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 inthe open all that night, for even in Grand Canary the dew-fall and thecomparative chill of darkness are not to be trifled with. For myself onthese occasions I like a bit of a run as an early refresher. But here onthis rough ground in the middle of the island there were not three yardsof level to be found, and so as Coppinger proceeded to go through somesort of dumb-bell exercises with a couple of lumps of bristly lava, Ifollowed his example. Coppinger has done a good deal of roughing it inhis time, but being a doctor of medicine amongst other things--he takesout a new degree of some sort on an average every other year--he isgreat on health theories, and practises them like a religion. 

There had been rain two days before, and as there was still a bit ofstream trickling along at the bottom of the barranca, we went down thereand had a wash, and brushed our teeth. Greatest luxury imaginable, atoothbrush, on this sort of expedition. 

"Now, " said Coppinger when we had emptied our pockets, "there's preciouslittle grub left, and it's none the better for being carried in a localSpanish newspaper. "

"Yours is mostly tobacco ashes. "

"It'll get worse if we leave it. We've a lot more bad scrambling aheadof us. "

That was obvious. So we sat down beside the stream there at the bottomof the barranca, and ate up all of what was left. It was a ten-miletramp to the fonda at Santa Brigida, where we had set down our traps;and as Coppinger wanted to take a lot more photographs and measurementsbefore we left this particular group of caves, it was likely we shouldbe pretty sharp set before we got our next meal, and our next taste ofthe PATRON'S splendid old country wine. My faith! If only they knew downin the English hotels in Las Palmas what magnificent wines one couldget--with diplomacy--up in some of the mountain villages, the oldvintage would become a thing of the past in a week. 

Now to tell the truth, the two mummies he had gathered already quitesatisfied my small ambition. The goatskins in which they were sewn upwere as brittle as paper, and the poor old things themselves gave outdust like a puffball whenever they were touched. But you know whatCoppinger is. He thought he'd come upon traces of an old Guancheuniversity, or sacred college, or something of that kind, like the onethere is on the other side of the island, and he wouldn't be satisfiedtill he'd ransacked every cave in the whole face of the cliff. He'dplenty of stuff left for the flashlight thing, and twenty-eight morefilms in his kodak, and said we might as well get through with the jobthen 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 thecliff, 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 havebeen raided years before. Coppinger, who on principle makes out heknows all about these things, says that in the old Guanche days theyhad ladders of goatskin rope which they could pull up when they were athome, and so keep out undesirable callers; and as no other plan occursto me, perhaps he may be right. Anyway the mouths of the caves were ina more or less level row thirty feet below the ridge of the cliff, andfifty feet above the bottom; and Spanish curiosity doesn't go in muchwhere it cannot walk. 

Now laddering such caves from below would have been cumbersome, but alight knotted rope is easily carried, and though it would have been hardto 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 INITIOfor the next. 

Coppinger is plucky enough, and he has a good head on a height, butthere is no getting over the fact that he is portly and nearer fiftythan forty-five. So you can see he must have been pretty keen. Of courseI went first each time, and got into the cave mouth, and did what Icould to help him in; but when you have to walk down a vertical cliffface fly-fashion, with only a thin bootlace of a rope for support, itis not much real help the man below can give, except offer you his bestwishes. 

I wanted to save him as much as I could, and as the first three cavesI 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. Buthe insisted on clambering down to each one in person, and as he decidedthat 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'tmuch reliance on my judgment, and would have to go through the wholelot himself. You know what these thorough-going archaeologists are forimagination. 

But as the day went on, and the sun rose higher, Coppinger began clearlyto have had enough of it, though he was very game, and insisted on goingon much longer than was safe. I must say I didn't like it. You seethe 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 offto Santa Brigida forthwith, but he wouldn't do that. There were threemore 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 tomake out he was conferring a very great favour on me by offering to takea report solely from my untrained observation, but I flatly refused tolook at it in that light. I was pretty tired also; I was soaked withperspiration 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 tomake me enthusiastic also. "Look here, " he said, "there's no knowingwhat 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 ingoatskin bags. "

"Bah! That's not a burial cave up there. Don't you know the differenceyet in the openings? Now, be a good fellow. It doesn't follow thatbecause we have drawn all the rest blank, you won't stumble across agood find for yourself up there. "

"Oh, very well, " I said, as he seemed so set on it; and away I stumbledover the fallen rocks, and along the ledge, and then scrambled up bythat fissure in the cliff which saved us the two-mile round which we hadhad to take at first. I wrenched out the crowbar, and jammed it downin a new place, and then away I went over the side, with hands smartingworse at every new grip of the rope. It was an awkward job swinging intothe cave mouth because the rock above overhung, or else (what came tothe 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 timeI 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 differentstructure to the others. They were for the most part mere dens, roundedout anyhow; this had been faced up with cutting tools, so that all theangles were clean, and the sides smooth and flat. The walls inclinedinwards to the roof, reminding me of an architecture I had seen beforebut could not recollect where, and moreover there were several roomsconnected up with passages. I was pleased to find that the othercave-openings which Coppinger wanted me to explore were merely thewindows or the doorways of two of these other rooms. 

Of inscriptions or markings on the walls there was not a trace, though Ilooked carefully, and except for bats the place was entirely bare. Ilit a cigarette and smoked it through--Coppinger always thinks one isslurring over work if it is got through too quickly--and then I wentto the entrance where the rope was, and leaned out, and shouted down mynews. 

He turned up a very anxious face. "Have you searched it thoroughly?" hebawled 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 aminute. I'm making fast the kodak and the flashlight apparatus on theend 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 thatwouldn't matter to Coppinger. He rather preferred them that way. One hasto be careful about halation in photographing these dark interiors, butthere was a sort of ledge like a seat by the side of each doorway, andso I lodged the camera on that to get a steady stand, and snapped offthe flashlight from behind and above. 

I got pictures of four of the chambers this way, and then came to onewhere the ledge was higher and wider. I put down the camera, wedged itlevel with scraps of stone, and then sat down myself to recharge theflashlight machine. But the moment my weight got on that ledge, therewas a sharp crackle, and down I went half a dozen inches. 

Of course I was up again pretty sharply, and snapped up the kodak justas it was going to slide off to the ground. I will confess, too, I wasfeeling pleased. Here at any rate was a Guanche cupboard of sorts, andas they had taken the trouble to hermetically seal it with cement, theodds were that it had something inside worth hiding. At first therewas nothing to be seen but a lot of dust and rubble, so I lit a bit ofcandle and cleared this away. Presently, however, I began to find thatI was shelling out something that was not cement. It chipped away, inregular layers, and when I took it to the daylight I found that eachlayer was made up of two parts. One side was shiny staff that lookedlike talc, and on this was smeared a coating of dark toffee-colouredmaterial, that might have been wax. The toffee-coloured surface wasworked over with some kind of pattern. 

Now I do not profess to any knowledge on these matters, and as aconsequence took what Coppinger had told me about Guanche habits andacquirements as more or less true. For instance, he had repeatedlyimpressed upon me that this old people could not write, and having thisin my memory, I did not guess that the patterns scribed through thewax were letters in some obsolete character, which, if left to myself, probably I should have done. But still at the same time I came tothe conclusion that the stuff was worth looting, and so set to workquarrying 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 infor separating them farther. They fitted exactly to the cavity in whichthey were stored, but by smashing down its front I was able to get atthe foot of them, and then I hacked away through the bottom layers withthe knife till I got the bulk out in one solid piece. It measured sometwenty inches by fifteen, by fifteen, but it was not so heavy as itlooked, and when I had taken the remaining photographs, I lowered itdown to Coppinger on the end of the rope. 

There was nothing more to do in the caves then, so I went down myselfnext. The lump of sheets was on the ground, and Coppinger was on allfours 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 theCanary Islands, and it's yours, you unappreciative beggar; at least whatthere is left of it. Oh, man, man, you've smashed up the beginning, andyou'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 untrainedman to do important exploring work. "

"I should say it's your fault if anything's gone wrong. You said therewas no such thing as writing known to these ancient Canarios, and Itook your word for it. For anything I knew the stuff might have beensomething to eat. "

"It isn't Guanche work at all, " said he testily. "You ought to haveknown that from the talc. Great heavens, man, have you no eyes? Haven'tyou seen the general formation of the island? Don't you know there's notalc here?"

"I'm no geologist. Is this imported literature then?"

"Of course. It's Egyptian: that's obvious at a glance. Though howit's got here I can't tell yet. It isn't stuff you can read off likea newspaper. The character's a variant on any of those that have beendiscovered 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. Itdoesn't scratch up like animal wax. I'll analyse that later. Why theyonce 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 ameal. It's a good ten miles hard going to the fonda, and I'm as hungryas 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, andthen getting up again for the next. "

Coppinger spread his coat on the ground, and wrapped the lump of sheetswith tender care, but would not allow it to be tied with a rope for fearof 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 wasonly when he was within an ace of dropping himself with sheer tirednessthat he condescended to let me take my turn. He was tolerably ungraciousabout 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 wasprocurable, and a bottle of that old Canary wine, and turned into bedafter a final pipe. Coppinger dined also, but I have reason to believehe did not sleep much. At any rate I found him still poring over thefind next morning, and looking very heavy-eyed, but brimming withenthusiasm. 

"Do you know, " he said, "that you've blundered upon the most valuablehistorical manuscript that the modern world has ever yet seen? Ofcourse, with your clumsy way of getting it out, you've done an infinityof damage. For instance, those top sheets you shelled away andspoiled, contained probably an absolutely unique account of the ancientcivilisation of Yucatan. "

"Where's that, anyway?"

"In the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. It's all ruins to-day, but once itwas a very prosperous colony of the Atlanteans. "

"Never heard of them. Oh yes, I have though. They were the peopleHerodotus wrote about, didn't he? But I thought they were mythical. "

"They were very real, and so was Atlantis, the continent where theylived, 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 fullof 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 wrotethis, or we should never have been able to reconstruct the tale, or atany rate we could not have understood half of it. Whole species havedied out since this was written, just as a whole continent has beenswept away and three civilisations quenched. The worst of it is, it waswritten by a highly-educated man who somewhat naturally writes a verybad fist. I've hammered at it all the night through, and have onlymanaged to make out a few sentences here and there"--he rubbed his handsappreciatively. "It will take me a year's hard work to translate thisproperly. "

"Every man to his taste. I'm afraid my interest in the thing wouldn'tlast as long as that. But how did it get there? Did your ancientEgyptian come to Grand Canary for the good of his lungs, and write itbecause he felt dull up in that cave?"

"I made a mistake there. The author was not an Egyptian. It was thesimilarity of the inscribed character which misled me. The book waswritten by one Deucalion, who seems to have been a priest or general--orperhaps both--and he was an Atlantean. How it got there, I don't knowyet. Probably that was told in the last few pages, which a certainvandal smashed up with his pocketknife, in getting them away from theplace where they were stowed. "

"That's right, abuse me. Deucalion you say? There was a Deucalion in theGreek mythology. He was one of the two who escaped from the Flood: theirNoah, in fact. "

"The swamping of the continent of Atlantis might very well correspond tothe 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 thesame. She seems to have been the reigning Empress, as far as I can makeout at present. "

I looked with interest at illustrations in the margin. They were quiteunderstandable, although the perspective was all wrong. "Weird beaststhey seem to have had knocking about the country in those days. Whackingbig size too, if one may judge. By Jove, that'll be a cave-tiger tryingto puff down a mammoth. I shouldn't care to have lived in those days. "

"Probably they had some way of fighting the creatures. However, thatwill show itself as I get along with the translation. " He looked at hiswatch--"I suppose I ought to be ashamed of myself, but I haven't been tobed. Are you going out?"

"I shall drive back to Las Palmas. I promised a man to have a round atgolf this afternoon. "

"Very well, see you at dinner. I hope they've sent back my dress shirtsfrom the wash. O, lord! I am sleepy. "

I left him going up to bed, and went outside and ordered a carriage totake 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 forbusiness forthwith, and there was a Liverpool boat in the harbour whichI 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 theeyes in work when I got back to England, I'm afraid I didn't think verymuch more about him at the time. One doesn't with people one just meetscasually abroad like that. And it must have been at least a year laterthat I saw by a paragraph in one of the papers, that he had given thelump of sheets to the British Museum, and that the estimated worth ofthem was ten thousand pounds at the lowest valuation. 

Well, this was a bit of revelation, and as he had so repeatedlyimpressed on me that the things were mine by right of discovery, I wroterather a pointed note to him mentioning that he seemed to have beenmaking rather free with my property. Promptly came back a stilted letterbeginning, "Doctor Coppinger regrets" and so on, and with it the Englishtranslation of the wax-upon-talc MSS. He "quite admitted" my claim, and "trusted that the profits of publication would be a sufficientreimbursement for any damage received. "

Now I had no idea that he would take me unpleasantly like this, andwrote back a pretty warm reply to that effect; but the only answer I gotto this was through a firm of solicitors, who stated that all furthercommunications with Dr. Coppinger must be made through them. 

I will say here publicly that I regret the line he has taken over thematter; but as the affair has gone so far, I am disposed to follow outhis 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 theoriginal talc-upon-wax sheets, myself. 

If there is a further alteration in this arrangement, it will beannounced publicly at a later date. But at present this appears to bemost unlikely. 

1. MY RECALL

The public official reception was over. The sentence had been read, thename of Phorenice, the Empress, adored, and the new Viceroy installedwith all that vast and ponderous ceremonial which had gained its pompand majesty from the ages. Formally, I had delivered up the reins of mygovernment; formally, Tatho had seated himself on the snake-throne, andhad put over his neck the chain of gems which symbolised the supremeoffice; and then, whilst the drums and the trumpets made theirproclamation of clamour, he had risen to his feet, for his first stateprogress round that gilded council chamber as Viceroy of the Province ofYucatan. 

With folded arms and bended head, I followed him between the glitteringlines of soldiers, and the brilliant throng of courtiers, and chiefs, and statesmen. The roof-beams quivered to the cries of "Long LiveTatho!" "Flourish the Empress!" which came forth as in duty bound, andthe new ruler acknowledged the welcome with stately inclinations ofthe head. In turn he went to the three lesser thrones of the lessergovernors--in the East, the North, and the South, and received homagefrom 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 carrybefore the people a passionless face. Once, twenty years before, thesesame fine obeisances had been made to me; now the Gods had seen fit tomake fortune change. But as I walked bent and humbly on behind the heelsof Tatho, though etiquette forbade noisy salutations to myself, it couldnot inhibit kindly glances, and these came from every soldier, everycourtier, and every chief who stood there in that gilded hall, andthey fell upon me very gratefully. It is not often the fallen meet suchtender looks. 

The form goes, handed down from immemorial custom, that on these greatceremonial days of changing a ruler, those of the people being presentmay bring forward petitions and requests; may make accusations againsttheir retiring head with sure immunity from his vengeance; or may statetheir own private theories for the better government of the State in thefuture. I think it may be pardoned to my vanity if I record that not avoice was raised against me, or against any of the items of my twentyyears of rule. Nor did any speak out for alterations in the future. Yes, even though we made the circuit for the three prescribed times, allpresent showed their approval in generous silence. 

Then, one behind the other, the new Viceroy and the old, we marched withformal step over golden tiles of that council hall beneath the pyramid, and the great officers of state left their stations and joined in ourtrain; and at the farther wall we came to the door of those privatechambers 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 havebeen thankful enough to return to the Continent of Atlantis with my headstill in its proper station. 

Tatho gave his formal summons of "Open ye to the Viceroy, " which theritual commands, and the slaves within sent the massive stone valves ofthe door gaping wide. Tatho entered, I at his heels; the others halted, sending valedictions from the threshold; and the valves of the doorclanged on the lock behind us. We passed on to the chamber beyond, andthen, when for the first time we were alone together, and the forcedetiquette of courts was behind us, the new Viceroy turned with meeklyfolded arms, and bowed low before me. 

"Deucalion, " he said, "believe me that I have not sought this office. Itwas 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 inyour place. The Empress does not permit that her will shall ever bequestioned. "

"My friend, " I made answer, "my brother in all but blood, there is noman living in all Atlantis or her territories to whom I had liefer handover my government. For twenty years now have I ruled this countryof Yucatan, and Mexico beyond, first under the old King, and thenas minister to this new Empress. I know my colony like a book. I amintimate with all her wonderful cities, with their palaces, theirpyramids, and their people. I have hunted the beasts and the savages inthe forests. I have built roads, and made the rivers so that they willcarry shipping. I have fostered the arts and crafts like a merchant; Ihave discoursed, three times each day, the cult of the Gods withmine own lips. Through evil years and through good have I ruled here, striving only for the prosperity of the land and the strengthening ofAtlantis, and I have grown to love the peoples like a father. To you Ibequeath 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 followexactly on in your footsteps. Believe me, I came out to this governmentwith a thousand regrets, but I would have died sooner than take yourplace had I known how vigorously the supplanting would trouble you. "

"We are alone here, " I said, "away from the formalities of formalassemblies, and a man may give vent to his natural self without fear oftarnishing a ceremony. Your coming was something of the suddenest. Till an hour ago, when you demanded audience, I had thought to rule onlonger; and even now I do not know for what cause I am deposed. "

"The proclamation said: 'We relieve our well-beloved Deucalion of hispresent service, because we have great need of his powers at home in ourkingdom of Atlantis. '"

"A mere formality. "

Tatho looked uneasily round the hangings of the chamber, and drew mewith him to its centre, and lowered his voice. 

"I do not think so, " he whispered. "I believe she has need of you. Thereare troublous times on hand, and Phorenice wants the ablest men in thekingdom 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'slength of solid stone. Myself, I oversaw the laying of every course. And besides, here in Yucatan, we have not the niceties of your old worlddiplomacy, 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 whosetrade it is to carry tales. Still, what I say is this: The throneshakes, and Phorenice sees the need of sturdy props. So she has sentthis 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 ofthe old country's politics. What small parcel of news drifts out to usacross the ocean, reads with slender interest here. Yucatan is anotherworld, my dear Tatho, as you in the course of your government willlearn, with new interests, new people, new everything. To us here, Atlantis is only a figment, a shadow, far away across the waters. Itis for this new world of Yucatan that I have striven through all theseyears. "

"If Deucalion has small time to spare from his government for broodingover his fatherland, Atlantis, at least, has found leisure to admirethe deeds of her brilliant son. Why, sir, over yonder at home, your namecarries magic with it. When you and I were lads together, it was thecustom in the colleges to teach that the men of the past were thegreatest 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 nametheir sons Deucalion, as the most valuable birth-gift they can make. Deucalion is a household word. Indeed, there is only one name that isnear to it in familiarity. "

"You trouble me, " I said, frowning. "I have tried to do my duty for itsown sake, and for the country's sake, not for the pattings and fondlingsof the vulgar. And besides, if there are names to be in every one'smouth, they should be the names of the Gods. "

Tatho shrugged his shoulders. "The Gods? They occupy us very littlethese latter years. With our modern science, we have grown past thetether of the older Gods, and no new one has appeared. No, my LordDeucalion, if it were merely the Gods who were your competitors on men'slips, your name would be a thousand times the better known. "

"Of mere human names, " I said, "the name of this new Empress should comefirst in Atlantis, our lord the old King being now dead. "

"She certainly would have it so, " replied Tatho, and there was somethingin his tone which made me see that more was meant behind the words. Idrew him to one of the marble seats, and bent myself familiarly towardshim. "I am speaking, " I said, "not to the new Viceroy of Yucatan, butto my old friend Tatho, a member of the Priests' Clan, like myself, withwhom I worked side by side in a score of the smaller home governments, in hamlets, in villages, in smaller towns, in greater towns, as wegained experience in war and knowledge in the art of ruling people, andso 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 withthat plainness which we always then used to one another. "

The new Viceroy sighed whimsically. "I almost forget how to speak inplain words now, " he said. "We have grown so polished in these latterdays, that mere bald truth would be hissed as indelicate. But for thememory of those early years, when we expended as much law and thoughtover the ownership of a hay-byre as we should now over the fate of arebellious 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 Lordthe Sun, your questions would carry mischief with them. Phorenice has ashort way with those who are daring enough to discuss her policies forother 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 meso heavily that the peoples under us might prosper. But he was quickenough to see my change of tone. 

"You force me back to my old self, " he said with a half smile, "thoughit is hard enough to forget the caution one has learned during the lasttwenty years, even when speaking with you. Still, whatever may havehappened to the rest of us, it is clear to see that you at least havenot changed, and, old friend, I am ready to trust you with my life ifyou ask it. In fact, you do ask me that very thing when you tell me tospeak all I know of Phorenice. "

I nodded. This was more like the old times, when there was fullconfidence 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 wouldbe of service to me if I could land on her shores with some knowledge ofthis Phorenice, for at present I am as ignorant concerning her as somesavage from Europe or mid-Africa. "

"What would you have me tell?"

"Tell all. I know only that she, a woman, reigns, whereby the ancientlaw of the land, a man should rule; that she is not even of the PriestlyClan from which the law says all rulers must be drawn; and that, fromwhat you say, she has caused the throne to totter. The throne was asfirm 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 nevereven whispered now, as she has declared herself to be a daughter of theGods, with a miraculous birth and upbringing. As she has decreed it asacrilege to question this parentage, and has ordered to be burnt allthose that seem to recollect her more earthly origin, the fable passescurrent for truth. You see the faith I put in you, Deucalion, by tellingyou 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, andZaemon's wife saw Phorenice and took her away to adopt and bring up asher own. It is said that the swineherd and his woman objected; perhapsthey did; anyway, I know they died; and Phorenice was taught the artsand 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 Tathodryly, "and she learnt early to have her wishes carried into fact. Itwas notorious that before she had grown to fifteen years she ruled notonly the women of the household, but Zaemon also, and the province thatwas beyond Zaemon. "

"Zaemon was learned, " I said, "and a devout follower of the Gods, andsearcher into the higher mysteries; but, as a ruler, he was always aflabby fellow. "

"I do not say that opportunities have not come usefully in Phorenice'sway, but she has genius as well. For her to have raised herself at allfrom 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 wifeof some sturdy countryman, who was sufficiently simple to care nothingfor pedigree. But look at Phorenice: it was her whim to take exerciseas 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 hadbroken out in the province, and here was she, a slip of a girl, leadingZaemon'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, andgave the conquered a choice between sword and service. They fell intoher ranks at once, and were faithful to her from that moment. I tellyou, 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. Andfrankly, I am in love with her also, and look upon my coming here asdetestable exile. Every one near to Phorenice, high and low, loves herjust the same, even though they know it may be her whim to send them toexecution 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 palterwith the fripperies of women. "

"Ah, but these colonists here are crude and unfascinating. Wait till yousee the ladies of the court, my ascetic. "

"It comes to my mind, " I said dryly, "that I lived in Atlantis before Icame out here, and at that time I used to see as much of court life asmost men. Yet then, also, I felt no inducement to marry. "

Tatho chuckled. "Atlantis has changed so that you would hardly know thecountry to-day. A new era has come over everything, especially overthe other sex. Well do I remember the women of the old King's time, howmonstrous uncomely they were, how little they knew how to walk or carrythemselves, how painfully barbaric was their notion of dress. I dareswear that your ladies here in Yucatan are not so provincial to-day asours 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 seePhorenice in all her glorious beauty and her magnificence one of thesefine days soon, and believe me you will go down on your knees andrepent. "

"I may see, and (because you say so) I may alter my life's ways. TheGods 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 Iwould hear the continuance of your history. "

"It is one long story of success. She deposed Zaemon from his governmentin name as well as in fact, and the news was spread, and the PriestlyClan rose in its wrath. The two neighbouring governors were bidden joinforces, take her captive, and bring her for execution. Poor men! Theytried to obey their orders; they attacked her surely enough, but inbattle she could laugh at them. She killed both, and made some slaughteramongst their troops; and to those that remained alive and became herprisoners, she made her usual offer--the sword or service. Naturallythey were not long over making their choice: to these common people oneruler is much the same as another: and so again her army was reinforced. 

"Three times were bodies of soldiery sent against her, and three timeswas she victorious. The last was a final effort. Before, it had beencustomary to despise this adventuress who had sprung up so suddenly. Butthen the priests began to realise their peril; to see that the throneitself was in danger; and to know that if she were to be crushed, theywould have to put forth their utmost. Every man who could carry arms waspressed into the service. Every known art of war was ordered to be putinto employment. It was the largest army, and the best equipped armythat Atlantis then had ever raised, and the Priestly Clan saw fit to putin supreme command their general, Tatho. "

"You!" I cried. 

"Even myself, Deucalion. And mark you, I fought my utmost. I was not hercreature then; and when I set out (because they wanted to spur me to theuttermost) the High Council of the priests pointed out my prospects. TheKing we had known so long, was ailing and wearily old; he was so wrappedup 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 mightdecide to die. The Priestly Clan uses its own discretion in the electionof a new king, but it takes note of popular sentiment; and a general whoat the critical time could come home victorious from a great campaign, which moreover would release a harassed people from the constantapplication of arms, would be the idol of the moment. These things werepointed 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. PhoreniceI had never seen, and I swore to take her alive, and give her to be thesport 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 theforms you and I learnt together, old comrade, and in many a tough fightfound to serve well; I armed them with the choicest weapons we knew ofthen, with sling and mace, with bow and spear, with axe and knife, withsword and the throwing fire; their bodies I covered with metal plates;even their bellies I cared for, with droves of cattle driven in the rearof the fighting troops. 

"But when the encounter came, they might have been men of straw for allthe harm they did. Out of her own brain Phorenice had made fire-tubesthat cast a dart which would kill beyond two bowshots, and the fashionin which she handled her troops dazzled me. They threatened us on oneflank, they harassed us on the other. It was not war as we had beenaccustomed to. It was a newer and more deadly game, and I had to watchmy splendid army eaten away as waves eat a sandhill. Never once did Iget a chance of forcing close action. These new tactics that had comefrom Phorenice's invention, were beyond my art to meet or understand. Wewere eight to her one, and our close-packed numbers only made us so muchthe 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 theunsuccessful general. I tried to die there fighting where I stood. Butdeath 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. Butat hand-to-hand courtesies we had shown we could hold our own, and sothey were calling for fire-tubes with which they could strike us downin 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 apretty fighter seemingly, after the old manner. Doubtless he is onewho would acquire the newer method. See now Tatho, ' says she, 'it is mycustom to offer those I vanquish either the sword (which, believe me, was never nearer your neck than now) or service under my banner. Willyou make a choice?'

"'Woman, ' I said, 'fairest that ever I saw, finest general the worldhas ever borne, you tempt me sorely by your qualities, but there is atradition in our Clan, that we should be true to the salt we eat. I amthe 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, asyou may learn if you choose. With the King dead, Tatho is a masterlessman 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 fromthis seat and walk away if you will. But I ask you this: keep back yourworst judgment of me, old friend, till after you have seen Phoreniceherself in the warm and lovely flesh. Then your own ears and your ownsenses 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 beganto think that I had made somewhat a mistake in wrapping myself up soentirely in my government of Yucatan, and not contriving to keep more intouch with events that were passing at home in Atlantis. For many yearspast it had been easy to see that the mariner folk who did trafficacross the seas spoke with restraint, and that only what news theEmpress pleased was allowed to ooze out beyond her borders. But, asI say, I was fully occupied with my work in the colony, and had nocuriosity to pull away a veil intentionally placed. Besides, it hasalways been against my principles to put to the torture men who hadreceived orders for silence from their superiors, merely that they shallbreak these orders for my private convenience. 

However, the iron discipline of our Priestly Clan left me no choiceof procedure. As was customary, I had been deprived of my office at amoment's notice. From that time on, all papers and authority belonged tomy successor, and, although by courtesy I might be permitted to remainas a guest in the pyramid that had so recently been mine, to see anothersunrise, it was clearly enjoined that I must leave the territory then atthe topmost of my speed and hasten to report in Atlantis. 

Tatho, to give him credit, was anxious to further my interests to theutmost in his power. He was by my side again before the dawn, puttingall his resources at my disposal. 

I had little enough to ask him. "A ship to take me home, " I said, "and Ishall be your debtor. "

The request seemed to surprise him. "That you may certainly have if youwish it. But my ships are foul with the long passage, and are in needof a careen. If you take them, you will make a slow voyage of it toAtlantis. Why do you not take your own navy? The ships are in harbournow, 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, andhave been these twenty years. "

I saw what he meant, and the idea did not please me. I answered stifflyenough that the ships were owned by private merchants, or belonged tothe State, and I could not claim so much as a ten-slave galley. 

Tatho shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose you know your own policiesbest, " he said, "though to me it seems but risky for a man who hasattained to a position like yours and mine not to have provided himselfwith 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 wellbe 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 anotherman been appointed to this vice-royalty, you might have been sadlyshorn, Deucalion. It is not many fellows who can resist a snug hoardready 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 tobe of different tastes. All of the hoard that I have made for myself inthis colony, few men would covet. I have the poor clothes you see mein this moment, and a box of drugs such as I have found useful to thestomach. I possess also three slaves, two of them scribes and the thirda sturdy savage from Europe, who cooks my victual and fills for me thebath. For my maintenance during my years of service, here, I have bledthe State of a soldier's ration and nothing beyond; and if in my nameany man has mulcted a creature in Yucatan of so much as an ounce ofbronze, I request you as a last service to have that man hanged for meas a liar and a thief. "

Tatho looked at me curiously. "I do not know whether I admire you mostor 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, ofyour sternness and your justice, but I swear by the old Gods that nosoul guessed you carried your fancy so far as this. Why, man, money ispower. With money and the resources money can buy, nothing could stopa fellow like you; whilst without it you may be tripped up and troddendown 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 withfrankness that I have not come here to follow in the pattern you havemade for a vice-royalty. I shall govern Yucatan wisely and well to thebest 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 apersonal 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 payhandsomely for their prince. "

"We shall not agree on this. You have the power now, and can employ itas you choose. If I thought it would be of any use, I should like tosupplicate you most humbly to deal with lenience when you come to taxthese 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 toretain your good opinion, Deucalion--which I value more than that of anyman 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 ownstrong standard: a Tatho is by no means a colossus like a Deucalion. Andbesides, I have a wife and children, and they must be provided for, evenif I neglect myself. "

"Ah, there, " I said, "it does seem that I possess the advantage. I haveno wife, to clog me. "

He caught up my word quickly. "It seems to me you have nothing thatmakes life worth living. You have neither wife, children, riches, cooks, retinue, dresses, nor anything else in proportion to your station. Youwill pardon my saying it, old comrade, but you are plaguey ignorantabout some matters. For example, you do not know how to dine. Duringevery day of a very weary voyage, I have promised myself when sittingbefore the meagre sea victual, that presently the abstinence would bemore than repaid by Deucalion's welcoming feast. Oh, I tell you thatfeast was one of the vividest things that ever came before my eyes. Andthen when we get to the actuality, what was it? Why, a country farmerevery day sits down to more delicate fare. You told me how it wasprepared. Well, your savage from Europe may be lusty, and perchance isfaithful, but he is a devil-possessed cook. Gods! I have lived better ona campaign. 

"I know this is a colony here, without any of the home refinements; butif 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 thanheretofore, I shall see it my duty as ruler to fry some of thekitchen staff alive in grease so as to encourage better cookery. Gods!Deucalion, have you forgotten what it is to have a palate? And haveyou no esteem for your own dignity? Man, look at your clothes. You aregarbed like a herdsman, and you have not a gaud or a jewel to brightenyou. "

"I eat, " I said coldly, "when my hunger bids me, and I carry this onerobe upon my person till it is worn out and needs replacement. Thegrossness of excessive banqueting, and the effeminacy of many clothesare attainments that never met my fancy. But I think we have talked hereover long, and there seems little chance of our finding agreement. Youhave 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, rememberonly our friendship of twenty years agone. That for me, at any rate, hasalways 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. Dawncannot be far off now, and it is not decent that the man who has ruledhere so long, should walk in daylight through the streets on the morningafter his dismissal. "

"So be it, " said Tatho. "You shall have my poor navy. I could havewished 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 herenow, 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 shallnot. "

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 inescort, that I did finally make my transit. 

But the start was not immediate. The vessels lay moored against thestone quays of the inner harbour, gutted of their stores, and with crewsexhausted, and it would have been suicide to have forced them out thenand there to again take the seas. 

So the courtesies were fulfilled by the craft whereon I abode haulingout into the entrance basin, and anchoring there in the swells of thefairway; and forthwith she and her consorts took in wood and water, cured meat and fish ashore, and refitted in all needful ways, with allspeed 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 thecountry of my labours; indeed, officially, I had left it already. Intothe working of the ship it was contrary to rule that I should makeany inspection or interest, since all sea matters were the exclusiveproperty of the Mariners' Guild, secured to them by royal patent, andmost jealously guarded. 

So there remained to me in my day, hours to gaze (if I would) upon thequays, the harbours, the palaces, and the pyramids of the splendid citybefore me which I had seen grow stone by stone from its foundations; orto 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 byfield we had so tediously ripped our territory. 

Would Tatho continue the work so healthily begun? I trusted so, even inspite of his selfish words. And at all hours, during the radiance ofour Lord the Sun, or under the stars of night, I was free to pursuethat study of the higher mysteries, on which we of the Priests' Clan aretrained to set our minds, without aid of book or instrument, of image ortemple. 

The refitting of the navy was gone about with speed. Never, it is said, had ships been reprovisioned and caulked, and remanned with greaterspeed for the over-ocean voyage. Indeed, it was barely over a month fromthe day that they brought up in the harbour, they put out beyond thewalls, and began their voyage eastward over the hills and dale of theocean. 

Rowing-slaves from Europe for this long passage of sea are not takennow, owing to the difficulty in provisioning them, for modern humanityforbids the practice of letting them eat one another according to thehome custom of their continent; sails alone are but an indifferent standby; but modern science has shown how to extract force from the Sun, whenHe is free from cloud, and this (in a manner kept secret by mariners) ismade to draw sea-water at the forepart of the vessel, and eject it withsuch force at the stern that she is appreciably driven forward, evenwith the wind adverse. 

In another matter also has navigation vastly improved. It is notnecessary now, as formerly, to trust wholly to a starry night (whenbeyond sight of land) to find direction. A little image has been made, and is stood balanced in the forepart of every vessel, with an armoutstretched, pointing constantly to the direction where the SouthernCross lies in the Heavens. So, by setting an angle, can a just course becorrectly steered. Other instruments have they also for finding a trueposition 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 thewsand wits. 

Still, it is amusing to see these tarry fellows, even in this modernday, 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 ofattire. Ashore they go, their faces long with piety, and seek someobscure temple whose God has little flavour with shore folk, and herethey make sacrifice with clamour and lavish outlay. And, finally, therefollows a feast in honour of the God, and they arrive back on board, andput to sea for the most part drunken, and all heavy and evil-humouredwith gluttony and their other excesses. 

The voyage was very different to my previous sea-going. There was nocreeping timorously along in touch with the coasts. We stood straightacross the open gulf in the direction of home, came up with the band ofthe Carib Islands, and worked confidently through them, as though theyhad been signposts to mark the sea highway; and stopped only twiceto replenish with wood, water, and fruit. These commodities, too, thesavages brought us freely, so great was their subjection, and inneither place did we have even the semblance of a fight. It was a greatcertificate of the growing power of Atlantis and her finest over-seacolony. 

Then boldly on we went across the vast ocean beyond, with never asacrifice to implore the Gods that they should help our direction. Onemight feel censure towards these rugged mariners for their impiety, butone 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 mancan only take them as they come. Storms we encountered, and the marinersfought them with stubborn endurance; twice a blazing stone from Heavenhissed into the sea beside us, though without injuring any of our ships;and, as was unavoidable, the great beasts of the sea hunted us withtheir accustomed savagery. But only once did we suffer material lossfrom these last, and that was when three of the greater sea lizardsattacked the "Bear, " the ship whereon I travelled, at one and the sametime. 

The hour of their onset was during the blazing midday heat, and the Sunbeing at the full of His power, our machines were getting full forcefrom Him. The vessel was travelling forward faster than a man on dryland could walk. But for the power escape she might as well have beenstanding 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 greatnecks like masts as they swam. Our navy was spread out in a long lineof ships, and in olden days each of the beasts would have selected aseparate prey, and proceeded for it; but, like man, these beasts havelearned the necessities of warfare, and they hunt in pack now and do notseparate their forces. 

It was plain they were making for our ship, and Tob, the captain, wouldhave had me go into the after-castle, and there be secure from theirmarauding. He was responsible to the Lord Tatho, he said, for my safeconduct; it was certain that the beasts would contrive to seize some ofthe ship's company before they were satiated; and if the hap came to theLord Deucalion, he (the captain) would have to give himself voluntarilyto the beasts then, to escape a very painful death at Tatho's handslater on. 

However, my mind was set. A man can never have too much experience infighting enemies, whether human or bestial, and the attack of thesecreatures was new to me, and I was fain to learn its method. So I gavethe captain a letter to Tatho, saying how the matter lay (and for which, it may be mentioned, the rude fellow seemed little enough grateful), andstayed in my chair under the awning. 

The beasts surged up to us with champing jaws, and all the shipmenstood armed on their defence. They came up alongside, two females (thesmaller) on the flank of the ship, the giant male by himself on theother. Their great heads swooped about, as high as the yards that heldthe sails, and the reek from them gave one physical sickness. 

The shipmen faced the monsters with a sturdy courage. Arrows wereuseless against the smooth, bull-like hides. Even the throwing firecould not so much as singe them; nothing but twenty axe blows deliveredon an attacking head together could beat it back, and even thesesucceeded only through sheer weight of metal, and did not make so muchas 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 tohold his own, and fight them with a mind made strong by many previousvictories. In Europe and mid-Africa the greater beasts hold fulldominion, and man admits his puny number and force, and lives in earthcrannies and the higher tree-tops, as a fugitive confessed. And upon thegreat oceans, the beasts are lords, unchecked. 

Still here, upon this desolate sea, although the giant lizards were newto me, it was a pleasure to pit my knowledge of war against their brutestrength and courage. Ever since the first men did their business uponthe great waters, they fulfilled their instincts in fighting the beastswith desperation. Hiding coward-like in a hold was useless, for if thisenemy could not find men above decks to glut them, they would breaka ship with their paddles, and so all would be slain. And so it wasrecognised 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 hadgone away satisfied. 

It was in a one-sided conflict after this fashion then, that I foundmyself, and felt the joy once more to have my thews in action. But aftermy axe had got in some dozen lusty blows, which, for all the harm theydid, might have been delivered against some city wall, or, indeed, against the ark of the Mysteries itself, I sought about me till I founda lance, and with that made very different play. 

The eyes of these lizards are small, and set deep in a bony socket, butI judged them to be vulnerable, and it was upon the eyes of the beastthat I made my attack. The decks were slippery with the horrid slime ofthem. The crew surged about in their battling, and, moreover, constantlyoffered themselves as a rampart before me by reason of Tob, thecaptain's threats. But I gave a few shrewd progues with the lance toshow that I did not choose my will to be overridden, and presently wasgiven room for manoeuvre. 

Deliberately I placed myself in the sight of one of the lizards, andoffered my body to its attack. The challenge was accepted. It swoopedlike a dropping stone, and I swerved and drove in the lance at its oozyeye. 

I thanked the Gods then that I had been trained with the lance tillcertain aim was a matter of instinct with me. The blade went true toits mark and stuck there, and the shaft broke in my hand. The beast drewoff, blinded and bellowing, and beating the sea with its paddles. In agreat cataract of foam I saw it bend its great long neck, and rub itshead (with the spear still fixed) against its back, thereby enduring newagonies, but without dislodging the weapon. And then presently, findingthis of no avail, it set off for the place from which it came withextraordinary quickness, and rapidly grew smaller against the horizon. 

The male and the other female lizard had also left us, but not insimilar 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 Tobdreaded very much for his own skin if I came by harm, and I thought witha warming heart of the threats that Tatho must have used in his kindanxiety for my safety. It is pleasant when one's old friends do not omitto pay these little attentions. 

3. A RIVAL NAVY

Now, when we came up with the coasts of Atlantis, though Tob, withthe aid of his modern instruments, had made his landfall with mostmarvellous skill and nearness, there still remained some ten days' morejourney in which we had to retrace our course, till we came to that armof 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 cameoff from it with the breezes, were, I believe, under the Gods, themeans of saving the lives of all of us. For, as is necessary with longcross-ocean voyages, many of our ships' companies had died, and stillmore were sick with scurvy through the unnatural tossing, or (as somehave it) through the salt, unnatural food inseparable from shipboard. But these last, the sight and the smells of land heartened up inextraordinary fashion, and from being helpless logs, unable to move evenunder blows of the scourge, they became active again, able to help inthe shipwork, and lusty (when the time came) to fight for their livesand their vessels. 

From the moment that I was deposed in Yucatan, despite Tatho'sassurances, there had been doubts in my mind as to what nature wouldbe my reception in Atlantis. But I had faced this event of the futurewithout concern: it was in the hands of the Gods. The Empress Phorenicemight be supreme on earth; she might cause my head to be lopped from itsproper shoulders the moment I set foot ashore; but my Lord the Sun wasabove Phorenice, and if my head fell, it would be because He saw bestthat it should be so. On which account, therefore, I had not troubledmyself about the matter during the voyage, but had followed out my calmstudy of the higher mysteries with an unloaded mind. 

But when our navy had retraced sufficiently the course that had beenoverrun, and came up with the two vast headlands which marked theentrance to the inland waters, there, a bare two days from the Atlantiscapital, we met with another navy which was, beyond doubt, waiting togive us a reception. The ships were riding at anchor in a bay which lentthem shelter, but they had scouts on the high land above, who criedthe alarm of our approach, and when we rounded the headland, they werestanding out to dispute our passage. 

Of us there were now but five ships, the rest having been lost instorms, or fallen behind because all their crews were dead from thescurvy; and of the strangers there were three fine ships, and threegalleys of many oars apiece. They were clean and bright and black; ourships were storm-ragged and weather-worn, and had bottoms that were foulwith trailing ocean weed. Our ships hung out the colours and signs ofTatho and Deucalion openly and without shame, so that all who lookedmight know their origin and errand; but the other navy came on withoutbanner or antient, as though they were some low creatures feeling shamefor 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 theseas, and a brother in one ship feels quite free to harry his brotherin another vessel if he meets him out of earshot of the beach--moreespecially if that other brother be coming home laden from foray ortrading tour. So Tob, with system and method, got our vessel intofighting 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 tosmell 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 twonavies approached one another with quickness, the three galleys holdingback to stay in line with their consorts. But when some bare hundredship-lengths separated us, the other navy halted, and one of thegalleys, drawing ahead, flew green branches from her masts, seeking fora parley. 

The course was unusual, but we, in our sea-battered state, were no navyto 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 doduty for greenery), to show that we were ready for talk, and wouldrespect the person of an ambassador. 

