banqueters. And, indeed, it must have been plain to notice, for
+Phorenice, leaning over till the ruddy curls on her shoulder brushed
+my face, chided me in a playful whisper as having usurped her high
+authority already.
+
+“Oh, sir,” she pleaded mockingly, “do not make your rule over us too
+ascetic. I have given no orders for this change, but to-night there are
+no perfumes in the air; the food is so plain and I have half a mind to
+burn the cook; and as for the clothes and gauds of these diners, by my
+face! they might have come straight from the old King’s reign before I
+stepped in here to show how tasteful could be colours on a robe, or how
+pretty the glint of a jewel. It’s done by no orders of mine, Deucalion.
+They have swung round to this change by sheer courtier instinct. Why,
+look at the beards of the men! There is not half the curl about many of
+them to-day that they showed with such exquisiteness yesterday. By my
+face! I believe they’d reap their chins to-morrow as smooth as yours,
+if you go on setting the fashions at this prodigious rate and I do not
+interfere.”
+
+“Why hinder them if they feel more cleanly shaven?”
+
+“No, sir. There shall be only one clean chin where a beard can grow in
+all Atlantis, and that shall be carried by the man who is husband to the
+Empress. Why, my Deucalion, would you have no sumptuary laws? Would you
+have these good folk here and the common people outside imitate us in
+every cut of the hair and every fold of a garment which it pleases us to
+discover? Come, sir, if you and I chose to say that our sovereignty was
+marked only by our superior strength of arm and wit, they would hate us
+at once for our arrogance; whereas, if we keep apart to ourselves a
+few mere personal decorations, these become just objects to admire and
+pleasantly envy.”
+
+“You show me that there is more in the office of a ruler than meets the
+eye.”
+
+“And yet they tell me, and indeed show me, that you have ruled with some
+success.”
+
+“I employed the older method. It requires a Phorenice to invent these
+nicer flights.”
+
+“Flatterer!” said she, and smote me playfully with the back of her
+little fingers on my arm. “You are becoming as great a courtier as any
+of them. You make me blush with your fine pleasantries, Deucalion, and
+there is no fan-girl here to-night to cool my cheek. I must choose me
+another fan-girl. But it shall not be Ylga. Ylga seems to have more of a
+kindness for you than I like, and if she is wise she will go live in her
+palace at the other side of the city, and there occupy herself with the
+ordering of her slaves, and the makings of embroideries. I shall not
+be hard on Ylga unless she forces me, but I will have no woman in this
+kingdom treat you with undue civility.”
+
+“And how am I to act,” said I, falling in with her mood, “when I see and
+hear all the men of Atlantis making their protestations before you? By
+your own confession they all love you as ardently as they seem to have
+loved you hopelessly.”
+
+“Ah, now,” she said, “you must not ask me to do impossibilities. I am
+powerful if you will. But I have no force which will govern the hearts
+of these poor fellows on matters such as that. But if you choose, you
+make proclamation that I am given now body and inwards to you, and if
+they continue to offend your pride in this matter, you may take your
+culprits, and give them over to the tormentors. Indeed, Deucalion, I
+think it would be a pretty attention to me if you did arrange some such
+ceremony. It seems to me a present,” she added with a frown, “that the
+jealousy is too much on one side.”
+
+“You must not expect that a man who has been divorced from love for all
+of a busy life can learn all its niceties in an instant. Myself, I was
+feeling proud of my progress. With any other schoolmistress than you,
+Phorenice, I should not be near so forward. In fact (if one may judge by
+my past record), I should not have begun to learn at all.”
+
+“I suppose you think I should be satisfied with that? Well, I am not. I
+can be finely greedy over some matters.”
+
+The banquet this night did not extend to inordinate length. Phorenice
+had gone through much since last she slept, and though she had declared
+herself Goddess in the meantime, it seemed that her body remained mortal
+as heretofore. The black rings of weariness had grown under her wondrous
+eyes, and she lay back amongst the cushions of the divan with her limbs
+slackened and listless. When the dancers came and postured before us,
+she threw them a jewel and bade them begone before they had given a half
+of their performance, and the poet, a silly swelling fellow who came to
+sing the deeds of the day, she would not hear at all.
+
+“To-morrow,” she said wearily, “but for now grant me peace. My Lord
+Deucalion has given me much food for thought this day, and presently
+I go to my chamber to muse over the future policies of this State
+throughout the night. To-morrow come to me again, and if your poetry is
+good and short, I will pay you surprisingly. But see to it that you
+are not long-winded. If there are superfluous words, I will pay you for
+those with the stick.”
+
+She rose to her feet then, and when the banqueters had made their
+salutation to us, I led her away from the banqueting-hall and down the
+passages with their secret doors which led to her private chambers.
+She clung on my arm, and once when we halted whilst a great stone
+block swung slowly ajar to let us pass, she drooped her head against my
+shoulder. Her breath came warm against my cheek, and the loveliness of
+her face so close at hand surpasses the description of words. I think it
+was in her mind that I should kiss the red lips which were held so near
+to mine, but willing though I was to play the part appointed, I could
+not bring myself to that. So when the stone block had swung, she drew
+away with a sigh, and we went on without further speech.
+
+“May the High Gods treat you tenderly,” I said, when we came to the door
+of her bed-chamber.
+
+“I am my own God,” said she, “in all things but one. By my face! you are
+a tardy wooer, Deucalion. Where do you go now?”
+
+“To my own chamber.”
+
+“Oh, go then, go.”
+
+“Is there anything more I could do?”
+
+“Nothing that your wit or your will would prompt you to. Yes, indeed,
+you are finely decorous, Deucalion, in your old-fashioned way, but you
+are a mighty poor wooer. Don’t you know, my man, that a woman esteems
+some things the more highly if they are taken from her by rude force?”
+
+“It seems I know little enough about women.”
+
+“You never said a truer word. Bah! And I believe your coldness brings
+you more benefit in a certain matter than any show of passion could
+earn. There, get you gone, if the atmosphere of a maiden’s bed-chamber
+hurts your rustic modesty, and your Gods keep you, Deucalion, if that’s
+the phrase, and if you think They can do it. Get you gone, man, and
+leave me solitary.”
+
+I had taken the plan of the pyramid out of the archives before the
+banquet and learned it thoroughly, and so was able to thread my way
+through its angular mazes without pause or blunder. I, too, was heavily
+wearied with what I had gone through since my last snatch of sleep, but
+I dare set apart no time for rest just then. Nais must be sacrificed in
+part for the needs of Atlantis; but a plan had come to me by which it
+seemed that she need not be sacrificed wholly; and to carry this through
+there was need for quick thought and action.
+
+Help came to me also from a quarter I did not expect. As I passed along
+the tortuous way between the ponderous stones of the pyramid, which led
+to the apartments that had been given me by Phorenice, a woman glided
+up out of the shadows of one of the side passages, and when I lifted my
+hand lamp, there was Ylga.
+
+She regarded me half-sullenly. “I have lost my place,” she said, “and it
+seems I need never have spoken. She intended to have you all along, and
+it was not a thing like that which could put her off. And you--you just
+think me officious, if, indeed, you have ever given me another thought
+till now.”
+
+“I never forget a kindness.”
+
+“Oh, you will learn that trick soon now. And you are going to marry her,
+you! The city is ringing with it. I thought at least you were honest,
+but when there is a high place to be got by merely taking a woman with
+it, you are like the rest. I thought, too, that you would be one of
+those men who have a distrust for ruddy hair. And, besides she is
+little.”
+
+“Ylga,” I said, “you have taught me that these walls are full of
+crannies and ears. I will listen to no word against Phorenice. But I
+would have further converse with you soon. If you still have a kindness
+for me, go to the chamber that is mine and wait for me there. I will
+join you shortly.”
+
+She drooped her eyes. “What do you want of me, Deucalion?”
+
+“I want to say something to you. You will learn who it concerns later.”
+
+“But is it--is it fitting for a maiden to come to a man’s room at this
+hour?”
+
+“I know little of your conventions here in this new Atlantis. I am
+Deucalion, girl, and if you still have qualms, remembering that, do not
+come.”
+
+She looked up at me with a sneer. “I was foolish,” she said. “My lord’s
+coldness has grown into a proverb, and I should have remembered it. Yes;
+I will come.”
+
+“Go now, then,” said I, and waited till she had passed on ahead and was
+out of sight and hearing. With Ylga to help me, my tasks were somewhat
+lightened, and their sequence changed. In the first instance, now, I
+had got to make my way with as little delay and show as possible into a
+certain sanctuary which lay within the temple of our Lady the Moon. And
+here my knowledge as one of the Seven stood me in high favour.
+
+All the temples of the city of Atlantis are in immediate and secret
+connection with the royal pyramid, but the passages are little used,
+seeing that they are known only to the Seven and to the Three above
+them, supposing that there are three men living at one time sufficiently
+learned in the highest of the highest mysteries to be installed in that
+sublime degree of the Three. And, even by these, the secret ways may
+only be used on occasions of the greatest stress, so that a generation
+well may pass without their being trodden by a human foot.
+
+It was with some trouble, and after no little experiment that I groped
+my way into this secret alley; but once there, the rest was easy. I had
+never trodden it before certainly, but the plan of it had been taught
+me at my initiation as one of the Seven, and the course of the windings
+came back to me now with easy accuracy. I walked quickly, not only
+because the air in those deep crannies is always full of lurking evils,
+but also because the hours were fleeting, and much must be done before
+our Lord the Sun again rose to make another day.
+
+I came to the spy-place which commands the temple, and found the holy
+place empty, and, alas! dust-covered, and showing little trace that
+worshippers ever frequented it these latter years. A vast stone of
+the wall swung outwards and gave me entrance, and presently (after the
+solemn prayer which is needful before attempting these matters), I took
+the metal stair from the place where it is kept, and climbed to the
+lap of the Goddess, and then, pulling the stair after me, climbed again
+upwards till my length lay against her calm mysterious face.
+
+A shivering seized me as I thought of what was intended, for even a
+warrior hardened to horrid sights and deeds may well have qualms when
+he is called upon to juggle with life and death, and years and history,
+with the welfare of his country in one hand, and the future of a woman
+who is as life to him in the other. But again I told myself that
+the hours flew, and laid hold of the jewel which is studded into the
+forehead of the image with one hand, and then stretching out, thrust at
+a corner of the eyebrow with the other. With a faint creak the massive
+eyeball below, a stone that I could barely have covered with my back,
+swung inwards. I stepped off the stair, and climbed into the gap. Inside
+was the chamber which is hollowed from the head of the Goddess.
+
+It was the first time I had seen this most secret place, but the aspect
+of it was familiar to me from my teaching, and I knew where to find the
+thing which would fill my need. Yet, occupied though I might be with the
+stress of what was to befall, I could not help having a wonder and an
+admiration for the cleverness with which it was hidden.
+
+High as I was in the learning and mysteries of the Priestly Clan, the
+structure of what I had come to fetch was hidden from me. Beforetime I
+had known only of their power and effect; and now that I came to handle
+them, I saw only some roughly rounded balls, like nut kernels, grass
+green in colour, and in hardness like the wax of bees. There were three
+of these balls in the hidden place, and I took the one that was needful,
+concealing the others as I had found them. It may have been a drug, it
+may have been something more; what exactly it was I did not know; only
+of its power and effect I was sure, as that was set forth plainly in
+the teaching I had learned; and so I put it in a pouch of my garment,
+returning by the way I had come, and replacing all things in due order
+behind me.
+
+One look I took at the image of the Goddess before I left the temple.
+The jet of earth-breath which burns eternally from the central altar
+lit her from head to toe, and threw sparkles from the great jewel in
+her forehead. Vast she was, and calm and peaceful beyond all human
+imaginings, a perfect symbolism of that rest and quietness which many
+sigh for so vainly on this rude earth, but which they will never attain
+unless by their piety they earn a place in the hereafter, where our Lady
+the Moon and the rest of the High Ones reign in Their eternal glorious
+majesty.
+
+It was with tired dragging limbs that I made my way back again to the
+royal pyramid, and at last came to my own private chamber. Ylga awaited
+me there, though at first I did not see her. The suspicions of these
+modern days had taken a deep hold of the girl, and she must needs crouch
+in hiding till she made sure it was I who came to the chamber, and,
+moreover, that I came alone.
+
+“Oh, frown at me if you choose,” said she sullenly, “I am past caring
+now for your good opinion. I had heard so much of Deucalion, and I
+thought I read honesty in you when first you came ashore; but now I know
+that you are no better than the rest. Phorenice offers you a high place,
+and you marry her blithely to get it. And why, indeed, should you not
+marry her? People say she is pretty, and I know she can be warm. I have
+seen her warm and languishing to scores of men. She is clever, too, with
+her eyes, is our great Empress; I grant her that. And as for you, it
+tickles you to be courted.”
+
+“I think you are a very silly woman,” I said.
+
+“If you flatter yourself it matters a rap to me whom you marry, you are
+letting conceit run away with you.”
+
+“Listen,” I said. “I did not ask you here to make foolish speeches
+which seem largely beyond my comprehension. I asked you to help me do a
+service to one of your own blood-kin.”
+
+She stared at me wonderingly. “I do not understand.”
+
+“It rests largely with you as to whether Nais dies to-morrow, or whether
+she is thrown into a sleep from which she may waken on some later and
+more happy day.”
+
+“Nais!” she gasped. “My twin, Nais? She is not here. She is out in
+the camp with those nasty rebels who bite against the city walls, if,
+indeed, still she lives.”
+
+“Nais, your sister is near us in the royal pyramid this minute, and
+under guard, though where I do not know.” And with that I told her all
+that had passed since the girl was brought up a prisoner in the galley
+of that foolish, fawning captain of the port. “The Empress has decreed
+that Nais shall be buried alive under a throne of granite which I am to
+build for her to-morrow, and buried she will assuredly be. Yet I have a
+kindness for Nais, which you may guess at if you choose, and I am minded
+to send her into a sleep such as only we higher priests know of, from
+which at some future day she may possibly awaken.”
+
+“So it is Nais; and not Phorenice, and not--not any other?”
+
+“Yes; it is Nais. I marry the Empress because Zaemon, who is mouthpiece
+to the High Council of the Priests, has ordered it, for the good of
+Atlantis. But my inwards remain still cold towards her.”
+
+“Almost I hate poor Nais already.”
+
+“Your vengeance would be easy. Do not tell me where she is gaoled, and I
+shall not dare to ask. Even to give Nais a further span of life I cannot
+risk making inquiries for her cell, when there is a chance that those
+who tell me might carry news to the Empress, and so cause more trouble
+for this poor Atlantis.”
+
+“And why should I not carry the news, and so bring myself into favour
+again? I tell you that being fan-girl to Phorenice and second woman in
+the kingdom is a thing that not many would cast lightly aside.”
+
+I looked her between eyes and smiled. “I have no fear there. You will
+not betray me, Ylga. Neither will you sell Nais.”
+
+“I seem to remember very small love for this same Nais just now,” she
+said bitterly. “But you are right about that other matter. I shall not
+buy myself back at your expense. Oh, I am a fool, I know, and you can
+give me no thanks that I care about, but there is no other way I can
+act.”
+
+“Then let us fritter no more time. Go you out now and find where Nais
+is gaoled, and bring me news how I can say ten words to her, and press a
+certain matter into her clasp.”
+
+She bowed her head and left the chamber, and for long enough I was
+alone. I sat down on the couch, and rested wearily against the wall.
+My bones ached, my eyes ached, and most of all, my inwards ached. I had
+thought to myself that a man who makes his life sufficiently busy
+will find no leisure for these pains which assault frailer folk; but a
+philosophy like this, which carried one well in Yucatan, showed poorly
+enough when one tried it here at home. But that there was duty ahead,
+and the order of the High Council to be carried into effect, the
+bleakness of the prospect would have daunted me, and I would have prayed
+the Gods then to spare me further life, and take me unto Themselves.
+
+Ylga came back at last, and I got up and went quickly after her as
+she led down a maze of passages and alleyways. “There has been no care
+spared over her guarding,” she whispered, as we halted once to move a
+stone. “The officer of the guard is an old lover of mine, and I raised
+his hopes to the burning point again by a dozen words. But when I wanted
+to see his prisoner, there he was as firm as brass. I told him she was
+my sister, but that did not move him. I offered him--oh, Deucalion, it
+makes me blush to think of the things I did offer to that man, but there
+was no stirring him. He has watched the tormentors so many times, that
+there is no tempting him into touch of their instruments.”
+
+“If you have failed, why bring me out here?”
+
+“Oh, I am not inveigling you into a lover’s walk with myself, sir. You
+tickle yourself when you think your society is so pleasant as that.”
+
+“Come, girl, tell me then what it is. If my temper is short, credit it
+against my weariness.”
+
+“I have carried out my lord’s commands in part. I know the cell where
+Nais lives, and I have had speech with her, though not through the door.
+And moreover, I have not seen her or touched her hand.”
+
+“Your riddles are beyond me, Ylga, but if there is a chance, let us get
+on and have this business done.”
+
+“We are at the place now,” said she, with a hard little laugh, “and if
+you kneel on the floor, you will find an airshaft, and Nais will answer
+you from the lower end. For myself, I will leave you. I have a delicacy
+in hearing what you want to say to my sister, Deucalion.”
+
+“I thank you,” I said. “I will not forget what you have done for me this
+night.”
+
+“You may keep your thanks,” she said bitterly, and walked away into the
+shadows.
+
+I knelt on the floor of the gallery, and found the air passage with my
+hand, and then, putting my lips to it, whispered for Nais.
+
+The answer came on the instant, muffled and quiet. “I knew my lord would
+come for a farewell.”
+
+“What the Empress said, has to be. You understand, my dear? It is for
+Atlantis.”
+
+“Have I reproached my lord, by word or glance?”
+
+“I myself am bidden to place you in the hollow between the stones, and I
+must do it.”
+
+“Then my last sleep will be a sweet one. I could not ask to be touched
+by pleasanter hands.”
+
+“But it mayhap that a day will come when she whom you know of will be
+suffered by the High Gods to live on this land of Atlantis no longer.”
+
+“If my lord will cherish my poor memory when he is free again, I shall
+be grateful. He might, if he chose, write them on the stones: Here was
+buried a maid who died gladly for the good of Atlantis, even though she
+knew that the man she so dearly loved was husband to her murderess.”
+
+“You must not die,” I whispered. “My breast is near broken at the very
+thought of it. And for respite, we must trust to the ancient knowledge,
+which in its day has been sent out from the Ark of the Mysteries.”--I
+took the green waxy ball in my fingers, and stretched them down the
+crooked air-shaft to the full of my span.--“I have somewhat for you
+here. Reach up and try to catch it from me.”
+
+I heard the faint rustle of her arm as it swept against the masonry, and
+then the ball was taken over into her grasp. Gods! what a thrill went
+through me when the fingers of Nais touched mine! I could not see her,
+because of the crookedness of the shaft, but that faint touch of her was
+exquisite.
+
+“I have it,” she whispered. “And what now, dear?”
+
+“You will hide the thing in your garment, and when to-morrow the upper
+stone closes down upon you and the light is gone, then you will take it
+between your lips and let it dissolve as it will. Sleep will take you,
+my darling, then, and the High Gods will watch over you, even though
+centuries pass before you are roused.”
+
+“If Deucalion does not wake me, I shall pray never again to open an eye.
+And now go, my lord and my dear. They watch me here constantly, and I
+would not have you harmed by being brought to notice.”
+
+“Yes, I must go, my sweetheart. It will not do to have our scheme
+spoiled by a foolish loitering. May the most High Gods attend your rest,
+and if the sacrifice we make finds favour, may They grant us meeting
+here again on earth before we meet--as we must--when our time is done,
+and They take us up to Their own place.”
+
+“Amen,” she whispered back, and then: “Kiss your fingers, dear, and
+thrust them down to me.”
+
+I did that, and for an instant felt her fondle them down the crook of
+the airshaft out of sight, and then heard her withdraw her little hand
+and kiss it fondly. Then again she kissed her own fingers and stretched
+them up, and I took up the virtue of that parting kiss on my finger-tips
+and pressed it sacredly to my lips.
+
+“Living, sleeping, or dead, always my darling,” she whispered. And then,
+before I could answer, she whispered again: “Go, they are coming for
+me.” And so I went, knowing that I could do no more to help her then,
+and knowing that all our schemes would be spilt if any eye spied upon me
+as I lay there beside the air shaft. But my chest was like to have split
+with the dull, helpless anguish that was in it, as I made my way back to
+my chamber through the mazy alleys of the pyramid.
+
+“Do not look upon mine eyes, dear, when the time comes,” had been her
+last command, “or they will tell a tale which Phorenice, being a woman,
+would read. Remember, we make these small denials, not for our own
+likings, but for Atlantis, which is mother to us all.”
+
+
+
+
+13. THE BURYING ALIVE OF NAIS
+
+
+There is no denying that the wishes of Phorenice were carried into quick
+effect in the city of Atlantis. Her modern theory was that the country
+and all therein existed only for the good of the Empress, and when she
+had a desire, no cost could possibly be too great in its carrying out.
+
+She had given forth her edict concerning the burying alive of Nais, and
+though the words were that I was to build the throne of stone, it was an
+understood thing that the manual labour was to be done for me by others.
+Heralds made the proclamation in every ward of the city, and masons,
+labourers, stonecutters, sculptors, engineers, and architects took hands
+from whatever was occupying them for the moment, and hastened to the
+rendezvous. The architects chose a chief who gave directions, and the
+lesser architects and the engineers saw these carried into effect. Any
+material within the walls of the city on which they set their seal,
+was taken at once without payment or compensation; and as the blocks of
+stone they chose were the most monstrous that could be got, they were
+forced to demolish no few buildings to give them passage.
+
+I have before spoken of the modern rage for erecting new palaces and
+pyramids, and even though at the moment an army of rebels was battering
+with war engines at the city walls, the building guilds were steadily
+at work, and their skill (with Phorenice’s marvellous invention to aid
+them) was constantly on the increase. True, they could not move such
+massive blocks of stone as those which the early Gods planted for the
+sacred circle of our Lord the Sun, but they had got rams and trucks and
+cranes which could handle amazing bulks.
+
+The throne was to be erected in the open square before the royal
+pyramid. Seven tiers of stone were there for a groundwork, each a
+knee-height deep, and each cut in the front with three steps. In the
+uppermost layer was a cavity made to hold the body of Nais, and above
+this was poised the vast block which formed the seat of the throne
+itself.
+
+Throughout the night, to the light of torches, relay after relay of the
+stonecutters, and the masons, and the sweating labourers had toiled over
+bringing up the stone and dressing it into fit shape, and laying it in
+due position; and the engineers had built machines for lifting, and the
+architects had proved that each stone lay in its just and perfect place.
+Whips cracked, and men fainted with the labour, but so soon as one was
+incapable another pressed forward into his place. No delay was brooked
+when Phorenice had said her wish.
+
+And finally, as the square began to fill with people come to gape at the
+pageant of to-day, the chippings and the scaffolding were cleared away,
+and with it the bodies of some half-score of workmen who had died from
+accidents or their exertions during the building, and there stood the
+throne, splendid in its carvings, and all ready for completion. The
+lower part stood more than two man-heights above the ground, and no
+stone of its courses weighed less than twenty men; the upper part was
+double the weight of any of these, and was carved so that the royal
+snake encircled the chair, and the great hooded head overshadowed it.
