The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lost Continent, by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne

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Title: The Lost Continent

Author: C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne

Release Date: July 6, 2008 [EBook #285]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOST CONTINENT ***




Produced by Judith Boss





THE LOST CONTINENT

C. J. Cutliffe Hyne



CONTENTS

          PREFATORY: THE LEGATEES OF DEUCALION
           1  MY RECALL
           2  BACK TO ATLANTIS
           3  A RIVAL NAVY
           4  THE WELCOME OF PHORENICE
           5  ZAEMON'S CURSE
           6  THE BITERS OF THE CITY WALLS
           7  THE BITERS OF THE WALLS
              (FURTHER ACCOUNT)
           8  THE PREACHER FROM THE MOUNTAINS
           9  PHORENICE, GODDESS
          10  A WOOING
          11  AN AFFAIR WITH THE BARBAROUS FISHERS
          12  THE DRUG OF OUR LADY THE MOON
          13  THE BURYING ALIVE OF NAIS
          14  AGAIN THE GODS MAKE CHANGE
          15  ZAEMON'S SUMMONS
          16  SIEGE OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN
          17  NAIS THE REGAINED
          18  STORM OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN
          19  DESTRUCTION OF THE ATLANTIS
          20  ON THE BOSOM OF THE DEEP






PREFATORY:

THE LEGATEES OF DEUCALION


We were both of us not a little stiff as the result of sleeping out in
the open all that night, for even in Grand Canary the dew-fall and the
comparative chill of darkness are not to be trifled with. For myself on
these occasions I like a bit of a run as an early refresher. But here on
this rough ground in the middle of the island there were not three yards
of level to be found, and so as Coppinger proceeded to go through some
sort of dumb-bell exercises with a couple of lumps of bristly lava, I
followed his example. Coppinger has done a good deal of roughing it in
his time, but being a doctor of medicine amongst other things--he takes
out a new degree of some sort on an average every other year--he is
great on health theories, and practises them like a religion.

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

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

"Yours is mostly tobacco ashes."

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

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

Now to tell the truth, the two mummies he had gathered already quite
satisfied my small ambition. The goatskins in which they were sewn up
were as brittle as paper, and the poor old things themselves gave out
dust like a puffball whenever they were touched. But you know what
Coppinger is. He thought he'd come upon traces of an old Guanche
university, or sacred college, or something of that kind, like the one
there is on the other side of the island, and he wouldn't be satisfied
till he'd ransacked every cave in the whole face of the cliff. He'd
plenty of stuff left for the flashlight thing, and twenty-eight more
films in his kodak, and said we might as well get through with the job
then as make a return journey all on purpose. So he took the crowbar,
and I shouldered the rope, and away we went up to the ridge of the
cliff, where we had got such a baking from the sun the day before.

Of course these caves were not easy to come at, or else they would have
been raided years before. Coppinger, who on principle makes out he
knows all about these things, says that in the old Guanche days they
had ladders of goatskin rope which they could pull up when they were at
home, and so keep out undesirable callers; and as no other plan occurs
to me, perhaps he may be right. Anyway the mouths of the caves were in
a more or less level row thirty feet below the ridge of the cliff, and
fifty feet above the bottom; and Spanish curiosity doesn't go in much
where it cannot walk.

Now laddering such caves from below would have been cumbersome, but a
light knotted rope is easily carried, and though it would have been hard
to climb up this, our plan was to descend on each cave mouth from above,
and then slip down to the foot of the cliffs, and start again AB INITIO
for the next.

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

I wanted to save him as much as I could, and as the first three caves
I climbed to were small and empty, seeming to be merely store-places,
I asked him to take them for granted, and save himself the rest. But
he insisted on clambering down to each one in person, and as he decided
that one of my granaries was a prison, and another a pot-making factory,
and another a schoolroom for young priests, he naturally said he hadn't
much reliance on my judgment, and would have to go through the whole
lot himself. You know what these thorough-going archaeologists are for
imagination.

But as the day went on, and the sun rose higher, Coppinger began clearly
to have had enough of it, though he was very game, and insisted on going
on much longer than was safe. I must say I didn't like it. You see
the drop was seldom less than eighty feet from the top of the cliffs.
However, at last he was forced to give it up. I suggested marching off
to Santa Brigida forthwith, but he wouldn't do that. There were three
more cave-openings to be looked into, and if I wouldn't do them for him,
he would have to make another effort to get there himself. He tried to
make out he was conferring a very great favour on me by offering to take
a report solely from my untrained observation, but I flatly refused to
look at it in that light. I was pretty tired also; I was soaked with
perspiration from the heat; my head ached from the violence of the sun;
and my hands were cut raw with the rope.

Coppinger might be tired, but he was still enthusiastic. He tried to
make me enthusiastic also. "Look here," he said, "there's no knowing
what you may find up there, and if you do lay hands on anything,
remember it's your own. I shall have no claim whatever."

"Very kind of you, but I've got no use for any more mummies done up in
goatskin bags."

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

"Oh, very well," I said, as he seemed so set on it; and away I stumbled
over the fallen rocks, and along the ledge, and then scrambled up by
that fissure in the cliff which saved us the two-mile round which we had
had to take at first. I wrenched out the crowbar, and jammed it down
in a new place, and then away I went over the side, with hands smarting
worse at every new grip of the rope. It was an awkward job swinging into
the cave mouth because the rock above overhung, or else (what came to
the same thing) it had broken away below; but I managed it somehow,
although I landed with an awkward thump on my back, and at the same time
I didn't let go the rope. It wouldn't do to have lost the rope then:
Coppinger couldn't have flicked it into me from where he was below.

Now from the first glance I could see that this cave was of different
structure to the others. They were for the most part mere dens, rounded
out anyhow; this had been faced up with cutting tools, so that all the
angles were clean, and the sides smooth and flat. The walls inclined
inwards to the roof, reminding me of an architecture I had seen before
but could not recollect where, and moreover there were several rooms
connected up with passages. I was pleased to find that the other
cave-openings which Coppinger wanted me to explore were merely the
windows or the doorways of two of these other rooms.

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

He turned up a very anxious face. "Have you searched it thoroughly?" he
bawled back.

"Of course I have. What do you think I've been doing all this time?"

"No, don't come down yet. Wait a minute. I say, old man, do wait a
minute. I'm making fast the kodak and the flashlight apparatus on the
end of the rope. Pull them up, and just make me half a dozen exposures,
there's a good fellow."

"Oh, all right," I said, and hauled the things up, and got them inside.
The photographs would be absolutely dull and uninteresting, but that
wouldn't matter to Coppinger. He rather preferred them that way. One has
to be careful about halation in photographing these dark interiors, but
there was a sort of ledge like a seat by the side of each doorway, and
so I lodged the camera on that to get a steady stand, and snapped off
the flashlight from behind and above.

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

Of course I was up again pretty sharply, and snapped up the kodak just
as it was going to slide off to the ground. I will confess, too, I was
feeling pleased. Here at any rate was a Guanche cupboard of sorts, and
as they had taken the trouble to hermetically seal it with cement, the
odds were that it had something inside worth hiding. At first there
was nothing to be seen but a lot of dust and rubble, so I lit a bit of
candle and cleared this away. Presently, however, I began to find that
I was shelling out something that was not cement. It chipped away, in
regular layers, and when I took it to the daylight I found that each
layer was made up of two parts. One side was shiny staff that looked
like talc, and on this was smeared a coating of dark toffee-coloured
material, that might have been wax. The toffee-coloured surface was
worked over with some kind of pattern.

Now I do not profess to any knowledge on these matters, and as a
consequence took what Coppinger had told me about Guanche habits and
acquirements as more or less true. For instance, he had repeatedly
impressed upon me that this old people could not write, and having this
in my memory, I did not guess that the patterns scribed through the
wax were letters in some obsolete character, which, if left to myself,
probably I should have done. But still at the same time I came to
the conclusion that the stuff was worth looting, and so set to work
quarrying it out with the heel of my boot and a pocket-knife.

The sheets were all more or less stuck together, and so I did not go in
for separating them farther. They fitted exactly to the cavity in which
they were stored, but by smashing down its front I was able to get at
the foot of them, and then I hacked away through the bottom layers with
the knife till I got the bulk out in one solid piece. It measured some
twenty inches by fifteen, by fifteen, but it was not so heavy as it
looked, and when I had taken the remaining photographs, I lowered it
down to Coppinger on the end of the rope.

There was nothing more to do in the caves then, so I went down myself
next. The lump of sheets was on the ground, and Coppinger was on all
fours beside it. He was pretty nearly mad with excitement.


"What is it?" I asked him.

"I don't know yet. But it is the most valuable find ever made in the
Canary Islands, and it's yours, you unappreciative beggar; at least what
there is left of it. Oh, man, man, you've smashed up the beginning, and
you've smashed up the end of some history that is probably priceless.
It's my own fault. I ought to have known better than set an untrained
man to do important exploring work."

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

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

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

"Of course. It's Egyptian: that's obvious at a glance. Though how
it's got here I can't tell yet. It isn't stuff you can read off like
a newspaper. The character's a variant on any of those that have been
discovered so far. And as for this waxy stuff spread over the talc,
it's unique. It's some sort of a mineral, I think: perhaps asphalt. It
doesn't scratch up like animal wax. I'll analyse that later. Why they
once invented it, and then let such a splendid notion drop out of use,
is just a marvel. I could stay gloating over this all day."

"Well," I said, "if it's all the same for you, I'd rather gloat over a
meal. It's a good ten miles hard going to the fonda, and I'm as hungry
as a hawk already. Look here, do you know it is four o'clock already?
It takes longer than you think climbing down to each of these caves, and
then getting up again for the next."

Coppinger spread his coat on the ground, and wrapped the lump of sheets
with tender care, but would not allow it to be tied with a rope for fear
of breaking more of the edges. He insisted on carrying it himself too,
and did so for the larger part of the way to Santa Brigida, and it was
only when he was within an ace of dropping himself with sheer tiredness
that he condescended to let me take my turn. He was tolerably ungracious
about it too. "I suppose you may as well carry the stuff," he snapped,
"seeing that after all it's your own."

Personally, when we got to the fonda, I had as good a dinner as was
procurable, and a bottle of that old Canary wine, and turned into bed
after a final pipe. Coppinger dined also, but I have reason to believe
he did not sleep much. At any rate I found him still poring over the
find next morning, and looking very heavy-eyed, but brimming with
enthusiasm.

"Do you know," he said, "that you've blundered upon the most valuable
historical manuscript that the modern world has ever yet seen? Of
course, with your clumsy way of getting it out, you've done an infinity
of damage. For instance, those top sheets you shelled away and
spoiled, contained probably an absolutely unique account of the ancient
civilisation of Yucatan."

"Where's that, anyway?"

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

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

"They were very real, and so was Atlantis, the continent where they
lived, which lay just north of the Canaries here."

"What's that crocodile sort of thing with wings drawn in the margin?"

"Some sort of beast that lived in those bygone days. The pages are full
of them. That's a cave-tiger. And that's some sort of colossal bat.
Thank goodness he had the sense to illustrate fully, the man who wrote
this, or we should never have been able to reconstruct the tale, or at
any rate we could not have understood half of it. Whole species have
died out since this was written, just as a whole continent has been
swept away and three civilisations quenched. The worst of it is, it was
written by a highly-educated man who somewhat naturally writes a very
bad fist. I've hammered at it all the night through, and have only
managed to make out a few sentences here and there"--he rubbed his hands
appreciatively. "It will take me a year's hard work to translate this
properly."

"Every man to his taste. I'm afraid my interest in the thing wouldn't
last as long as that. But how did it get there? Did your ancient
Egyptian come to Grand Canary for the good of his lungs, and write it
because he felt dull up in that cave?"

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

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

"The swamping of the continent of Atlantis might very well correspond to
the Flood."

"Is there a Pyrrha then? She was Deucalion's wife."

"I haven't come across her yet. But there's a Phorenice, who may be the
same. She seems to have been the reigning Empress, as far as I can make
out at present."

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

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

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

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

I left him going up to bed, and went outside and ordered a carriage to
take me down, and there I may say we parted for a considerable time.
A cable was waiting for me in the hotel at Las Palmas to go home for
business forthwith, and there was a Liverpool boat in the harbour which
I just managed to catch as she was steaming out. It was a close thing,
and the boatmen made a small fortune out of my hurry.

Now Coppinger was only an hotel acquaintance, and as I was up to the
eyes in work when I got back to England, I'm afraid I didn't think very
much more about him at the time. One doesn't with people one just meets
casually abroad like that. And it must have been at least a year later
that I saw by a paragraph in one of the papers, that he had given the
lump of sheets to the British Museum, and that the estimated worth of
them was ten thousand pounds at the lowest valuation.

Well, this was a bit of revelation, and as he had so repeatedly
impressed on me that the things were mine by right of discovery, I wrote
rather a pointed note to him mentioning that he seemed to have been
making rather free with my property. Promptly came back a stilted letter
beginning, "Doctor Coppinger regrets" and so on, and with it the English
translation of the wax-upon-talc MSS. He "quite admitted" my claim,
and "trusted that the profits of publication would be a sufficient
reimbursement for any damage received."

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

I will say here publicly that I regret the line he has taken over the
matter; but as the affair has gone so far, I am disposed to follow out
his proposition. Accordingly the old history is here printed; the credit
(and the responsibility) of the translation rests with Dr. Coppinger;
and whatever revenue accrues from readers, goes to the finder of the
original talc-upon-wax sheets, myself.

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




1. MY RECALL


The public official reception was over. The sentence had been read, the
name of Phorenice, the Empress, adored, and the new Viceroy installed
with all that vast and ponderous ceremonial which had gained its pomp
and majesty from the ages. Formally, I had delivered up the reins of my
government; formally, Tatho had seated himself on the snake-throne, and
had put over his neck the chain of gems which symbolised the supreme
office; and then, whilst the drums and the trumpets made their
proclamation of clamour, he had risen to his feet, for his first state
progress round that gilded council chamber as Viceroy of the Province of
Yucatan.

With folded arms and bended head, I followed him between the glittering
lines of soldiers, and the brilliant throng of courtiers, and chiefs,
and statesmen. The roof-beams quivered to the cries of "Long Live
Tatho!" "Flourish the Empress!" which came forth as in duty bound, and
the new ruler acknowledged the welcome with stately inclinations of
the head. In turn he went to the three lesser thrones of the lesser
governors--in the East, the North, and the South, and received homage
from each as the ritual was; and I, the man whom his coming had deposed,
followed with the prescribed meekness in his train.

It was a hard task, but we who hold the higher offices learn to carry
before the people a passionless face. Once, twenty years before, these
same fine obeisances had been made to me; now the Gods had seen fit to
make fortune change. But as I walked bent and humbly on behind the heels
of Tatho, though etiquette forbade noisy salutations to myself, it could
not inhibit kindly glances, and these came from every soldier, every
courtier, and every chief who stood there in that gilded hall, and
they fell upon me very gratefully. It is not often the fallen meet such
tender looks.

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

Then, one behind the other, the new Viceroy and the old, we marched with
formal step over golden tiles of that council hall beneath the pyramid,
and the great officers of state left their stations and joined in our
train; and at the farther wall we came to the door of those private
chambers which an hour ago had been mine own.

Ah, well! I had no home now in any of those wondrous cities of Yucatan,
and I could not help feeling a bitterness, though in sooth I should have
been thankful enough to return to the Continent of Atlantis with my head
still in its proper station.

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

"Deucalion," he said, "believe me that I have not sought this office. It
was thrust upon me. Had I not accepted, my head would have paid forfeit,
and another man--your enemy--would have been sent out as viceroy in
your place. The Empress does not permit that her will shall ever be
questioned."

"My friend," I made answer, "my brother in all but blood, there is no
man living in all Atlantis or her territories to whom I had liefer hand
over my government. For twenty years now have I ruled this country
of Yucatan, and Mexico beyond, first under the old King, and then
as minister to this new Empress. I know my colony like a book. I am
intimate with all her wonderful cities, with their palaces, their
pyramids, and their people. I have hunted the beasts and the savages in
the forests. I have built roads, and made the rivers so that they will
carry shipping. I have fostered the arts and crafts like a merchant; I
have discoursed, three times each day, the cult of the Gods with
mine own lips. Through evil years and through good have I ruled here,
striving only for the prosperity of the land and the strengthening of
Atlantis, and I have grown to love the peoples like a father. To you I
bequeath them, Tatho, with tender supplications for their interests."