The galley drew on, swung round, and backed till its stern rasped on ourshield rail, and one of her people clambered up and jumped down uponour decks. He was a dandily rigged-out fellow, young and lusty, and allhealthy from the land and land victual, and he looked round him with asneer at our sea-tatteredness, and with a fine self-confidence. Then, seeing Tob, he nodded as one meets an acquaintance. "Old pot-mate, " hesaid, "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 besworn. I've drunk enough pots with you, Dason, to know your pleasantriesthoroughly. "

"I wanted to point out to you that your home is still there, with yourwife and children ready to welcome you. "

"I am not a man that ever forgets it, " said Tob grimly; "and becauseI've got them always at the back of my mind, I've sailed this ship overthe top of more than one pirate, when, if I'd been a single man, I mighthave been e'en content to take the hap of slavery. "

"Oh, I know you're a desperate enough fellow, " said Dason, "and I'm freeto confess that if it does come to blows we are like to lose a fewmen before we get you and your cripples here, and your crazy shipscomfortably sunk. Our navy has its orders to carry out, and the cause ofmy embassage is this: we wish to see if you will act the sensible partand 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 aheavy laugh. "We took no treasure or merchandise on board in Yucatan. Westayed in harbour long enough to cure our sea victual and fill with foodand 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 hadour places been changed; but you may go into the holds and search ifyou choose. You will find there nothing but a few poor sailormen half inpieces 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, " saidthe 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 acommon sailor, and do not understand fancy talk. "

"It is clear to see, " said Dason, "that you have been set to bringDeucalion back to Atlantis as a prop for Phorenice. Well, we others findPhorenice hard enough to fight against without further reinforcements, and so we want Deucalion in our own custody to deal with after our ownfashion. "

"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 batterednavy beside her. "Why, then, Tob, we shall send you all to the fishesin very short time, and instead of Deucalion standing before the Godsalone, 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 myLord Deucalion, that is out of the question. For see here, pot-mateDason; in the first place, if I went to Atlantis without Deucalion, myother lord, Tatho, would come back one of these days, and in his hands Ishould die by the slowest of slow inches; in the second, I have seenmy Lord Deucalion kill a great sea lizard, and he showed himself such aproper man that day that I would not give him up against his will, evento Tatho himself; and in the third place, you owe me for your share inour last wine-bout ashore, and I'll see you with the nether Gods beforeI give you aught till you've settled that score. "

"Well, Tob, I hope you'll drown easy. As for that wife of yours, I'vealways had a fancy for her myself, and I shall know how to find a usefor the woman. "

"I'll draw your neck for that, you son of a European, " said Tob; "andif you do not clear off this deck I'll draw it here. Go, " he cried, "youfather of monkey children! Get away, and let me fight you fairly, or bymy honour I'll stamp the inwards out of you, and make your silly crewwear them as necklaces. "

Upon which Dason went to his galley. 

Promptly Tob set going the machine on our own "Bear, " and bawled hisorders right and left to the other ships. The crew might be weak withscurvy, but they were quick to obey. Instantly the five vessels were allstarted, and because our Lord the Sun was shining brightly, got soon tothe full of their pace. The whole of our small navy converged, singlingout one ship of their opponents, and she, not being ready for so swiftan 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 ourfive ships hit her together on the broadside, tearing her planking withtheir underwater beaks, and sinking her before we had backed clear fromthe engage. 

But if we thus brought the enemy's number down to five, and so equal toour own, the advantage did not remain with us for long. The three nimblegalleys formed into line: their boatswains' whips cracked as the slavesbent to their oars, and presently one of our own ships was gored andsunk, 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 heartof the greatest warrior alive. The ships and the galleys were forcedtogether and lay savagely grinding one another upon the swells, asthough they had been sentient animals. The men on board them shot theirarrows, slashed with axes, thrust and hacked with swords, and hurled thethrowing fire. But in every way the fight converged upon the "Bear. " Itwas on her that the enemy spent the fiercest of their spite; it was tothe "Bear, " that the other crews of Tatho's navy rallied as their ownvessels caught fire, or were sunk or taken. 

Battle is an old acquaintance with us of the Priestly Clan, and forthose of us who have had to carve out territories for the new colonies, it comes with enough frequency to cloy even the most chivalrousappetite. 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-fightsurprised even me in its savage fierceness. The bleak, unstable elementwhich surrounded us; the swaying decks on which we fought; the throwingfire, which burnt flesh and wood alike with its horrid flame; thegreat gluttonous man-eating birds that hovered in the sky overhead;the man-eating fish that swarmed up from the seas around, gnawing andquarrelling over those that fell into the waters, all went to make up acircumstance fit to daunt the bravest men-at-arms ever gathered for anarmy. 

But these tarry shipmen faced it all with an indomitable courage, andnever a cry of quailing. Life on the seas is so hard, and (from thebeasts that haunt the great waters) so full of savage dangers, thatDeath has lost half his terrors to them through sheer familiarity. They were fellows who from pure lust for a fray would fight to a finishamongst themselves in the taverns ashore; and so here, in this desperatesea-battle, the passion for killing burned in them, as a fire stonefrom Heaven rages in a forest; and they took even their death-woundslaughing. 

On our side the battle-cry was "Tob!" and the name of this obscureship-captain seemed to carry a confidence with it for our own crews thatmany a well-known commander might have envied. The enemy had adozen rallying cries, and these confused them. But as their othership-commanders one by one were killed, and Dason remained, activewith mischief, "Dason!" became the shout which was thrown back at us inresponse to our "Tob!"

However, I will not load my page with farther long account of thisobscure sea-fight, whose only glory was its ferocity. One by one all theships of either side were sunk or lay with all their people killed, tillfinally only Dason's galley and our own "Bear" were left. For the momentwe were being mastered. We had a score of men remaining out of all thosethat manned the navy when it sailed from Yucatan, and the enemy hadboarded us and made the decks of the "Bear" the field of battle. Butthey had been over busy with the throwing fire, and presently, as weraged at one another, the smoke and the flame from the sturdy vesselherself let us very plainly know that she was past salvation. 

But Tob was nothing daunted. "They may stay here and fry if theychoose, " he shouted with his great boisterous laugh, "but for ourselvesthe galley is good enough now. Keep a guard on Deucalion, and come withme, shipmates!"

"Tob!" our fellows shouted in their ecstasy of fighting madness, and Itoo could not forbear sending out a "Tob!" for my battle-cry. It was achange for me not to be leader, but it was a luxury for once to fightin the wake of this Tob, despite his uncouthness of mien and plan. Therewas no stopping this new rush, though progress still was slow. Tob withhis bloody axe cut the road in front, and we others, with the lust ofbattle filling us to the chin, raged like furies in his wake. Gods! butit 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 whotried to follow, and hacked through the grapples that held the vesselsto their embrace. The sea-swells spurned the "Bear" away. 

The slaves chained to the rowing-galley's benches had interest neitherone way nor the other, and looked on the contest with dull concern, savewhen some stray missile found a billet amongst them. But a handful ofthe 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 bedealt with promptly. Three, with their fighting fury still red-hot inthem, had most wastefully to be killed out of mischief's way; five, whohad pitched their weapons into the sea, were chained to oar looms, inplace of slaves who were dead; and there remained only Dason to have afate 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 upwith an exulting face. 

"Ho, pot-mate Dason, " cried he, "you made a lot of talk an hour agoabout that woman of mine, who lives with her brats on the quay-side inAtlantis yonder. Now, I'll give you a pleasant choice; either I'lltake you along home, and tell her what you said before the whole ship'scompany (that are for the most part dead now, poor souls!), and I'llleave 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 neckto the axe. So Tob cut off his head, sticking it on the galley's beak asan 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 upand flew away with it to its nest amongst the crags. And so we werefree to get a meal of the fruits and the fresh meats which the galleyoffered, whilst the oar-slaves sent the galley rushing onwards towardsthe capital. 

There was a wine-skin in the after-castle, and I filled a horn andpoured some out at Tob's feet in salutation. "My man, " I said, "you haveshown me a fight. "

"Thanks, " said he, "and I know you are a judge. 'Twas pretty whilst itlasted; and, seeing that my lads were, for the most, scurvy-rotten, Iwill say they fought with credit. I have lost my Lord Tatho's navy, butI think Phorenice will see me righted there. If those that are againsther took so much trouble to kill my Lord Deucalion before he could cometo her aid, I can fancy she will not be niggard in her joy when I putDeucalion safe, if somewhat dented and blood-bespattered, on the quay. "

"The Gods know, " I said, for it is never my custom to discuss policieswith my inferiors, even though etiquette be for the moment loosened, as ours was then by the thrill of battle. "The Gods will decide whatis best for you, Tob, even as they have decided that it is best that Ishould go on to Atlantis. "

The sailor held a horn filled from the wine-skin in his hand, and Ithink was minded to pour a libation at my feet, even as I had done athis. But he changed his mind, and emptied it down his throat instead. "It is thirsty work, this fighting, " he said, "and that drink comes veryuseful. "

I put my hand on his blood-smeared arm. "Tob, " I said, "whether I stepinto power again, or whether I go to the block to-morrow, is anothermatter which the Gods alone know, but hear me tell you now, that if achance is given me of showing my gratitude, I shall not forget the wayyou have served me in this voyage, and the way you have fought thisday. "

Tob filled another brimming horn from the wine-skin and splashed it atmy feet. "That's good enough surety for me, " he said, "that my woman andbrats 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 themouth of the gulf, I had thought little enough of my importance as arecruit 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 intotheir hands, were omens which the blindest could not fail to read. Itwas clear that I was expected to play a lusty part in the fortunes ofthe nation. 

But if our coming had been watched for by enemies it seemed thatPhorenice also had her scouts; and these saw us from the mountains, andcarried news to the capital. The arm of the sea at the head of which thevast city of Atlantis stands, varies greatly in width. In places wherethe mountains have over-boiled, and sent their liquid contents down toform hard stone below, the channel has barely a river's wideness, andthen 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 soa runner who knows his way across the flats, and the swamps, and betweenthe smoking hills which lie along the shore, and did not get overcome byfire-streams, or water, or wandering beasts, could carry news overlandfrom seacoast to capital far speedier than even the most shrewdlywhipped of galleys could ferry it along the water. 

Of course there were heavy risks that a lone traveller would not makea safe passage by this land route, if he were bidden to sacrifice allprecautions to speed. But Phorenice was no niggard with her couriers. She sent a corps of twenty to the headland that overlooks thesea-entrance to the straits; they started with the news, each on his ownroute; and it says much for their speed and cleverness, that no fewerthan seven of these agile fellows came through scathless with theirtidings, and of the others it was said that quite three were known tohave survived. 

Still, about this we had no means of knowing at the time, and pushedon in fancy that our coming was quite unheralded. The slaves on thegalley's row-banks were for the most part savages from Europe, and thesmell of them was so offensive that the voyage lost all its pleasures;and as, moreover, the wind carried with it an infinite abundance ofsmall grit from some erupting fire mountain, we were anxious to lingeras little as possible. Besides, if I may confess to such a thing withoutbeing unduly degraded, although by my priestly training I had beentaught stoicism, and knew that all the future was in the hands of theGods, I was frailly human still to have a very vast curiosity as towhat would be the form of my own reception at Atlantis. I could imaginemyself taken a formal prisoner on landing, and set on a formal trialto answer for my cure of the colony of Yucatan; I could imagine myselfstepping ashore unknown and unnoticed, and after a due lapse, beingsent for by the Empress to take up new duties; but the manner of my realwelcome was a thing I did not even guess at. 

We came in sight of the peak of the sacred mountain, with its glare ofeternal fires which stand behind the city, one morning with the day'sbreak, and the whips of the boatswains cracked more vehemently, so thatthose offensive slaves should give the galley a final spurt. The windwas adverse, and no sail could be spread, but under oars alone we madea pretty pace, and the sides of the sacred mountain grew longer, andpresently the peaks of the pyramids in the city, the towers of thehigher buildings, began to show themselves as though they floated uponthe gleaming water. It was twenty years since I had seen Atlantislast, and my heart glowed with the thought of treading again upon herpaving-stones. 

The splendid city grew out of the sea as we approached, and to everythrob of the oars, the shores leaped nearer. I saw the temple where Ihad been admitted first to manhood; I saw the pyramid in whose heartI had been initiated to the small mysteries; and then (as the lesserobjects became discernible) I made out the house where a father and amother 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, andthe slaves panted and sobbed in quietude over the oar-looms. For vesselsthus stationed there is, generally, a sufficiency of waiting, for aport-captain is apt to be so uncertain of his own dignity, that he muste'en keep folks waiting to prove it to them. But here for us it mighthave been that the port-captain's boat was waiting. The signal wassounded from the two castles at the harbour's entrance, the chain whichhung between them was dropped, and a ten-oared boat shot out from behindthe walls as fast as oars could drive her. She raced up alongside andthe 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 wereTatho's captain?"

"And am still. Tatho's fleet was sent by Dason and his friends to thesea-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 onthe after-deck. "I fear me, captain, that you'll have but a dangerousreception. I do not see my Lord Deucalion. Or does he come with someother navy? Gods, captain, if you have let him get killed whilst underyour charge, the Empress will have the skin torn slowly off you living. "

"What with Phorenice and Tatho both so curious for his welfare, " saidTob, "my Lord Deucalion seems but a dangerous passenger. But I shallsave my hide this voyage. " He jerked at me with his thumb. "He's thereto put in a word for me himself. "

The port-captain stared for a moment, as if unbelieving, and then, asthough satisfied, made obeisance like a fellow well used to ceremonial. "I trust my lord, in his infinite strength, will pardon my sin in notknowing him by his nobleness before. But truth to tell, I had looked tosee my lord more suitably apparelled. "

"Pish, " I said; "if I choose to dress simply, I cannot object to beingmistaken for a simple man. It is not my pleasure to advertise my qualityby the gauds on my garb. If you think amends are due to me, I pray ofyour charity that this inquisition may end. "

The fellow was all bows and obsequiousness. "I am the humblest of mylord's servants, " he said. "It will be my exceeding honour to pilot mylord's galley into the berth appointed in harbour. "

The boat shot ahead, and our galley-slaves swung into stroke again. Tobwatched 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 meonly as a very rude fellow when he steps ashore amongst all this finegentility. "

"You don't think, " said I, "anything of the kind. "

"Then I must prove my refinement, " said Tob, "and not contradict. " Hepicked 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 aman. You're the finest fighter of beasts and men that walks this worldto-day, and I love you for it. That spear-stroke of yours on the lizardis a thing the singers in the taverns shall make chaunts about. "

We drew rapidly into the harbour, the soldiers in the entrance castleblowing their trumpets in welcome as we passed between them. The captainof the port had run up my banner to the masthead of his boat, havingbeen provided with one apparently for this purpose of announcement, andfrom the quays, across the vast basin of the harbour, there presentlycame to us the noises of musicians, and the pale glow of welcomingfires, dancing under the sunlight. I was almost awed to think that anEmpress of Atlantis had come to such straits as to feel an interest likethis in any mere returning subject. 

It was clear that nothing was to be done by halves. The port-captain'sboat led, and we had no choice but to follow. Our galley was run upalongside the royal quay and moored to its posts and rings of gold, allof which are sacred to the reigning house. 

"If Dason could only have foreseen this honour, " said Tob, with grislyjest, "I'm sure he'd have laid in a silken warp to make fast on thebollards instead of mere plebeian hemp. I'm sure there'd be a frown onDason's head this minute, if the sun hadn't scorched it stiff. My LordDeucalion, will you pick your way with niceness over this common shipand tread on the genteel carpet they've spread for you on the quayyonder?"

The port-captain heard Tob's rude banter and looked up with a face ofhorror, and I remembered, with a small sigh, that colonial freedom wouldhave no place here in Atlantis. Once more I must prepare myself for allthe dignity of rank, and make ready to tread the formalities of vast andgorgeous ceremonial. 

But, be these things how they may, a self-respecting man must preservehis individuality also, and though I consented to enter a pavilion ofcrimson cloth, specially erected to shelter me till the Empress shoulddeign to arrive, there my complaisance ended. Again the matter ofclothes was harped upon. The three gorgeously caparisoned chamberlains, who had inducted me to the shelter, laid before me changes of raimentbedecked with every imaginable kind of frippery, and would have metransform myself into a popinjay in fashion like their own. 

Curtly enough, I refused to alter my garb, and when one of themstammeringly referred to the Empress's tastes I asked him with plainnessif he had got any definite commands on this paltry matter from hermightiness. 

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 hisouter casing. 

"This dress, " I said, "suits my temper well. It shields my poor bodyfrom the heat and the wind, and, moreover, it is clean. It seems tome, sirs, " I added, "that your interfering savours somewhat of animpertinence. "

With one accord the chamberlains drew their swords and pushed the hiltstowards me. 

"It would be a favour, " said their spokesman, "if the great LordDeucalion would take his vengeance now, instead of delivering us to thetormentors hereafter. "

"Poof, " I said, "the matter is forgotten. You make too much of alittle. "

Nevertheless, their action gave me some enlightenment. They wereperfectly in earnest in offering me the swords, and I recognised thatthis was a different Atlantis that I had come home to, where a man haddread 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 awayhalf its refreshing power; and then I set myself to wait with alloutward composure and placidity. The chamberlains were too well-bred tobreak into my calm, and I did not condescend to small talk. So there weremained, the four of us, I sitting, they standing, with our Lord theSun smiting heavily on the scarlet roof of the pavilion, whilst themusic blared, and the welcoming fires dispersed their odours from thegreat paved square without, which faced upon the quay. 

It has been said that the great should always collect dignity by keepingthose of lesser degree waiting their pleasure, though for myself I mustsay I have always thought the stratagem paltry and beneath me. Phorenicealso seemed of this opinion, for (as she herself told me later) at themoment that Tob's galley was reported as having its flank against themarble of the royal quay, at that precise moment did she start out fromthe palace. The gorgeous procession was already marshalled, bedecked, and waiting only for its chiefest ornament, and as soon as she hadmounted to her steed, trumpets gave the order, and the advance began. 

Sitting in the doorway of the pavilion, I saw the soldiery who formedthe head of this vast concourse emerge from the great broad street whereit left the houses. They marched straight across to give me the salute, and then ranged themselves on the farther side of the square. Then camethe Mariners' Guild, then more soldiers, all making obeisance intheir turn, and passing on to make room for others. Following were themerchants, the tanners, the spear-makers and all the other acknowledgedGuilds, deliberately attired (so it seemed to me) that they might makea pageant; and whilst most walked on foot, there were some who proudlyrode on beasts which they had tamed into rendering them this menialservice. 

But presently came the two wonders of all that dazzling spectacle. Fromout of the eclipse of the houses there swung into the open no less abeast than a huge bull mammoth. The sight had sufficient surprise in italmost to make me start. Many a time during my life had I led huntsto kill the mammoth, when a herd of them had raided some village orcornland under my charge. I had seen the huge brutes in the wild ground, shaggy, horrid, monstrous; more fierce than even the cave-tiger or thecave-bear; most dangerous beast of all that fight with man for dominionof the earth, save only for a few of the greater lizards. And herewas this creature, a giant even amongst mammoths, yet tame as anywell-whipped slave, and bearing upon its back a great half-castle ofgold, stamped with the outstretched hand, and bedecked with silversnakes. Its murderous tusks were gilded, its hairy neck was garlandedwith flowers, and it trod on in the procession as though assisting atsuch pageantry was the beginning and end of its existence. Its tamenessseemed a fitting symbol of the masterful strength of this new ruler ofAtlantis. 

Simultaneously with the mammoth, there came into sight that other andgreater wonder, the mammoth's mistress, the Empress Phorenice. The beasttook my eye at the first, from its very uncouth hugeness, from itsshow of savage power restrained; but the lady who sat in the goldenhalf-castle on its lofty back quickly drew away my gaze, and held itimmovable from then onwards with an infinite attraction. 

I stood to my feet when the people first shouted at Phorenice'sapproach, and remained in the porchway of my scarlet pavilion till hervast steed had halted in the centre of the square, and then I advancedacross the pavement towards her. 

"On your knees, my lord, " said one of the chamberlains behind me, in ascared whisper. 

"At least with bent head, " urged another. 

But I had my own notions of what is due to one's own self-respect inthese 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 wasfrankly doing the like by her. Gods! but those few short seconds made mesee a woman such as I never imagined could have lived. 

I know I have placed it on record earlier in this writing that, duringall the days of a long official life, women have had no influence overme. But I have been quick to see that they often had a strong swayingpower over the policies of others, and as a consequence I have made itmy business to study them even as I have studied men. But this woman whosat under the sacred snakes in her golden half-castle on the mammoth'sback, fairly baffled me. Of her thoughts I could read no singlesyllable. I could see a body slight, supple, and beautifully moulded; infigure rather small. Her face was a most perfect book of cleverness, yetshe was fair, too, beyond belief, with hair of a lovely ruddiness, cutshort 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 atrace of their heaven-made colour?

It was plain, also, that she in her turn was searching me down tomy very soul, and it seemed that her scrutiny was not without itssatisfaction. She moved her head in little nods as I drew near, and whenI did the requisite obeisance permitted to my rank, she bade me ina voice loud and clear enough for all at hand to hear, never to putforehead on the ground again on her behalf so long as she ruled inAtlantis. 

"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 amEmpress, and they are all so far beneath me; but you are Deucalion, mylord, and though till to-day I knew you only from pictures drawn withtongues, I have seen you now, and have judged for myself. And so I makethis decree: Deucalion is above all other men in Atlantis, and if thereis one who does not render him obedience, that man is enemy also ofPhorenice, and shall feel her anger. "

She made a sign, and a stair was brought, and then she called to me, andI mounted and sat beside her in the golden half-castle under the canopyof royal snakes. The girl who stood behind in attendance fanned us bothwith perfumed feathers, and at a word from Phorenice the mammoth wasturned, bearing us back towards the royal pyramid by the way throughwhich it had come. At the same time also all the other machinery ofsplendour was put in motion. The soldiers and the gaudily bedecked civiltraders fell into procession before and behind, and I noted that a bodyof troops, heavily armed, marched on each of the mammoth's flanks. 

Phorenice turned to me with a smile. "You piqued me, " she said, "atfirst. "

"Your Majesty overwhelms me with so much notice. "

"You looked at my steed before you looked at me. A woman finds it hardto forgive a slight like that. "

"I envied you the greatest of your conquests, and do still. I havefought mammoths myself, and at times have killed, but I never dared evento think of taking one alive and bringing it into tameness. "

"You speak boldly, " she said, still smiling, "and yet you can turn apretty compliment. Faugh! Deucalion, the way these people fawn on megives me a nausea. I am not of the same clay as they are, I know; butjust because I am the daughter of Gods they must needs feed me on thepap of insincerity. "

So Tatho was right, and the swineherd was forgotten. Well, if she choseto keep up the fiction she had made, it was not my part to contradicther. Rightly or wrongly I was her servant. 

"I have been pining this long enough for a stronger meat than they cangive, " she went on, "and at last I have sent for you. I have been atsome pains to procure my tongue-pictures of you, Deucalion, and thoughyou do not know me yet, I may say I knew you with all thoroughness evenbefore we met. I can admire a man with a mind great enough to forego thesilly gauds of clothes, or the excesses of feasts, or the pamperings ofwomen. " She looked down at her own silks and her glittering jewels. "Wewomen like to carry colours upon our persons, but that is a differentmatter. And so I sent for you here to be my minister, and bear with methe 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 emptyphrases and their importunities; and, though they are always brimmingwith their cries of service, their own advancement and the filling oftheir 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 notsigh to be my lover?"

I saw her watching for my answer from the corner of her eyes. "TheEmpress, " I said, "is my mistress, and I will be an honest minister toher. With Phorenice, the woman, it is likely that I shall have littleenough to do. Besides, I am not the sort that sports with this toy theycall love. "

"And yet you are a personable man enough, " she said rather thoughtfully. "But that still further proves your strength, Deucalion. You at leastwill not lose your head through weak infatuation for my poor looks andgraces. "--She turned to the girl who stood behind us. --"Ylga, fan not soviolently. "

Our talk broke off then for the moment, and I had time to look aboutme. We were passing through the chief street in the fairest, the mostwonderful city this world has ever seen. I had left it a score of yearsbefore, and was curious to note its increase. 

In public buildings the city had certainly made growth; there werenew temples, new pyramids, new palaces, and statuary everywhere. Itsgreatness 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, thisgreat capital was a place not to be compared with any of them. It wasimperial and gorgeous beyond descriptive words. 

Yet most of all was I struck by the poverty and squalor which stood insuch close touch with all this magnificence. In the throngs that linedthe streets there were gaunt bodies and hungry faces everywhere. Hereand 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 tohis face, as though he had forgotten the mere name of safety, and hid afrantic 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. Theselower people will not build fine houses to adorn my city, and becausethey choose to live on in their squalid, unsightly kennels, there havebeen calentures and other sicknesses amongst them, which make themdisinclined for work. And then, too, for the moment, earning is noteasy. 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 thecity in a state of siege?"

"Of their condescension, " said Phorenice lightly, "they are giving usholiday 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 themtheir due, they are noisy enough in all their efforts. My spies say theyare making ready new engines for use against the walls, which you maysally 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, andsome 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 hasmade me your minister, it is well that I should know all about its scopeat 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 atthe shoulder. "

And when the attendant had unlinked the jewelled clasp (as it seemed tome with a very ill grace), she herself stripped down the fabric, baringthe pure skin beneath, and showing me just below the curve of the leftbreast a bandage of bloodstained linen. 

"There is a guarantee of my seriousness yesterday, at any rate, " shesaid, looking at me sidelong. "The arrow struck on a rib and that savedme. If it had struck between, Deucalion would have been standing besidemy funeral pyre to-day instead of riding on this pretty steed of minewhich he admires so much. Your eye seems to feast itself most on themammoth, 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, " shesaid 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 hereto interest him. "

5. ZAEMON'S CURSE

It appeared that for the present at any rate I was to have my residencein the royal pyramid. The glittering cavalcade drew up in the greatpaved square which lies before the building, and massed itself ingroups. The mammoth was halted before the doorway, and when a stair hadbeen brought, the trumpets sounded, and we three who had ridden in thegolden half-castle under the canopy of snakes, descended to the ground. 

It was plain that we were going from beneath the open sky to theapartments which lay inside the vast stone mazes of the pyramid, andwithout thinking, the instinct of custom and reverence that had becomepart of my nature caused me to turn to where the towering rocks of theSacred Mountain frowned above the city, and make the usual obeisance, and offer up in silence the prescribed prayer. I say I did this thingunthinking, and as a matter of common custom, but when I rose to myfeet, I could have sworn I heard a titter of laughter from somewhere inthat fancifully bedecked crowd of onlookers. 

I glanced in the direction of the scoffers, frowningly enough, andthen I turned to Phorenice to demand their prompt punishment for thedisrespect. But here was a strange thing. I had looked to see her in theact and article of rising from an obeisance; but there she was, standingerect, and had clearly never touched her forehead to the ground. Moreover, she was regarding me with a queer look which I could notfathom. 

But whatever was in her mind, she had no plan to bawl about it thenbefore the people collected in the square. She said to me, "Come, "and, turning to the doorway, cried for entrance, giving the secret wordappointed for the day. The ponderous stone blocks, which barred theporch, swung back on their hinges, and with stately tread she passedout of the hot sunshine into the cool gloom beyond, with the fan-girlfollowing decorously at her heels. With a heaviness beginning to growat my heart, I too went inside the pyramid, and the stone doors, with asullen 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 redwalls, and the burning fountain of earth-breath which blazed from a jetof bronze in the middle of the flooring and gave it light. The old Kingthat was gone had come this far of his complaisance when he bademe farewell as I set out twenty years before for my vice-royalty inYucatan. But the air of the hall was different to what it had been inthose old days. Then it was pure and sweet. Now it was heavy with somescent, 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 anobeisance as you showed to that mountain not a minute since has not beenmade since I was sent to reign over this kingdom. "

"Your Majesty, " I said, "I am a member of the Priests' Clan and wasbrought 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 goodair that He and They have provided. It has been my fate more than onceto be chased by streams of fire and stinking air amongst the mountainsduring one of their sudden boils, and so I can say the prescribed prayerupon 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 wasto be the new rule of things, I would have no hand in it. Fate mightdeal with me as it chose. To serve truly a reigning monarch, that I wasprepared for; but to palter with sacrilege, and accept a swineherd'sdaughter as a God, who should receive prayers and obeisances, revoltedmy 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 Ifind for myself that those old things are false, I must stand by thatallegiance, 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 lightof the burning earth-breath might fall on the loveliness of her face andform. "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 toconversion, whether I would or no. But it seems that my poor looks andtongue 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 whichclamours outside the walls. I must begin to prove my uses. "

"I am told you are a pretty fighter, " said she. "Well, I hold some smallskill 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 Imust carry through the honourable reception I have planned for you, Deucalion. The feast will be set ready soon, and you will wish to makeready for the feast. There are chambers here selected for your use, andstored with what is needful. Ylga will show you their places. "

We waited, the fan-girl and I, till Phorenice had passed out of the glowof the light-jet, and had left the hall of waiting through a doorwayamongst the shadows of its farther angle, and then (the girl taking alamp and leading) we also threaded our way through the narrow mazes ofthe pyramid. 

Everywhere the air was full of perfumes, and everywhere the passagesturned and twisted and doubled through the solid stone of the pyramid, so that strangers might have spent hours--yes, or days--in search beforethey came to the chamber they desired. There was a fine cunningnessabout those forgotten builders who set up this royal pyramid. They hadno mind that kings should fall by the hand of vulgar assassins who mightcome in suddenly from outside. And it is said also that the king of thetime, to make doubly sure, killed all that had built the pyramid, orseen even the lay of its inner stones. 

But the fan-girl led the way with the lamp swinging in her hand, as oneaccustomed to the mazes. Here she doubled, there she turned, and hereshe stopped in the middle of a blank wall to push a stone, which swungto let us pass. And once she pressed at the corner of a flagstone on thefloor, which reared up to the thrust of her foot, and showed us a stairsteep and narrow. That we descended, coming to the foot of an inclinedway which led us upward again; and so by degrees we came unto thechamber 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 arePhorenice's first presents, she bid me say, and but a small earnest ofwhat is to come. My Lord Deucalion can drop his simplicity now, and fighimself out in finery to suit the fashion. "

"Girl, " I said sharply, "be more decorous with your tongue, and spare mesuch small advice. "

"If my Lord Deucalion thinks this a rudeness, he can give a word toPhorenice, and I shall be whipped. If he asks it, I can be stripped andscourged 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 herblack brows. "They call me Ylga. You might have heard that as we rodehere 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, "andthe first words you utter are those that might well bring trouble toyourself. There is some object in all this. "

She went and pushed to the massive stone that swung in the doorway ofthe chamber. Then she put her little jewelled fingers on my garment anddrew me carefully away from the airshaft into the farther corner. "I amthe 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 didobeisance to. I have not put eyes on him these two years. But when Isaw you first step out from that red pavilion they had pitched at theharbour side, I--I felt a pity for you, Deucalion. I remembered you weremy 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 veryblind man, Deucalion, or a very daring one. But I shall not interferefurther; at least not now. Still, I shall watch, and if at any time youseem 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 believeyou know my power, any more than you guess my motive. You may be firstman in this kingdom, but let me tell you I rank as second lady. Andremember, women stand high in Atlantis now. Believe me, my friendship isa commodity that has been sought with frequence and industry. "

"And as I say, I am grateful for it. You seem to think little enough ofmy gratitude, Ylga; but, credit me, I never have bestowed it on a womanbefore, and so you should treasure it for its rarity. "

"Well, " she said, "my lord, there is an education before you. " She leftme then, showing me how to call slaves when I wished for their help, andfor 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 thehabit of a lifetime?

The slaves came at my bidding, and showed themselves anxious to deckme with a thousand foolishnesses in the matter of robes and gauds, and(what seemed to be the modern fashion of their class) holding out thevirtues of a score of perfumes and unguents. Their manner irritatedme. Clean I was already, and shaved; my hair was trim, and my robe wasunsoiled; and, considering these pressing attentions of theirs somethingof an impertinence, I set them to beat one another as a punishment, promising that if they did not do it with thoroughness, I would handthem on to the brander to be marked with stripes which would endure. It is strange, but a common menial can often surpass even a rebelliousgeneral in power of ruffling one. 

I had seen many strange sights that day, and undergone many newsensations; but of all the things which came to my notice, Phorenice'smanner of summoning the guests to her feast surprised me most. Nay, itdid more; it shocked me profoundly; and I cannot say whether amazementat her profanity, or wonder at her power, was for the moment strongestin my breast. I sat in my chamber awaiting the summons, when gradually, growing out of nothing, a sound fell upon my ear which increased involume with infinitely small graduations, till at last it became aclanging din which hurt the ear with its fierceness; and then (I guessedwhat was coming) the whole massive fabric of the pyramid trembled andgroaned and shook, as though it had been merely a child's wooden toybrushed about by a strong man's sandal. 

It was the portent served out yearly by the chiefs of the Priests' Clanon the Sacred Mountain, when they bade all the world take count of theirsins. It was the sacred reminder that from roaring, raging fire, andfrom the agony of monstrous earth-tremors, man had been born, and thatby these same agencies he would eventually be swallowed up--he andthe sins within his breast. And here the Empress was prostituting itssolemnities into a mere call to gluttony, and sign for ribald laughterand sensuous display. 

But how had she acquired the authority to do this thing? Who was shethat she should tamper with those dimly understood powers, the forcesthat dwell within the liquid heart of our mother earth? Had there beentreachery? Had some member of the Priests' Clan forgotten his sacredvows, and babbled to this woman matters concerning the holy mysteries?Or had Phorenice discovered a key to these mysteries with her own agilebrain?

If that last was the case, I could continue to serve her with silentconscience. Though she might be none of my making, at least she wasEmpress, and it was my duty to give her obedience. But if she hadsuborned some weaker member of the Clan on the Sacred Mount, that wouldbe a different matter. For be it remembered that it was one of theelements of our constitution to preserve our secrets and mysteriesinviolate, and to pursue with undying hatred both the man who had daredto betray them, and the unhappy recipient of his confidence. 

It was with very undecided feelings, then, that I obeyed the summons ofthe earth-shaking, and bade the slaves lead me through the windings ofthe pyramid to the great banqueting-hall. The scene there was dazzling. The majestic chamber with its marvellous carvings was filled with acompany decked out with all the gauds and colours that fancy couldconceive. Little recked they of the solemn portent which had summonedthem to the meal, of the death and misery that stalked openly throughthe city wards without, of the rebels which lay in leaguer beyond thewalls, of the neglected Gods and their clan of priests on the SacredMountain. They were all gluttonous for the passions of the moment; itwas their fashion and conceit to look at nothing beyond. 

Flaming jets of earth-breath lit the great hall to the brightness ofmidday; and when I stepped out upon the pavement, trumpets blared, sothat all might know of my coming. But there was no roar of welcome. "Deucalion, " they lisped with mincing voices, bowing themselvesridiculously to the ground so that all their ornaments and silks mightjangle and swish. Indeed, when Phorenice herself appeared, and allsent up their cries and made lawful obeisance, there was the sameartificiality in the welcome. They meant well enough, it is true;but this was the new fashion. Heartiness had come to be accounted abarbarism by this new culture. 

A pair of posturing, smirking chamberlains took me in charge, andushered me with their flimsy golden wands to the dais at the fartherend. It appeared that I was to sit on Phorenice's divan, and eat my meatout of her dish. 

"There is no stint to the honour the Empress puts upon me, " I said, as Iknelt down and took my seat. 

She gave me one of her queer, sidelong looks. "Deucalion may have morebeside, if he asks for it prettily. He may have what all the other menin the known world have sighed for, and what none of them will everget. But I have given enough of my own accord; he must ask me warmly forthose further favours. "

"I ask, " I said, "first, that I may sweep the boundaries clear of thisrabble which is clamouring against the city walls. "

"Pah, " she said, and frowned. "Have you appetite only for the sternerpleasures of life? My good Deucalion, they must have been rustic folkin that colony of yours. Well, you shall give me news now of thetoothsomeness of this feast. "

Dishes and goblets were placed before us, and we began to eat, though Ihad little enough appetite for victual so broken and so highly spiced. But if this finicking cookery and these luscious wines did not appealto me, the other diners in that gorgeous hall appreciated it all to thefull. They sat about in groups on the pavement beneath the light-jetslike a tangle of rainbows for colour, and according to the new customthey went into raptures and ecstasies over their enjoyment. Women andmen both, they lingered over each titillation of the palate as though itwere a caress of the Gods. 

Phorenice, with her quick, bright eyes, looked on, and occasionallyflung one or another a few words between her talk with me, and now andagain called some favoured creature up to receive a scrap of viandfrom the royal dish. This the honoured one would eat with extravagantgesture, or (as happened twice) would put it away in the folds of hisclothes 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 theoutward seeing none was apparent. Her face was strong enough, and it wassubtle also, and, moreover, it was wondrous comely. All the courtiers inthe banqueting-hall raved about Phorenice's face and the other beautiesof her body and limbs, and though not given to appreciation in thesematters, I could not but see that here at least they had a groundworkfor their admiration, for surely the Gods have never favoured mortalwoman more highly. Yet lovely though she might be, for myself Ipreferred to look upon Ylga, the girl, who, because of her rank, wasprivileged to sit on the divan behind us as immediate attendant. Therewas an honesty in Ylga's face which Phorenice's lacked. 

They did not eat to nutrify their bodies, these feasters in thebanqueting-hall of the royal pyramid, but they all ate to cloythemselves, and they strutted forth new usages with every platter andbowl that the slaves brought. To me some of their manners wereclosely touching on disrespect. At the halfway of the meal, a gorgeouspopinjay--he was a governor of an out-province driven into the capitalby a rebellion in his own lands--this gorgeous fop, I say, walked upbetween the groups of feasters with flushed face and unsteady gait, anddid 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 himpour respectful libation, but no such thing. He set the drink to hislips and drained it to the final drop. "May all your troubles, " hecried, "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 likethis new habit?"

To which I replied bluntly enough that to pour out liquor at a person'sfeet had grown through custom to be a mark of respect, but that drinkingit seemed to me mere self-indulgence, which might be practised anywhere. 

"You still keep to the old austere teachings, " she said. "Our newer codebids us enjoy life first, and order other things so as not to meddlewith our more immediate pleasure. "

And so the feast went on, the guests practising their gluttonies andtheir absurdities, and the guards standing to their arms round thecircuit of the walls as motionless and as stern as the statues carvenin the white stone beyond them. But a term was put to the orgy withsomething of suddenness. There was a stir at the farther doorway of thebanqueting-hall, and a clash, as two of the guards joined their spearsacross the entrance. But the man they tried to stop--or perhaps it wasto pin--passed them unharmed, and walked up over the pavement betweenthe lights, and the groups of feasters. All looked round at him; a fewthrew 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 awintry chill had come over them; and in the end he walked up and stoodin front of Phorenice's divan, and gazed fixedly on her, but withoutmaking obeisance. 

He was a frail old man, with white hair tumbling on his shoulders, andragged white beard. The mud of wayfaring hung in clots on his feet andlegs. His wizened body was bare save for a single cloth wound abouthis shoulders and his loins, and he carried in his hand a wand with thesymbol of our Lord the Sun glowing at its tip. That wand went to showhis caste, but in no other way could I recognize him. 

I took him for one of those ascetics of the Priests' Clan, who hadforsworn the steady nurtured life of the Sacred Mountain, and who livedout in the dangerous lands amongst the burning hills, where there isdaily peril from falling rocks, from fire streams, from evil vapours, from sudden fissuring of the ground, and from other movements of thoseunstable territories, and from the greater lizards and other monstrousbeasts which haunt them. These keep constant in the memory the might ofthe Holy Gods, and the insecurity of this frail earth on which we haveour resting-place, and so the sojourners there become chastened in thespirit, and gain power over mysteries which even the most studious andlearned of other men can never hope to attain. 

A silence filled the room when the old man came to his halt, andPhorenice was the first to break it. "Those two guards, " she said, inher clear, carrying voice, "who held the door, are not equal to theirwork. 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. Oneshrieked once, the other gave no sound: they were clever thrusts both. 

The old man found his voice, thin, and high, and broken. "Another crimeadded to your tally, Phorenice. Not half your army could have hinderedmy entrance had I wished to come, and let me tell you that I am here tobring you your last warning. The Gods have shown you much favour; theygave you merit by which you could rise above your fellows, till at lastonly the throne stood above you. It was seen good by those on the SacredMountain to let you have this last ambition, and sit on this thronethat has as long and honourably been filled by the ancient kings ofAtlantis. "

The Empress sat back on the divan smiling. "I seemed to get these thingsas I chose, and in spite of your friends' teeth. I may owe to you, oldman, a small parcel of thanks, though that I offered to repay; but formy lords the priests, their permission was of small enough value whenit came. I would have you remember that I was as firm on the throne ofAtlantis as this pyramid stands upon its base when your worn-out priestscame up to give their tottering benediction. "

The old man waved aside her interruption. "Hear me out, " he said. "I amhere with no trivial message. There is nothing paltry about the threatI can throw at you, Phorenice. With your fire-tubes, your handling oftroops, and your other fiendish clevernesses, you may not be easy tooverthrow by mere human means, though, forsooth, these poor rebels whoyap against your city walls have contrived to hold their ground for longenough 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 artof war. It may be that the man's spirit has gone out from your arm andbrain, and you are a woman once more--weak, and pleasure-loving; again Ido not know. 

"But this must happen: You must undo the evil you have done; you mustgive bread to the people who are starving, even if you take it fromthese gluttons in this hall; you must restore Atlantis to the state inwhich it was entrusted to you: or else you must be removed. It cannotbe permitted that the country should sink back into the lawlessnessand 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, " cameYlga's voice in a hurried whisper from behind us. But the Empress tookno notice of it. She leaned forward on the cushions of the divan with aknit 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 whodares to say words that the High Gods put on his lips. "

"I shall rule this kingdom as I choose. I shall brook interference fromno creature on this earth, or beneath it, or in the sky above. The Godshave chosen me to be Their regent in Atlantis, and They do not depose methrough such creatures as you. Go away, old man, and play the fanatic inanother court. It is well that I have an ancient kindliness for you, oryou would not leave this place unharmed. "

"Now, indeed, you are lost, " I heard Ylga murmur from behind, and theold man in front of us did not move a step. Instead, he lifted up theSymbol of our Lord the Sun, and launched his curse. "Your blasphemygives the reply I asked for. Hear me now make declaration of war onbehalf of Those against whom you have thrown your insults. You shall beoverthrown and sent to the nether Gods. At whatever cost the land shallbe purged of you and yours, and all the evil that has been done to itwhilst you have sullied the throne of its ancient kings. You will notamend, neither will you yield tamely. You vaunt that you sit as firm onyour throne as this pyramid reposes on its base. See how little youknow of what the future carries. I say to you that, whilst you are yetEmpress, you shall see this royal pyramid which you have pollutedwith your debaucheries torn tier from tier, and stone from stone, andscattered as feathers spread before a wind. "

"You may wreck the pyramid, " said Phorenice contemptuously. "I myselfhave some knowledge of the earth forces, as I have shown this night. Butthough you crumble every stone above us now and grind it into grit anddust, I shall still be Empress. What force can you crazy priests bringagainst me that I cannot throw back and destroy?"