+But at present the upper part was not on its bed, being held up high by
+lifting rams, for what purposes all men knew.
+
+It was to face this scene, then, that I came out from the royal pyramid
+at the summons of the chamberlains in the cool of next morning. Each
+great man who had come there before me had banner-bearers and trumpeters
+to proclaim his presence; the middle classes were in all their bravery
+of apparel; and even poor squalid creatures, with ribs of hunger showing
+through their dusty skins, had turbans and wisps of colour wrapped about
+their heads to mark the gaiety of the day.
+
+The trumpets proclaimed my coming, and the people shouted welcome, and
+with the gorgeous chamberlains walking backwards in advance, I went
+across to a scarlet awning that had been prepared, and took my seat upon
+the cushions beneath it.
+
+And then came Phorenice, my bride that was to be that day, fresh from
+sleep, and glorious in her splendid beauty. She was borne out from the
+pyramid in an open litter of gold and ivory by fantastic savages from
+Europe, her own refinement of feature being thrown up into all the
+higher relief by contrast with their brutish ugliness. One could hear
+the people draw a deep breath of delight as their eyes first fell upon
+her; and it is easy to believe there was not a man in that crowd which
+thronged the square who did not envy me her choice, nor was there a
+soul present (unless Ylga was there somewhere veiled) who could by any
+stretch imagine that I was not overjoyed in winning so lovely a wife.
+
+For myself, I summoned up all the iron of my training to guard the
+expression of my face. We were here on ceremonial to-day; a ghastly
+enough affair throughout all its acts, if you choose, but still
+ceremonial; and I was minded to show Phorenice a grand manner that would
+leave her nothing to cavil at. After all that had been gone through and
+endured, I did not intend a great scheme to be shattered by letting my
+agony and pain show themselves, in either a shaking hand or a twitching
+cheek. When it came to the point, I told myself, I would lay the living
+body of my love in the hollow beneath the stone as calmly, and with as
+little outward emotion, as though I had been a mere priest carrying out
+the burial of some dead stranger. And she, on her part, would not,
+I knew, betray our secret. With her, too, it was truly “Before all
+Atlantis.”
+
+I think it spared a pang to find that there was to be no mockery or
+flippancy in what went forward. All was solemn and impressive; and,
+though a certain grandeur and sombreness which bit deep into my breast
+was lost to the vulgar crowd, I fancy that the outward shape of the
+double sacrifice they witnessed that day would not be forgotten by any
+of them, although the inner meaning of it all was completely hidden from
+their minds. When it suited her fancy, none could be more strict on the
+ritual of a ceremony than this many-mooded Empress, and it appeared
+that on this occasion she had given command that all things were to be
+carried out with the rigid exactness and pomp of the older manner.
+
+So she was borne up by her Europeans to the scarlet awning, and I handed
+her to the ground. She seated herself on the cushions, and beckoned
+me to her side, entwining her fingers with mine as has always been the
+custom with rulers of Atlantis and their consorts. And there before us
+as we sat, a body of soldiery marched up, and opening out showed Nais
+in their midst. She had a collar of metal round her neck, with chains
+depending from it firmly held by a brace of guards, so that she should
+not run in upon the spears of the escort, and thus get a quick and
+easy death, which is often the custom of those condemned to the more
+lingering punishments.
+
+But it was pleasant to see that she still wore her clothing. Raiment,
+whether of fabric or skin, has its value, and custom has always given
+the garments of the condemned to the soldiers guarding them. So as Nais
+was not stripped, I could not but see that some one had given moneys
+to the guards as a recompense, and in this I thought I saw the hand of
+Ylga, and felt a gratitude towards her.
+
+The soldiers brought her forward to the edge of the pavilion’s shade,
+and she was bidden prostrate herself before the Empress, and this she
+wisely did and so avoided rough handling and force. Her face was
+pale, but showed neither fear nor defiance, and her eyes were calm
+and natural. She was remembering what was due to Atlantis, and I was
+thrilled with love and pride as I watched her.
+
+But outwardly I, too, was impassive as a man of stone, and though I knew
+that Phorenice’s eye was on my face, there was never anything on it from
+first to last that I would not have had her see.
+
+“Nais,” said the Empress, “you have eaten from my platter when you were
+fan-girl, and drunk from my cup, and what was yours I gave you. You
+should have had more than gratitude, you should have had knowledge also
+that the arm of the Empress was long and her hand consummately heavy.
+But it seems that you have neither of these things. And, moreover, you
+have tried to take a certain matter that the Empress has set apart for
+herself. You were offered pardon, on terms, and you rejected it. You
+were foolish. But it is a day now when I am inclined to clemency.
+Presently, seated on that carved throne of granite which he has built me
+yonder, I shall take my Lord Deucalion to husband. Give me a plain word
+that you are sorry, girl, and name a man whom you would choose, and I
+will remember the brightness of the occasion, you shall be pardoned and
+wed before we rise from these cushions.”
+
+“I will not wed,” she said quietly.
+
+“Think for the last time, Nais, of what is the other choice. You will
+be taken, warm, and quick, and beautiful as you stand there this minute,
+and laid in the hollow place that is made beneath the throne-stone.
+Deucalion, that is to be my husband, will lay you in that awful bed, as
+a symbol that so shall perish all Phorenice’s enemies, and then he will
+release the rams and lower the upper stone into place, and the world
+shall see your face no more. Look at the bright sky, Nais, fill your
+chest with the sweet warm air, and then think of what this death will
+mean. Believe me, girl, I do not want to make you an example unless you
+force me.”
+
+“I will not wed,” said the prisoner quietly.
+
+The Empress loosed her fingers from my arm, and lay back against the
+cushions. “If the girl presumes on our old familiarity, or thinks that I
+jest, show her now, Deucalion, that I do not.”
+
+“The Empress is far from jesting,” I said. “I will do this thing because
+it is the wish of the Empress that it should be done, and because it is
+the command of the Empress that a symbol of it shall remain for ever as
+an example for others. Lead your prisoner to the place.”
+
+The soldiers wheeled, and the two guards with the chains of the collar
+which was on the neck of Nais prepared to put out force to drag her
+up the steps. But she walked with them willingly, and with a colour
+unchanged, and I rose from my seat, and made obeisance to the Empress
+and followed them.
+
+Before all those ten thousand eyes, we two made no display of emotion
+then, not only for Atlantis’ sake, but also because both Nais and I had
+a nicety and a pride in our natures. We were not as Phorenice to flaunt
+endearments before others.
+
+Yet, when I had bidden the guards unhasp the collar which held the
+prisoner’s neck, and clapped my arms around her, showing all the
+roughness of one who has no mind that his captive shall escape or even
+unduly struggle, a thrill gushed through me so potent that I was like
+to have fainted, and it was only by supreme strain of will that I held
+unbrokenly on with the ceremonial. I, who had never embraced a woman
+with aught but the arm of roughness before, now held pressed to me one
+whom I loved with an infinite tenderness, and the revelation of how love
+can come out and link with love was almost my undoing. Yet, outwardly,
+Nais made so sign, but lay half-strangled in my arms, as any woman does
+that is being borne away by a spoiler.
+
+I trod with her to the uppermost step, the vast throne-stone overhanging
+us, and then so that all of those who were gazing from the sides of the
+pyramids and the roofs of the buildings round might see, though we were
+beyond Phorenice’s view, I used a force that was brutal in dragging her
+across the level, and putting her down into the hollow. And yet the girl
+resisted me with no one effort whatever.
+
+So that the victim might not struggle out and be crushed, and so gain
+an easy death when the stone descended, there were brazen clamps to fit
+into grooves of the stones above the hollow where she lay, and these I
+fitted in place above her, and fastened one by one, doing this butcher’s
+work with one hand, and still fiercely holding her down by the other.
+Gods! and the sweat of agony dripped from me on to the thirsty stone as
+I worked. I could not keep that in.
+
+I clamped and locked the last two bars in place, and took my brute’s
+hand away from her throat.
+
+The hateful fingermarks showed as bloodless furrows in the whiteness
+of her skin. For the life of me, yes, even for the fate of Atlantis, I
+could not help dropping my glance upon her face. But she was stronger
+than I. She gave me no last look. She kept her eyes steadfastly fixed on
+the cruel stone above, and so I left her, knowing that it was best not
+to tarry longer.
+
+I came out from under the stone, and gave the sign to the engineers who
+stood by the rams. The fires were taken away from their sides, and
+the metal in them began to contract, and slowly the vast bulk of the
+throne-stone began to creep down towards its bed.
+
+But ah, so slowly! Gods! how my soul was torn as I watched and waited.
+
+Yet I kept my face impassive, overlooking as any officer might a piece
+of work which others were carrying out under his direction, and on which
+his credit rested; and I stood gravely in my place till the rams had
+let the stone come down on its final resting place, and had been carried
+away by the engineers; and then I went round with the master architect
+with his plumbline and level, whilst he tested this last piece of the
+building and declared it perfect.
+
+It was a useless form, this last, seeing that by calculation they knew
+exactly how the stone must rest; but the guilds have their forms
+and customs, and on these occasions of high ceremonial, they are
+punctiliously carried out, because these middle-class people wish always
+to appear mysterious and impressive to the poor vulgar folk who are
+their inferiors. But perhaps I am hard there on them. A man who is
+needlessly taken round to plumb and duly level the tomb where his love
+lies buried living, may perhaps be excused by the assessors on high a
+little spirit of bitterness.
+
+I had gone up the steps to do my hateful work a man full of grief,
+though outwardly unmoved. As I came down again I had a feeling of
+incompleteness; it seemed as though half my inwards had been left behind
+with Nais in the hollow of the stone, and their place was taken by a
+void which ached wearily; but still I carried a passive face, and memory
+that before all these private matters stood the command of the High
+Council, which sat before the Ark of the Mysteries.
+
+So I went and stood before Phorenice, and said the words which the
+ancient forms prescribed concerning the carrying out of her wish.
+
+“Then, now,” she said, “I will give myself to you as wife. We are not as
+others, you and I, Deucalion. There is a law and a form set down for
+the marrying of these other people, but that would be useless for our
+purposes. We will have neither priest nor scribe to join us and set down
+the union. I am the law here in Atlantis, and you soon will be part of
+me. We will not be demeaned by profaner hands. We will make the ceremony
+for ourselves, and for witnesses, there are sufficient in waiting.
+Afterwards, the record shall be cut deep in the granite throne you have
+built for me, and the lettering filled in with gold, so that it shall
+endure and remain bright for always.”
+
+“The Empress can do no wrong,” I said formally, and took the hand she
+offered me, and helped her to rise. We walked out from the scarlet
+awning into the glare of the sunshine, she leaning on me, flushing, and
+so radiantly lovely that the people began to hail her with rapturous
+shouts of “A Goddess; our Goddess Phorenice.” But for me they had no
+welcoming word. I think the set grimness of my face both scared and
+repelled them.
+
+We went up the steps which led to the throne, the people still shouting,
+and I sat her in the royal seat beneath the snake’s outstretched head,
+and she drew me down to sit beside her.
+
+She raised her jewelled hand, and a silence fell on that great throng,
+as though the breath had been suddenly cut short for all of them.
+
+Then Phorenice made proclamation:
+
+“Hear me, O my people, and hear me, O High Gods from whom I am come.
+I take this man Deucalion, to be my husband, to share with me the
+prosperity of Atlantis, and join me in guarding our great possession.
+May all our enemies perish as she is now perishing above whom we sit.”
+ And then she put her arms around my neck, and kissed me hotly on the
+mouth.
+
+In turn I also spoke: “Hear me, O most High Gods, whose servant I am,
+and hear me also, O ye people. I take this Empress, Phorenice, to
+wife, to help with her the prosperity of Atlantis, and join with her in
+guarding the welfare of that great possession. May all the enemies of
+this country perish as they have perished in the past.”
+
+And then, I too, who had not been permitted by the fate to touch the
+lips of my love, bestowed the first kiss I had ever given woman to
+Phorenice, that was now being made my wife.
+
+But we were not completely linked yet.
+
+“A woman is one, and man is one,” she proclaimed, following for the
+first time the old form of words, “but in marriage they merge, so that
+wife and husband are no more separate, but one conjointly. In token of
+this we will now make the symbolic joining together, so that all may see
+and remember.” She took her dagger, and pricking the brawn on my forearm
+till a head of blood appeared, set her red lips to it, and took it into
+herself.
+
+“Ah,” she said, with her eyes sparkling, “now you are part of me indeed,
+Deucalion, and I feel you have strengthened me already.” She pulled down
+the neck of her robe. “Let me make you my return.”
+
+I pricked the rounded whiteness of her shoulder. Gods! when I remembered
+who was beneath us as we sat on that throne, I could have driven the
+blade through to her heart! And then I, too, put down my lips, and took
+the drop of her blood that was yielded to me.
+
+My tongue was dry, my throat was parched, and my face suffused, and I
+thought I should have choked.
+
+But the Empress, who was ordinarily so acute, was misled then. “It
+thrills you?” she cried. “It burns within you like living fire? I have
+just felt it. By my face! Deucalion, if I had known the pleasure it
+gives to be made a wife, I do not think I should have waited this long
+for you. Ah, yes; but with another man I should have had no thrill. I
+might have gone through the ceremony with another, but it would have
+left me cold. Well, they say this feeling comes to a woman but once in
+her time, and I would not change it for the glory of all my conquests
+and the whirl of all my power.” She leaned in close to me so that the
+red curls of her hair swept my cheek, and her breath came hot against my
+mouth. “Tasted you ever any sweet so delicious as this knowledge that we
+are made one now, Deucalion, past all possible dissolving?”
+
+I could not lie to her any more just then. The Gods know how honestly I
+had striven to play the part commanded me for Atlantis’ good, but there
+is a limit to human endurance, and mine was reached. I was not all anger
+towards her. I had some pity for this passion of hers, which had grown
+of itself certainly, but which I had done nothing to check; and the
+indecent frankness with which it was displayed was only part of the
+livery of potentates who flaunt what meaner folk would coyly hide. But
+always before my eyes was a picture of the girl on whom her jealousy had
+taken such a bitter vengeance, and to invent spurious lover’s talk then
+was a thing my tongue refused to do.
+
+“Words are poor things,” I said, “and I am a man unused to women, and
+have but a small stock of any phrases except the dryest. Remember,
+Phorenice, a week agone, I did not know what love was, and now that I
+have learned the lesson, somewhat of the suddenest, the language remains
+still to come to me. My inwards speak; indeed they are full of speech;
+but I cannot translate into bald cold words what they say.”
+
+And here, surely the High Gods took pity on my tied tongue and my
+misery, and made an opportunity for bringing the ceremony to an end. A
+man ran into the square shouting, and showing a wound that dripped,
+and presently all that vast crowd which stood on the pavements, and the
+sides of the pyramids, and the roofs of the temples, took up the cry,
+and began to feel for their weapons.
+
+“The rebels are in!” “They have burrowed a path into the city!” “They
+have killed the cave-tigers and taken a gate!” “They are putting the
+whole place to the storm!” “They will presently leave no poor soul of us
+here alive!”
+
+There then was a termination of our marriage cooings. With rebels merely
+biting at the walls, it was fine to put strong trust in the defences,
+and easy to affect contempt for the besiegers’ powers, and to keep
+the business of pageants and state craft and marryings turning on easy
+wheels. But with rebel soldiers already inside the city (and hordes of
+others doubtless pressing on their heels), the affairs took a different
+light. It was no moment for further delay, and Phorenice was the first
+to admit it. The glow that had been in her eyes changed to the glare of
+the fighter, as the fellow who had run up squalled out his tidings.
+
+I stood and stretched my chest. I seemed in need of air. “Here,” I said,
+“is work that I can understand more clearly. I will go and sweep this
+rabble back to their burrows, Phorenice.”
+
+“But not alone, sir. I come too. It is my city still. Nay, sir, we are
+too newly wed to be parted yet.”
+
+“Have your will,” I said, and together we went down the steps of the
+throne to the pavement below. Under my breath I said a farewell to Nais.
+
+Our armour-bearers met us with weapons, and we stepped into litters, and
+the slaves took us off hot foot. The wounded man who had first brought
+the news had fallen in a faint, and no more tidings was to be got from
+him, but the growing din of the fight gave us the general direction, and
+presently we began to meet knots of people who dwelt near the place of
+irruption, running away in wild panic, loaded down with their household
+goods.
+
+It was useless to stop these, as fight they could not, and if they had
+stayed they would merely have been slaughtered like flies, and would
+in all likelihood have impeded our own soldiery. And so we let them run
+screaming on their blind way, but forced the litters through them with
+but very little regard for their coward convenience.
+
+Now the advantage of the rebels, when it came to be looked upon by a
+soldier’s eye, was a thing of little enough importance. They had driven
+a tunnel from behind a covering mound, beneath the walls, and had opened
+it cleverly enough through the floor of a middle-class house. They had
+come through into this, collecting their numbers under its shelter, and
+doubtless hoping that the marriage of the Empress (of which spies had
+given them information) would sap the watchfulness of the city guards.
+But it seems they were discovered and attacked before they were
+thoroughly ready to emerge, and, as a fine body of troops were barracked
+near the spot, their extermination would have been merely a matter of
+time, even if we had not come up.
+
+It did not take a trained eye long to decide on this, and Phorenice,
+with a laugh, lay back on the cushions of the litter, and returned her
+weapons to the armour-bearer who came panting up to receive them. “We
+grow nervous with our married life, my Deucalion,” she said. “We are
+fearful lest this new-found happiness be taken from us too suddenly.”
+
+But I was not to be robbed of my breathing-space in this wise. “Let me
+crave a wedding gift of you,” I said.
+
+“It is yours before you name it.”
+
+“Then give me troops, and set me wide a city gate a mile away from
+here.”
+
+“You can gather five hundred as you go from here to the gate, taking two
+hundred of those that are here. If you want more, they must be fetched
+from other barracks along the walls. But where is your plan?”
+
+“Why, my poor strategy teaches me this: these foolish rebels have set
+all their hopes on this mine, and all their excitement on its present
+success. If they are kept occupied here by a Phorenice, who will give
+them some dainty fighting without checking them unduly, they will press
+on to the attack and forget all else, and never so much as dream of a
+sortie. And meanwhile, a Deucalion with his troop will march out of the
+city well away from here, without tuck of drum or blare of trumpet, and
+fall most unpleasantly upon their rear. After which, a Phorenice will
+burn the house here at the mine’s head, which is of wood, and straw
+thatched, to discourage further egress, and either go to the walls to
+watch the fight from there, or sally out also and spur on the rout as
+her fancy dictates.”
+
+“Your scheme is so pretty, I would I could rob you of it for my own
+credit’s sake, and as it is, I must kiss you for your cleverness. But
+you got my word first, you naughty fellow, and you shall have the men
+and do as you ask. Eh, sir, this is a sad beginning of our wedded life,
+if you begin to rob your little wife of all the sweets of conquest from
+the outset.”
+
+She took back the weapons and target she had given to the armour-bearer,
+and stepped over the side of the litter to the ground. “But at least,”
+ she said, “if you are going to fight, you shall have troops that will do
+credit to my drill,” and thereupon proceeded to tell off the companies
+of men-at-arms who were to accompany me. She left herself few enough to
+stem the influx of rebels who poured ceaselessly in through the
+tunnel; but as I had seen, with Phorenice, heavy odds added only to her
+enjoyment.
+
+But for the Empress, I will own at the time to have given little enough
+of thought. My own proper griefs were raw within me, and I thirsted for
+that forgetfulness of all else which battle gives, so that for awhile I
+might have a rest from their gnawings.
+
+It made my blood run freer to hear once more the tramp of practised
+troops behind me, and when all had been collected, we marched out
+through a gate of the city, and presently were charging through and
+through the straggling rear of the enemy. By the Gods! for the moment
+even Nais was blotted from my wearied mind. Never had I loved more to
+let my fierceness run madly riot. Never have I gloated more abundantly
+over the terrible joy of battle.
+
+Nais must forgive my weakness in seeking to forget her even for a
+breathing-space. Had that opportunity been denied me, I believe the
+agony of remembering would have snapped my brain-strings for always.
+
+
+
+
+14. AGAIN THE GODS MAKE CHANGE
+
+
+Now it would be tedious to tell how with a handful of highly trained
+fighting men, I charged and recharged, and finally broke up that horde
+of rebels which outnumbered us by fifteen times. It must be remembered
+that they grew suddenly panic-stricken in finding that of all those
+who went in under the city walls by the mine on which they had set such
+great store, none came back, and that the sounds of panic which had
+first broken out within the city soon gave way to cries of triumph and
+joy. And it must be carried in memory also that these wretched rebels
+were without training worthy of the name, were for the most part
+weaponed very vilely, and, seeing that their silly principles made each
+the equal of his neighbour, were practically without heads or leaders
+also.
+
+So when the panic began, it spread like a malignant murrain through all
+their ragged ranks, and there were none to rally the flying, none to
+direct those of more desperate bravery who stayed and fought.
+
+My scheme of attack was simple. I hunted them without a halt. I and my
+fellows never stopped to play the defensive. We turned one flank, and
+charged through a centre, and then we were harrying the other flank,
+and once more hacking our passage through the solid mass. And so by
+constantly keeping them on the run, and in ignorance of whence would
+come the next attack, panic began to grow amongst them and ferment, till
+presently those in the outer lines commenced to scurry away towards
+the forests and the spoiled corn-lands of the country, and those in the
+inner packs were only wishful of a chance to follow them.
+
+It was no feat of arms this breaking up of the rebel leaguer, and no
+practised soldier would wish to claim it as such. It was simply taking
+advantage of the chances of the moment, and as such it was successful.
+Given an open battle on their own ground, these desperate rebels would
+have fought till none could stand, and by sheer ferocious numbers
+would have pulled down any trained troops that the city could have sent
+against them, whether they had advanced in phalanx or what formation
+you will. For it must be remembered they were far removed from cowards,
+being Atlantean all, just as were those within the city, and were,
+moreover, spurred to extraordinary savageness and desperation by the
+oppression under which they had groaned, and the wrongs they had been
+forced to endure.
+
+Still, as I say, the poor creatures were scattered, and the siege was
+raised from that moment, and it was plain to see that the rebellion
+might be made to end, if no unreasonable harshness was used for its
+final suppression. Too great severity, though perhaps it may be justly
+their portion, only drives such malcontents to further desperations.
+
+Now, following up these fugitives, to make sure that there was no halt
+in their retreat, and to send the lesson of panic thoroughly home to
+them, had led us a long distance from the city walls; and as we had
+fought all through the burning heat of the day and my men were heavily
+wearied, I decided to halt where we were for the night amongst
+some half-ruined houses which would make a temporary fortification.
+Fortunately, a drove of little cloven-hoofed horses which had been
+scared by some of the rebels in their flight happened to blunder into
+our lines, and as we killed five before they were clear again, there was
+a soldier’s supper for us, and quickly the fires were lit and cooking
+it.
+
+Sentries paced the outskirts and made their cries to one another, and
+the wounded sat by the fires and dressed their hurts, and with the
+officers I talked over the engagements of the day, and the methods of
+each charge, and the other details of the fighting. It is the special
+perquisite of soldiers to dally over these matters with gusto, though
+they are entirely without interest for laymen.
