They Found Atlantis lw-1 Read online

  'In Plato's account of Atlantis he speaks of a vast canal system, great harbours, bridges and fortifications. The Peruvian roads and bridges through the passes of the Andes were feats of engineering which have hardly been surpassed in the modern world. The canal system in Egypt alone enabled a sufficient area to be placed under cultivation for so great a population to exist in the restricted valley of the

  Nile. The artificial lake of Moesis, which they created as a

  reservoir, was 450 miles in circumference and 350 feet deep with subterranean channels, flood gates, locks and dams by which the wilderness was reclaimed from sterility. The Mexicans and the Egyptians both erected stone structures, similar in type, which are larger and more durable than anything modern civilisation has yet produced—their Pyramids. Owing to their inaccessibility to the ordinary traveller it is not sufficiently recognised that those in the New World are greater than those in the Old. The base of the pyramid at Choula covers 45 acres of land compared to the 12 acres covercd by the great pyramid of Cheops in Egypt. The masonry of both people had reached such a degree of accuracy that the joints in their stone work are scarcely perceptible and not wider than the thickness of silver paper. Both had astrological systems showing a degree of scientific exactitude with which we have caught up only in the last century yet, neither of these amazing civilisations had any infancy and their art has no archaic period.

  Ten thousand years would be but little for man to develop from a cave dwelling savage to such a high state of culture, yet all trace of that 10,000 years has been blotted from the face of the earth. Suddenly, from nowhere it seems, this race who must have appeared like gods to the barbarians, arrived in countries thousands of miles apart; and in a few generations they are creating marvels that have never been surpassed. Where did they come from? Where is the evidence of their long struggle against nature? The only conceivable explanation is the acceptance of Plato's record—that it lies beneath the waves that cover the lost continent.

  'If further evidence is needed we have abundant historical memories to confirm the belief embodied as mythology in the religions of these races which had been completely separated for thousands of years until the rediscovery of the New World in the fifteenth century. The Incas and the Aztecs trace the foundation of their empires to a fair-haired, blue-eyed bearded stranger, who came up from the waters out of the East. This god-like figure is found with many names but all accounts agree that he brought with him infinite knowledge, peace and prosperity, teaching them husbandry, metallurgy, weaving, and to live in houses instead of rude tents and caves; then, after giving them a new code of laws his spirit returned to the island Paradise in the East from which he had come.

  'It was on account of a similar fully accepted belief, so Cortes relates, that he was able, with a handful of white men, to subdue the legions of the Mexican Emperor Montezuma. They believed that their bearded myth heroes had come again from their island Paradise in the East and they fell down in their thousands before the Spanish lord, Alvardo, worshipping him as a god in human form because he possessed the white skin, the blue eyes, the magnificent golden hair, which tallied in all particulars with those of his predecessor who had brought them the blessings of civilisation.

  'Turn now to the Mediterranean side of the Atlantic. The ancient peoples of the Euphrates believed that Ea, god of the Ocean, first brought civilisation from out of the great waters of the West to Assyria. In the Osiris legends of Egypt we get an exact parallel of the Mexican belief. The fair-skinned golden-haired Osiris arrived among the dusky primitive Egyptians, taught them the arts of agriculture, architecture and to observe a new highly civilised code of laws. Then his spirit departed to the islands of Sekhet-Aaru in the West, which are specifically stated to be intersected by canals filled with running water, which caused them to be always green and fertile. Wherever we turn in the mythologies of the Mediterranean peoples we find constant and persistent mention of this antediluvian world, the Garden of Eden, The Elysian Fields, The Gardens of the Hesperides and the Islands of the Blessed. Invariably this happy state is situated towards the West in the great open ocean that lies beyond the Straits of Gibraltar; so that the belief is even perpetuated in Europe to this very day in that colloquial expression for death "to go West".

  'The ancient universal belief in the spirits of the dead going to an underworld is part of the same tradition. It was not until comparatively recent times that the expression was taken to mean a world under the earth. It signified originally the world beyond or under the horizon.