"We have a weapon that was forged in no mortal smithy, " shrilled theold man, "whereof the key is now lodged in the Ark of the Mysteries. Butthat weapon can be used only as a last resource. The nature of it evenis too awful to be told in words. Our other powers will be launchedagainst you first, and for this poor country's sake I pray that they maycause you to wince. Yet rest assured, Phorenice, that we shall not stepaside 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 knowthis, daughter of the swineherd, it is agreed amongst the most High Godsthat you are too full of sin to continue unchecked. "

"Speak him fairly, " Ylga urged from behind. "He has a power at which youcannot even guess. "

The Empress made to rise, but Ylga clung to her skirt. "For the sake ofyour fame, " she urged, "for the sake of your life, do not defy him. " ButPhorenice struck her fiercely aside, and faced the old man in a tumultof passion. "You dare call me a blasphemer, who blaspheme yourself? Youdare cast slurs upon my birth, who am come direct from the most highHeaven? 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 fleshshall be scourged from your scraggy bones, and you shall totter awayfrom this place as a red and bleeding example for those who would daretraduce their Empress. Here, some of you, I say, take that man, and lethim be whipped where he stands. "

Her cry went out clearly enough. But not a soul amongst those glitteringfeasters stirred in his place. Not a soldier amongst the guards steppedfrom his rank. The place was hung in a terrible silence. It seemed asthough no one within the hall dared so much as to draw a breath. Allfelt that the very air was big with fate. 

Phorenice, with her head crouched forward, looked from one group toanother. 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 peoplefascinated. For myself, with the first words he had uttered, I hadrecognized the old man by his voice. It was Zaemon, the weak governorwho had given the Empress her first step towards power; that earnestsearcher into the mysteries, who knew more of their powers, and moreabout 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 strangehermit life, how much more might he not have learned? I was torn bywarring duties. I owed much to the Priests' Clan, by reason of my oathand membership; it seemed I owed no less to Phorenice. And, again, wasZaemon the truly accredited envoy of the high council of the priests ofthe Sacred Mountain? And was the Empress of a truth deposed by the HighGods above, or was she still Empress, and still the commander of myduty? I could not tell, and so I sat in my seat awaiting what the eventwould sow. 

Phorenice's fury was growing. "Do I stand alone here?" she cried. "HaveI pampered you creatures out of all touch with gratitude? It seems thatat last I want a new chief to my guards. Ho! Who will be chief of theguards of the Empress?"

There was a shifting of eyes, a hesitation. Then a great burly formstrode up from the farther end of the hall, and a perceptible shudderwent up from all the others as they watched him. 

"So, Tarca, you prefer to take the risks, and remain chief of the guardyourself?" she said with an angry scoff. "Truly there did not seem to bemany thrusting forward to strip you of the office. I shall have a finesorting up of places in payment for this night's work. But for thepresent, Tarca, do your duty. "

The man came up, obviously timorous. He was a solidly made fellow, butnot altogether unmartial, and though but little of his cheek showedabove his decorated beard, I could see that he paled as he came nearto the priest. "My lord, " he said quietly, "I must ask you to come withme. "

"Stand aside, " said the old man, thrusting out the Symbol in front ofhim. I could see his eyes gather on the soldier and his brows knit witha strain of will. 

Tarca saw this too, and I thought he would have fallen, but with aneffort he kept his manhood, and doggedly repeated his summons. "I mustobey 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 daredto use force. But the hand he stretched out dropped limply back to hisside the moment it touched the old man's bare shoulder, as though it hadbeen struck by some shock. He seemed almost to have expected some suchrepulse; yet when he picked up that hand with the other, and lookedat it, and saw its whiteness, he let out of him a yell like a woundedbeast. "Oh, Gods!" he cried. "Not that. Spare me!"

But Zaemon was glowering at him still. A twitching seized the man'sface, 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 womanstanding near screamed as the half of the beard came off in his fingers. Beneath was silver whiteness over half his face. Zaemon had smitten himwith a sudden leprosy that was past cure. 

Yet the punishment was not ended even then. Other twitchings took himon other parts of the body, and he tore off his armour and his foppishclothes, and always where the bare flesh showed, there had the horridplague written its white mark; and in the end, being able to endure nomore, the man fell to the pavement and lay there writhing. 

Zaemon said no further word. He lifted the Symbol before him, sethis eyes on the farther door of the banqueting-hall and walked forit directly, all those in his path shrinking away from him with openshudders. 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 andhaggard. It was the first great reverse, this, she had met with inall her life, and the shock of it, and the vision of what might followafter, dazed her. Alas, if she could only have guessed at a tenth of theterrors which the future had in its womb, Atlantis might have been savedeven then. 

6. THE BITERS OF THE CITY WALLS

Here then was the manner of my reception back in the capital ofAtlantis, and some first glimpse at her new policies. I freely confessto my own inaction and limpness; but it was all deliberate. The old tiesof duty seemed lost, or at least merged in one another. Beforetime, toserve the king was to serve the Clan of the Priests, from which he hadbeen 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 atdefiance; and how was a mere honest man to choose on the instant betweenthe two?

But cold argument told me that governments were set up for the goodof the country at large, and I said to myself that there would be mychoice. I must find out which rule promised best of Atlantis, and do mypoor best to prop it into full power. And here at once there opened upanother 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 beforecoming to any final decision, it would be as well to take their claimsin balance with the rest. So on the night of that very same day on whichI had just re-planted my foot on the old country's shores, I set out toglean for myself tidings on the matter. 

No one inside the royal pyramid gainsaid me. The banquet had endedabruptly with the terrible scene that I have set down above on thesetablets, for with Tarca writhing on the floor, and thrusting out thegruesome scars of his leprosy, even the most gluttonous had littleenough appetite for further gorging. Phorenice glowered on the feastersfor a while longer in silent fury, but saying no further word; and thenher eyes turned on me, though softened somewhat. 

"You may be an honest man, Deucalion, " she said, at length, "but you area 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 morningwe will take this country by the shoulders, and see it in some neworder. "

She left the banqueting-hall then, Ylga following; and takingprecedence of my rank, I went out next, whilst all others stood and madesalutation. But I halted by Tarca first, and put my hand on his uncleanflesh. "You are an unfortunate man, " I said, "but I can admire a bravesoldier. If relief can be gained for your plague, I will use interest toprocure it for you. "

The man's thanks came in a mumble from his wrecked mouth, and some ofthose near shuddered in affected disgust. I turned on them with ablack brow: "Your charity, my lords, seems of as small account asyour courage. You affected a fine disbelief of Zaemon's sayings, anda simpering contempt for his priesthood, but when it comes to layinga hand on him, you show a discretion which, in the old days, we shouldhave called by an ugly name. I had rather be Tarca, with all hisuncleanness, than any of you now as you stand. "

With which leave-taking I waited coldly till they gave me my duesalutation, and then walked out of the banqueting-hall without offeringa 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 wasobsequious 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 fellowpersisted. "The people are hungry. They prowl in bands after nightfall, and--I make no question that my lord would conquer in a fight againstwhatever 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 amaccustomed to a city with quiet streets. "

A score of sturdy fellows were detailed off for my escort, and with themin a double file on either hand, I marched out from the close perfumedair of the pyramid into the cool moonlight of the city. It was mypurpose to make a tour of the walls and to find out somewhat of thedisposition of these rebels. 

But the Gods saw fit to give me another education first. The city, as Isaw it during that night walk, was no longer the old capital that I hadknown, the just accretion of the ages, the due admixture of comfort andsplendour. The splendour was there, vastly increased. Whole wards hadbeen swept away to make space for new palaces, and new pyramids of thewealthy, and I could not but have an admiration for the skill and thebrain 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 otherbarbarous savages which cause them to worship all such great buildingsas Gods, since they deem them too wonderful and majestic to be set up byhuman hands unaided. 

Still, if it was easy to admire, it was simple also to see plainadvertisement of the cost at which these great works had been reared. From each grant of ground, where one of these stately piles earnedsilver under the moon, a hundred families had been evicted and left toharbour as they pleased in the open; and, as a consequence, now everyniche had its quota of sleepers, and every shadow its squad of fiercewild creatures, ready to rush out and rob or slay all wayfarers of lessforce than their own. 

Myself, I am no pamperer of the common people. I say that, if a man beleft 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 aworthless fellow. But here beside us, as we marched through many wards, were marks of blind oppression; starved dead bodies, with the bonesstarting through the lean skin, sprawled in the gutter; and indeedit was plain that, save for the favoured few, the people of the greatcapital were under a most heavy oppression. 

But at this, though I might regret it abominably, I could make no strongcomplaint. By the ancient law of the land all the people, great andsmall, were the servants of the king, to be put without question to whatpurposes he chose; and Phorenice stood in the place of the king. So Itried to think no treason, but with a sigh passed on, keeping my eyesabove the miseries and the squalors of the roadway, and sending out mythoughts to the stars which hung in the purple night above, and tothe High Gods which dwelt amongst them, seeking, if it might be, forguidance for my future policies. And so in time the windings of thestreets brought us to the walls, and, coursing beside these and givingfitting answer to the sentries who beat their drums as we passed, wecame in time to that great gate which was a charge to the captain of thegarrison. 

Here it was plain there was some special commotion. A noise of laughterwent up into the still night air, and with it now and again the snarland 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 ancientbuilders to be no less strong than the walls themselves. Four pairsof valves were there, each a monstrous block of stone two man-heightssquare, and a man-height thick, and the wall was doubled to receivethem, enclosing an open circus between its two parts. The four gatesthemselves were set one at the inner, one at the outer side of each ofthese walls, and a hidden machinery so connected them, that of each setone could not open till the other was closed; and as for forcing themwithout war engines, one might as foolishly try to push down the royalpyramid with the bare hand. 

My escort made outcry with the horn which hung from the wall invitingsuch a summons, and a warder came to an arrow-slit, and did inspectionof our persons and business. His survey was according to the ancientform of words, which is long, and this was made still more tedious bythe noise from within, which ever and again drowned all speech betweenus entirely. 

But at last the formalities had been duly complied with, and he shotback the massive bars and bolts of stone, and threw ajar one monstrousstone valve of the door. Into the chamber within--a chamber made fromthe thickness of the wall between the two doors--I and my fellowscrowded, and then the warder with his machines pulled to the valve whichhad 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 announcemy lord's presence. There is a baiting going forward in the circus, andthe 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 abatch of prisoners with the two great beasts which the Empress (whosename be adored) has sent here to aid us keep the gate. But if mylord will, there are the ward rooms leading off this passage, and thegalleries which run out from them commanding the circus, and from theremy lord can see the sport undisturbed. "

Now, the mere lust for killing excites only disgust in me, but Isuspected the orders of the Empress in this matter, and had a curiosityto see her scheme. So I stepped into the warder's lodge, and on intothe galleries which commanded the circus with their arrow-slits. The oldbuilders of the place had intended these for a second line of defence, for, supposing the outer doors all forced, an enemy could be speedilyshot 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 aspectacle they were no less useful. 

The circus was bright lit by the moonlight, and the air which came in tome from it was acrid with the reek of blood. There was no sport inwhat was going forward: as I said, it was mere killing, and the sightdisgusted me. I am no prude about this matter. Give a prisoner hisweapons, put him in a pit with beasts of reasonable strength, and lethim fight to a finish if you choose, and I can look on there and applaudthe strokes. The war prisoner, being a prisoner, has earned death bynatural law, and prefers to get his last stroke in hot blood than tobe knocked down by the headsman's axe. And it is any brave man's luxuryeither to help or watch a lusty fight. But this baiting in the circusbetween the gates was no fair battle like that. 

To begin with, the beasts were no fair antagonists for single men. Infact, twenty men armed might well have fled from them. When the wardersaid 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-bearingland beasts, the great tigers of the caves--huge monsters, of suchponderous strength that in hunger they will oftentimes drag down amammoth, if they can find him away from his herd. 

How they had been brought captive I could not tell. Hunter of beaststhough I had been for all my days, I take no shame in saying thatI always approached the slaying of a cave-tiger with stratagem andinfinite caution. To entrap it alive and bring it to a city on a chainwas beyond my most daring schemes, and I have been accredited with morenew things than one. But here it was in fact, and I saw in these captivebeasts a new certificate for Phorenice's genius. 

The purpose of these two cave-tigers was plain: whilst they were inthe circus, and loose, no living being could cross from one gate tothe other. They were a new and sturdy addition to the defences of thecapital. A collar of bronze was round the throat of each, and on thecollar was a massive chain which led to the wall, where it could bepayed out or hauled in by means of a windlass in one of the hiddengalleries. So that at ordinary moments the two huge beasts could betethered, one close to either end of the circus, as the litter of bonesand other messes showed, leaving free passage-way between the two setsof doors. 

But when I stood there by the arrow-slit, looking down into themoonlight of the circus, these chains were slackened (though men stoodby the windlass of each), and the great striped brutes were prowlingabout the circus with the links clanking and chinking in their wake. Lying stark on the pavement were the bodies of some eight men, deadand uneaten; and though the cave-tigers stopped their prowlings now andagain to nuzzle these, and beat them about with playful paw-blows, theymade no pretence at commencing a meal. It was clear that this cruelsport had grown common to them, and they knew there were other victimsyet to be added to the tally. 

Presently, sure enough, as I watched, a valve of the farther gate swungback an arm's length, and a prisoner, furiously resisting, was thrustout into the circus. He fell on his face, and after one look around himhe lay resolutely still, with eyes on the ground passively awaitinghis fate. The ponderous stone of the gate clapped to in its place; thecave-tigers turned in their prowlings; and a chatter of wagers ran toand fro amongst the watchers behind the arrow-slits. 

It seemed there were niceties of cruelty in this wretched game. Therewas a sharp clank as the windlasses were manned, and the tetheringchains were drawn in by perhaps a score of links. One of the cave-tigerscrouched, lashed its tail, and launched forth on a terrific spring. The chain tautened, the massive links sang to the strain, and the greatbeast gave a roar which shook the walls. It had missed the prone man bya hand's breadth, and the watchers behind the arrow-slits shrieked forththeir delight. The other tiger sprang also and missed, and again therewere shouts of pleasure, which mingled with the bellowing voices of thebeasts. The man lay motionless in his form. One more cowardly, orone more brave, might have run from death, or faced it; but this poorprisoner chose the middle course--he permitted death to come to him, andhad 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 themassive chains. They lay down on the pavement, and presently began topurr, rolling on to their sides and rubbing themselves luxuriously. Theprisoner still lay motionless in his form. 

By slow degrees the monstrous brutes each drew to the end of its chainand began to reach at the man with out-stretched forepaw. The male couldnot touch him; the female could just reach him with the far tip of aclaw; and I saw a red scratch start up in the bare skin of his side atevery stroke. But still the prisoner would not stir. It seemed to methat they must slack out more links of one of the tigers' chains, or letthe vile play linger into mere tediousness. 

But I had more to learn yet. The male tiger, either taught by hisown devilishness, or by those brutes that were his keepers, had stillanother ruse in store. He rose to his feet and turned round, backingagainst the chain. A yell of applause from the hidden men behindthe arrow-slits told that they knew what was in store; and then themonstrous beast, stretched to the utmost of its vast length, kickedsharply with one hind paw. 

I heard the crunch of the prisoner's ribs as the pads struck him, and atthat same moment the poor wretch's body was spurned away by the blow, asone might throw a fruit with the hand. But it did not travel far. It wasclear that the she-tiger knew this manoeuvre of her mate's. She caughtthe man on his bound, nuzzling over him for a minute, and then tossinghim high into the air, and leaping up to the full of her splendid heightafter him. 

Those other onlookers thought it magnificent; their gleeful shouts saidas much. But for me, my gorge rose at the sight. Once the tigershad reached him, the man had been killed, it is true, without anyunnecessary lingering. Even a light blow from those terrific paws wouldslay the strongest man living. But to see the two cave-tigers toyingwith the poor body was an insult to the pride of our race. 

However, I was not there to preach the superiority of man to thebeasts, and the indecency and degradation of permitting man to be undulyinsulted. I had come to learn for myself the new balance of thingsin the kingdom of Atlantis, and so I stood at my place behind thearrow-slit with a still face. And presently another scene in thisghastly play was enacted. 

The cave-tigers tired of their sport, and first one and then the otherfell once more to prowling over the littered pavements, with the heavychains scraping and chinking in their wake. They made no beginning tofeast on the bodies provided for them. That would be for afterwards. Inthe present, the fascination of slaughter was big in them, and theyhad thought that it would be indulged further. It seemed that they knewtheir entertainers. 

Again the windlass clanked, and the tethering chains drew the greatbeasts clear of the doorway; and again a valve of the farther door swungajar, and another prisoner was thrust struggling into the circus. Asickness seized me when I saw that this was a woman, but still, in viewof 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 equallywith men; yes, and seen them earn their death-blow by lusty battling. Yet there seemed something so wanton in this cruel helpless sacrificeof a woman prisoner, that I had a struggle with myself to avoidinterference. Still it is ever the case that the individual must besacrificed to a policy, and so as I say, I watched on, outwardly coldand impassive. 

I watched too (I confess it freely) with a quickening heart. Here was nosullen submissive victim like the last. She may have been more cowardly(as some women are), she may have been braver (as many women have shownthemselves); but, at any rate, it was clear that she was going to make astruggle for her life, and to do vicious damage, it might be, beforeshe yielded it up. The watchers behind the arrow-slits recognized this. Their wagers, and the hum of their appreciation, swept loudly round thering of the circus. 

They stripped their prisoners, before they thrust them out to thisdeath, 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 earlyyears when I could have plucked out sword and jumped down, and foughtfor her there for the sheer delight of such a battle. But now policyrestrained me. The individual might want a helping hand, but it wasbecoming more and more clear that Atlantis wanted a minister also; andbefore 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 nighthad sufficient manhood remaining to venture the opportunity. 

My heart glowed as I watched her. She picked a bone from the litter onthe pavement and beat off its head by blows against the wall. Then withher teeth she fashioned the point to still further sharpness. I couldsee 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. Thiswas part of their accustomed scheme of torment, and the woman knew itwell. There was something intolerable in their noiseless, ceaselesspaddings over the pavement. I could see the prisoner's breast heave asshe watched them. A terror such as that would have made many a victimsick and helpless. 

But this one was bolder than I had thought. She did not wait for aspring: she made the first attack herself. When the she-tiger made itsstroll towards her, and was in the act of turning, she flung herselfinto a sudden leap, striking viciously at its eye with her sharpenedbone. A roar from the onlookers acknowledged the stroke. Thecave-tiger's eye remained undarkened, but the puny weapon had dealt ita smart flesh wound, and with a great bellow of surprise and pain itscampered away to gain space for a rush and a spring. 

But the woman did not await its charge. With a shrill scream she spedforward, running at the full of her speed across the moonlight directlytowards that shadowed part of the encircling wall within whose thicknessI had my gazing place; and then, throwing every tendon of her body intothe spring, made the greatest leap that surely any human beingever accomplished, even when spurred on by the utmost of terror anddesperation. In an after day I measured it, and though of a certaintyshe 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 surething that in that splendid leap her feet must have dangled a man-heightand 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 andintelligence; and the end of the leap left her with five fingers lodgedin the sill of the arrow-slit from which I watched. Even then she musthave 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 grippedhers by the wrist, and instantly she clambered up with both knees on thesills, and her fingers twined round to grip my wrist in her turn. 

And now you will suppose she gushed out prayers and promises, thinkingonly of safety and enlargement. There was nothing of this. With savagepanting wordlessness she took fresh grip on the sharpened bone with herspare hand, and lunged with it desperately through the arrow-slit. Withthe hand that clutched mine she drew me towards her, so as to give theblows the surer chance, and so unprepared was I for such an attack, andwith such fierce suddenness did she deliver it, that the first blow wasnear giving me my quietus. But I grappled with the poor frantic creatureas gently as might be--the stone of the wall separating us always--andstripped her of her weapon, and held her firmly captive till she mightcalm herself. 

"That was an ungrateful blow, " I said. "But for my hand you'd haveslipped 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 fornow you are far enough off meeting further harm. "

"You are lying to me. You will throw me to the beasts as soon as I loosemy 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 forthe warder who had tended the doors below. "Bid those tigers be tetheredon a shorter chain, " I ordered, "and then go yourself outside into thecircus, and help this lady delicately to the ground. "

The word was passed and these things were done; and I too came out intothe 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 thechange of plan. One of the great stone valves of the farther door openedhurriedly, 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 mustlaunch 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 captainhere, and my word carries, subject only to Phorenice's nod. Do youhear that? Do you know too that I can have you tossed to those stripedgate-keepers of mine for meddling in here without an invitation?" Helooked at me sharp enough, but saw plainly that I was a stranger. "Butperhaps you carry a name, my man, which warrants your impertinence?"

"Deucalion is my poor name, " I said, "but I cannot expect you will knowit. I am but newly landed here, sir, and when I left Atlantis some scoreof 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 Empressthis night that she will to-morrow make a new sorting of this kingdom'sdignities. Perhaps there is some recommendation you would wish me to laybefore her in return for your courtesies?"

"My lord, " said the man, "if you wish it, I can have a turn with thosecave-tigers myself now, and you can look on from behind the walls andsee 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 remainshere 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 aword might be said here for his defence, "the orders were, my lord, thatthe 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 toquestion her. "

The man got to his feet again with obvious relief, though still bowinglow. 

"Then if my lord will honour me by sitting in my room that overlooks theouter gate, the favour will never be forgotten. "

"Show the way, " I said, and took the woman by the fingers, leading hergently. At the two ends of the circus the tigers prowled about on shortchains, growling and muttering. 

We passed through the door into the thickness of the outer wall, and thecaptain of the gate led us into his private chamber, a snug enough boxoverlooking the plain beyond the city. He lit a torch from his lampand thrust it into a bracket on the wall, and bowing deeply and walkingbackwards, left us alone, closing the door in place behind him. He wasan industrious fellow, this captain, to judge from the spoil withwhich his chamber was packed. There could have come very few traders inthrough that gate below without his levying a private tribute; and so, judging that most of his goods had been unlawfully come by, I had littlequalm at making a selection. It was not decent that the woman, beingan Atlantean, should go bereft of the dignity of clothes, as thoughshe were a mere savage from Europe; and so I sought about amongst thecaptain's spoil for garments that would be befitting. 

But, as I busied myself in this search for raiment, rummaging amongstthe heaps and bales, with a hand and eye little skilled in suchbusiness, I heard a sound behind which caused me to turn my head, andthere was the woman with a dagger she had picked from the floor, in theact of drawing it from the sheath. 

She caught my eye and drew the weapon clear, but seeing that I made noadvance 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 youwished to kill me from motives which you explained, and which I quiteunderstood. It lay in my power next to confer some small benefitupon you, in consequence of which you are here, and not--shall wesay?--yonder in the circus. Why you should desire now to kill the onlyman here who can set you completely free, and beyond these walls, is athing it would gratify me much to learn. I say nothing of the trifle ofingratitude. Gratitude and ingratitude are of little weight here. Thereis some far greater in your mind. "

She pressed a hand hard against her breasts. "You are Deucalion, " shegasped; "I heard you say it. "

"I am Deucalion. So far, I have known no reason to feel shame for myname. "

"And I come of those, " she cried, with a rising voice, "who bite againstthis city, because they have found their fate too intolerable with theland as it is ordered now. We heard of your coming from Yucatan. It waswe 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 usthe tidings. We had an omen even before that. Where we lay with our armybefore the walls here, we saw great birds carrying off the slain to themountains. 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'sstuffs. It seemed as if here at last that I should find a solution formany 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 soughtout. 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 Iasked for none then. Still her talk alone let me know that she was bredof none of the common people, and I made up my mind towards definiteunderstanding. "Nais, " I said, "you wish to kill me. At the same time Ihave no doubt you wish to live on yourself, if only to get credit fromyour people for what you have done. So here I will make a contract withyou. Prove to me that my death is for Atlantis' good, and I swear by ourLord the Sun to go out with you beyond the walls, where you can stab meand 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 liveso long as the High Gods wish, and do my poor best for this country. Andfor 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 indeedwe here decide that it is better for Atlantis that I should die, inwhich 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 mytheories 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 youplease. Come, begin the accusation. "

"You are a tyrant. "

"At least I have not paraded my tyrannies in Atlantis these twentyyears. 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 forher recalls. She states her will; and we who serve her obey withoutquestion. "

"Pah, I know that old dogma. "

"If you discredit my poor honesty at the outset like this, I fear weshall not get far with our unravelling. "

"My lord must be indeed simple, " said this strange woman scornfully, "ifhe is ignorant of what all Atlantis knows. "

"Then simple you must write me down. Over yonder in Yucatan we were toowell wrapped up in our own parochial needs and policies to haveleisure to ponder much over the slim news which drifted out to us fromAtlantis--and, in truth, little enough came. By example, Phorenice(whose office be adored) is a great personage here at home; but overthere in the colony we barely knew so much as her name. Here, since Ihave been ashore, I have seen many new wonders; I have been carried by ariding mammoth; I have sat at a banquet; but in what new policies thereare afoot, I have yet to be schooled. "

"Then, if truly you do not know it, let me repeat to you the commontale. 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 thanrepeat what the Empress had made public by proclamation. She is mindedto take to herself a husband, and nothing short of the best is goodenough for Phorenice. One after another has been put up in turn asfavourite--and been found wanting. Oh, I tell you, we here in Atlantishave watched her courtship with jumping hearts. First it was this onehere, then it was that one there; now it was this general just returnedfrom a victory, and a day later he had been packed back to his camp, togive place to some dashing governor who had squeezed increased revenuesfrom his province. But every ship that came from the West said thatthere was a stronger man than any of these in Yucatan, and at last theEmpress changed the wording of her vow. 'I'll have Deucalion for myhusband, ' said she, 'and then we will see who can stand against mywishes. '"

"The Empress (whose name be adored) can do as she pleases in suchmatters, " I said guardedly; "but that is beside the argument. I am hereto 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 adouble tyranny. And her rule alone is more cruelly heavy than we canbear already. "

"I pass no criticism on Phorenice's rule. I have not seen it. But Icrave 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 sequenceis faulty. "

"Who should a strong man use strength for, if not for himself? And iffor himself, why that spells tyranny. You will get all your heart'sdesires, my lord, and you will forget that many a thousand of the commonpeople 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 myfellow-men, my lord, and because of that compassion you see me what I amto-day. There was a time, not long passed, when I slept as soft and ateas 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 liveryof the tyrant's class. But I tell you I saw all the oppression myselffrom 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 Empressnow, and second lady in the kingdom, and those who have seen Ylga couldmake an easy guess at the parentage of Nais. "

"We were the daughters of one birth; but I do not count with eitherZaemon or Ylga now. Ylga is the creature of Phorenice, and Phorenicewould have all the people of Atlantis slaves and in chains, so thatshe might crush them the easier. And as for Zaemon, he is no friend ofPhorenice's; he fights with brain and soul to drag the old authorityto 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. Thatis the creed of all those yonder, who sit in the camp and besiege thiscity. And we number on our side, now, all in Atlantis save those in thecity 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 andthe fevers of this earth, and picked his way amongst the cooler-places, he has been dependent always on his fellow-men. And where two arecongregated together, one must be chief, and order how matters are to begoverned--at least, I speak of men who have a wish to be higher than thebeasts. Have you ever set foot in Europe?"

"No. "

"I have. Years back I sailed there, gathering slaves. What did I see? Acountry without rule or order. Tyrants they were, to be sure, but theywere the beasts. The men and the women were the rudest savages, knowingnothing of the arts, dressing in skins and uncleanness, harbouring incaves and the tree-tops. The beasts roamed about where they would, andhunted them unchecked. "

"Still, they fought you for their liberty?"

"Never once. They knew how disastrous was their masterless freedom. Evento their dull, savage brains it was a sure thing that no slavery couldbe worse; and to that state you, and your friends, and your theories, will reduce Atlantis, if you get the upper hand. But, then, to arguein a circle, you will never get it. For to conquer, you must set upleaders, and once you have set them up, you will never pull them downagain. "

"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 theflame was growing pale. Dawn was coming in greyly through a slenderarrow-slit, and with it ever and again the glow from some mountain outof sight, which was shooting forth spasmodic bursts of fire. With italso were mutterings of distant falling rocks, and sullen tremblings, which had endured all the night through, and I judged that earth was inone of her quaking moods, and would probably during the forthcoming dayoffer us some chastening discomforts. 

On this account, perhaps, my senses were stilled to certain evidenceswhich would otherwise have given me a suspicion; and also, there is nodenying that my general wakefulness was sapped by another matter. Thiswoman, Nais, interested me vastly out of the common; the mere presenceof her seemed to warm the organs of my interior; and whilst she wasthere, all my thoughts and senses were present in the room of thecaptain of the gate in which we sat. 

But of a sudden the floor of the chamber rocked and fell away beneathme, and in a tumult of dust, and litter, and bales of the captain'splunder, I fell down (still seated on the flagstone) into a pit whichhad been digged beneath it. With the violence of the descent, and theflutter of all these articles about my head, I was in no condition forimmediate action; and whilst I was still half-stunned by the shock, andlong 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 raisedthat I should be despatched at once out of the way; but one in authoritycried out that, killing me at leisure, and as a prisoner, promised moregenteel sport; and so I was thrust down on the floor, whilst a wholearmy of men trod in over me to the attack. 

What had happened was clear to me now, though I was powerless to doanything in hindrance. The rebels with more craft than any one hadcredited 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 theirclumsy ignorance, and having no one of sufficient talent in mensuration, they had bungled sadly both in direction and length, and so had endedtheir burrow under this chamber of the captain of the gate. The greatflagstone 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 ofthe 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 greatprocession of feet, it was little enough I could do to help my immediateself much less the more distant city. But when the chief mass of theattackers had passed through, and there came only here and there oneeager to take his share at storming the gate, a couple of fellowsplucked me up out of the mud on the floor, and began dragging me downthrough the stinking darkness of the galley towards the pit that gave itentrance. 

Twenty times we were jostled by others hastening to the attack, eitherfrom 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, Icontrived to do obeisance, and say aloud the prescribed prayer to themost High Gods in gratitude for the fresh, sweet air which They hadprovided. 

Our Lord the Sun was on the verge of rising for His day, and all thingswere 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, ortook shelter against arrows in the casemates provided for them. 

The din of fighting within the gate rose high into the air, and theheavy roaring of the cave-tigers told that they too were taking theirshare of the melee. But the massive stonework of the walls hid all theactual engagement from our view, and which party was getting the upperhand we could not even guess. But the sounds told how tight a fight wasbeing hammered out in those narrow boundaries, and my veins tingled tobe 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 fanein much favour with travellers, who wished to show gratitude for thesafe journey to the capital, but which now was robbed and ruined, andthey swung to the stone entrance gate and barred it, leaving me tocommune with myself. Presently, they told me, I should be put to deathby torments. Well, this seemed to be the new custom of Atlantis, and Ishould 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 themood then to bite very much at their decision. What I had seen of thecountry since my return had not enamoured me very much with its newconditions. 

The little temple in which I was gaoled had been robbed and despoiled ofall its furnishments. But the light-slits, where at certain hours of theday 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 Icould see over the camp of these rebel besiegers, and a dreary prospectit was. The people seemed to have shucked off the culture of centuriesin as many months, and to have gone back for the most part to sheerbrutishness. The majority harboured on the bare ground. Few ownedshelter, and these were merely bowers of mud and branches. 

They fought and quarrelled amongst themselves for food, eating theirmeat raw, and their grain (when they had it) unground. Many who passedmy 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 handto tend them. Great man-eating birds hovered about the camp or skulkedabout, heavy with gorging, amongst the hovels, and no one had publicspirit enough to give them battle. The stink of the place rose up toheaven as a foul incense inviting a pestilence. There was no order, notrace of strong command anywhere. With three hundred well-disciplinedtroops it seemed to me that I could have sent those poor desperatehordes flying in panic to the forest. 

However, there was no very lengthy space of time granted me for thinkingout the policy of this matter to any great depth. The attack on the gatehad been delivered with suddenness; the repulse was not slow. Of whatdesperate fighting took place in the galleries, and in the circusbetween 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 ragedimpartially against keeper and foe. Of those that went in through thetunnel, not one in ten returned, and there were few of these but whatcarried a bloody wound. Some, with the ruling passion still strong inthem, bore back plunder; one trailed along with him the head of thecaptain of the gate; and amongst them they dragged out two of thewarders who were wounded, and whom revenge had urged them to take asprisoners. 

Over these two last a hubbub now arose, that seemed likely to boil overinto blows. Every voice shouted out for them what he thought the mostrepulsive fate. Some were for burning, some for skinning, some forimpaling, some for other things: my flesh crept as I heard theirravenous yells. Those that had been to the trouble of making themcaptive were still breathless from the fight, and were readily thrustaside; and it seemed to me that the poor wretches would be hustled intodeath before any definite fate was agreed upon, which all would pass assufficiently terrific. Never had I seen such a disorderly tumult, neversuch a leaderless mob. But, as always has happened, and always will, thestronger men by dint of louder voices and more vigorous shoulders gottheir 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 ofthose huge war engines with which besiegers are wont to throw greatstones and other missiles into the cities they sit down against. Theyran it up just beyond bowshot of the walls, and clamped it firmly downwith stakes and ropes to the earth. Then setting their lean arms to thewindlasses, they drew back the great tree which formed the spring tillits tethering place reached the ground, and in the cradle at its headthey placed one of the prisoners, bound helplessly, so that he could notthrow himself over the side. 

Then the rude, savage, skin-clad mob stood back, and one who hadappointed himself engineer knocked back the catch that held the greatspring in place. 

With a whir and a twang the elastic wood flung upwards, and the boundman was shot away from its tip with the speed of a lightning flash. He sang through the air, spinning over and over with inconceivablerapidity, and the great crowd of rebels held their breath in silence asthey watched. He passed high above the city wall, a tiny mannikin in thedistance now, and then the trajectory of his flight began to lower. Thespike of a new-built pyramid lay in the path of his terrific flight, andhe 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 thewhiteness of the stone as he fell. 

With a roar the crowd acknowledged the success of their device, andbellowed out insults to Phorenice, and insults to the Gods: a poorfrantic crowd they showed themselves. And then with ravening shouts, they fell upon the other captive warder, binding him also into a compacthelpless missile, and meanwhile getting the engine in gear again foranother shot. 

But for my part I saw nothing of this disgusting scene. I heard the boltgrate stealthily against the door of the little temple in which I wasimprisoned, and was minded to give these brutish rebels somewhat of asurprise. I had rid myself of my bonds handily enough; I had rubbedmy limbs to that perfect suppleness which is always desirable before afight; and I had planned to rush out so soon as the door was swung, andkill 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 garbwere nothing out of the ordinary; but if my bodily strength and fightingpower had been sufficient to raise me to a vice-royalty like that ofYucatan, and let me endure alive in that government throughout twentyhard-battling years, why, it was likely that this rabble of savageswould see something that was new and admirable in the practice of armsbefore the crude weight of their numbers could drag me down. Nay, I didnot even despair of winning free altogether. I must find me a weaponfrom those that came up to battle, with which I could write worthysignatures, and I must attempt no standing fights. Gods! but what a glowthe prospect did send through me as I stood there waiting. 

A vainer man, writing history, might have said that always, beforeeverything 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 gleeat that forthcoming fight--which promised to be the greatest and mostfurious I had known in all a long life of battling--I will confess thatAtlantis and her differing policies were clean forgot. I should go outan 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 lastmyself on a pile of slain, these people would guess without being toldthe name, that here was Deucalion. Gods! what a fight we would havemade!

But the door did not open wide to give me space for my first rush. Itcreaked gratingly outwards on its pivots, and a slim hand and a whitearm slipped inside, beckoning me to quietude. Here was some woman. Thedoor creaked wider, and she came inside. 

"Nais, " I said. 

"Silence, or they will hear you, and remember. At present those whobrought you here are killed, and unless by chance some one blunders intothis robbed shrine, you will not be found. "

"Then, if that is so, let me go out and walk amongst these people as oneof themselves. "

She shook her head. 

"But, Nais, I am not known here. I am merely a man in very plain andmud-stained robe. I should be in no ways remarkable. "

A smile twitched her face. "My lord, " she said, "wears no beard; and hisis the only clean chin in the camp. "

I joined in her laugh. "A pest on my want of foppishness then. But I amforgetting somewhat. It comes to my mind that we still have unfinishedthat 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 youpropose 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 Ithought 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 andbecome 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 seemsto me that that course will be best. This is no hour for private likingsor dislikings. "

"I know it, " she said, "I feel it. I have no heart now, save only forAtlantis. I have schooled myself once more to that. "

"And at present I am in this lone little box of a temple. A minuteago, before you came, I had promised myself a pretty enough fight tosignalise my changing of abode. "

"There must be nothing of that. I will not have these poor peopleslaughtered unnecessarily. Nor do I wish to see my lord exposed to ahopeless risk. This poor place, such as it is, has been given to meas an abode, and, if my lord can remain decorously till nightfall in amaiden'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 darknesscomes, I will take my lord down to the sea and a boat, and so he maycome 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 Islumbered soundly, Nais watching me. Night fell, and still we remainedwithin the privacy of the temple. It was our plan that I should staythere till the camp slept, and so I should have more chance of reachingthe sea without disturbance. 

The night came down wet, with a drizzle of rain, and through the slitsin the temple walls we could see the many fires in the camp well caredfor, the men and women in skins and rags toasting before them, withsteam rising as the heat fought with their wetness. Folk seated indiscomfort like this are proverbially alert and cruel in the temper, andNais frowned as she looked on the inclemency of the weather. 

"A fine night, " she said, "and I would have sent my lord back to thecity without a soul here being the wiser; but in this chill, peoplesleep sourly. We must wait till the hour drugs them sounder. "

And so we waited, sitting there together on that pavement so longunkissed by worshippers, and it was little enough we said aloud. Butthere can be good companionship without sentences of talk. 

But as the hours drew on, the night began to grow less quiet. From thedistance some one began to blow on a horn or a shell, sending forth aharsh raucous note incessantly. The sound came nearer, as we could tellfrom its growing loudness, and the voices of those by the fires madethemselves heard, railing at the blower for his disturbance. Andpresently it became stationary, and standing up we could see through theslits in the walls the people of the camp rousing up from their uneasyrest, and clustering together round one who stood and talked to themfrom the pedestal of a war engine. 

What he was declaiming upon we could not hear, and our curiosity onthe matter was not keen. Given that all who did not sleep went to wearythemselves with this fellow, as Nais whispered, it would be simple forme to make an exit in the opposite direction. 

But here we were reckoning without the inevitable busybody. A dozenpairs of feet splashing through the wet came up to the side of thelittle temple, and cried loudly that Nais should join the audience. Shehad eloquence of tongue, it appeared, and they feared lest this speakerwho had taken his stand on the war engine should make schisms amongsttheir ranks unless some skilled person stood up also to refute hisarguments. 

Here, then, it seemed to me that I must be elbowed into my skirmish bythe most unexpected of chances, but Nais was firmly minded that thereshould be no fight, if courage on her part could turn it. "Come out withme, " 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 willtake you for my lover. There is nothing remarkable in that: it is themode here. But oh, why did not the Gods make you wear a beard, and curlit, even as other men? Then you could have been gone and safe these twohours. "

"A smooth chin pleases me better. "

"So it does me, " I heard her murmur as she leaned her weight on thestone which hung in the doorway, and pushed it ajar; "your chin. " Theragged men outside--there were women with them also--did not wait towatch me very closely. A coarse jest or two flew (which I could havefound good heart to have repaid with a sword-thrust) and they steppedoff into the darkness, just turning from time to time to make sure wefollowed. On all sides others were pressing in the same direction--blackshadows against the night; the rain spat noisily on the camp fires as wepassed them; and from behind us came up others. There were no sleepersin the camp now; all were pressing on to hear this preacher who stood onthe pedestal of the war engine; and if we had tried to swerve from thestraight 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 atfirst. "Who are your chiefs?" came the question at the end of a fervidharangue, and immediately all further rational talk was drowned inuproar. "We have no chiefs, " the people shouted, "we are done withchiefs; we are all equal here. Take away your silly magic. You may killus with magic if you choose, but rule us you shall not. Nor shallthe other priests rule. Nor Phorenice. Nor anybody. We are done withrulers. "

The press had brought us closer and closer to the man who stood on thewar engine. We saw him to be old, with white hair that tumbled on hisshoulders, and a long white beard, untrimmed and uncurled. Save for awisp of rag about the loins, his body was unclothed, and glistened inthe wet. 

But in his hand he held that which marked his caste. With it he pointedhis 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 anunconsuming fire, which glowed and twinkled and blazed like some starsent down by the Gods from their own place in the high heaven. It wasthe Symbol of our Lord the Sun, a credential no one could forge, and oneon which no civilised man would cast a doubt. 

Indeed, the ragged frantic crew did not question for one moment thathe was a member of the Clan of Priests, the Clan which from time outof numbering had given rulers for the land, and even in their loudestclamours they freely acknowledged his powers. "You may kill us with yourmagic, if you choose, " they screamed at him. But stubbornly they refusedto come back to their old allegiance. "We have suffered too manythings these later years, " they cried. "We are done with rulers now foralways. "

But for myself I saw the old man with a different emotion. Here wasZaemon that was father to Nais, Zaemon that had seen me yesterday seatedon the divan at Phorenice's elbow, and who to-day could denounce me asDeucalion if so he chose. These rebels had expended a navy in theirwish to kill me four days earlier, and if they knew of my nearness, eventhough Nais were my advocate, her cold reasoning would have had littlechance of an audience now. The High Gods who keep the tether of ourlives hide Their secrets well, but I did not think it impious to be surethat mine was very near the cutting then. 

The beautiful woman saw this too. She even went so far as to twine herfingers in mine and press them as a farewell, and I pressed hers inreturn, for I was sorry enough not to see her more. Still I could nothelp letting my thoughts travel with a grim gloating over the fine moundof dead I should build before these ragged, unskilled rebels pulled medown. And it was inevitable this should be so. For of all the emotionsthat can ferment in the human heart, the joy of strife is keenest, andnone but an old fighter, face to face with what must necessarily be hisfinal battle, can tell how deep this lust is embroidered into the veryfoundations of his being. 

But for the time Zaemon did not see me, being too much wrapped in hisoutcry, and so I was free to listen to the burning words which he spreadaround him, and to determine their effect on the hearers. 

The theme he preached was no new one. He told that ever since thebeginning of history, the Gods had set apart one Clan of the peopleto rule over the rest and be their Priests, and until the coming ofPhorenice these had done their duties with exactitude and justice. They had fought invaders, carried war against the beasts, and studiedearth-movements so that they were able to foretell earthquakes anderuptions, and could spread warnings that the people might be ableto escape their devastations. They are no self-seekers; their aim wasalways to further the interest of Atlantis, and so do honour to thekingdom on which the High Gods had set their special favour. Under thePriestly Clan, Atlantis had reached the pinnacle of human prosperity andhappiness. 