+
+The hour drew on for sleep, and snores went up from every side. It was
+clear that all my officers were wearied out, and only continued the
+talk through deference to their commander. Yet I had a feverish dread
+of being left alone again with my thoughts, and pressed them on with
+conversation remorselessly. But in the end they were saved the rudeness
+of dropping off into unconsciousness during my talk. A sentry came up
+and saluted. “My lord,” he reported, “there is a woman come up from the
+city whom we have caught trying to come into the bivouac.”
+
+“How is she named?”
+
+“She will not say.”
+
+“Has she business?’
+
+“She will say none. She demands only to see my lord.”
+
+“Bring her here to the fire,” I ordered, and then on second thoughts
+remembering that the woman, whoever she might be, had news likely enough
+for my private ear (or otherwise she would not have come to so uncouth
+a rendezvous), I said to the sentry: “Stay,” and got up from the ground
+beside the fire, and went with him to the outer line.
+
+“Where is she?” I asked.
+
+“My comrades are holding her. She might be a wench belonging to these
+rebels, with designs to put a knife into my lord’s heart, and then we
+sentries would suffer. The Empress,” he added simply, “seems to set
+good store upon my lord at present, and we know the cleverness of her
+tormentors.”
+
+“Your thoughtfulness is frank,” I said, and then he showed me the woman.
+She was muffled up in hood and cloak, but one who loved Nais as I loved
+could not mistake the form of Ylga, her twin sister, because of mere
+swathings. So I told the sentries to release her without asking her for
+speech, and then led her out from the bivouac beyond earshot of their
+lines.
+
+“It is something of the most pressing that has brought you out here,
+Ylga?”
+
+“You know me, then? There must be something warmer than the ordinary
+between us two, Deucalion, if you could guess who walked beneath all
+these mufflings.”
+
+I let that pass. “But what’s your errand, girl?”
+
+“Aye,” she said bitterly, “there’s my reward. All your concern’s for the
+message, none for the carrier. Well, good my lord, you are husband to
+the dainty Phorenice no longer.”
+
+“This is news.”
+
+“And true enough, too. She will have no more of you, divorces you,
+spurns you, thrusts you from her, and, after the first splutter of wrath
+is done, then come pains and penalties.”
+
+“The Empress can do no wrong. I will have you speak respectful words of
+the Empress.”
+
+“Oh, be done with that old fable! It sickens me. The woman was mad for
+love of you, and now she’s mad with jealousy. She knows that you gave
+Nais some of your priest’s magic, and that she sleeps till you choose to
+come and claim her, even though the day be a century from this. And if
+you wish to know the method of her enlightenment, it is simple. There
+is another airshaft next to the one down which you did your cooing and
+billing, and that leads to another cell in which lay another prisoner.
+The wretch heard all that passed, and thought to buy enlargement by
+telling it.
+
+“But his news came a trifle stale. It seems that with the pressure of
+the morning’s ceremonies, they forgot to bring a ration, and when at
+last his gaoler did remember him, it was rather late, seeing that by
+then Phorenice had tied herself publicly to a husband, and poor Nais had
+doubtless eaten her green drug. However, the fools must needs try and
+barter his tale for what it would fetch; and, as was natural, had such
+a silly head chopped off for his pains; and after that your Phorenice
+behaved as you may guess. And now you may thank me, sir, for coming to
+warn you not to go back to Atlantis.”
+
+“But I shall go back. And if the Empress chooses to cut my head also
+from its proper column, that is as the High Gods will.”
+
+“You are more sick of life than I thought. But I think, sir, our
+Phorenice judges your case very accurately. It was permitted me to hear
+the outbursting of this lady’s rage. ‘Shall I hew off his head?’ said
+she. ‘Pah! Shall I give him over to my tormentors, and stand by whilst
+they do their worst? He would not wrinkle his brow at their fiercest
+efforts. No; he must have a heavier punishment than any of these, and
+one also which will endure. I shall lop off his right hand and his left
+foot, so that he may be a fighting man no longer, and then I shall drive
+him forth crippled into the dangerous lands, where he may learn Fear.
+The beasts shall hunt him, the fires of the ground shall spoil his rest.
+He shall know hunger, and he shall breathe bad air. And all the while he
+shall remember that I have Nais near me, living and locked in her coffin
+of stone, to play with as I choose, and to give over to what insults may
+come to my fancy.’ That is what she said, Deucalion. Now I ask you again
+will you go back to meet her vengeance?”
+
+“No,” I said, “it is no part of my plan to be mutilated and left to
+live.”
+
+“So, being a woman of some sense, I judged. And, moreover, having some
+small kindness still left for you, I have taken it upon myself to make
+a plan for your further movement which may fall in with your whim. Does
+the name of Tob come back to your memory?”
+
+“One who was Captain of Tatho’s navy?”
+
+“That same Tob. A gruff, rude fellow, and smelling vile of tar, but
+seeming to have a sturdy honesty of his own. Tob sails away this night
+for parts unknown, presumably to found a kingdom with Tob for king. It
+seems he can find little enough to earn at his craft in Atlantis these
+latter days, and has scruples at seeing his wife and young ones hungry.
+He told me this at the harbour side when I put my neck under the axe by
+saying I wanted carriage for you, sir, and so having me under his thumb,
+he was perhaps more loose-lipped than usual. You seem to have made
+a fine impression on Tob, Deucalion. He said--I repeat his hearty
+disrespect--you were just the recruit he wanted, but whether you joined
+him or not, he would go to the nether Gods to do you service.”
+
+“By the fellow’s side, I gained some experience in fighting the greater
+sea beasts.”
+
+“Well, go and do it again. Believe me, sir, it is your only chance. It
+would grieve me much to hear the searing-iron hiss on your stumps. I
+bargained with Tob to get clear of the harbour forts before the chain
+was up for the night, and as he is a very daring fellow, with no fear of
+navigating under the darkness, he himself said he would come to a point
+of the shore which we agreed upon, and there await you. Come, Deucalion,
+let me lead you to the place.”
+
+“My girl,” I said, “I see I owe you many thanks for what you have done
+on my poor behalf.”
+
+“Oh, your thanks!” she said. “You may keep them. I did not come out here
+in the dark and the dangers for mere thanks, though I knew well enough
+there would be little else offered.”--She plucked at my sleeve.--“Now
+show me your walking pace, sir. They will begin to want your countenance
+in the camp directly, and we need hanker after no too narrow inquiries
+for what’s along.”
+
+So thereon we set off, Ylga and I, leaving the lights of the bivouac
+behind us, and she showed the way, whilst I carried my weapons ready to
+ward off attacks whether from beasts or from men. Few words were passed
+between us, except those which had concern with the dangers natural
+to the way. Once only did we touch one another, and that was where
+a tree-trunk bridged a rivulet of scalding water which flowed from a
+boil-spring towards the sea.
+
+“Are you sure of footing?” I asked, for the night was dark, and the heat
+of the water would peel the flesh from the bones if one slipped into it.
+
+“No,” she said, “I am not,” and reached out and took my hand. I helped
+her over and then loosed my grip, and she sighed, and slowly slipped her
+hand away. Then on again we went in silence, side by side, hour after
+hour, and league after league.
+
+But at last we topped a rise, and below us through the trees I could see
+the gleam of the great estuary on which the city of Atlantis stands. The
+ground was soggy and wet beneath us, the trees were full of barbs and
+spines, the way was monstrous hard. Ylga’s breath was beginning to come
+in laboured pants. But when I offered to take her arm, and help her,
+as some return against what she had done for me, she repulsed me rudely
+enough. “I am no poor weakling,” said she, “if that is your only reason
+for wanting to touch me.”
+
+Presently, however, we came out through the trees, and the roughest part
+of our journey was done. We saw the ship riding to her anchors in
+shore a mile away, and a weird enough object she was under the faint
+starlight. We made our way to her along the level beaches.
+
+Tob was keeping a keen watch. We were challenged the moment we came
+within stone or arrow shot, and bidden to halt and recite our business;
+but he was civil enough when he heard we were those whom he expected.
+He called a crew and slacked out his anchor-rope till his ship ground
+against the shingle, and then thrust out his two steering oars to help
+us clamber aboard.
+
+I turned to Ylga with words of thanks and farewell. “I will never forget
+what you have done for me this night; and should the High Gods see fit
+to bring me back to Atlantis and power, you shall taste my gratitude.”
+
+“I do not want to return. I am sick of this old life here.”
+
+“But you have your palace in the city, and your servants, and your
+wealth, and Phorenice will not disturb you from their possession.”
+
+“Oh, as for that, I could go back and be fan-girl tomorrow. But I do not
+want to go back.”
+
+“Let me tell you it is no time for a gently nurtured lady like yourself
+to go forward. I have been viceroy of Yucatan, Ylga, and know somewhat
+of making a foothold in these new countries. And that was nothing
+compared with what this will be. I tell you it entails hardships, and
+privations, and sufferings which you could not guess at. Few survive
+who go to colonise in the beginning, and those only of the hardiest, and
+they earn new scars and new batterings every day.”
+
+“I do not care, and, besides, I can share the work. I can cook, I can
+shoot a good arrow, and I can make garments, yes, though they were
+cut from the skins of beasts and had to be sewn with backbone sinews.
+Because you despise fine clothes, and because you have seen me only
+decked out as fan-girl, you think I am useless. Bah, Deucalion! Never
+let people prate to me about your perfection. You know less about a
+woman than a boy new from school.”
+
+“I have learned all I care to know about one woman, and because of the
+memory of her, I could not presume to ask her sister to come with me
+now.”
+
+“Aye,” she said bitterly, “kick my pride. I knew well enough it was only
+second place to Nais I could get all the time I was wanting to come. Yet
+no one but a boor would have reminded me of it. Gods! and to think that
+half the men in Atlantis have courted me, and now I am arrived at this!”
+
+“I must go alone. It would have made me happier to take your esteem with
+me. But as it is, I suppose I shall carry only your hate.”
+
+“That is the most humiliating thing of all; I cannot bring myself to
+hate you. I ought to, I know, after the brutal way you have scorned me.
+But I do not, and there is the truth. I seem to grow the fonder of you,
+and if I thought there was a way of keeping you alive, and unmutilated,
+here in Atlantis, I do not think I should point out that Tob is tired
+of waiting, and will probably be off without you.” She flung her arms
+suddenly about my neck, and kissed me hotly on the mouth. “There, that
+is for good-bye, dear. You see I am reckless. I care not what I do now,
+knowing that you cannot despise me more than you have done all along for
+my forwardness.”
+
+She ran back from me into the edge of the trees.
+
+“But this is foolishness,” I said. “I must take you through the dangers
+that lie between here and some gate of the city, and then come back to
+the ship.”
+
+“You need not fear for me. The unhappy are always safe. And, besides, I
+have a way. It is my solace to know that you will remember me now. You
+will never forget that kiss.”
+
+“Fare you well, Ylga,” I cried. “May the High Gods keep you entirely in
+their holy care.”
+
+But no reply came back. She had gone off into the forest. And so I
+turned down to the beach, and splashed into the water, and climbed on
+board the ship up the steering oars. Tob gave the word to haul-to the
+anchor, and get her away from the beach.
+
+“Greeting, my lord,” said he, “but I’d have been pleased to see you
+earlier. We’ve small enough force and slow enough heels in this vessel,
+and it’s my idea that the sooner we’re away from here and beyond range
+of pursuit, the safer it will be for my woman and brats who are in that
+hutch of an after-castle. It’s long enough since I sailed in such a
+small old-fashioned ship as this. She’s no machines, and she’s not even
+a steering mannikin. Look at the meanness of her furniture and (in your
+ear) I’ve suspicions that there’s rottenness in her bottom. But she’s
+the best I’d the means to buy, and if she reaches the place at the
+farther end I’ve got my eye on, we shall have to make a home there, or
+be content to die, for she’ll never have strength to carry us farther
+or back. She’s been a ship in the Egypt trade, and you know what that is
+for getting worm and rot in the wood.”
+
+“You’d enough hands for your scheme before I came?”
+
+“Oh yes. I’ve fifty stout lads and eight women packed in the ship
+somehow, and trouble enough I’ve had to get them away from the city.
+That thief of a port-captain wellnigh skinned us clean before he could
+see it lawful that so many useful fighting men might go out of harbour.
+Times are not what they were, I tell you, and the sea trade’s about
+done. All sailor men of any skill have taken a woman or two and gone
+out in companies to try their fortunes in other lands. Why, I’d trouble
+enough to get half a score to help me work this ship. All my balance are
+just landsmen raw and simple, and if I land half of them alive at the
+other end, we shall be doing well.”
+
+“Still with luck and a few good winds it should not take long to get
+across to Europe.”
+
+Tob slapped his leg. “No savage Europe for me, my lord. Now, see the
+advantage of being a mariner. I found once some islands to the north
+of Europe, separated from the main by a strait, which I called the Tin
+Islands, seeing that tin ore litters many of the beaches. I was driven
+there by storm, and said no word of the find when I got back, and here
+you see it comes in useful. There’s no one in all Atlantis but me knows
+of those Tin Islands to-day, and we’ll go and fight honestly for our
+ground, and build a town and a kingdom on it.”
+
+“With Tob for king?”
+
+“Well, I have figured it out as such for many a day, but I know when I
+meet my better, and I’m content to serve under Deucalion. My lord would
+have done wiser to have brought a wife with him, though, and I thought
+it was understood by the good lady that spoke to me down at the harbour,
+or I’d have mentioned it earlier. The savages in my Tin Islands go naked
+and stain themselves blue with woad, and are very filthy and brutish to
+look upon. They are sturdy, and should make good slaves, but one would
+have to get blunted in the taste before one could wish to be father to
+their children.”
+
+“I am still husband to Phorenice.”
+
+Tob grinned. “The Gods give you joy of her. But it is part of a
+mariner’s creed--and you will grow to be a mariner here--that wedlock
+does not hold across the seas. However, that matter may rest. But,
+coming to my Tin Islands again: they’ll delight you. And I tell you, a
+kingdom will not be so hard to carve out as it was in Egypt, or as you
+found in Yucatan. There are beasts there, of course, and no one who
+can hunt need ever go hungry. But the greater beasts are few. There
+are cave-bears and cave-tigers in small numbers, to be sure, and some
+river-horses and great snakes. But the greater lizards seem to avoid the
+land; and as for birds, there is rarely seen one that can hurt a grown
+man. Oh, I tell you, it will be a most desirable kingdom.”
+
+“Tob seems to have imagined himself king of the Tin Islands with much
+reality.”
+
+He sighed a little. “In truth I did, and there is no denying it, and I
+tell you plain, there is not another man living that I would have broken
+this voyage for but Deucalion. But don’t think I regret it, and don’t
+think I want to push myself above my place. This breeze and the ebb are
+taking the old ship finely along her ways. See those fire baskets on the
+harbour forts? We’re abreast of them now. We’ll have dropped them and
+the city out of sight by daylight, and the flood will not begin to run
+up till then. But I fear unless the wind hardens down with the dawn
+we’ll have to bring up to an anchor when the flood makes. Tides run very
+hard in these narrow seas. Aye, and there are some shrewdish tide-rips
+round my Tin Islands, as you shall see when we reach them.”
+
+There were many fearful glances backwards when day came and showed the
+waters, and the burning mountains that hemmed them in beyond the shores.
+All seemed to expect some navy of Phorenice to come surging up to take
+them back to servitude and starvation in the squalid wards of the city;
+and I confess ingenuously that I was with them in all truth when they
+swore they would fight the ship till she sank beneath them, before they
+would obey another of the commands of Phorenice. However, their brave
+heroics were displayed to no small purpose. For the full flow of the
+tide we hung in our place, barely moving past the land, but yet not
+seeing either oar or sail; and then, when the tide turned, away we went
+once more with speed, mightily comforted.
+
+Tob’s woman must needs bring drink on deck, and bid all pour libations
+to her as a future queen. But Tob cuffed her back into the after-castle,
+slamming to the hatch behind her heels, and bidding the crew send the
+liquor down their dusty throats. “We are done with that foolery,” said
+he. “My Lord Deucalion will be king of this new kingdom we shall
+build in the Tin Islands, and a right proper king he’ll make, as you
+untravelled ones would know, if you’d sailed the outer seas with him as
+I have done.” Beneath which I read a regret, but said nothing, having
+made my plans from the moment of stepping on board, as will appear on a
+later sheet.
+
+So on down the great estuary we made our way, and though it pleasured
+the others on board when they saw that the seas were desolate of sails,
+it saddened me when I recalled how once the waters had been whitened
+with the glut of shipping.
+
+They had started off on their voyage with a bare two days’ provision
+in their equipment, and so, of necessity even after leaving the great
+estuary, we were forced to voyage coastwise, putting into every likely
+river and sheltered beach to slay fish and meat for future victualling.
+“And when the winter comes,” said Tob, “as its gales will be heavier
+than this old ship can stomach, I had determined to haul up and make a
+permanent camp ashore, and get a crop of grain grown and threshed before
+setting sail again. It is the usual custom in these voyages. And I shall
+do it still, subject to my lord’s better opinion.”
+
+So here, having by this time completed a two months’ leisurely journey
+from the city, I saw my opportunity to speak what I had always carried
+in my mind. “Tob,” I said, “I am a poor, weak, defenceless man, and I am
+quite at your mercy, but what if I do not voyage all the way to the Tin
+Islands, and oust you of this kingship?”
+
+He brightened perceptibly. “Aye,” he grunted, “you are very weak, my
+lord, and mighty defenceless. We know all about that. But what’s
+else? You must tell all your meaning plain. I’m a common mariner, and
+understand little of your fancy talk.”
+
+“Why, this. That it is not my wish to leave the continent of Atlantis.
+If you will put me down on any part of this side that faces Europe, I
+will commend you strongly to the Gods. I would I could give you
+money, or (better still) articles that would be useful to you in your
+colonising; but as it is, you see me destitute.”
+
+“As to that, you owe me nothing, having done vastly more than your share
+each time we have put in shore for the hunting. But it will not do, this
+plan of yours. I will shamedly confess that the sound of that kingship
+in my Tin Islands sounds sweet to me. But no, my lord, it will not do.
+You are no mariner yet, and understand little of geography, but I must
+tell you that the part of Atlantis there”--he jerked his thumb towards
+the line of trees, and the mountains which lay beyond the fringe
+of surf--“is called the Dangerous Lands, and a man must needs be a
+salamander and be learned in magic (so I am told) before he can live
+there.”
+
+I laughed. “We of the Priests’ Clan have some education, Tob, though
+it may not be on the same lines as your own. In fact, I may say I was
+taught in the colleges concerning the boundaries and the contents of
+our continent with a nicety that would surprise you. And once ashore, my
+fate will still be under the control of the most High Gods.”
+
+He muttered something in his profane seaman’s way about preferring to
+keep his own fate under control of his own most strong right arm, but
+saying that he would keep the matter in his thoughts, he excused himself
+hurriedly to go and see to somewhat concerning the working of the ship,
+and there left me.
+
+But I think the sweets of kingly rule were a strong argument in favour
+of letting me have my way (which I should have had otherwise if it had
+not been given peacefully), and on the third day after our talk he
+put the ship inshore again for re-victualling. We lurched into a
+river-mouth, half swamped over a roaring bar, and ran up against the
+bank and made fast there to trees, but booming ourselves a safe distance
+off with oars and poles, so that no beast could leap on board out of the
+thicket.
+
+Fish-spearing and meat-hunting were set about with promptitude, and
+on the second day we were happy enough to slay a yearling river-horse,
+which gave provisions in all sufficiency. A space was cleared on the
+bank, fires were lit, and the meat hung over the smoke in strips, and
+when as much was cured as the ship would carry, the shipmen made a final
+gorge on what remained, filled up a great stack of hollow reeds with
+drinking water, and were ready to continue the voyage.
+
+With sturdy generosity did Tob again attempt to make me sail on with
+them as their future king, and as steadfastly did I make refusal; and
+at last stood alone on the bank amongst the gnawed bones of their feast,
+with my weapons to bear me company, and he, and his men, and the women
+stood in the little old ship, ready to drop down river with the current.
+
+“At least,” said Tob, “we’ll carry your memory with us, and make it big
+in the Tin Islands for everlasting.”
+
+“Forget me,” I said, “I am nothing. I am merely an incident that has
+come in your way. But if you want to carry some memory with you that
+shall endure, preserve the cult of the most High Gods as it was taught
+to you when you were children here in Atlantis. And afterwards, when
+your colony grows in power, and has come to sufficient magnificence, you
+may send to the old country for a priest.”
+
+“We want no priest, except one we shall make ourselves, and that will
+be me. And as for the old Gods--well, I have laid my ideas before the
+fellows here, and they agree to this: We are done with those old Gods
+for always. They seem worn out, if one may judge from Their present lack
+of usefulness in Atlantis, and, anyway, there will be no room for Them
+on the Tin Islands.--Let go those warps there aft, and shove her head
+out.--We are under weigh now, my lord, and beyond recall, and so I am
+free to tell you what we have decided upon for our religious exercises.
+We shall set up the memory of a living Hero on earth, and worship that.
+And when in years to come the picture of his face grows dim, we shall
+doubtless make an image of him, as accurate as our art permits, and
+build him a temple for shelter, and bring there our offerings and
+prayers. And as I say, my lord, I shall be priest, and when I am dead,
+the sons of my body shall be priests after me, and the eldest a king
+also.”
+
+“Let me plead with you,” I said. “This must not be.”
+
+The ship was drifting rapidly away with the current, and they were
+hoisting sail. Tob had to shout to make himself heard. “Aye, but it
+shall be. For I, too, am a strong man after my kind, and I have ordered
+it so. And if you want the name of our Hero that some day shall be God,
+you wear it on yourself. Deucalion shall be God for our children.”
+
+“This is blasphemy,” I cried. “Have a care, fool, or this impiety will
+sink you.”
+
+“We will risk it,” he bawled back, “and consider the odds against us are
+small. Regard! Here is thy last horn of wine in the ship, and my woman
+has treasured it against this moment. Regard, all men, together
+with Those above and Those below! I pour this wine as a libation to
+Deucalion, great lord that is to-day, Hero that shall be to-morrow, God
+that will be in time to come!” And then all those on the ship joined
+in the acclaim till they were beyond the reach of my voice, and were
+battling their way out to sea through the roaring breakers of the bar.
+
+Solitary I stood at the brink of the forest, looking after them and
+musing sadly. Tob, despite his lowly station, was a man I cared for more
+than many. Like all seamen, I knew that he paid his devotions to one
+of the obscurer Gods, but till then I had supposed him devout in his
+worship. His new avowal came to me as a desolating shock. If a man like
+Tob could forsake all the older Gods to set up on high some poor mortal
+who had momentarily caught his fancy, what could be expected from
+the mere thoughtless mob, when swayed by such a brilliant tongue as
+Phorenice’s? It seemed I was to begin my exile with a new dreariness
+added to all the other adverse prospects of Atlantis.
+
+But then behind me I heard the rustle of some great beast that had
+scented me, and was coming to attack through the thicket, and so I had
+other matters to think upon. I had to let Tob and his ship go out over
+the rim of the horizon unwatched.