  'The only possible explanation therefore of the American Heaven being placed in the East and the Mediterranean peoples Paradise being universally in the West, is that it lay somewhere between the two and is a race memory of that great peaceful island where all civilisation was first born, in the centre of the Atlantic.'

  As the Doctor ceased there was a moment's hush then, his lined face breaking into a boyish smile, the McKay exclaimed:

  'Doctor, I owe you an apology. I had no right to express an opinion without knowing more about the subject. I couldn't attempt to confute a single one of your arguments if I racked my brains for a month.'

  'There are more—details—checkings up, a hundred points I have not yet touched upon,' the Doctor burst out determinedly. 'Take the mound builders-'

  'Take nothing!' Nicky interrupted, 'I've had enough. Once I was through College I took a vow against learning. We've heard all we want to of this mystic isle. What about it now Camilla?'

  'The Doctor has convinced me about his theory all right,' Camilla hesitated a moment. 'But is the expedition practical —that's what 1 want to know?'

  'That's it,' echoed Sally. 'Is there a chance in a hundred of our finding this place that's been eleven and a half thousand years beneath the seas?'

  'Yes, yes, Fraulein,' the Doctor insisted. 'Ten years ago, even with the secret of the latitude and longitude which I possess—no. Five years ago—no. But now that Dr. William Beebe has invented his bathysphere for deep sea-diving— yes. In my model which is much larger I will take you to the very place where is the sunken gold.'

  'In that case I'm all for it,' Sally agreed, and Camilla smiled round at them.

  'All right then—the party's on if you wish.'

  Thus the final decision was taken which led this diverse group of people into the strangest adventure that has ever befallen men and women in our time.

  The Three Lovers of Camilla

  Doktor Herman Tisch's mystery ship was steaming almost due north-west towards the little coast town of Horta on the island of Fayal in the Azores. He had chosen it for his base in preference to Funta Delgada on the larger island of Saint Miguel because it lay nearer to the spot which was indicated on the precious cylinder of baked clay that he had unearthed from the banks of the Euphrates.

  Eleven thousand four hundred years is but a split second in astronomical time and it needed only decimal corrections in the bearing of the fixed stars to give him the exact site where the mighty capital of Atlantis had once stood.

  37° 52"N. 27° 8"W. was the important cypher which he kept locked in his own brain. He had an almost morbid dread that someone might steal his secret and forestall his great discovery so he would not even make a jotting of the map reference in his notebook. When Camilla had pressed him, as her right through financing the expedition, for details of their destination, he had refused to say more than that the place lay between the latitudes of Richmond, Virginia; and Lisbon; which still left him sixty miles leeway, and he refused to give any indication of its longitude at all so they still knew only that it was somewhere to the southward of the Azores.

  This uncharted point upon the map which held all the Doctor's interest lay well within the 1,000 fathom line. There might be pockets of a greater depth, of course, but he had 10,000 feet of cable on his drums, and so enough to reach the bottom in the bathysphere, even if it was nearly double the depth that he anticipated, for the few miles round that area in which it was his unshakabl
e conviction that the Golden Temple of Poseidon had once reared its flashing pinnacles to the sky.

  All thoughts of Slinger's sinister designs upon Camilla which, at the last, had alone made his expedition possible had left him. He was consumed with impatience now to reach his destination and get to work so on their first morning out from Madeira he paced the deck oblivious of his surroundings while the others explored the ship.

  It was an ex-cargo vessel of 2,500 tons, in forward part and midships converted to the semblance of a private yacht. Below the bridge a wide lounge with comfortable furniture and gay chintz curtains opened on to the sun deck where what had formerly been the forward hatch was boarded and canvassed to form a swimming pool. The dining room lay beneath the lounge and on either side of it were the cabins which accommodated the guests. To Camilla's annoyance the ship had no deck cabins but she had one which contained a private bath and sitting-room forming the owner's suite. Contrary to usual arrangements the entire accommodation abaft the bridge below decks was given over to the crew, while above, all the available space was occupied by the huge drums which carried the cable of the bathysphere and the massive machinery for lowering it into the depths. The bathysphere itself, supported by two huge steel girders locked into the hull of the ship, rode on the water line astern.