"It is not I that can carry on Deucalion's work with Deucalion's power,
but rest content, my friend, that I shall do my humble best to follow
exactly on in your footsteps. Believe me, I came out to this government
with a thousand regrets, but I would have died sooner than take your
place had I known how vigorously the supplanting would trouble you."

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

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

"A mere formality."

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

"I do not think so," he whispered. "I believe she has need of you. There
are troublous times on hand, and Phorenice wants the ablest men in the
kingdom ready to her call."

"You may speak openly," I said, "and without fear of eavesdroppers.
We are in the heart of the pyramid here, built in every way by a man's
length of solid stone. Myself, I oversaw the laying of every course.
And besides, here in Yucatan, we have not the niceties of your old world
diplomacy, and do not listen, because we count it shame to do so."

Tatho shrugged his shoulders. "I acted only according to mine education.
At home, a loose tongue makes a loose head, and there are those whose
trade it is to carry tales. Still, what I say is this: The throne
shakes, and Phorenice sees the need of sturdy props. So she has sent
this proclamation."

"But why come to me? It is twenty years since I sailed to this colony,
and from that day I have not returned to Atlantis once. I know little of
the old country's politics. What small parcel of news drifts out to us
across the ocean, reads with slender interest here. Yucatan is another
world, my dear Tatho, as you in the course of your government will
learn, with new interests, new people, new everything. To us here,
Atlantis is only a figment, a shadow, far away across the waters. It
is for this new world of Yucatan that I have striven through all these
years."

"If Deucalion has small time to spare from his government for brooding
over his fatherland, Atlantis, at least, has found leisure to admire
the deeds of her brilliant son. Why, sir, over yonder at home, your name
carries magic with it. When you and I were lads together, it was the
custom in the colleges to teach that the men of the past were the
greatest this world has ever seen; but to-day this teaching is changed.
It is Deucalion who is held up as the model and example. Mothers name
their sons Deucalion, as the most valuable birth-gift they can make.
Deucalion is a household word. Indeed, there is only one name that is
near to it in familiarity."

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

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

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

"She certainly would have it so," replied Tatho, and there was something
in his tone which made me see that more was meant behind the words. I
drew him to one of the marble seats, and bent myself familiarly towards
him. "I am speaking," I said, "not to the new Viceroy of Yucatan, but
to my old friend Tatho, a member of the Priests' Clan, like myself, with
whom I worked side by side in a score of the smaller home governments,
in hamlets, in villages, in smaller towns, in greater towns, as we
gained experience in war and knowledge in the art of ruling people, and
so tediously won our promotion. I am speaking in Tatho's private abode,
that was mine own not two hours since, and I would have an answer with
that plainness which we always then used to one another."

The new Viceroy sighed whimsically. "I almost forget how to speak in
plain words now," he said. "We have grown so polished in these latter
days, that mere bald truth would be hissed as indelicate. But for the
memory of those early years, when we expended as much law and thought
over the ownership of a hay-byre as we should now over the fate of a
rebellious city, I will try and speak plain to you even now, Deucalion.
Tell me, old friend, what is it?"

"What of this new Empress?"

He frowned. "I might have guessed your subject," he said.


"Then speak upon it. Tell me of all the changes that have been made.
What has this Phorenice done to make her throne unstable in Atlantis?"

Tatho frowned still. "If I did not know you to be as honest as our Lord
the Sun, your questions would carry mischief with them. Phorenice has a
short way with those who are daring enough to discuss her policies for
other purpose than politely to praise them."

"You can leave me ignorant if you wish," I said with a touch of chill.
This Tatho seemed to be different from the Tatho I had known at home,
Tatho my workmate, Tatho who had read with me in the College of Priests,
who had run with me in many a furious charge, who had laboured with me
so heavily that the peoples under us might prosper. But he was quick
enough to see my change of tone.

"You force me back to my old self," he said with a half smile, "though
it is hard enough to forget the caution one has learned during the last
twenty years, even when speaking with you. Still, whatever may have
happened to the rest of us, it is clear to see that you at least have
not changed, and, old friend, I am ready to trust you with my life if
you ask it. In fact, you do ask me that very thing when you tell me to
speak all I know of Phorenice."

I nodded. This was more like the old times, when there was full
confidence between us. "The Gods will it now that I return to Atlantis,"
I said, "and what happens after that the Gods alone know. But it would
be of service to me if I could land on her shores with some knowledge of
this Phorenice, for at present I am as ignorant concerning her as some
savage from Europe or mid-Africa."

"What would you have me tell?"

"Tell all. I know only that she, a woman, reigns, whereby the ancient
law of the land, a man should rule; that she is not even of the Priestly
Clan from which the law says all rulers must be drawn; and that, from
what you say, she has caused the throne to totter. The throne was as
firm as the everlasting hills in the old King's day, Tatho."

"History has moved with pace since then, and Phorenice has spurred it.
You know her origin?"

"I know only the exact little I have told you."

"She was a swineherd's daughter from the mountains, though this is never
even whispered now, as she has declared herself to be a daughter of the
Gods, with a miraculous birth and upbringing. As she has decreed it a
sacrilege to question this parentage, and has ordered to be burnt all
those that seem to recollect her more earthly origin, the fable passes
current for truth. You see the faith I put in you, Deucalion, by telling
you what you wish to learn."

"There has always been trust between us."

"I know; but this habit of suspicion is hard to cast off, even with you.
However, let me put your good faith between me and the torture further.
Zaemon, you remember, was governor of the swineherd's province, and
Zaemon's wife saw Phorenice and took her away to adopt and bring up as
her own. It is said that the swineherd and his woman objected; perhaps
they did; anyway, I know they died; and Phorenice was taught the arts
and graces, and brought up as a daughter of the Priestly Clan."

"But still she was an adopted daughter only," I objected.

"The omission of the 'adopted' was her will at an early age," said Tatho
dryly, "and she learnt early to have her wishes carried into fact. It
was notorious that before she had grown to fifteen years she ruled not
only the women of the household, but Zaemon also, and the province that
was beyond Zaemon."

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

"I do not say that opportunities have not come usefully in Phorenice's
way, but she has genius as well. For her to have raised herself at all
from what she was, was remarkable. Not one woman out of a thousand,
placed as she was, would have grown to be aught higher than a mere wife
of some sturdy countryman, who was sufficiently simple to care nothing
for pedigree. But look at Phorenice: it was her whim to take exercise
as a man-at-arms and practise with all the utensils of war; and then,
before any one quite knows how or why it happened, a rebellion had
broken out in the province, and here was she, a slip of a girl, leading
Zaemon's troops."

"Zaemon, when I knew him, was a mere derision in the field."

"Hear me on. Phorenice put down the rebellion in masterly fashion, and
gave the conquered a choice between sword and service. They fell into
her ranks at once, and were faithful to her from that moment. I tell
you, Deucalion, there is a marvellous fascination about the woman."

"Her present historian seems to have felt it."

"Of course I have. Every one who sees her comes under her spell. And
frankly, I am in love with her also, and look upon my coming here as
detestable exile. Every one near to Phorenice, high and low, loves her
just the same, even though they know it may be her whim to send them to
execution next minute."

Perhaps I let my scorn of this appear.

"You feel contempt for our weakness? You were always a strong man,
Deucalion."

"At any rate you see me still unmarried. I have found no time to palter
with the fripperies of women."

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

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

Tatho chuckled. "Atlantis has changed so that you would hardly know the
country to-day. A new era has come over everything, especially over
the other sex. Well do I remember the women of the old King's time, how
monstrous uncomely they were, how little they knew how to walk or carry
themselves, how painfully barbaric was their notion of dress. I dare
swear that your ladies here in Yucatan are not so provincial to-day as
ours were then. But you should see them now at home. They are delicious.
And above all in charm is the Empress. Oh, Deucalion, you shall see
Phorenice in all her glorious beauty and her magnificence one of these
fine days soon, and believe me you will go down on your knees and
repent."

"I may see, and (because you say so) I may alter my life's ways. The
Gods make all things possible. But for the present I remain as I am,
celibate, and not wishful to be otherwise; and so in the meantime I
would hear the continuance of your history."

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

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

"You!" I cried.

"Even myself, Deucalion. And mark you, I fought my utmost. I was not her
creature then; and when I set out (because they wanted to spur me to the
uttermost) the High Council of the priests pointed out my prospects. The
King we had known so long, was ailing and wearily old; he was so wrapped
up in the study of the mysteries, and the joy of closely knowing them,
that earthly matters had grown nauseous to him; and at any time he might
decide to die. The Priestly Clan uses its own discretion in the election
of a new king, but it takes note of popular sentiment; and a general who
at the critical time could come home victorious from a great campaign,
which moreover would release a harassed people from the constant
application of arms, would be the idol of the moment. These things were
pointed out to me solemnly and in the full council."

"What! They promised you the throne?"

"Even that. So you see I set out with a high stake before me. Phorenice
I had never seen, and I swore to take her alive, and give her to be the
sport of my soldiery. I had a fine confidence in my own strategy then,
Deucalion. But the old Gods, in whom I trusted then, remained old,
taught me no new thing. I drilled and exercised my army according to the
forms you and I learnt together, old comrade, and in many a tough fight
found to serve well; I armed them with the choicest weapons we knew of
then, with sling and mace, with bow and spear, with axe and knife, with
sword and the throwing fire; their bodies I covered with metal plates;
even their bellies I cared for, with droves of cattle driven in the rear
of the fighting troops.

"But when the encounter came, they might have been men of straw for all
the harm they did. Out of her own brain Phorenice had made fire-tubes
that cast a dart which would kill beyond two bowshots, and the fashion
in which she handled her troops dazzled me. They threatened us on one
flank, they harassed us on the other. It was not war as we had been
accustomed to. It was a newer and more deadly game, and I had to watch
my splendid army eaten away as waves eat a sandhill. Never once did I
get a chance of forcing close action. These new tactics that had come
from Phorenice's invention, were beyond my art to meet or understand. We
were eight to her one, and our close-packed numbers only made us so much
the more easy for slaughter. A panic came, and those who could fled.
Myself, I had no wish to go back and earn the axe that waits for the
unsuccessful general. I tried to die there fighting where I stood. But
death would not come. It was a fine melee, Deucalion, that last one."

"And so she took you?"

"I stood with three others back to back, with a ring of dead round us,
and a ring of the enemy hemming us in. We taunted them to come on. But
at hand-to-hand courtesies we had shown we could hold our own, and so
they were calling for fire-tubes with which they could strike us down
in safety from a distance. Then up came Phorenice. 'What is this to-do?'
says she. 'We seek to kill Lord Tatho, who led against you,' say they.
'So that is Tatho?' says she. 'A fine figure of a man indeed, and a
pretty fighter seemingly, after the old manner. Doubtless he is one
who would acquire the newer method. See now Tatho,' says she, 'it is my
custom to offer those I vanquish either the sword (which, believe me,
was never nearer your neck than now) or service under my banner. Will
you make a choice?'

"'Woman,' I said, 'fairest that ever I saw, finest general the world
has ever borne, you tempt me sorely by your qualities, but there is a
tradition in our Clan, that we should be true to the salt we eat. I am
the King's man still, and so I can take no service from you.'

"'The King is dead,' says she. 'A runner has just brought the tidings,
meaning them to have fallen into your hands. And I am the Empress.'

"'Who made you Empress?' I asked.

"'The same most capable hand that has given me this battle,' says she.
'It is a capable hand, as you have seen: it can be a kind hand also, as
you may learn if you choose. With the King dead, Tatho is a masterless
man now. Is Tatho in want of a mistress?'

"'Such a glorious mistress as you,' I said, 'Yes.' And from that moment,
Deucalion, I have been her slave. Oh, you may frown; you may get up from
this seat and walk away if you will. But I ask you this: keep back your
worst judgment of me, old friend, till after you have seen Phorenice
herself in the warm and lovely flesh. Then your own ears and your own
senses will be my advocates, to win me back your old esteem."




2. BACK TO ATLANTIS


The words of Tatho were no sleeping draught for me that night. I began
to think that I had made somewhat a mistake in wrapping myself up so
entirely in my government of Yucatan, and not contriving to keep more in
touch with events that were passing at home in Atlantis. For many years
past it had been easy to see that the mariner folk who did traffic
across the seas spoke with restraint, and that only what news the
Empress pleased was allowed to ooze out beyond her borders. But, as
I say, I was fully occupied with my work in the colony, and had no
curiosity to pull away a veil intentionally placed. Besides, it has
always been against my principles to put to the torture men who had
received orders for silence from their superiors, merely that they shall
break these orders for my private convenience.

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

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

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

The request seemed to surprise him. "That you may certainly have if you
wish it. But my ships are foul with the long passage, and are in need
of a careen. If you take them, you will make a slow voyage of it to
Atlantis. Why do you not take your own navy? The ships are in harbour
now, for I saw them there when we came in. Brave ships they are too."

"But not mine. That navy belongs to Yucatan."

"Well, Deucalion, you are Yucatan; or, rather, you were yesterday, and
have been these twenty years."

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

Tatho shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose you know your own policies
best," he said, "though to me it seems but risky for a man who has
attained to a position like yours and mine not to have provided himself
with a stout navy of his own. One never knows when a recall may be sent,
and, through lack of these precautions, a life's earnings may very well
be lost in a dozen hours."

"I have no fear for mine," I said coldly.

"Of course not, because you know me to be your friend. But had another
man been appointed to this vice-royalty, you might have been sadly
shorn, Deucalion. It is not many fellows who can resist a snug hoard
ready and waiting in the very coffers they have come to line."

"My Lord Tatho," I said, "it is clear to me that you and I have grown to
be of different tastes. All of the hoard that I have made for myself in
this colony, few men would covet. I have the poor clothes you see me
in this moment, and a box of drugs such as I have found useful to the
stomach. I possess also three slaves, two of them scribes and the third
a sturdy savage from Europe, who cooks my victual and fills for me the
bath. For my maintenance during my years of service, here, I have bled
the State of a soldier's ration and nothing beyond; and if in my name
any man has mulcted a creature in Yucatan of so much as an ounce of
bronze, I request you as a last service to have that man hanged for me
as a liar and a thief."

Tatho looked at me curiously. "I do not know whether I admire you most
or whether I pity. I do not know whether to be astonished or to despise.
We had heard of much of your uprightness over yonder in Atlantis, of
your sternness and your justice, but I swear by the old Gods that no
soul guessed you carried your fancy so far as this. Why, man, money is
power. With money and the resources money can buy, nothing could stop
a fellow like you; whilst without it you may be tripped up and trodden
down irrevocably at the first puny reverse."

"The Gods will choose my fate."

"Possibly; but for mine, I prefer to nourish it myself. I tell you with
frankness that I have not come here to follow in the pattern you have
made for a vice-royalty. I shall govern Yucatan wisely and well to the
best of my ability; but I shall govern it also for the good of Tatho,
the viceroy. I have brought with me here my navy of eight ships and a
personal bodyguard. There is my wife also, and her women and her slaves.
All these must be provided for. And why indeed should it be otherwise?
If a people is to be governed, it should be their privilege to pay
handsomely for their prince."

"We shall not agree on this. You have the power now, and can employ it
as you choose. If I thought it would be of any use, I should like to
supplicate you most humbly to deal with lenience when you come to tax
these people who are under you. They have grown very dear to me."

"I have disgusted you with me, and I am grieved for it. But even to
retain your good opinion, Deucalion--which I value more than that of any
man living--I cannot do here as you have done. It would be impossible,
even if I wished it. You must not judge all other men by your own
strong standard: a Tatho is by no means a colossus like a Deucalion. And
besides, I have a wife and children, and they must be provided for, even
if I neglect myself."

"Ah, there," I said, "it does seem that I possess the advantage. I have
no wife, to clog me."