+
+
+
+
+15. ZAEMON’S SUMMONS
+
+
+Since the days when man was first created upon the earth by Gods who
+looked down and did their work from another place, there have always
+been areas of the land ill-adapted for his maintenance, but none more so
+than that part of Atlantis which lies over against the savage continents
+of Europe and Africa. The common people avoid it, because of a
+superstition which says that the spirits of the evil dead stalk about
+there in broad daylight, and slay all those that the more open dangers
+of the place might otherwise spare. And so it has happened often that
+the criminals who might have fled there from justice, have returned
+of their own free will, and voluntarily given themselves up to the
+tormentors, rather than face its fabulous terrors.
+
+To the educated, many of these legends are known to be mythical; but
+withal there are enough disquietudes remaining to make life very arduous
+and stocked with peril. Everywhere the mountains keep their contents
+on the boil; earth tremors are every day’s experience; gushes of unseen
+evil vapours steal upon one with such cunningness and speed, that it is
+often hard to flee in time before one is choked and killed; poisons well
+up into the rivers, yet leave their colour unchanged; great cracks split
+across the ground reaching down to the fires beneath, and the waters
+gush into these, and are shot forth again with devastating explosion;
+and always may be expected great outpourings of boiling mud or molten
+rock.
+
+Yet with all this, there are great sombre forests in these lands, with
+trees whose age is unimaginable, and fires amongst the herbage are rare.
+All beneath the trees is water, and the air is full of warm steam and
+wetness. For a man to live in that constant hot damp is very mortifying
+to the strength. But strength is wanted, and cunning also beyond the
+ordinary, for these dangerous lands are the abode of the lizards, which
+of all beasts grow to the most enormous size and are the most fearsome
+to deal with.
+
+There are countless families and species of these lizards, and with some
+of them a man can contend with prospect of success. But there are others
+whose hugeness no human force can battle against. One I saw, as it came
+up out of a lake after gaining its day’s food, that made the wet land
+shake and pulse as it trod. It could have taken Phorenice’s mammoth into
+its belly,* and even a mammoth in full charge could not have harmed it.
+Great horny plates covered its head and body, and on the ridge of its
+back and tail and limbs were spines that tore great slivers from the
+black trees as it passed amongst them.
+
+
+* TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: Professor Reeder of the Wyoming State University
+has recently unearthed the skeleton of a Brontosaurus, 130 ft. in
+length, which would have weighed 50 tons when alive. It was 35 ft. in
+height at the hips, and 25 ft. at the shoulder, and 40 people could be
+seated with comfort within its ribs. Its thigh bone was 8 ft. long. The
+fossils of a whole series of these colossal lizards have been found.
+
+
+Now and again these monsters would get caught in some vast fissuring
+of the ground, but not often. Their speed of foot was great, and their
+sagacity keen. They seemed to know when the worst boilings of the
+mountains might be expected, and then they found safety in the deeper
+lakes, or buried themselves in wallows of the mud. Moreover, they were
+more kindly constituted than man to withstand one great danger of these
+regions, in that the heat of the water did them no harm. Indeed, they
+will lie peacefully in pools where sudden steam-bursts are making the
+water leap into boiling fountains, and I have seen one run quickly
+across a flow of molten rock which threatened to cut it off, and not be
+so much as singed in the transit.
+
+In the midst of such neighbours, then, was my new life thrown, and
+existence became perilous and hard to me from the outset. I came near to
+knowing what Fear was, and indeed only a fervent trust in the most High
+Gods, and a firm belief that my life was always under Their fostering
+care, prevented me from gaining that horrid knowledge. For long enough,
+till I learned somewhat of the ways of this steaming, sweltering land,
+I was in as miserable a case as even Phorenice could have wished to see
+me. My clothes rotted from my back with the constant wetness, till I
+went as naked as a savage from Europe; my limbs were racked with agues,
+and I could find no herbs to make drugs for their relief; for days
+together I could find no better food than tree-grubs and leaves; and
+often when I did kill beasts, knowing little of their qualities, I ate
+those that gave me pain and sickness.
+
+But as man is born to make himself adaptable to his surroundings, so
+as the months dragged on did I learn the limitation of this new life of
+mine, and gather some knowledge of its resources. As example: I found
+a great black tree, with a hollow core, and a hole into its middle near
+the roots. Here I harboured, till one night some monstrous lizard, whose
+sheer weight made the tree rock like a sapling, endeavoured to suck me
+forth as a bird picks a worm from a hollow log. I escaped by the will
+of the Gods--I could as much have done harm to a mountain as injure that
+horny tongue with my weapons--but I gave myself warning that this chance
+must not happen again.
+
+So I cut myself a ladder of footholes on the inside of the trunk till I
+had reached a point ten man-heights from the ground, and there cut other
+notches, and with tree branches made a floor on which I might rest.
+Later, for luxury, I carved me arrow-slit windows in the walls of my
+chamber, and even carried up sand for a hearth, so that I might cook my
+victual up there instead of lighting a fire in all the dangers of the
+open below.
+
+By degrees, too, I began to find how the large-scaled fish of the rivers
+and the lesser turtles might be more readily captured, and so my ribs
+threatened less to start through their proper covering of skin as the
+days went on. But the lack of salads and gruels I could never overcome.
+All the green meat was tainted so powerfully with the taste of tars that
+never could I force my palate to accept it. And of course, too, there
+remained the peril of the greater lizards and the other dangers native
+to the place.
+
+But as the months began to mount into years, and the brute part of my
+nature became more satisfied, there came other longings which it was
+less easy to provide for. From the ivory of a river horse’s tooth I had
+endeavoured to carve me a representative of Nais as last I had seen her.
+But, though my fingers might be loving, and my will good, my art was
+of the dullest, and the result--though I tried time and time again--was
+always clumsy and pitiful. Still, in my eyes it carried some suggestion
+of the original--a curve here, an outline there, and it made my old love
+glow anew within me as I sat and ate it with my eyes. Yet it did little
+to satisfy my longings for the woman I had lost; rather it whetted my
+cravings to be with her again, or at least to have some knowledge of her
+fate.
+
+Other men of the Priests’ Clan have come out and made an abode in these
+Dangerous Lands, and by mortifying the flesh, have gained an intimacy
+with the Higher Mysteries which has carried them far past what mere
+human learning and repetition could teach. Indeed, here and there one,
+who from some cause and another has returned to the abodes of men, has
+carried with him a knowledge that has brought him the reputation amongst
+the vulgar for the workings of magic and miracles, which--since all arts
+must be allowed which aid so holy a cause--have added very materially to
+the ardour with which these common people pursue the cult of the Gods.
+But for myself I could not free my mind to the necessary clearness for
+following these abstruse studies. During that voyage home from Yucatan I
+had communed with them with growing insight; but now my mind was not my
+own. Nais had a lien upon it, and refused to be ousted; and, in truth,
+her sweet trespass was my chief solace.
+
+But at last my longing could no further be denied. Through one of
+the arrow-slit windows of my tree-house I could see far away a great
+mountain top whitened with perpetual snow, which our Lord the Sun dyed
+with blood every night of His setting. Night after night I used to watch
+that ruddy light with wide straining eyes. Night after night I used to
+remember that in days agone when I was entering upon the priesthood, it
+had been my duty to adore our great Lord as He rose for His day behind
+the snows of that very mountain. And always the thought followed on
+these musings, that from that distant crest I could see across the
+continent to the Sacred Mount, which had the city below it where I had
+buried my love alive.
+
+So at last I gave way and set out, and a perilous journey I made of it.
+In the heavy mists, which hung always on the lower ground, my way lay
+blind before me, and I was constantly losing it. Indeed, to say that
+I traversed three times the direct distance is setting a low estimate.
+Throughout all those swamps the great lizards hunted, and as the country
+was new to me I did not know places of harbour, and a hundred times was
+within an ace of being spied and devoured at a mouthful. But the High
+Gods still desired me for Their own purposes, and blinded the great
+beasts’ eyes when I slunk to cover as they passed. Twice rivers of
+scalding water roared boiling across my path, and I had to delay till I
+could collect enough black timber from the forests to build rafts that
+would give me dry ferriage.
+
+It will be seen then that my journey was in a way infinitely tedious,
+but to me, after all those years of waiting, the time passed on winged
+feet. I had been separated from my love till I could bear the strain
+no longer; let me but see from a distance the place where she lay, and
+feast my eyes upon it for a while, and then I could go back to my abode
+in the tree and there remain patiently awaiting the will of the Gods.
+
+The air grew more chilly as I began to come out above the region of
+trees, on to that higher ground which glares down on the rest of the
+world, and I made buskins and a coat of woven grasses to protect my body
+from the cold, which began to blow upon me keenly. And later on, where
+the snow lay eternally, and was blown into gullies, and frozen into
+solid banks and bergs of ice, I had hard work to make any progress
+amongst its perilous mazes, and was moreover so numbed by the chill,
+that my natural strength was vastly weakened. Overhead, too, following
+me up with forbidding swoops, and occasionally coming so close that I
+had to threaten it with my weapons, was one of those huge man-eating
+birds which live by pulling down and carrying off any creature that
+their instincts tell them is weakly, and likely soon to die.
+
+But the lure ahead of me was strong enough to make these difficulties
+seem small, and though the air of the mountain agreed with me ill,
+causing sickness and panting, I pressed on with what speed I could
+muster towards the elusive summit. Time after time I thought the next
+spurt would surely bring me out to the view for which my soul yearned,
+but always there seemed another bank of snow and ice yet to be climbed.
+But at last I reached the crest, and gave thanks to the most High Gods
+for Their protection and favour.
+
+Far, far away I could see the Sacred Mountain with its ring of fires
+burning pale under the day, and although the splendid city which nestled
+at its foot could not be seen from where I stood, I knew its position
+and I knew its plan, and my soul went out to that throne of granite in
+the square before the royal pyramid, where once, years before, I had
+buried my love. Had Phorenice left the tomb unviolated?
+
+I stood there leaning on my spear, filling my eye with the prospect,
+warming even to the smoke of mountains that I recognised as old
+acquaintances. Gods! how my love burned within me for this woman. My
+whole being seemed gone out to meet her, and to leave room for nothing
+beside. For long enough a voice seemed dimly to be calling me, but
+I gave it no regard. I had come out to that hoary mountain top for
+communion with Nais alone, and I wanted none others to interrupt.
+
+But at length the voice calling my name grew too loud to be neglected,
+and I pulled myself out of my sweet musing with a start to think that
+here, for the first time since parting with Tob and his company, I
+should see another human fellow-being. I gripped my weapon and asked who
+called. The reply came clearly from up the slopes of mountain, and I saw
+a man coming towards me over the snows. He was old and feeble. His body
+was bent, and his hair and beard were white as the ground on which he
+trod, and presently I recognised him as Zaemon. He was coming towards
+me with incredible speed for a man of his years and feebleness, but he
+carried in his hand the glowing Symbol of our Lord the Sun, and holy
+strength from this would add largely to his powers.
+
+He came close to me and made the sign of the Seven, which I returned
+to him, with its completion, with due form and ceremony. And then he
+saluted me in the manner prescribed as messenger appointed by the High
+Council of the Priests seated before the Ark of the Mysteries, and I
+made humble obeisance before him.
+
+“In all things I will obey the orders that you put before me,” I said.
+
+“Such is your duty, my brother. The command is, that you return
+immediately to the Sacred Mountain, so that if human means may still
+prevail, you, as the most skilful general Atlantis owns within her
+borders, may still save the country from final wreck and punishment. The
+woman Phorenice persists in her infamies. The poor land groans under
+her heel. And now she has laid siege to our Sacred Mountain itself, and
+swears that not one soul shall be left alive in all Atlantis who does
+not bend humbly to her will.”
+
+“It is a command and I obey it. But let me ask of another matter that is
+intimate to both of us. What of Nais?”
+
+“Nais rests where you left her, untouched. Phorenice knows by her
+arts--she has stolen nearly all the ancient knowledge now--that still
+you live, and she keeps Nais unharmed beneath the granite throne in the
+hopes that some time she may use her as a weapon against you. Little she
+knows the sternness of our Priests’ creed, my brother. Why, even I, that
+am the girl’s father, would sacrifice her blithely, if her death or ruin
+might do a tittle of good to Atlantis.”
+
+“You go beyond me with your devotion.”
+
+The old man leaned forward at me, with glowering brow. “What!”
+
+“Or my old blind adherence to the ancient dogma has been sapped and
+weakened by events. You must buy my full obedience, Zaemon, if you want
+it. Promise me Nais--and your arts I know can snatch her--and I will be
+true servant to the High Council of the Priest, and will die in the
+last ditch if need be for the carrying out of order. But let me see Nais
+given over to the fury of that wanton woman, and I shall have no inwards
+left, except to take my vengeance, and to see Atlantis piled up in ruins
+as her funeral-stone.”
+
+Zaemon looked at me bitterly. “And you are the man the High Council
+thought to trust as they would trust one of themselves? Truly we are in
+an age of weak men and faithless now. But, my lord--nay, I must call you
+brother still: we cannot be too nice in our choosing to-day--you are the
+best there is, and we must have you. We little thought you would ask a
+price for your generalship, having once taken oath on the walls of the
+Ark of the Mysteries itself that always, come what might, you would be a
+servant of the High Council of the Clan without fee and without hope of
+advancement. But this is the age of broken vows, and you are going no
+more than trim with the fashion. Indeed, brother, perhaps I should thank
+you for being no more greedy in your demands.”
+
+“You may spare me your taunts. You, by self-denial and profound search
+into the highest of the higher Mysteries, have made yourself something
+wiser than human; I have preserved my humanity, and with it its powers
+and frailties; and it seems that each of us has his proper uses, or
+you would not be come now here to me. Rather you would have done the
+generalling yourself.”
+
+“You make a warm defence, my brother. But I have no leisure now to stand
+before you with argument. Come to the Sacred Mountain, fight me this
+wanton, upstart Empress, and by my beard you shall have your Nais as you
+left her as a reward.”
+
+“It is a command of the High Council which shall be obeyed. I will come
+with my brother now, as soon as he is rested.”
+
+“Nay,” said the old man, “I have no tiredness, and as for coming with
+me, there you will not be able. But follow at what pace you may.”
+
+He turned and set off down the snowy slopes of the mountain and I
+followed; but gradually he distanced me; and so he kept on, with speed
+always increasing, till presently he passed out of my sight round the
+spur of an ice-cliff, and I found myself alone on the mountain side.
+Yes, truly alone. For his footmarks in the snow from being deep, grew
+shallower, and less noticeable, so that I had to stoop to see them. And
+presently they vanished entirely, and the great mountain’s flank lay
+before me trackless, and untrodden by the foot of man since time began.
+
+I was not shaken by any great amazement. Though it was beyond my poor
+art to compass this thing myself, having occupied my mind in exile more
+with memories of Nais than in study of those uppermost recesses of the
+Higher Mysteries in which Zaemon was so prodigiously wise, still I had
+some inkling of his powers.
+
+Zaemon I knew would be back again in his dwelling on the Sacred
+Mountain, shaken and breathless, even before I had found an end to his
+tracks in the snow, and it behoved me to join him there in the quickest
+possible time. I had his promise now for my reward, and I knew that he
+would carry it into effect. Beforetime I had made an error. I had valued
+Atlantis most, and Nais, my private love, as only second. But now it was
+in my mind to be honest with others even as with myself. Though all
+the world were hanging on my choice, I could but love my Nais most, and
+serve her first and foremost of all.
+
+
+
+
+16. SIEGE OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN
+
+
+Now, my passage across the great continent of Atlantis, if tedious and
+haunted by many dangers, need not be recounted in detail here. Only one
+halt did I make of any duration, and that was unavoidable. I had killed
+a stag one day, bringing it down after a long chase in an open savannah.
+I scented the air carefully, to see if there was any other beast which
+could do me harm within reach, and thinking that the place was safe,
+set about cutting my meat, and making a sufficiency into a bundle for
+carriage.
+
+But underfoot amongst the grasses there was a great legged worm, a
+monstrous green thing, very venomous in its bite; and presently as I
+moved I brushed it with my heel, and like the dart of light it swooped
+with its tiny head and struck me with its fangs in the lower thigh. With
+my knife I cut through its neck and it fell to writhing and struggling
+and twining its hundred legs into all manner of contortions; and then,
+cleaning my blade in the ground, I stabbed with it deep all round the
+wound, so that the blood might flow freely and wash the venom from its
+lodgement. And then with the blood trickling healthily down from my
+heel, I shouldered the meat and strode off, thankful for being so well
+quit of what might have made itself a very ugly adventure.
+
+As I walked, however, my leg began to be filled with a tightness and
+throbbing which increased every hour, and presently it began to swell
+also, till the skin was stretched like drawn parchment. I was taken,
+too, with a sickness, that racked me violently, and if one of the
+greater and more dangerous beasts had come upon me then, he would have
+eaten me without a fight. With the fall of darkness I managed to haul
+myself up into a tree, and there abode in the crutch of a limb, in
+wakefulness and pain throughout the night.
+
+With the dawn, when the night beasts had gone to their lairs, I
+clambered down again, and leaning heavily on my spear, limped onwards
+through the sombre forests along my way. The moss which grows on the
+northern side of each tree was my guide, but gradually I began to note
+that I was seeing moss all round the trees, and, in fact, was growing
+light-headed with the pain and the swelling of the limb. But still I
+pressed onwards with my journey, my last instinct being to obey the
+command of the High Council, and so procure the enlargement of Nais as
+had been promised.
+
+My last memory was of being met by someone in the black forest who aided
+me, and there my waking senses took wings into forgetfulness.
+
+But after an interval, wit returned, and I found myself on a bed of
+leaves in a cleft between two rocks, which was furnished with some poor
+skill, and fortified with stakes and buildings against the entrance of
+the larger marauding beasts. My wound was dressed with a poultice of
+herbs, and at the other side of the cavern there squatted a woman,
+cooking a mess of wood-grubs and honey over a fire of sticks.
+
+“How came I here?” I asked.
+
+“I brought you,” said she.
+
+“And who are you?”
+
+“A nymph, they call me, and I practise as such, collecting herbs and
+curing the diseases of those that come to me, telling fortunes, and
+making predictions. In return I receive what each can afford, and if
+they do not pay according to their means, I clap on a curse to make them
+wither. It’s a lean enough living when wars and the pestilence have left
+so few poor folk to live in the land.”
+
+“Do you visit Atlantis?”
+
+“Not I. Phorenice would have me boiled in brine, living, if she could
+lay easy hands on me. Our dainty Empress tolerates no magic but her own.
+They say she is for pulling down the Priests off their Mountain now.”
+
+“So you do get news of the city?”
+
+“Assuredly. It is my trade to get good news, or otherwise how could I
+tell fortunes to the vulgar? You see, my lord, I detected your quality
+by your speech, and knowing you are not one of those that come to me for
+spells, and potions, I have no fear in speaking to you plainly.”
+
+“Tell me then: Phorenice still reigns?”
+
+“Most vilely.”
+
+“As a maiden?”
+
+“As the mother of twin sons. Tatho’s her husband now, and has been these
+three years.”
+
+“Tatho! Who followed him as viceroy of Yucatan?”
+
+“There is no Yucatan. A vast nation of little hairy men, so the tale
+goes, coming from the West overran the country. They had clubs of
+wood tipped with stone as their only arm, but numbers made their chief
+weapon. They had no desire for plunder, or the taking of slaves, or
+the conquering of cities. To eat the flesh of Atlanteans was their only
+lust, and they followed it prodigiously. Their numbers were like the
+bees in a swarm.
+
+“They came to each of the cities of Yucatan in turn, and though
+the colonists slew them in thousands, the weight of numbers always
+prevailed. They ate clean each city they took, and left it to the beasts
+of the forest, and went on to the next. And so in time they reached the
+coast towns, and Tatho and the few that survived took ship, and
+sailed home. They even ate Tatho’s wife for him. They must be curious
+persevering things, these little hairy men. The Gods send they do not
+get across the seas to Atlantis, or they would be worse plague to the
+poor country than Phorenice.”
+
+Now I had heard of these little hairy creatures before, and though
+indeed I had never seen them, I had gathered that they were a little
+less than human and a little more than bestial; a link so to speak
+between the two orders; and specially held in check by the Gods in
+certain forest solitudes. Also I had learned that on occasion, when
+punishment was needful, they could be set loose as a devastating army
+upon men, devouring all before them. But I said nothing of this to the
+nymph, she being but a vulgar woman, and indeed half silly, as is always
+the case with these self-styled sorceresses who gull the ignorant,
+common folk. But within myself I was bitterly grieved at the fate of
+that fine colony of Yucatan, in which I had expended such an infinity of
+pains to do my share of the building.
+
+But it did not suit my purpose to have my name and quality blazoned
+abroad till the time was full, and so I said nothing to the nymph about
+Yucatan, but let the talk continue upon other matters. “What about
+Egypt?” I asked.
+
+“In its accustomed darkness, so they say. Who cares for Egypt these
+latter years? Who cares for anyone or anything for that matter except
+for himself and his own proper estate? Time was when the country folk
+and the hunters hereabouts brought me offerings to this cave for sheer
+piety’s sake. But now they never come near unless they see a way of
+getting good value in return for their gifts. And, by result, instead
+of living fat and hearty, I make lean meals off honey and grubs. It’s
+a poor life, a nymph’s, in these latter years I tell you, my lord. It’s
+the fashion for all classes to believe in no kind of mystery now.”
+
+“What manner of pestilence is this you spoke of?”
+
+“I have not seen it. Thank the Gods it has not come this way. But they
+do say that it has grown from the folk Phorenice has slain, and whose
+bodies remain unburied. She is always slaying, and so the bodies lie
+thicker than the birds and beasts can eat them. For which of our sins,
+I wonder, did the Gods let Phorenice come to reign? I wish that she and
+her twins were boiled alive in brine before they came between an honest
+nymph of the forest and her living.
+
+“They say she has put an image of herself in all the temples of the
+city now, and has ordered prayers and sacrifices to be made night
+and morning. She has decreed all other Gods inferior to herself
+and forbidden their worship, and those of the people that are not
+sufficiently devout for her taste, have their hamstrings slit by their
+tormentors to aid them constantly into a devotional attitude.--Will you
+eat of my grubs and honey? There is nothing else. Your back was bloody
+with carrying meat when I met you, but you had lost your load. You must
+either taste this mess of mine now, or go without.”
+
+I harboured with that nymph in cave six days, she using her drugs and
+charms to cure my leg the while, and when I was recovered, I hunted the
+plains and killed her a fat cloven-hoofed horse as payment, and then
+went along my ways.
+
+The country from there onwards had at one time carried a sturdy
+population which held its own firmly, and, as its numbers grew, took in
+more ground, and built more homesteads farther afield. The houses were
+perched in trees for the most part, as there they were out of reach
+of cave-bear and cave-tiger and the other more dangerous beasts. But
+others, and these were the better ones, were built on the ground, of
+logs so ponderous and so firmly clamped and dovetailed that the beasts
+could not pull them down, and once inside a house of this fashion
+its owners were safe, and could progue at any attackers through the
+interstices between the logs, and often wound, sometimes make a kill.
+
+But not one in ten of these outlying settlers remained. The houses were
+silent when I reached them, the fire-hearth before the door weed-grown,
+and the patch of vegetables taken back by the greedy fingers of the
+forest into mere scrub and jungle. And farther on, when villages began
+to appear, strongly-walled as the custom is, to ward off the attacks of
+beasts, the logs which aforetime had barred the gateway lay strewn in
+a sprouting undergrowth, and naught but the kitchen middens remained to
+prove that once they had sheltered human tenants. Phorenice’s influence
+seemed to have spread as though it were some horrid blight over the
+whole face of what was once a smiling and an easy-living land.