"But, " cried the old man, waving the Symbol till his wet body glistenedin a halo of light, "the people grew fat and careless with their easylife. They began to have a conceit that their good fortune was earnedby 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 templeswere barren of gifts and worshippers. Followed a punishment. The Godsin Their inscrutable way decreed that a wife of one of the Priests (thatwas a governor of no inconsiderable province) should see a woman childby the wayside, and take it for adoption. That child the Gods in theirinfinite wisdom fashioned into a scourge for Atlantis, and you who havefelt the weight of Phorenice's hand, know with what completeness theHigh Gods can fashion their instruments. 

"Yet, even as they set up, so can they throw down, and those thatshall debase Phorenice are even now appointed. The old rule is tobe re-established; but not till you who have sinned are sufficientlychastened to cry to it for relief. " He waved the mysterious glowingSymbol before him. "See, " he cried in his high old quavering voice, "youknow the unspeakable Power of which that is the sign, and for which Iam the mouthpiece. It is for you to make decision now. Are the Gods tothrow down this woman who has scorned Them and so cruelly trodden onyou? Or are you to be still further purged of your pride before you areripe for deliverance?"

The old priest broke off with a gesture, and his ragged white beardsank on to his chest. Promptly a young man, skin clad and carrying hisweapon, elbowed up through the press of listeners, and jumped on to theplatform beside him. "Hear me, brethren!" he bellowed, in his strongyoung voice. "We are done with tyrants. Death may come, and we all of ushere 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 manwith a brave face, "I know it is in your power to kill me by magic ifyou 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 yoursilliness. 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 suddentightening 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 inwarning; but the young man tried to retort, and, finding himself smittenwith a sudden dumbness, turned with a spasm of fear, and jumped backwhence he had come. The crowd of them thrilled expectantly, and when nofurther portent was given, they began to shout that a miracle should beshown them, and then perchance they would be persuaded back to the oldallegiance. 

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 ofthe Higher Mysteries by dancing them out before you as though they werea mummers' show? Do you tickle yourselves that you are to be temptedback to your allegiance? It is for you to woo the Gods who are sooffended. Come in humility, and I take it upon myself to declare thatyou will receive fitting pardon and relief. Remain stubborn, and thescourge, Phorenice, may torment you into annihilation before she in turnis made to answer for the evil she has put upon the land. There is thechoice for you to pick at. "

The turmoil of voices rose again into the wetness of the night, andweapons were upraised menacingly. It was clear that the party forindependence had by far the greater weight, both in numbers andlustiness; and those who might, from sheer weariness of strife, havebeen willing for surrender, withheld their word through terror of theconsequence. It was a fine comment on the freedom of speech, about whichthese unruly fools had made their boast, and, with a sly malice, I couldnot help whispering a word on this to Nais as she stood at my elbow. ButNais 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 areon fire for mischief now. "

"Yet a few hours back you were for killing me yourself, " I could nothelp 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 staredat 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, thefashion of my chin was a matter of mere private concern. But as that didnot satisfy him, and as he seemed to be one of those quarrelsome fellowsthat are the bane of every community, I took him suddenly by the throatand the shoulder, and bent his neck with the old, quick turn till Iheard it crack, and had unhanded him before any of his neighbours hadseen what had befallen. The fierce press of the crowd held him fromslipping to the ground, and so he stood on there where he was, with hishead nodded forward, as though he had fallen asleep through heaviness, or had fainted through the crushing of his fellows. I had no desire tobegin that last fight of mine in a place like this, where there was noroom to swing a weapon, nor chance to clear a battle ring. 

But all this time the lean preacher from the mountains was sending forthhis angry anathemas, and still holding the strained attention of thepeople. And next he set forth before them the cult of the Gods in theancient form as is prescribed, and they (with old habit coming back tothem) made response in the words and in the places where the old ritualenjoins. It was weird enough sight, that time-honoured service ofadoration, forced upon these wild people after so long a period ofirreligion. 

They warmed to the old words as the high shrill voice of the priestcried them forth, and as they listened, and as they realised howintimate was the care of the Gods for the travails and sorrows of theirdaily lives, so much warmer grew their responses. 

"... WHO STILLED THE BURNING OF THE MOUNTAINS, AND MADE COOL PLACES ONTHE EARTH FOR US TO LIVE!--PRAISE TO THE MOST HIGH GODS. 

"WHO GAVE US MASTERY OVER THE LESSER BEASTS AND SKILL OF TEN TIMES TOPREVAIL!--PRAISE TO THE MOST HIGH GODS.... "

"WHO GAVE US MASTERY OVER THE LESSER BEASTS AND SKILL OF TEN TIMES TOPREVAIL!--PRAISE TO THE MOST HIGH GODS.... "

It thrilled one to hear their earnestness; it sorrowed one to know thatthey would yet be obdurate and not return to their old allegiance. For this is the way with these common people; they will work up anenthusiasm one minute, and an hour later it will have fled away and leftthem cold and empty. 

But Zaemon made no further calls upon their loyalty. He finished theprescribed form of sentences, and stepped down off the platform of thewar engine with the Symbol of our Lord the Sun thrust out resolutelybefore him. To all ordinary seeming the crowd had been packed so that nofurther compression was possible, but before the advance of the Symbolthe people crushed back, leaving a wide lane for his passage. 

And here came the turning point of my life. At first, like, I takeit, every one else in that crowd, I imagined that the old man, havingfinished his mission, was making a way to return to the place from whichhe had come. But he held steadily to one direction, and as that wastowards myself, it naturally came to my mind that, having dealt withgreater things, he would now settle with the less; or, in plainer words, that having put his policy before the swarming people, he would nowsmite down the man he had seen but yesterday seated as Phorenice'sminister. 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 wasthe mouthpiece of the Priests' Clan, duly appointed; and I also was apriest. If the word had been given on the Sacred Mountain to those whosat before the Ark of the Mysteries that Atlantis would prosper morewith Deucalion sent to the Gods, I was ready to bow to the sentence withsubmissiveness. That I had regret for this mode of cutting off, I willnot deny. No man who has practised the game of arms could abandon thepromise 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 thesalutation prescribed between our ranks, which he returned to me withcircumstance and accuracy. The crowd fell back, being driven away by theineffable force of the Symbol, leaving us alone in the middle of aring. Even Nais, though she was a priest's daughter, was ignorant of theMysteries, and could not withstand its force. And so we two men stoodthere alone together, with the glow of the Symbol bathing us, andlighting up the sea of ravenous faces that watched. 

The people were quick to put their natural explanation on the scene. "Aspy!" 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 mighthave 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 thatDeucalion was their enemy; they had already expended a navy for hisdestruction; and now that he was ringed in by their masses, they lustedto tear him into rags with their fingers. But rave and rave though theymight against me, the glare from the Symbol drove them shuddering backas though it had been a lava-stream; and Zaemon was not the man to handme over to their fury until he had delivered formal sentence as theemissary 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 commonpeople do not know. "My brother, " he said, "which have you come toserve, Deucalion or Atlantis?"

"Words are a poor thing to answer a question like that. You will knowall of my record. According to the Law of the Priests, each ship fromYucatan will have carried home its sworn report to lay at the feet oftheir council, and before I went to that vice-royalty, what I did waswritten 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 upAtlantis for a mistress, and served her well; but then, you have had noPhorenice 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 whichthis poor land has remaining. All other human means that have been triedagainst Phorenice have failed. You have returned from overseas for thefinal duel. You are the strongest man we have, and you are our finalchampion. If you fail, then only those terrible Powers which are lockedwithin the Ark of the Mysteries remains to us, and though it is notlawful to speak even in this hidden tongue of their scope, you at leasthave full assurance of their potency. "

I shrugged my shoulders. "It seems that you would save time and painsif you threw me to these wolves of rebels, and let them end me here andnow. "

The old man frowned on me angrily. "I am bidding you do your duty. Whatreason have you for wishing to evade it?"

"I have in my memory the words you spoke in the pyramid, when you camein amongst the banqueters. 'PHORENICE, ' was your cry, 'WHILST YOU AREYET EMPRESS, YOU SHALL SEE THIS ROYAL PYRAMID, WHICH YOU HAVE POLLUTEDWITH YOUR DEBAUCHERIES, TORN TIER FROM TIER, AND STONE FROM STONE, AND SCATTERED AS FEATHERS BEFORE A WIND. ' It seems that you foresee mydefeat. "

The old man shuddered. "I cannot tell what she may force us to do. Ispoke then only what it was revealed to me must happen. Perhaps whenmatters have reached that pass, she will repent and submit. But in themeanwhile, before we use the more desperate weapons of the Gods, it isfitting that we should expend all human power remaining to us. And soyou 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 sentfor you from Yucatan as a husband, and as one who (so she thinks, poor human conqueror) has the weight of arm necessary to prolong hertyrannies. You are a Priest, brother, and you are a man of convincingtongue. It will be your part to make her stubborn mind see theinvincible power that can be loosed against her, to point out to her theutter hopelessness of prevailing against it. "

"If it is ordered, I will do these things. But there is little enoughchance of success. I have seen Phorenice, and can gauge her will. Therewill 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 beenbrought here to be her husband. Well, take your place. "

The order came to me with a pang. I had given little enough heed towomen through all of a busy life, though when I landed, the taking ofPhorenice to wife would not have been very repugnant to me if policy haddemanded it. But the matters of the last two days had put things in adifferent shape. I had seen two other women who had strangely attractedme, and one of these had stirred within me a tumult such as I had neverfelt before amongst my economies. 

To lead Phorenice in marriage would mean a severance from this otherwoman eternally, and I ached as I thought of it. But though thesethoughts floated through my system and gave me harsh wrenches of pain, Idid not thrust my puny likings before the command of the council of thePriests. I bowed before Zaemon, and put his hand to my forehead. "It isan 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 thearm and waved a way for us with the Symbol. No further word did I havewith Nais, fearing to embroil her with these rebels who clustered round, but I caught one hot glance from her eyes, and that had to sufficefor farewell. The dense ranks of the crowd opened, and we walkedaway between them scathless. Fiercely though they lusted for my life, brimming with hate though they made their cries, no man dared to rushin and raise a hand against me. Neither did they follow. When we reachedthe outskirts of the crowd, and the ranks thinned, they had a mind, manyof them, to surge along in our wake; but Zaemon whirled the Symbol backbefore their faces with a blaze of lurid light, and they fell to theirknees, grovelling, and pressed on us no more. 

The rain still fell, and in the light of the camp fires as we passedthem, the wet gleamed on the old man's wasted body. And far before usthrough the darkness loomed the vast bulk of the Sacred Mountain, withthe ring of eternal fires encincturing its crest. I sighed as I thoughtof 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 workto be done, work for Atlantis which did not brook delay. And so when wehad 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 passagewas, whose entrance is known only to the Seven amongst the Priests; andthere we parted, Zaemon to his hermitage in the dangerous lands, and Iby this secret way back into the capital. 

9. PHORENICE, GODDESS

Now the passage, though its entrance had been cunningly hidden by man'sartifice, was one of those veins in which the fiery blood of our mother, the Earth, had aforetime coursed. Long years had passed since it carriedlava streams, but the air in it was still warm and sulphurous, and therewas no inducement to linger in transit. I lit me a lamp which I foundin an appointed niche, and walked briskly along my ways, coughing, andwishing heartily I had some of those simples which ease a throat thathas a tendency to catarrh. But, alas! all that packet of drugs whichwere my sole spoil from the vice-royalty of Yucatan were lost in thesea-fight with Dason's navy, and since landing in Atlantis there hadbeen little enough time to think for the refinements of medicine. 

The network of earth-veins branched prodigiously, and if any but one ofus Seven Priests had found a way into its recesses by chance, he wouldhave perished hopelessly in the windings, or have fallen into one ofthose pits which lead to the boil below. But I carried the chart of thetrue course clearly in my head, remembering it from that old initiationof twenty years back, when, as an appointed viceroy, I was raised to thehighest degree but one known to our Clan, and was given its secrets andworking implements. 

The way was long, the floor was monstrous uneven, and the air, as I havesaid, bad; and I knew that day would be far advanced before the signstold me that I had passed beneath the walls, and was well withinthe precincts of the city. And here the vow of the Seven hampered myprogress; for it is ordained that under no circumstances, whatever thestress, shall egress be made from this passage before mortal eye. Onebranch after another did I try, but always found loiterers near theexits. I had hoped to make my emergence by that path which came insidethe 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 thefive next outlets that I visited. The city was agog with some strangeexcitement. 

But I came at last to a temple of one of the lesser Gods, and stoodbehind the image for a while making observation. The place was empty;nay, from the dust which robed all the floors and the seats of theworshippers, it had been empty long enough; so I moved all that wasneedful, stepped out, and closed all entry behind me. A broom layunnoticed on one of the pews, and with this I soon disguised all routeof footmark, and took my way to the temple door. It was shut, and priestthough I was, the secret of its opening was beyond me. 

Here was a pretty pass. No one but the attendant priests of the templecould move the mechanism which closed and opened the massive stone whichfilled 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 beno nearer enlargement than before. 

There was no sound of life within the temple precincts; there wereevidences of decay and disuse spread broadcast on every hand; butaccording to the ancient law there should be eternally one at least onwatch in the priests' dwellings, so down the passages which led to themI made my way. It would have surprised me little to have found eventhese deserted. That the old order was changed I knew, but I was onlythen beginning to realise the ruthlessness with which it had been sweptaway, and how much it had given place to the new. 

However, there can be some faithful men remaining even in an age ofgeneral 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 itwas opened to me. The man who stood before me, peering dully throughthe gloom, had at least remained constant to his vows, and I made thesalutation before him with a feeling of respect. 

His name was Ro, and I remembered him well. We had passed through thesacred college together, and always he had been known as the dullard. He had capacity for learning little of the cult of the Gods, less ofthe arts of ruling, less still of the handling of arms; and he had beenappointed to some lowly office in this obscure temple, and had risen tobeing its second priest and one of its two custodians merely through thedesertion of all his colleagues. But it was not pleasant to think that afool should remain true where cleverer men abandoned the old beliefs. 

Ro did before me the greater obeisance. He wore his beard curled in theprevailing fashion, but it was badly done. His clothing was ill-fittingand unbrushed. He always had been a slovenly fellow. "The temple dooris shut, " he said, "and I only have the secret of its opening. My lordcomes here, therefore, by the secret way, and as one of the Seven. I ammy 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 thatshe 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 shecalls them down. This new Empress is the bane of our Clan, Deucalion, these latter days. The people neglect us; they bring no offerings; andnow, since these rebels have been hammering at the walls, I might havegone hungry if I had not some small store of my own. Oh, I tell you, thecult 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 beenlimp 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 neglectto adore the God, what hold have you over their religion? But I tellyou, Deucalion, that the High Gods try our own faith hard. Come into thedwelling 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 immediatesuperior in this cure. It was his turn yesterday to celebrate the weeklysacrifice to our Lord the Sun with the circle of His great stones. Faugh! Deucalion, you should have seen how he was mangled when theybrought 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 hadinterest to attend; but our Lord the Sun saw fit to try His ministersomewhat harshly. The wood was laid; the sacrifice was disposed upon itaccording to the prescribed rites; the procession had been formed roundthe altar, and the drums and the trumpets were speaking forth, to letall men know that presently the smoke of their prayer would be waftedup towards Those that sit in the great places in the heavens. But then, above the noise of the ceremonial, there came the rushing sound ofwings, and from out of the sky there flew one of those great featherlessman-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; butthese priests were unarmed, according to the rubric, which ordains thatthey shall intrust themselves completely to the guardianship of theHigh Gods during the hours of sacrifice. The great bird swooped down, settling on the wood pyre, and attacked the sacrifice with beak andtalon. My poor superior here, still strong in his faith, called loudlyon our Lord the Sun to lend power to his arm, and sprang up on the altarwith naught but his teeth and his bare arms for weapons. It may bethat he expected a miracle--he has not spoke since, poor soul, inexplanation--but all he met were blows from leathery wings, and rakingsfrom talons which went near to disembowelling him. The bird brushed himaway as easily as we could sweep aside a fly, and there he lay bleedingon the pavement beside the altar, whilst the sacrifice was torn andeaten in the presence of all the people. And then, when the bird wasglutted, 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 Sunwas a God no longer if He had not power or thought to guard His ownsacrifice; and some cried that there was no God remaining now, andothers would have it that there was a new God come to weigh on thecountry, 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 inAtlantis, and that cry was taken up till the stones of the greatcircle rang with it. Some may have made proclamations because they wereconvinced; many because the cry was new, and pleased them; but I am surethere were not a few who joined in because it was dangerous to leavesuch an outburst unwelcomed. The Empress can be hard enough to those whoneglect to give her adulation. "

"The Empress is Empress, " I said formally, "and her name carriesrespect. It is not for us to question her doings. "

"I am a priest, " said Ro, "and I speak as I have been taught, and defendthe 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 livelihoodnowadays. There have been no offerings at this temple this five monthspast, and if I had not a few jars of corn put by, I might have starvedfor anything the pious of this city cared. And I do not think that theaffair of that sacrifice is likely to put new enthusiasm into our coldvotaries. "

"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 ofgetting ready one of her pageants. "

"Then I must ask you to open the temple doors and give me passage. Imust go and see this thing for myself. "

"It is not for me to offer advice to one of the Seven, " said Rodoubtfully. 

"It is not. "

"But they say that the Empress is not overpleased at your absence, " hemumbled. "I should not like harm to come in your way, Deucalion, " hesaid aloud. 

"The future is in the hands of the most High Gods, Ro, and I at leastbelieve that They will deal out our fates to each of us as They in Theirinfinite wisdom see best, though you seem to have lost your faith. Andnow 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 coinin all the world. "

He mumbled something about "force of habit" as he led the way downtowards the door, and I responded tartly enough about the unpleasantnessof 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 massivestone 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 bringmyself to like Ro. 

A motley crowd filled the street which ran past the front of thisobscure temple, and all were hurrying one way. With what I had beentold, it did not take much art to guess that the great stone circle ofour Lord the Sun was their mark, and it grieved me to think of how manyvenerable centuries that great fane had upreared before the weather andthe earth tremors, without such profanation as it would witness to-day. And also the thought occurred to me, "Was our Great Lord above drawingthis woman on to her destruction? Would He take some vast and final actof 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 barespectacle. From one quarter of the city walls the din of an attack fromthe besiegers made itself clearly heard from over the house, and thetemples and the palaces intervening, but no one heeded it. They hadgrown callous, these townsfolk, to the battering of rams, and the flightof fire-darts, and the other emotions of a bombardment. Their nerves, their hunger, their desperation, were strung to such a pitch that littleshort of an actual storm could stir them into new excitement over thesiege. 

All were weaponed. The naked carried arms in the hopes of meeting someone whom they could overcome and rob; those that had a possession walkedready to do a battle for its ownership. There was no security, no trust;the lesson of civilisation had dropped away from these common people asmud is washed from the feet by rain, and in their new habits and theirthoughts they had gone back to the grade from which savages like thoseof Europe have never yet emerged. It was a grim commentary on thesuccess of Phorenice's rule. 

The crowd merged me into their ranks without question, and with them Ipressed forward down the winding streets, once so clean and trim, now sofoul and mud-strewn. Men and women had died of hunger in these streetsthese latter years, and rotted where they lay, and we trod their bonesunderfoot as we walked. Yet rising out of this squalor and this miserywere great pyramids and palaces, the like of which for splendour andmagnificence 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 evenPhorenice had not dared to encroach upon with her ambitious buildingschemes, and stood on the secular ground which surrounds the mostancient, 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 thatHe raised this circle of stones Himself to be a place where votariesshould offer Him worship. It is the fashion amongst us moderns not totake these old tales in a too literal sense, but for myself, this onesatisfies 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 stonesof that great circle would be beyond all our art, and much more wouldit be impossible to-day, to transport them from their distant quarriesacross the rugged mountains. 

There were nine-and-forty of the stones, alternating with spaces, andset in an accurate circle, and across the tops of them other stones wereset, equally huge. The stones were undressed and rugged; but the hugemassiveness of them impressed the eye more than all the temples anddaintily tooled pyramids of our wondrous city. And in the centre of thecircle was that still greater stone which formed the altar, and roundwhich was carved, in the rude chiselling of the ancients, the snake andthe outstretched hand. 

The crowd which bore me on came to a standstill before the circle ofstones. To trespass beyond this is death for the common people; and formyself, although I had the right of entrance, I chose to stay where Iwas for the present, unnoticed amongst the mob, and wait upon events. 

For long enough we stood there, our Lord the Sun burning high andfiercely 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 themultitude, but no one gave attention to it. Excitement about what was tobefall in the circle mastered every other emotion. 

I learned afterways that so pressing was the rebels' attack, and sodestructive the battering of their new war engines, that Phorenice hadgone off to the walls first to lend awhile her brilliant skill for itsrepulse, and to put heart into the defenders. But as it was, the day hadburned out to its middle and scorched us intolerably, before the noiseof the drums and horns gave advertisement that the pageant had formed inprocession; and of those who waited in the crowd, many had fainted withexhaustion and the heat, and not a few had died. But life was cheap inthe 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 anddispose itself in the space which had been set apart. Many a thousandpoor starving wretches sighed when they saw the wanton splendour of it. But these lords and these courtiers of this new Atlantis had no concernbeyond their own bellies and their own backs, except for their one alienregard--their simpering affection for Phorenice. 

I think, though, their loyalty for the Empress was real enough, andit was not to be wondered at, since everything they had came from herlavish hands. Indeed, the woman had a charm that cannot be denied, forwhen she appeared, riding in the golden castle (where I also had ridden)on the back of her monstrous shaggy mammoth, the starved sullen facesof the crowd brightened as though a meal and sudden prosperity had beenbestowed upon them; and without a word of command, without a trace ofcompulsion, they burst into spontaneous shouts of welcome. 

She acknowledged it with a smile of thanks. Her cheeks were a littleflushed, her movements quick, her manner high-strung, as all wellmight be, seeing the horrible sacrilege she had in mind. But she wasundeniably lovely; yes, more adorably beautiful than ever with herpresent thrill of excitement; and when the stair was brought, and shewalked down from the mammoth's back to the ground, those near fellto their knees and gave her worship, out of sheer fascination for herbeauty and charm. 

Ylga, the fan-girl, alone of all that vast multitude round the Suntemple contained herself with her formal paces and duties. She lookedpained and troubled. It was plain to see, even from the distance whereI 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 longenough divorced from his care and fostered by the Empress, Ylga wasa daughter of Zaemon, and he was the chiefest of our Lord the Sun'sministers here on earth. She could not forget her upbringing now atthis supreme moment when the highest of the old Gods was to be formallydefied. And perhaps also (having a kindness for Phorenice) she was not alittle dreadful of the consequences. 

But the Empress had no eye for one sad look amongst all that sea ofglowing faces. Boldly and proudly she strode out into the circle, asthough she had been the duly appointed priest for the sacrifice. Andafter her came a knot of men, dressed as priests, and bearing thevictim. Some of these were creatures of her own, and it was easy toforgive mere ignorant laymen, won over by the glamour of Phorenice'spresence. But some, to their shame, were men born in the Priests' Clan, and brought up in the groves and colleges of the Sacred Mountain, andfor their apostasy there could be no palliation. 

The wood had already been stacked on the altar-stone in the due formrequired by the ancient symbolism, and the Empress stood aside whilstthose who followed did what was needful. As they opened out, I saw thatthe victim was one of the small, cloven-hoofed horses that roam theplains--a most acceptable sacrifice. They bound its feet with metalgyves, and put it on the pyre, where, for a while, it lay neighing. Thenthey stepped aside, and left it living. Here was an innovation. 

The false priests went back to the farther side of the circle, andPhorenice stood alone before the altar. She lifted up her voice, sweet, tuneful, and carrying, and though the din of the siege still came fromover the city, no ear there lost a word of what was spoken. 

She raised her glance aloft, and all other eyes followed it. The heavenwas clear as the deep sea, a gorgeous blue. But as the words came fromher, so a small mist was born in the sky, wheeling and circling like aball, although the day was windless, and rapidly growing darker and morecompact. So dense had it become, that presently it threw a shadow onpart of the sacred circle and soothed it into twilight, though allwithout where the people stood was still garish day. And in the ball ofmist were little quick stabs and splashes of noiseless flame. 

She spoke, not in the priests' sacred tongue--though such was her wickedcleverness, that she may very well have learned it--but in the commonspeech of the people, so that all who heard might understand; and shetold of her wondrous birth (as she chose to name it), and of thedirect aid of the most High Gods, which had enabled her to work so manymarvels. And in the end she lifted both of her fair white arms towardsthe blackness above, and with her lovely face set with the strain ofwill, she uttered her final cry:

"O my high Father, the Sun, I pray You now to acknowledge me as Yourvery daughter. Give this people a sign that I am indeed a child of theGods and no frail mortal. Here is sacrifice unlit, where mortal priestswith their puny fires had weekly, since the foundation of this land, sent savoury smoke towards the sky. I pray You send down the heavenlyfire to burn this beast here offered, in token that though You stillrule on high, You have given me Atlantis to be my kingdom, and thepeople of the Earth to be my worshippers. "

She broke off and strained towards the sky. Her face was contorted. Herlimbs shook. "O mighty Father, " she cried, "who hast made me a God andan 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 oneshrill neigh, and one convulsion, and fell back dead. Flames crackledout from the wood pile, and the air became rich with the smell ofburning flesh. And lo! in another moment the cloud above had melted intonothingness, and the flames burnt pale, and the smoke went up in a thinblue spiral towards the deeper blueness of the sky. 

Phorenice, the Empress, stood there before the great stone, and beforethe snake and the outstretched hand of life which were inscribed uponit, flushed, exultant, and once more radiantly lovely; and the knot ofpriests within the circle, and the great mob of people without, fell tothe 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 bythe old Gods I will make myself her priest and butcher you!" And so theshouts arose into a roar. 

But presently the word "Deucalion" began to be bandied about, and therecame a moderation in the zeal of these enthusiasts. Deucalion, the manwho had left Atlantis twenty years before to rule Yucatan, they mightknow little enough about, but Deucalion, who rode not many days backbeside the Empress in the golden castle beneath the canopy of snakes, was a person they remembered; and when they weighed up his possibleability for vengeance, the shouts died away from them limply. 

So when the silence had grown again, and Phorenice turned and saw mestanding alone amongst all the prostrate worshippers, I stepped out fromthe crowd and passed between two of the great stones, and went acrossthe circle to where she stood beside the altar. I did not prostratemyself. At the prescribed distance I made the salutation which sheherself had ordered when she made me her chief minister, and then hailedher 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 asidelong smile. 

But here Ylga came up to us with a face that was white, and a hand thatshook, and made supplication for my life. "If he will not leave the oldGods yet, " she pleaded, "surely you will pardon him? He is a strongman, and does not become a convert easily. You may change him later. Butthink, Phorenice, he is Deucalion; and if you slay him here for thisone thing, there is no other man within all the marches of Atlantis whowould so worthily serve--"

The Empress took the words from her. "You slut, " she cried out. "I haveyou near me to appoint my wardrobe, and carry my fan, and do you dareto put a meddling finger on my policies? Back with you, outside thiscircle, or I'll have you whipped. Ay, and I'll do more. I'll serve youas Zaemon served my captain, Tarca. Shall I point a finger at you, andsmite your pretty skin with a sudden leprosy?"

The girl bowed her shoulders, and went away cowed, and Phorenice turnedto me. "My lord, " she said, "I am like a young bird in the nest that hassuddenly found its wings. Wings have so many uses that I am curious totry 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. Ipray 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 thatYlga's interference was looked upon as untimely, and, though I could notunderstand the exact reasons for either of these things, I acceptedthem as they were, seeing that they forwarded the scheme that Zaemon hadbidden me carry out. 

So when the Empress lent me her fingers--warm, delicate fingers theywere, though so skilful to grasp the weapons of war--I took themgravely, and led her out of the great circle, which she had pollutedwith her trickeries. I had expected to see our Lord the Sun takevengeance on the profanation whilst it was still in act; but none hadcome: and I knew that He would choose his own good time for retribution, and appoint what instrument He thought best, without my raising a punyarm to guard His mighty honour. 

So I led this lovely sinful woman back to the huge red mammoth whichstood there tamely in waiting, and the smell of the sacrifice cameafter us as we walked. She mounted the stair to the golden castle on theshaggy 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 werode 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 toallegiance again. Only the commands that Zaemon laid upon me when heand I spoke together in the sacred tongue, did I withhold, as it isnot lawful to repeat these matters save only in the High Council of thePriests itself as they sit before the Ark of the Mysteries. 

"You seem to have an unusual kindliness for this rebel Nais, " saidPhorenice. 

"She showed herself to me as more clever and thoughtful than the commonherd. "

"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 commonpeople; it gives me more power with them; it helps my schemes. All youSeven higher priests know that trick of calling down the fire, and itpleased me to filch it. Can you not be generous, and admit that a womanmay be as clever in finding out these natural laws as your musty elderpriests?"

"Remains that you are Empress. "

"Nor Empress either. Just think that there is a woman seated beside youon this cushion, Deucalion, and look upon her, and say what wordscome first to your lips. Have done with ceremonies, and have done withstatecraft. Do you wish to wait on as you are till all your manhoodwithers? It is well not to hurry unduly in these matters: I am with youthere. Yet, who but a fool watches a fruit grow ripe, and then leaves ittill it is past its prime?"

I looked on her glorious beauty, but as I live it left me cold. But Iremembered 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 thislong. "

"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 thanwhat I have been. "

I let my hand clench on hers. "Take me to husband then, and I will be agood 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 thinkit will come as enjoyment to be mastered sometimes. No, Deucalion, Ipromise that--you shall be no puppet. Indeed, it would take a lusty lungto do the piping if you were to dance against your will. "

"Then, as man and wife we will live together in the royal pyramid, andwe will rule this country with all the wit that it has pleased the HighGods to bestow on us. These miserable differences shall be swept aside;the rebels shall go back to their homes, and hunt, and fight the beastsin the provinces, and the Priests' Clan shall be pacified. Phorenice, you and I will throw ourselves brain and soul into the government, andwe will make Atlantis rise as a nation that shall once more surpass allthe world for peace and prosperity. "

Petulantly she drew her hand away from mine. "Oh, your conditions, andyour Atlantis! You carry a crudeness in these colonial manners of yours, Deucalion, that palls on one after the first blunt flavour has wornaway. Am I to do all the wooing? Is there no thrill of love under allyour ice?"

"In truth, I do not know what love may be. I have had little enoughspeech with women all these busy years. "

"We were a pair, then, when you landed, though I have heard sighs andprotestations from every man that carries a beard in all Atlantis. Someof them tickled my fancy for the day, but none of them have moved medeeper. No, I also have not learned what this love may be from my ownpersonal feelings. But, sir, I think that you will teach me soon, if yougo on with your coldness. "

"From what I have seen, love is for the poor, and the weak, and forthose of flighty emotions. "

"Then I would that another woman were Empress, and that I were someill-dressed creature of the gutter that a strong man could pick up byforce, and carry away to his home for sheer passion. Ah! How I couldrevel 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 strongas 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, myDeucalion, there will be more trouble brewed for this poor Atlantisthat you set such store upon. There will be ill doings in this cominghousehold of ours if my love grows for you, and yours remains stillunborn. "

I believe she would have had me fondle her there in the golden castle onthe mammoth's shabby back, before the city streets packed with curiouspeople. She had little enough appetite for privacy at any time. But forthe life of me I could not do it. The Gods know I was earnest enoughabout my task, and They know also how it repelled me. But I was a truepriest that day, and I had put away all personal liking to carry out thecommands which the Council had laid upon me. If I had known how to setabout it, I would have fallen in with her mood. But where any of thoseshallow bedizened triflers about the court would have been glibly in hiselement, 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 glibenough tongue. But to palter with women was a lightness I had alwaysneglected, and if I had invented would-be pretty speeches out of myclumsy inexperience, Phorenice would have seen through the fraud on theinstant. She had been nurtured during these years of her rule on apap of these silly protestations, and could weigh their value with anexpert's exactness. 

Nor was it a case where honest confession would have served my purposebetter. If I had put my position to her in plain words, it would havemade relations worse. And so perforce I had to hold my tongue, andsubmit to be considered a clown. 

"I had always heard, " she said, "that you colonists in Yucatan were farahead of those in Egypt in all the arts and graces. But you, sir, dosmall credit to your vice-royalty. Why, I have had gentry from the Nilecome here, and you might almost think they had never left their nativeshores. "

"They must have made great strides this last twenty years, then. Whenlast I was sent to Egypt to report, the blacks were clearly masters ofthe land, and our people lived there only on sufferance. Their pyramidswere puny, and their cities nothing more than forts. "

"Oh, " she said mockingly, "they are mere exiles still, but they remembertheir manners. My poor face seemed to please them, at least they allwent into raptures over it. And for ten pleasant words, one of them cutoff his own right hand. We made the bargain, my Egyptian gallant andI, and the hand lies dried on some shelf in my apartment to-day as apleasant memento. "

But here, by a lucky chance for me, an incident occurred which saved mefrom further baiting. The rebels outside the walls were conducting theirday's attack with vigour and some intelligence. More than once duringour procession the lighter missiles from their war engines had sungup through the air, and split against a building, and thrown splinterswhich wounded those who thronged the streets. Still there had beennothing to ruffle the nerves of any one at all used to the haps ofwarfare, or in any way to hinder our courtship. But presently, it seems, they stopped hurling stones from their war engines, and took to loadingthem with carcases of wood lined with the throwing fire. 

Now, against stone buildings these did little harm, save only that theyscorched horribly any poor wretch that was within splash of them whenthey burst; but when they fell upon the rude wooden booths and rushshelters of the poorer folk, they set them ablaze instantly. There wasno putting out these fires. 

These things also would have given to either Phorenice or myself littleenough of concern, as they are the trivial and common incidents ofevery siege; but the mammoth on which we rode had not been so properlyschooled. When the first blue whiff of smoke came to us down thewindings of the street, the huge red beast hoisted its trunk, and beganto sway its head uneasily. When the smoke drifts grew more dense, andhere and there a tongue of flame showed pale beneath the sunshine, itstopped abruptly and began to trumpet. 

The guards who led it, tugged manfully at the chains which hung from thejagged metal collar round its neck, so that the spikes ran deep into itsflesh, and reminded it keenly of its bondage. But the beast's terrorat the fire, which was native to its constitution, mastered all itsnew-bought habits of obedience. From time unknown men have hunted themammoth in the savage ground, and the mammoth has hunted men; and themen have always used fire as a shield, and mammoths have learned todread 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 forthis blundering, " said she. "I ordered to have this beast trained tostand indifferent to drums, shouting, arrows, stones, and fire, and thetrainers assured me that all was done, and brought examples. "

I slipped my girdle. "Here, " I said, "quick. Let me lower you to theground. "

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. Iam 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 toreit, and with each drop, so did the tameness seem to ooze out from italso. With wild squeals and trumpetings it turned and charged viciouslydown the way it had come, scattering like straws the spearmen whotried to stop it, and mowing a great swath through the crowd with itsmonstrous progress. Many must have been trodden under foot, many killedby its murderous trunk, but only their cries came to us. The goldencastle, with its canopy of royal snakes, was swayed and tossed, so thatwe two occupants had much ado not to be shot off like stones from acatapult. But I took a brace with my feet against the front, and onearm around a pillar, and clapped the spare arm round Phorenice, so as tooffer myself to her as a cushion. 

She lay there contentedly enough, with her lovely face just beneath mychin, and the faint scent of her hair coming in to me with every breathI took; and the mammoth charged madly on through the narrow streets. Wehad outstripped the taint of smoke, and the original cause of fear, butthe beast seemed to have forgotten everything in its mad panic. Itheld furiously on with enormous strides, carrying its trunk aloft, anddeafening us with its screams and trumpetings. We left behind us quicklyall those who had trod in that glittering pageant, and we were carriedhelplessly on through the wards of the city. 

The beast was utterly beyond all control. So great was its pace thatthere was no alternative but to try and cling on to the castle. Up therewe were beyond its reach. To have leapt off, even if we had avoidedhaving brains dashed out or limbs smashed by the fall, would have beento put ourselves at once at a frightful disadvantage. The mammoth wouldhave scented us immediately, and turned (as is the custom of thesebeasts), and we should have been trampled into a pulp in a dozenseconds. 

The thought came to me that here was the High God's answer toPhorenice's sacrilege. The mammoth was appointed to carry out Theirvengeance by dashing her to pieces, and I, their priest, was to be humanwitness that justice had been done. But no direct revelation had beengiven me on this matter, and so I took no initiative, but hung on to theswaying castle, and held the Empress against bruises in my arms. 

There was no guiding the brute: in its insanity of madness it doubledmany times upon its course, the windings of the streets confusing it. But by degrees we left the large palaces and pyramids behind, and gotamongst the quarters of artisans, where weavers and smiths gaped atus from their doors as we thundered past. And then we came upon themerchants' quarters where men live over their storehouses that dotraffic with the people over seas, and then down an open space thereglittered before us a mirror of water. 

"Now here, " thought I, "this mad beast will come to sudden stop, and aslike as not will swerve round sharply and charge back again towards theheart of the city. " And I braced myself to withstand the shock, and tookfresh grip upon the woman who lay against my breast. But with louderscreams and wilder trumpetings the mammoth held straight on, andpresently came to the harbour's edge, and sent the spray sparkling insheets amongst the sunshine as it went with its clumsy gait into thewater. 

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'stime, vomit their drainings into this part of the harbour, and the solidmatter which they carry is quickly deposited as an impalpable sludge. Into this the huge beast began to sink deeper and deeper before it couldhalt in its rush, and when with frightened bellowings it had come toa stop, it was bogged irretrievably. Madly it struggled, wildly itscreamed and trumpeted. The harbour-water and the slime were churnedinto one stinking compost, and the golden castle in which we clunglurched so wildly that we were torn from it and shot far away into thewater. 

Still there, of course, we were safe, and I was pleased enough to be ridof 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 thetest 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 withme 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 inthat 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 whenhis flurry's done we'll leave him where he is to consider his evil waysfor a day or so, and then haul him out with windlasses, and tame himafresh. 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 fartherside of the harbour as hard as well-plied whips could make oars driveher, but at the sound of my shouts the soldiers on her foredeck stoppedtheir arrowshots, and the steersman swerved her off on a new course topick us up. Till then we had been swimming leisurely across an angle ofthe harbour, so as to avoid landing where the sewers outpoured; but westopped now, treading the water, and were helped over the side by mostrespectful hands. 

The galley belonged to the captain of the port, a mincing figure ofa mariner, whose highest appetite in life was to lick the feet of thegreat, and he began to fawn and prostrate himself at once, and to wishthat his eyes had been blinded before he saw the Empress in such deadlyperil. 

"The peril may pass, " said she. "It's nothing mortal that will ever killme. But I have spoiled my pretty clothes, and shed a jewel or two, andthat's annoying enough as you say, good man. "

The silly fellow repeated a wish that he might be blinded before theEmpress was ever put to such discomfort again. 

But it seemed she could be cloyed with flattery. "If you are tired ofyour eyes, " said she, "let me tell you that you have gone the way tohave them plucked out from their sockets. Kill my mammoth, would you, because he has shown himself a trifle frolicsome? You and your sort wantmore education, my man. I shall have to teach you that port-captains andsuch small creatures are very easy to come by, and very small value whengot, but that my mammoth is mine--mine, do you understand?--the propertyof 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 Phorenicecame down to Atlantis. But if reparation is permitted me, I have twoprisoners in the cabin of the boat here who shall be sacrificed to themammoth forthwith. Doubtless it would please him to make sport withthem, 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 twoforts which guard the harbour mouth. But their boat fouled the chain, and by the light of the torches the sentries spied them. They werecaught with ropes, and put in a dungeon. There is an order not to abuseprisoners before they have been brought before a judgment?"

"It was my order. Did these prisoners offer to buy their lives withnews?"

"The man has not spoken. Indeed, I think he got his death-wound in beingtaken. The woman fought like a cat also, so they said in the fort, butshe was caught without hurt. She says she has got nothing that would beof use to tell. She says she has tired of living like a savage outsidethe city, and moreover that, inside, there is a man for whose nearnessshe craves most mightily. "

"Tut!" said Phorenice. "Is this a romance we have swum to? You see whataffectionate creatures we women are, Deucalion. "--The galley was broughtup against the royal quay and made fast to its golden rings. I handedthe Empress ashore, but she turned again and faced the boat, hergarments still yielding up a slender drip of water. --"Produce your womanprisoner, master captain, and let us see whether she is a runawaywife, or a lovesick girl mad after her sweetheart. Then I will deliverjudgment on her, and as like as not will surprise you all with myclemency. I am in a mood for tender romance to-day. "

The port-captain went into the little hutch of a cabin with a whiteface. It was plain that Phorenice's pleasantries scared him. "The manappears to be dead, Your Majesty. I see that his wounds--"

"Bring out the woman, you fool. I asked for her. Keep your carrion whereit is. "

I saw the fellow stoop for his knife to cut a lashing, and presently whoshould he bring out to the daylight but the girl I had saved from thecave-tigers in the circus, and who had so strangely drawn me to herduring the hours that we had spent afterwards in companionship. It wasclear, too, that the Empress recognised her also. Indeed, she made nosecret about the matter, addressing her by name, and mockingly makinginquiries about the menage of the rebels, and the success of theprisoner's amours. 

"This good port-captain tells me that you made a most valiant attempt toreturn, Nais, and for an excuse you told that it was your love forsome man in the city here which drew you. Come, now, we are willing tooverlook 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 heweds you honestly. Yes, and I will do more for you, Nais, since this daybrings me to a husband. Seeing that all your estate is confiscate as apenalty 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 cameto her lips. When a woman is in the grip of a rude soldiery, any excusewhich can save her for the moment must serve. For myself, I should thinkit like enough that she would confess to having come back to her oldallegiance, if she were asked. "

"Sir, " said the Empress, "keep your peace. Any interest you may show inthis matter will go far to offend me. You have spoken of Nais in yournarrative before, and although your tongue was shrewd and you did notsay 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 onceyou were my fan-girl, and so your running away to these ill-kemptmalcontents, who beat their heads against my city walls, is all themore naughty. But you must meet me halfway. You must give an excusefor leniency. Point me out the man you would wed, and he shall be yourhusband to-morrow. "

"There is no man. "

"Then name me one at random. Why, my pretty Nais, not ten months agothere were a score who would have leaped at the chance of having you fora wife. Drop your coyness, girl, and name me one of those. I warrantyou that I will be your ambassadress and will put the matter to him withsuch delicacy that he will not make you blush by refusal. "

The prisoner moistened her lips. "I am a maiden, and I have a maiden'smodesty. 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 obtrudeunduly when you were my fan-girl, Nais. No, come to think of it, youliked a tender glance and a pretty phrase as well as any when you werefan-girl. You have grown wild and shy, amongst these savage rebels, butI 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, andwears a leprosy on half his face instead of that beard he used to trimso 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 Iwould 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 theway he used to dress in a change of garb each day to catch your proudfancy, girl. Well, you shall have Rota. He shall lead you to wife beforethis hour to-morrow. "

Again the prisoner moistened her lips. "I will not have Rota, and spareme the others. I know why you mock me, Phorenice. "

"Then there are three of us here who share one knowledge. "--She turnedher eyes upon me. Gods! who ever saw the like of Phorenice's eyes, andwho ever saw them lit with such fire as burned within them then?--"Mylord, you are marrying me for policy; I am marrying you for policy, andfor another reason which has grown stronger of late, and which you mayguess at. Do you wish still to carry out the match?"