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

"I know this is a colony here, without any of the home refinements; but
if in the days to come, the deer of the forest, the fish of the stream,
and the other resources of the place are not put to better use than
heretofore, I shall see it my duty as ruler to fry some of the
kitchen staff alive in grease so as to encourage better cookery. Gods!
Deucalion, have you forgotten what it is to have a palate? And have
you no esteem for your own dignity? Man, look at your clothes. You are
garbed like a herdsman, and you have not a gaud or a jewel to brighten
you."

"I eat," I said coldly, "when my hunger bids me, and I carry this one
robe upon my person till it is worn out and needs replacement. The
grossness of excessive banqueting, and the effeminacy of many clothes
are attainments that never met my fancy. But I think we have talked here
over long, and there seems little chance of our finding agreement. You
have changed, Tatho, with the years, and perhaps I have changed also.
These alterations creep imperceptibly into one's being as time advances.
Let us part now, and, forgetting these present differences, remember
only our friendship of twenty years agone. That for me, at any rate, has
always had a pleasant savour when called up into the memory."

Tatho bowed his head. "So be it," he said.

"And I would still charge myself upon your bounty for that ship. Dawn
cannot be far off now, and it is not decent that the man who has ruled
here so long, should walk in daylight through the streets on the morning
after his dismissal."

"So be it," said Tatho. "You shall have my poor navy. I could have
wished that you had asked me something greater."

"Not the navy, Tatho; one small ship. Believe me, more is wasted."

"Now, there," said Tatho, "I shall act the tyrant. I am viceroy here
now, and will have my way in this. You may go naked of all possessions:
that I cannot help. But depart for Atlantis unattended, that you shall
not."

And so, in fine, as the choice was set beyond me, it was in the "Bear,"
Tatho's own private ship, with all the rest of his navy sailing in
escort, that I did finally make my transit.

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

So the courtesies were fulfilled by the craft whereon I abode hauling
out into the entrance basin, and anchoring there in the swells of the
fairway; and forthwith she and her consorts took in wood and water,
cured meat and fish ashore, and refitted in all needful ways, with all
speed attainable.

For myself there came then, as the first time during twenty busy years,
a breathing space from work. I had no further connection with the
country of my labours; indeed, officially, I had left it already. Into
the working of the ship it was contrary to rule that I should make
any inspection or interest, since all sea matters were the exclusive
property of the Mariners' Guild, secured to them by royal patent, and
most jealously guarded.

So there remained to me in my day, hours to gaze (if I would) upon the
quays, the harbours, the palaces, and the pyramids of the splendid city
before me which I had seen grow stone by stone from its foundations; or
to roam my eye over the pastures and the grain lands beyond the walls,
and to look longingly at the dense forests behind, from which field by
field we had so tediously ripped our territory.

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

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

Rowing-slaves from Europe for this long passage of sea are not taken
now, owing to the difficulty in provisioning them, for modern humanity
forbids the practice of letting them eat one another according to the
home custom of their continent; sails alone are but an indifferent stand
by; but modern science has shown how to extract force from the Sun, when
He is free from cloud, and this (in a manner kept secret by mariners) is
made to draw sea-water at the forepart of the vessel, and eject it with
such force at the stern that she is appreciably driven forward, even
with the wind adverse.

In another matter also has navigation vastly improved. It is not
necessary now, as formerly, to trust wholly to a starry night (when
beyond sight of land) to find direction. A little image has been made,
and is stood balanced in the forepart of every vessel, with an arm
outstretched, pointing constantly to the direction where the Southern
Cross lies in the Heavens. So, by setting an angle, can a just course be
correctly steered. Other instruments have they also for finding a true
position on the ocean wastes, for the newer mariner, when he is at sea,
puts little trust in the Gods, and confides mightily in his own thews
and wits.

Still, it is amusing to see these tarry fellows, even in this modern
day, take their last farewell of the harbour town. The ship is stowed,
and all ready for sea, and they wash and put on all their bravery of
attire. Ashore they go, their faces long with piety, and seek some
obscure temple whose God has little flavour with shore folk, and here
they make sacrifice with clamour and lavish outlay. And, finally, there
follows a feast in honour of the God, and they arrive back on board, and
put to sea for the most part drunken, and all heavy and evil-humoured
with gluttony and their other excesses.

The voyage was very different to my previous sea-going. There was no
creeping timorously along in touch with the coasts. We stood straight
across the open gulf in the direction of home, came up with the band of
the Carib Islands, and worked confidently through them, as though they
had been signposts to mark the sea highway; and stopped only twice
to replenish with wood, water, and fruit. These commodities, too, the
savages brought us freely, so great was their subjection, and in
neither place did we have even the semblance of a fight. It was a great
certificate of the growing power of Atlantis and her finest over-sea
colony.

Then boldly on we went across the vast ocean beyond, with never a
sacrifice to implore the Gods that they should help our direction. One
might feel censure towards these rugged mariners for their impiety, but
one could not help an admiration for their lusty skill and confidence.

The dangers of the desolate sea are dealt out as the Gods will, and man
can only take them as they come. Storms we encountered, and the mariners
fought them with stubborn endurance; twice a blazing stone from Heaven
hissed into the sea beside us, though without injuring any of our ships;
and, as was unavoidable, the great beasts of the sea hunted us with
their accustomed savagery. But only once did we suffer material loss
from these last, and that was when three of the greater sea lizards
attacked the "Bear," the ship whereon I travelled, at one and the same
time.

The hour of their onset was during the blazing midday heat, and the Sun
being at the full of His power, our machines were getting full force
from Him. The vessel was travelling forward faster than a man on dry
land could walk. But for the power escape she might as well have been
standing still when the beasts sighted her. There were three of them,
as I have said, and we saw them come up over the curve of the horizon,
beating the sea into foam with their flappers, and waving their great
necks like masts as they swam. Our navy was spread out in a long line
of ships, and in olden days each of the beasts would have selected a
separate prey, and proceeded for it; but, like man, these beasts have
learned the necessities of warfare, and they hunt in pack now and do not
separate their forces.

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

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

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

The shipmen faced the monsters with a sturdy courage. Arrows were
useless against the smooth, bull-like hides. Even the throwing fire
could not so much as singe them; nothing but twenty axe blows delivered
on an attacking head together could beat it back, and even these
succeeded only through sheer weight of metal, and did not make so much
as the scratch of a wound.

During all time beasts have disputed with man the mastery of the earth,
and it is only in Atlantis and Egypt and Yucatan that man has dared to
hold his own, and fight them with a mind made strong by many previous
victories. In Europe and mid-Africa the greater beasts hold full
dominion, and man admits his puny number and force, and lives in earth
crannies and the higher tree-tops, as a fugitive confessed. And upon the
great oceans, the beasts are lords, unchecked.

Still here, upon this desolate sea, although the giant lizards were new
to me, it was a pleasure to pit my knowledge of war against their brute
strength and courage. Ever since the first men did their business upon
the great waters, they fulfilled their instincts in fighting the beasts
with desperation. Hiding coward-like in a hold was useless, for if this
enemy could not find men above decks to glut them, they would break
a ship with their paddles, and so all would be slain. And so it was
recognised that the fight should go forward as desperately as might be,
and that it could only end when the beasts had got their prey and had
gone away satisfied.

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

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

Deliberately I placed myself in the sight of one of the lizards, and
offered my body to its attack. The challenge was accepted. It swooped
like a dropping stone, and I swerved and drove in the lance at its oozy
eye.

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

The male and the other female lizard had also left us, but not in
similar plight. Tob, the captain, seeing my resolve to take hazards,
deliberately thrust a shipman into the jaws of each of the others,
so that they might be sated and get them gone. It was clear that Tob
dreaded very much for his own skin if I came by harm, and I thought with
a warming heart of the threats that Tatho must have used in his kind
anxiety for my safety. It is pleasant when one's old friends do not omit
to pay these little attentions.




3. A RIVAL NAVY


Now, when we came up with the coasts of Atlantis, though Tob, with
the aid of his modern instruments, had made his landfall with most
marvellous skill and nearness, there still remained some ten days' more
journey in which we had to retrace our course, till we came to that arm
of the sea up which lies the great city of Atlantis, the capital.

The sight of the land, and the breath of earth and herbage which came
off from it with the breezes, were, I believe, under the Gods, the
means of saving the lives of all of us. For, as is necessary with long
cross-ocean voyages, many of our ships' companies had died, and still
more were sick with scurvy through the unnatural tossing, or (as some
have it) through the salt, unnatural food inseparable from shipboard.
But these last, the sight and the smells of land heartened up in
extraordinary fashion, and from being helpless logs, unable to move even
under blows of the scourge, they became active again, able to help in
the shipwork, and lusty (when the time came) to fight for their lives
and their vessels.

From the moment that I was deposed in Yucatan, despite Tatho's
assurances, there had been doubts in my mind as to what nature would
be my reception in Atlantis. But I had faced this event of the future
without concern: it was in the hands of the Gods. The Empress Phorenice
might be supreme on earth; she might cause my head to be lopped from its
proper shoulders the moment I set foot ashore; but my Lord the Sun was
above Phorenice, and if my head fell, it would be because He saw best
that it should be so. On which account, therefore, I had not troubled
myself about the matter during the voyage, but had followed out my calm
study of the higher mysteries with an unloaded mind.

But when our navy had retraced sufficiently the course that had been
overrun, and came up with the two vast headlands which marked the
entrance to the inland waters, there, a bare two days from the Atlantis
capital, we met with another navy which was, beyond doubt, waiting to
give us a reception. The ships were riding at anchor in a bay which lent
them shelter, but they had scouts on the high land above, who cried
the alarm of our approach, and when we rounded the headland, they were
standing out to dispute our passage.

Of us there were now but five ships, the rest having been lost in
storms, or fallen behind because all their crews were dead from the
scurvy; and of the strangers there were three fine ships, and three
galleys of many oars apiece. They were clean and bright and black; our
ships were storm-ragged and weather-worn, and had bottoms that were foul
with trailing ocean weed. Our ships hung out the colours and signs of
Tatho and Deucalion openly and without shame, so that all who looked
might know their origin and errand; but the other navy came on without
banner or antient, as though they were some low creatures feeling shame
for their birth.

Clear it seemed also that they would not let us pass without a fight,
and in this there was nothing uncommon; for no law carries out over the
seas, and a brother in one ship feels quite free to harry his brother
in another vessel if he meets him out of earshot of the beach--more
especially if that other brother be coming home laden from foray or
trading tour. So Tob, with system and method, got our vessel into
fighting trim, and the other four captains did the like with theirs,
and drew close in to us to form a compact squadron. They had no wish to
smell slavery, now that the voyage had come so near to its end.

Our Lord the Sun shone brilliantly, giving full speed to the machines,
as though He was fully willing for the affair to proceed, and the two
navies approached one another with quickness, the three galleys holding
back to stay in line with their consorts. But when some bare hundred
ship-lengths separated us, the other navy halted, and one of the
galleys, drawing ahead, flew green branches from her masts, seeking for
a parley.

The course was unusual, but we, in our sea-battered state, were no navy
to invite a fight unnecessarily. So in hoarse sea-bawls word was passed,
and we too halted, and Tob hoisted a withered stick (which had to do
duty for greenery), to show that we were ready for talk, and would
respect the person of an ambassador.

The galley drew on, swung round, and backed till its stern rasped on our
shield rail, and one of her people clambered up and jumped down upon
our decks. He was a dandily rigged-out fellow, young and lusty, and all
healthy from the land and land victual, and he looked round him with a
sneer at our sea-tatteredness, and with a fine self-confidence. Then,
seeing Tob, he nodded as one meets an acquaintance. "Old pot-mate," he
said, "your woman waits for you up by the quay-side in Atlantis yonder,
with four youngsters at her heels. I saw her not half a month ago."

"You didn't come out here to tell me home news," said Tob; "that I'll be
sworn. I've drunk enough pots with you, Dason, to know your pleasantries
thoroughly."

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

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

"Oh, I know you're a desperate enough fellow," said Dason, "and I'm free
to confess that if it does come to blows we are like to lose a few
men before we get you and your cripples here, and your crazy ships
comfortably sunk. Our navy has its orders to carry out, and the cause of
my embassage is this: we wish to see if you will act the sensible part
and give us what we want, and so be permitted to go on your way home,
with a skin that is unslit and dry?"

"You have come to the wrong bird here for a plucking," said Tob with a
heavy laugh. "We took no treasure or merchandise on board in Yucatan. We
stayed in harbour long enough to cure our sea victual and fill with food
and water, and no longer. We sail back as we sailed out, barren ships.
You will not believe me, of course; I would not have believed you had
our places been changed; but you may go into the holds and search if
you choose. You will find there nothing but a few poor sailormen half in
pieces with the scurvy. No, you can steal nothing here but blows, Dason,
and we will give you those with but little asking."

"I am glad to see that you state your cargo at such slender value," said
the envoy, "for it is the cargo I must take back with me on the galley,
if you are to earn your safe conduct to home."

Tob knit his brows. "You had better speak more plain," he said. "I am a
common sailor, and do not understand fancy talk."

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

"And if I do the miser, and deny you this piece of my freight?"

The spruce envoy looked round at the splintered ship, and the battered
navy beside her. "Why, then, Tob, we shall send you all to the fishes
in very short time, and instead of Deucalion standing before the Gods
alone, he will go down with a fine ragged company limping at his heels."

"I doubt it," said Tob, "but we shall see. As for letting you have my
Lord Deucalion, that is out of the question. For see here, pot-mate
Dason; in the first place, if I went to Atlantis without Deucalion, my
other lord, Tatho, would come back one of these days, and in his hands I
should die by the slowest of slow inches; in the second, I have seen
my Lord Deucalion kill a great sea lizard, and he showed himself such a
proper man that day that I would not give him up against his will, even
to Tatho himself; and in the third place, you owe me for your share in
our last wine-bout ashore, and I'll see you with the nether Gods before
I give you aught till you've settled that score."

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

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

Upon which Dason went to his galley.

Promptly Tob set going the machine on our own "Bear," and bawled his
orders right and left to the other ships. The crew might be weak with
scurvy, but they were quick to obey. Instantly the five vessels were all
started, and because our Lord the Sun was shining brightly, got soon to
the full of their pace. The whole of our small navy converged, singling
out one ship of their opponents, and she, not being ready for so swift
an attack, got flurried, and endeavoured to turn and run for room,
instead of trying to meet us bows on. As a consequence, the whole of our
five ships hit her together on the broadside, tearing her planking with
their underwater beaks, and sinking her before we had backed clear from
the engage.

But if we thus brought the enemy's number down to five, and so equal to
our own, the advantage did not remain with us for long. The three nimble
galleys formed into line: their boatswains' whips cracked as the slaves
bent to their oars, and presently one of our own ships was gored and
sunk, the men on her being killed in the water without hope of rescue.

And then commenced a tight-locked melee that would have warmed the heart
of the greatest warrior alive. The ships and the galleys were forced
together and lay savagely grinding one another upon the swells, as
though they had been sentient animals. The men on board them shot their
arrows, slashed with axes, thrust and hacked with swords, and hurled the
throwing fire. But in every way the fight converged upon the "Bear." It
was on her that the enemy spent the fiercest of their spite; it was to
the "Bear," that the other crews of Tatho's navy rallied as their own
vessels caught fire, or were sunk or taken.

Battle is an old acquaintance with us of the Priestly Clan, and for
those of us who have had to carve out territories for the new colonies,
it comes with enough frequency to cloy even the most chivalrous
appetite. So I can speak here as a man of experience. Up till that time,
for half a life-span, I had heard men shout "Deucalion" as a battlecry,
and in my day had seen some lusty encounters. But this sea-fight
surprised even me in its savage fierceness. The bleak, unstable element
which surrounded us; the swaying decks on which we fought; the throwing
fire, which burnt flesh and wood alike with its horrid flame; the
great gluttonous man-eating birds that hovered in the sky overhead;
the man-eating fish that swarmed up from the seas around, gnawing and
quarrelling over those that fell into the waters, all went to make up a
circumstance fit to daunt the bravest men-at-arms ever gathered for an
army.