+
+So far I had met with little enough interference from any men I had come
+across. Many had fled with their women into the depths of the forest at
+the bare sight of me; some stood their ground with a threatening face,
+but made no offer to attack, seeing that I did not offer them insult
+first; and a few, a very few, offered me shelter and provision. But as
+I neared the city, and began to come upon muddy beaten paths, I passed
+through governments that were more thickly populated, and here appeared
+strong chance of delay. The watcher in the tower which is set above each
+village would spy me and cry: “Here is a masterless man,” and then the
+people that were within would rush out with intent to spoil me of my
+weapons, and afterwards to appoint me as a labourer.
+
+I had no desire to slay these wretched folk, being filled with pity at
+the state to which they had fallen; and often words served me to make
+them stand aside from the path, and stare wonderingly at my fierceness,
+and let me go my ways. And when at other times words had no avail, I
+strove to strike as lightly as could be, my object being to get forward
+with my journey and leave no unnecessary dead behind me. Indeed, having
+found the modern way of these villages, it grew to be my custom to turn
+off into the forest, and make a circuit whenever I came within smell of
+their garbage.
+
+Similarly, too, when I got farther on, and came amongst greater towns
+also, I kept beyond challenge of their walls, having no mind to risk
+delay from the whim of any new law which might chance to be set up by
+their governors. My progress might be slinking, but my pride did not
+upbraid me very loudly; indeed, the fever of haste burned within me so
+hot and I had little enough carrying space for other emotions.
+
+But at last I found myself within a half-day’s journey the city of
+Atlantis itself, with the Sacred Mountain and its ring of fires looming
+high beside it, and the call for caution became trebly accentuated.
+Everywhere evidences showed that the country had been drained of its
+fighting men. Everywhere women prayed that the battles might end
+with the rout of the Priests or the killing of Phorenice, so that the
+wretched land might have peace and time to lick its wounds.
+
+An army was investing the Sacred Mountain, and its one approach was most
+narrowly guarded. Even after having journeyed so far, it seemed as if I
+should have to sit hopelessly down without being able to carry out the
+orders which had been laid upon me by the High Council, and earn the
+reward which had been promised. Force would be useless here. I should
+have one good fight--a gorgeous fight--one man against an army, and my
+usefulness would be ended.... No; this was the occasion for guile, and
+I found covert in the outskirts of a wood, and lay there cudgelling my
+brain for a plan.
+
+Across the plain before me lay the grim great walls of the city, with
+the heads of its temples, and its palaces, and its pyramids showing
+beyond. The step-sides of the royal pyramid held my eye. Phorenice had
+expended some of her new-found store of gold in overlaying their former
+whiteness with sheets of shining yellow metal. But it was not that
+change that moved me. I was remembering that, in the square before the
+pyramid, there stood a throne of granite carved with the snake and the
+outstretched hand, and in the hollow beneath the throne was Nais, my
+love, asleep these eight years now because of the drug that had been
+given to her, but alive still, and waiting for me, if only I on my
+part could make a way to the place where Zaemon defied the Empress, and
+announce my coming.
+
+In that covert of the woods I lay a day and a night raging with myself
+for not discovering some plan to get within the defences of the Sacred
+Mountain, but in the morning which followed, there came a man towards me
+running.
+
+“You need not threaten me with your weapons,” he cried. “I mean no harm.
+It seems that you are Deucalion; though I should not have known you
+myself in those rags and skins, and behind that tangle of hair and
+beard. You will give me your good word I know. Believe me, I have not
+loitered unduly.”
+
+He was a lower priest whom I knew, and held in little esteem; his name
+was Ro, a greedy fellow and not overworthy of trust. “From whom do you
+come?” I asked.
+
+“Zaemon laid a command on me. He came to my house, though how he got
+there I cannot tell, seeing that Phorenice’s army blocks all possible
+passage to and from the Mountain. I told him I wished to be mixed with
+none of his schemings. I am a peaceful man, Deucalion, and have taken a
+wife who requires nourishment. I still serve in the same temple, though
+we have swept out the old Gods by order of the Empress, and put her
+image in their place. The people are tidily pious nowadays, those that
+are left of them, and the living is consequently easy. Yes, I tell you
+there are far more offerings now than there were in the old days. And
+so I had no wish to be mixed with matters which might well make me be
+deprived of a snug post, and my head to boot.”
+
+“I can believe it all of you, Ro.”
+
+“But there was no denying Zaemon. He burst into one of his black furies,
+and while he spoke at me, I tell you I felt as good as dead. You know
+his powers?”
+
+“I have seen some of them.”
+
+“Well, the Gods alone know which are the true Gods, and which are the
+others. I serve the one that gives me employment. But those that Zaemon
+serves give him power, and that’s beyond denying. You see that right
+hand of mine? It is dead and paralysed from the wrist, and that is
+a gift of Zaemon. He bestowed it, he said, to make me collect my
+attention. Then he said more hard things concerning what he was pleased
+to term my apostasy, not letting me put up a word in my own defence of
+how the change was forced upon me. And finally, said he, I might
+either do his bidding on a certain matter to the letter, or take that
+punishment which my falling away from the old Gods had earned. ‘I
+shall not kill you,’ said he, ‘but I will cover all your limbs with a
+paralysis, such as you have tasted already, and when at length death
+reaches you in some gutter, you will welcome it.’”
+
+“If Zaemon said those words, he meant them. So you accepted the
+alternative?”
+
+“Had I, with a wife depending on me, any other choice? I asked his
+pleasure. It was to find you when you came in here from some distant
+part of the land, and deliver to you his message.
+
+“‘Then tell me where is the meeting place,’ said I, ‘and when.’
+
+“‘There is none appointed, nor is the day fixed,’ said he. ‘You must
+watch and search always for him. But when he comes, you will be guided
+to his place.’ Well, Deucalion, I think I was guided, but how, I do
+not know. But now I have found you, and if there’s such a thing as
+gratitude, I ask you to put in your word with Zaemon that this deadness
+be taken away from my hand. It’s an awful thing for a man to be forced
+to go through life like this, for no real fault of his own. And Zaemon
+could cure it from where he sat, if he was so minded.”
+
+“You seem still to have a very full faith in some of the old Gods’
+priests,” I said. “But so far, I do not see that your errand is done. I
+have had no message yet.”
+
+“Why, the message is so simple that I do not see why he could not have
+got some one else to carry it. You are to make a great blaze. You may
+fire the grasses of the plain in front of this wood if you choose. And
+on the night which follows, you are to go round to that flank of the
+Sacred Mountain away from the city where the rocks run down sheer, and
+there they will lower a rope and haul you up to their hands above.”
+
+“It seems easy, and I thank you for your pains. I will ask Zaemon that
+your hand may be restored to you.”
+
+“You shall have my prayers if it is. And look, Deucalion, it is a small
+matter, and it would be less likely to slip your memory if you saw to it
+at once on your landing. Later, you may be disturbed. Phorenice is bound
+to pull you down off your perch up there now she has made her mind to
+it. She never fails, once she has set her hand to a thing. Indeed,
+if she was no Goddess at birth, she is making herself into one very
+rapidly. She has got all the ancient learning of our Priests, and more
+besides. She has discovered the Secret of Life these recent months--”
+
+“She has found that?” I cried, fairly startled. “How? Tell me how? Only
+the Three know that. It is beyond our knowledge even who are members of
+the Seven.”
+
+“I know nothing of her means. But she has the secret, and now she is as
+good an immortal (so she says) as any of them. Well, Deucalion, it is
+dangerous for me to be missing from my temple overlong, so I will go.
+You will carry that matter we spoke of in your mind? It means much
+to me.”--His eye wandered over my ragged person--“And if you think my
+service is of value to you--”
+
+“You see me poor, my man, and practically destitute.”
+
+“Some small coin,” he murmured, “or even a link of bronze? I am at
+great expense just now buying nourishment for my wife. Well, if you have
+nothing, you cannot give. So I’ll just bid you farewell.”
+
+He took himself off then, and I was not sorry. I had never liked Ro. But
+I wasted no more precious time then. The grass blazed up for a signal
+almost before his timorous heels were clear of it, and that night when
+the darkness gave me cover, I took the risk of what beasts might be
+prowling, and went to the place appointed. There was no rope dangling,
+but presently one came down the smooth cliff face like some slender
+snake. I made a loop, slipped it over a leg, and pulled hard as a
+signal. Those above began to haul, and so I went back to the Sacred
+Mountain after an absence of so many toilsome and warring years. There
+were none to disturb the ascent. Phorenice’s troops had no thought to
+guard that gaunt, bare, seamless precipice.
+
+The men who hauled me up were old, and panted heavily with their task,
+and, until I knew the reason, I wondered why a knot of younger priests
+had not been appointed for the duty. But I put no question. With us of
+the Priests’ Clan on the Sacred Mountain, it is always taken as granted
+that when an order is given, it is given for the best. Besides, these
+priests did not offer themselves to question. They took me off at once
+to Zaemon, and that is what I could have wished.
+
+The old man greeted me with the royal sign. “All hail to Deucalion,” he
+cried, “King of Atlantis, duly called thereto by the High Council of the
+priests.”
+
+“Is Phorenice dead?” I asked.
+
+“It remains for you to slay her, and take your kingdom, if, indeed,
+when all is done, there remains a man or a rood of land to govern. The
+sentence has gone out that she is to die, and it shall be carried into
+effect, even though we have to set loose the most dreadful powers that
+are stored in the Ark of the Mysteries, and wreck this continent in our
+effort. We have borne with her infamies all these years by command sent
+down by the most High Gods; but now she has gone beyond endurance, and
+They it is who have given the word for her cutting off.”
+
+“You are one of the highest Three; I am only one of the Seven; you best
+know the cost.”
+
+“There can be no counting the cost now, my brother, and my king. It is
+an order.”
+
+“It is an order,” I repeated formally, “so I obey.”
+
+“If it were not impious to do so, it would be easy to justify this
+decision of the Gods. The woman has usurped the throne; yet she was
+forgiven and bidden rule on wisely. She has tampered with our holy
+religion; yet she was forgiven. She has killed the peoples of Atlantis
+in greedy useless wars, and destroyed the country’s trade; yet she was
+forgiven. She has desecrated the old temples, and latterly has set up
+in them images of herself to be worshipped as a deity; yet she was
+forgiven. But at last her evil cleverness has discovered to her the
+tremendous Secret of Life and Death, and there she overstepped the
+boundary of the High Gods’ forbearance.
+
+“I myself went to carry a final warning, and once more faced her in
+the great banqueting-hall. Solemnly I recited to her the edict, and she
+chose to take it as a challenge. She would live on eternally herself and
+she would share her knowledge with those that pleased her. Tatho that
+was her husband should also be immortal. Indeed, if she thought fit, she
+would cry the secret aloud so that even the common people might know it,
+and death from mere age would become a legend.
+
+“She cared no wit how she might upset the laws of Nature. She was
+Phorenice, and was the highest law of all. And finally she defied me
+there in that banqueting-hall and defied also the High Gods that stood
+behind my mouth. ‘My magic is as strong as yours, you pompous fool,’
+she cried, ‘and presently you shall see the two stand side by side upon
+their trial.’
+
+“She began to collect an army from that moment, and we on our part made
+our preparations. It was discovered by our arts that you still lived,
+and King of Atlantis you were made by solemn election. How you were
+summoned, you know as nearly as it is lawful that one of your degree
+should know; how you came, you understand best yourself; but here you
+are, my brother, and being King now, you must order all things as you
+see best for the preservation of your high estate, and we others live
+only to give you obedience.”
+
+“Then being King, I can speak without seeming to make use of a threat.
+I must have my Queen first, or I am not strong enough to give my whole
+mind to this ruling.”
+
+“She shall be brought here.”
+
+“So! Then I will be a General now, and see to the defences of this
+place, and view the men who are here to stand behind them.”
+
+I went out of the dwelling then, Zaemon giving place and following me.
+It was night still but there is no darkness on the upper part of the
+Sacred Mountain. A ring of fires, fed eternally from the earth-breath
+which wells up from below, burns round one-half of the crest, lighting
+it always as bright as day, and in fact forming no small part of its
+fortification. Indeed, it is said that, in the early dawn of history,
+men first came to the Mountain as a stronghold because of the natural
+defence which the fires offered.
+
+There is no bridging these flames or smothering them. On either side
+of their line for a hundred paces the ground glows with heat, and a man
+would be turned to ash who tried to cross it. Round full one-half the
+mountain slopes the fires make a rampart unbreakable, and on the other
+side the rock runs in one sheer precipice from the crest to the plain
+which spreads beyond its foot. But it is on this farther side that there
+is the only entrance way which gives passage to the crest of the Sacred
+Mountain from below. Running diagonally up the steep face of the cliff
+is a gigantic fissure, which succeeding ages (as man has grown more
+luxurious) have made more easy to climb.
+
+Looking at the additions, in the ancient days, I can well imagine that
+none but the most daring could have made the ascent. But one generation
+has thrown a bridge over a bad gap here, and another has cut into the
+living stone and widened a ledge there, till in these latter years there
+is a path with cut steps and carved balustrade such as the feeblest or
+most giddy might traverse with little effort or exertion. But always
+when these improvers made smooth the obstacles, they were careful to
+weaken in no possible way the natural defences but rather to add to
+them.
+
+Eight gates of stone there were cutting the pathway, each commanding
+a straight, steep piece of the ascent, and overhanging each gate was a
+gallery secure from arrow-shot, yet so contrived that great stones could
+be hurled through holes in the floor of it, in such a manner that they
+must irretrievably smash to a pulp any men advancing against it from
+below. And in caves dug out from the rock on either hand was a great
+hoard of these stones, so that no enemy through sheer expenditure of
+troops could hope to storm a gate by exhausting its ammunition.
+
+But though there were eight of these granite gates in the series, we had
+the whole number to depend on no longer. The lowest gate was held by
+a garrison of Phorenice’s troops, who had built a wall above them to
+protect their occupation. The gate had been gained by no brilliant feat
+of arms--it had been won by threats, bribery, and promises; or, in other
+words, it had been given up by the blackest treachery.
+
+And here lay the keynote of the weakness in our defence. The most
+perfect ramparts that brain can invent are useless without men to line
+them, and it was men we lacked. Of students entering into the colleges
+of the Sacred Mountain, there had been none now for many a year. The
+younger generation thought little of the older Gods. Of the men that had
+grown up amongst the sacred groves, and filled offices there, many had
+become lukewarm in their faith and remained on only through habit, and
+because an easy living stayed near them there; and these, when the siege
+began, quickly made their way over to the other side.
+
+Phorenice was no fool to fight against unnecessary strength. Her heralds
+made proclamation that peace and a good subsistence would be given to
+those who chose to come out to her willingly; and as an alternative she
+would kill by torture and mutilation those she caught in the place when
+she took it by storm, as she most assuredly would do before she had
+finished with it. And so great was the prestige of her name, that quite
+one-half of these that remained on the mountain took themselves away
+from the defence.
+
+There was no attempt to hold back these sorry priests, nor was there any
+punishing them as they went. Zaemon, indeed, was minded (so he told me
+with grim meaning himself) to give them some memento of their apostasy
+to carry away which would not wear out, but the others of the High
+Council made him stay his vengeful hand. And so when I came to the place
+the garrison numbered no more than eighty, counting even feeble old
+dotards who could barely walk; and of men not past their prime I could
+barely command a score.
+
+Still, seeing the narrowness of the passages which led to each of the
+gates, up which in no place could more than two men advance together, we
+were by no means in desperate straits for the defence as yet; and if my
+new-given kingdom was so far small, consisting as it did in effect of
+the Sacred Mountain and no other part of Atlantis, at any rate there
+seemed little danger of its being further contracted.
+
+Another of the wise precautions of the men of old stood us in good stead
+then. In the ancient times, when grain first was grown as food, it came
+to be looked upon as the acme of wealth. Tribute was always paid from
+the people to their Priests, and presently, so the old histories say,
+it was appointed that this should take the form of grain, as this was
+a medium both dignified and fitting. And those of the people who had
+it not, were forced to barter their other produce for grain before they
+could pay this tribute.
+
+On the Sacred Mountain itself vast storehouses were dug in the rock, and
+here the grain was teemed in great yellow heaps, and each generation of
+those that were set over it, took a pride in adding to the accumulation.
+
+In more modern days it had been a custom amongst the younger and more
+forward of the Priests to scoff at this ancient provision, and to hold
+that a treasure of gold, or weapons, or jewels would have more value and
+no less of dignity; and more than once it has been a close thing
+lest these innovators should not be out-voted. But as it was, the old
+constitution had happily been preserved, and now in these years of trial
+the Clan reaped the benefit. And so with these granaries, and a series
+of great tanks and cisterns which held the rainfall, there was no chance
+of Phorenice reducing our stronghold by mere close investment, even
+though she sat down stubbornly before it for a score of years.
+
+But it was the paucity of men for the defence which oppressed me most.
+As I took my way about the head of the Mountain, inspecting all points,
+the emptiness of the place smote me like a succession of blows. The
+groves, once so trim, were now shaggy and unpruned. Wind had whirled
+the leaves in upon the temple floors, and they lay there unswept. The
+college of youths held no more now than a musty smell to bear witness
+that men had once been grown there. The homely palaces of the higher
+Priests, at one time so ardently sought after, lay many of them empty,
+because not even one candidate came forward now to canvass for election.
+
+Evil thoughts surged up within me as I saw these things, that were
+direct promptings from the nether Gods. “There must be something
+wanting,” these tempters whispered, “in a religion from which so many of
+its Priests fled at the first pinch of persecution.”
+
+I did what I could to thrust these waverings resolutely behind me; but
+they refused to be altogether ousted from my brain; and so I made a
+compromise with myself: First, I would with the help that might be given
+me, destroy this wanton Phorenice, and regain the kingdom which had been
+given me to my own proper rule; and afterwards I would call a council
+of the Seven and council of the Three, and consider without prejudice
+if there was any matter in which our ancient ritual could be amended
+to suit the more modern requirements. But this should not be done till
+Phorenice was dead and I was firmly planted in her room. I would not be
+a party, even to myself, to any plan which smacked at all of surrender.
+
+And there as I walked through the desolate groves and beside the cold
+altars, the High Gods were pleased to show their approval of my scheme,
+and to give me opportunity to bind myself to it with a solemn oath and
+vow. At that moment from His distant resting-place in the East, our Lord
+the Sun leaped up to begin another day. For long enough from where I
+stood below the crest of the Mountain, He Himself would be invisible.
+But the great light of His glory spread far into the sky, and against it
+the Ark of the Mysteries loomed in black outline from the highest crag
+where it rested, lonely and terrible.
+
+For anyone unauthorised to go nearer than a thousand paces to this
+storehouse of the Highest Mysteries meant instant death. On that day
+when I was initiated as one of the Seven, I had been permitted to go
+near and once press my lips against its ample curves; and the rank of
+my degree gave me the privilege to repeat that salute again once on each
+day when a new year was born. But what lay inside its great interior,
+and how it was entered, that was hidden from the Seven, even as it was
+from the other Priests and the common people in the city below. Only
+those who had been raised to the sublime elevation of the Three had a
+knowledge of the dreadful powers which were stored within it.
+
+I went down on my knees where I was, and Zaemon knelt beside me, and
+together we recited the prayers which had been said by the Priests from
+the beginning of time, giving thanks to our great Lord that He has
+come to brighten another day. And then, with my eyes fixed on the black
+outline of the Ark of Mysteries I vowed that, come what might, I at
+least would be true servant of the High Gods to my life’s end, and that
+my whole strength should be spent in restoring Their worship and glory.
+
+
+
+
+17. NAIS THE REGAINED
+
+
+Now, from where we stood together just below the crest of the Sacred
+Mountain, we could see down into the city, which lay spread out below
+us like a map. The harbour and the great estuary gleamed at its
+farther side; and the fringe of hills beyond smoked and fumed in their
+accustomed fashion; the great stone circle of our Lord the Sun stood
+up grim and bare in the middle of the city; and nearer in reared up the
+great mass of the royal pyramid, the gold on its sides catching new gold
+from the Sun. There, too, in the square before the pyramid stood the
+throne of granite, dwarfed by the distance to the size of a mole’s hill,
+in which these nine years my love had lain sleeping.
+
+Old Zaemon followed my gaze. “Ay,” he said with a sigh, “I know where
+your chief interest is. Deucalion when he landed here new from Yucatan
+was a strong man. The King whom we have chosen--and who is the best we
+have to choose--has his weakness.”
+
+“It can be turned into additional strength. Give me Nais here, living
+and warm to fight for, and I am a stronger man by far than the cold
+viceroy and soldier that you speak about.”
+
+“I have passed my word to that already, and you shall have her, but at
+the cost of damaging somewhat this new kingdom of yours. Maybe too at
+the same time we may rid you of this Phorenice and her brood. But I do
+not think it likely. She is too wily, and once we begin our play, she is
+likely to guess whence it comes, and how it will end, and so will make
+an escape before harm can reach her. The High Gods, who have sent
+all these trials for our refinement, have seen fit to give her some
+knowledge of how these earth tremors may be set a-moving.”
+
+“I have seen her juggle with them. But may I hear your scheme?”
+
+“It will be shown you in good time enough. But for the present I would
+bid you sleep. It will be your part to go into the city to-night, and
+take your woman (that is my daughter) when she is set free, and bring
+her here as best you can. And for that you will need all a strong man’s
+strength.”--He stepped back, and looked me up and down.--“There are not
+many folk that would take you for the tidy clean-chinned Deucalion now,
+my brother. Your appearance will be a fine armour for you down yonder in
+the city to-night when we wake it with our earth-shaking and terror.
+As you stand now, you are hairy enough, and shaggy enough, and naked
+enough, and dirty enough for some wild savage new landed out of Europe.
+Have a care that no fine citizen down yonder takes a fancy to your
+thews, and seizes upon you as his servant.”
+
+“I somewhat pity him in his household if he does.”
+
+Old Zaemon laughed. “Why, come to think of it, so do I.”
+
+But quickly he got grave again. Laughter and Zaemon were very rare
+playmates. “Well, get you to bed, my King, and leave me to go into the
+Ark of Mysteries and prepare there with another of the Three the things
+that must be done. It is no light business to handle the tremendous
+powers which we must put into movement this night. And there is danger
+for us as there is for you. So if by chance we do not meet again till we
+stand up yonder behind the stars, giving account to the Gods, fare you
+well, Deucalion.”
+
+I slept that day as a soldier sleeps, taking full rest out of the hours,
+and letting no harassing thought disturb me. It is only the weak who
+permit their sleep to be broken on these occasions. And when the dark
+was well set, I roused and fetched those who should attend to the rope.
+Our Lady the Moon did not shine at that turn of the month: and the air
+was full of a great blackness. So I was out of sight all the while they
+lowered me.
+
+I reached the tumbled rocks that lay at the deep foot of the cliff,
+and then commenced to use a nice caution, because Phorenice’s soldiers
+squatted uneasily round their camp-fires, as though they had forebodings
+of the coming evil. I had no mind to further stir their wakefulness. So
+I crept swiftly along in the darkest of the shadows, and at last came to
+the spot where that passage ends which before I had used to get beneath
+the walls of the city.