  Captain Ardow took Camilla and her party round. They were, at first, uncertain of his nationality but on enquiry found him to be Russian. He was a tall, lean, grey man, courteous but silent and unsmiling. Camilla invited him to dine that night but he asked her to excuse him with a firmness that discouraged her from pursuing the suggestion and went on to request that she would not extend similar invitations to his officers during the voyage or encourage them to mingle with her guests. As his reason for this lack of sociability he stated that the crew, which had been scraped together at the last moment, was a mixed one; so his officers would need to supervise it closely if the ship was to be kept neat and trim and he preferred that they should not be distracted from their duties.

  Slinger congratulated himself upon his choice of Captain, for when he had made his arrangements with the Doctor in

  Paris he had insisted on selecting his own man for the job with power to pick his officers and crew. Evidently Captain Ardow meant to earn the very considerable sum he had been promised for his complaisance. He was taking no chances that any of his people should warn Camilla that something queer was afoot or cause trouble at the last moment through having formed a pleasant association with any member of her party during the trip.

  For a few moments they all stood in the stern of the ship staring at the great spherical steel bathysphere with its row of small round protruding windows like flat eyes on short thick stalks.

  'I should have thought that the glass in those portholes would have been liable to burst, however thick they are, under the immense pressure they will have to sustain at any considerable depth,' remarked Nicky.

  'They are not glass but fused quartz,' replied Captain Ardow.

  'How can you see through quartz?' enquired Camilla, 'the bits I've seen in museums are all misty even when it's the kind that's supposed to be lumps of crystal.'

  'This is fused,' Count Axel informed with his quiet smile. 'Not only is it far stronger than ordinary plate glass but infinitely clearer. So clear in fact that when you look through it things appear to be nearer than they are.'

  'That's fair enough,' agreed Nicky, 'and I don't doubt we'll see the ocean bottom plenty but we can't get outside that thing once we've been screwed into it so what I don't get is how we're to pick up the gold when we find it.'

  'There are dredges underneath the sphere which can be operated by electricity from inside it,' Captain Ardow told him. 'You cannot perceive them now for they are under water, but they are like the claws and pincers of a great crab.'

  Prince Vladimir Renescu stood by, a faintly supercilious smile on his firm lips. The arguments of Count Axel and the Doctor for the existence of Atlantis had passed right over his head. He still regarded the whole trip only as a heaven sent opportunity to get Camilla on her own. That afternoon he succeeded.

  Count Axel Fersan, who was employing his very considerable brain to counter the physical attractions of his younger rivals, had decided to allow them to expend their powder and shot, since he was reasonably certain that Camilla enjoyed playing with all three of her suitors so much that she would not get engaged to any of them before the voyage was nearly at an end.

  Little as he had in common with Nicky therefore, he buttonholed him after lunch in order to give the Roumanian his chance. Prince Vladimir took it and rushed Camilla off to have another look at the bathysphere since that was at the secluded end of the ship.

  No sooner had they reached the stern than he shot one contemptuous glance at the big ball and said: 'So we do divings in that round iron house eh? Wait here and we will talk of pleasant things far more.'

  Then he disappeared among the masses of machinery, to return a few moments later, red faced and breathless from his haste and the fear that one of the others might find Camilla on her own, with a pile of cushions and rugs. These he spread carefully on a few feet of open deck and with a smiling bow invited her to be seated.

  Camilla was an artist at reclining gracefully and now she disposed her delicious limbs to their utmost advantage on the couch he had prepared; but her charming pose was rudely disturbed a second later for, with amazing speed and dexterity, he suddenly snatched at both her shoes and pulled them from her feet.

  'Vladimir!' she exclaimed sharply.

  He only laughed and his great deep healthy booming merriment drowned the hissing of the waters as they foamed from the screws, beneath the bathysphere, out into the white wake of the ship.