But these tarry shipmen faced it all with an indomitable courage, and
never a cry of quailing. Life on the seas is so hard, and (from the
beasts that haunt the great waters) so full of savage dangers, that
Death has lost half his terrors to them through sheer familiarity.
They were fellows who from pure lust for a fray would fight to a finish
amongst themselves in the taverns ashore; and so here, in this desperate
sea-battle, the passion for killing burned in them, as a fire stone
from Heaven rages in a forest; and they took even their death-wounds
laughing.

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

However, I will not load my page with farther long account of this
obscure sea-fight, whose only glory was its ferocity. One by one all the
ships of either side were sunk or lay with all their people killed, till
finally only Dason's galley and our own "Bear" were left. For the moment
we were being mastered. We had a score of men remaining out of all those
that manned the navy when it sailed from Yucatan, and the enemy had
boarded us and made the decks of the "Bear" the field of battle. But
they had been over busy with the throwing fire, and presently, as we
raged at one another, the smoke and the flame from the sturdy vessel
herself let us very plainly know that she was past salvation.

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

"Tob!" our fellows shouted in their ecstasy of fighting madness, and I
too could not forbear sending out a "Tob!" for my battle-cry. It was a
change for me not to be leader, but it was a luxury for once to fight
in the wake of this Tob, despite his uncouthness of mien and plan. There
was no stopping this new rush, though progress still was slow. Tob with
his bloody axe cut the road in front, and we others, with the lust of
battle filling us to the chin, raged like furies in his wake. Gods! but
it was a fight.

Ten of us won to the galley, with the flames and the smoke from the poor
"Bear" spurting at our heels. We turned and stabbed madly at all who
tried to follow, and hacked through the grapples that held the vessels
to their embrace. The sea-swells spurned the "Bear" away.

The slaves chained to the rowing-galley's benches had interest neither
one way nor the other, and looked on the contest with dull concern, save
when some stray missile found a billet amongst them. But a handful of
the fighting men had scrambled desperately on board the galley after us,
preferring any fate to a fiery death on the "Bear," and these had to be
dealt with promptly. Three, with their fighting fury still red-hot in
them, had most wastefully to be killed out of mischief's way; five, who
had pitched their weapons into the sea, were chained to oar looms, in
place of slaves who were dead; and there remained only Dason to have a
fate apportioned.

The fight had cooled out of him, and he had thrown his arms to the sea,
and stood sullenly ready for what might befall; and to him Tob went up
with an exulting face.

"Ho, pot-mate Dason," cried he, "you made a lot of talk an hour ago
about that woman of mine, who lives with her brats on the quay-side in
Atlantis yonder. Now, I'll give you a pleasant choice; either I'll
take you along home, and tell her what you said before the whole ship's
company (that are for the most part dead now, poor souls!), and I'll
leave her to perform on your carcase as she sees fit by way of payment;
or, as the other choice, I'll deal with you here now myself."

"I thank you for the chance," said Dason, and knelt and offered his neck
to the axe. So Tob cut off his head, sticking it on the galley's beak as
an advertisement of what had been done. The body he threw over the side,
and one of the great man-eating birds that hovered near, picked it up
and flew away with it to its nest amongst the crags. And so we were
free to get a meal of the fruits and the fresh meats which the galley
offered, whilst the oar-slaves sent the galley rushing onwards towards
the capital.

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

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

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

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

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

Tob filled another brimming horn from the wine-skin and splashed it at
my feet. "That's good enough surety for me," he said, "that my woman and
brats never want from this day onward. The Lord Deucalion for the block,
indeed!"




4. THE WELCOME OF PHORENICE


Now I can say it with all truth that, till the rival navy met us in the
mouth of the gulf, I had thought little enough of my importance as a
recruit for the Empress. But the laying in wait for us of those ships,
and the wild ferocity with which they fought so that I might fall into
their hands, were omens which the blindest could not fail to read. It
was clear that I was expected to play a lusty part in the fortunes of
the nation.

But if our coming had been watched for by enemies it seemed that
Phorenice also had her scouts; and these saw us from the mountains, and
carried news to the capital. The arm of the sea at the head of which the
vast city of Atlantis stands, varies greatly in width. In places where
the mountains have over-boiled, and sent their liquid contents down to
form hard stone below, the channel has barely a river's wideness, and
then beyond, for the next half-day's sail it will widen out into a lake,
with the sides barely visible. Moreover, its course is winding, and so
a runner who knows his way across the flats, and the swamps, and between
the smoking hills which lie along the shore, and did not get overcome by
fire-streams, or water, or wandering beasts, could carry news overland
from seacoast to capital far speedier than even the most shrewdly
whipped of galleys could ferry it along the water.

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

Still, about this we had no means of knowing at the time, and pushed
on in fancy that our coming was quite unheralded. The slaves on the
galley's row-banks were for the most part savages from Europe, and the
smell of them was so offensive that the voyage lost all its pleasures;
and as, moreover, the wind carried with it an infinite abundance of
small grit from some erupting fire mountain, we were anxious to linger
as little as possible. Besides, if I may confess to such a thing without
being unduly degraded, although by my priestly training I had been
taught stoicism, and knew that all the future was in the hands of the
Gods, I was frailly human still to have a very vast curiosity as to
what would be the form of my own reception at Atlantis. I could imagine
myself taken a formal prisoner on landing, and set on a formal trial
to answer for my cure of the colony of Yucatan; I could imagine myself
stepping ashore unknown and unnoticed, and after a due lapse, being
sent for by the Empress to take up new duties; but the manner of my real
welcome was a thing I did not even guess at.

We came in sight of the peak of the sacred mountain, with its glare of
eternal fires which stand behind the city, one morning with the day's
break, and the whips of the boatswains cracked more vehemently, so that
those offensive slaves should give the galley a final spurt. The wind
was adverse, and no sail could be spread, but under oars alone we made
a pretty pace, and the sides of the sacred mountain grew longer, and
presently the peaks of the pyramids in the city, the towers of the
higher buildings, began to show themselves as though they floated upon
the gleaming water. It was twenty years since I had seen Atlantis
last, and my heart glowed with the thought of treading again upon her
paving-stones.

The splendid city grew out of the sea as we approached, and to every
throb of the oars, the shores leaped nearer. I saw the temple where I
had been admitted first to manhood; I saw the pyramid in whose heart
I had been initiated to the small mysteries; and then (as the lesser
objects became discernible) I made out the house where a father and a
mother had reared me, and my eyes became dim as the memories rose.

We drew up outside the white walls of the harbour, as the law was, and
the slaves panted and sobbed in quietude over the oar-looms. For vessels
thus stationed there is, generally, a sufficiency of waiting, for a
port-captain is apt to be so uncertain of his own dignity, that he must
e'en keep folks waiting to prove it to them. But here for us it might
have been that the port-captain's boat was waiting. The signal was
sounded from the two castles at the harbour's entrance, the chain which
hung between them was dropped, and a ten-oared boat shot out from behind
the walls as fast as oars could drive her. She raced up alongside and
the questions were put:

"That should be Dason's galley?"

"It was," said Tob.

"Oh, I saw Dason's head on your beak," said the port-captain. "You were
Tatho's captain?"

"And am still. Tatho's fleet was sent by Dason and his friends to the
sea-floor, and so we took this stinking galley to finish the voyage in,
seeing that it was the only craft left afloat."

The port-captain was roving his eye over the group of us who stood on
the after-deck. "I fear me, captain, that you'll have but a dangerous
reception. I do not see my Lord Deucalion. Or does he come with some
other navy? Gods, captain, if you have let him get killed whilst under
your charge, the Empress will have the skin torn slowly off you living."

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

The port-captain stared for a moment, as if unbelieving, and then, as
though satisfied, made obeisance like a fellow well used to ceremonial.
"I trust my lord, in his infinite strength, will pardon my sin in not
knowing him by his nobleness before. But truth to tell, I had looked to
see my lord more suitably apparelled."

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

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

The boat shot ahead, and our galley-slaves swung into stroke again. Tob
watched me with a dry smile as he stood directing the men at the helms.

"Well," I said, humouring his whim, "what is it?"

"I'm thinking," said Tob, "that my Lord Deucalion will remember me
only as a very rude fellow when he steps ashore amongst all this fine
gentility."

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

"Then I must prove my refinement," said Tob, "and not contradict." He
picked up my hand in his huge, hard fist, and pressed it. "By the Gods,
Deucalion, you may be a great prince, but I've only known you as a
man. You're the finest fighter of beasts and men that walks this world
to-day, and I love you for it. That spear-stroke of yours on the lizard
is a thing the singers in the taverns shall make chaunts about."

We drew rapidly into the harbour, the soldiers in the entrance castle
blowing their trumpets in welcome as we passed between them. The captain
of the port had run up my banner to the masthead of his boat, having
been provided with one apparently for this purpose of announcement, and
from the quays, across the vast basin of the harbour, there presently
came to us the noises of musicians, and the pale glow of welcoming
fires, dancing under the sunlight. I was almost awed to think that an
Empress of Atlantis had come to such straits as to feel an interest like
this in any mere returning subject.

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

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

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

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

Curtly enough, I refused to alter my garb, and when one of them
stammeringly referred to the Empress's tastes I asked him with plainness
if he had got any definite commands on this paltry matter from her
mightiness.

Of course, he had to confess that there were none.

Upon which I retorted that Phorenice had commanded Deucalion, the man,
to attend before her, and had sent no word of her pleasure as to his
outer casing.

"This dress," I said, "suits my temper well. It shields my poor body
from the heat and the wind, and, moreover, it is clean. It seems to
me, sirs," I added, "that your interfering savours somewhat of an
impertinence."

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

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

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

Nevertheless, their action gave me some enlightenment. They were
perfectly in earnest in offering me the swords, and I recognised that
this was a different Atlantis that I had come home to, where a man had
dread of the torture for a mere difference concerning the cut of a coat.

There was a bath in the pavilion, and in that I regaled myself gladly,
though there was some paltry scent added to the water that took away
half its refreshing power; and then I set myself to wait with all
outward composure and placidity. The chamberlains were too well-bred to
break into my calm, and I did not condescend to small talk. So there we
remained, the four of us, I sitting, they standing, with our Lord the
Sun smiting heavily on the scarlet roof of the pavilion, whilst the
music blared, and the welcoming fires dispersed their odours from the
great paved square without, which faced upon the quay.

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

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

But presently came the two wonders of all that dazzling spectacle. From
out of the eclipse of the houses there swung into the open no less a
beast than a huge bull mammoth. The sight had sufficient surprise in it
almost to make me start. Many a time during my life had I led hunts
to kill the mammoth, when a herd of them had raided some village or
cornland under my charge. I had seen the huge brutes in the wild ground,
shaggy, horrid, monstrous; more fierce than even the cave-tiger or the
cave-bear; most dangerous beast of all that fight with man for dominion
of the earth, save only for a few of the greater lizards. And here
was this creature, a giant even amongst mammoths, yet tame as any
well-whipped slave, and bearing upon its back a great half-castle of
gold, stamped with the outstretched hand, and bedecked with silver
snakes. Its murderous tusks were gilded, its hairy neck was garlanded
with flowers, and it trod on in the procession as though assisting at
such pageantry was the beginning and end of its existence. Its tameness
seemed a fitting symbol of the masterful strength of this new ruler of
Atlantis.

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

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

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

"At least with bent head," urged another.

But I had my own notions of what is due to one's own self-respect in
these matters, and I marched across the bare open space with head erect,
giving the Empress gaze for gaze. She was clearly summing me up. I was
frankly doing the like by her. Gods! but those few short seconds made me
see a woman such as I never imagined could have lived.

I know I have placed it on record earlier in this writing that, during
all the days of a long official life, women have had no influence over
me. But I have been quick to see that they often had a strong swaying
power over the policies of others, and as a consequence I have made it
my business to study them even as I have studied men. But this woman who
sat under the sacred snakes in her golden half-castle on the mammoth's
back, fairly baffled me. Of her thoughts I could read no single
syllable. I could see a body slight, supple, and beautifully moulded; in
figure rather small. Her face was a most perfect book of cleverness, yet
she was fair, too, beyond belief, with hair of a lovely ruddiness, cut
short in the new fashion, and bunching on her shoulders. And eyes! Gods!
who could plumb the depths of Phorenice's eyes, or find in mere tint a
trace of their heaven-made colour?

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

"For others," she said, "it is fitting that they should do so, once,
twice, or several times, according to their rank and station, for I am
Empress, and they are all so far beneath me; but you are Deucalion, my
lord, and though till to-day I knew you only from pictures drawn with
tongues, I have seen you now, and have judged for myself. And so I make
this decree: Deucalion is above all other men in Atlantis, and if there
is one who does not render him obedience, that man is enemy also of
Phorenice, and shall feel her anger."

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

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

"Your Majesty overwhelms me with so much notice."

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

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

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

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

"I have been pining this long enough for a stronger meat than they can
give," she went on, "and at last I have sent for you. I have been at
some pains to procure my tongue-pictures of you, Deucalion, and though
you do not know me yet, I may say I knew you with all thoroughness even
before we met. I can admire a man with a mind great enough to forego the
silly gauds of clothes, or the excesses of feasts, or the pamperings of
women." She looked down at her own silks and her glittering jewels. "We
women like to carry colours upon our persons, but that is a different
matter. And so I sent for you here to be my minister, and bear with me
the burden of ruling."

"There should be better men in broad Atlantis."

"There are not, my lord, and I who know them all by heart tell you so.
They are all enamoured of my poor person; they weary me with their empty
phrases and their importunities; and, though they are always brimming
with their cries of service, their own advancement and the filling of
their own treasuries ever comes first with them. So I have sent for you,
Deucalion, the one strong man in all the world. You at least will not
sigh to be my lover?"

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

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

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

In public buildings the city had certainly made growth; there were
new temples, new pyramids, new palaces, and statuary everywhere. Its
greatness and magnificence impressed me more strongly even than usual,
returning to it as I did from such a distance of time and space, for,
though the many cities of Yucatan might each of them be princely, this
great capital was a place not to be compared with any of them. It was
imperial and gorgeous beyond descriptive words.

Yet most of all was I struck by the poverty and squalor which stood in
such close touch with all this magnificence. In the throngs that lined
the streets there were gaunt bodies and hungry faces everywhere. Here
and there stood one, a man or a woman, as naked as a savage in Europe,
and yet dull to shame. Even the trader, with trumpery gauds on his coat,
aping the prevailing fashion for display, had a scared, uneasy look to
his face, as though he had forgotten the mere name of safety, and hid a
frantic heart with his tawdry outward vauntings of prosperity.

Phorenice read the direction of my looks.

"The season," she said, "has been unhealthy of recent months. These
lower people will not build fine houses to adorn my city, and because
they choose to live on in their squalid, unsightly kennels, there have
been calentures and other sicknesses amongst them, which make them
disinclined for work. And then, too, for the moment, earning is not
easy. Indeed, you may say trade is nearly stopped this last half-year,
since the rebels have been hammering so lustily at my city gates."

I was fairly startled out of my decorum.

"Rebels!" I cried. "Who are hammering at the gates of Atlantis? Is the
city in a state of siege?"

"Of their condescension," said Phorenice lightly, "they are giving us
holiday to-day, and so, happily, my welcome to you comes undisturbed.
If they were fighting, your ears would have told you of it. To give them
their due, they are noisy enough in all their efforts. My spies say they
are making ready new engines for use against the walls, which you may
sally out to-morrow and break if it gives you amusement. But for to-day,
Deucalion, I have you, and you have me, and there is peace round us, and
some prettiness of display. If you ask for more I will give it you."

"I did not know of this rebellion," I said, "but as Your Majesty has
made me your minister, it is well that I should know all about its scope
at once. This is a matter we should be serious upon."

"And do you think I cannot take it seriously also?" she retorted.
"Ylga," she said to the girl that stood behind, "set loose my dress at
the shoulder."

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

"There is a guarantee of my seriousness yesterday, at any rate," she
said, looking at me sidelong. "The arrow struck on a rib and that saved
me. If it had struck between, Deucalion would have been standing beside
my funeral pyre to-day instead of riding on this pretty steed of mine
which he admires so much. Your eye seems to feast itself most on the
mammoth, Deucalion. Ah, poor me. I am not one of your shaggy creatures,
and so it seems I shall never be able to catch your regard. Ylga," she
said to the girl behind, "you may link my dress up again with its clasp.
My Lord Deucalion has seen wounds before, and there is nothing else here
to interest him."