+
+The lamp was in place, and I made my way along the windings swiftly. The
+air, so it seemed to me, was even more noxious with vapours than it had
+been when I was down there before, and I judged that Zaemon had already
+begun to stir those internal activities which were shortly to convulse
+the city. But again I had difficulty in finding an exit, and this, not
+because there were people moving about at the places where I had to come
+out, but because the set of the masonry was entirely changed. In olden
+times the Priests’ Clan oversaw all the architects’ plans, and ruled out
+anything likely to clash with their secret passages and chambers. But
+in this modern day the Priests were of small account, and had no say in
+this matter, and the architects often through sheer blundering sealed up
+and made useless many of these outlets and hiding-places.
+
+As it was then, I had to get out of the network of tunnels and galleries
+where I could, and not where I would, and in the event found myself at
+the farther side of the city, almost up to where the outer wall joins
+down to the harbour. I came out without being seen, careful even in this
+moment of extremity to preserve the ordinances, and closed all traces of
+exit behind me. The earth seemed to spring beneath my feet like the deck
+of a ship in smooth water; and though there was no actual movement as
+yet to disturb the people, and indeed these slept on in their houses and
+shelters without alarm, I could feel myself that the solid deadness
+of the ground was gone, and that any moment it might break out into
+devastating waves of movement.
+
+Gods! Should I be too late to see the untombing of my love? Would she be
+laid there bare to the public gaze when presently the people swarmed out
+into the open spaces through fear at what the great earth tremor might
+cause to fall? I could see, in fancy, their rude, cruel hands thrust
+upon her as she lay there helpless, and my inwards dried up at the
+thought.
+
+I ran madly down and down the narrow winding streets with the one
+thought of coming to the square which lay in front of the royal pyramid
+before these things came to pass. With exquisite cruelty I had been
+forced with my own hands to place her alive in her burying-place beneath
+the granite throne, and if thews and speed could do it, I would not miss
+my reward of taking her forth again with the same strong hands.
+
+Few disturbed that furious hurry. At first here and there some wretch
+who harboured in the gutter cried: “A thief! Throw a share or I pursue.”
+ But if any of these followed, I do not know. At any rate, my speed then
+must have out-distanced anyone. Presently, too, as the swing of the
+earth underfoot became more keen, and the stonework of the buildings by
+the street side began to grate and groan and grit, and sent forth little
+showers of dust, people began to run with scared cries from out of their
+doors. But none of these had a mind to stop the ragged, shaggy, savage
+man who ran so swiftly past, and flung the mud from his naked feet.
+
+And so in time I came to the great square, and was there none too soon.
+The place was filling with people who flocked away from the narrow
+streets, and it was full of darkness, and noise, and dust, and sickness.
+Beneath us the ground rippled in undulations like a sea, which with
+terrifying slowness grew more and more intense.
+
+Ever and again a house crashed down unseen in the gloom, and added to
+the tumult. But the great pyramid had been planned by its old builders
+to stand rude shocks. Its stones were dovetailed into one another with a
+marvellous cleverness, and were further clamped and joined by ponderous
+tongues of metal. It was a boast that one-half the foundations could be
+dug from beneath it, and still the pyramid would stand four-square under
+heaven, more enduring than the hills.
+
+Flickering torches showed that its great stone doors lay open, and ever
+and again I saw some frightened inmate scurry out and then be lost to
+sight in the gloom. But with the royal pyramid and its ultimate fate
+I had little concern; I did not even care then whether Phorenice was
+trapped, or whether she came out sound and fit for further mischief.
+I crouched by the granite throne which stood in the middle of that
+splendid square, and heard its stones grate together like the ends of a
+broken bone as it rocked to the earth-waves.
+
+In that night of dust and darkness it was hard to see the outline of
+one’s own hand, but I think that the Gods in some requital for the love
+which had ached so long within me, gave me special power of sight. As
+I watched, I saw the great carved rock which formed the capstone of the
+throne move slightly and then move again, and then again; a tiny jerk
+for each earth-pulse, but still there was an appreciable shifting; and,
+moreover, the stone moved always to one side.
+
+There was method in Zaemon’s desperate work, and this in my blind panic
+of love and haste, I had overlooked. So I went up the steps of the
+throne on the side from which the great capstone was moving, and clung
+there afire with expectation.
+
+More and more violent did the earth-swing grow, though the graduations
+of its increase could not be perceived, and the din of falling houses
+and the shrieks and cries of hurt and frightened people went louder
+up into the night. Thicker grew the dust that filled the air, till one
+coughed and strangled in the breathing, and more black did the night
+become as the dust rose and blotted the rare stars from sight. I clung
+to an angle of the granite throne, crouching on the uppermost step but
+one below the capstone, and could scarcely keep my place against the
+violence of the earth tremors.
+
+But still the huge capstone that was carved with the snake and the
+outstretched hand held my love fast locked in her living tomb, and I
+could have bit the cold granite at the impotence which barred me from
+her. The people who kept thronging into the square were mad with
+terror, but their very numbers made my case more desperate every moment.
+“Phorenice, Goddess, aid us now!” some cried, and when the prayer
+did not bring them instant relief, they fell to yammering out the old
+confessions of the faith which they had learned in childhood, turning
+in this hour of their dreadful need to those old Gods, which, through
+so many dishonourable years, they had spurned and deserted. It was a
+curious criticism on the balance of their real religion, if one had
+cared to make it.
+
+Louder grew the crash of falling masonry; and from the royal pyramid
+itself, though indeed I could not even see its outline through the
+darkness, there came sounds of grinding stones and cracking bars of
+metal which told that even its superb majestic strength had a breaking
+strain. There came to my mind the threat that old Zaemon had thundered
+forth in that painted, perfumed banqueting-hall: “You shall see,” he had
+cried to the Empress, “this royal pyramid which you have polluted
+with your debaucheries torn tier from tier, and stone from stone, and
+scattered as feathers spread before a wind!”
+
+Still heavier grew the surging of the earth, and the pavement of the
+great square gaped and upheaved, and the people who thronged it screamed
+still more shrilly as their feet were crushed by the grinding blocks.
+And now too the great pyramid itself was commencing to split, and
+gape, and topple. The roofs of its splendid chambers gave way, and the
+ponderous masonry above shuttered down and filled them. In part, too,
+one could see the destruction now, and not guess at it merely from the
+fearful hearings of the darkness. Thunders had begun to roar through
+the black night above, and add their bellowings to this devil’s
+orchestration of uproar, and vivid lightning splashes lit the flying
+dust-clouds.
+
+It was perhaps natural that she should be there, but it came as a
+shock when a flare of the lightning showed me Phorenice safe out in the
+square, and indeed standing not far from myself.
+
+She had taken her place in the middle of a great flagstone, and stood
+there swaying her supple body to the shocks. Her face was calm, and its
+loveliness was untouched by the years. From time to time she brushed
+away the dust as it settled on the short red hair which curled about her
+neck. There was no trace of fear written upon her face. There was some
+weariness, some contempt, and I think a tinge of amusement. Yes, it took
+more than the crumbling of her royal pyramid to impress Phorenice with
+the infinite powers of those she warred against.
+
+Gods! How the sight of her cool indifference maddened me then. I had
+it in me to have strangled her with my hands if she had come within
+my reach. But as it was, she stood in her place, swaying easily to the
+earth-waves as a sailor sways on a ship’s deck, and beside her, crouched
+on the same great flagstone, and overcome with nausea was Ylga, who
+again was raised to be her fan-girl. It came to my mind that Ylga was
+twin sister to Nais, and that I owed her for an ancient kindness, but I
+had leisure to do nothing for her then, and indeed it was little enough
+I could have done. With each shock the great capstone of the throne to
+which I clung jarred farther and farther from its bed place, and my love
+was coming nearer to me. It was she who claimed all my service then.
+
+Once in their blind panic a knot of the people in the square thought
+that the granite stone was too solid to be overturned, and saw in it
+an oasis of safety. They flocked towards it, many of them dragging
+themselves up the steep deep high steps on hands and knees because their
+feet had been injured by the billowing flagstones of the square.
+
+But I was in no mood to have the place profaned by their silly
+tremblings and stares: I beat at them with my hands, tearing them away,
+and hurling them back down the steepness of the steps. They asked me
+what was my title to the place above their own, and I answered them with
+blows and gnashing teeth. I was careless as to what they thought me or
+who they thought me. Only I wished them gone. And so they went, wailing
+and crying that I was a devil of the night, for they had no spirit left
+to defend themselves.
+
+Farther and farther the great stone that made the top of the throne slid
+out from its bed, but its slowness of movement maddened me. A life’s
+education left me in that moment, and I had no trace of stately patience
+left. In my puny fury I thrust at the great block with my shoulder and
+head, and clawed at it with my hands till the muscles rose on me
+in great ropes and knots, and the High Gods must have laughed at my
+helplessness as They looked. All was being ordered by the Three who were
+Their trusted servants, in Their good time. The work of the Gods may be
+done slowly, but it is done exceeding sure.
+
+But at last, when all the people of the city were numb with terror,
+and incapable of further emotion (save only for Phorenice who still had
+nerve enough to show no concern), what had been threatened came to pass.
+The capstone of the throne slid out till it reached the balance, and the
+next shock threw it with a roar and a clatter to the ground. And then a
+strange tremor seized me.
+
+After all the scheming and effort, what I had so ardently prayed for had
+come about; but yet my inwards sank at the thought of mounting on the
+stone where I had mounted before, and taking my dear from the hollow
+where my hands had laid her. I knew Phorenice’s vengefulness, and had a
+high value for her cleverness. Had she left Nais to lie in peace, or had
+she stolen her away to suffer indignities elsewhere? Or had she ended
+her sleep with death, and (as a grisly jest) left the corpse for my
+finding? I could not tell; I dared not guess. Never during a whole
+hard-fighting life have my emotions been so wrenched as they were at
+that moment. And, for excuse, it must be owned that love for Nais
+had sapped my hardihood over a matter in which she was so privately
+concerned.
+
+It began to come to my mind, however, that the infernal uproar of the
+earth tremor was beginning to slacken somewhat, as though Zaemon knew
+he had done the work that he had promised, and was minded to give the
+wretched city a breathing space. So I took my fortitude in hand, and
+clambered up on to the flat of the stone. The lightning flashes had
+ceased and all was darkness again and stifling dust, but at any moment
+the sky might be lit once more, and if I were seen in that place, shaggy
+and changed though I might be, Phorenice, if she were standing near,
+would not be slow to guess my name and errand.
+
+So changed was I for the moment, that I will finely confess that the
+idea of a fight was loathsome to me then. I wanted to have my business
+done and get gone from the place.
+
+With hands that shook, I fumbled over the face of the stone and found
+the clamps and bars of metal still in position where I had clenched
+them, and then reverently I let my fingers pass between these, and felt
+the curves of my love’s body in its rest beneath. An exultation began
+to whirl within me. I did not know if she had been touched since I last
+left her; I did not know if the drug would have its due effect, and let
+her be awakened to warmth and sight again; but, dead or alive, I had her
+there, and she was mine, mine, mine, and I could have yelled aloud in my
+joy at her possession.
+
+Still the earth shook beneath us, and masonry roared and crashed into
+ruin. I had to cling to my place with one hand, whilst I unhasped the
+clamps of metal that made the top of her prison with the other. But at
+last I swung the upper half of them clear, and those which pinned down
+her feet I let remain. I stooped and drew her soft body up on to the
+flat of the stone beside me, and pressed my lips a hundred times to the
+face I could not see.
+
+Some mad thought took me, I believe, that the mere fierceness and heat
+of my kisses would bring her back again to life and wakefulness. Indeed
+I will own plainly, that I did but sorry credit to my training in
+calmness that night. But she lay in my arms cold and nerveless as a
+corpse, and by degrees my sober wits returned to me.
+
+This was no place for either of us. Let the earth’s tremors cease (as
+was plainly threatened), let daylight come, and let a few of these
+nerveless people round recover from their panic, and all the great cost
+that had been expended might be counted as waste. We should be seen,
+and it would not be long before some one put a name to Nais; and then
+it would be an easy matter to guess at Deucalion under the beard and the
+shaggy hair and the browned nakedness of the savage who attended on her.
+Tell of fright? By the Gods! I was scared as the veriest trembler who
+blundered amongst the dust-clouds that night when the thought came to
+me.
+
+With all that ruin spread around, it would be hopeless to think that any
+of those secret galleries which tunnelled under the ground would be left
+unbroken, and so it was useless to try a passage under the walls by the
+old means. But I had heard shouts from that frightened mob which came to
+me through the din and the darkness, that gave another idea for escape.
+“The city is accursed,” they had cried: “if we stay here it will fall
+on us. Let us get outside the walls where there are no buildings to bury
+us.”
+
+If they went, I could not see. But one gate lay nearest to the royal
+pyramid, and I judged that in their panic they would not go farther than
+was needful. So I put the body of Nais over my shoulder (to leave my
+right arm free) and blundered off as best I could through the stifling
+darkness.
+
+It was hard to find a direction; it was hard to walk in the inky
+darkness over ground that was tossed and tumbled like a frozen sea:
+and as the earth still quaked and heaved, it was hard also to keep a
+footing. But if I did fall myself a score of times, my dear burden got
+no bruise, and presently I got to the skirts of the square, and found
+a street I knew. The most venomous part of the shaking was done, and no
+more buildings fell, but enough lay sprawled over the roadway to make
+walking into a climb, and the sweat rolled from me as I laboured along
+my way.
+
+There was no difficulty about passing the gate. There was no gate. There
+was no wall. The Gods had driven their plough through it, and it lay
+flat, and proud Atlantis stood as defenceless as the open country.
+Though I knew the cause of this ruin, though, in fact, I had myself in
+some measure incited it, I was almost sad at the ruthlessness with which
+it had been carried out. The royal pyramid might go, houses and palaces
+might be levelled, and for these I cared little enough; but when I saw
+those stately ramparts also filched away, there the soldier in me woke,
+and I grieved at this humbling of the mighty city that once had been my
+only mistress.
+
+But this was only a passing regret, a mere touch of the fighting-man’s
+pride. I had a different love now, that had wrapped herself round me far
+deeper and more tightly, and my duty was towards her first and foremost.
+The night would soon be past, and then dangers would increase. None had
+interfered with us so far, though many had jostled us as I clambered
+over the ruins; but this forbearance could not be reckoned upon for
+long. The earth tremors had almost died away, and after the panic and
+the storm, then comes the time for the spoiling.
+
+All men who were poor would try to seize what lay nearest to their
+hands, and those of higher station, and any soldiers who could be
+collected and still remained true to command, would ruthlessly stop and
+strip any man they saw making off with plunder. I had no mind to clash
+with these guardians of law and property, and so I fled on swiftly
+through the night with my burden, using the unfrequented ways; and
+crying to the few folk who did meet me that the woman had the plague,
+and would they lend me the shelter of their house as ours had fallen.
+And so in time we came to the place where the rope dangled from the
+precipice, and after Nais had been drawn up to the safety of the Sacred
+Mountain, I put my leg in the loop of the rope and followed her.
+
+Now came what was the keenest anxiety of all. We took the girl and laid
+her on a bed in one of the houses, and there in the lit room for the
+first time I saw her clearly. Her beauty was drawn and pale. Her eyes
+were closed, but so thin and transparent had grown the lids that one
+could almost see the brown of the pupil beneath them. Her hair had grown
+to inordinate thickness and length, and lay as a cushion behind and
+beside her head.
+
+There was no flicker of breath; there was none of that pulsing of
+the body which denotes life; but still she had not the appearance of
+ordinary death. The Nais I had placed nine long years before to rest in
+the hollow of the stone, was a fine grown woman, full bosomed, and well
+boned. The Nais that remained for me was half her weight. The old Nais
+it would have puzzled me to carry for an hour: this was no burden to
+impede a grown man.
+
+In other ways too she had altered. The nails of her fingers had grown to
+such a great length that they were twisted in spirals, and the fingers
+themselves and her hands were so waxy and transparent that the bony core
+upon which they were built showed itself beneath the flesh in plain dull
+outline. Her clay-cold lips were so white, that one sighed to remember
+the full beauty of their carmine. Her shoulders and neck had lost their
+comely curves, and made bony hollows now in which the dust of entombment
+lodged black and thickly.
+
+Reverently I set about preparing those things which if all went well
+should restore her. I heated water and filled a bath, and tinctured
+it heavily with those essences of the life of beasts which the Priests
+extract and store against times of urgent need and sickness. I laid her
+chin-deep in this bath, and sat beside it to watch, maintaining that
+bath at a constant blood heat.
+
+An hour I watched; two hours I watched; three hours--and yet she showed
+no flicker of life. The heat of her body given her by the bath, was the
+same as the heat of my own. But in the feel of her skin when I stroked
+it with my hand, there was something lacking still. Only when our Lord
+the Sun rose for His day did I break off my watching, whilst I said the
+necessary prayer which is prescribed, and quickly returned again to the
+gloom of the house.
+
+I was torn with anxiety, and as the time went on and still no sign of
+life came back, the hope that had once been so high within me began to
+sicken and leave me downcast and despondent. From without, came the
+din of fighting. Already Phorenice had sent her troops to storm the
+passageway, and the Priests who defended it were shattering them with
+volleys of rocks. But these sounds of war woke no pulse within me. If
+Nais did not wake, then the world for me was ended, and I had no spirit
+left to care who remained uppermost. The Gods in Their due time will
+doubtless smite me for this impiety. But I make a confession of it here
+on these sheets, having no mind to conceal any portion of this history
+for the small reason that it does me a personal discredit.
+
+But as the hours went on, and still no flicker of life came to lessen
+the dumb agony that racked me, I grew more venturesome, and added more
+essences to the bath, and drugs also such as experience had shown might
+wake the disused tissues into life. I watched on with staring eyes,
+rubbing her wasted body now and again, and always keeping the heat of
+the bath at a constant. From the first I had barred the door against
+all who would have come near to help me. With my own hands I had laid
+my love to sleep, and I could not bear that others should rouse her,
+if indeed roused she should ever be. But after those first offers, no
+others came, and the snarl and din of fighting told of what occupied
+them.
+
+It is hard to take note of small changes which occur with infinite
+slowness when one is all the while on the tense watch, and high strung
+though my senses were, I think there must have been some indication of
+returning life shown before I was keen enough to notice it. For of a
+sudden, as I gazed, I saw a faint rippling on the surface of the water
+of the bath. Gods! Would it come back again to my love at last--this
+life, this wakefulness? The ripple died out as it had come, and I
+stooped my head nearer to the bath to try if I could see some faint
+heaving of her bosom some small twitching of the limbs. No, she lay
+there still without even a flutter of movement. But as I watched, surely
+it seemed to my aching eyes that some tinge was beginning to warm that
+blank whiteness of skin?
+
+How I filled myself with that sight. The colour was returning to her
+again beyond a doubt. Once more the dried blood was becoming fluid and
+beginning again to course in its old channels. Her hair floated out in
+the liquid of the bath like some brown tangle of the ocean weed, and
+ever and again it twitched and eddied to some impulse which in itself
+was too small for the eye to see.
+
+She had slept for nine long years, and I knew that the wakening could
+be none of the suddenest. Indeed, it came by its own gradations and
+with infinite slowness, and I did not dare do more to hasten it. Further
+drugs might very well stop eternally what those which had been used
+already had begun. So I sat motionless where I was, and watched the
+colour come back, and the waxenness go, and even the fullness of her
+curves in some small measure return. And when growing strength gave
+her power to endure them, and she was racked with those pains which are
+inevitable to being born back again in this fashion to life, I too felt
+the reflex of her agony, and writhed in loving sympathy.
+
+Still further, too, was I wrung by a torment of doubt as to whether life
+or these rackings would in the end be conqueror. After each paroxysm
+the colour ebbed back from her again, and for a while she would lie
+motionless. But strength and power seemed gradually to grow, and at last
+these prevailed, and drove death and sleep beneath them. Her eyelids
+struggled with their fastenings. Her lips parted, and her bosom heaved.
+With shivering gasps her breath began to pant between her reddening
+lips. At first it rattled dryly in her throat, but soon it softened and
+became more regular. And then with a last effort her eyes, her glorious
+loving eyes, slowly opened.
+
+I leaned over and called her softly by name.
+
+Her eyes met mine, and a glow arose from their depths that gave me the
+greatest joy I have met in all the world.
+
+“Deucalion, my love,” she whispered. “Oh, my dear, so you have come for
+me. How I have dreamed of you! How I have been racked! But it was worth
+it all for this.”
+
+
+
+
+18. STORM OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN
+
+
+It was Nais herself who sent me to attend to my sterner duties. The din
+of the attack came to us in the house where I was tending her, and she
+asked its meaning. As pithily as might be, for she was in no condition
+for tedious listening, I gave her the history of her nine years’ sleep.
+
+The colour flushed more to her face. “My lord is the properest man in
+all the world to be King,” she whispered.
+
+“I refused to touch the trade till they had given me the Queen I
+desired, safe and alive, here upon the Mountain.”
+
+“How we poor women are made the chattels of you men! But, for myself, I
+seem to like the traffic well enough. You should not have let me stand
+in the way of Atlantis’ good, Deucalion. Still, it is very sweet to know
+you were weak there for once, and that I was the cause of your weakness.
+What is that bath over yonder? Ah! I remember; my wits seem none of the
+clearest just now.”
+
+“You have made the beginning. Your strength will return to you by quick
+degrees. But it will not bear hurrying. You must have a patience.”
+
+“Your ear, sir, for one moment, and then I will rest in peace. My poor
+looks, are they all gone? You seem to have no mirror here. I had visions
+that I should wake up wrinkled and old.”
+
+“You are as you were, dear, that first night I saw you--the most
+beautiful woman in all the world.”
+
+“I am pleased you like me,” she said, and took the cup of broth I
+offered her. “My hair seems to have grown; but it needs combing sadly. I
+had a fancy, dear, once, that you liked ruddy hair best, and not a plain
+brown.” She closed her eyes then, lying back amongst the cushions where
+I had placed her, and dropped off into healthy sleep, with the smiles
+still playing upon her lips. I put the coverlet over her, and kissed her
+lightly, holding back my beard lest it should sweep her cheek. And then
+I went out of the chamber.
+
+That beard had grown vastly disagreeable to me these last hours, and
+then I went into a room in the house, and found instruments, and shaved
+it down to the bare chin. A change of robe also I found there and took
+it instead of my squalid rags. If a man is in truth a king, he owes
+these things to the dignity of his office.
+
+But, if the din of the fighting was any guide, mine was a narrowing
+kingdom. Every hour it seemed to grow fiercer and more near, and it was
+clear that some of the gates in the passage up the cleft in the
+cliff, impregnable though all men had thought them, had yielded to the
+vehemence of Phorenice’s attack. And, indeed, it was scarcely to be
+marvelled at. With all her genius spurred on to fury by the blow that
+had been struck at her by wrecking so fair a part of the city, the
+Empress would be no light adversary even for a strong place to resist,
+and the Sacred Mountain was no longer strong.
+
+Defences of stone, cunningly planned and mightily built, it still
+possessed, but these will not fight alone. They need men to line them,
+and, moreover, abundance of men. For always in a storm of this kind,
+some desperate fellows will spit at death and get to hand grips, or
+slingers and archers slip in their shot, or the throwing-fire gets home,
+or (as here) some newfangled machine like Phorenice’s fire-tubes, make
+one in a thousand of their wavering darts find the life; and so, though
+the general attacking loses his hundreds, the defenders also are not
+without their dead.