I looked once at Nais, and then I looked steadily back to Phorenice. Thecommand given by the mouth of Zaemon from the High Council of the SacredMountain had to outweigh all else, and I answered that such was mydesire. 

"Then, " said she, glowering at me with her eyes, "you shall build me upthe 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, whilstI 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 manhere 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 forhim 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 seeluxury in fostering rivals. 

"You came for attention at the hands of Deucalion. By my face! you shallhave 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 thesemoments of stress, and I decided on my proper course on the instant thewords had left her lips. I was sacrificing myself for Atlantis byorder of the High Council of the Priests, and, if needful, Nais mustbe sacrificed also, although in the same flash a scheme came to me forsaving her. 

So I bowed gravely before the Empress, and said I, "In this, and in allother things where a mere human hand is potent, I will carry out yourwishes, Phorenice. " And she on her part patted my arm, and fresh wavesof feeling welled up from the depths of her wondrous eyes. Surely theGods won for her half her schemes and half her battles when they gavePhorenice her shape, and her voice, and the matters which lay within theoutlines of her face. 

By this time the merchants, and the other dwellers adjacent to this partof the harbour, where the royal quay stands, had come down, offeringchanges of raiment, and houses to retire into. Phorenice was allgraciousness, and though it was little enough I cared for mere wetnessof my coat, still that part of the harbour into which we had been thrownby the mammoth was not over savoury, and I was glad enough to follow herexample. For myself, I said no further word to Nais, and refrained evenfrom giving her a glance of farewell. But a small sop like this was nomeal for Phorenice, and she gave the port-captain strict orders for theguarding of his prisoner before she left him. 

At the house into which I was ushered they gave me a bath, and I easedmy host of the plainest garment in his store, and he was pleased enoughat getting off so cheaply. But I had an hour to spend outside on thepavement listening to the distant din of bombardment before Phorenicecame out to me again, and I could not help feeling some grim amusementat 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 wereonly in fraction his own, seeing that he had bought them (as the customis) in partnership with other merchants. These had pleased Phorenice'seye, 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 flashunder the sun. I am quite glad now, Deucalion, that the mammoth gave usthat furious ride and that spill, since it has brought me such a bonnypresent. You may tell the fellow here that some day when he has earnedsome more, I will come and be his guest again. Ah! They have brought uslitters, 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 willcome to us both with more certainty to-morrow. No; do not order morebearers. My own slaves will carry us handily enough. I am glad youare not one of your gross, overfed men, Deucalion. I am small and slimmyself, and I do not want to be husbanded by a man who will overshadowme. "

"Back to the royal pyramid?" I asked. 

"No, nor to the walls. I neither wish to fight nor to sit as Empressto-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 slavescarry 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 thesacrifice. "

Now, I had seen something of the unruliness of the streets myself, andI had gathered a hint also from the officer at the gate of the royalpyramid that night of Phorenice's welcoming banquet. But as whateverthere was in the matter must be common knowledge to the Empress, I didnot bring it to her memory then. So I dismissed the guard which hadcome up, and drove away with a few sharp words the throng of gapingsightseers who always, silly creatures, must needs come to stare attheir betters; and then I sat in the litter in the place where I wasinvited, and the bearers put their heads to the pole. 

They swung away with us along the wide pavement which runs between thehouses of the merchants and the mariner folk and the dimpling waters ofthe harbour, and I thought somewhat sadly of the few ships that floatedon that splendid basin now, and of the few evidences of business thatshowed themselves on the quays. Time was when the ships were berthedso close that many had to wait in the estuary outside the walls, andmemorials had been sent to the King that the port should be doubled insize to hold the glut of trade. And that, too, in the old days of oarand sail, when machines drawing power from our Lord the Sun were butrarely used to help a vessel speedily along her course. 

The Egypt voyage and a return was a matter of a year then, as against abrace of months now, and of three ships that set out, one at least couldbe reckoned upon succumbing to the dangers of the wide waters and theterrible beasts that haunt them. But in those old days trade roared withlusty life, and was ever growing wider and more heavy. Your merchantthen was a portly man and gave generously to the Gods. But now allthe world seemed to be in arms, and moreover trade was vulgar. Yourmerchant, if he was a man of substance, forgot his merchandise, sworethat chaffering was more indelicate than blasphemy and curled his beardafter the new fashion, and became a courtier. Where his father had spentanxious days with cargo tally and ship-master, the son wasted hours indirecting sewing men as they adorned a coat, and nights in vapouring ata banquet. 

Of the smaller merchants who had no substance laid by, taxes and theconstant bickerings of war had wellnigh ground them into starvation. Besides, with the country in constant uproar, there were few marketsleft for most merchandise, nor was there aught made now which could becarried abroad. If your weaver is pressed as a fire-tube man he does notmake cloth, and if your farmer is playing at rebellion, he does not buyslaves to till his fields. Indeed, they told me that a month before myreturn, as fine a cargo of slaves had been brought into harbour as evercame out of Europe, and there was nothing for it but to set them ashoreacross the estuary, and leave them free to starve or live in the wildground there as they chose. There was no man in all Atlantis who wouldhold so much as one more slave as a gift. 

But though I was grieved at this falling away, all schemes for remedywould be for afterwards. It would only make ill worse to speak of it aswe rode together in the litter. I was growing to know Phorenice's moodsenough for that. Still, I think that she too had studied mine, and didher best to interest me between her bursts of trifling. We went out towhere the westernmost harbour wall joins the land, and there the pantingbearers set us down. She led me into a little house of stone which stoodby itself, built out on a promontory where there is a constant run oftide, and when we had been given admittance, after much unbarring, sheshowed me her new gold collectors. 

In the dry knowledge taught in the colleges and groves of the SacredMountain it had been a common fact to us that the metal gold was presentin a dissolved state in all sea water, but of plans for dragging itforth into yellow hardness, none had ever been discussed. But here thisfield-reared upstart of an Empress had stumbled upon the trick as thoughit had been written in a book. 

She patted my arm laughingly as I stared curiously round the place. "Itell all others in Atlantis that only the Gods have this secret, " saidshe, "and that They gave it to me as one of themselves. But I am noGoddess to you, am I, Deucalion? And, by my face! I have no otherexplanation of how this plan was invented. We'll suppose I must havedreamed it. Look! The sea-water sluices in through that culvert, andpasses over these rough metal plates set in the floor, and then flowsout again yonder in its natural course. You see the yellow metal caughtin the ridges of the plates? That is gold. And my fellows here melt itwith fire into bars, and take it to my smith's in the city. The tidesvary 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 passesthrough these culverts in a month and how much gold to a grain should becaught in the plates. My fellows here at first thought to cheat me, butI towed two of them in the water once behind a galley till the cannibalfish ate them, and since then the others have given me credit for--forwhat do you think?"

"More divinity. "

"I suppose it is that. But I am letting you see how it is done. Justhave the head to work out a little sum, and see what an effect can begained. You will be a God yet yourself, Deucalion, with these sillyAtlanteans, if only you will use your wit and cleverness. "

Was she laughing at me? Was she in earnest? I could not tell. Sometimesshe pointed out that her success and triumphs were merely the rewardof thought and brilliancy, and next moment she gave me some impossibleexplanation and left me to deduce that she must be more than mortal orthe thing could never have been found. In good truth, this little womanwith her supple mind and her supple body mystified me more and more thelonger I stayed by her side; and more and more despairing did I growthat Atlantis could ever be restored by my agency to peace and theancient Gods, even after I had carried out the commands of the HighCouncil, and taken her to wife. 

Only one plan seemed humanly possible, and that was to curb her furthermischievousness by death and then leave the wretched country naturallyto recover. It was just a dagger-stroke, and the thing was done. Yet thevery idea of this revolted me, and when the desperate thought came to mymind (which it did ever and anon), I hugged to myself the answer that ifit were fitting to do this thing, the High Gods in Their infinite wisdomwould surely have put definite commands upon me for its carrying out. 

Yet, such was the fascination of Phorenice, that when presently weleft her gold collectors, and stumbled into such peril, that a littlewithholding of my hand would have gained her a passage to the netherGods, I found myself fighting when she called upon me, as seldom I havefought before. And though, of course, some blame for this must be laidupon that lust of battle which thrills even the coldest of us when blowsbegin to whistle and war-cries start to ring, there is no doubt alsothat the pleasure of protecting Phorenice, and the distaste for seeingher pulled down by those rude, uncouth fishers put special nerve andvehemence into my blows. 

The cause of the matter was the unrest and the prevalency to streetviolence which I have spoken of above, and the desperate poverty ofthe common people, which led them to take any risk if it showed them achance of winning the wherewithal to purchase a meal. We had once moremounted the litter, and once more the bearers, with their heads beneaththe pole, bore us on at their accustomed swinging trot. Phorenice wastelling me about her new supplies of gold. She had made fresh sumptuarylaws, it appeared. 

"In the old days, " said she, "when yellow gold was tediously dredged upgrain by grain from river gravels in the dangerous lands, a quillfull would cost a rich man's savings, and so none but those whose highstation fitted them to be so adorned could wear golden ornaments. Butwhen the sea-water gave me gold here by the double handful a day, Ifound that the price of these river hoards decreased, and one day--couldyou credit it?--a common fellow, who was one of my smiths, came to mewearing a collar of yellow gold on his own common neck. Well, I hadthat neck divided, as payment for his presumption; and as I promisedto repeat the division promptly on all other offenders, that specialspecies of forwardness seems to be checked for the time. There are manyexasperations, Deucalion, in governing these common people. "

She had other things to say upon the matter, but at this point I saw twoclumsy boats of fishers paddling to us from over the ripples, and at thesame time amongst the narrow lanes which led between the houses onthe other side of us, savage-faced men were beginning to run after thelitter in threatening clusters. 

"With permission, " I said, "I will step out of the conveyance andscatter this rabble. "

"Oh, the people always cluster round me. Poor ugly souls, they seemto take a strange delight in coming to stare at my pretty looks. Butscatter them. I have said I did not wish to be followed. I am takingholiday now, Deucalion, am I not, whilst you learn to woo me?"

I stepped to the ground. The rough fishers in the boats were beginningto shout to those who dodged amongst the houses to see to it that wedid not escape, and the numbers who hemmed us in on the shore side wereincreasing every moment. The prospect was unpleasant enough. We had comeout beyond the merchants' quarters, and were level with those smallhuts of mud and grass which the fishing population deem sufficient forshelter, and which has always been a spot where turbulence might beexpected. Indeed, even in those days of peace and good government inthe old King's time, this part of the city had rarely been without itsweekly riot. 

The life of the fisherman is the most hard that any human toilers haveto endure. Violence from the wind and waves, and pelting from firestonesout of the sky are their daily portion; the great beasts that dwell inthe seas hunt them with savage persistence, and it is a rare day whenat least some one of the fishers' guild fails to come home to answer thetally. 

Moreover, the manner which prevails of catching fish is not without itsrisks. 

To each man there is a large sea-fowl taken as a nestling, andtrained to the work. A ring of bronze is round its neck to prevent itsswallowing the spoil for which it dives, and for each fish it takes andflies back with to the boat, the head and tail and inwards are given toit for a reward, the ring being removed whilst it makes the meal. 

The birds are faithful, once they have got a training, and are seldomknown to desert their owners; but, although the fishers treat them morekindly than they do their wives, or children of their own begetting, thelife of the birds is precarious like that of their masters. The largerbeasts and fish of the sea prey on them as they prey on the smallerfish, and so whatever care may be lavished upon them, they are mostliable to sudden cutting off. 

And here is another thing that makes the life of the fisher mostprecarious: if his fishing bird be slain, and the second which he hasin training also come by ill fortune, he is left suddenly bereft of allutensils of livelihood, and (for aught his guild-fellows care) he may gostarve. For these fishers hold that the Gods of the sea regulate theircraft, and that if one is not pleasing to Them They rob him of hisbirds; after which it would be impious to have any truck or dealingwith such a fellow; and accordingly he is left to starve or rob as hechooses. 

All of which circumstances tend to make the fishers rude, desperatemen, who have been forced into the trade because all other callings haverejected them. They are fellows, moreover, who will spend the gains ofa month on a night's debauch, for fear that the morrow will rob them oflife and the chance of spending; and, moreover, it is their one point ofhonour to be curbed in no desire by an ordinary fear of consequences. Aswill appear. 

I went quickly towards the largest knot of these people, who wereskulking behind the houses, leaving the litter halted in the path behindme, and I bade them sharply enough to disperse. "For an employment, "I added, "put your houses in order, and clean the fish offal from thelanes between them. To-morrow I will come round here to inspect, and putthis quarter into a better order. But for to-day the Empress (whose namebe 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 youa gallows, if you give me more annoyance. To your kennels, you!"

I think they would have obeyed the voice of authority if they had beenleft to themselves. There was a quick stir amongst them. Those thatstood in the sunlight instinctively slipped into the shadow, and manydodged into the houses and cowered in dark corners out of sight. But themen in the two hide-covered fisher-boats that were paddling up, calledthem 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 outmyself with a firm hand. I judged that I could prevent them followingthe Empress, but if she still remained as a glittering bait for them torob, and I had to protect her also, it might be that my work would notbe done so effectively. 

But it seems I was presumptuous in giving an order which dealt with theperson of Phorenice. She bade the bearers stand where they were, andstepped out, and drew her weapons from beneath the cushions. She cametowards me strapping a sword on to her hip, and carrying a well-dintedtarget of gold on her left forearm. "An unfair trick, " cries she, laughing. "If you will keep a fight to yourself now, Deucalion, wherewill your greediness carry you when I am your shrinking, wistful littlewife? Are these fools truly going to stand up against us?"

I was not coveting a fight, but it seemed as if there would be noavoidance of it now. The robe and the glittering gauds of whichPhorenice had recently despoiled the merchant, drew the eyes of thesepeople with keen attraction. The fishers in the boats paddled intothe surf which edged the beach, and leaped overside and left the frailbasket-work structures to be spewed up sound or smashed, as chanceordered. And from the houses, and from the filthy lanes between them, poured out hordes of others, women mixed with the men, gathering roundus threateningly. 

"Have a care, " shouted one on the outskirts of the crowd. "She calleddown fire for the sacrifice once to-day, and she can burn up others hereif she chooses. "

"So much the more for those that are left, " retorted another. "Shecannot burn all. "

"Nay, I will not burn any, " said Phorenice, "but you shall look upon mysword-play till you are tired. "

I heard her say that with some malicious amusement, knowing (as one ofthe Seven) how she had called down the fires of the sky to burn thatcloven-hoofed horse offered in sacrifice, and knowing too, full well, that she could bring down no fire here. But they gave us little enoughtime for wordy courtesies. Their Empress never went far unattended, and, for aught the wretches knew, an escort might be close behind. So whatpilfering they did, it behoved them to get done quickly. 

They closed in, jostling one another to be first, and the reek of theirfilthy bodies made us cough. A grimy hand launched out to seize some ofthe jewels which flashed on Phorenice's breast, and I lopped it offat the elbow, so that it fell at her feet, and a second later we wereengaged. 

"Your back to mine, comrade, " cried she, with a laugh, and then drew andlaid about her with fine dexterity. Bah! but it was mere slaughter, thatfirst 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 acircle round us by sheer whirling of steel. It is necessary to do one'swork cleanly in these bouts, as wounded left on the ground unnoticedbefore one are as dangerous as so many snakes. But as we circled roundin our battling I noted that all of Phorenice's quarry lay peacefuland still. By the Gods! but she could play a fine sword, this daintyEmpress. She touched life with every thrust. 

Yes, it was plain to see, now an example was given, that the throne ofAtlantis 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 theknowledge. I could but see her out of the corner of my eye, and thatonly now and again, for the fishers, despite their ill-knowledge offence, and the clumsiness of their weapons, had heavy numbers, and mostsavage ferocity; and as they made so confident of being able to pullus down, it required more than a little hard battling to keep them fromdoing 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 toovain-gloriously near me with one, I could not swear they would not havedragged me down by sheer ravening savageness. 

And always above the burly uproar of the fight came very pleasantly tomy ears Phorenice's cry of "Deucalion!" which she chose as her battleshout. I knew her, of course, to be a past-mistress of the art ofcompliment, and it was no new thing for me to hear the name roared outabove a battle din, but it was given there under circumstances whichwere peculiar, and for the life of me I could not help being tickled bythe flattery. 

Condemn my weakness how you will, but I came very near then to likingthe Empress of Atlantis in the way she wished. And as for that otherwoman who should have filled my mind, I will confess that the stress ofthe moment, and the fury of the engagement, had driven both her and herstrait completely out beyond the marches of my memory. Of such frailstuff 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 throwthemselves heart and soul into a fight for a fight's sake, and it seemsthat women can be bitten with the same fierce infection. The attackslackened 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 backout of reach of our weapons. 

It was the moment for a truce, and the moment when a few strong wordswould have sent them back cowering to their huts, and given us freepassage to go where we chose. But no, this Phorenice must needs sing ahymn to her sword and mine, gloating over our feats and invulnerability;and then she must needs ask payment for the bearers of her litter whomthey had killed, and then speak balefully of the burnings, and theskinnings, and the sawings asunder with which this fishers' quarterwould be treated in the near future, till they learned the virtues ofdeportment 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 itbeyond my power to give the order? Either you must think yourselves Godsor me no Goddess, or you would not have gone on so far. Come now, younasty-smelling people, follow out your theory, and if you make a goodfight of it, I swear by my face I will be lenient with those who do notfall. "

But there was no pressing up to meet our swords. They still ringed usin, savage and sullen, beyond the ring of their own dead, and wouldneither 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 butadmire, and for myself I determined that next time it became my dutyto raise troops, I would catch a handful of these men, and teach themhandiness with the utensils of war, and train them to loyalty andfaithfulness. But presently from behind their ranks a stone flew, andthough it whizzed between the Empress and myself, and struck down afisher, 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 fisherswould know little enough of, "I take it that a whiff of the sea-breezewould come very pleasant after all this warm play. As you can show suchpretty sword work, will you cut me a way down to the beach, and I willdo 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 yourtrick 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 pressupon their little wives!" and with that leaped over the ring of deadbefore her, and cut and stabbed a way through those that stood betweenher and the waters which creamed and crashed upon the beach. Gods!what a charge she made. It made me tingle with admiration as I followedsideways behind her, guarding the rear. And I am a man that has spent somany years in battling, that it takes something far out of the common tomove 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 crushedby the weight of the waves into a shapeless bundle of sticks, and wouldtake half a day to replace. So that, let us but get the other craftafloat, and we should be free from further embroiling. But the fisherswere quick to see the object of this new manoeuvre. "Guard the boat, "they shouted. "Smash her; slit her skin with your knives! Tear her withyour fingers! Swim her out to sea! Oh, at least take the paddles!"

But, if these clumsy fishers could run, Phorenice was like a leggedsnake for speed. She was down beside the boat before any could reachit, laughing and shouting out that she could beat them at every point. Myself, I was slower of foot; and, besides, there was some that offeredme a fight on the road, and I was not wishful to baulk them; andmoreover, the fewer we left clamouring behind, the fewer there would beto speed our going with their stones. Still I came to the beach in goodorder, 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 linesof the surf were past. The fishers swarmed round us, active as fish intheir native element, and strove mightily to get hands on the boat andslit the hides which covered it with their eager fingers. But I had aspare hand, and a short stabbing-knife for such close-quarter work, andhere, there, and everywhere was Phorenice the Empress, with her thirstydripping sword. By the Gods! I laughed with sheer delight at seeing herart of fence. 

But the swirl of a great fish into the shallows, and the squeal ofa fisher as he was dragged down and home away into the deep, made memindful of foes that no skill can conquer, and no bravery avoid. Withouttaking time to give the Empress a word of warning, I stooped, and flungan arm round her, and threw her up out of the water into the boat, andthen thrust on with all my might, driving the flimsy craft out tosea, whilst my legs crept under me for fear of the beasts which swaminvisible 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 whichstill flaunted on Phorenice's breast. Of the vengeance that might comeafter they recked nothing; let them but get the wherewithal for onenight's good debauch, and they would forget that such a thing as themorning of a morrow could have existence. 

Two fellows I caught and killed that, diving down beneath, tried to slitthe skin of the boat out of sight under the water; and Phorenice caredfor all those that tried to put a hand on the gunwales. Yes, and she didmore than that. A huge long-necked turtle that was stirred out of themud by the turmoil, came up to daylight, and swung its great horn-lippedmouth to this side and that, seeking for a prey. The fishers near itdodged and dived. I, thrusting at the stern of the boat, could only hopeit would pass me by and so offered an easy mark. It scurried towardsme, champing its noisy lips, and beating the water into spray with itsflippers. 

But Phorenice was quick with a remedy and a rescue. She passed her swordthrough one of the fishers that pressed her, and then thrust the bodytowards the turtle. The great neck swooped towards it; the long slimyfeelers which protruded from its head quivered and snuffled; and thenthe 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 inover the side, she the while balancing nicely so that the flimsy thingshould not be overset. The fishers had given up their pursuit, findingthat they earned nothing but lopped-off arms and split faces by comingwithin swing of this terrible sword of their Empress, and so contentedthemselves with volleying jagged stones in the hopes of stunning us orsplitting the boat. However, Phorenice crouched in the stern, holdingthe two shields--her own golden target, and the rough hide buckler Ihad won--and so protected both of us whilst I paddled, and though manystones clattered against the shields, and hit the hide covering of theboat, so that it resounded like a drum, none of them did damage, and wedrew 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 smokefrom a burning mountain fanned black and forbidding before His face. Phorenice wrung the water from her clothes and shivered. "Work hard withthose paddles, Deucalion, and take me in through the water-gate and letme be restored to my comforts again. That merchant would rue if he sawhow 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 ofthese. " She looked at me sidelong, tossing back the short red hair fromher eyes. "What think you of my wisdom in coming where we have comewithout 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 yourapproval of me quite pleasantly once or twice. You were a difficult manto thaw, Deucalion, but you warm perceptibly as you keep on being nearme. La, sir, we shall be a pair of rustic sweethearts yet, if thisgoes on. I am glad I thought of the device of going near those smellyfishers. "

So she had taken me out in the litter unattended for the plain purposeof 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 goodthat each should know to a nicety the other's powers; and also, I am toomuch of an old battler and too much enamoured with the glorious handlingof arms to quarrel very deeply with any one who offers me a toughupstanding fight. Still for the life of me, I could not help comparingPhorenice with another woman. With a similar chance open before us, Naishad robbed me of the struggle through a sheer pity for those squalidrebels who did not even call her chieftain; whilst here was this Empressfrittering away two score of the hardiest of her subjects merely togratify a whim. 

Yet, loyal to my vow as a priest, and to the commands set upon me by thehigh council on the Sacred Mountain, I tried to put away these waywardthoughts and comparisons. As I rowed over the swingings of the wavestowards the forts which guard the harbour's mouth, I sent prayers to theHigh Gods to give my tongue dexterity, and They through Their love forthe country of Atlantis, and the harassed people, whom it was my deepwish 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 safefrom ship attack from without, by reason of a chain of jagged rockswhich spring up from the deep, and run from the harbour side to the endof the city wall. The fishers know the passes, and can oftentimes getthrough to the open water beyond without touching a stone; or if theydo see a danger of hitting on the reef, leap out and carry their lightboats in their hands till the water floats them again. But here I hadneither the knowledge nor the dexterity, and, thought I, now the HighGods will show finally if They wish this woman who has defiled them toreign 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. Therewas no half-answer. A great wave rose in the lagoon behind us, a wavesuch as could have only been caused by an earth tremor, and on its sleekback we were hurled forward and thrown clear of the reefs with theirseaweeds licking round us, without so much as seeing a stone of thebarrier. I bowed my head as I rowed on towards the harbour forts. It wasplain that not yet would the High Gods take vengeance for the insultswhich this lovely woman had offered Them. 

The sentries in the two forts beat drums at one another in theiraccustomed rotation, and in the growing dusk were going to pay littleenough attention to the fishingboat which lay against the great chainclamouring to have it lowered. But luckily a pair of officers weretaking the air of the evening in a stone-dropping turret of the roofof the nearer fort, and these recognised the tone of our shouts. Theysilenced the drums, torches were lowered to make sure of our faces, andthen with a splash the great chain was dropped into the water to give uspassage. 

A galley lay inside, nuzzling the harbour wall, and presently the ladderof ropes was let down from the top of the nearest fort, and a crew camedown 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 inthe cabin of the galley in place of the sodden clothes we wore. Thereare fevers to be gained by carrying wet clothes after sunset, and thoughfrom personal experience I have learned that these may be warded offwith drugs, I noticed with some grim amusement that the Empress hadsufficiently little of the Goddess about her to fear very much theailments which are due to frail humanity. 

The galley rowed swiftly across the calm waters of the harbour, and madefast to the rings of gold on the royal quay, and whilst we were waitingfor litters to be brought, I watched a lantern lit in the boatwhich stood guard over Phorenice's mammoth. The huge red beast stoodshoulder-deep in the harbour water, with trunk up-turned. It was tamednow, and the light of the boat's lantern fell on the little ripples sentout by its tremblings. But I did not choose to intercede or askmercy for it. If the mammoth sank deeper in the harbour mud, and wasswallowed, I could have borne the loss with equanimity. 

To tell the truth, that ride on the great beast's back had impressed meunfavourably. In fact, it put into me a sense of helplessness thatwas wellnigh intolerable. Perhaps circumstances have made me undulyself-reliant: on that others must judge. But I will own to having apreference for walking on my own proper feet, as the Gods in fashioningour shapes most certainly intended. On my own feet I am able to guard myown head and neck, and have done on four continents, throughout a longand active life, and on many a thousand occasions. But on the back ofthat 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 comeup officiously to make his salutations) after the disposal of Nais, and was told that she had been clapped into a dungeon beneath the royalpyramid, and the officer of the guard there had given his bond for hersafe-keeping. 

"It is to be hoped he understands his work, " said the Empress. "Thatpretty Nais knows the pyramid better than most, and it may be he willbe sent to the tormentors for putting her in a cell which had a secretoutlet. You would feel pleasure if the girl escaped, Deucalion?"

"Assuredly, " said I, knowing how useless it would be to make a secret ofthe matter. "I have no enmity against Nais. "

"But I have, " said she viciously, "and I am still minded to lock yourfaith to me by that wedding gift you know of. "

"The thing shall be done, " I said. "Before all, the Empress ofAtlantis. "

"Poof! Deucalion, you are too stiff and formal. You ought to be mightilyhonoured 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 thetorches! Keep farther back against the street walls. The perfume you areburning stifles me. "

Again there was a feast that night in the royal banqueting-hall; again Isat beside Phorenice on the raised dais which stands beneath the symbolsof the snake and the out-stretched hand. What had been taken for grantedbefore about our forthcoming relationship was this time proclaimedopenly; the Empress herself acknowledged me as her husband that was tobe; and all that curled and jewelled throng of courtiers hailed me asgreater than themselves, by reason of this woman's choice. There wasmethod, too, in their salutation. Some rumour must have got about of mypreference for the older and simpler habits, and there was no drinkingwine to my health after the new and (as I considered) impertinentmanner. Decorously, each lord and lady there came forward, and each inturn spilt a goblet at my feet; and when I called any up, whether manor woman, to receive tit-bits from my platter, it was eaten simply andthankfully, and not kissed or pocketed with any extravagant gesture. 

The flaring jets of earth-breath showed me, too, so I thought, a plainerhabit of dress, and a more sober mien amongst this thoughtless mobof banqueters. And, indeed, it must have been plain to notice, forPhorenice, leaning over till the ruddy curls on her shoulder brushedmy face, chided me in a playful whisper as having usurped her highauthority already. 

"Oh, sir, " she pleaded mockingly, "do not make your rule over us tooascetic. I have given no orders for this change, but to-night there areno perfumes in the air; the food is so plain and I have half a mind toburn the cook; and as for the clothes and gauds of these diners, by myface! they might have come straight from the old King's reign before Istepped in here to show how tasteful could be colours on a robe, or howpretty 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 ofthem to-day that they showed with such exquisiteness yesterday. By myface! 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 notinterfere. "

"Why hinder them if they feel more cleanly shaven?"

"No, sir. There shall be only one clean chin where a beard can grow inall Atlantis, and that shall be carried by the man who is husband to theEmpress. Why, my Deucalion, would you have no sumptuary laws? Would youhave these good folk here and the common people outside imitate us inevery cut of the hair and every fold of a garment which it pleases us todiscover? Come, sir, if you and I chose to say that our sovereignty wasmarked only by our superior strength of arm and wit, they would hate usat once for our arrogance; whereas, if we keep apart to ourselves afew mere personal decorations, these become just objects to admire andpleasantly envy. "

"You show me that there is more in the office of a ruler than meets theeye. "

"And yet they tell me, and indeed show me, that you have ruled with somesuccess. "

"I employed the older method. It requires a Phorenice to invent thesenicer flights. "

"Flatterer!" said she, and smote me playfully with the back of herlittle fingers on my arm. "You are becoming as great a courtier as anyof them. You make me blush with your fine pleasantries, Deucalion, andthere is no fan-girl here to-night to cool my cheek. I must choose meanother fan-girl. But it shall not be Ylga. Ylga seems to have more of akindness for you than I like, and if she is wise she will go live in herpalace at the other side of the city, and there occupy herself with theordering of her slaves, and the makings of embroideries. I shall notbe hard on Ylga unless she forces me, but I will have no woman in thiskingdom treat you with undue civility. "

"And how am I to act, " said I, falling in with her mood, "when I see andhear all the men of Atlantis making their protestations before you? Byyour own confession they all love you as ardently as they seem to haveloved you hopelessly. "

"Ah, now, " she said, "you must not ask me to do impossibilities. I ampowerful if you will. But I have no force which will govern the heartsof these poor fellows on matters such as that. But if you choose, youmake proclamation that I am given now body and inwards to you, and ifthey continue to offend your pride in this matter, you may take yourculprits, and give them over to the tormentors. Indeed, Deucalion, Ithink it would be a pretty attention to me if you did arrange some suchceremony. It seems to me a present, " she added with a frown, "that thejealousy is too much on one side. "

"You must not expect that a man who has been divorced from love for allof a busy life can learn all its niceties in an instant. Myself, I wasfeeling proud of my progress. With any other schoolmistress than you, Phorenice, I should not be near so forward. In fact (if one may judge bymy 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. Ican be finely greedy over some matters. "

The banquet this night did not extend to inordinate length. Phorenicehad gone through much since last she slept, and though she had declaredherself Goddess in the meantime, it seemed that her body remained mortalas heretofore. The black rings of weariness had grown under her wondrouseyes, and she lay back amongst the cushions of the divan with her limbsslackened and listless. When the dancers came and postured before us, she threw them a jewel and bade them begone before they had given a halfof their performance, and the poet, a silly swelling fellow who came tosing the deeds of the day, she would not hear at all. 

"To-morrow, " she said wearily, "but for now grant me peace. My LordDeucalion has given me much food for thought this day, and presentlyI go to my chamber to muse over the future policies of this Statethroughout the night. To-morrow come to me again, and if your poetry isgood and short, I will pay you surprisingly. But see to it that youare not long-winded. If there are superfluous words, I will pay you forthose with the stick. "

She rose to her feet then, and when the banqueters had made theirsalutation to us, I led her away from the banqueting-hall and down thepassages with their secret doors which led to her private chambers. She clung on my arm, and once when we halted whilst a great stoneblock swung slowly ajar to let us pass, she drooped her head against myshoulder. Her breath came warm against my cheek, and the loveliness ofher face so close at hand surpasses the description of words. I think itwas in her mind that I should kiss the red lips which were held so nearto mine, but willing though I was to play the part appointed, I couldnot bring myself to that. So when the stone block had swung, she drewaway with a sigh, and we went on without further speech. 

"May the High Gods treat you tenderly, " I said, when we came to the doorof her bed-chamber. 

"I am my own God, " said she, "in all things but one. By my face! you area 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 youare a mighty poor wooer. Don't you know, my man, that a woman esteemssome 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 bringsyou more benefit in a certain matter than any show of passion couldearn. There, get you gone, if the atmosphere of a maiden's bed-chamberhurts your rustic modesty, and your Gods keep you, Deucalion, if that'sthe phrase, and if you think They can do it. Get you gone, man, andleave me solitary. "

I had taken the plan of the pyramid out of the archives before thebanquet and learned it thoroughly, and so was able to thread my waythrough its angular mazes without pause or blunder. I, too, was heavilywearied with what I had gone through since my last snatch of sleep, butI dare set apart no time for rest just then. Nais must be sacrificed inpart for the needs of Atlantis; but a plan had come to me by which itseemed that she need not be sacrificed wholly; and to carry this throughthere was need for quick thought and action. 

Help came to me also from a quarter I did not expect. As I passed alongthe tortuous way between the ponderous stones of the pyramid, which ledto the apartments that had been given me by Phorenice, a woman glidedup out of the shadows of one of the side passages, and when I lifted myhand lamp, there was Ylga. 

She regarded me half-sullenly. "I have lost my place, " she said, "and itseems I need never have spoken. She intended to have you all along, andit was not a thing like that which could put her off. And you--you justthink me officious, if, indeed, you have ever given me another thoughttill 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 withit, you are like the rest. I thought, too, that you would be one ofthose men who have a distrust for ruddy hair. And, besides she islittle. "

"Ylga, " I said, "you have taught me that these walls are full ofcrannies and ears. I will listen to no word against Phorenice. But Iwould have further converse with you soon. If you still have a kindnessfor me, go to the chamber that is mine and wait for me there. I willjoin 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 thishour?"

"I know little of your conventions here in this new Atlantis. I amDeucalion, girl, and if you still have qualms, remembering that, do notcome. "

She looked up at me with a sneer. "I was foolish, " she said. "My lord'scoldness 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 wasout of sight and hearing. With Ylga to help me, my tasks were somewhatlightened, and their sequence changed. In the first instance, now, Ihad got to make my way with as little delay and show as possible into acertain sanctuary which lay within the temple of our Lady the Moon. Andhere my knowledge as one of the Seven stood me in high favour. 

All the temples of the city of Atlantis are in immediate and secretconnection with the royal pyramid, but the passages are little used, seeing that they are known only to the Seven and to the Three abovethem, supposing that there are three men living at one time sufficientlylearned in the highest of the highest mysteries to be installed in thatsublime degree of the Three. And, even by these, the secret ways mayonly be used on occasions of the greatest stress, so that a generationwell may pass without their being trodden by a human foot. 

It was with some trouble, and after no little experiment that I gropedmy way into this secret alley; but once there, the rest was easy. I hadnever trodden it before certainly, but the plan of it had been taughtme at my initiation as one of the Seven, and the course of the windingscame back to me now with easy accuracy. I walked quickly, not onlybecause the air in those deep crannies is always full of lurking evils, but also because the hours were fleeting, and much must be done beforeour Lord the Sun again rose to make another day. 

I came to the spy-place which commands the temple, and found the holyplace empty, and, alas! dust-covered, and showing little trace thatworshippers ever frequented it these latter years. A vast stone ofthe wall swung outwards and gave me entrance, and presently (after thesolemn prayer which is needful before attempting these matters), I tookthe metal stair from the place where it is kept, and climbed to thelap of the Goddess, and then, pulling the stair after me, climbed againupwards till my length lay against her calm mysterious face. 

A shivering seized me as I thought of what was intended, for even awarrior hardened to horrid sights and deeds may well have qualms whenhe 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 womanwho is as life to him in the other. But again I told myself thatthe hours flew, and laid hold of the jewel which is studded into theforehead of the image with one hand, and then stretching out, thrust ata corner of the eyebrow with the other. With a faint creak the massiveeyeball below, a stone that I could barely have covered with my back, swung inwards. I stepped off the stair, and climbed into the gap. Insidewas 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 aspectof it was familiar to me from my teaching, and I knew where to find thething which would fill my need. Yet, occupied though I might be with thestress of what was to befall, I could not help having a wonder and anadmiration for the cleverness with which it was hidden. 

High as I was in the learning and mysteries of the Priestly Clan, thestructure of what I had come to fetch was hidden from me. Beforetime Ihad known only of their power and effect; and now that I came to handlethem, I saw only some roughly rounded balls, like nut kernels, grassgreen in colour, and in hardness like the wax of bees. There were threeof 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, itmay have been something more; what exactly it was I did not know; onlyof its power and effect I was sure, as that was set forth plainly inthe 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 orderbehind 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 altarlit her from head to toe, and threw sparkles from the great jewel inher forehead. Vast she was, and calm and peaceful beyond all humanimaginings, a perfect symbolism of that rest and quietness which manysigh for so vainly on this rude earth, but which they will never attainunless by their piety they earn a place in the hereafter, where our Ladythe Moon and the rest of the High Ones reign in Their eternal gloriousmajesty. 

It was with tired dragging limbs that I made my way back again to theroyal pyramid, and at last came to my own private chamber. Ylga awaitedme there, though at first I did not see her. The suspicions of thesemodern days had taken a deep hold of the girl, and she must needs crouchin 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 caringnow for your good opinion. I had heard so much of Deucalion, and Ithought I read honesty in you when first you came ashore; but now I knowthat 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 notmarry her? People say she is pretty, and I know she can be warm. I haveseen her warm and languishing to scores of men. She is clever, too, withher eyes, is our great Empress; I grant her that. And as for you, ittickles 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 areletting conceit run away with you. "

"Listen, " I said. "I did not ask you here to make foolish speecheswhich seem largely beyond my comprehension. I asked you to help me do aservice 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 whethershe is thrown into a sleep from which she may waken on some later andmore happy day. "

"Nais!" she gasped. "My twin, Nais? She is not here. She is out inthe 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, andunder guard, though where I do not know. " And with that I told her allthat had passed since the girl was brought up a prisoner in the galleyof that foolish, fawning captain of the port. "The Empress has decreedthat Nais shall be buried alive under a throne of granite which I am tobuild for her to-morrow, and buried she will assuredly be. Yet I have akindness for Nais, which you may guess at if you choose, and I am mindedto send her into a sleep such as only we higher priests know of, fromwhich 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 mouthpieceto the High Council of the Priests, has ordered it, for the good ofAtlantis. 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 Ishall not dare to ask. Even to give Nais a further span of life I cannotrisk making inquiries for her cell, when there is a chance that thosewho tell me might carry news to the Empress, and so cause more troublefor this poor Atlantis. "

"And why should I not carry the news, and so bring myself into favouragain? I tell you that being fan-girl to Phorenice and second woman inthe kingdom is a thing that not many would cast lightly aside. "

I looked her between eyes and smiled. "I have no fear there. You willnot betray me, Ylga. Neither will you sell Nais. "

"I seem to remember very small love for this same Nais just now, " shesaid bitterly. "But you are right about that other matter. I shall notbuy myself back at your expense. Oh, I am a fool, I know, and you cangive me no thanks that I care about, but there is no other way I canact. "

"Then let us fritter no more time. Go you out now and find where Naisis gaoled, and bring me news how I can say ten words to her, and press acertain matter into her clasp. "

She bowed her head and left the chamber, and for long enough I wasalone. 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 hadthought to myself that a man who makes his life sufficiently busywill find no leisure for these pains which assault frailer folk; but aphilosophy like this, which carried one well in Yucatan, showed poorlyenough 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, thebleakness of the prospect would have daunted me, and I would have prayedthe 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 asshe led down a maze of passages and alleyways. "There has been no carespared over her guarding, " she whispered, as we halted once to move astone. "The officer of the guard is an old lover of mine, and I raisedhis hopes to the burning point again by a dozen words. But when I wantedto see his prisoner, there he was as firm as brass. I told him she wasmy sister, but that did not move him. I offered him--oh, Deucalion, itmakes me blush to think of the things I did offer to that man, but therewas no stirring him. He has watched the tormentors so many times, thatthere 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. Youtickle 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 itagainst my weariness. "

"I have carried out my lord's commands in part. I know the cell whereNais 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 geton and have this business done. "

"We are at the place now, " said she, with a hard little laugh, "and ifyou kneel on the floor, you will find an airshaft, and Nais will answeryou from the lower end. For myself, I will leave you. I have a delicacyin 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 thisnight. "

"You may keep your thanks, " she said bitterly, and walked away into theshadows. 

I knelt on the floor of the gallery, and found the air passage with myhand, and then, putting my lips to it, whispered for Nais. 

The answer came on the instant, muffled and quiet. "I knew my lord wouldcome for a farewell. "

"What the Empress said, has to be. You understand, my dear? It is forAtlantis. "

"Have I reproached my lord, by word or glance?"

"I myself am bidden to place you in the hollow between the stones, and Imust do it. "

"Then my last sleep will be a sweet one. I could not ask to be touchedby pleasanter hands. "

"But it mayhap that a day will come when she whom you know of will besuffered 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 shallbe grateful. He might, if he chose, write them on the stones: Here wasburied a maid who died gladly for the good of Atlantis, even though sheknew 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 verythought 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. "--Itook the green waxy ball in my fingers, and stretched them down thecrooked air-shaft to the full of my span. --"I have somewhat for youhere. Reach up and try to catch it from me. "

I heard the faint rustle of her arm as it swept against the masonry, andthen the ball was taken over into her grasp. Gods! what a thrill wentthrough 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 wasexquisite. 

"I have it, " she whispered. "And what now, dear?"

"You will hide the thing in your garment, and when to-morrow the upperstone closes down upon you and the light is gone, then you will take itbetween 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 thoughcenturies 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 Iwould not have you harmed by being brought to notice. "

"Yes, I must go, my sweetheart. It will not do to have our schemespoiled by a foolish loitering. May the most High Gods attend your rest, and if the sacrifice we make finds favour, may They grant us meetinghere 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, andthrust them down to me. "

I did that, and for an instant felt her fondle them down the crook ofthe airshaft out of sight, and then heard her withdraw her little handand kiss it fondly. Then again she kissed her own fingers and stretchedthem up, and I took up the virtue of that parting kiss on my finger-tipsand 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 forme. " 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 meas I lay there beside the air shaft. But my chest was like to have splitwith the dull, helpless anguish that was in it, as I made my way back tomy chamber through the mazy alleys of the pyramid. 

"Do not look upon mine eyes, dear, when the time comes, " had been herlast command, "or they will tell a tale which Phorenice, being a woman, would read. Remember, we make these small denials, not for our ownlikings, 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 quickeffect in the city of Atlantis. Her modern theory was that the countryand all therein existed only for the good of the Empress, and when shehad 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, andthough the words were that I was to build the throne of stone, it was anunderstood 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 handsfrom whatever was occupying them for the moment, and hastened to therendezvous. The architects chose a chief who gave directions, and thelesser architects and the engineers saw these carried into effect. Anymaterial within the walls of the city on which they set their seal, was taken at once without payment or compensation; and as the blocks ofstone they chose were the most monstrous that could be got, they wereforced to demolish no few buildings to give them passage. 