5. ZAEMON'S CURSE


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

It was plain that we were going from beneath the open sky to the
apartments which lay inside the vast stone mazes of the pyramid, and
without thinking, the instinct of custom and reverence that had become
part of my nature caused me to turn to where the towering rocks of the
Sacred Mountain frowned above the city, and make the usual obeisance,
and offer up in silence the prescribed prayer. I say I did this thing
unthinking, and as a matter of common custom, but when I rose to my
feet, I could have sworn I heard a titter of laughter from somewhere in
that fancifully bedecked crowd of onlookers.

I glanced in the direction of the scoffers, frowningly enough, and
then I turned to Phorenice to demand their prompt punishment for the
disrespect. But here was a strange thing. I had looked to see her in the
act and article of rising from an obeisance; but there she was, standing
erect, and had clearly never touched her forehead to the ground.
Moreover, she was regarding me with a queer look which I could not
fathom.

But whatever was in her mind, she had no plan to bawl about it then
before the people collected in the square. She said to me, "Come,"
and, turning to the doorway, cried for entrance, giving the secret word
appointed for the day. The ponderous stone blocks, which barred the
porch, swung back on their hinges, and with stately tread she passed
out of the hot sunshine into the cool gloom beyond, with the fan-girl
following decorously at her heels. With a heaviness beginning to grow
at my heart, I too went inside the pyramid, and the stone doors, with a
sullen thud, closed behind us.

We did not go far just then. Phorenice halted in the hall of waiting.
How well I remembered the place, with the pictures of kings on its red
walls, and the burning fountain of earth-breath which blazed from a jet
of bronze in the middle of the flooring and gave it light. The old King
that was gone had come this far of his complaisance when he bade
me farewell as I set out twenty years before for my vice-royalty in
Yucatan. But the air of the hall was different to what it had been in
those old days. Then it was pure and sweet. Now it was heavy with some
scent, and I found it languid and oppressive.

"My minister," said the Empress, "I acquit you of intentional insult;
but I think the colonial air has made you a very simple man. Such an
obeisance as you showed to that mountain not a minute since has not been
made since I was sent to reign over this kingdom."

"Your Majesty," I said, "I am a member of the Priests' Clan and was
brought up in their tenets. I have been taught, before entering a house,
to thank the Gods, and more especially our Lord the Sun, for the good
air that He and They have provided. It has been my fate more than once
to be chased by streams of fire and stinking air amongst the mountains
during one of their sudden boils, and so I can say the prescribed prayer
upon this matter straight from my heart."

"Circumstances have changed since you left Atlantis," said Phorenice,
"and when thanks are given now, they are not thrown at those old Gods."

I saw her meaning, and almost started at the impiety of it. If this was
to be the new rule of things, I would have no hand in it. Fate might
deal with me as it chose. To serve truly a reigning monarch, that I was
prepared for; but to palter with sacrilege, and accept a swineherd's
daughter as a God, who should receive prayers and obeisances, revolted
my manhood. So I invited a crisis.

"Phorenice," I said, "I have been a priest from my childhood up,
revering the Gods, and growing intimate with their mysteries. Till I
find for myself that those old things are false, I must stand by that
allegiance, and if there is a cost for this faithfulness I must pay it."

She looked at me with a slow smile. "You are a strong man, Deucalion,"
she said.

I bowed.

"I have heard others as stubborn," she said, "but they were converted."
She shook out the ruddy bunches of her hair, and stood so that the light
of the burning earth-breath might fall on the loveliness of her face and
form. "I have found it as easy to convert the stubborn as to burn them.
Indeed, there has been little talk of burning. They have all rushed to
conversion, whether I would or no. But it seems that my poor looks and
tongue are wanting in charm to-day."

"Phorenice is Empress," I said stolidly, "and I am her servant.
To-morrow, if she gives me leave, I will clear away this rabble which
clamours outside the walls. I must begin to prove my uses."

"I am told you are a pretty fighter," said she. "Well, I hold some small
skill in arms myself, and have a conceit that I am something of a judge.
To-morrow we will take a taste of battle together. But to-day I
must carry through the honourable reception I have planned for you,
Deucalion. The feast will be set ready soon, and you will wish to make
ready for the feast. There are chambers here selected for your use, and
stored with what is needful. Ylga will show you their places."

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

Everywhere the air was full of perfumes, and everywhere the passages
turned and twisted and doubled through the solid stone of the pyramid,
so that strangers might have spent hours--yes, or days--in search before
they came to the chamber they desired. There was a fine cunningness
about those forgotten builders who set up this royal pyramid. They had
no mind that kings should fall by the hand of vulgar assassins who might
come in suddenly from outside. And it is said also that the king of the
time, to make doubly sure, killed all that had built the pyramid, or
seen even the lay of its inner stones.

But the fan-girl led the way with the lamp swinging in her hand, as one
accustomed to the mazes. Here she doubled, there she turned, and here
she stopped in the middle of a blank wall to push a stone, which swung
to let us pass. And once she pressed at the corner of a flagstone on the
floor, which reared up to the thrust of her foot, and showed us a stair
steep and narrow. That we descended, coming to the foot of an inclined
way which led us upward again; and so by degrees we came unto the
chamber which had been given for my use.

"There is raiment in all these chests which stand by the walls,"
said the girl, "and jewels and gauds in that bronze coffer. They are
Phorenice's first presents, she bid me say, and but a small earnest of
what is to come. My Lord Deucalion can drop his simplicity now, and fig
himself out in finery to suit the fashion."

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

"If my Lord Deucalion thinks this a rudeness, he can give a word to
Phorenice, and I shall be whipped. If he asks it, I can be stripped and
scourged before him. The Empress will do much for Deucalion just now."

"Girl," I said, "you are nearer to that whipping than you think for."

"I have got a name," she retorted, looking at me sullenly from under her
black brows. "They call me Ylga. You might have heard that as we rode
here on the mammoth, had you not been so wrapped up in Phorenice."

I gazed at her curiously. "You have never seen me before," I said, "and
the first words you utter are those that might well bring trouble to
yourself. There is some object in all this."

She went and pushed to the massive stone that swung in the doorway of
the chamber. Then she put her little jewelled fingers on my garment and
drew me carefully away from the airshaft into the farther corner. "I am
the daughter of Zaemon," she said, "whom you knew."

"You bring me some message from him?"

"How could I? He lives in the priests' dwellings on the Mountain you did
obeisance to. I have not put eyes on him these two years. But when I
saw you first step out from that red pavilion they had pitched at the
harbour side, I--I felt a pity for you, Deucalion. I remembered you were
my father's, Zaemon's, friend, and I knew what Phorenice had in store.
She has been plotting it all these two months."

"I cannot hear words against the Empress."

"And yet--"

"What?"

She stamped her sandal upon the stone of the floor. "You must be a very
blind man, Deucalion, or a very daring one. But I shall not interfere
further; at least not now. Still, I shall watch, and if at any time you
seem to want a friend I will try and serve you."

"I thank you for your friendship."

"You seem to take it lightly enough. Why, sir, even now I do not believe
you know my power, any more than you guess my motive. You may be first
man in this kingdom, but let me tell you I rank as second lady. And
remember, women stand high in Atlantis now. Believe me, my friendship is
a commodity that has been sought with frequence and industry."

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

"Well," she said, "my lord, there is an education before you." She left
me then, showing me how to call slaves when I wished for their help, and
for a full minute I stood wondering at the words I had spoken to her.
Who was the daughter of Zaemon that she should induce me to change the
habit of a lifetime?

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

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

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

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

If that last was the case, I could continue to serve her with silent
conscience. Though she might be none of my making, at least she was
Empress, and it was my duty to give her obedience. But if she had
suborned some weaker member of the Clan on the Sacred Mount, that would
be a different matter. For be it remembered that it was one of the
elements of our constitution to preserve our secrets and mysteries
inviolate, and to pursue with undying hatred both the man who had dared
to betray them, and the unhappy recipient of his confidence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phorenice, with her quick, bright eyes, looked on, and occasionally
flung one or another a few words between her talk with me, and now and
again called some favoured creature up to receive a scrap of viand
from the royal dish. This the honoured one would eat with extravagant
gesture, or (as happened twice) would put it away in the folds of his
clothes as a treasure too dear to be profaned by human lips.

To me, this flattery appeared gross and disgustful, but Phorenice,
through use, perhaps, seemed to take it as merely her due. There was,
one had to suppose, a weakness in her somewhere, though truly to the
outward seeing none was apparent. Her face was strong enough, and it was
subtle also, and, moreover, it was wondrous comely. All the courtiers in
the banqueting-hall raved about Phorenice's face and the other beauties
of her body and limbs, and though not given to appreciation in these
matters, I could not but see that here at least they had a groundwork
for their admiration, for surely the Gods have never favoured mortal
woman more highly. Yet lovely though she might be, for myself I
preferred to look upon Ylga, the girl, who, because of her rank, was
privileged to sit on the divan behind us as immediate attendant. There
was an honesty in Ylga's face which Phorenice's lacked.

They did not eat to nutrify their bodies, these feasters in the
banqueting-hall of the royal pyramid, but they all ate to cloy
themselves, and they strutted forth new usages with every platter and
bowl that the slaves brought. To me some of their manners were
closely touching on disrespect. At the halfway of the meal, a gorgeous
popinjay--he was a governor of an out-province driven into the capital
by a rebellion in his own lands--this gorgeous fop, I say, walked up
between the groups of feasters with flushed face and unsteady gait, and
did obeisance before the divan. "Most astounding Empress," cried he,
"fairest among the Goddesses, Queen regnant of my adoring heart, hail!"

Phorenice with a smile stretched him out her cup. I looked to see him
pour respectful libation, but no such thing. He set the drink to his
lips and drained it to the final drop. "May all your troubles," he
cried, "pass from you as easily, and leave as pleasant a flavour."

The Empress turned to me with one of her quick looks. "You do not like
this new habit?"

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

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

And so the feast went on, the guests practising their gluttonies and
their absurdities, and the guards standing to their arms round the
circuit of the walls as motionless and as stern as the statues carven
in the white stone beyond them. But a term was put to the orgy with
something of suddenness. There was a stir at the farther doorway of the
banqueting-hall, and a clash, as two of the guards joined their spears
across the entrance. But the man they tried to stop--or perhaps it was
to pin--passed them unharmed, and walked up over the pavement between
the lights, and the groups of feasters. All looked round at him; a few
threw him ribald words; but none ventured to stop his progress. A few,
women chiefly, I could see, shuddered as he passed them by, as though a
wintry chill had come over them; and in the end he walked up and stood
in front of Phorenice's divan, and gazed fixedly on her, but without
making obeisance.

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

I took him for one of those ascetics of the Priests' Clan, who had
forsworn the steady nurtured life of the Sacred Mountain, and who lived
out in the dangerous lands amongst the burning hills, where there is
daily peril from falling rocks, from fire streams, from evil vapours,
from sudden fissuring of the ground, and from other movements of those
unstable territories, and from the greater lizards and other monstrous
beasts which haunt them. These keep constant in the memory the might of
the Holy Gods, and the insecurity of this frail earth on which we have
our resting-place, and so the sojourners there become chastened in the
spirit, and gain power over mysteries which even the most studious and
learned of other men can never hope to attain.

A silence filled the room when the old man came to his halt, and
Phorenice was the first to break it. "Those two guards," she said, in
her clear, carrying voice, "who held the door, are not equal to their
work. I cannot have imperfect servants; remove them."

The soldiers next in the rank lifted their spears and drove them home,
and the two fellows who had admitted the old man fell to the ground. One
shrieked once, the other gave no sound: they were clever thrusts both.

The old man found his voice, thin, and high, and broken. "Another crime
added to your tally, Phorenice. Not half your army could have hindered
my entrance had I wished to come, and let me tell you that I am here to
bring you your last warning. The Gods have shown you much favour; they
gave you merit by which you could rise above your fellows, till at last
only the throne stood above you. It was seen good by those on the Sacred
Mountain to let you have this last ambition, and sit on this throne
that has as long and honourably been filled by the ancient kings of
Atlantis."

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

The old man waved aside her interruption. "Hear me out," he said. "I am
here with no trivial message. There is nothing paltry about the threat
I can throw at you, Phorenice. With your fire-tubes, your handling of
troops, and your other fiendish clevernesses, you may not be easy to
overthrow by mere human means, though, forsooth, these poor rebels who
yap against your city walls have contrived to hold their ground for long
enough now. It may be that you are becoming enervated; I do not know.
It may be that you are too wrapped up in your feastings, your dressings,
your pomps, and your debaucheries, to find leisure to turn to the art
of war. It may be that the man's spirit has gone out from your arm and
brain, and you are a woman once more--weak, and pleasure-loving; again I
do not know.

"But this must happen: You must undo the evil you have done; you must
give bread to the people who are starving, even if you take it from
these gluttons in this hall; you must restore Atlantis to the state in
which it was entrusted to you: or else you must be removed. It cannot
be permitted that the country should sink back into the lawlessness
and barbarism from which its ancient kings have digged it. You hear,
Phorenice. Now give me true answer."

"Speak him fair. Oh! For the sake of your fortune, speak him fair," came
Ylga's voice in a hurried whisper from behind us. But the Empress took
no notice of it. She leaned forward on the cushions of the divan with a
knit brow.

"Do you dare to threaten me, old man, knowing what I am?"

"I know your origin," he said gravely, "as well as you know it yourself.
As for my daring, that is a small matter. He need be but a timid man who
dares to say words that the High Gods put on his lips."

"I shall rule this kingdom as I choose. I shall brook interference from
no creature on this earth, or beneath it, or in the sky above. The Gods
have chosen me to be Their regent in Atlantis, and They do not depose me
through such creatures as you. Go away, old man, and play the fanatic in
another court. It is well that I have an ancient kindliness for you, or
you would not leave this place unharmed."

"Now, indeed, you are lost," I heard Ylga murmur from behind, and the
old man in front of us did not move a step. Instead, he lifted up the
Symbol of our Lord the Sun, and launched his curse. "Your blasphemy
gives the reply I asked for. Hear me now make declaration of war on
behalf of Those against whom you have thrown your insults. You shall be
overthrown and sent to the nether Gods. At whatever cost the land shall
be purged of you and yours, and all the evil that has been done to it
whilst you have sullied the throne of its ancient kings. You will not
amend, neither will you yield tamely. You vaunt that you sit as firm on
your throne as this pyramid reposes on its base. See how little you
know of what the future carries. I say to you that, whilst you are yet
Empress, you shall see this royal pyramid which you have polluted
with your debaucheries torn tier from tier, and stone from stone, and
scattered as feathers spread before a wind."

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

"We have a weapon that was forged in no mortal smithy," shrilled the
old man, "whereof the key is now lodged in the Ark of the Mysteries. But
that weapon can be used only as a last resource. The nature of it even
is too awful to be told in words. Our other powers will be launched
against you first, and for this poor country's sake I pray that they may
cause you to wince. Yet rest assured, Phorenice, that we shall not step
aside once we have put a hand to this matter. We shall carry it through,
even though the cost be a universal burning and destruction. For know
this, daughter of the swineherd, it is agreed amongst the most High Gods
that you are too full of sin to continue unchecked."

"Speak him fairly," Ylga urged from behind. "He has a power at which you
cannot even guess."

The Empress made to rise, but Ylga clung to her skirt. "For the sake of
your fame," she urged, "for the sake of your life, do not defy him." But
Phorenice struck her fiercely aside, and faced the old man in a tumult
of passion. "You dare call me a blasphemer, who blaspheme yourself? You
dare cast slurs upon my birth, who am come direct from the most high
Heaven? Old man, your craziness protects you in part, but not in all.
You shall be whipped. Do you hear me? I say, whipped. The lean flesh
shall be scourged from your scraggy bones, and you shall totter away
from this place as a red and bleeding example for those who would dare
traduce their Empress. Here, some of you, I say, take that man, and let
him be whipped where he stands."