+
+The slaughter, as it turned out, had been prodigious. As fast as the
+stormers came up, the Priests who held the lowest gate remaining to us
+rained down great rocks upon them till the narrow alley of the stair
+was paved with their writhing dead. But Phorenice stood on a spur of the
+rock below them urging on the charges, and with an insane valour company
+after company marched up to hurl themselves hopelessly against the
+defences. They had no machines to batter the massive gates, and their
+attack was as pathetically useless as that of a child who hammers
+against a wall with an orange; and meanwhile the terrible stones from
+above mowed them down remorselessly.
+
+Company after company of the troops marched into this terrible
+death-trap, and not a man of all of them ever came back. Nor was it
+Phorenice’s policy that they should do so. In her lust for this final
+conquest, she was minded to pour out troops till she had filled up the
+passes with the slain, so that at last she might march on to a
+level fight over the bridge of their poor bodies. It was no part of
+Phorenice’s mood ever to count the cost. She set down the object which
+was to be gained, and it was her policy that the people of Atlantis were
+there to gain it for her.
+
+Two gates then had she carried in this dreadful fashion, slaughtering
+those Priests that stood behind, them who had not been already shot
+down. And here I came down from above to take my share in the fight.
+There was no trumpet to announce my coming, no herald to proclaim my
+quality, but the Priests as a sheer custom picked up “Deucalion!” as a
+battle-cry; and some shouted that, with a King to lead, there would be
+no further ground lost.
+
+It was clear that the name carried to the other side and bore weight
+with it. A company of poor, doomed wretches who were hurrying up stopped
+in their charge. The word “Deucalion!” was bandied round and handed
+back down the line. I thought with some grim satisfaction, that here was
+evidence I was not completely forgotten in the land.
+
+There came shouts to them from behind to carry on their advance; but
+they did not budge; and presently a glittering officer panted up, and
+commenced to strike right and left amongst them with his sword. From
+where I stood on the high rampart above the gate, I could see him
+plainly, and recognised him at once.
+
+“It matters not what they use for their battle-cry,” he was shouting.
+“You have the orders of your divine Empress, and that is enough. You
+should be proud to die for her wish, you cowards. And if you do not
+obey, you will die afterwards under the instruments of the tormentors,
+very painfully. As for Deucalion, he is dead any time these nine years.”
+
+“There it seems you lie, my Lord Tatho,” I shouted down to him.
+
+He started, and looked up at me.
+
+“So you are there in real truth, then? Well, old comrade, I am sorry.
+But it is too late to make a composition now. You are on the side of
+these mangy Priests, and the Empress has made an edict that they are to
+be rooted out, and I am her most obedient servant.”
+
+“You used to be skilful of fence,” I said, and indeed there was little
+enough to choose between us. “If it please you to stop this pitiful
+killing, make yourself the champion of your side, and I will stand for
+mine, and we will fight out this quarrel in some fair place, and bind
+our parties to abide by the result.”
+
+“It would be a grand fight between us two, old friend, and it goes hard
+with me to balk you of it. But I cannot pleasure you. I am general here
+under Phorenice, and she has given me the strongest orders not to peril
+myself. And besides, though you are a great man, Deucalion, you are not
+chief. You are not even one of the Three.”
+
+“I am King.”
+
+Tatho laughed. “Few but yourself would say so, my lord.”
+
+“Few truly, but what there are, they are powerful. I was given the name
+for the first time yesterday, and as a first blow in the campaign there
+was some mischief done in the city. I was there myself, and saw how you
+took it.”
+
+“You were in Atlantis!”
+
+“I went for Nais. She is on the mountain now, and to-morrow will be my
+Queen. Tatho, as a priest to a priest, let me solemnly bring to your
+memory the infinite power you bite against on this Sacred Mountain. Your
+teaching has warned you of the weapons that are stored in the Ark of
+the Mysteries. If you persist in this attack, at the best you can merely
+lose; at the worst you can bring about a wreck over which even the High
+Gods will shudder as They order it.”
+
+“You cannot scare us back now by words,” said Tatho doggedly. “And
+as for magic, it will be met by magic. Phorenice has found by her own
+cleverness as many powers as were ever stored up in the Ark of the
+Mysteries.”
+
+“Yet she looked on helplessly enough last night, when her royal pyramid
+was trundled into a rubbish heap. Zaemon had prophesied that this should
+be so, and for a witness, why I myself stood closer to her than we two
+stand now, and saw her.”
+
+“I will own you took her by surprise somewhat there. I do not understand
+these matters myself; I was never more than one of the Seven in the old
+days; and now, quite rightly, Phorenice keeps the knowledge of her magic
+to herself: but it seems time is needed when one magic is to be met by
+another.”
+
+“Well,” I said, “I know little about the business either. I leave these
+matters now to those who are higher above me in the priesthood. Indeed,
+having a liking for Nais, it seems I am debarred from ever being given
+understanding about the highest of the higher Mysteries. So I content
+myself with being a soldier, and when the appointed day comes, I shall
+fall and kiss my mother the Earth for the last time. You, so I am told,
+have ambition for longer life.”
+
+He nodded. “Phorenice has found the Great Secret, and I am to be the
+first that will share it with her. We shall be as Gods upon the earth,
+seeing that Death will be powerless to touch us. And the twin sons she
+has borne me, will be made immortal also.”
+
+“Phorenice is headstrong. No, my lord, there is no need to shake your
+head and try to deny it. I have had some acquaintance with her. But the
+order has been made, and her immortality will be snatched from her very
+rudely. Now, mark solemnly my words. I, Deucalion, have been appointed
+King of Atlantis by the High Council of the Priests who are the
+mouthpiece of the most High Gods, and if I do not have my reign, then
+there will be no Atlantis left to carry either King or Empress. You know
+me, Tatho, for a man that never lies.”
+
+He nodded.
+
+“Then save yourself before it is too late. You shall have again your
+vice-royalty in Yucatan.”
+
+“But, man, there is no Yucatan. A great horde of little hairy creatures,
+that were something less than human and something more than beasts,
+swept down upon our cities and ate them out. Oh, you may sneer if you
+choose! Others sneered when I came home, till the Empress stopped them.
+But you know what a train of driver ants is, that you meet with in the
+forests? You may light fires across their path, and they will march into
+them in their blind bravery, and put them out with their bodies, and
+those that are left will march on in an unbroken column, and devour
+all that stands in their path. I tell you, my lord, those little hairy
+creatures were like the ants--aye, for numbers, and wooden bravery, as
+well as for appetite. As a result to-day, there is no Yucatan.”
+
+“You shall have Egypt, then.”
+
+He burst at me hotly. “I would not take seven Egypts and ten Yucatans.
+My lord, you think more poorly of me than is kind, when you ask me to
+become a traitor. In your place would you throw your Nais away, if the
+doing it would save you from a danger?”
+
+“That is different.”
+
+“In no degree. You have a kindness for her. I have all that and more for
+Phorenice, who is, besides, my wife and the mother of my children. If I
+have qualms--and I freely confess I know you are desperate men up there,
+and have dreadful powers at your command--my shiverings are for them and
+not for myself. But I think, my lord, this parley is leading to nothing,
+and though these common soldiers here will understand little enough of
+our talk, they may be picking up a word here and there, and I do not
+wish them to go on to their death (as you will see them do shortly)
+and carry evil reports about me to whatever Gods they chance to come
+before.”
+
+He saluted me with his sword and drew back, and once more the missiles
+began to fly, and the doomed wretches, who had been halting beside
+the steep rock walls of the pass began once more to press hopelessly
+forward. They had scaling-ladders certainly, but they had no chance of
+getting these planted. They could do naught but fill the narrow way with
+their bodies, and to that end they had been sent, and to that end
+they humbly died. Our Priests with crow and lever wrenched from their
+lodging-places the great rocks which had been made ready, and sent them
+crashing down, so that once more screams filled the pass, and the horrid
+butchery was renewed.
+
+But ever and again, some arrow or some sling-stone, or some fire-tube’s
+dart would find its way up from below and through the defences, and
+there we would be with a man the less to carry on the fight. It was well
+enough for Phorenice to be lavish with her troops; indeed, if she wished
+for success, there were no two ways for it; and when those she had
+levied were killed, she could readily press others into the service,
+seeing that she had the whole broad face of the country under her rule.
+But with us it was different. A man down on our side was a man whose
+arm would bitterly be missed, and one which could in no possible way be
+replaced.
+
+I made calculation of the chances, and saw clearly that, if we continued
+the fight on the present plan, they would storm the gates one after
+another as they came to them, and that by the time the uppermost gate
+was reached, there would be no Priest alive to defend it. And so, not
+disdaining to fashion myself on Phorenice’s newer plan, which held that
+a general should at times in preference plot coldly from a place of some
+safety, and not lead the thick of the fighting, I left those who stood
+to the gate with some rough soldier’s words of cheer, and withdrew again
+up the narrow stair of the pass.
+
+This one approach to the Sacred Mountain was, as I have said before,
+vastly more difficult and dangerous in the olden days when it stood as
+a mere bare cleft as the High Gods made it. But a chasm had been bridged
+here, a shelf cut through the solid rock there, and in many places the
+roadway was built up on piers from distant crags below so as to make all
+uniform and easy. It came to my mind now, that if I could destroy this
+path, we might gain a breathing space for further effort.
+
+The idea seemed good, or at least no other occurred to me which would
+in any way relieve our desperate situation, and I looked around me for
+means to put it into execution. Up and down, from the mountain to the
+plains below, I had traversed that narrow stair of a pass some thousands
+of times, and so in a manner of speaking knew every stone, and every
+turn, and every cut of it by heart. But I had never looked upon it with
+an eye to shaving off all roadway to the Sacred Mountain, and so now,
+even in this moment of dreadful stress, I had to traverse it no less
+than three times afresh before I could decide upon the best site for
+demolition.
+
+But once the point was fixed, there was little delay in getting the
+scheme in movement. Already I had sent men to the storehouses amongst
+the Priests’ dwellings to fetch me rams, and crows, and acids, and
+hammers, and such other material as was needed, and these stood handy
+behind one of the upper gates. I put on every pair of hands that could
+be spared to the work, no matter what was their age and feebleness;
+yes, if Nais could have walked so far I would have pressed her for the
+labour; and presently carved balustrade, and wayside statue, together
+with the lettered wall-stones and the foot-worn cobbles, roared down
+into the gulf below, and added their din to the shrieks and yells and
+crashes of the fighting. Gods! But it was a hateful task, smashing down
+that splendid handiwork of the men of the past. But it was better that
+it should crash down to ruin in the abyss below, than that Phorenice
+should profane it with her impious sandals.
+
+At first I had feared that it would be needful to sacrifice the knot of
+brave men who were so valiantly defending the gate then being attacked.
+It is disgusting to be forced into a measure of this kind, but in hard
+warfare it is often needful to the carrying out of his schemes for a
+general to leave a part of his troops to fight to a finish, and without
+hope of rescue, as valiantly as they may; and all he can do for their
+reward is to recommend them earnestly to the care of the Gods. But when
+the work of destroying the pathway was nearly completed, I saw a chance
+of retrieving them.
+
+We had not been content merely with breaking arches, and throwing down
+the piers. We had got our rams and levers under the living rock itself
+on which all the whole fabric stood; and fire stood ready to heat the
+rams for their work; and when the word was given, the whole could be
+sent crashing down the face of the cliffs beyond chance of repair.
+
+All was, I say, finally prepared in this fashion, and then I gave the
+word to hold. A narrow ledge still remained undestroyed, and offered
+footway, and over this I crossed. The cut we had made was immediately
+below the uppermost gate of all, and below it there were three more
+massive gates still unviolated, besides the one then being so vehemently
+attacked. Already, the garrisons had been retired from these, and I
+passed through them all in turn, unchallenged and unchecked, and came to
+that busy rampart where the twelve Priests left alive worked, stripped
+to the waist, at heaving down the murderous rocks.
+
+For awhile I busied myself at their side, stopping an occasional
+fire-tube dart or arrow on my shield and passing them the tidings. The
+attack was growing fiercer every minute now. The enemy had packed the
+pass below well-nigh full of their dead, and our battering stones had
+less distance to fall and so could do less execution. They pressed
+forward more eagerly than ever with their scaling ladders, and it was
+plain that soon they would inevitably put the place to the storm. Even
+during the short time I was there, their sling-stones and missiles took
+life from three more of the twelve who stood with me on the defence.
+
+So I gave the word for one more furious avalanche of rock to be pelted
+down, and whilst the few living were crawling out from those killed
+by the discharge, and whilst the next band of reinforcements came
+scrambling up over the bodies, I sent my nine remaining men away at a
+run up the steep stairway of the path, and then followed them myself.
+Each of the gates in turn we passed, shutting them after us, and
+breaking the bars and levers with which they were moved, and not till
+we were through the last did the roar of shouts from below tell that the
+besiegers had found the gate they bit against was deserted.
+
+One by one we balanced our way across the narrow ledge which was left
+where the path had been destroyed, and one poor Priest that carried a
+wound grew giddy, and lost his balance here, and toppled down to his
+death in the abyss below before a hand could be stretched out to steady
+him. And then, when we were all over, heat was put to the rams, and they
+expanded with their resistless force, and tore the remaining ledges from
+their hold in the rock. I think a pang went through us all then when
+we saw for ourselves the last connecting link cut away from between the
+poor remaining handful of our Sacred Clan on the Mountain, and the rest
+of our great nation, who had grown so bitterly estranged to us, below.
+
+But here at any rate was a break in the fighting. There were no further
+preparations we could make for our defence, and high though I knew
+Phorenice’s genius to be, I did not see how she could very well do other
+than accept the check and retire. So I set a guard on the ramparts of
+the uppermost gate to watch all possible movements, and gave the word to
+the others to go and find the rest which so much they needed.
+
+For myself, dutifully I tried to find Zaemon first, going on the errand
+my proper self, for there was little enough of kingly state observed on
+the Sacred Mountain, although the name and title had been given me.
+But Zaemon was not to be come at. He was engaged inside the Ark of the
+Mysteries with another of the Three, and being myself only one of the
+Seven, I had not rank enough in the priesthood to break in upon their
+workings. And so I was free to turn where my likings would have led me
+first, and that was to the house which sheltered Nais.
+
+She waked as I came in over the threshold, and her eyes filled with a
+welcome for me. I went across and knelt where she lay, putting my
+face on the pillow beside her. She was full of tender talk and sweet
+endearments. Gods! What an infinity of delight I had missed by not
+knowing my Nais earlier! But she had a will of her own through it all,
+and some quaint conceits which made her all the more adorable. She
+rallied me on the new cleanness of my chin, and on the robe which I had
+taken as a covering. She professed a pretty awe for my kingship, and
+vowed that had she known of my coming dignities she would never have
+dared to discover a love for me. But about my marriage with Phorenice
+she spoke with less lightness. She put out her thin white hand, and drew
+my face to her lips.
+
+“It is weak of me to have a jealousy,” she murmured, “knowing how
+completely my lord is mine alone; but I cannot help it. You have said
+you were her husband for awhile. It gives me a pang to think that I
+shall not be the first to lie in your arms, Deucalion.”
+
+“Then you may gaily throw your pang away,” I whispered back. “I was
+husband to Phorenice in mere word for how long I do not precisely know.
+But in anything beyond, I was never her husband at all. She married
+me by a form she prescribed herself, ignoring all the old rites and
+ceremonies, and whether it would hold as legal or not, we need not
+trouble to inquire. She herself has most nicely and completely annulled
+that marriage as I have told you. Tatho is her husband now, and father
+to her children, and he seems to have a fondness for her which does him
+credit.”
+
+We said other things too in that chamber, those small repetitions
+of endearments which are so precious to lovers, and so beyond the
+comprehension of other folk, but they are not to be set down on these
+sheets. They are a mere private matter which can have no concern to
+any one beyond our two selves, and more weighty subjects are piling
+themselves up in deep index for the historian.
+
+Phorenice, it seemed, had more rage against the Priests’ Clan on the
+Mountain and more bright genius to help her to a vengeance than I had
+credited. Her troops stormed easily the gates we had left to them, and
+swarmed up till they stood where the pathway was broken down. In the
+fierceness of their rush, the foremost were thrust over the brink by
+those pressing up behind, before the advance could be halted, and these
+went screaming to a horrid death in the great gulf below. But it was no
+position here that a lavish spending of men could take, and presently
+all were drawn off, save for some half-score who stood as outpost
+sentries, and dodged out of arrow-shot behind angles of the rock.
+
+It seems, too, that the Empress herself reconnoitered the place, using
+due caution and quickness, and so got for herself a full plan of its
+requirements without being obliged to trust the measuring of another
+eye. With extraordinary nimbleness she must have planned an engine such
+as was necessary to suit her purposes, and given orders for its making;
+for even with the vast force and resources at her disposal, the speed
+with which it was built was prodigious.
+
+There was very little noise made to tell of what was afoot. All the
+woodwork and metalwork was cut, and tongued, and forged, and fitted
+first by skilled craftsmen below, in the plain at the foot of the cleft;
+and when each ponderous balk and each crosspiece, and each plank was
+dragged up the steep pass through the conquered gates, it was ready
+instantly for fitting into its appointed place in the completed machine.
+
+The cleft was straight where they set about their building, and there
+was no curve or spur of the cliff to hide their handiwork from those of
+the Priests who watched from the ramparts above our one remaining gate.
+But Phorenice had a coyness lest her engine should be seen before it
+was completed, and so to screen it she had a vast fire built at the
+uppermost point where the causeway was broken off, and fed diligently
+with wet sedge and green wood, so that a great smoke poured out, rising
+like a curtain that shut out all view. And so though the Priests on the
+rampart above the gate picked off now and again some of those who tended
+the fire, they could do the besiegers no further injury, and remained up
+to the last quite in ignorance of their tactics.
+
+The passage up the cleft was in shadow during the night hours, for,
+though all the crest of the Sacred Mountain was always lit brightly by
+the eternal fires which made its defence on the farther side, their glow
+threw no gleam down that flank where the cliff ran sheer to the plains
+beneath. And so it was under cover of the darkness that Phorenice
+brought up her engine into position for attack.
+
+Planking had been laid down for its wheels, and the wheels themselves
+well greased, and it may be that she hoped to march in upon us whilst
+all slept. But there was a certain creaking and groaning of timbers,
+and laboured panting of men, which gave advertisement that something was
+being attempted, and the alarm was spread quietly in the hope that if a
+surprise had been planned, the real surprise might be turned the other
+way.
+
+A messenger came to me running, where I sat in the house at the side of
+my love, and she, like the soldier’s wife she was made to be, kissed me
+and bade me go quickly and care for my honour, and bring back my wounds
+for her to mend.
+
+On the rampart above the gate all was silence, save for the faint rustle
+of armed men, and out of the black darkness ahead, and from the other
+side of the broken causeway, came the sounds of which the messenger bad
+warned me.
+
+The captain of the gate came to me and whispered: “We have made no light
+till the King came, not knowing the King’s will in the matter. Is it
+wished I send some of the throwing-fire down yonder, on the chance that
+it does some harm, and at the same time lights up the place? Or is it
+willed that we wait for their surprise?”
+
+“Send the fire,” I said, “or we may find that Phorenice’s brain has been
+one too many for us.”
+
+The captain of the gate took one of the balls in his hand, lit the fuse,
+and hurled it. The horrid thing burst amongst a mass of men who were
+labouring with a huge engine, sputtering them with its deadly fire, and
+lighting their garments. The plan of the engine showed itself plainly.
+They had built them a vast great tower, resting on wheels at its base,
+so that it might by pushed forward from behind, and slanting at its foot
+to allow for the steepness of the path and leave it always upright.
+
+It was storeyed inside, with ladders joining each floor, and through
+slits in the side which faced us bowmen could cover an attack. From its
+top a great bridge reared high above it, being carried vertically till
+the tower was brought near enough for its use. The bridge was hinged at
+the third storey of the tower, and fastened with ropes to its extreme
+top; but, once the ropes were cut, the bridge would fall, and light upon
+whatever came within its swing, and be held there by the spikes with
+which it was studded beneath.
+
+I saw, and inwardly felt myself conquered. The cleverness of Phorenice
+had been too strong for my defence. No war-engine of which we had
+command could overset the tower. The whole of its massive timbers
+were hung with the wet new-stripped skins of beasts, so that even the
+throwing-fire could not destroy it. What puny means we had to impede
+those who pushed it forward would have little effect. Presently it would
+come to the place appointed, and the ropes would be cut, and the bridge
+would thunder down on the rampart above our last gate, and the stormers
+would pour out to their final success.
+
+Well, life had loomed very pleasant for me these few days with a warm
+and loving Nais once more in touch of my arms, but the High Gods in
+Their infinite wisdom knew best always, and I was no rebel to stay
+stiff-necked against their decision. But it is ever a soldier’s
+privilege, come what may, to warm over a fight, and the most exquisitely
+fierce joy of all is that final fight of a man who knows that he must
+die, and who lusts only to make his bed of slain high enough to carry a
+due memory of his powers with those who afterwards come to gaze upon it.
+I gripped my axe, and the muscles of my arms stood out in knots at the
+thought of it. Would Tatho come to give me sport? I feared not. They
+would send only the common soldiers first to the storm, and I must be
+content to do my killing on those.
+
+And Nais, what of her? I had a quiet mind there. When any spoilers came
+to the house where she lay, she would know that Deucalion had been taken
+up to the Gods, and she would not be long in following him. She had her
+dagger. No, I had no fears of being parted long from Nais now.
+
+
+
+
+19. DESTRUCTION OF ATLANTIS
+
+
+A tottering old Priest came up and touched me on the shoulder.
+
+“Well?” I said sharply, having small taste for interruption just now.
+
+“News has been carried to the Three, my King, of what is threatened.”
+
+“Then they will know that I stand here now, brother, to enjoy the finest
+fight of my life. When it is finished I shall go to the Gods, and be
+there standing behind the stars to welcome them when presently they also
+arrive. They have my regrets that they are too old and too feeble to die
+and look upon a fine killing themselves.”
+
+“I have commands from them, my King, to lay upon you, which I fear you
+will like but slenderly. You are forbidden to find your death here in
+the fighting. They have a further use for you yet.”
+
+I turned on the old man angrily enough. “I shall take no such order,
+my brother. I am not going to believe it was ever given. You must have
+misunderstood. If I am a man, if I am a Priest, if I am a soldier, if
+I am a King, then it stands to my honour that no enemy should pass this
+gate whilst yet I live. And you may go back and throw that message at
+their teeth.”
+
+The old man smiled enviously. He, too, had been a keen soldier in his
+day. “I told them you would not easily believe such a message, and asked
+them for a sign, and they bore with me, and gave me one. I was to give
+you this jewel, my King.”
+
+“How came they by that? It is a bracelet from the elbow of Nais.”
+
+“They must have stripped her of it. I did not know it came from Nais.
+The word I was to bring you said that the owner of the jewel was inside
+the Ark of the Mysteries, and waited you there. The use which the Three
+have for you further concerns her also.”
+
+Even when I heard that, I will freely confess that my obedience was
+sorely tried, and I have the less shame in setting it down on these
+sheets, because I know that all true soldiers will feel a sympathy for
+my plight. Indeed, the promise of the battle was very tempting. But in
+the end my love for Nais prevailed, and I gave the salutation that was
+needful in token that I heard the order and obeyed it.