I have before spoken of the modern rage for erecting new palaces andpyramids, and even though at the moment an army of rebels was batteringwith war engines at the city walls, the building guilds were steadilyat work, and their skill (with Phorenice's marvellous invention to aidthem) was constantly on the increase. True, they could not move suchmassive blocks of stone as those which the early Gods planted for thesacred circle of our Lord the Sun, but they had got rams and trucks andcranes which could handle amazing bulks. 

The throne was to be erected in the open square before the royalpyramid. Seven tiers of stone were there for a groundwork, each aknee-height deep, and each cut in the front with three steps. In theuppermost layer was a cavity made to hold the body of Nais, and abovethis was poised the vast block which formed the seat of the throneitself. 

Throughout the night, to the light of torches, relay after relay of thestonecutters, and the masons, and the sweating labourers had toiled overbringing up the stone and dressing it into fit shape, and laying it indue position; and the engineers had built machines for lifting, and thearchitects 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 wasincapable another pressed forward into his place. No delay was brookedwhen Phorenice had said her wish. 

And finally, as the square began to fill with people come to gape at thepageant 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 fromaccidents or their exertions during the building, and there stood thethrone, splendid in its carvings, and all ready for completion. Thelower part stood more than two man-heights above the ground, and nostone of its courses weighed less than twenty men; the upper part wasdouble the weight of any of these, and was carved so that the royalsnake 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 bylifting rams, for what purposes all men knew. 

It was to face this scene, then, that I came out from the royal pyramidat the summons of the chamberlains in the cool of next morning. Eachgreat man who had come there before me had banner-bearers and trumpetersto proclaim his presence; the middle classes were in all their braveryof apparel; and even poor squalid creatures, with ribs of hunger showingthrough their dusty skins, had turbans and wisps of colour wrapped abouttheir heads to mark the gaiety of the day. 

The trumpets proclaimed my coming, and the people shouted welcome, andwith the gorgeous chamberlains walking backwards in advance, I wentacross to a scarlet awning that had been prepared, and took my seat uponthe cushions beneath it. 

And then came Phorenice, my bride that was to be that day, fresh fromsleep, and glorious in her splendid beauty. She was borne out from thepyramid in an open litter of gold and ivory by fantastic savages fromEurope, her own refinement of feature being thrown up into all thehigher relief by contrast with their brutish ugliness. One could hearthe people draw a deep breath of delight as their eyes first fell uponher; and it is easy to believe there was not a man in that crowd whichthronged the square who did not envy me her choice, nor was there asoul present (unless Ylga was there somewhere veiled) who could by anystretch 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 theexpression of my face. We were here on ceremonial to-day; a ghastlyenough affair throughout all its acts, if you choose, but stillceremonial; and I was minded to show Phorenice a grand manner that wouldleave her nothing to cavil at. After all that had been gone through andendured, I did not intend a great scheme to be shattered by letting myagony and pain show themselves, in either a shaking hand or a twitchingcheek. When it came to the point, I told myself, I would lay the livingbody of my love in the hollow beneath the stone as calmly, and with aslittle outward emotion, as though I had been a mere priest carrying outthe burial of some dead stranger. And she, on her part, would not, I knew, betray our secret. With her, too, it was truly "Before allAtlantis. "

I think it spared a pang to find that there was to be no mockery orflippancy in what went forward. All was solemn and impressive; and, though a certain grandeur and sombreness which bit deep into my breastwas lost to the vulgar crowd, I fancy that the outward shape of thedouble sacrifice they witnessed that day would not be forgotten by anyof them, although the inner meaning of it all was completely hidden fromtheir minds. When it suited her fancy, none could be more strict on theritual of a ceremony than this many-mooded Empress, and it appearedthat on this occasion she had given command that all things were to becarried 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 handedher to the ground. She seated herself on the cushions, and beckonedme to her side, entwining her fingers with mine as has always been thecustom with rulers of Atlantis and their consorts. And there before usas we sat, a body of soldiery marched up, and opening out showed Naisin their midst. She had a collar of metal round her neck, with chainsdepending from it firmly held by a brace of guards, so that she shouldnot run in upon the spears of the escort, and thus get a quick andeasy death, which is often the custom of those condemned to the morelingering 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 giventhe garments of the condemned to the soldiers guarding them. So as Naiswas not stripped, I could not but see that some one had given moneysto the guards as a recompense, and in this I thought I saw the hand ofYlga, 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 shewisely did and so avoided rough handling and force. Her face waspale, but showed neither fear nor defiance, and her eyes were calmand natural. She was remembering what was due to Atlantis, and I wasthrilled with love and pride as I watched her. 

But outwardly I, too, was impassive as a man of stone, and though I knewthat Phorenice's eye was on my face, there was never anything on it fromfirst to last that I would not have had her see. 

"Nais, " said the Empress, "you have eaten from my platter when you werefan-girl, and drunk from my cup, and what was yours I gave you. Youshould have had more than gratitude, you should have had knowledge alsothat the arm of the Empress was long and her hand consummately heavy. But it seems that you have neither of these things. And, moreover, youhave tried to take a certain matter that the Empress has set apart forherself. You were offered pardon, on terms, and you rejected it. Youwere 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 meyonder, I shall take my Lord Deucalion to husband. Give me a plain wordthat you are sorry, girl, and name a man whom you would choose, and Iwill remember the brightness of the occasion, you shall be pardoned andwed 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 willbe 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, asa symbol that so shall perish all Phorenice's enemies, and then he willrelease the rams and lower the upper stone into place, and the worldshall see your face no more. Look at the bright sky, Nais, fill yourchest with the sweet warm air, and then think of what this death willmean. Believe me, girl, I do not want to make you an example unless youforce me. "

"I will not wed, " said the prisoner quietly. 

The Empress loosed her fingers from my arm, and lay back against thecushions. "If the girl presumes on our old familiarity, or thinks that Ijest, show her now, Deucalion, that I do not. "

"The Empress is far from jesting, " I said. "I will do this thing becauseit is the wish of the Empress that it should be done, and because it isthe command of the Empress that a symbol of it shall remain for ever asan example for others. Lead your prisoner to the place. "

The soldiers wheeled, and the two guards with the chains of the collarwhich was on the neck of Nais prepared to put out force to drag herup the steps. But she walked with them willingly, and with a colourunchanged, and I rose from my seat, and made obeisance to the Empressand followed them. 

Before all those ten thousand eyes, we two made no display of emotionthen, not only for Atlantis' sake, but also because both Nais and I hada nicety and a pride in our natures. We were not as Phorenice to flauntendearments before others. 

Yet, when I had bidden the guards unhasp the collar which held theprisoner's neck, and clapped my arms around her, showing all theroughness of one who has no mind that his captive shall escape or evenunduly struggle, a thrill gushed through me so potent that I was liketo have fainted, and it was only by supreme strain of will that I heldunbrokenly on with the ceremonial. I, who had never embraced a womanwith aught but the arm of roughness before, now held pressed to me onewhom I loved with an infinite tenderness, and the revelation of how lovecan 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 doesthat is being borne away by a spoiler. 

I trod with her to the uppermost step, the vast throne-stone overhangingus, and then so that all of those who were gazing from the sides of thepyramids and the roofs of the buildings round might see, though we werebeyond Phorenice's view, I used a force that was brutal in dragging heracross the level, and putting her down into the hollow. And yet the girlresisted me with no one effort whatever. 

So that the victim might not struggle out and be crushed, and so gainan easy death when the stone descended, there were brazen clamps to fitinto grooves of the stones above the hollow where she lay, and these Ifitted in place above her, and fastened one by one, doing this butcher'swork 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 asI worked. I could not keep that in. 

I clamped and locked the last two bars in place, and took my brute'shand away from her throat. 

The hateful fingermarks showed as bloodless furrows in the whitenessof her skin. For the life of me, yes, even for the fate of Atlantis, Icould not help dropping my glance upon her face. But she was strongerthan I. She gave me no last look. She kept her eyes steadfastly fixed onthe cruel stone above, and so I left her, knowing that it was best notto tarry longer. 

I came out from under the stone, and gave the sign to the engineers whostood by the rams. The fires were taken away from their sides, andthe metal in them began to contract, and slowly the vast bulk of thethrone-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 pieceof work which others were carrying out under his direction, and on whichhis credit rested; and I stood gravely in my place till the rams hadlet the stone come down on its final resting place, and had been carriedaway by the engineers; and then I went round with the master architectwith his plumbline and level, whilst he tested this last piece of thebuilding and declared it perfect. 

It was a useless form, this last, seeing that by calculation they knewexactly how the stone must rest; but the guilds have their formsand customs, and on these occasions of high ceremonial, they arepunctiliously carried out, because these middle-class people wish alwaysto appear mysterious and impressive to the poor vulgar folk who aretheir inferiors. But perhaps I am hard there on them. A man who isneedlessly taken round to plumb and duly level the tomb where his lovelies buried living, may perhaps be excused by the assessors on high alittle 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 ofincompleteness; it seemed as though half my inwards had been left behindwith Nais in the hollow of the stone, and their place was taken by avoid which ached wearily; but still I carried a passive face, and memorythat before all these private matters stood the command of the HighCouncil, which sat before the Ark of the Mysteries. 

So I went and stood before Phorenice, and said the words which theancient forms prescribed concerning the carrying out of her wish. 

"Then, now, " she said, "I will give myself to you as wife. We are not asothers, you and I, Deucalion. There is a law and a form set down forthe marrying of these other people, but that would be useless for ourpurposes. We will have neither priest nor scribe to join us and set downthe union. I am the law here in Atlantis, and you soon will be part ofme. We will not be demeaned by profaner hands. We will make the ceremonyfor ourselves, and for witnesses, there are sufficient in waiting. Afterwards, the record shall be cut deep in the granite throne you havebuilt for me, and the lettering filled in with gold, so that it shallendure and remain bright for always. "

"The Empress can do no wrong, " I said formally, and took the hand sheoffered me, and helped her to rise. We walked out from the scarletawning into the glare of the sunshine, she leaning on me, flushing, andso radiantly lovely that the people began to hail her with rapturousshouts of "A Goddess; our Goddess Phorenice. " But for me they had nowelcoming word. I think the set grimness of my face both scared andrepelled 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 theprosperity 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 themouth. 

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, towife, to help with her the prosperity of Atlantis, and join with her inguarding the welfare of that great possession. May all the enemies ofthis country perish as they have perished in the past. "

And then, I too, who had not been permitted by the fate to touch thelips of my love, bestowed the first kiss I had ever given woman toPhorenice, 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 thefirst time the old form of words, "but in marriage they merge, so thatwife and husband are no more separate, but one conjointly. In token ofthis we will now make the symbolic joining together, so that all may seeand remember. " She took her dagger, and pricking the brawn on my forearmtill a head of blood appeared, set her red lips to it, and took it intoherself. 

"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 downthe neck of her robe. "Let me make you my return. "

I pricked the rounded whiteness of her shoulder. Gods! when I rememberedwho was beneath us as we sat on that throne, I could have driven theblade through to her heart! And then I, too, put down my lips, and tookthe drop of her blood that was yielded to me. 

My tongue was dry, my throat was parched, and my face suffused, and Ithought I should have choked. 

But the Empress, who was ordinarily so acute, was misled then. "Itthrills you?" she cried. "It burns within you like living fire? I havejust felt it. By my face! Deucalion, if I had known the pleasure itgives to be made a wife, I do not think I should have waited this longfor you. Ah, yes; but with another man I should have had no thrill. Imight have gone through the ceremony with another, but it would haveleft me cold. Well, they say this feeling comes to a woman but once inher time, and I would not change it for the glory of all my conquestsand the whirl of all my power. " She leaned in close to me so that thered curls of her hair swept my cheek, and her breath came hot against mymouth. "Tasted you ever any sweet so delicious as this knowledge that weare made one now, Deucalion, past all possible dissolving?"

I could not lie to her any more just then. The Gods know how honestly Ihad striven to play the part commanded me for Atlantis' good, but thereis a limit to human endurance, and mine was reached. I was not all angertowards her. I had some pity for this passion of hers, which had grownof itself certainly, but which I had done nothing to check; and theindecent frankness with which it was displayed was only part of thelivery of potentates who flaunt what meaner folk would coyly hide. Butalways before my eyes was a picture of the girl on whom her jealousy hadtaken such a bitter vengeance, and to invent spurious lover's talk thenwas a thing my tongue refused to do. 

"Words are poor things, " I said, "and I am a man unused to women, andhave 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 Ihave learned the lesson, somewhat of the suddenest, the language remainsstill 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 mymisery, and made an opportunity for bringing the ceremony to an end. Aman ran into the square shouting, and showing a wound that dripped, and presently all that vast crowd which stood on the pavements, and thesides 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!" "Theyhave killed the cave-tigers and taken a gate!" "They are putting thewhole place to the storm!" "They will presently leave no poor soul of ushere alive!"

There then was a termination of our marriage cooings. With rebels merelybiting at the walls, it was fine to put strong trust in the defences, and easy to affect contempt for the besiegers' powers, and to keepthe business of pageants and state craft and marryings turning on easywheels. But with rebel soldiers already inside the city (and hordes ofothers doubtless pressing on their heels), the affairs took a differentlight. It was no moment for further delay, and Phorenice was the firstto admit it. The glow that had been in her eyes changed to the glare ofthe 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 thisrabble back to their burrows, Phorenice. "

"But not alone, sir. I come too. It is my city still. Nay, sir, we aretoo newly wed to be parted yet. "

"Have your will, " I said, and together we went down the steps of thethrone 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, andthe slaves took us off hot foot. The wounded man who had first broughtthe news had fallen in a faint, and no more tidings was to be got fromhim, but the growing din of the fight gave us the general direction, andpresently we began to meet knots of people who dwelt near the place ofirruption, running away in wild panic, loaded down with their householdgoods. 

It was useless to stop these, as fight they could not, and if they hadstayed they would merely have been slaughtered like flies, and wouldin all likelihood have impeded our own soldiery. And so we let them runscreaming on their blind way, but forced the litters through them withbut very little regard for their coward convenience. 

Now the advantage of the rebels, when it came to be looked upon by asoldier's eye, was a thing of little enough importance. They had drivena tunnel from behind a covering mound, beneath the walls, and had openedit cleverly enough through the floor of a middle-class house. They hadcome through into this, collecting their numbers under its shelter, anddoubtless hoping that the marriage of the Empress (of which spies hadgiven them information) would sap the watchfulness of the city guards. But it seems they were discovered and attacked before they werethoroughly ready to emerge, and, as a fine body of troops were barrackednear the spot, their extermination would have been merely a matter oftime, 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 herweapons to the armour-bearer who came panting up to receive them. "Wegrow nervous with our married life, my Deucalion, " she said. "We arefearful 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 mecrave 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 fromhere. "

"You can gather five hundred as you go from here to the gate, taking twohundred of those that are here. If you want more, they must be fetchedfrom other barracks along the walls. But where is your plan?"

"Why, my poor strategy teaches me this: these foolish rebels have setall their hopes on this mine, and all their excitement on its presentsuccess. If they are kept occupied here by a Phorenice, who will givethem some dainty fighting without checking them unduly, they will presson to the attack and forget all else, and never so much as dream of asortie. And meanwhile, a Deucalion with his troop will march out of thecity well away from here, without tuck of drum or blare of trumpet, andfall most unpleasantly upon their rear. After which, a Phorenice willburn the house here at the mine's head, which is of wood, and strawthatched, to discourage further egress, and either go to the walls towatch the fight from there, or sally out also and spur on the rout asher fancy dictates. "

"Your scheme is so pretty, I would I could rob you of it for my owncredit's sake, and as it is, I must kiss you for your cleverness. Butyou got my word first, you naughty fellow, and you shall have the menand 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 fromthe 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 docredit to my drill, " and thereupon proceeded to tell off the companiesof men-at-arms who were to accompany me. She left herself few enough tostem the influx of rebels who poured ceaselessly in through thetunnel; but as I had seen, with Phorenice, heavy odds added only to herenjoyment. 

But for the Empress, I will own at the time to have given little enoughof thought. My own proper griefs were raw within me, and I thirsted forthat forgetfulness of all else which battle gives, so that for awhile Imight have a rest from their gnawings. 

It made my blood run freer to hear once more the tramp of practisedtroops behind me, and when all had been collected, we marched outthrough a gate of the city, and presently were charging through andthrough the straggling rear of the enemy. By the Gods! for the momenteven Nais was blotted from my wearied mind. Never had I loved more tolet my fierceness run madly riot. Never have I gloated more abundantlyover the terrible joy of battle. 

Nais must forgive my weakness in seeking to forget her even for abreathing-space. Had that opportunity been denied me, I believe theagony 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 trainedfighting men, I charged and recharged, and finally broke up that hordeof rebels which outnumbered us by fifteen times. It must be rememberedthat they grew suddenly panic-stricken in finding that of all thosewho went in under the city walls by the mine on which they had set suchgreat store, none came back, and that the sounds of panic which hadfirst broken out within the city soon gave way to cries of triumph andjoy. And it must be carried in memory also that these wretched rebelswere without training worthy of the name, were for the most partweaponed very vilely, and, seeing that their silly principles made eachthe equal of his neighbour, were practically without heads or leadersalso. 

So when the panic began, it spread like a malignant murrain through alltheir ragged ranks, and there were none to rally the flying, none todirect those of more desperate bravery who stayed and fought. 

My scheme of attack was simple. I hunted them without a halt. I and myfellows never stopped to play the defensive. We turned one flank, andcharged through a centre, and then we were harrying the other flank, and once more hacking our passage through the solid mass. And so byconstantly keeping them on the run, and in ignorance of whence wouldcome the next attack, panic began to grow amongst them and ferment, tillpresently those in the outer lines commenced to scurry away towardsthe forests and the spoiled corn-lands of the country, and those in theinner packs were only wishful of a chance to follow them. 

It was no feat of arms this breaking up of the rebel leaguer, and nopractised soldier would wish to claim it as such. It was simply takingadvantage of the chances of the moment, and as such it was successful. Given an open battle on their own ground, these desperate rebels wouldhave fought till none could stand, and by sheer ferocious numberswould have pulled down any trained troops that the city could have sentagainst them, whether they had advanced in phalanx or what formationyou 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 theoppression under which they had groaned, and the wrongs they had beenforced to endure. 

Still, as I say, the poor creatures were scattered, and the siege wasraised from that moment, and it was plain to see that the rebellionmight be made to end, if no unreasonable harshness was used for itsfinal suppression. Too great severity, though perhaps it may be justlytheir portion, only drives such malcontents to further desperations. 

Now, following up these fugitives, to make sure that there was no haltin their retreat, and to send the lesson of panic thoroughly home tothem, had led us a long distance from the city walls; and as we hadfought all through the burning heat of the day and my men were heavilywearied, I decided to halt where we were for the night amongstsome half-ruined houses which would make a temporary fortification. Fortunately, a drove of little cloven-hoofed horses which had beenscared by some of the rebels in their flight happened to blunder intoour lines, and as we killed five before they were clear again, there wasa soldier's supper for us, and quickly the fires were lit and cookingit. 

Sentries paced the outskirts and made their cries to one another, andthe wounded sat by the fires and dressed their hurts, and with theofficers I talked over the engagements of the day, and the methods ofeach charge, and the other details of the fighting. It is the specialperquisite of soldiers to dally over these matters with gusto, thoughthey are entirely without interest for laymen. 

The hour drew on for sleep, and snores went up from every side. It wasclear that all my officers were wearied out, and only continued thetalk through deference to their commander. Yet I had a feverish dreadof being left alone again with my thoughts, and pressed them on withconversation remorselessly. But in the end they were saved the rudenessof dropping off into unconsciousness during my talk. A sentry came upand saluted. "My lord, " he reported, "there is a woman come up from thecity 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 thoughtsremembering that the woman, whoever she might be, had news likely enoughfor my private ear (or otherwise she would not have come to so uncoutha rendezvous), I said to the sentry: "Stay, " and got up from the groundbeside 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 theserebels, with designs to put a knife into my lord's heart, and then wesentries would suffer. The Empress, " he added simply, "seems to setgood store upon my lord at present, and we know the cleverness of hertormentors. "

"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 lovedcould not mistake the form of Ylga, her twin sister, because of mereswathings. So I told the sentries to release her without asking her forspeech, and then led her out from the bivouac beyond earshot of theirlines. 

"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 ordinarybetween us two, Deucalion, if you could guess who walked beneath allthese mufflings. "

I let that pass. "But what's your errand, girl?"

"Aye, " she said bitterly, "there's my reward. All your concern's for themessage, none for the carrier. Well, good my lord, you are husband tothe 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 wrathis done, then come pains and penalties. "

"The Empress can do no wrong. I will have you speak respectful words ofthe Empress. "

"Oh, be done with that old fable! It sickens me. The woman was mad forlove of you, and now she's mad with jealousy. She knows that you gaveNais some of your priest's magic, and that she sleeps till you choose tocome and claim her, even though the day be a century from this. And ifyou wish to know the method of her enlightenment, it is simple. Thereis another airshaft next to the one down which you did your cooing andbilling, and that leads to another cell in which lay another prisoner. The wretch heard all that passed, and thought to buy enlargement bytelling it. 

"But his news came a trifle stale. It seems that with the pressure ofthe morning's ceremonies, they forgot to bring a ration, and when atlast his gaoler did remember him, it was rather late, seeing that bythen Phorenice had tied herself publicly to a husband, and poor Nais haddoubtless eaten her green drug. However, the fools must needs try andbarter his tale for what it would fetch; and, as was natural, had sucha silly head chopped off for his pains; and after that your Phorenicebehaved as you may guess. And now you may thank me, sir, for coming towarn you not to go back to Atlantis. "

"But I shall go back. And if the Empress chooses to cut my head alsofrom its proper column, that is as the High Gods will. "

"You are more sick of life than I thought. But I think, sir, ourPhorenice judges your case very accurately. It was permitted me to hearthe outbursting of this lady's rage. 'Shall I hew off his head?' saidshe. 'Pah! Shall I give him over to my tormentors, and stand by whilstthey do their worst? He would not wrinkle his brow at their fiercestefforts. No; he must have a heavier punishment than any of these, andone also which will endure. I shall lop off his right hand and his leftfoot, so that he may be a fighting man no longer, and then I shall drivehim 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 heshall remember that I have Nais near me, living and locked in her coffinof stone, to play with as I choose, and to give over to what insults maycome to my fancy. ' That is what she said, Deucalion. Now I ask you againwill you go back to meet her vengeance?"

"No, " I said, "it is no part of my plan to be mutilated and left tolive. "

"So, being a woman of some sense, I judged. And, moreover, having somesmall kindness still left for you, I have taken it upon myself to makea plan for your further movement which may fall in with your whim. Doesthe 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, butseeming to have a sturdy honesty of his own. Tob sails away this nightfor parts unknown, presumably to found a kingdom with Tob for king. Itseems he can find little enough to earn at his craft in Atlantis theselatter 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 bysaying 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 madea fine impression on Tob, Deucalion. He said--I repeat his heartydisrespect--you were just the recruit he wanted, but whether you joinedhim 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 greatersea beasts. "

"Well, go and do it again. Believe me, sir, it is your only chance. Itwould grieve me much to hear the searing-iron hiss on your stumps. Ibargained with Tob to get clear of the harbour forts before the chainwas up for the night, and as he is a very daring fellow, with no fear ofnavigating under the darkness, he himself said he would come to a pointof 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 doneon my poor behalf. "

"Oh, your thanks!" she said. "You may keep them. I did not come out herein the dark and the dangers for mere thanks, though I knew well enoughthere would be little else offered. "--She plucked at my sleeve. --"Nowshow me your walking pace, sir. They will begin to want your countenancein the camp directly, and we need hanker after no too narrow inquiriesfor what's along. "

So thereon we set off, Ylga and I, leaving the lights of the bivouacbehind us, and she showed the way, whilst I carried my weapons ready toward off attacks whether from beasts or from men. Few words were passedbetween us, except those which had concern with the dangers naturalto the way. Once only did we touch one another, and that was wherea tree-trunk bridged a rivulet of scalding water which flowed from aboil-spring towards the sea. 

"Are you sure of footing?" I asked, for the night was dark, and the heatof 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 helpedher over and then loosed my grip, and she sighed, and slowly slipped herhand away. Then on again we went in silence, side by side, hour afterhour, and league after league. 

But at last we topped a rise, and below us through the trees I could seethe gleam of the great estuary on which the city of Atlantis stands. Theground was soggy and wet beneath us, the trees were full of barbs andspines, the way was monstrous hard. Ylga's breath was beginning to comein 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 rudelyenough. "I am no poor weakling, " said she, "if that is your only reasonfor wanting to touch me. "

Presently, however, we came out through the trees, and the roughest partof our journey was done. We saw the ship riding to her anchors inshore a mile away, and a weird enough object she was under the faintstarlight. We made our way to her along the level beaches. 

Tob was keeping a keen watch. We were challenged the moment we camewithin 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 groundagainst the shingle, and then thrust out his two steering oars to helpus clamber aboard. 

I turned to Ylga with words of thanks and farewell. "I will never forgetwhat you have done for me this night; and should the High Gods see fitto 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 yourwealth, 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 notwant to go back. "

"Let me tell you it is no time for a gently nurtured lady like yourselfto go forward. I have been viceroy of Yucatan, Ylga, and know somewhatof making a foothold in these new countries. And that was nothingcompared with what this will be. I tell you it entails hardships, andprivations, and sufferings which you could not guess at. Few survivewho go to colonise in the beginning, and those only of the hardiest, andthey earn new scars and new batterings every day. "

"I do not care, and, besides, I can share the work. I can cook, I canshoot a good arrow, and I can make garments, yes, though they werecut from the skins of beasts and had to be sewn with backbone sinews. Because you despise fine clothes, and because you have seen me onlydecked out as fan-girl, you think I am useless. Bah, Deucalion! Neverlet people prate to me about your perfection. You know less about awoman than a boy new from school. "

"I have learned all I care to know about one woman, and because of thememory of her, I could not presume to ask her sister to come with menow. "

"Aye, " she said bitterly, "kick my pride. I knew well enough it was onlysecond place to Nais I could get all the time I was wanting to come. Yetno one but a boor would have reminded me of it. Gods! and to think thathalf 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 withme. But as it is, I suppose I shall carry only your hate. "

"That is the most humiliating thing of all; I cannot bring myself tohate 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 tiredof waiting, and will probably be off without you. " She flung her armssuddenly about my neck, and kissed me hotly on the mouth. "There, thatis 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 formy forwardness. "

She ran back from me into the edge of the trees. 

"But this is foolishness, " I said. "I must take you through the dangersthat lie between here and some gate of the city, and then come back tothe ship. "

"You need not fear for me. The unhappy are always safe. And, besides, Ihave a way. It is my solace to know that you will remember me now. Youwill never forget that kiss. "

"Fare you well, Ylga, " I cried. "May the High Gods keep you entirely intheir holy care. "

But no reply came back. She had gone off into the forest. And so Iturned down to the beach, and splashed into the water, and climbed onboard the ship up the steering oars. Tob gave the word to haul-to theanchor, and get her away from the beach. 

"Greeting, my lord, " said he, "but I'd have been pleased to see youearlier. 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 rangeof pursuit, the safer it will be for my woman and brats who are in thathutch of an after-castle. It's long enough since I sailed in such asmall old-fashioned ship as this. She's no machines, and she's not evena steering mannikin. Look at the meanness of her furniture and (in yourear) I've suspicions that there's rottenness in her bottom. But she'sthe best I'd the means to buy, and if she reaches the place at thefarther end I've got my eye on, we shall have to make a home there, orbe content to die, for she'll never have strength to carry us fartheror back. She's been a ship in the Egypt trade, and you know what that isfor 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 shipsomehow, 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 couldsee 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 aboutdone. All sailor men of any skill have taken a woman or two and goneout in companies to try their fortunes in other lands. Why, I'd troubleenough to get half a score to help me work this ship. All my balance arejust landsmen raw and simple, and if I land half of them alive at theother end, we shall be doing well. "

"Still with luck and a few good winds it should not take long to getacross to Europe. "

Tob slapped his leg. "No savage Europe for me, my lord. Now, see theadvantage of being a mariner. I found once some islands to the northof Europe, separated from the main by a strait, which I called the TinIslands, seeing that tin ore litters many of the beaches. I was driventhere by storm, and said no word of the find when I got back, and hereyou see it comes in useful. There's no one in all Atlantis but me knowsof those Tin Islands to-day, and we'll go and fight honestly for ourground, 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 Imeet my better, and I'm content to serve under Deucalion. My lord wouldhave done wiser to have brought a wife with him, though, and I thoughtit 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 nakedand stain themselves blue with woad, and are very filthy and brutish tolook upon. They are sturdy, and should make good slaves, but one wouldhave to get blunted in the taste before one could wish to be father totheir children. "

"I am still husband to Phorenice. "

Tob grinned. "The Gods give you joy of her. But it is part of amariner's creed--and you will grow to be a mariner here--that wedlockdoes 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, akingdom will not be so hard to carve out as it was in Egypt, or as youfound in Yucatan. There are beasts there, of course, and no one whocan hunt need ever go hungry. But the greater beasts are few. Thereare cave-bears and cave-tigers in small numbers, to be sure, and someriver-horses and great snakes. But the greater lizards seem to avoid theland; and as for birds, there is rarely seen one that can hurt a grownman. Oh, I tell you, it will be a most desirable kingdom. "

"Tob seems to have imagined himself king of the Tin Islands with muchreality. "

He sighed a little. "In truth I did, and there is no denying it, and Itell you plain, there is not another man living that I would have brokenthis voyage for but Deucalion. But don't think I regret it, and don'tthink I want to push myself above my place. This breeze and the ebb aretaking the old ship finely along her ways. See those fire baskets on theharbour forts? We're abreast of them now. We'll have dropped them andthe city out of sight by daylight, and the flood will not begin to runup till then. But I fear unless the wind hardens down with the dawnwe'll have to bring up to an anchor when the flood makes. Tides run veryhard in these narrow seas. Aye, and there are some shrewdish tide-ripsround my Tin Islands, as you shall see when we reach them. "

There were many fearful glances backwards when day came and showed thewaters, and the burning mountains that hemmed them in beyond the shores. All seemed to expect some navy of Phorenice to come surging up to takethem 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 theyswore they would fight the ship till she sank beneath them, before theywould obey another of the commands of Phorenice. However, their braveheroics were displayed to no small purpose. For the full flow of thetide we hung in our place, barely moving past the land, but yet notseeing either oar or sail; and then, when the tide turned, away we wentonce more with speed, mightily comforted. 

Tob's woman must needs bring drink on deck, and bid all pour libationsto 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 theliquor down their dusty throats. "We are done with that foolery, " saidhe. "My Lord Deucalion will be king of this new kingdom we shallbuild in the Tin Islands, and a right proper king he'll make, as youuntravelled ones would know, if you'd sailed the outer seas with him asI have done. " Beneath which I read a regret, but said nothing, havingmade my plans from the moment of stepping on board, as will appear on alater sheet. 

So on down the great estuary we made our way, and though it pleasuredthe 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 whitenedwith the glut of shipping. 

They had started off on their voyage with a bare two days' provisionin their equipment, and so, of necessity even after leaving the greatestuary, we were forced to voyage coastwise, putting into every likelyriver and sheltered beach to slay fish and meat for future victualling. "And when the winter comes, " said Tob, "as its gales will be heavierthan this old ship can stomach, I had determined to haul up and make apermanent camp ashore, and get a crop of grain grown and threshed beforesetting sail again. It is the usual custom in these voyages. And I shalldo it still, subject to my lord's better opinion. "

So here, having by this time completed a two months' leisurely journeyfrom the city, I saw my opportunity to speak what I had always carriedin my mind. "Tob, " I said, "I am a poor, weak, defenceless man, and I amquite at your mercy, but what if I do not voyage all the way to the TinIslands, and oust you of this kingship?"

He brightened perceptibly. "Aye, " he grunted, "you are very weak, mylord, and mighty defenceless. We know all about that. But what'selse? You must tell all your meaning plain. I'm a common mariner, andunderstand 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, Iwill commend you strongly to the Gods. I would I could give youmoney, or (better still) articles that would be useful to you in yourcolonising; but as it is, you see me destitute. "

"As to that, you owe me nothing, having done vastly more than your shareeach time we have put in shore for the hunting. But it will not do, thisplan of yours. I will shamedly confess that the sound of that kingshipin 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 musttell you that the part of Atlantis there"--he jerked his thumb towardsthe line of trees, and the mountains which lay beyond the fringeof surf--"is called the Dangerous Lands, and a man must needs be asalamander and be learned in magic (so I am told) before he can livethere. "

I laughed. "We of the Priests' Clan have some education, Tob, thoughit may not be on the same lines as your own. In fact, I may say I wastaught in the colleges concerning the boundaries and the contents ofour continent with a nicety that would surprise you. And once ashore, myfate will still be under the control of the most High Gods. "

He muttered something in his profane seaman's way about preferring tokeep his own fate under control of his own most strong right arm, butsaying that he would keep the matter in his thoughts, he excused himselfhurriedly 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 favourof letting me have my way (which I should have had otherwise if it hadnot been given peacefully), and on the third day after our talk heput the ship inshore again for re-victualling. We lurched into ariver-mouth, half swamped over a roaring bar, and ran up against thebank and made fast there to trees, but booming ourselves a safe distanceoff with oars and poles, so that no beast could leap on board out of thethicket. 

Fish-spearing and meat-hunting were set about with promptitude, andon the second day we were happy enough to slay a yearling river-horse, which gave provisions in all sufficiency. A space was cleared on thebank, fires were lit, and the meat hung over the smoke in strips, andwhen as much was cured as the ship would carry, the shipmen made a finalgorge on what remained, filled up a great stack of hollow reeds withdrinking water, and were ready to continue the voyage. 

With sturdy generosity did Tob again attempt to make me sail on withthem as their future king, and as steadfastly did I make refusal; andat 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 womenstood 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 bigin the Tin Islands for everlasting. "

"Forget me, " I said, "I am nothing. I am merely an incident that hascome in your way. But if you want to carry some memory with you thatshall endure, preserve the cult of the most High Gods as it was taughtto you when you were children here in Atlantis. And afterwards, whenyour colony grows in power, and has come to sufficient magnificence, youmay send to the old country for a priest. "

"We want no priest, except one we shall make ourselves, and that willbe me. And as for the old Gods--well, I have laid my ideas before thefellows here, and they agree to this: We are done with those old Godsfor always. They seem worn out, if one may judge from Their present lackof usefulness in Atlantis, and, anyway, there will be no room for Themon the Tin Islands. --Let go those warps there aft, and shove her headout. --We are under weigh now, my lord, and beyond recall, and so I amfree 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 shalldoubtless make an image of him, as accurate as our art permits, andbuild him a temple for shelter, and bring there our offerings andprayers. 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 kingalso. "

"Let me plead with you, " I said. "This must not be. "

The ship was drifting rapidly away with the current, and they werehoisting sail. Tob had to shout to make himself heard. "Aye, but itshall be. For I, too, am a strong man after my kind, and I have orderedit 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 willsink you. "

"We will risk it, " he bawled back, "and consider the odds against us aresmall. Regard! Here is thy last horn of wine in the ship, and my womanhas treasured it against this moment. Regard, all men, togetherwith Those above and Those below! I pour this wine as a libation toDeucalion, great lord that is to-day, Hero that shall be to-morrow, Godthat will be in time to come!" And then all those on the ship joinedin the acclaim till they were beyond the reach of my voice, and werebattling their way out to sea through the roaring breakers of the bar. 

Solitary I stood at the brink of the forest, looking after them andmusing sadly. Tob, despite his lowly station, was a man I cared for morethan many. Like all seamen, I knew that he paid his devotions to oneof the obscurer Gods, but till then I had supposed him devout in hisworship. His new avowal came to me as a desolating shock. If a man likeTob could forsake all the older Gods to set up on high some poor mortalwho had momentarily caught his fancy, what could be expected fromthe mere thoughtless mob, when swayed by such a brilliant tongue asPhorenice's? It seemed I was to begin my exile with a new drearinessadded to all the other adverse prospects of Atlantis. 

But then behind me I heard the rustle of some great beast that hadscented me, and was coming to attack through the thicket, and so I hadother matters to think upon. I had to let Tob and his ship go out overthe rim of the horizon unwatched. 

15. ZAEMON'S SUMMONS

Since the days when man was first created upon the earth by Gods wholooked down and did their work from another place, there have alwaysbeen areas of the land ill-adapted for his maintenance, but none more sothan that part of Atlantis which lies over against the savage continentsof Europe and Africa. The common people avoid it, because of asuperstition which says that the spirits of the evil dead stalk aboutthere in broad daylight, and slay all those that the more open dangersof the place might otherwise spare. And so it has happened often thatthe criminals who might have fled there from justice, have returnedof their own free will, and voluntarily given themselves up to thetormentors, rather than face its fabulous terrors. 

To the educated, many of these legends are known to be mythical; butwithal there are enough disquietudes remaining to make life very arduousand stocked with peril. Everywhere the mountains keep their contentson the boil; earth tremors are every day's experience; gushes of unseenevil vapours steal upon one with such cunningness and speed, that it isoften hard to flee in time before one is choked and killed; poisons wellup into the rivers, yet leave their colour unchanged; great cracks splitacross the ground reaching down to the fires beneath, and the watersgush into these, and are shot forth again with devastating explosion;and always may be expected great outpourings of boiling mud or moltenrock. 

Yet with all this, there are great sombre forests in these lands, withtrees 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 andwetness. For a man to live in that constant hot damp is very mortifyingto the strength. But strength is wanted, and cunning also beyond theordinary, for these dangerous lands are the abode of the lizards, whichof all beasts grow to the most enormous size and are the most fearsometo deal with. 

There are countless families and species of these lizards, and with someof them a man can contend with prospect of success. But there are otherswhose hugeness no human force can battle against. One I saw, as it cameup out of a lake after gaining its day's food, that made the wet landshake and pulse as it trod. It could have taken Phorenice's mammoth intoits 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 itsback and tail and limbs were spines that tore great slivers from theblack trees as it passed amongst them. 

* TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: Professor Reeder of the Wyoming State Universityhas recently unearthed the skeleton of a Brontosaurus, 130 ft. Inlength, which would have weighed 50 tons when alive. It was 35 ft. Inheight at the hips, and 25 ft. At the shoulder, and 40 people could beseated with comfort within its ribs. Its thigh bone was 8 ft. Long. Thefossils of a whole series of these colossal lizards have been found. 

Now and again these monsters would get caught in some vast fissuringof the ground, but not often. Their speed of foot was great, and theirsagacity keen. They seemed to know when the worst boilings of themountains might be expected, and then they found safety in the deeperlakes, or buried themselves in wallows of the mud. Moreover, they weremore kindly constituted than man to withstand one great danger of theseregions, in that the heat of the water did them no harm. Indeed, theywill lie peacefully in pools where sudden steam-bursts are making thewater leap into boiling fountains, and I have seen one run quicklyacross a flow of molten rock which threatened to cut it off, and not beso much as singed in the transit. 

In the midst of such neighbours, then, was my new life thrown, andexistence became perilous and hard to me from the outset. I came near toknowing what Fear was, and indeed only a fervent trust in the most HighGods, and a firm belief that my life was always under Their fosteringcare, 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 seeme. My clothes rotted from my back with the constant wetness, till Iwent 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 daystogether I could find no better food than tree-grubs and leaves; andoften when I did kill beasts, knowing little of their qualities, I atethose that gave me pain and sickness. 

But as man is born to make himself adaptable to his surroundings, soas the months dragged on did I learn the limitation of this new life ofmine, and gather some knowledge of its resources. As example: I founda great black tree, with a hollow core, and a hole into its middle nearthe roots. Here I harboured, till one night some monstrous lizard, whosesheer weight made the tree rock like a sapling, endeavoured to suck meforth as a bird picks a worm from a hollow log. I escaped by the willof the Gods--I could as much have done harm to a mountain as injure thathorny tongue with my weapons--but I gave myself warning that this chancemust not happen again. 

So I cut myself a ladder of footholes on the inside of the trunk till Ihad reached a point ten man-heights from the ground, and there cut othernotches, 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 mychamber, and even carried up sand for a hearth, so that I might cook myvictual up there instead of lighting a fire in all the dangers of theopen below. 

By degrees, too, I began to find how the large-scaled fish of the riversand the lesser turtles might be more readily captured, and so my ribsthreatened less to start through their proper covering of skin as thedays 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 thatnever could I force my palate to accept it. And of course, too, thereremained the peril of the greater lizards and the other dangers nativeto the place. 

But as the months began to mount into years, and the brute part of mynature became more satisfied, there came other longings which it wasless easy to provide for. From the ivory of a river horse's tooth I hadendeavoured 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 wasof the dullest, and the result--though I tried time and time again--wasalways clumsy and pitiful. Still, in my eyes it carried some suggestionof the original--a curve here, an outline there, and it made my old loveglow anew within me as I sat and ate it with my eyes. Yet it did littleto satisfy my longings for the woman I had lost; rather it whetted mycravings to be with her again, or at least to have some knowledge of herfate. 

Other men of the Priests' Clan have come out and made an abode in theseDangerous Lands, and by mortifying the flesh, have gained an intimacywith the Higher Mysteries which has carried them far past what merehuman learning and repetition could teach. Indeed, here and there one, who from some cause and another has returned to the abodes of men, hascarried with him a knowledge that has brought him the reputation amongstthe vulgar for the workings of magic and miracles, which--since all artsmust be allowed which aid so holy a cause--have added very materially tothe 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 forfollowing these abstruse studies. During that voyage home from Yucatan Ihad communed with them with growing insight; but now my mind was not myown. 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 ofthe arrow-slit windows of my tree-house I could see far away a greatmountain top whitened with perpetual snow, which our Lord the Sun dyedwith blood every night of His setting. Night after night I used to watchthat ruddy light with wide straining eyes. Night after night I used toremember that in days agone when I was entering upon the priesthood, ithad been my duty to adore our great Lord as He rose for His day behindthe snows of that very mountain. And always the thought followed onthese musings, that from that distant crest I could see across thecontinent to the Sacred Mount, which had the city below it where I hadburied 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 layblind before me, and I was constantly losing it. Indeed, to say thatI traversed three times the direct distance is setting a low estimate. Throughout all those swamps the great lizards hunted, and as the countrywas new to me I did not know places of harbour, and a hundred times waswithin an ace of being spied and devoured at a mouthful. But the HighGods still desired me for Their own purposes, and blinded the greatbeasts' eyes when I slunk to cover as they passed. Twice rivers ofscalding water roared boiling across my path, and I had to delay till Icould collect enough black timber from the forests to build rafts thatwould 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 wingedfeet. I had been separated from my love till I could bear the strainno longer; let me but see from a distance the place where she lay, andfeast my eyes upon it for a while, and then I could go back to my abodein 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 oftrees, on to that higher ground which glares down on the rest of theworld, and I made buskins and a coat of woven grasses to protect my bodyfrom the cold, which began to blow upon me keenly. And later on, wherethe snow lay eternally, and was blown into gullies, and frozen intosolid banks and bergs of ice, I had hard work to make any progressamongst its perilous mazes, and was moreover so numbed by the chill, that my natural strength was vastly weakened. Overhead, too, followingme up with forbidding swoops, and occasionally coming so close that Ihad to threaten it with my weapons, was one of those huge man-eatingbirds which live by pulling down and carrying off any creature thattheir instincts tell them is weakly, and likely soon to die. 