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

Phorenice, with her head crouched forward, looked from one group to
another. Her face was working. "Have I no true servants," she asked,
"amongst all you pretty lip-servers?"

Still no one moved. They stood, or sat, or crouched like people
fascinated. For myself, with the first words he had uttered, I had
recognized the old man by his voice. It was Zaemon, the weak governor
who had given the Empress her first step towards power; that earnest
searcher into the mysteries, who knew more of their powers, and more
about the hidden forces, than any other dweller on the Sacred Mountain,
even at that time when I left for my colony. And now, during his strange
hermit life, how much more might he not have learned? I was torn by
warring duties. I owed much to the Priests' Clan, by reason of my oath
and membership; it seemed I owed no less to Phorenice. And, again, was
Zaemon the truly accredited envoy of the high council of the priests of
the Sacred Mountain? And was the Empress of a truth deposed by the High
Gods above, or was she still Empress, and still the commander of my
duty? I could not tell, and so I sat in my seat awaiting what the event
would sow.

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

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

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

The man came up, obviously timorous. He was a solidly made fellow, but
not altogether unmartial, and though but little of his cheek showed
above his decorated beard, I could see that he paled as he came near
to the priest. "My lord," he said quietly, "I must ask you to come with
me."

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

Tarca saw this too, and I thought he would have fallen, but with an
effort he kept his manhood, and doggedly repeated his summons. "I must
obey the command of my mistress, and I would have you remember, my lord,
that I am but a servant. You must come with me to the whip."

"I warn you!" cried the old man. "Stand from out of my path, you!"

It must have been with the courage of desperation that the soldier dared
to use force. But the hand he stretched out dropped limply back to his
side the moment it touched the old man's bare shoulder, as though it had
been struck by some shock. He seemed almost to have expected some such
repulse; yet when he picked up that hand with the other, and looked
at it, and saw its whiteness, he let out of him a yell like a wounded
beast. "Oh, Gods!" he cried. "Not that. Spare me!"

But Zaemon was glowering at him still. A twitching seized the man's
face, and he put up his sound hand to it and plucked at his beard,
which was curled and plaited after the new fashion of the day. A woman
standing near screamed as the half of the beard came off in his fingers.
Beneath was silver whiteness over half his face. Zaemon had smitten him
with a sudden leprosy that was past cure.

Yet the punishment was not ended even then. Other twitchings took him
on other parts of the body, and he tore off his armour and his foppish
clothes, and always where the bare flesh showed, there had the horrid
plague written its white mark; and in the end, being able to endure no
more, the man fell to the pavement and lay there writhing.

Zaemon said no further word. He lifted the Symbol before him, set
his eyes on the farther door of the banqueting-hall and walked for
it directly, all those in his path shrinking away from him with open
shudders. And through the valves of the door he passed out of our sight,
still wordless, still unchecked.

I glanced up at Phorenice. The loveliness of her face was drawn and
haggard. It was the first great reverse, this, she had met with in
all her life, and the shock of it, and the vision of what might follow
after, dazed her. Alas, if she could only have guessed at a tenth of the
terrors which the future had in its womb, Atlantis might have been saved
even then.




6. THE BITERS OF THE CITY WALLS


Here then was the manner of my reception back in the capital of
Atlantis, and some first glimpse at her new policies. I freely confess
to my own inaction and limpness; but it was all deliberate. The old ties
of duty seemed lost, or at least merged in one another. Beforetime, to
serve the king was to serve the Clan of the Priests, from which he had
been chosen, and whose head he constituted. But Phorenice was self-made,
and appeared to be a rule unto herself; if Zaemon was to be trusted,
he was the mouthpiece of the Priests, and their Clan had set her at
defiance; and how was a mere honest man to choose on the instant between
the two?

But cold argument told me that governments were set up for the good
of the country at large, and I said to myself that there would be my
choice. I must find out which rule promised best of Atlantis, and do my
poor best to prop it into full power. And here at once there opened up
another path in the maze: I had heard some considerable talk of rebels;
of another faction of Atlanteans who, whatever their faults might be,
were at any rate strong enough to beleaguer the capital; and before
coming to any final decision, it would be as well to take their claims
in balance with the rest. So on the night of that very same day on which
I had just re-planted my foot on the old country's shores, I set out to
glean for myself tidings on the matter.

No one inside the royal pyramid gainsaid me. The banquet had ended
abruptly with the terrible scene that I have set down above on these
tablets, for with Tarca writhing on the floor, and thrusting out the
gruesome scars of his leprosy, even the most gluttonous had little
enough appetite for further gorging. Phorenice glowered on the feasters
for a while longer in silent fury, but saying no further word; and then
her eyes turned on me, though softened somewhat.

"You may be an honest man, Deucalion," she said, at length, "but you are
a monstrous cold one. I wonder when you will thaw?" And here she smiled.
"I think it will be soon. But for now I bid you farewell. In the morning
we will take this country by the shoulders, and see it in some new
order."

She left the banqueting-hall then, Ylga following; and taking
precedence of my rank, I went out next, whilst all others stood and made
salutation. But I halted by Tarca first, and put my hand on his unclean
flesh. "You are an unfortunate man," I said, "but I can admire a brave
soldier. If relief can be gained for your plague, I will use interest to
procure it for you."

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

With which leave-taking I waited coldly till they gave me my due
salutation, and then walked out of the banqueting-hall without offering
a soul another glance. I took my way to the grand gate of the pyramid,
called for the officer of the guard, and demanded exit. The man was
obsequious enough, but he opened with some demur.

"My lord's attendants have not yet come up?"

"I have none."

"My lord knows the state of the streets?"

"I did twenty years back. I shall be able to pick my way."

"My lord must remember that the city is beleaguered," the fellow
persisted. "The people are hungry. They prowl in bands after nightfall,
and--I make no question that my lord would conquer in a fight against
whatever odds, but--"

"Quite right. I covet no street scuffle to-night. Lend me, I pray you,
a sufficiency of men. You will know best what are needed. For me, I am
accustomed to a city with quiet streets."

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

But the Gods saw fit to give me another education first. The city, as I
saw it during that night walk, was no longer the old capital that I had
known, the just accretion of the ages, the due admixture of comfort and
splendour. The splendour was there, vastly increased. Whole wards had
been swept away to make space for new palaces, and new pyramids of the
wealthy, and I could not but have an admiration for the skill and the
brain which made possible such splendid monuments.

And, indeed, gazing at them there under the silver of the moonlight,
I could almost understand the emotions of the Europeans and other
barbarous savages which cause them to worship all such great buildings
as Gods, since they deem them too wonderful and majestic to be set up by
human hands unaided.

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

Myself, I am no pamperer of the common people. I say that, if a man be
left to hunger and shiver, he will work to gain him food and raiment;
and if not, why then he can die, and the State is well rid of a
worthless fellow. But here beside us, as we marched through many wards,
were marks of blind oppression; starved dead bodies, with the bones
starting through the lean skin, sprawled in the gutter; and indeed
it was plain that, save for the favoured few, the people of the great
capital were under a most heavy oppression.

But at this, though I might regret it abominably, I could make no strong
complaint. By the ancient law of the land all the people, great and
small, were the servants of the king, to be put without question to what
purposes he chose; and Phorenice stood in the place of the king. So I
tried to think no treason, but with a sigh passed on, keeping my eyes
above the miseries and the squalors of the roadway, and sending out my
thoughts to the stars which hung in the purple night above, and to
the High Gods which dwelt amongst them, seeking, if it might be, for
guidance for my future policies. And so in time the windings of the
streets brought us to the walls, and, coursing beside these and giving
fitting answer to the sentries who beat their drums as we passed, we
came in time to that great gate which was a charge to the captain of the
garrison.

Here it was plain there was some special commotion. A noise of laughter
went up into the still night air, and with it now and again the snarl
and roar of a great beast, and now and again the shriek of a hurt man.
But whatever might be afoot, it was not a scene to come upon suddenly.
The entrance gates of our great capital were designed by their ancient
builders to be no less strong than the walls themselves. Four pairs
of valves were there, each a monstrous block of stone two man-heights
square, and a man-height thick, and the wall was doubled to receive
them, enclosing an open circus between its two parts. The four gates
themselves were set one at the inner, one at the outer side of each of
these walls, and a hidden machinery so connected them, that of each set
one could not open till the other was closed; and as for forcing them
without war engines, one might as foolishly try to push down the royal
pyramid with the bare hand.

My escort made outcry with the horn which hung from the wall inviting
such a summons, and a warder came to an arrow-slit, and did inspection
of our persons and business. His survey was according to the ancient
form of words, which is long, and this was made still more tedious by
the noise from within, which ever and again drowned all speech between
us entirely.

But at last the formalities had been duly complied with, and he shot
back the massive bars and bolts of stone, and threw ajar one monstrous
stone valve of the door. Into the chamber within--a chamber made from
the thickness of the wall between the two doors--I and my fellows
crowded, and then the warder with his machines pulled to the valve which
had been opened, and came to me again through the press of my escort,
bowing low to the ground.

"I have no vail to give you," I said abruptly. "Get on with your duty.
Open me that other door."

"With respect, my lord, it would be better that I should first announce
my lord's presence. There is a baiting going forward in the circus, and
the tigers are as yet mere savages, and no respecters of persons."

"The what?"

"The tigers, if my lord will permit them the name. They are baiting a
batch of prisoners with the two great beasts which the Empress (whose
name be adored) has sent here to aid us keep the gate. But if my
lord will, there are the ward rooms leading off this passage, and the
galleries which run out from them commanding the circus, and from there
my lord can see the sport undisturbed."

Now, the mere lust for killing excites only disgust in me, but I
suspected the orders of the Empress in this matter, and had a curiosity
to see her scheme. So I stepped into the warder's lodge, and on into
the galleries which commanded the circus with their arrow-slits. The old
builders of the place had intended these for a second line of defence,
for, supposing the outer doors all forced, an enemy could be speedily
shot down in the circus, without being able to give a blow in return,
and so would only march into a death-trap. But as a gazing-place on a
spectacle they were no less useful.

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

To begin with, the beasts were no fair antagonists for single men. In
fact, twenty men armed might well have fled from them. When the warder
said tigers, I supposed he meant the great cats of the woods. But here,
in the circus, I saw a pair of the most terrific of all the fur-bearing
land beasts, the great tigers of the caves--huge monsters, of such
ponderous strength that in hunger they will oftentimes drag down a
mammoth, if they can find him away from his herd.

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

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

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

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

It seemed there were niceties of cruelty in this wretched game. There
was a sharp clank as the windlasses were manned, and the tethering
chains were drawn in by perhaps a score of links. One of the cave-tigers
crouched, lashed its tail, and launched forth on a terrific spring.
The chain tautened, the massive links sang to the strain, and the great
beast gave a roar which shook the walls. It had missed the prone man by
a hand's breadth, and the watchers behind the arrow-slits shrieked forth
their delight. The other tiger sprang also and missed, and again there
were shouts of pleasure, which mingled with the bellowing voices of the
beasts. The man lay motionless in his form. One more cowardly, or
one more brave, might have run from death, or faced it; but this poor
prisoner chose the middle course--he permitted death to come to him, and
had enough of doggedness to wait for it without stir.

The great cave-tigers were used, it appeared, to this disgusting sport.
There were no more wild springs, no more stubbings at the end of the
massive chains. They lay down on the pavement, and presently began to
purr, rolling on to their sides and rubbing themselves luxuriously. The
prisoner still lay motionless in his form.

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

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

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

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

However, I was not there to preach the superiority of man to the
beasts, and the indecency and degradation of permitting man to be unduly
insulted. I had come to learn for myself the new balance of things
in the kingdom of Atlantis, and so I stood at my place behind the
arrow-slit with a still face. And presently another scene in this
ghastly play was enacted.

The cave-tigers tired of their sport, and first one and then the other
fell once more to prowling over the littered pavements, with the heavy
chains scraping and chinking in their wake. They made no beginning to
feast on the bodies provided for them. That would be for afterwards. In
the present, the fascination of slaughter was big in them, and they
had thought that it would be indulged further. It seemed that they knew
their entertainers.

Again the windlass clanked, and the tethering chains drew the great
beasts clear of the doorway; and again a valve of the farther door swung
ajar, and another prisoner was thrust struggling into the circus. A
sickness seized me when I saw that this was a woman, but still, in view
of the object I had in hand, I made no interruption.

It was not that I had never seen women sent to death before. A general,
who has done his fighting, must in his day have killed women equally
with men; yes, and seen them earn their death-blow by lusty battling.
Yet there seemed something so wanton in this cruel helpless sacrifice
of a woman prisoner, that I had a struggle with myself to avoid
interference. Still it is ever the case that the individual must be
sacrificed to a policy, and so as I say, I watched on, outwardly cold
and impassive.

I watched too (I confess it freely) with a quickening heart. Here was no
sullen submissive victim like the last. She may have been more cowardly
(as some women are), she may have been braver (as many women have shown
themselves); but, at any rate, it was clear that she was going to make a
struggle for her life, and to do vicious damage, it might be, before
she yielded it up. The watchers behind the arrow-slits recognized this.
Their wagers, and the hum of their appreciation, swept loudly round the
ring of the circus.

They stripped their prisoners, before they thrust them out to this
death, of all the clothes they might carry, for clothes have a value;
and so the woman stood there bare-limbed in the moonlight.

She clapped her back to the great stone door by which she had entered,
and faced fate with glowing eye. Gods! there have been times in early
years when I could have plucked out sword and jumped down, and fought
for her there for the sheer delight of such a battle. But now policy
restrained me. The individual might want a helping hand, but it was
becoming more and more clear that Atlantis wanted a minister also; and
before these great needs, the lesser ones perforce must perish. Still,
be it noted that, if I did not jump down, no other man there that night
had sufficient manhood remaining to venture the opportunity.

My heart glowed as I watched her. She picked a bone from the litter on
the pavement and beat off its head by blows against the wall. Then with
her teeth she fashioned the point to still further sharpness. I could
see her teeth glisten white in the moonrays as she bit with them.

The huge cave-tigers, which stood as high as her head as they walked,
came nearer to her in their prowlings, yet obviously neglected her. This
was part of their accustomed scheme of torment, and the woman knew it
well. There was something intolerable in their noiseless, ceaseless
paddings over the pavement. I could see the prisoner's breast heave as
she watched them. A terror such as that would have made many a victim
sick and helpless.

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

But the woman did not await its charge. With a shrill scream she sped
forward, running at the full of her speed across the moonlight directly
towards that shadowed part of the encircling wall within whose thickness
I had my gazing place; and then, throwing every tendon of her body into
the spring, made the greatest leap that surely any human being
ever accomplished, even when spurred on by the utmost of terror and
desperation. In an after day I measured it, and though of a certainty
she must have added much to the tally by the sheer force of her run,
which drove her clinging up the rough surface of the wall, it is a sure
thing that in that splendid leap her feet must have dangled a man-height
and a half above the pavement.

I say it was prodigious, but then the spur was more than the ordinary,
and the woman herself was far out of the common both in thews and
intelligence; and the end of the leap left her with five fingers lodged
in the sill of the arrow-slit from which I watched. Even then she must
have slipped back if she had been left to herself, for the sill sloped,
and the stone was finely smooth; but I shot out my hand and gripped
hers by the wrist, and instantly she clambered up with both knees on the
sills, and her fingers twined round to grip my wrist in her turn.

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

"That was an ungrateful blow," I said. "But for my hand you'd have
slipped and be the sport of a tiger's paw this minute."

"Oh, I must kill some one," she panted, "before I am killed myself."

"There will be time enough to think upon that some other day; but for
now you are far enough off meeting further harm."

"You are lying to me. You will throw me to the beasts as soon as I loose
my grip. I know your kind: you will not be robbed of your sport."

"I will go so far as to prove myself to you," said I, and called out for
the warder who had tended the doors below. "Bid those tigers be tethered
on a shorter chain," I ordered, "and then go yourself outside into the
circus, and help this lady delicately to the ground."

The word was passed and these things were done; and I too came out into
the circus and joined the woman, who stood waiting under the moonlight.
But the others who had seen these doings were by no means suited at the
change of plan. One of the great stone valves of the farther door opened
hurriedly, and a man strode out, armed and flushed. "By all the Gods!"
he shouted. "Who comes between me and my pastime?"