+
+To the knot of Priests who were left for the defence, I turned and made
+my farewells. “You will have what I shall miss, my brothers,” I said. “I
+envy you that fight. But, though I am King of Atlantis, still I am only
+one of the Seven, and so am the servant of the Three and must obey their
+order. They speak in words the will of the most High Gods, and we must
+do as they command. You will stand behind the stars before I come, and
+I ask of you that you will commend me to Those you meet there. It is not
+my own will that I shall not appear there by your side.”
+
+They heard my words with smiles, and very courteously saluted me with
+their weapons, and there we parted. I did not see the fight, but I know
+it was good, from the time which passed before Phorenice’s hordes broke
+out on to the crest of the Mountain. They died hard, that last remnant
+of the lesser Priests of Atlantis.
+
+With a sour enough feeling I went up to the head of the pass, and then
+through the groves, and between the temples and colleges and houses
+which stood on the upper slopes of the Sacred Mountain, till I reached
+that boundary, beyond which in milder days it was death for any but the
+privileged few to pass. But the time, it appeared to me, was past for
+conventions, and, moreover, my own temper was hot; and it is likely
+that I should have strode on with little scruple if I had not been
+interrupted. But in the temple which marked the boundary, there was old
+Zaemon waiting; and he, with due solemnity of words, and with the whole
+of some ancient ritual ordained for that purpose, sought dispensation
+from the High Gods for my trespass, and would not give me way till he
+was through with his ceremony.
+
+Already Phorenice’s tower and bridge were in position, for the clash and
+yelling of a fight told that the small handful of Priests on the rampart
+of the last gate were bartering their lives for the highest return in
+dead that they could earn. They were trained fighting men all, but old
+and feeble, and the odds against them were too enormous to be stemmed
+for over long. In a very short time the place would be put to the storm,
+and the roof of the Sacred Mountain would be at the open mercy of the
+invader. If there was any further thing to be done, it was well that it
+should be set about quickly whilst peace remained. It seemed to me
+that the moment for prompt action, and the time for lengthy pompous
+ceremonial was done for good.
+
+But Zaemon was minded otherwise. He led me up to the Ark of the
+Mysteries, and chided my impatience, and waited till I had given it my
+reverential kiss, and then he called aloud, and another old man came
+out of the opening which is in the top of the Ark, and climbed painfully
+down by the battens which are fixed on its sides. He was a man I had
+never seen before, hoary, frail, and emaciated, and he and Zaemon were
+then the only two remaining Priests who had been raised to the highest
+degree known to our Clan, and who alone had knowledge of the highest
+secrets and powers and mysteries.
+
+“Look!” cried Zaemon, in his shrill old voice, and swept a trembling
+finger over the shattered city, and the great spread of sea and country
+which lay in view of us below. I followed his pointing and looked, and a
+chill began to crawl through me. All was plainly shown. Our Lord the Sun
+burned high overhead in a sky of cloudless blue, and day shimmered in
+His heat. All below seemed from that distance peaceful and warm and
+still, save only that the mountains smoked more than ordinary, and some
+spouted fires, and that the sea boiled with some strange disorder.
+
+But it was the significance of the sea that troubled me most. Far out on
+the distant coast it surged against the rocks in enormous rolls of surf;
+and up the great estuary, at the head of which the city of Atlantis
+stands, it gushed in successive waves of enormous height which never
+returned. Already the lower lands on either side were blotted out
+beneath tumultuous waters, the harbour walls were drowned out of sight,
+and the flood was creeping up into the lower wards of the great city
+itself.
+
+“You have seen?” asked Zaemon.
+
+“I have seen.”
+
+“You understand?”
+
+“In part.”
+
+“Then let me tell you all. This is the beginning, and the end will
+follow swiftly. The most High Gods, that sit behind the stars, have a
+limit to even Their sublime patience; and that has been passed. The city
+of Atlantis, the great continent that is beyond, and all that are in
+them are doomed to unutterable destruction. Of old it was foreseen that
+this great wiping-out would happen through the sins of men, and to this
+end the Ark of the Mysteries was built under the direction of the Gods.
+No mortal implements can so much as scratch its surface, no waves or
+rocks wreck it. Inside is stored on sheets of the ancient writing all
+that is known in the world of learning that is not shared by the
+common people, also there is grain in a store, and sweet water in tanks
+sufficient for two persons for the space of four years, together with
+seeds, weapons, and all such other matters as were deemed fit.
+
+“Out of all this vast country it has been decreed by the High Gods that
+two shall not perish. Two shall be chosen, a man and a woman, who are
+fit and proper persons to carry away with them the ancient learning to
+dispose of it as they see best, and afterwards to rear up a race who
+shall in time build another kingdom and do honour to our Lord the
+Sun and the other Gods in another place. The woman is within the Ark
+already, and seated in the place appointed for her, and though she is a
+daughter of mine, the burden of her choosing is with you. For the man,
+the choice has fallen upon yourself.”
+
+I was half numb with the shock of what was befalling. “I do not know
+that I care to be a survivor.”
+
+“You are not asked for your wishes,” said the old man. “You are given an
+order from the High Gods, who know you to be Their faithful servant.”
+
+Habit rode strong upon me. I made salutation in the required form, and
+said that I heard and would obey.
+
+“Then it remains to raise you to the sublime degree of the Three, and if
+your learning is so small that you will not understand the keys to many
+of the Powers, and the highest of the Mysteries, when they are handed to
+you, that fault cannot be remedied now.”
+
+Certainly the time remaining was short enough. The fight still raged
+down at the gate in the pass, though it was a wonder how the handful of
+Priests had held their ground so long. But the ocean rolled in upon the
+land in an ever-increasing flood, and the mountains smoked and belched
+forth more volleys of rock as the weight increased on their lower parts,
+and presently those that besieged the Mountain could not fail to see
+the fate that threatened them. Then there would be no withholding their
+rush. In their mad fury and panic they would sweep all obstruction
+resistlessly before them, and those who stood in their path might look
+to themselves.
+
+But there was no hurrying Zaemon and his fellow sage. They were without
+temple for the ceremony, without sacrifice or incense to decorate it.
+They had but the sky for a roof to make their echoes, and the Gods
+themselves for witnesses. But they went through the work of raising
+me to their own degree, with all the grand and majestic form which has
+gathered dignity from the ages, and by no one sentence did they curtail
+it. A burning mountain burst with a bellowing roar as the incoming
+waters met its fires, but gravely they went on, in turn reciting their
+sentences. Phorenice’s troops broke down the last resistance, and poured
+in a frenzied stream amongst the groves and temples, but still they
+quavered never in the ritual.
+
+It had been said that this ceremony is the grandest and the most
+impressive of all those connected with our holy religion; and certainly
+I found it so; and I speak as one intimate with all the others. Even the
+tremendous circumstances which hemmed them in could do nothing to make
+these frail old men forget the deference which was due to the highest
+order of the Clan.
+
+For myself, I will freely own I was less rapt. I stood there bareheaded
+in the heat, a man trying to concentrate himself, and yet torn the while
+by a thousand foreign emotions. The awful thing that was happening all
+around compelled some of my attention. A continent was in the very act
+and article of meeting with complete destruction, and if Zaemon and
+the other Priest were strong enough to give their minds wholly up to a
+matter parochial to the priesthood, I was not so stoical. And moreover,
+I was filled with other anxieties and thoughts concerning Nais. Yet I
+managed to preserve a decent show of attention to the ceremony; making
+all those responses which were required of me; and trying as well as
+might be to preserve in my mind those sentences which were the keys to
+power and learning, and not mere phrasings of grandeur and devotion.
+
+But it became clear that if the ceremony of my raising did not soon
+arrive at its natural end, it would be cut short presently with
+something of suddenness. Phorenice’s conquering legions swarmed out
+on to the crest of the Mountain, and now carried full knowledge of the
+dreadful thing that was come upon the country. They were out of all
+control, and ran about like men distracted; but knowing full well that
+the Priests would have brought this terrible wreck to pass by virtue of
+the powers which were stored within the Ark of the Mysteries, it would
+be their natural impulse to pour out a final vengeance upon any of these
+same Priests they could come across before it was too late.
+
+It began to come to my mind that if the ceremony did not very shortly
+terminate, the further part of the plan would stand very small chance
+of completion, and I should come by my death after all by fighting to a
+finish, as I had pictured to myself before. My flickering attention saw
+the soldiers coming always nearer in their frantic wanderings, and saw
+also the sea below rolling deeper and deeper in upon the land.
+
+The fires, too, which ringed in half the mountain, spurted up to
+double their old height, and burned with an unceasing roar. But for all
+distraction these things gave to the two old Priests who were raising
+me, we might have been in the quietness of some ancient temple, with no
+so much as a fly to buzz an interruption.
+
+But at last an end came to the ceremony. “Kneel,” cried Zaemon, “and
+make obeisance to your mother the Earth, and swear by the High Gods that
+you will never make improper use of the powers over Her which this day
+you have been granted.”
+
+When I had done that, he bade me rise as a fully installed and duly
+initiated member of the Three. “You will have no opportunity to practise
+the workings of this degree with either of us, my brother,” said he,
+“for presently our other brother and I go to stand before the Gods to
+deliver to Them an account of our trust, and of how we have carried it
+out. But what items you remember here and there may turn of use to you
+hereafter. And now we two give you our farewells, and promise to commend
+you highly to the Gods when soon we meet Them in Their place behind
+the stars. Climb now into the Ark, and be ready to shut the door which
+guards it, if there is any attempt by these raging people to invade that
+also. Remember, my brother, it is the Gods’ direct will that you and the
+woman Nais go from this place living and sound, and you are expressly
+forbidden to accept challenge or provocation to fight on any pretext
+whatever. But as long as may be done in safety, you may look out upon
+Atlantis in her death-throes. It is very fitting that one of the only
+two who are sent hence alive, should carry the full tale of what has
+befallen.”
+
+I went to the top of the Ark of Mysteries then, climbing there by the
+battens which are fastened to the sides, and then descended by the stair
+which is inside and found Nais in a little chamber waiting for me.
+
+“I was bidden stay here by Zaemon,” she said, “who forced me to this
+place by threats and also by promises that my lord would follow. He is
+very ungentle, that father of mine, but I think he has a kindness for us
+both, and any way he is my father and I cannot help loving him. Is there
+no chance to save him from what is going to happen?”
+
+“He will not come into this Ark, for I asked him. It has been ordained
+from the ancient time when first the Ark was built, that when the day
+for its purpose came, one woman and one man should be its only tenants,
+and they are here already. Zaemon’s will in the matter is not to be
+twisted by you or by me. He has a message to be delivered to the Gods,
+and (if I know him at all), he grudges every minute that is lost in
+carrying it to them.”
+
+I left her then, and went out again up the stair, and stood once more on
+the roof of the Ark. On the Mountain top men still ran about distracted,
+but gradually they were coming to where the Ark rested on the highest
+point. For the moment, however, I passed them lightly. The drowning of
+the great continent that had been spread out below filled the eye. Ocean
+roared in upon it with still more furious waves. The plains and the
+level lands were foaming lakes. The great city of Atlantis had vanished
+eternally. The mountains alone kept their heads above the flood, and
+spewed out rocks, and steam, and boiling stone, or burst when the waters
+reached them and created great whirlpools of surging sea, and twisted
+trees, and bubbling mud.
+
+In the space of a few breaths every living creature that dwelt in the
+lower grounds had been smothered by the waters, save for a few who
+huddled in a pair of galleys that were driven oarless inland, over what
+had once been black forest and hunting land for the beasts. And even as
+I watched, these also were swallowed up by the horrid turmoil of sea,
+and nothing but the sea beasts, and those of the greater lizards which
+can live in such outrageous waters, could have survived even that
+state of the destruction. Indeed, none but those men who had now found
+standing-ground on the upper slopes of the Sacred Mountain survived,
+and it was plain that their span was short, for the great mass of the
+continent sank deeper and more deep every minute before our aching eyes,
+beneath the boiling inrush of the seas.
+
+But though the great mass of the soldiery were dazed and maddened at the
+prospect of the overwhelming which threatened them, there were some with
+a strength of mind too valiant to give any outward show of discomposure.
+Presently a compact little body of people came from out the houses and
+the temples, and headed directly across the open ground towards the Ark.
+On the outside marched Phorenice’s personal guards with their weapons
+new blooded. They had been forced to fight a way through their own
+fellow soldiers. The poor demented creatures had thought it was every
+one for himself now, till these guards (by their mistress’s order)
+proved to them that Phorenice still came first.
+
+And in the middle of them, borne in a litter of gold and ivory by her
+grotesque European slaves, rode the Empress, still calm, still lovely,
+and seemingly divided in her sentiments between contempt and amusement.
+Her two children lay in the litter at her feet. On her right hand
+marched Tatho gorgeously apparelled, and with a beard curled and plaited
+into a thousand ringlets. On the other side, plying her industry with
+unruffled defence, walked Ylga, once again fan-girl, and so still second
+lady in this dwindling kingdom.
+
+The party of them halted half a score of paces from the Ark by
+Phorenice’s order. “Do not go nearer to those unclean old men. They
+carry a rank odour with them, and for the moment we are short of
+essences to sweeten the air of their neighbourhood.” She lifted her
+eyebrows and looked up at me. “Truly a quiet little gathering of old
+acquaintances. Why, there is Deucalion, that once I took the flavour of
+and threw aside when he cloyed me.”
+
+“I have Nais here,” I said, “and presently we two will be all that are
+left alive of this nation.”
+
+“Nais is quite welcome to my leavings,” she laughed. “I will look down
+upon your country cooings when presently I go back to the Place behind
+the stars from which I came. You are a very rustic person, Deucalion.
+They tell me too that three or four of these smelling old men up
+here have named you King. Did you swell much with dignity? Or did
+you remember that there was a pretty Empress left that would still be
+Empress so long as there was an Atlantis to govern? Come, sir, find your
+tongue. By my face! you must have hungered for me very madly these years
+we have been parted, if new-grown ruggedness of feature is an evidence.”
+
+“Have your gibe. I do not gibe back at a woman who presently will die.”
+
+“Bah! Deucalion, you will live behind the times. Have they not told you
+that I know the Great Secret and am indeed a Goddess now? My arts can
+make life run on eternally.”
+
+“Then the waters will presently test them hard,” I said, but there the
+talk was taken into other lips. Zaemon went forward to the front of
+the litter with the Symbol of our Lord the Sun glowing in his hand, and
+burst into a flow of cursing. It was hard for me to hear his words. The
+roar of the waters which poured up over the land, and beat in vast waves
+against the Sacred Mountain itself, grew nearer and more loud. But the
+old man had his say.
+
+Phorenice gave orders to her guards for his killing; yes, tried even to
+rise from the litter and do the work herself; but Zaemon held the Symbol
+to his front, and its power in that supreme moment mastered all the arts
+that could be brought against it. The majesty of the most High Gods
+was vindicated, and that splendid Empress knew it and lay back sullenly
+amongst the cushions of her litter, a beaten woman.
+
+Only one person in that rigid knot of people found power to leave the
+rest, and that was Ylga. She came out to the side of the Ark, and leaned
+up, and cried me a farewell through the gathering roar of the flood.
+
+“I would I might save you and take you with us,” I said.
+
+“As for that,” she said, with a gesture, “I would not come if you asked
+me. I am not a woman that will take anything less than all. But I shall
+meet what comes presently with the memory that you will have me always
+somewhere in your recollection. I know somewhat of men, even men of your
+stamp, Deucalion, and you will never forget that you came very near to
+loving me once.”
+
+I think, too, she said something further, concerning Nais, but the
+bellowing rush of the waters drowned all other words. A great mist made
+from the stream sent up by the swamped burning mountains stopped all
+accurate view, though the blaze from the fires lit it like gold. But
+I had a last sight of a horde of soldiery rushing up the slopes of the
+Mountain, with a scum of surge billowing at their heels, and licking
+many of them back in its clutch. And then my eye fell on old Zaemon
+waving to me with the Symbol to shut down the door in the roof of the
+Ark.
+
+I obeyed his last command, and went down the stair, and closed all
+ingress behind me. There were bolts placed ready, and I shot these into
+their sockets, and there were Nais and I alone, and cut off from all the
+rest of our world that remained.
+
+I went to the place where she lay, and put my arms tightly around her.
+Without, we heard men beating desperately on the Ark with their weapons,
+and some even climbed by the battens to the top and wrenched to try and
+move the door from its fastenings. The end was coming very nearly to
+them now, and the great crowd of them were mad with terror.
+
+I would have given much to have known how Phorenice fared in that final
+tumult, and how she faced it. I could see her, with her lovely face, and
+her wondrous eyes, and her ruddy hair curling about her neck, and by
+all the Gods! I thought more of her at that last moment than of the
+poor land she had conquered, and misgoverned, and brought to this horrid
+destruction. There is no denying the fascination which Phorenice carried
+with her.
+
+But the end did not dally long with its coming. There was a little surge
+that lifted the Ark a hand’s breadth or so in its cradle, and set it
+back again with a jar and a quiver. The blows from axes and weapons
+ceased on its lower part, but redoubled into frenzied batterings on its
+rounded roof. There were some screams and cries also which came to
+us but dully through the thickness of its ponderous sheathing, though
+likely enough they were sent forth at the full pitch of human lungs
+outside. And when another surge came, roaring and thundering, which
+picked up the great vessel as though it had been a feather, and spun it
+giddily; and after that we touched earth or rock no more.
+
+We tossed about on the crest and troughs of delirious seas, a sport for
+the greedy Gods of the ocean. The lamp had fallen, and we crouched there
+in darkness, dully weighed with the burden of knowledge that we alone
+were saved out of what was yesterday a mighty nation.
+
+
+
+
+20. ON THE BOSOM OF THE DEEP
+
+
+The Ark was rudderless, oarless, and machineless, and could travel only
+where the High Gods chose. The inside was dark, and full of an ancient
+smell, and crowded with groanings and noise. I could not find the
+fire-box to relight the fallen lamp, and so we had to endure blindly
+what was dealt out to us. The waves tossed us in merciless sport, and I
+clung on by the side of Nais, holding her to the bed. We did not speak
+much, but there was full companionship in our bereavement and our
+silence.
+
+When Atlantis sank to form new ocean bed, she left great whirlpools and
+spoutings from her drowned fires as a fleeting legacy to the Gods of the
+Sea. And then, I think (though in the black belly of the Ark we could
+not see these things), a vast hurricane of wind must have come on next
+so as to leave no piece of the desolation incomplete. For seven nights
+and seven days did this dreadful turmoil continue, as counted for us
+afterwards by the reckoner of hours which hung within the Ark, and then
+the howling of the wind departed, and only the roll of a long still
+swell remained. It was regular and it was oily, as I could tell by the
+difference of the motion, and then for the first time I dared to go up
+the stair, and open the door which stood in the roof of the Ark.
+
+The sweet air came gushing down to freshen the foulness within, and as
+the Ark rode dryly over the seas, I went below and brought up Nais to
+gain refreshment from the curing rays of our Lord the Sun. Duly the pair
+of us adored Him, and gave thanks for His great mercy in coming to light
+another day, and then we laid ourselves down where we were to doze, and
+take that easy rest which we so urgently needed.
+
+Yet, though I was tired beyond words, for long enough sleep would not
+visit me. Wearily I stared out over the oily sunlit waters. No blur
+of land met the eye. The ring of ocean was unbroken on every side, and
+overhead the vault of heaven remained unchanged. The bosom of the deep
+was littered with the poor wreckage of Atlantis, to remind one, if there
+had been a need, that what had come about was fact, and not some horrid
+dream. Trees, squared timber, a smashed and upturned boat of hides, and
+here and there the rounded corpse of a man or beast shouldered over the
+swells, and kept convoy with our Ark as she drifted on in charge of the
+Gods and the current.
+
+But sleep came to me at last, and I dropped off into unconsciousness,
+holding the hand of Nais in mine, and when next I woke, I found her
+open-eyed also and watching me tenderly. We were finely rested, both of
+us, and rest and strength bring one complacency. We were more ready
+now to accept the station which the High Gods had made for us without
+repining, and so we went below again into the belly of the Ark to eat
+and drink and maintain strength for the new life which lay before us.
+
+A wonderful vessel was this Ark, now we were able to see it at leisure
+and intimately. Although for the first time now in all its centuries
+of life it swam upon the waters, it showed no leak or suncrack. Inside,
+even its floor was bone dry. That it was built from some wood, one could
+see by the grainings, but nowhere could one find suture or joint. The
+living timbers had been put in place and then grown together by an
+art which we have lost to-day, but which the Ancients knew with much
+perfection; and afterwards some treatment, which is also a secret
+of those forgotten builders, had made the wood as hard as metal and
+impervious to all attacks of the weather.
+
+In the gloomy cave of its belly were stored many matters. At one end, in
+great tanks on either side of central alley, was a prodigious store of
+grain. Sweet water was in other tanks at the other end. In another place
+were drugs and samples, and essences of the life of beasts; all these
+things being for use whilst the Ark roamed under the guidance of the
+Gods on the bosom of the deep. On all the walls of the Ark, and on all
+the partitions of the tanks and the other woodwork, there were carved
+in the rude art of bygone time representations of all the beasts which
+lived in Atlantis; and on these I looked with a hunter’s interest, as
+some of them were strange to me, and had died out with the men who had
+perpetuated them in these sculptures. There was a good store of weapons
+too and the tools for handicrafts.
+
+Now, for many weeks, our life endured in this Ark as the Gods drove it
+about here and there across the face of the waters. We had no government
+over direction; we could not by so much as a hair’s breadth a day
+increase her speed. The High Gods that had chosen the two of us to be
+the only ones saved out of all Atlantis, had sole control of our fate,
+and into Their hands we cheerfully resigned our future direction.
+
+Of that land which we reached in due time, and where we made our abiding
+place, and where our children were born, I shall tell of in its place;
+but since this chronicle has proceeded so far in an exact order of the
+events as they came to pass, it is necessary first to narrate how we
+came by the sheets on which it is written.
+
+In a great coffer, in the centre of the Ark’s floor, the whole of the
+Mysteries learned during the study of ages were set down in accurate
+writing. I read through some of them during the days which passed, and
+the awfulness of the Powers over which they gave control appalled me. I
+had seen some of these Powers set loose in Atlantis, and was a witness
+of her destruction. But here were Powers far higher than those; here was
+the great Secret of Life and Death which Phorenice also had found, and
+for which she had been destroyed; and there were other things also of
+which I cannot even bring my stylo to scribe.
+
+The thought of being custodian of these writings was more than I could
+endure, and the more the matter rested in my mind, the more intolerable
+became the burden. And at last I took hot irons, and with them seared
+the wax on the sheets till every letter of the old writings was
+obliterated. If I did wrong, the High Gods in Their infinite justice
+will give me punishment; if it is well that these great secrets should
+endure on earth, They in their infinite power will dictate them afresh
+to some fitting scribes; but I destroyed them there as the Ark swayed
+with us over the waves; and later, when we came to land, I rewrote upon
+the sheets the matters which led to great Atlantis being dragged to her
+death-throes.
+
+Nais, that I love so tenderly--
+
+[TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: The remaining sheets are too broken to be legible.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg’s The Lost Continent, by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne
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