But the lure ahead of me was strong enough to make these difficultiesseem small, and though the air of the mountain agreed with me ill, causing sickness and panting, I pressed on with what speed I couldmuster towards the elusive summit. Time after time I thought the nextspurt 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 Godsfor Their protection and favour. 

Far, far away I could see the Sacred Mountain with its ring of firesburning pale under the day, and although the splendid city which nestledat its foot could not be seen from where I stood, I knew its positionand I knew its plan, and my soul went out to that throne of granite inthe square before the royal pyramid, where once, years before, I hadburied 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 oldacquaintances. Gods! how my love burned within me for this woman. Mywhole being seemed gone out to meet her, and to leave room for nothingbeside. For long enough a voice seemed dimly to be calling me, butI gave it no regard. I had come out to that hoary mountain top forcommunion 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 thathere, for the first time since parting with Tob and his company, Ishould see another human fellow-being. I gripped my weapon and asked whocalled. The reply came clearly from up the slopes of mountain, and I sawa man coming towards me over the snows. He was old and feeble. His bodywas bent, and his hair and beard were white as the ground on which hetrod, and presently I recognised him as Zaemon. He was coming towardsme with incredible speed for a man of his years and feebleness, but hecarried in his hand the glowing Symbol of our Lord the Sun, and holystrength from this would add largely to his powers. 

He came close to me and made the sign of the Seven, which I returnedto him, with its completion, with due form and ceremony. And then hesaluted me in the manner prescribed as messenger appointed by the HighCouncil of the Priests seated before the Ark of the Mysteries, and Imade 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 returnimmediately to the Sacred Mountain, so that if human means may stillprevail, you, as the most skilful general Atlantis owns within herborders, may still save the country from final wreck and punishment. Thewoman Phorenice persists in her infamies. The poor land groans underher heel. And now she has laid siege to our Sacred Mountain itself, andswears that not one soul shall be left alive in all Atlantis who doesnot bend humbly to her will. "

"It is a command and I obey it. But let me ask of another matter that isintimate to both of us. What of Nais?"

"Nais rests where you left her, untouched. Phorenice knows by herarts--she has stolen nearly all the ancient knowledge now--that stillyou live, and she keeps Nais unharmed beneath the granite throne in thehopes that some time she may use her as a weapon against you. Little sheknows the sternness of our Priests' creed, my brother. Why, even I, thatam the girl's father, would sacrifice her blithely, if her death or ruinmight 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 andweakened by events. You must buy my full obedience, Zaemon, if you wantit. Promise me Nais--and your arts I know can snatch her--and I will betrue servant to the High Council of the Priest, and will die in thelast ditch if need be for the carrying out of order. But let me see Naisgiven over to the fury of that wanton woman, and I shall have no inwardsleft, except to take my vengeance, and to see Atlantis piled up in ruinsas her funeral-stone. "

Zaemon looked at me bitterly. "And you are the man the High Councilthought to trust as they would trust one of themselves? Truly we are inan age of weak men and faithless now. But, my lord--nay, I must call youbrother still: we cannot be too nice in our choosing to-day--you are thebest there is, and we must have you. We little thought you would ask aprice for your generalship, having once taken oath on the walls of theArk of the Mysteries itself that always, come what might, you would be aservant of the High Council of the Clan without fee and without hope ofadvancement. But this is the age of broken vows, and you are going nomore than trim with the fashion. Indeed, brother, perhaps I should thankyou for being no more greedy in your demands. "

"You may spare me your taunts. You, by self-denial and profound searchinto the highest of the higher Mysteries, have made yourself somethingwiser than human; I have preserved my humanity, and with it its powersand frailties; and it seems that each of us has his proper uses, oryou would not be come now here to me. Rather you would have done thegeneralling yourself. "

"You make a warm defence, my brother. But I have no leisure now to standbefore you with argument. Come to the Sacred Mountain, fight me thiswanton, upstart Empress, and by my beard you shall have your Nais as youleft her as a reward. "

"It is a command of the High Council which shall be obeyed. I will comewith my brother now, as soon as he is rested. "

"Nay, " said the old man, "I have no tiredness, and as for coming withme, 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 Ifollowed; but gradually he distanced me; and so he kept on, with speedalways increasing, till presently he passed out of my sight round thespur 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, grewshallower, and less noticeable, so that I had to stoop to see them. Andpresently they vanished entirely, and the great mountain's flank laybefore 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 poorart to compass this thing myself, having occupied my mind in exile morewith memories of Nais than in study of those uppermost recesses of theHigher Mysteries in which Zaemon was so prodigiously wise, still I hadsome inkling of his powers. 

Zaemon I knew would be back again in his dwelling on the SacredMountain, shaken and breathless, even before I had found an end to histracks in the snow, and it behoved me to join him there in the quickestpossible time. I had his promise now for my reward, and I knew that hewould carry it into effect. Beforetime I had made an error. I had valuedAtlantis most, and Nais, my private love, as only second. But now it wasin my mind to be honest with others even as with myself. Though allthe world were hanging on my choice, I could but love my Nais most, andserve her first and foremost of all. 

16. SIEGE OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN

Now, my passage across the great continent of Atlantis, if tedious andhaunted by many dangers, need not be recounted in detail here. Only onehalt did I make of any duration, and that was unavoidable. I had killeda 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 whichcould do me harm within reach, and thinking that the place was safe, set about cutting my meat, and making a sufficiency into a bundle forcarriage. 

But underfoot amongst the grasses there was a great legged worm, amonstrous green thing, very venomous in its bite; and presently as Imoved I brushed it with my heel, and like the dart of light it swoopedwith its tiny head and struck me with its fangs in the lower thigh. Withmy knife I cut through its neck and it fell to writhing and strugglingand twining its hundred legs into all manner of contortions; and then, cleaning my blade in the ground, I stabbed with it deep all round thewound, so that the blood might flow freely and wash the venom from itslodgement. And then with the blood trickling healthily down from myheel, I shouldered the meat and strode off, thankful for being so wellquit of what might have made itself a very ugly adventure. 

As I walked, however, my leg began to be filled with a tightness andthrobbing which increased every hour, and presently it began to swellalso, till the skin was stretched like drawn parchment. I was taken, too, with a sickness, that racked me violently, and if one of thegreater and more dangerous beasts had come upon me then, he would haveeaten me without a fight. With the fall of darkness I managed to haulmyself up into a tree, and there abode in the crutch of a limb, inwakefulness and pain throughout the night. 

With the dawn, when the night beasts had gone to their lairs, Iclambered down again, and leaning heavily on my spear, limped onwardsthrough the sombre forests along my way. The moss which grows on thenorthern side of each tree was my guide, but gradually I began to notethat I was seeing moss all round the trees, and, in fact, was growinglight-headed with the pain and the swelling of the limb. But still Ipressed onwards with my journey, my last instinct being to obey thecommand of the High Council, and so procure the enlargement of Nais ashad been promised. 

My last memory was of being met by someone in the black forest who aidedme, and there my waking senses took wings into forgetfulness. 

But after an interval, wit returned, and I found myself on a bed ofleaves in a cleft between two rocks, which was furnished with some poorskill, and fortified with stakes and buildings against the entrance ofthe larger marauding beasts. My wound was dressed with a poultice ofherbs, 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 andcuring the diseases of those that come to me, telling fortunes, andmaking predictions. In return I receive what each can afford, and ifthey do not pay according to their means, I clap on a curse to make themwither. It's a lean enough living when wars and the pestilence have leftso few poor folk to live in the land. "

"Do you visit Atlantis?"

"Not I. Phorenice would have me boiled in brine, living, if she couldlay 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 Itell fortunes to the vulgar? You see, my lord, I detected your qualityby your speech, and knowing you are not one of those that come to me forspells, 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 thesethree years. "

"Tatho! Who followed him as viceroy of Yucatan?"

"There is no Yucatan. A vast nation of little hairy men, so the talegoes, coming from the West overran the country. They had clubs ofwood tipped with stone as their only arm, but numbers made their chiefweapon. They had no desire for plunder, or the taking of slaves, orthe conquering of cities. To eat the flesh of Atlanteans was their onlylust, and they followed it prodigiously. Their numbers were like thebees in a swarm. 

"They came to each of the cities of Yucatan in turn, and thoughthe colonists slew them in thousands, the weight of numbers alwaysprevailed. They ate clean each city they took, and left it to the beastsof the forest, and went on to the next. And so in time they reached thecoast towns, and Tatho and the few that survived took ship, andsailed home. They even ate Tatho's wife for him. They must be curiouspersevering things, these little hairy men. The Gods send they do notget across the seas to Atlantis, or they would be worse plague to thepoor country than Phorenice. "

Now I had heard of these little hairy creatures before, and thoughindeed I had never seen them, I had gathered that they were a littleless than human and a little more than bestial; a link so to speakbetween the two orders; and specially held in check by the Gods incertain forest solitudes. Also I had learned that on occasion, whenpunishment was needful, they could be set loose as a devastating armyupon men, devouring all before them. But I said nothing of this to thenymph, she being but a vulgar woman, and indeed half silly, as is alwaysthe case with these self-styled sorceresses who gull the ignorant, common folk. But within myself I was bitterly grieved at the fate ofthat fine colony of Yucatan, in which I had expended such an infinity ofpains to do my share of the building. 

But it did not suit my purpose to have my name and quality blazonedabroad till the time was full, and so I said nothing to the nymph aboutYucatan, but let the talk continue upon other matters. "What aboutEgypt?" I asked. 

"In its accustomed darkness, so they say. Who cares for Egypt theselatter years? Who cares for anyone or anything for that matter exceptfor himself and his own proper estate? Time was when the country folkand the hunters hereabouts brought me offerings to this cave for sheerpiety's sake. But now they never come near unless they see a way ofgetting good value in return for their gifts. And, by result, insteadof living fat and hearty, I make lean meals off honey and grubs. It'sa poor life, a nymph's, in these latter years I tell you, my lord. It'sthe 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 theydo say that it has grown from the folk Phorenice has slain, and whosebodies remain unburied. She is always slaying, and so the bodies liethicker 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 andher twins were boiled alive in brine before they came between an honestnymph of the forest and her living. 

"They say she has put an image of herself in all the temples of thecity now, and has ordered prayers and sacrifices to be made nightand morning. She has decreed all other Gods inferior to herselfand forbidden their worship, and those of the people that are notsufficiently devout for her taste, have their hamstrings slit by theirtormentors to aid them constantly into a devotional attitude. --Will youeat of my grubs and honey? There is nothing else. Your back was bloodywith carrying meat when I met you, but you had lost your load. You musteither taste this mess of mine now, or go without. "

I harboured with that nymph in cave six days, she using her drugs andcharms to cure my leg the while, and when I was recovered, I hunted theplains and killed her a fat cloven-hoofed horse as payment, and thenwent along my ways. 

The country from there onwards had at one time carried a sturdypopulation which held its own firmly, and, as its numbers grew, took inmore ground, and built more homesteads farther afield. The houses wereperched in trees for the most part, as there they were out of reachof cave-bear and cave-tiger and the other more dangerous beasts. Butothers, and these were the better ones, were built on the ground, oflogs so ponderous and so firmly clamped and dovetailed that the beastscould not pull them down, and once inside a house of this fashionits owners were safe, and could progue at any attackers through theinterstices between the logs, and often wound, sometimes make a kill. 

But not one in ten of these outlying settlers remained. The houses weresilent when I reached them, the fire-hearth before the door weed-grown, and the patch of vegetables taken back by the greedy fingers of theforest into mere scrub and jungle. And farther on, when villages beganto appear, strongly-walled as the custom is, to ward off the attacks ofbeasts, the logs which aforetime had barred the gateway lay strewn ina sprouting undergrowth, and naught but the kitchen middens remained toprove that once they had sheltered human tenants. Phorenice's influenceseemed to have spread as though it were some horrid blight over thewhole 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 comeacross. Many had fled with their women into the depths of the forest atthe 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 insultfirst; and a few, a very few, offered me shelter and provision. But asI neared the city, and began to come upon muddy beaten paths, I passedthrough governments that were more thickly populated, and here appearedstrong chance of delay. The watcher in the tower which is set above eachvillage would spy me and cry: "Here is a masterless man, " and then thepeople that were within would rush out with intent to spoil me of myweapons, and afterwards to appoint me as a labourer. 

I had no desire to slay these wretched folk, being filled with pity atthe state to which they had fallen; and often words served me to makethem 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, Istrove to strike as lightly as could be, my object being to get forwardwith my journey and leave no unnecessary dead behind me. Indeed, havingfound the modern way of these villages, it grew to be my custom to turnoff into the forest, and make a circuit whenever I came within smell oftheir garbage. 

Similarly, too, when I got farther on, and came amongst greater townsalso, I kept beyond challenge of their walls, having no mind to riskdelay from the whim of any new law which might chance to be set up bytheir governors. My progress might be slinking, but my pride did notupbraid me very loudly; indeed, the fever of haste burned within me sohot and I had little enough carrying space for other emotions. 

But at last I found myself within a half-day's journey the city ofAtlantis itself, with the Sacred Mountain and its ring of fires loominghigh beside it, and the call for caution became trebly accentuated. Everywhere evidences showed that the country had been drained of itsfighting men. Everywhere women prayed that the battles might endwith the rout of the Priests or the killing of Phorenice, so that thewretched land might have peace and time to lick its wounds. 

An army was investing the sacred Mountain, and its one approach was mostnarrowly guarded. Even after having journeyed so far, it seemed as if Ishould have to sit hopelessly down without being able to carry out theorders which had been laid upon me by the High Council, and earn thereward which had been promised. Force would be useless here. I shouldhave one good fight--a gorgeous fight--one man against an army, and myusefulness would be ended.... No; this was the occasion for guile, andI found covert in the outskirts of a wood, and lay there cudgelling mybrain for a plan. 

Across the plain before me lay the grim great walls of the city, withthe heads of its temples, and its palaces, and its pyramids showingbeyond. The step-sides of the royal pyramid held my eye. Phorenice hadexpended some of her new-found store of gold in overlaying their formerwhiteness with sheets of shining yellow metal. But it was not thatchange that moved me. I was remembering that, in the square before thepyramid, there stood a throne of granite carved with the snake and theoutstretched hand, and in the hollow beneath the throne was Nais, mylove, asleep these eight years now because of the drug that had beengiven to her, but alive still, and waiting for me, if only I on mypart could make a way to the place where Zaemon defied the Empress, andannounce my coming. 

In that covert of the woods I lay a day and a night raging with myselffor not discovering some plan to get within the defences of the SacredMountain, but in the morning which followed, there came a man towards merunning. 

"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 youmyself in those rags and skins, and behind that tangle of hair andbeard. You will give me your good word I know. Believe me, I have notloitered unduly. "

He was a lower priest whom I knew, and held in little esteem; his namewas Ro, a greedy fellow and not overworthy of trust. "From whom do youcome?" I asked. 

"Zaemon laid a command on me. He came to my house, though how he gotthere I cannot tell, seeing that Phorenice's army blocks all possiblepassage to and from the Mountain. I told him I wished to be mixed withnone of his schemings. I am a peaceful man, Deucalion, and have taken awife who requires nourishment. I still serve in the same temple, thoughwe have swept out the old Gods by order of the Empress, and put herimage in their place. The people are tidily pious nowadays, those thatare left of them, and the living is consequently easy. Yes, I tell youthere are far more offerings now than there were in the old days. Andso I had no wish to be mixed with matters which might well make me bedeprived 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 knowhis powers?"

"I have seen some of them. "

"Well, the Gods alone know which are the true Gods, and which are theothers. I serve the one that gives me employment. But those that Zaemonserves give him power, and that's beyond denying. You see that righthand of mine? It is dead and paralysed from the wrist, and that isa gift of Zaemon. He bestowed it, he said, to make me collect myattention. Then he said more hard things concerning what he was pleasedto term my apostasy, not letting me put up a word in my own defence ofhow the change was forced upon me. And finally, said he, I mighteither do his bidding on a certain matter to the letter, or take thatpunishment which my falling away from the old Gods had earned. 'Ishall not kill you, ' said he, 'but I will cover all your limbs with aparalysis, such as you have tasted already, and when at length deathreaches you in some gutter, you will welcome it. '"

"If Zaemon said those words, he meant them. So you accepted thealternative?"

"Had I, with a wife depending on me, any other choice? I asked hispleasure. It was to find you when you came in here from some distantpart 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 mustwatch and search always for him. But when he comes, you will be guidedto his place. ' Well, Deucalion, I think I was guided, but how, I donot know. But now I have found you, and if there's such a thing asgratitude, I ask you to put in your word with Zaemon that this deadnessbe taken away from my hand. It's an awful thing for a man to be forcedto go through life like this, for no real fault of his own. And Zaemoncould 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. Ihave had no message yet. "

"Why, the message is so simple that I do not see why he could not havegot some one else to carry it. You are to make a great blaze. You mayfire the grasses of the plain in front of this wood if you choose. Andon the night which follows, you are to go round to that flank of theSacred Mountain away from the city where the rocks run down sheer, andthere 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 thatyour hand may be restored to you. "

"You shall have my prayers if it is. And look, Deucalion, it is a smallmatter, and it would be less likely to slip your memory if you saw to itat once on your landing. Later, you may be disturbed. Phorenice is boundto pull you down off your perch up there now she has made her mind toit. 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 veryrapidly. She has got all the ancient learning of our Priests, and morebesides. She has discovered the Secret of Life these recent months--"

"She has found that?" I cried, fairly startled. "How? Tell me how? Onlythe Three know that. It is beyond our knowledge even who are members ofthe Seven. "

"I know nothing of her means. But she has the secret, and now she is asgood an immortal (so she says) as any of them. Well, Deucalion, it isdangerous 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 muchto me. "--His eye wandered over my ragged person--"And if you think myservice 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 atgreat expense just now buying nourishment for my wife. Well, if you havenothing, 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. ButI wasted no more precious time then. The grass blazed up for a signalalmost before his timorous heels were clear of it, and that night whenthe darkness gave me cover, I took the risk of what beasts might beprowling, and went to the place appointed. There was no rope dangling, but presently one came down the smooth cliff face like some slendersnake. I made a loop, slipped it over a leg, and pulled hard as asignal. Those above began to haul, and so I went back to the SacredMountain after an absence of so many toilsome and warring years. Therewere none to disturb the ascent. Phorenice's troops had no thought toguard 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 priestshad not been appointed for the duty. But I put no question. With us ofthe Priests' Clan on the Sacred Mountain, it is always taken as grantedthat when an order is given, it is given for the best. Besides, thesepriests did not offer themselves to question. They took me off at onceto Zaemon, and that is what I could have wished. 

The old man greeted me with the royal sign. "All hail to Deucalion, " hecried, "King of Atlantis, duly called thereto by the High Council of thepriests. "

"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. Thesentence has gone out that she is to die, and it shall be carried intoeffect, even though we have to set loose the most dreadful powers thatare stored in the Ark of the Mysteries, and wreck this continent in oureffort. We have borne with her infamies all these years by command sentdown by the most High Gods; but now she has gone beyond endurance, andThey 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 bestknow the cost. "

"There can be no counting the cost now, my brother, and my king. It isan 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 thisdecision of the Gods. The woman has usurped the throne; yet she wasforgiven and bidden rule on wisely. She has tampered with our holyreligion; yet she was forgiven. She has killed the peoples of Atlantisin greedy useless wars, and destroyed the country's trade; yet she wasforgiven. She has desecrated the old temples, and latterly has set upin them images of herself to be worshipped as a deity; yet she wasforgiven. But at last her evil cleverness has discovered to her thetremendous Secret of Life and Death, and there she overstepped theboundary of the High Gods' forbearance. 

"I myself went to carry a final warning, and once more faced her inthe great banqueting-hall. Solemnly I recited to her the edict, and shechose to take it as a challenge. She would live on eternally herself andshe would share her knowledge with those that pleased her. Tatho thatwas her husband should also be immortal. Indeed, if she thought fit, shewould 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 wasPhorenice, and was the highest law of all. And finally she defied methere in that banqueting-hall and defied also the High Gods that stoodbehind 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 upontheir trial. '

"She began to collect an army from that moment, and we on our part madeour preparations. It was discovered by our arts that you still lived, and King of Atlantis you were made by solemn election. How you weresummoned, you know as nearly as it is lawful that one of your degreeshould know; how you came, you understand best yourself; but here youare, my brother, and being King now, you must order all things as yousee best for the preservation of your high estate, and we others liveonly 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 wholemind to this ruling. "

"She shall be brought here. "

"So! Then I will be a General now, and see to the defences of thisplace, 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 theSacred Mountain. A ring of fires, fed eternally from the earth-breathwhich wells up from below, burns round one-half of the crest, lightingit always as bright as day, and in fact forming no small part of itsfortification. Indeed, it is said that, in the early dawn of history, men first came to the Mountain as a stronghold because of the naturaldefence which the fires offered. 

There is no bridging these flames or smothering them. On either sideof their line for a hundred paces the ground glows with heat, and a manwould be turned to ash who tried to cross it. Round full one-half themountain slopes the fires make a rampart unbreakable, and on the otherside the rock runs in one sheer precipice from the crest to the plainwhich spreads beyond its foot. But it is on this farther side that thereis the only entrance way which gives passage to the crest of the SacredMountain from below. Running diagonally up the steep face of the cliffis a gigantic fissure, which succeeding ages (as man has grown moreluxurious) have made more easy to climb. 

Looking at the additions, in the ancient days, I can well imagine thatnone but the most daring could have made the ascent. But one generationhas thrown a bridge over a bad gap here, and another has cut into theliving stone and widened a ledge there, till in these latter years thereis a path with cut steps and carved balustrade such as the feeblest ormost giddy might traverse with little effort or exertion. But alwayswhen these improvers made smooth the obstacles, they were careful toweaken in no possible way the natural defences but rather to add tothem. 

Eight gates of stone there were cutting the pathway, each commandinga straight, steep piece of the ascent, and overhanging each gate was agallery secure from arrow-shot, yet so contrived that great stones couldbe hurled through holes in the floor of it, in such a manner that theymust irretrievably smash to a pulp any men advancing against it frombelow. And in caves dug out from the rock on either hand was a greathoard of these stones, so that no enemy through sheer expenditure oftroops could hope to storm a gate by exhausting its ammunition. 

But though there were eight of these granite gates in the series, we hadthe whole number to depend on no longer. The lowest gate was held bya garrison of Phorenice's troops, who had built a wall above them toprotect their occupation. The gate had been gained by no brilliant featof arms--it had been won by threats, bribery, and promises; or, in otherwords, it had been given up by the blackest treachery. 

And here lay the keynote of the weakness in our defence. The mostperfect ramparts that brain can invent are useless without men to linethem, and it was men we lacked. Of students entering into the collegesof the Sacred Mountain, there had been none now for many a year. Theyounger generation thought little of the older Gods. Of the men that hadgrown up amongst the sacred groves, and filled offices there, many hadbecome lukewarm in their faith and remained on only through habit, andbecause an easy living stayed near them there; and these, when the siegebegan, quickly made their way over to the other side. 

Phorenice was no fool to fight against unnecessary strength. Her heraldsmade proclamation that peace and a good subsistence would be given tothose who chose to come out to her willingly; and as an alternative shewould kill by torture and mutilation those she caught in the place whenshe took it by storm, as she most assuredly would do before she hadfinished with it. And so great was the prestige of her name, that quiteone-half of these that remained on the mountain took themselves awayfrom the defence. 

There was no attempt to hold back these sorry priests, nor was there anypunishing them as they went. Zaemon, indeed, was minded (so he told mewith grim meaning himself) to give them some memento of their apostasyto carry away which would not wear out, but the others of the HighCouncil made him stay his vengeful hand. And so when I came to the placethe garrison numbered no more than eighty, counting even feeble olddotards who could barely walk; and of men not past their prime I couldbarely command a score. 

Still, seeing the narrowness of the passages which led to each of thegates, up which in no place could more than two men advance together, wewere by no means in desperate straits for the defence as yet; and if mynew-given kingdom was so far small, consisting as it did in effect ofthe Sacred Mountain and no other part of Atlantis, at any rate thereseemed little danger of its being further contracted. 

Another of the wise precautions of the men of old stood us in good steadthen. In the ancient times, when grain first was grown as food, it cameto be looked upon as the acme of wealth. Tribute was always paid fromthe people to their Priests, and presently, so the old histories say, it was appointed that this should take the form of grain, as this wasa medium both dignified and fitting. And those of the people who hadit not, were forced to barter their other produce for grain before theycould pay this tribute. 

On the Sacred Mountain itself vast storehouses were dug in the rock, andhere the grain was teemed in great yellow heaps, and each generation ofthose 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 moreforward of the Priests to scoff at this ancient provision, and to holdthat a treasure of gold, or weapons, or jewels would have more value andno less of dignity; and more than once it has been a close thinglest these innovators should not be out-voted. But as it was, the oldconstitution had happily been preserved, and now in these years of trialthe Clan reaped the benefit. And so with these granaries, and a seriesof great tanks and cisterns which held the rainfall, there was no chanceof Phorenice reducing our stronghold by mere close investment, eventhough 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. Thegroves, once so trim, were now shaggy and unpruned. Wind had whirledthe leaves in upon the temple floors, and they lay there unswept. Thecollege of youths held no more now than a musty smell to bear witnessthat men had once been grown there. The homely palaces of the higherPriests, 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 weredirect promptings from the nether Gods. "There must be somethingwanting, " these tempters whispered, "in a religion from which so many ofits Priests fled at the first pinch of persecution. "

I did what I could to thrust these waverings resolutely behind me; butthey refused to be altogether ousted from my brain; and so I made acompromise with myself: First, I would with the help that might be givenme, destroy this wanton Phorenice, and regain the kingdom which had beengiven me to my own proper rule; and afterwards I would call a councilof the Seven and council of the Three, and consider without prejudiceif there was any matter in which our ancient ritual could be amendedto suit the more modern requirements. But this should not be done tillPhorenice was dead and I was firmly planted in her room. I would not bea 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 coldaltars, 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 andvow. At that moment from His distant resting-place in the East, our Lordthe Sun leaped up to begin another day. For long enough from where Istood 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 itthe Ark of the Mysteries loomed in black outline from the highest cragwhere it rested, lonely and terrible. 

For anyone unauthorised to go nearer than a thousand paces to thisstorehouse of the Highest Mysteries meant instant death. On that daywhen I was initiated as one of the Seven, I had been permitted to gonear and once press my lips against its ample curves; and the rank ofmy degree gave me the privilege to repeat that salute again once on eachday 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 wasfrom the other Priests and the common people in the city below. Onlythose who had been raised to the sublime elevation of the Three had aknowledge of the dreadful powers which were stored within it. 

I went down on my knees where I was, and Zaemon knelt beside me, andtogether we recited the prayers which had been said by the Priests fromthe beginning of time, giving thanks to our great Lord that He hascome to brighten another day. And then, with my eyes fixed on the blackoutline of the Ark of Mysteries I vowed that, come what might, I atleast would be true servant of the High Gods to my life's end, and thatmy 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 SacredMountain, we could see down into the city, which lay spread out belowus like a map. The harbour and the great estuary gleamed at itsfarther side; and the fringe of hills beyond smoked and fumed in theiraccustomed fashion; the great stone circle of our Lord the Sun stoodup grim and bare in the middle of the city; and nearer in reared up thegreat mass of the royal pyramid, the gold on its sides catching new goldfrom the Sun. There, too, in the square before the pyramid stood thethrone 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 whereyour chief interest is. Deucalion when he landed here new from Yucatanwas a strong man. The King whom we have chosen--and who is the best wehave to choose--has his weakness. "

"It can be turned into additional strength. Give me Nais here, livingand warm to fight for, and I am a stronger man by far than the coldviceroy and soldier that you speak about. "

"I have passed my word to that already, and you shall have her, but atthe cost of damaging somewhat this new kingdom of yours. Maybe too atthe same time we may rid you of this Phorenice and her brood. But I donot think it likely. She is too wily, and once we begin our play, she islikely to guess whence it comes, and how it will end, and so will makean escape before harm can reach her. The High Gods, who have sentall these trials for our refinement, have seen fit to give her someknowledge 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 wouldbid you sleep. It will be your part to go into the city to-night, andtake your woman (that is my daughter) when she is set free, and bringher here as best you can. And for that you will need all a strong man'sstrength. "--He stepped back, and looked me up and down. --"There are notmany 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 inthe 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 nakedenough, 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 yourthews, 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 rareplaymates. "Well, get you to bed, my King, and leave me to go into theArk of Mysteries and prepare there with another of the Three the thingsthat must be done. It is no light business to handle the tremendouspowers which we must put into movement this night. And there is dangerfor us as there is for you. So if by chance we do not meet again till westand up yonder behind the stars, giving account to the Gods, fare youwell, 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 whopermit their sleep to be broken on these occasions. And when the darkwas 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 airwas full of a great blackness. So I was out of sight all the while theylowered 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 soldierssquatted uneasily round their camp-fires, as though they had forebodingsof the coming evil. I had no mind to further stir their wakefulness. SoI crept swiftly along in the darkest of the shadows, and at last came tothe spot where that passage ends which before I had used to get beneaththe walls of the city. 

The lamp was in place, and I made my way along the windings swiftly. Theair, so it seemed to me, was even more noxious with vapours than it hadbeen when I was down there before, and I judged that Zaemon had alreadybegun to stir those internal activities which were shortly to convulsethe city. But again I had difficulty in finding an exit, and this, notbecause there were people moving about at the places where I had to comeout, but because the set of the masonry was entirely changed. In oldentimes the Priests' Clan oversaw all the architects' plans, and ruled outanything likely to clash with their secret passages and chambers. Butin this modern day the Priests were of small account, and had no say inthis matter, and the architects often through sheer blundering sealed upand made useless many of these outlets and hiding-places. 

As it was then, I had to get out of the network of tunnels and gallerieswhere I could, and not where I would, and in the event found myself atthe farther side of the city, almost up to where the outer wall joinsdown to the harbour. I came out without being seen, careful even in thismoment of extremity to preserve the ordinances, and closed all traces ofexit behind me. The earth seemed to spring beneath my feet like the deckof a ship in smooth water; and though there was no actual movement asyet to disturb the people, and indeed these slept on in their houses andshelters without alarm, I could feel myself that the solid deadnessof the ground was gone, and that any moment it might break out intodevastating waves of movement. 

Gods! Should I be too late to see the untombing of my love? Would she belaid there bare to the public gaze when presently the people swarmed outinto the open spaces through fear at what the great earth tremor mightcause to fall? I could see, in fancy, their rude, cruel hands thrustupon her as she lay there helpless, and my inwards dried up at thethought. 

I ran madly down and down the narrow winding streets with the onethought of coming to the square which lay in front of the royal pyramidbefore these things came to pass. With exquisite cruelty I had beenforced with my own hands to place her alive in her burying-place beneaththe granite throne, and if thews and speed could do it, I would not missmy reward of taking her forth again with the same strong hands. 

Few disturbed that furious hurry. At first here and there some wretchwho 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 thenmust have out-distanced anyone. Presently, too, as the swing of theearth underfoot became more keen, and the stonework of the buildings bythe street side began to grate and groan and grit, and sent forth littleshowers of dust, people began to run with scared cries from out of theirdoors. But none of these had a mind to stop the ragged, shaggy, savageman 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 narrowstreets, and it was full of darkness, and noise, and dust, and sickness. Beneath us the ground rippled in undulations like a sea, which withterrifying slowness grew more and more intense. 

Ever and again a house crashed down unseen in the gloom, and added tothe tumult. But the great pyramid had been planned by its old buildersto stand rude shocks. Its stones were dovetailed into one another with amarvellous cleverness, and were further clamped and joined by ponderoustongues of metal. It was a boast that one-half the foundations could bedug from beneath it, and still the pyramid would stand four-square underheaven, more enduring than the hills. 

Flickering torches showed that its great stone doors lay open, and everand again I saw some frightened inmate scurry out and then be lost tosight in the gloom. But with the royal pyramid and its ultimate fateI had little concern; I did not even care then whether Phorenice wastrapped, or whether she came out sound and fit for further mischief. I crouched by the granite throne which stood in the middle of thatsplendid square, and heard its stones grate together like the ends of abroken bone as it rocked to the earth-waves. 

In that night of dust and darkness it was hard to see the outline ofone's own hand, but I think that the Gods in some requital for the lovewhich had ached so long within me, gave me special power of sight. AsI watched, I saw the great carved rock which formed the capstone of thethrone move slightly and then move again, and then again; a tiny jerkfor 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 panicof love and haste, I had overlooked. So I went up the steps of thethrone on the side from which the great capstone was moving, and clungthere afire with expectation. 

More and more violent did the earth-swing grow, though the graduationsof its increase could not be perceived, and the din of falling housesand the shrieks and cries of hurt and frightened people went louderup into the night. Thicker grew the dust that filled the air, till onecoughed and strangled in the breathing, and more black did the nightbecome as the dust rose and blotted the rare stars from sight. I clungto an angle of the granite throne, crouching on the uppermost step butone below the capstone, and could scarcely keep my place against theviolence of the earth tremors. 

But still the huge capstone that was carved with the snake and theoutstretched hand held my love fast locked in her living tomb, and Icould have bit the cold granite at the impotence which barred me fromher. The people who kept thronging into the square were mad withterror, but their very numbers made my case more desperate every moment. "Phorenice, Goddess, aid us now!" some cried, and when the prayerdid not bring them instant relief, they fell to yammering out the oldconfessions of the faith which they had learned in childhood, turningin this hour of their dreadful need to those old Gods, which, throughso many dishonourable years, they had spurned and deserted. It was acurious criticism on the balance of their real religion, if one hadcared to make it. 

Louder grew the crash of falling masonry; and from the royal pyramiditself, though indeed I could not even see its outline through thedarkness, there came sounds of grinding stones and cracking bars ofmetal which told that even its superb majestic strength had a breakingstrain. There came to my mind the threat that old Zaemon had thunderedforth in that painted, perfumed banqueting-hall: "You shall see, " he hadcried to the Empress, "this royal pyramid which you have pollutedwith your debaucheries torn tier from tier, and stone from stone, andscattered as feathers spread before a wind!"

Still heavier grew the surging of the earth, and the pavement of thegreat square gaped and upheaved, and the people who thronged it screamedstill more shrilly as their feet were crushed by the grinding blocks. And now too the great pyramid itself was commencing to split, andgape, and topple. The roofs of its splendid chambers gave way, and theponderous masonry above shuttered down and filled them. In part, too, one could see the destruction now, and not guess at it merely from thefearful hearings of the darkness. Thunders had begun to roar throughthe black night above, and add their bellowings to this devil'sorchestration of uproar, and vivid lightning splashes lit the flyingdust-clouds. 

It was perhaps natural that she should be there, but it came as ashock when a flare of the lightning showed me Phorenice safe out in thesquare, and indeed standing not far from myself. 

She had taken her place in the middle of a great flagstone, and stoodthere swaying her supple body to the shocks. Her face was calm, and itsloveliness was untouched by the years. From time to time she brushedaway the dust as it settled on the short red hair which curled about herneck. There was no trace of fear written upon her face. There was someweariness, some contempt, and I think a tinge of amusement. Yes, it tookmore than the crumbling of her royal pyramid to impress Phorenice withthe infinite powers of those she warred against. 

Gods! How the sight of her cool indifference maddened me then. I hadit in me to have strangled her with my hands if she had come withinmy reach. But as it was, she stood in her place, swaying easily to theearth-waves as a sailor sways on a ship's deck, and beside her, crouchedon the same great flagstone, and overcome with nausea was Ylga, whoagain was raised to be her fan-girl. It came to my mind that Ylga wastwin sister to Nais, and that I owed her for an ancient kindness, but Ihad leisure to do nothing for her then, and indeed it was little enoughI could have done. With each shock the great capstone of the throne towhich I clung jarred farther and farther from its bed place, and my lovewas 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 thoughtthat the granite stone was too solid to be overturned, and saw in itan oasis of safety. They flocked towards it, many of them draggingthemselves up the steep deep high steps on hands and knees because theirfeet had been injured by the billowing flagstones of the square. 

But I was in no mood to have the place profaned by their sillytremblings and stares: I beat at them with my hands, tearing them away, and hurling them back down the steepness of the steps. They asked mewhat was my title to the place above their own, and I answered them withblows and gnashing teeth. I was careless as to what they thought me orwho they thought me. Only I wished them gone. And so they went, wailingand crying that I was a devil of the night, for they had no spirit leftto defend themselves. 

Farther and farther the great stone that made the top of the throne slidout from its bed, but its slowness of movement maddened me. A life'seducation left me in that moment, and I had no trace of stately patienceleft. In my puny fury I thrust at the great block with my shoulder andhead, and clawed at it with my hands till the muscles rose on mein great ropes and knots, and the High Gods must have laughed at myhelplessness as They looked. All was being ordered by the Three who wereTheir trusted servants, in Their good time. The work of the Gods may bedone 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 hadnerve 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 thenext shock threw it with a roar and a clatter to the ground. And then astrange tremor seized me. 

After all the scheming and effort, what I had so ardently prayed for hadcome about; but yet my inwards sank at the thought of mounting on thestone where I had mounted before, and taking my dear from the hollowwhere my hands had laid her. I knew Phorenice's vengefulness, and had ahigh value for her cleverness. Had she left Nais to lie in peace, or hadshe stolen her away to suffer indignities elsewhere? Or had she endedher sleep with death, and (as a grisly jest) left the corpse for myfinding? I could not tell; I dared not guess. Never during a wholehard-fighting life have my emotions been so wrenched as they were atthat moment. And, for excuse, it must be owned that love for Naishad sapped my hardihood over a matter in which she was so privatelyconcerned. 

It began to come to my mind, however, that the infernal uproar of theearth tremor was beginning to slacken somewhat, as though Zaemon knewhe had done the work that he had promised, and was minded to give thewretched city a breathing space. So I took my fortitude in hand, andclambered up on to the flat of the stone. The lightning flashes hadceased and all was darkness again and stifling dust, but at any momentthe sky might be lit once more, and if I were seen in that place, shaggyand 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 theidea of a fight was loathsome to me then. I wanted to have my businessdone and get gone from the place. 

With hands that shook, I fumbled over the face of the stone and foundthe clamps and bars of metal still in position where I had clenchedthem, and then reverently I let my fingers pass between these, and feltthe curves of my love's body in its rest beneath. An exultation beganto whirl within me. I did not know if she had been touched since I lastleft her; I did not know if the drug would have its due effect, and lether be awakened to warmth and sight again; but, dead or alive, I had herthere, and she was mine, mine, mine, and I could have yelled aloud in myjoy at her possession. 

Still the earth shook beneath us, and masonry roared and crashed intoruin. I had to cling to my place with one hand, whilst I unhasped theclamps of metal that made the top of her prison with the other. But atlast I swung the upper half of them clear, and those which pinned downher feet I let remain. I stooped and drew her soft body up on to theflat of the stone beside me, and pressed my lips a hundred times to theface I could not see. 

Some mad thought took me, I believe, that the mere fierceness and heatof my kisses would bring her back again to life and wakefulness. IndeedI will own plainly, that I did but sorry credit to my training incalmness that night. But she lay in my arms cold and nerveless as acorpse, and by degrees my sober wits returned to me. 

This was no place for either of us. Let the earth's tremors cease (aswas plainly threatened), let daylight come, and let a few of thesenerveless people round recover from their panic, and all the great costthat 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 thenit would be an easy matter to guess at Deucalion under the beard and theshaggy 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 whoblundered amongst the dust-clouds that night when the thought came tome. 

With all that ruin spread around, it would be hopeless to think that anyof those secret galleries which tunnelled under the ground would be leftunbroken, and so it was useless to try a passage under the walls by theold means. But I had heard shouts from that frightened mob which came tome 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 fallon us. Let us get outside the walls where there are no buildings to buryus. "

If they went, I could not see. But one gate lay nearest to the royalpyramid, and I judged that in their panic they would not go farther thanwas needful. So I put the body of Nais over my shoulder (to leave myright arm free) and blundered off as best I could through the stiflingdarkness. 

It was hard to find a direction; it was hard to walk in the inkydarkness 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 afooting. But if I did fall myself a score of times, my dear burden gotno bruise, and presently I got to the skirts of the square, and founda street I knew. The most venomous part of the shaking was done, and nomore buildings fell, but enough lay sprawled over the roadway to makewalking into a climb, and the sweat rolled from me as I laboured alongmy way. 

There was no difficulty about passing the gate. There was no gate. Therewas no wall. The Gods had driven their plough through it, and it layflat, and proud Atlantis stood as defenceless as the open country. Though I knew the cause of this ruin, though, in fact, I had myself insome measure incited it, I was almost sad at the ruthlessness with whichit had been carried out. The royal pyramid might go, houses and palacesmight be levelled, and for these I cared little enough; but when I sawthose 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 myonly mistress. 

But this was only a passing regret, a mere touch of the fighting-man'spride. I had a different love now, that had wrapped herself round me fardeeper and more tightly, and my duty was towards her first and foremost. The night would soon be past, and then dangers would increase. None hadinterfered with us so far, though many had jostled us as I clamberedover the ruins; but this forbearance could not be reckoned upon forlong. The earth tremors had almost died away, and after the panic andthe storm, then comes the time for the spoiling. 

All men who were poor would try to seize what lay nearest to theirhands, and those of higher station, and any soldiers who could becollected and still remained true to command, would ruthlessly stop andstrip any man they saw making off with plunder. I had no mind to clashwith these guardians of law and property, and so I fled on swiftlythrough the night with my burden, using the unfrequented ways; andcrying 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 theprecipice, and after Nais had been drawn up to the safety of the SacredMountain, 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 laidher on a bed in one of the houses, and there in the lit room for thefirst time I saw her clearly. Her beauty was drawn and pale. Her eyeswere closed, but so thin and transparent had grown the lids that onecould almost see the brown of the pupil beneath them. Her hair had grownto inordinate thickness and length, and lay as a cushion behind andbeside her head. 

There was no flicker of breath; there was none of that pulsing ofthe body which denotes life; but still she had not the appearance ofordinary death. The Nais I had placed nine long years before to rest inthe hollow of the stone, was a fine grown woman, full bosomed, and wellboned. The Nais that remained for me was half her weight. The old Naisit would have puzzled me to carry for an hour: this was no burden toimpede a grown man. 

In other ways too she had altered. The nails of her fingers had grown tosuch a great length that they were twisted in spirals, and the fingersthemselves and her hands were so waxy and transparent that the bony coreupon which they were built showed itself beneath the flesh in plain dulloutline. Her clay-cold lips were so white, that one sighed to rememberthe full beauty of their carmine. Her shoulders and neck had lost theircomely curves, and made bony hollows now in which the dust of entombmentlodged black and thickly. 