I stepped quietly to the advance. "I fear, sir," I said, "that you must
launch your anger against me. By accident I gave that woman sanctuary,
and I had not heart to toss her back to your beasts."

His fingers began to snap against his hilt.

"You have come to the wrong market here with your qualms. I am captain
here, and my word carries, subject only to Phorenice's nod. Do you
hear that? Do you know too that I can have you tossed to those striped
gate-keepers of mine for meddling in here without an invitation?" He
looked at me sharp enough, but saw plainly that I was a stranger. "But
perhaps you carry a name, my man, which warrants your impertinence?"

"Deucalion is my poor name," I said, "but I cannot expect you will know
it. I am but newly landed here, sir, and when I left Atlantis some score
of years back, a very different man to you held guard over these gates."
He had his forehead on my feet by this time. "I had it from the Empress
this night that she will to-morrow make a new sorting of this kingdom's
dignities. Perhaps there is some recommendation you would wish me to lay
before her in return for your courtesies?"

"My lord," said the man, "if you wish it, I can have a turn with those
cave-tigers myself now, and you can look on from behind the walls and
see them tear me."

"Why tell me what is no news?"

"I wish to remind my lord of his power; I wish to beg of his clemency."

"You showed your power to these poor prisoners; but from what remains
here to be seen, few of them have tasted much of your clemency."

"The orders were," said the captain of the gate, as though he thought a
word might be said here for his defence, "the orders were, my lord, that
the tigers should be kept fierce and accustomed to killing."

"Then, if you have obeyed orders, let me be the last to chide you.
But it is my pleasure that this woman be respited, and I wish now to
question her."

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

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

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

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

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

She caught my eye and drew the weapon clear, but seeing that I made no
advance towards her, or move to protect myself, waited where she was,
and presently was took with a shuddering.

"Your designs seem somewhat of a riddle," I said. "At first you
wished to kill me from motives which you explained, and which I quite
understood. It lay in my power next to confer some small benefit
upon you, in consequence of which you are here, and not--shall we
say?--yonder in the circus. Why you should desire now to kill the only
man here who can set you completely free, and beyond these walls, is a
thing it would gratify me much to learn. I say nothing of the trifle of
ingratitude. Gratitude and ingratitude are of little weight here. There
is some far greater in your mind."

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

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

"And I come of those," she cried, with a rising voice, "who bite against
this city, because they have found their fate too intolerable with the
land as it is ordered now. We heard of your coming from Yucatan. It was
we who sent the fleet to take you at the entrance to the Gulf."

"Your fleet gave us a pretty fight."

"Oh, I know, I know. We had our watchers on the high land who brought us
the tidings. We had an omen even before that. Where we lay with our army
before the walls here, we saw great birds carrying off the slain to the
mountains. But where the fleet failed, I saw a chance where I, a woman,
might--"

"Where you might succeed?" I sat me down on a pile of the captain's
stuffs. It seemed as if here at last that I should find a solution for
many things. "You carry a name?" I asked.

"They call me Nais."

"Ah," I said, and signed to her to take the clothes that I had sought
out. She was curiously like, so both my eyes and hearing said, to Ylga,
the fan-girl of Phorenice, but as she had told me of no parentage I
asked for none then. Still her talk alone let me know that she was bred
of none of the common people, and I made up my mind towards definite
understanding. "Nais," I said, "you wish to kill me. At the same time I
have no doubt you wish to live on yourself, if only to get credit from
your people for what you have done. So here I will make a contract with
you. Prove to me that my death is for Atlantis' good, and I swear by our
Lord the Sun to go out with you beyond the walls, where you can stab me
and then get you gone. Or the--"

"I will not be your slave."

"I do not ask you for service. Or else, I wished to say, I shall live
so long as the High Gods wish, and do my poor best for this country. And
for you--I shall set you free to do your best also. So now, I pray you,
speak."




7. THE BITERS OF THE WALLS (FURTHER ACCOUNT)


"You will set me free," she said, regarding me from under her brows,
"without any further exactions or treaty?"

"I will set you free exactly on those terms," I answered, "unless indeed
we here decide that it is better for Atlantis that I should die, in
which case the freedom will be of your own taking."

"My lord plays a bold game."

"Tut, tut," I said.

"But I shall not hesitate to take the full of my bond, unless my
theories are most clearly disproved to me."

"Tut," I said, "you women, how you can play out the time needlessly.
Show me sufficient cause, and you shall kill me where and how you
please. Come, begin the accusation."

"You are a tyrant."

"At least I have not paraded my tyrannies in Atlantis these twenty
years. Why, Nais, I did but land yesterday."

"You will not deny you came back from Yucatan for a purpose."

"I came back because I was sent for. The Empress gives no reasons for
her recalls. She states her will; and we who serve her obey without
question."

"Pah, I know that old dogma."

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

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

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

"Then, if truly you do not know it, let me repeat to you the common
tale. Phorenice has tired of her unmated life."

"Stay there. I will hear no word against the Empress."

"Pah, my lord, your scruples are most decorous. But I did no more than
repeat what the Empress had made public by proclamation. She is minded
to take to herself a husband, and nothing short of the best is good
enough for Phorenice. One after another has been put up in turn as
favourite--and been found wanting. Oh, I tell you, we here in Atlantis
have watched her courtship with jumping hearts. First it was this one
here, then it was that one there; now it was this general just returned
from a victory, and a day later he had been packed back to his camp, to
give place to some dashing governor who had squeezed increased revenues
from his province. But every ship that came from the West said that
there was a stronger man than any of these in Yucatan, and at last the
Empress changed the wording of her vow. 'I'll have Deucalion for my
husband,' said she, 'and then we will see who can stand against my
wishes.'"

"The Empress (whose name be adored) can do as she pleases in such
matters," I said guardedly; "but that is beside the argument. I am here
to know how it would be better for Atlantis that I should die?"

"You know you are the strongest man in the kingdom."

"It pleases you to say so."

"And Phorenice is the strongest woman."

"That is beyond doubt."

"Why, then, if the Empress takes you in marriage, we shall be under a
double tyranny. And her rule alone is more cruelly heavy than we can
bear already."

"I pass no criticism on Phorenice's rule. I have not seen it. But I
crave your mercy, Nais, on the newcomer into this kingdom. I am strong,
say you, and therefore I am a tyrant, say you. Now to me this sequence
is faulty."

"Who should a strong man use strength for, if not for himself? And if
for himself, why that spells tyranny. You will get all your heart's
desires, my lord, and you will forget that many a thousand of the common
people will have to pay for them."

"And this is all your accusation?"

"It seems to be black enough. I am one that has a compassion for my
fellow-men, my lord, and because of that compassion you see me what I am
to-day. There was a time, not long passed, when I slept as soft and ate
as dainty as any in Atlantis."

I smiled. "Your speech told me that much from the first."

"Then I would I had cast the speech off, too, if that is also a livery
of the tyrant's class. But I tell you I saw all the oppression myself
from the oppressor's side. I was high in Phorenice's favour then."

"That, too, is easy of credence. Ylga is the fan-girl to the Empress
now, and second lady in the kingdom, and those who have seen Ylga could
make an easy guess at the parentage of Nais."

"We were the daughters of one birth; but I do not count with either
Zaemon or Ylga now. Ylga is the creature of Phorenice, and Phorenice
would have all the people of Atlantis slaves and in chains, so that
she might crush them the easier. And as for Zaemon, he is no friend of
Phorenice's; he fights with brain and soul to drag the old authority
to those on the Sacred Mountain; and that, if it come down on us again,
would only be the exchange of one form of slavery for another."

"It seems to me you bite at all authority."

"In fact," she said simply, "I do. I have seen too much of it."

"And so you think a rule of no-rule would be best for the country?"

"You have put it plainly in words for me. That is my creed to-day. That
is the creed of all those yonder, who sit in the camp and besiege this
city. And we number on our side, now, all in Atlantis save those in the
city and a handful on the priests' Mountain."

I shook my head. "A creed of desperation, if you like, Nais, but,
believe me, a silly creed. Since man was born out of the quakings and
the fevers of this earth, and picked his way amongst the cooler-places,
he has been dependent always on his fellow-men. And where two are
congregated together, one must be chief, and order how matters are to be
governed--at least, I speak of men who have a wish to be higher than the
beasts. Have you ever set foot in Europe?"

"No."

"I have. Years back I sailed there, gathering slaves. What did I see? A
country without rule or order. Tyrants they were, to be sure, but they
were the beasts. The men and the women were the rudest savages, knowing
nothing of the arts, dressing in skins and uncleanness, harbouring in
caves and the tree-tops. The beasts roamed about where they would, and
hunted them unchecked."

"Still, they fought you for their liberty?"

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

"Aye," she said with a sigh, "there is truth in that last."

The torch had filled the captain's room with a resinous smoke, but the
flame was growing pale. Dawn was coming in greyly through a slender
arrow-slit, and with it ever and again the glow from some mountain out
of sight, which was shooting forth spasmodic bursts of fire. With it
also were mutterings of distant falling rocks, and sullen tremblings,
which had endured all the night through, and I judged that earth was in
one of her quaking moods, and would probably during the forthcoming day
offer us some chastening discomforts.

On this account, perhaps, my senses were stilled to certain evidences
which would otherwise have given me a suspicion; and also, there is no
denying that my general wakefulness was sapped by another matter. This
woman, Nais, interested me vastly out of the common; the mere presence
of her seemed to warm the organs of my interior; and whilst she was
there, all my thoughts and senses were present in the room of the
captain of the gate in which we sat.

But of a sudden the floor of the chamber rocked and fell away beneath
me, and in a tumult of dust, and litter, and bales of the captain's
plunder, I fell down (still seated on the flagstone) into a pit which
had been digged beneath it. With the violence of the descent, and the
flutter of all these articles about my head, I was in no condition for
immediate action; and whilst I was still half-stunned by the shock, and
long before I could get my eyes into service again, I had been seized,
and bound, and half-strangled with a noose of hide. Voices were raised
that I should be despatched at once out of the way; but one in authority
cried out that, killing me at leisure, and as a prisoner, promised more
genteel sport; and so I was thrust down on the floor, whilst a whole
army of men trod in over me to the attack.

What had happened was clear to me now, though I was powerless to do
anything in hindrance. The rebels with more craft than any one had
credited to them, had driven a galley from their camp under the ground,
intending so to make an entrance into the heart of the city. In their
clumsy ignorance, and having no one of sufficient talent in mensuration,
they had bungled sadly both in direction and length, and so had ended
their burrow under this chamber of the captain of the gate. The great
flagstone in its fall had, it appeared, crushed four of them to death,
but these were little noticed or lamented. Life was to them a bauble of
the slenderest price, and a horde of others pressed through the opening,
lusting for the fight, and recking nothing of their risks and perils.

Half-choked by the foul air of the galley, and trodden on by this great
procession of feet, it was little enough I could do to help my immediate
self much less the more distant city. But when the chief mass of the
attackers had passed through, and there came only here and there one
eager to take his share at storming the gate, a couple of fellows
plucked me up out of the mud on the floor, and began dragging me down
through the stinking darkness of the galley towards the pit that gave it
entrance.

Twenty times we were jostled by others hastening to the attack, either
from hunger for fight, or from appetite for what they could steal.
But we came to the open at last, and half-suffocated though I was, I
contrived to do obeisance, and say aloud the prescribed prayer to the
most High Gods in gratitude for the fresh, sweet air which They had
provided.

Our Lord the Sun was on the verge of rising for His day, and all things
were plainly shown. Before me were the monstrous walls of the capital,
with the heads of its pyramids and higher buildings showing above them.
And on the walls, the sentries walked calmly their appointed paces, or
took shelter against arrows in the casemates provided for them.

The din of fighting within the gate rose high into the air, and the
heavy roaring of the cave-tigers told that they too were taking their
share of the melee. But the massive stonework of the walls hid all the
actual engagement from our view, and which party was getting the upper
hand we could not even guess. But the sounds told how tight a fight was
being hammered out in those narrow boundaries, and my veins tingled to
be once more back at the old trade, and to be doing my share.

But there was no chivalry about the fellows who held me by my bonds.
They thrust me into a small temple near by, which once had been a fane
in much favour with travellers, who wished to show gratitude for the
safe journey to the capital, but which now was robbed and ruined, and
they swung to the stone entrance gate and barred it, leaving me to
commune with myself. Presently, they told me, I should be put to death
by torments. Well, this seemed to be the new custom of Atlantis, and I
should have to endure it as best I could. The High Gods, it appeared,
had no further use for my services in Atlantis, and I was not in the
mood then to bite very much at their decision. What I had seen of the
country since my return had not enamoured me very much with its new
conditions.

The little temple in which I was gaoled had been robbed and despoiled of
all its furnishments. But the light-slits, where at certain hours of the
day the rays of our Lord the Sun had fallen upon the image of the God,
before this had been taken away, gave me vantage places from which I
could see over the camp of these rebel besiegers, and a dreary prospect
it was. The people seemed to have shucked off the culture of centuries
in as many months, and to have gone back for the most part to sheer
brutishness. The majority harboured on the bare ground. Few owned
shelter, and these were merely bowers of mud and branches.

They fought and quarrelled amongst themselves for food, eating their
meat raw, and their grain (when they had it) unground. Many who passed
my vision I saw were even gnawing the soft inside of tree bark.

The dead lay where they fell. The sick and the wounded found no hand
to tend them. Great man-eating birds hovered about the camp or skulked
about, heavy with gorging, amongst the hovels, and no one had public
spirit enough to give them battle. The stink of the place rose up to
heaven as a foul incense inviting a pestilence. There was no order, no
trace of strong command anywhere. With three hundred well-disciplined
troops it seemed to me that I could have sent those poor desperate
hordes flying in panic to the forest.

However, there was no very lengthy space of time granted me for thinking
out the policy of this matter to any great depth. The attack on the gate
had been delivered with suddenness; the repulse was not slow. Of what
desperate fighting took place in the galleries, and in the circus
between the two sets of gates, the detail will never be told in full.

At the first alarm the great cave-tigers were set loose, and these raged
impartially against keeper and foe. Of those that went in through the
tunnel, not one in ten returned, and there were few of these but what
carried a bloody wound. Some, with the ruling passion still strong in
them, bore back plunder; one trailed along with him the head of the
captain of the gate; and amongst them they dragged out two of the
warders who were wounded, and whom revenge had urged them to take as
prisoners.

Over these two last a hubbub now arose, that seemed likely to boil over
into blows. Every voice shouted out for them what he thought the most
repulsive fate. Some were for burning, some for skinning, some for
impaling, some for other things: my flesh crept as I heard their
ravenous yells. Those that had been to the trouble of making them
captive were still breathless from the fight, and were readily thrust
aside; and it seemed to me that the poor wretches would be hustled into
death before any definite fate was agreed upon, which all would pass as
sufficiently terrific. Never had I seen such a disorderly tumult, never
such a leaderless mob. But, as always has happened, and always will, the
stronger men by dint of louder voices and more vigorous shoulders got
their plans agreed to at last, and the others perforce had to give way.

A band of them set off running, and presently returned at snails' pace,
dragging with them (with many squeals from ungreased wheels) one of
those huge war engines with which besiegers are wont to throw great
stones and other missiles into the cities they sit down against. They
ran it up just beyond bowshot of the walls, and clamped it firmly down
with stakes and ropes to the earth. Then setting their lean arms to the
windlasses, they drew back the great tree which formed the spring till
its tethering place reached the ground, and in the cradle at its head
they placed one of the prisoners, bound helplessly, so that he could not
throw himself over the side.

Then the rude, savage, skin-clad mob stood back, and one who had
appointed himself engineer knocked back the catch that held the great
spring in place.

With a whir and a twang the elastic wood flung upwards, and the bound
man was shot away from its tip with the speed of a lightning flash.
He sang through the air, spinning over and over with inconceivable
rapidity, and the great crowd of rebels held their breath in silence as
they watched. He passed high above the city wall, a tiny mannikin in the
distance now, and then the trajectory of his flight began to lower. The
spike of a new-built pyramid lay in the path of his terrific flight, and
he struck it with a thud whose sound floated out to us afterwards,
and then he toppled down out of our sight, leaving a red stain on the
whiteness of the stone as he fell.