  'You escape me not at all—now or hereafter,' he declared. 'Prisoner most precious 1 have you mine.'

  'Vladimir don't be stupid,' she smiled. 'Give me back my shoes.'

  He shook his dark curly head. 'Not so, while I have you are compelled here to repose. Also your feet so small are godlike to behold. I could eat them for pleasure,' then suiting the action to the idea he took one in his great fist, and carrying it up to his mouth, bit her big toe.

  'Vladimir!—you idiot! Stop I say!' Camilla insisted, but she felt a sudden thrill run through her as, releasing her foot, his white teeth flashed in a quick smile, and he declared:

  'This voyage I shall persuade you of myself and we will make happiness together. When we are so put, i wiil bite you all over.'

  'We are not going to be "so put". You'd better understand that, Prince,' she said a little nervously. 'I don't approve of that sort of thing unless people are married.'

  'But you have me misunderstood,' he protested, and his black velvet eyes stared into her with sudden seriousness. 'As my wife I will bite you all over—not before. Think upon it—all the happiness we will make morning, noon and by night.'

  'Is that another proposal of marriage?'

  'Why yes. I am to you loving with desperateness. Take then my homage heartfelt so deep. The rank which should be by right with your so marvellous beauty 1 delight to give. Think of it. Prince Vladimir Renescu and his Princess. No couple so handsome would be in Europe. Young marrieds, as you say, very rich, very chic—everywhere most welcome. Also any man who speaks that you are not the most beautiful woman in the world—I strangle with these two fists.' He held out his leg of mutton paws.

  Camilla smiled and shook her head. 'I can't decide just yet. Nicky and Count Axel both want me to marry them too.'

  He shrugged his vast shoulders. 'Count Axel is a man of rank but not enough—also he is old. He must be fifty at the smallest, and he could not make happiness as I, who have no fatigues—ever. As for Nicky—no. You could not. He is one indivisible cad. Presently I kick him in his so colourful pants.'

  'You will do no such thing. You'd find Nicky a dear if you tried to understand him.'

  'For me that can never be. I am a Prince and he is a cad,' declared the Roumanian with simple
logic.

  You are a snob,' smiled Camilla lazily, 'but nevertheless I like you Vladimir—awfully.'

  'You like me eh!' His black eyes sparkled as he bent above her. 'In that case—by crikey—we will kiss.' And they spent the remainder of the afternoon that way.

  After tea Vladimir tried to follow up his advantage but

  Camilla refused to be drawn away from the forward deck.

  Slinger had organised a deck-tennis tournament and, in the intervals between sets, those who were not playing either watched the others or the waves peacefully dissolving one into another on the limitless expanse of ocean.

  Despite the sea's apparent emptiness there was always something of interest to observe. A school of round backed porpoises leaping and diving as they ploughed their way to the south-eastward across the bows of the ship; a huge solitary sea turtle, floating idly in the waves, far from his home upon the Moroccan shore; the fate of a bucket of refuse that one of the cooks shot without warning from the galley below, and the graceful swoop of the screaming gulls from the mast-head as they dived to secure the floating crusts. Cocktail time came and went, then the party dispersed to change for dinner. The lazy hours of the day had drifted pleasantly by as they are apt to do in the fair weather upon a ship at sea.

  Dinner was cheerful but uneventful and after the meal Count Axel, pursuing his subtle policy of letting his rivals do their worst, suggested bridge. He knew that neither Camilla nor Nicky cared for the game whereas Vladimir not only prided himself upon playing a fine hand but being a born gambler in addition could not resist the lure of a pack of cards.

  The Prince hesitated only a second. He did not consider that he had anything to fear from Nicky. It was inconceivable to him that his so beautiful Duchess could seriously contemplate marrying the crooner; whereas he regarded the clever, polished. Count Axel, whose age he exaggerated, as a really dangerous competitor. If the Count was willing to tie himself to the card table for the evening why should he not do likewise and enjoy his favourite recreation. Immediately he learned that Sally and the McKay were willing to make up a four, he agreed at once.