Reverently I set about preparing those things which if all went wellshould restore her. I heated water and filled a bath, and tincturedit heavily with those essences of the life of beasts which the Priestsextract and store against times of urgent need and sickness. I laid herchin-deep in this bath, and sat beside it to watch, maintaining thatbath at a constant blood heat. 

An hour I watched; two hours I watched; three hours--and yet she showedno flicker of life. The heat of her body given her by the bath, was thesame as the heat of my own. But in the feel of her skin when I strokedit with my hand, there was something lacking still. Only when our Lordthe Sun rose for His day did I break off my watching, whilst I said thenecessary prayer which is prescribed, and quickly returned again to thegloom of the house. 

I was torn with anxiety, and as the time went on and still no sign oflife came back, the hope that had once been so high within me began tosicken and leave me downcast and despondent. From without, came thedin of fighting. Already Phorenice had sent her troops to storm thepassageway, and the Priests who defended it were shattering them withvolleys of rocks. But these sounds of war woke no pulse within me. IfNais did not wake, then the world for me was ended, and I had no spiritleft to care who remained uppermost. The Gods in Their due time willdoubtless smite me for this impiety. But I make a confession of it hereon these sheets, having no mind to conceal any portion of this historyfor the small reason that it does me a personal discredit. 

But as the hours went on, and still no flicker of life came to lessenthe dumb agony that racked me, I grew more venturesome, and added moreessences to the bath, and drugs also such as experience had shown mightwake the disused tissues into life. I watched on with staring eyes, rubbing her wasted body now and again, and always keeping the heat ofthe bath at a constant. From the first I had barred the door againstall who would have come near to help me. With my own hands I had laidmy 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, noothers came, and the snarl and din of fighting told of what occupiedthem. 

It is hard to take note of small changes which occur with infiniteslowness when one is all the while on the tense watch, and high strungthough my senses were, I think there must have been some indication ofreturning life shown before I was keen enough to notice it. For of asudden, as I gazed, I saw a faint rippling on the surface of the waterof the bath. Gods! Would it come back again to my love at last--thislife, this wakefulness? The ripple died out as it had come, and Istooped my head nearer to the bath to try if I could see some faintheaving of her bosom some small twitching of the limbs. No, she laythere still without even a flutter of movement. But as I watched, surelyit seemed to my aching eyes that some tinge was beginning to warm thatblank whiteness of skin?

How I filled myself with that sight. The colour was returning to heragain beyond a doubt. Once more the dried blood was becoming fluid andbeginning again to course in its old channels. Her hair floated out inthe liquid of the bath like some brown tangle of the ocean weed, andever and again it twitched and eddied to some impulse which in itselfwas too small for the eye to see. 

She had slept for nine long years, and I knew that the wakening couldbe none of the suddenest. Indeed, it came by its own gradations andwith infinite slowness, and I did not dare do more to hasten it. Furtherdrugs might very well stop eternally what those which had been usedalready had begun. So I sat motionless where I was, and watched thecolour come back, and the waxenness go, and even the fullness of hercurves in some small measure return. And when growing strength gaveher power to endure them, and she was racked with those pains which areinevitable to being born back again in this fashion to life, I too feltthe reflex of her agony, and writhed in loving sympathy. 

Still further, too, was I wrung by a torment of doubt as to whether lifeor these rackings would in the end be conqueror. After each paroxysmthe colour ebbed back from her again, and for a while she would liemotionless. But strength and power seemed gradually to grow, and at lastthese prevailed, and drove death and sleep beneath them. Her eyelidsstruggled with their fastenings. Her lips parted, and her bosom heaved. With shivering gasps her breath began to pant between her reddeninglips. At first it rattled dryly in her throat, but soon it softened andbecame more regular. And then with a last effort her eyes, her gloriousloving 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 thegreatest joy I have met in all the world. 

"Deucalion, my love, " she whispered. "Oh, my dear, so you have come forme. How I have dreamed of you! How I have been racked! But it was worthit all for this. "

18. STORM OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN

It was Nais herself who sent me to attend to my sterner duties. The dinof the attack came to us in the house where I was tending her, and sheasked its meaning. As pithily as might be, for she was in no conditionfor 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 inall the world to be King, " she whispered. 

"I refused to touch the trade till they had given me the Queen Idesired, safe and alive, here upon the Mountain. "

"How we poor women are made the chattels of you men! But, for myself, Iseem to like the traffic well enough. You should not have let me standin the way of Atlantis' good, Deucalion. Still, it is very sweet to knowyou 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 theclearest just now. "

"You have made the beginning. Your strength will return to you by quickdegrees. 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 poorlooks, are they all gone? You seem to have no mirror here. I had visionsthat I should wake up wrinkled and old. "

"You are as you were, dear, that first night I saw you--the mostbeautiful woman in all the world. "

"I am pleased you like me, " she said, and took the cup of broth Ioffered her. "My hair seems to have grown; but it needs combing sadly. Ihad a fancy, dear, once, that you liked ruddy hair best, and not a plainbrown. " She closed her eyes then, lying back amongst the cushions whereI had placed her, and dropped off into healthy sleep, with the smilesstill playing upon her lips. I put the coverlet over her, and kissed herlightly, holding back my beard lest it should sweep her cheek. And thenI went out of the chamber. 

That beard had grown vastly disagreeable to me these last hours, andthen I went into a room in the house, and found instruments, and shavedit down to the bare chin. A change of robe also I found there and tookit instead of my squalid rags. If a man is in truth a king, he owesthese things to the dignity of his office. 

But, if the din of the fighting was any guide, mine was a narrowingkingdom. Every hour it seemed to grow fiercer and more near, and it wasclear that some of the gates in the passage up the cleft in thecliff, impregnable though all men had thought them, had yielded to thevehemence of Phorenice's attack. And, indeed, it was scarcely to bemarvelled at. With all her genius spurred on to fury by the blow thathad been struck at her by wrecking so fair a part of the city, theEmpress 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 stillpossessed, 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, orslingers and archers slip in their shot, or the throwing-fire gets home, or (as here) some newfangled machine like Phorenice's fire-tubes, makeone in a thousand of their wavering darts find the life; and so, thoughthe general attacking loses his hundreds, the defenders also are notwithout their dead. 

The slaughter, as it turned out, had been prodigious. As fast as thestormers came up, the Priests who held the lowest gate remaining to usrained down great rocks upon them till the narrow alley of the stairwas paved with their writhing dead. But Phorenice stood on a spur of therock below them urging on the charges, and with an insane valour companyafter company marched up to hurl themselves hopelessly against thedefences. They had no machines to batter the massive gates, and theirattack was as pathetically useless as that of a child who hammersagainst a wall with an orange; and meanwhile the terrible stones fromabove mowed them down remorselessly. 

Company after company of the troops marched into this terribledeath-trap, and not a man of all of them ever came back. Nor was itPhorenice's policy that they should do so. In her lust for this finalconquest, she was minded to pour out troops till she had filled up thepasses with the slain, so that at last she might march on to alevel fight over the bridge of their poor bodies. It was no part ofPhorenice's mood ever to count the cost. She set down the object whichwas to be gained, and it was her policy that the people of Atlantis werethere to gain it for her. 

Two gates then had she carried in this dreadful fashion, slaughteringthose Priests that stood behind, them who had not been already shotdown. 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 myquality, but the Priests as a sheer custom picked up "Deucalion!" as abattle-cry; and some shouted that, with a King to lead, there would beno further ground lost. 

It was clear that the name carried to the other side and bore weightwith it. A company of poor, doomed wretches who were hurrying up stoppedin their charge. The word "Deucalion!" was bandied round and handedback down the line. I though with some grim satisfaction, that here wasevidence I was not completely forgotten in the land. 

There came shouts to them from behind to carry on their advance; butthey did not budge; and presently a glittering officer panted up, andcommenced to strike right and left amongst them with his sword. Fromwhere I stood on the high rampart above the gate, I could see himplainly, 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. Youshould be proud to die for her wish, you cowards. And if you do notobey, 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 ofthese mangy Priests, and the Empress has made an edict that they are tobe rooted out, and I am her most obedient servant. "

"You used to be skilful of fence, " I said, and indeed there was littleenough to choose between us. "If it please you to stop this pitifulkilling, make yourself the champion of your side, and I will stand formine, and we will fight out this quarrel in some fair place, and bindour parties to abide by the result. "

"It would be a grand fight between us two, old friend, and it goes hardwith me to balk you of it. But I cannot pleasure you. I am general hereunder Phorenice, and she has given me the strongest orders not to perilmyself. And besides, though you are a great man, Deucalion, you are notchief. 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 namefor the first time yesterday, and as a first blow in the campaign therewas some mischief done in the city. I was there myself, and saw how youtook it. "

"You were in Atlantis!"

"I went for Nais. She is on the mountain now, and to-morrow will be myQueen. Tatho, as a priest to a priest, let me solemnly bring to yourmemory the infinite power you bite against on this Sacred Mountain. Yourteaching has warned you of the weapons that are stored in the Ark ofthe Mysteries. If you persist in this attack, at the best you can merelylose; at the worst you can bring about a wreck over which even the HighGods will shudder as They order it. "

"You cannot scare us back now by words, " said Tatho doggedly. "Andas for magic, it will be met by magic. Phorenice has found by her owncleverness as many powers as were ever stored up in the Ark of theMysteries. "

"Yet she looked on helplessly enough last night, when her royal pyramidwas trundled into a rubbish heap. Zaemon had prophesied that this shouldbe so, and for a witness, why I myself stood closer to her than we twostand now, and saw her. "

"I will own you took her by surprise somewhat there. I do not understandthese matters myself; I was never more than one of the Seven in the olddays; and now, quite rightly, Phorenice keeps the knowledge of her magicto herself: but it seems time is needed when one magic is to be met byanother. "

"Well, " I said, "I know little about the business either. I leave thesematters 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 givenunderstanding about the highest of the higher Mysteries. So I contentmyself with being a soldier, and when the appointed day comes, I shallfall 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 thefirst 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 shehas borne me, will be made immortal also. "

"Phorenice is headstrong. No, my lord, there is no need to shake yourhead and try to deny it. I have had some acquaintance with her. But theorder has been made, and her immortality will be snatched from her veryrudely. Now, mark solemnly my words. I, Deucalion, have been appointedKing of Atlantis by the High Council of the Priests who are themouthpiece of the most High Gods, and if I do not have my reign, thenthere will be no Atlantis left to carry either King or Empress. You knowme, Tatho, for a man that never lies. "

He nodded. 

"Then save yourself before it is too late. You shall have again yourvice-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 youchoose! 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 theforests? You may light fires across their path, and they will march intothem in their blind bravery, and put them out with their bodies, andthose that are left will march on in an unbroken column, and devourall that stands in their path. I tell you, my lord, those little hairycreatures were like the ants--aye, for numbers, and wooden bravery, aswell 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 tobecome a traitor. In your place would you throw your Nais away, if thedoing 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 forPhorenice, who is, besides, my wife and the mother of my children. If Ihave 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 andnot for myself. But I think, my lord, this parley is leading to nothing, and though these common soldiers here will understand little enough ofour talk, they may be picking up a word here and there, and I do notwish 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 comebefore. "

He saluted me with his sword and drew back, and once more the missilesbegan to fly, and the doomed wretches, who had been halting besidethe steep rock walls of the pass began once more to press hopelesslyforward. They had scaling-ladders certainly, but they had no chance ofgetting these planted. They could do naught but fill the narrow way withtheir bodies, and to that end they had been sent, and to that endthey humbly died. Our Priests with crow and lever wrenched from theirlodging-places the great rocks which had been made ready, and sent themcrashing down, so that once more screams filled the pass, and the horridbutchery was renewed. 

But ever and again, some arrow or some sling-stone, or some fire-tube'sdart would find its way up from below and through the defences, andthere we would be with a man the less to carry on the fight. It was wellenough for Phorenice to be lavish with her troops; indeed, if she wishedfor success, there were no two ways for it; and when those she hadlevied 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 whosearm would bitterly be missed, and one which could in no possible way bereplaced. 

I made calculation of the chances, and saw clearly that, if we continuedthe fight on the present plan, they would storm the gates one afteranother as they came to them, and that by the time the uppermost gatewas reached, there would be no Priest alive to defend it. And so, notdisdaining to fashion myself on Phorenice's newer plan, which held thata general should at times in preference plot coldly from a place of somesafety, and not lead the thick of the fighting, I left those who stoodto the gate with some rough soldier's words of cheer, and withdrew againup 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 asa mere bare cleft as the High Gods made it. But a chasm had been bridgedhere, a shelf cut through the solid rock there, and in many places theroadway was built up on piers from distant crags below so as to make alluniform and easy. It came to my mind now, that if I could destroy thispath, we might gain a breathing space for further effort. 

The idea seemed good, or at least no other occurred to me which wouldin any way relieve our desperate situation, and I looked around me formeans to put it into execution. Up and down, from the mountain to theplains below, I had traversed that narrow stair of a pass some thousandsof times, and so in a manner of speaking knew every stone, and everyturn, and every cut of it by heart. But I had never looked upon it withan 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 lessthan three times afresh before I could decide upon the best site fordemolition. 

But once the point was fixed, there was little delay in getting thescheme in movement. Already I had sent men to the storehouses amongstthe Priests' dwellings to fetch me rams, and crows, and acids, andhammers, and such other material as was needed, and these stood handybehind one of the upper gates. I put on every pair of hands that couldbe 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 thelabour; and presently carved balustrade, and wayside statue, togetherwith the lettered wall-stones and the foot-worn cobbles, roared downinto the gulf below, and added their din to the shrieks and yells andcrashes of the fighting. Gods! But it was a hateful task, smashing downthat splendid handiwork of the men of the past. But it was better thatit should crash down to ruin in the abyss below, than that Phoreniceshould profane it with her impious sandals. 

At first I had feared that it would be needful to sacrifice the knot ofbrave 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 hardwarfare it is often needful to the carrying out of his schemes for ageneral to leave a part of his troops to fight to a finish, and withouthope of rescue, as valiantly as they may; and all he can do for theirreward is to recommend them earnestly to the care of the Gods. But whenthe work of destroying the pathway was nearly completed, I saw a chanceof retrieving them. 

We had not been content merely with breaking arches, and throwing downthe piers. We had got our rams and levers under the living rock itselfon which all the whole fabric stood; and fire stood ready to heat therams for their work; and when the word was given, the whole could besent crashing down the face of the cliffs beyond chance of repair. 

All was, I say, finally prepared in this fashion, and then I gave theword to hold. A narrow ledge still remained undestroyed, and offeredfootway, and over this I crossed. The cut we had made was immediatelybelow the uppermost gate of all, and below it there were three moremassive gates still unviolated, besides the one then being so vehementlyattacked. Already, the garrisons had been retired from these, and Ipassed through them all in turn, unchallenged and unchecked, and came tothat busy rampart where the twelve Priests left alive worked, strippedto the waist, at heaving down the murderous rocks. 

For awhile I busied myself at their side, stopping an occasionalfire-tube dart or arrow on my shield and passing them the tidings. Theattack was growing fiercer every minute now. The enemy had packed thepass below well-nigh full of their dead, and our battering stones hadless distance to fall and so could do less execution. They pressedforward more eagerly than ever with their scaling ladders, and it wasplain that soon they would inevitably put the place to the storm. Evenduring the short time I was there, their sling-stones and missiles tooklife 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 pelteddown, and whilst the few living were crawling out from those killedby the discharge, and whilst the next band of reinforcements camescrambling up over the bodies, I sent my nine remaining men away at arun up the steep stairway of the path, and then followed them myself. Each of the gates in turn we passed, shutting them after us, andbreaking the bars and levers with which they were moved, and not tillwe were through the last did the roar of shouts from below tell that thebesiegers had found the gate they bit against was deserted. 

One by one we balanced our way across the narrow ledge which was leftwhere the path had been destroyed, and one poor Priest that carried awound grew giddy, and lost his balance here, and toppled down to hisdeath in the abyss below before a hand could be stretched out to steadyhim. And then, when we were all over, heat was put to the rams, and theyexpanded with their resistless force, and tore the remaining ledges fromtheir hold in the rock. I think a pang went through us all then whenwe saw for ourselves the last connecting link cut away from between thepoor remaining handful of our Sacred Clan on the Mountain, and the restof 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 furtherpreparations we could make for our defence, and high though I knewPhorenice's genius to be, I did not see how she could very well do otherthan accept the check and retire. So I set a guard on the ramparts ofthe uppermost gate to watch all possible movements, and gave the word tothe others to go and find the rest which so much they needed. 

For myself, dutifully I tried to find Zaemon first, going on the errandmy proper self, for there was little enough of kingly state observed onthe 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 theMysteries with another of the Three, and being myself only one of theSeven, I had not rank enough in the priesthood to break in upon theirworkings. And so I was free to turn where my likings would have led mefirst, and that was to the house which sheltered Nais. 

She waked as I came in over the threshold, and her eyes filled with awelcome for me. I went across and knelt where she lay, putting myface on the pillow beside her. She was full of tender talk and sweetendearments. Gods! What an infinity of delight I had missed by notknowing 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. Sherallied me on the new cleanness of my chin, and on the robe which I hadtaken as a covering. She professed a pretty awe for my kingship, andvowed that had she known of my coming dignities she would never havedared to discover a love for me. But about my marriage with Phoreniceshe spoke with less lightness. She put out her thin white hand, and drewmy face to her lips. 

"It is weak of me to have a jealousy, " she murmured, "knowing howcompletely my lord is mine alone; but I cannot help it. You have saidyou were her husband for awhile. It gives me a pang to think that Ishall not be the first to lie in your arms, Deucalion. "

"Then you may gaily throw your pang away, " I whispered back. "I washusband 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 marriedme by a form she prescribed herself, ignoring all the old rites andceremonies, and whether it would hold as legal or not, we need nottrouble to inquire. She herself has most nicely and completely annulledthat marriage as I have told you. Tatho is her husband now, and fatherto her children, and he seems to have a fondness for her which does himcredit. "

We said other things too in that chamber, those small repetitionsof endearments which are so precious to lovers, and so beyond thecomprehension of other folk, but they are not to be set down on thesesheets. They are a mere private matter which can have no concern toany one beyond our two selves, and more weighty subjects are pilingthemselves up in deep index for the historian. 

Phorenice, it seemed, had more rage against the Priests' Clan on theMountain and more bright genius to help her to a vengeance than I hadcredited. Her troops stormed easily the gates we had left to them, andswarmed up till they stood where the pathway was broken down. In thefierceness of their rush, the foremost were thrust over the brink bythose pressing up behind, before the advance could be halted, and thesewent screaming to a horrid death in the great gulf below. But it was noposition here that a lavish spending of men could take, and presentlyall were drawn off, save for some half-score who stood as outpostsentries, and dodged out of arrow-shot behind angles of the rock. 

It seems, too, that the Empress herself reconnoitered the place, usingdue caution and quickness, and so got for herself a full plan of itsrequirements without being obliged to trust the measuring of anothereye. With extraordinary nimbleness she must have planned an engine suchas was necessary to suit her purposes, and given orders for its making;for even with the vast force and resources at her disposal, the speedwith which it was built was prodigious. 

There was very little noise made to tell of what was afoot. All thewoodwork and metalwork was cut, and tongued, and forged, and fittedfirst by skilled craftsmen below, in the plain at the foot of the cleft;and when each ponderous balk and each crosspiece, and each plank wasdragged up the steep pass through the conquered gates, it was readyinstantly for fitting into its appointed place in the completed machine. 

The cleft was straight where they set about their building, and therewas no curve or spur of the cliff to hide their handiwork from those ofthe Priests who watched from the ramparts above our one remaining gate. But Phorenice had a coyness lest her engine should be seen before itwas completed, and so to screen it she had a vast fire built at theuppermost point where the causeway was broken off, and fed diligentlywith wet sedge and green wood, so that a great smoke poured out, risinglike a curtain that shut out all view. And so though the Priests on therampart above the gate picked off now and again some of those who tendedthe fire, they could do the besiegers no further injury, and remained upto 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 bythe eternal fires which made its defence on the farther side, their glowthrew no gleam down that flank where the cliff ran sheer to the plainsbeneath. And so it was under cover of the darkness that Phorenicebrought up her engine into position for attack. 

Planking had been laid down for its wheels, and the wheels themselveswell greased, and it may be that she hoped to march in upon us whilstall slept. But there was a certain creaking and groaning of timbers, and laboured panting of men, which gave advertisement that something wasbeing attempted, and the alarm was spread quietly in the hope that if asurprise had been planned, the real surprise might be turned the otherway. 

A messenger came to me running, where I sat in the house at the side ofmy love, and she, like the soldier's wife she was made to be, kissed meand bade me go quickly and care for my honour, and bring back my woundsfor her to mend. 

On the rampart above the gate all was silence, save for the faint rustleof armed men, and out of the black darkness ahead, and from the otherside of the broken causeway, came the sounds of which the messenger badwarned me. 

The captain of the gate came to me and whispered: "We have made no lighttill the King came, not knowing the King's will in the matter. Is itwished I send some of the throwing-fire down yonder, on the chance thatit does some harm, and at the same time lights up the place? Or is itwilled that we wait for their surprise?"

"Send the fire, " I said, "or we may find that Phorenice's brain has beenone 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 werelabouring with a huge engine, sputtering them with its deadly fire, andlighting 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 footto allow for the steepness of the path and leave it always upright. 

It was storeyed inside, with ladders joining each floor, and throughslits in the side which faced us bowmen could cover an attack. From itstop a great bridge reared high above it, being carried vertically tillthe tower was brought near enough for its use. The bridge was hinged atthe third storey of the tower, and fastened with ropes to its extremetop; but, once the ropes were cut, the bridge would fall, and light uponwhatever came within its swing, and be held there by the spikes withwhich it was studded beneath. 

I saw, and inwardly felt myself conquered. The cleverness of Phorenicehad been too strong for my defence. No war-engine of which we hadcommand could overset the tower. The whole of its massive timberswere hung with the wet new-stripped skins of beasts, so that even thethrowing-fire could not destroy it. What puny means we had to impedethose who pushed it forward would have little effect. Presently it wouldcome to the place appointed, and the ropes would be cut, and the bridgewould thunder down on the rampart above our last gate, and the stormerswould pour out to their final success. 

Well, life had loomed very pleasant for me these few days with a warmand loving Nais once more in touch of my arms, but the High Gods inTheir infinite wisdom knew best always, and I was no rebel to staystiff-necked against their decision. But it is ever a soldier'sprivilege, come what may, to warm over a fight, and the most exquisitelyfierce joy of all is that final fight of a man who knows that he mustdie, and who lusts only to make his bed of slain high enough to carry adue 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 thethought of it. Would Tatho come to give me sport? I feared not. Theywould send only the common soldiers first to the storm, and I must becontent to do my killing on those. 

And Nais, what of her? I had a quiet mind there. When any spoilers cameto the house where she lay, she would know that Deucalion had been takenup to the Gods, and she would not be long in following him. She had herdagger. 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 finestfight of my life. When it is finished I shall go to the Gods, and bethere standing behind the stars to welcome them when presently they alsoarrive. They have my regrets that they are too old and too feeble to dieand look upon a fine killing themselves. "

"I have commands from them, my King, to lay upon you, which I fear youwill like but slenderly. You are forbidden to find your death here inthe 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 havemisunderstood. If I am a man, if I am a Priest, if I am a soldier, ifI am a King, then it stands to my honour that no enemy should pass thisgate whilst yet I live. And you may go back and throw that message attheir teeth. "

The old man smiled enviously. He, too, had been a keen soldier in hisday. "I told them you would not easily believe such a message, and askedthem for a sign, and they bore with me, and gave me one. I was to giveyou 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 insidethe Ark of the Mysteries, and waited you there. The use which the Threehave for you further concerns her also. "

Even when I heard that, I will freely confess that my obedience wassorely tried, and I have the less shame in setting it down on thesesheets, because I know that all true soldiers will feel a sympathy formy plight. Indeed, the promise of the battle was very tempting. But inthe end my love for Nais prevailed, and I gave the salutation that wasneedful in token that I heard the order and obeyed it. 

To the knot of Priests who were left for the defence, I turned and mademy farewells. "You will have what I shall miss, my brothers, " I said. "Ienvy you that fight. But, though I am King of Atlantis, still I am onlyone of the Seven, and so am the servant of the Three and must obey theirorder. They speak in words the will of the most High Gods, and we mustdo as they command. You will stand behind the stars before I come, andI ask of you that you will commend me to Those you meet there. It is notmy own will that I shall not appear there by your side. "

They heard my words with smiles, and very courteously saluted me withtheir weapons, and there we parted. I did not see the fight, but I knowit was good, from the time which passed before Phorenice's hordes brokeout on to the crest of the Mountain. They died hard, that last remnantof the lesser Priests of Atlantis. 

With a sour enough feeling I went up to the head of the pass, and thenthrough the groves, and between the temples and colleges and houseswhich stood on the upper slopes of the Sacred Mountain, till I reachedthat boundary, beyond which in milder days it was death for any but theprivileged few to pass. But the time, it appeared to me, was past forconventions, and, moreover, my own temper was hot; and it is likelythat I should have strode on with little scruple if I had not beeninterrupted. But in the temple which marked the boundary, there was oldZaemon waiting; and he, with due solemnity of words, and with the wholeof some ancient ritual ordained for that purpose, sought dispensationfrom the High Gods for my trespass, and would not give me way till hewas through with his ceremony. 

Already Phorenice's tower and bridge were in position, for the clash andyelling of a fight told that the small handful of Priests on the rampartof the last gate were bartering their lives for the highest return indead that they could earn. They were trained fighting men all, but oldand feeble, and the odds against them were too enormous to be stemmedfor 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 theinvader. If there was any further thing to be done, it was well that itshould be set about quickly whilst peace remained. It seemed to methat the moment for prompt action, and the time for lengthy pompousceremonial was done for good. 

But Zaemon was minded otherwise. He led me up to the Ark of theMysteries, and chided my impatience, and waited till I had given it myreverential kiss, and then he called aloud, and another old man cameout of the opening which is in the top of the Ark, and climbed painfullydown by the battens which are fixed on its sides. He was a man I hadnever seen before, hoary, frail, and emaciated, and he and Zaemon werethen the only two remaining Priests who had been raised to the highestdegree known to our Clan, and who alone had knowledge of the highestsecrets and powers and mysteries. 

"Look!" cried Zaemon, in his shrill old voice, and swept a tremblingfinger over the shattered city, and the great spread of sea and countrywhich lay in view of us below. I followed his pointing and looked, and achill began to crawl through me. All was plainly shown. Our Lord the Sunburned high overhead in a sky of cloudless blue, and day shimmered inHis heat. All below seemed from that distance peaceful and warm andstill, save only that the mountains smoked more than ordinary, and somespouted fires, and that the sea boiled with some strange disorder. 

But it was the significance of the sea that troubled me most. Far out onthe 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 Atlantisstands, it gushed in successive waves of enormous height which neverreturned. Already the lower lands on either side were blotted outbeneath tumultuous waters, the harbour walls were drowned out of sight, and the flood was creeping up into the lower wards of the great cityitself. 

"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 willfollow swiftly. The most High Gods, that sit behind the stars, have alimit to even Their sublime patience; and that has been passed. The cityof Atlantis, the great continent that is beyond, and all that are inthem are doomed to unutterable destruction. Of old it was foreseen thatthis great wiping-out would happen through the sins of men, and to thisend 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 orrocks wreck it. Inside is stored on sheets of the ancient writing allthat is known in the world of learning that is not shared by thecommon people, also there is grain in a store, and sweet water in tankssufficient for two persons for the space of four years, together withseeds, weapons, and all such other matters as were deemed fit. 

"Out of all this vast country it has been decreed by the High Gods thattwo shall not perish. Two shall be chosen, a man and a woman, who arefit and proper persons to carry away with them the ancient learning todispose of it as they see best, and afterwards to rear up a race whoshall in time build another kingdom and do honour to our Lord theSun and the other Gods in another place. The woman is within the Arkalready, and seated in the place appointed for her, and though she is adaughter 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 knowthat I care to be a survivor. "

"You are not asked for your wishes, " said the old man. "You are given anorder from the High Gods, who know you to be Their faithful servant. "

Habit rode strong upon me. I made salutation in the required form, andsaid that I heard and would obey. 

"Then it remains to raise you to the sublime degree of the Three, and ifyour learning is so small that you will not understand the keys to manyof the Powers, and the highest of the Mysteries, when they are handed toyou, that fault cannot be remedied now. "

Certainly the time remaining was short enough. The fight still rageddown at the gate in the pass, though it was a wonder how the handful ofPriests had held their ground so long. But the ocean rolled in upon theland in an ever-increasing flood, and the mountains smoked and belchedforth more volleys of rock as the weight increased on their lower parts, and presently those that besieged the Mountain could not fail to seethe fate that threatened them. Then there would be no withholding theirrush. In their mad fury and panic they would sweep all obstructionresistlessly before them, and those who stood in their path might lookto themselves. 

But there was no hurrying Zaemon and his fellow sage. They were withouttemple for the ceremony, without sacrifice or incense to decorate it. They had but the sky for a roof to make their echoes, and the Godsthemselves for witnesses. But they went through the work of raisingme to their own degree, with all the grand and majestic form which hasgathered dignity from the ages, and by no one sentence did they curtailit. A burning mountain burst with a bellowing roar as the incomingwaters met its fires, but gravely they went on, in turn reciting theirsentences. Phorenice's troops broke down the last resistance, and pouredin a frenzied stream amongst the groves and temples, but still theyquavered never in the ritual. 

It had been said that this ceremony is the grandest and the mostimpressive of all those connected with our holy religion; and certainlyI found it so; and I speak as one intimate with all the others. Even thetremendous circumstances which hemmed them in could do nothing to makethese frail old men forget the deference which was due to the highestorder of the Clan. 

For myself, I will freely own I was less rapt. I stood there bareheadedin the heat, a man trying to concentrate himself, and yet torn the whileby a thousand foreign emotions. The awful thing that was happening allaround compelled some of my attention. A continent was in the very actand article of meeting with complete destruction, and if Zaemon andthe other Priest were strong enough to give their minds wholly up to amatter parochial to the priesthood, I was not so stoical. And moreover, I was filled with other anxieties and thoughts concerning Nais. Yet Imanaged to preserve a decent show of attention to the ceremony; makingall those responses which were required of me; and trying as well asmight be to preserve in my mind those sentences which were the keys topower and learning, and not mere phrasings of grandeur and devotion. 

But it became clear that if the ceremony of my raising did not soonarrive at its natural end, it would be cut short presently withsomething of suddenness. Phorenice's conquering legions swarmed outon to the crest of the Mountain, and now carried full knowledge of thedreadful thing that was come upon the country. They were out of allcontrol, and ran about like men distracted; but knowing full well thatthe Priests would have brought this terrible wreck to pass by virtue ofthe powers which were stored within the Ark of the Mysteries, it wouldbe their natural impulse to pour out a final vengeance upon any of thesesame Priests they could come across before it was too late. 

It began to come to my mind that if the ceremony did not very shortlyterminate, the further part of the plan would stand very small chanceof completion, and I should come by my death after all by fighting to afinish, as I had pictured to myself before. My flickering attention sawthe soldiers coming always nearer in their frantic wanderings, and sawalso the sea below rolling deeper and deeper in upon the land. 

The fires, too, which ringed in half the mountain, spurted up todouble their old height, and burned with an unceasing roar. But for alldistraction these things gave to the two old Priests who were raisingme, we might have been in the quietness of some ancient temple, with noso much as a fly to buzz an interruption. 

But at last an end came to the ceremony. "Kneel, " cried Zaemon, "andmake obeisance to your mother the Earth, and swear by the High Gods thatyou will never make improper use of the powers over Her which this dayyou have been granted. "

When I had done that, he bade me rise as a fully installed and dulyinitiated member of the Three. "You will have no opportunity to practisethe 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 todeliver to Them an account of our trust, and of how we have carried itout. But what items you remember here and there may turn of use to youhereafter. And now we two give you our farewells, and promise to commendyou highly to the Gods when soon we meet Them in Their place behindthe stars. Climb now into the Ark, and be ready to shut the door whichguards it, if there is any attempt by these raging people to invade thatalso. Remember, my brother, it is the Gods' direct will that you and thewoman Nais go from this place living and sound, and you are expresslyforbidden to accept challenge or provocation to fight on any pretextwhatever. But as long as may be done in safety, you may look out uponAtlantis in her death-throes. It is very fitting that one of the onlytwo who are sent hence alive, should carry the full tale of what hasbefallen. "

I went to the top of the Ark of Mysteries then, climbing there by thebattens which are fastened to the sides, and then descended by the stairwhich 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 thisplace by threats and also by promises that my lord would follow. He isvery ungentle, that father of mine, but I think he has a kindness for usboth, and any way he is my father and I cannot help loving him. Is thereno chance to save him from what is going to happen?"

"He will not come into this Ark, for I asked him. It has been ordainedfrom the ancient time when first the Ark was built, that when the dayfor 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 betwisted 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 incarrying it to them. "

I left her then, and went out again up the stair, and stood once more onthe 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 highestpoint. For the moment, however, I passed them lightly. The drowning ofthe great continent that had been spread out below filled the eye. Oceanroared in upon it with still more furious waves. The plains and thelevel lands were foaming lakes. The great city of Atlantis had vanishedeternally. The mountains alone kept their heads above the flood, andspewed out rocks, and steam, and boiling stone, or burst when the watersreached them and created great whirlpools of surging sea, and twistedtrees, and bubbling mud. 

In the space of a few breaths every living creature that dwelt in thelower grounds had been smothered by the waters, save for a few whohuddled in a pair of galleys that were driven oarless inland, over whathad once been black forest and hunting land for the beasts. And even asI watched, these also were swallowed up by the horrid turmoil of sea, and nothing but the sea beasts, and those of the greater lizards whichcan live in such outrageous waters, could have survived even thatstate of the destruction. Indeed, none but those men who had now foundstanding-ground on the upper slopes of the Sacred Mountain survived, and it was plain that their span was short, for the great mass of thecontinent 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 theprospect of the overwhelming which threatened them, there were some witha strength of mind too valiant to give any outward show of discomposure. Presently a compact little body of people came from out the houses andthe temples, and headed directly across the open ground towards the Ark. On the outside marched Phorenice's personal guards with their weaponsnew blooded. They had been forced to fight a way through their ownfellow soldiers. The poor demented creatures had thought it was everyone 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 hergrotesque 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 handmarched Tatho gorgeously apparelled, and with a beard curled and plaitedinto a thousand ringlets. On the other side, plying her industry withunruffled defence, walked Ylga, once again fan-girl, and so still secondlady in this dwindling kingdom. 

The party of them halted half a score of paces from the Ark byPhorenice's order. "Do not go nearer to those unclean old men. Theycarry a rank odour with them, and for the moment we are short ofessences to sweeten the air of their neighbourhood. " She lifted hereyebrows and looked up at me. "Truly a quiet little gathering of oldacquaintances. Why, there is Deucalion, that once I took the flavour ofand threw aside when he cloyed me. "

"I have Nais here, " I said, "and presently we two will be all that areleft alive of this nation. "

"Nais is quite welcome to my leavings, " she laughed. "I will look downupon your country cooings when presently I go back to the Place behindthe 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 uphere have named you King. Did you swell much with dignity? Or didyou remember that there was a pretty Empress left that would still beEmpress so long as there was an Atlantis to govern? Come, sir, find yourtongue. By my face! you must have hungered for me very madly these yearswe 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 youthat I know the Great Secret and am indeed a Goddess now? My arts canmake life run on eternally. "

"Then the waters will presently test them hard, " I said, but there thetalk was taken into other lips. Zaemon went forward to the front ofthe litter with the Symbol of our Lord the Sun glowing in his hand, andburst into a flow of cursing. It was hard for me to hear his words. Theroar of the waters which poured up over the land, and beat in vast wavesagainst the Sacred Mountain itself, grew nearer and more loud. But theold man had his say. 

Phorenice gave orders to her guards for his killing; yes, tried even torise from the litter and do the work herself; but Zaemon held the Symbolto his front, and its power in that supreme moment mastered all the artsthat could be brought against it. The majesty of the most High Godswas vindicated, and that splendid Empress knew it and lay back sullenlyamongst the cushions of her litter, a beaten woman. 

Only one person in that rigid knot of people found power to leave therest, and that was Ylga. She came out to the side of the Ark, and leanedup, 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 askedme. I am not a woman that will take anything less than all. But I shallmeet what comes presently with the memory that you will have me alwayssomewhere in your recollection. I know somewhat of men, even men of yourstamp, Deucalion, and you will never forget that you came very near toloving me once. "

I think, too, she said something further, concerning Nais, but thebellowing rush of the waters drowned all other words. A great mist madefrom the stream sent up by the swamped burning mountains stopped allaccurate view, though the blaze from the fires lit it like gold. ButI had a last sight of a horde of soldiery rushing up the slopes of theMountain, with a scum of surge billowing at their heels, and lickingmany of them back in its clutch. And then my eye fell on old Zaemonwaving to me with the Symbol to shut down the door in the roof of theArk. 

I obeyed his last command, and went down the stair, and closed allingress behind me. There were bolts placed ready, and I shot these intotheir sockets, and there were Nais and I alone, and cut off from all therest 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 andmove the door from its fastenings. The end was coming very nearly tothem now, and the great crowd of them were mad with terror. 

I would have given much to have known how Phorenice fared in that finaltumult, and how she faced it. I could see her, with her lovely face, andher wondrous eyes, and her ruddy hair curling about her neck, and byall the Gods! I thought more of her at that last moment than of thepoor land she had conquered, and misgoverned, and brought to this horriddestruction. There is no denying the fascination which Phorenice carriedwith her. 

But the end did not dally long with its coming. There was a little surgethat lifted the Ark a hand's breadth or so in its cradle, and set itback again with a jar and a quiver. The blows from axes and weaponsceased on its lower part, but redoubled into frenzied batterings on itsrounded roof. There were some screams and cries also which came tous but dully through the thickness of its ponderous sheathing, thoughlikely enough they were sent forth at the full pitch of human lungsoutside. And when another surge came, roaring and thundering, whichpicked up the great vessel as though it had been a feather, and spun itgiddily; and after that we touched earth or rock no more. 

We tossed about on the crest and troughs of delirious seas, a sport forthe greedy Gods of the ocean. The lamp had fallen, and we crouched therein darkness, dully weighed with the burden of knowledge that we alonewere 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 onlywhere the High Gods chose. The inside was dark, and full of an ancientsmell, and crowded with groanings and noise. I could not find thefire-box to relight the fallen lamp, and so we had to endure blindlywhat was dealt out to us. The waves tossed us in merciless sport, and Iclung on by the side of Nais, holding her to the bed. We did not speakmuch, but there was full companionship in our bereavement and oursilence. 

When Atlantis sank to form new ocean bed, she left great whirlpools andspoutings from her drowned fires as a fleeting legacy to the Gods of theSea. And then, I think (though in the black belly of the Ark we couldnot see these things), a vast hurricane of wind must have come on nextso as to leave no piece of the desolation incomplete. For seven nightsand seven days did this dreadful turmoil continue, as counted for usafterwards by the reckoner of hours which hung within the Ark, and thenthe howling of the wind departed, and only the roll of a long stillswell remained. It was regular and it was oily, as I could tell by thedifference of the motion, and then for the first time I dared to go upthe 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 asthe Ark rode dryly over the seas, I went below and brought up Nais togain refreshment from the curing rays of our Lord the Sun. Duly the pairof us adored Him, and gave thanks for His great mercy in coming to lightanother day, and then we laid ourselves down where we were to doze, andtake that easy rest which we so urgently needed. 

Yet, though I was tired beyond words, for long enough sleep would notvisit me. Wearily I stared out over the oily sunlit waters. No blurof land met the eye. The ring of ocean was unbroken on every side, andoverhead the vault of heaven remained unchanged. The bosom of the deepwas littered with the poor wreckage of Atlantis, to remind one, if therehad been a need, that what had come about was fact, and not some horriddream. Trees, squared timber, a smashed and upturned boat of hides, andhere and there the rounded corpse of a man or beast shouldered over theswells, and kept convoy with our Ark as she drifted on in charge of theGods 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 heropen-eyed also and watching me tenderly. We were finely rested, both ofus, and rest and strength bring one complacency. We were more readynow to accept the station which the High Gods had made for us withoutrepining, and so we went below again into the belly of the Ark to eatand 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 leisureand intimately. Although for the first time now in all its centuriesof 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 couldsee by the grainings, but nowhere could one find suture or joint. Theliving timbers had been put in place and then grown together by anart which we have lost to-day, but which the Ancients knew with muchperfection; and afterwards some treatment, which is also a secretof those forgotten builders, had made the wood as hard as metal andimpervious to all attacks of the weather. 

In the gloomy cave of its belly were stored many matters. At one end, ingreat tanks on either side of central alley, was a prodigious store ofgrain. Sweet water was in other tanks at the other end. In another placewere drugs and samples, and essences of the life of beasts; all thesethings being for use whilst the Ark roamed under the guidance of theGods on the bosom of the deep. On all the walls of the Ark, and on allthe partitions of the tanks and the other woodwork, there were carvedin the rude art of bygone time representations of all the beasts whichlived in Atlantis; and on these I looked with a hunter's interest, assome of them were strange to me, and had died out with the men who hadperpetuated them in these sculptures. There was a good store of weaponstoo and the tools for handicrafts. 

Now, for many weeks, our life endured in this Ark as the Gods drove itabout here and there across the face of the waters. We had no governmentover direction; we could not by so much as a hair's breadth a dayincrease her speed. The High Gods that had chosen the two of us to bethe 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 abidingplace, 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 theevents as they came to pass, it is necessary first to narrate how wecame by the sheets on which it is written. 

In a great coffer, in the centre of the Ark's floor, the whole of theMysteries learned during the study of ages were set down in accuratewriting. I read through some of them during the days which passed, andthe awfulness of the Powers over which they gave control appalled me. Ihad seen some of these Powers set loose in Atlantis, and was a witnessof her destruction. But here were Powers far higher than those; here wasthe great Secret of Life and Death which Phorenice also had found, andfor which she had been destroyed; and there were other things also ofwhich I cannot even bring my stylo to scribe. 

The thought of being custodian of these writings was more than I couldendure, and the more the matter rested in my mind, the more intolerablebecame the burden. And at last I took hot irons, and with them searedthe wax on the sheets till every letter of the old writings wasobliterated. If I did wrong, the High Gods in Their infinite justicewill give me punishment; if it is well that these great secrets shouldendure on earth, They in their infinite power will dictate them afreshto some fitting scribes; but I destroyed them there as the Ark swayedwith us over the waves; and later, when we came to land, I rewrote uponthe sheets the matters which led to great Atlantis being dragged to herdeath-throes. 

Nais, that I love so tenderly--

[TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: The remaining sheets are too broken to be legible. ]