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

But for my part I saw nothing of this disgusting scene. I heard the bolt
grate stealthily against the door of the little temple in which I was
imprisoned, and was minded to give these brutish rebels somewhat of a
surprise. I had rid myself of my bonds handily enough; I had rubbed
my limbs to that perfect suppleness which is always desirable before a
fight; and I had planned to rush out so soon as the door was swung, and
kill those that came first with fist blows on the brow and chin.

They had not suspected my name, it was clear, for my stature and garb
were nothing out of the ordinary; but if my bodily strength and fighting
power had been sufficient to raise me to a vice-royalty like that of
Yucatan, and let me endure alive in that government throughout twenty
hard-battling years, why, it was likely that this rabble of savages
would see something that was new and admirable in the practice of arms
before the crude weight of their numbers could drag me down. Nay, I did
not even despair of winning free altogether. I must find me a weapon
from those that came up to battle, with which I could write worthy
signatures, and I must attempt no standing fights. Gods! but what a glow
the prospect did send through me as I stood there waiting.

A vainer man, writing history, might have said that always, before
everything else, he held in mind the greater interests before the less.
But for me--I prefer to be honest, and own myself human. In my glee
at that forthcoming fight--which promised to be the greatest and most
furious I had known in all a long life of battling--I will confess that
Atlantis and her differing policies were clean forgot. I should go out
an unknown man from the little cell of a temple, I should do my work,
and then, whether I took freedom with me, or whether I came down at last
myself on a pile of slain, these people would guess without being told
the name, that here was Deucalion. Gods! what a fight we would have
made!

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

"Nais," I said.

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

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

She shook her head.

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

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

I joined in her laugh. "A pest on my want of foppishness then. But I am
forgetting somewhat. It comes to my mind that we still have unfinished
that small discussion of ours concerning the length of my poor life.
Have you decided to cut it off from risk of further mischief, or do you
propose to give me further span?"

She turned to me with a look of sharp distress. "My lord," she said,
"I would have you forget that silly talk of mine. This last two hours I
thought you were dead in real truth."

"And you were not relieved?"

"I felt that the only man was gone out of the world--I mean, my lord,
the only man who can save Atlantis."

"Your words give me a confidence. Then you would have me go back and
become husband to Phorenice?"

"If there is no other way."

"I warn you I shall do that, if she still so desires it, and if it seems
to me that that course will be best. This is no hour for private likings
or dislikings."

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

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

"There must be nothing of that. I will not have these poor people
slaughtered unnecessarily. Nor do I wish to see my lord exposed to a
hopeless risk. This poor place, such as it is, has been given to me
as an abode, and, if my lord can remain decorously till nightfall in a
maiden's chamber, he may at least be sure of quietude. I am a person,"
she added simply, "that in this camp has some respect. When darkness
comes, I will take my lord down to the sea and a boat, and so he may
come with ease to the harbour and the watergate."




8. THE PREACHER FROM THE MOUNTAINS


It was long enough since I had found leisure for a parcel of sleep,
and so during the larger part of that day I am free to confess that I
slumbered soundly, Nais watching me. Night fell, and still we remained
within the privacy of the temple. It was our plan that I should stay
there till the camp slept, and so I should have more chance of reaching
the sea without disturbance.

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

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

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

But as the hours drew on, the night began to grow less quiet. From the
distance some one began to blow on a horn or a shell, sending forth a
harsh raucous note incessantly. The sound came nearer, as we could tell
from its growing loudness, and the voices of those by the fires made
themselves heard, railing at the blower for his disturbance. And
presently it became stationary, and standing up we could see through the
slits in the walls the people of the camp rousing up from their uneasy
rest, and clustering together round one who stood and talked to them
from the pedestal of a war engine.

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

But here we were reckoning without the inevitable busybody. A dozen
pairs of feet splashing through the wet came up to the side of the
little temple, and cried loudly that Nais should join the audience. She
had eloquence of tongue, it appeared, and they feared lest this speaker
who had taken his stand on the war engine should make schisms amongst
their ranks unless some skilled person stood up also to refute his
arguments.

Here, then, it seemed to me that I must be elbowed into my skirmish by
the most unexpected of chances, but Nais was firmly minded that there
should be no fight, if courage on her part could turn it. "Come out with
me," she whispered, "and keep distant from the light of the fires."

"But how explain my being here?"

"There is no reason to explain anything," she said bitterly. "They will
take you for my lover. There is nothing remarkable in that: it is the
mode here. But oh, why did not the Gods make you wear a beard, and curl
it, even as other men? Then you could have been gone and safe these two
hours."

"A smooth chin pleases me better."

"So it does me," I heard her murmur as she leaned her weight on the
stone which hung in the doorway, and pushed it ajar; "your chin." The
ragged men outside--there were women with them also--did not wait to
watch me very closely. A coarse jest or two flew (which I could have
found good heart to have repaid with a sword-thrust) and they stepped
off into the darkness, just turning from time to time to make sure we
followed. On all sides others were pressing in the same direction--black
shadows against the night; the rain spat noisily on the camp fires as we
passed them; and from behind us came up others. There were no sleepers
in the camp now; all were pressing on to hear this preacher who stood on
the pedestal of the war engine; and if we had tried to swerve from the
straight course, we should have been marked at once.

So we held on through the darkness, and presently came within earshot.

Still it was little enough of the preacher's words we could make out at
first. "Who are your chiefs?" came the question at the end of a fervid
harangue, and immediately all further rational talk was drowned in
uproar. "We have no chiefs," the people shouted, "we are done with
chiefs; we are all equal here. Take away your silly magic. You may kill
us with magic if you choose, but rule us you shall not. Nor shall
the other priests rule. Nor Phorenice. Nor anybody. We are done with
rulers."

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

But in his hand he held that which marked his caste. With it he pointed
his sentences, and at times he whirled it about bathing his wet,
naked body in a halo of light. It was a wand whose tip burned with an
unconsuming fire, which glowed and twinkled and blazed like some star
sent down by the Gods from their own place in the high heaven. It was
the Symbol of our Lord the Sun, a credential no one could forge, and one
on which no civilised man would cast a doubt.

Indeed, the ragged frantic crew did not question for one moment that
he was a member of the Clan of Priests, the Clan which from time out
of numbering had given rulers for the land, and even in their loudest
clamours they freely acknowledged his powers. "You may kill us with your
magic, if you choose," they screamed at him. But stubbornly they refused
to come back to their old allegiance. "We have suffered too many
things these later years," they cried. "We are done with rulers now for
always."

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

The beautiful woman saw this too. She even went so far as to twine her
fingers in mine and press them as a farewell, and I pressed hers in
return, for I was sorry enough not to see her more. Still I could not
help letting my thoughts travel with a grim gloating over the fine mound
of dead I should build before these ragged, unskilled rebels pulled me
down. And it was inevitable this should be so. For of all the emotions
that can ferment in the human heart, the joy of strife is keenest, and
none but an old fighter, face to face with what must necessarily be his
final battle, can tell how deep this lust is embroidered into the very
foundations of his being.

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

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

"But," cried the old man, waving the Symbol till his wet body glistened
in a halo of light, "the people grew fat and careless with their easy
life. They began to have a conceit that their good fortune was earned
by their own puny brains and thews, and was no gift from the Gods above;
and presently the cult of these Gods became neglected, and Their temples
were barren of gifts and worshippers. Followed a punishment. The Gods
in Their inscrutable way decreed that a wife of one of the Priests (that
was a governor of no inconsiderable province) should see a woman child
by the wayside, and take it for adoption. That child the Gods in their
infinite wisdom fashioned into a scourge for Atlantis, and you who have
felt the weight of Phorenice's hand, know with what completeness the
High Gods can fashion their instruments.

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

The old priest broke off with a gesture, and his ragged white beard
sank on to his chest. Promptly a young man, skin clad and carrying his
weapon, elbowed up through the press of listeners, and jumped on to the
platform beside him. "Hear me, brethren!" he bellowed, in his strong
young voice. "We are done with tyrants. Death may come, and we all of us
here have shown how little we fear it. But own rulers again we will not,
and that is our final say. My lord," he said, turning to the old man
with a brave face, "I know it is in your power to kill me by magic if
you choose, but I have said my say, and can stand the cost if needs be."

"I can kill you, but I will not," said Zaemon. "You have said your
silliness. Now go you to the ground again."

"We have free speech here. I will not go till I choose."

"Aye, but you will," said the old man, and turned on him with a sudden
tightening of the brows. There was no blow passed; even the Symbol,
which glowed like a star against the night, was not so much as lifted in
warning; but the young man tried to retort, and, finding himself smitten
with a sudden dumbness, turned with a spasm of fear, and jumped back
whence he had come. The crowd of them thrilled expectantly, and when no
further portent was given, they began to shout that a miracle should be
shown them, and then perchance they would be persuaded back to the old
allegiance.

The old man stooped and glowered at them in fury. "You dogs," he cried,
"you empty-witted dogs! Do you ask that I should degrade the powers of
the Higher Mysteries by dancing them out before you as though they were
a mummers' show? Do you tickle yourselves that you are to be tempted
back to your allegiance? It is for you to woo the Gods who are so
offended. Come in humility, and I take it upon myself to declare that
you will receive fitting pardon and relief. Remain stubborn, and the
scourge, Phorenice, may torment you into annihilation before she in turn
is made to answer for the evil she has put upon the land. There is the
choice for you to pick at."

The turmoil of voices rose again into the wetness of the night, and
weapons were upraised menacingly. It was clear that the party for
independence had by far the greater weight, both in numbers and
lustiness; and those who might, from sheer weariness of strife, have
been willing for surrender, withheld their word through terror of the
consequence. It was a fine comment on the freedom of speech, about which
these unruly fools had made their boast, and, with a sly malice, I could
not help whispering a word on this to Nais as she stood at my elbow. But
Nais clutched at my hand, and implored me for caution. "Oh, be silent,
my lord," she whispered back, "or they will tear you in pieces. They are
on fire for mischief now."

"Yet a few hours back you were for killing me yourself," I could not
help reminding her.

She turned on me with a hot look. "A woman can change her mind, my lord.
But it becomes you little to remind her of her fickleness."

A man in the press beside me wrenched round with an effort, and stared
at me searchingly through the darkness. "Oh!" he said. "A shaved chin.
Who are you, friend, that you should cut a beard instead of curling it?
I can see no wound on your face."

I answered him civilly enough that, with "freedom" for a watchword, the
fashion of my chin was a matter of mere private concern. But as that did
not satisfy him, and as he seemed to be one of those quarrelsome fellows
that are the bane of every community, I took him suddenly by the throat
and the shoulder, and bent his neck with the old, quick turn till I
heard it crack, and had unhanded him before any of his neighbours had
seen what had befallen. The fierce press of the crowd held him from
slipping to the ground, and so he stood on there where he was, with his
head nodded forward, as though he had fallen asleep through heaviness,
or had fainted through the crushing of his fellows. I had no desire to
begin that last fight of mine in a place like this, where there was no
room to swing a weapon, nor chance to clear a battle ring.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And here came the turning point of my life. At first, like, I take
it, every one else in that crowd, I imagined that the old man, having
finished his mission, was making a way to return to the place from which
he had come. But he held steadily to one direction, and as that was
towards myself, it naturally came to my mind that, having dealt with
greater things, he would now settle with the less; or, in plainer words,
that having put his policy before the swarming people, he would now
smite down the man he had seen but yesterday seated as Phorenice's
minister. Well, I should lose that final fight I had promised myself,
and that mound of slain for my funeral bed. It was clear that Zaemon was
the mouthpiece of the Priests' Clan, duly appointed; and I also was a
priest. If the word had been given on the Sacred Mountain to those who
sat before the Ark of the Mysteries that Atlantis would prosper more
with Deucalion sent to the Gods, I was ready to bow to the sentence with
submissiveness. That I had regret for this mode of cutting off, I will
not deny. No man who has practised the game of arms could abandon the
promise of such a gorgeous final battle without a qualm of longing.

But I had been trained enough to show none of these emotions on my face,
and when the old man came up to me, I stood my ground and gave him the
salutation prescribed between our ranks, which he returned to me with
circumstance and accuracy. The crowd fell back, being driven away by the
ineffable force of the Symbol, leaving us alone in the middle of a
ring. Even Nais, though she was a priest's daughter, was ignorant of the
Mysteries, and could not withstand its force. And so we two men stood
there alone together, with the glow of the Symbol bathing us, and
lighting up the sea of ravenous faces that watched.

The people were quick to put their natural explanation on the scene. "A
spy!" they began to roar out. "A spy! Zaemon salutes him as a Priest!"

Zaemon faced round on them with a queer look on his grim old face.
"Aye," he said, "this is a Priest. If I give you his name, you might
have further interest. This is the Lord Deucalion."

The word was picked up and yelled amongst them with a thousand emotions.
But at least they were loyal to their policy; they had decided that
Deucalion was their enemy; they had already expended a navy for his
destruction; and now that he was ringed in by their masses, they lusted
to tear him into rags with their fingers. But rave and rave though they
might against me, the glare from the Symbol drove them shuddering back
as though it had been a lava-stream; and Zaemon was not the man to hand
me over to their fury until he had delivered formal sentence as the
emissary of our Clan on the Sacred Mount. So the end was not to be yet.

The old man faced me and spoke in the sacred tongue, which the common
people do not know. "My brother," he said, "which have you come to
serve, Deucalion or Atlantis?"

"Words are a poor thing to answer a question like that. You will know
all of my record. According to the Law of the Priests, each ship from
Yucatan will have carried home its sworn report to lay at the feet of
their council, and before I went to that vice-royalty, what I did was
written plain here on the face of Atlantis."

"We know your doings in the past, brother, and they have found approval.
You have governed well, and you have lived austerely. You set up
Atlantis for a mistress, and served her well; but then, you have had no
Phorenice to tempt you into change and fickleness."

"You can send me where I shall see her no more, if you think me frail."

"Yes, and lose your usefulness. No, brother, you are the last hope which
this poor land has remaining. All other human means that have been tried
against Phorenice have failed. You have returned from overseas for the
final duel. You are the strongest man we have, and you are our final
champion. If you fail, then only those terrible Powers which are locked
within the Ark of the Mysteries remains to us, and though it is not
lawful to speak even in this hidden tongue of their scope, you at least
have full assurance of their potency."

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

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

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

The old man shuddered. "I cannot tell what she may force us to do. I
spoke then only what it was revealed to me must happen. Perhaps when
matters have reached that pass, she will repent and submit. But in the
meanwhile, before we use the more desperate weapons of the Gods, it is
fitting that we should expend all human power remaining to us. And so
you must go, my brother, and play your part to the utmost."

"It is an order. So I obey."

"You shall be at Phorenice's side again by the next dawn. She has sent
for you from Yucatan as a husband, and as one who (so she thinks,
poor human conqueror) has the weight of arm necessary to prolong her
tyrannies. You are a Priest, brother, and you are a man of convincing
tongue. It will be your part to make her stubborn mind see the
invincible power that can be loosed against her, to point out to her the
utter hopelessness of prevailing against it."

"If it is ordered, I will do these things. But there is little enough
chance of success. I have seen Phorenice, and can gauge her will. There
will be no turning her once she has made a decision. Others have tried;
you have tried yourself; all have failed."

"Words that were wasted on a maiden may go home to a wife. You have been
brought here to be her husband. Well, take your place."

The order came to me with a pang. I had given little enough heed to
women through all of a busy life, though when I landed, the taking of
Phorenice to wife would not have been very repugnant to me if policy had
demanded it. But the matters of the last two days had put things in a
different shape. I had seen two other women who had strangely attracted
me, and one of these had stirred within me a tumult such as I had never
felt before amongst my economies.

To lead Phorenice in marriage would mean a severance from this other
woman eternally, and I ached as I thought of it. But though these
thoughts floated through my system and gave me harsh wrenches of pain, I
did not thrust my puny likings before the command of the council of the
Priests. I bowed before Zaemon, and put his hand to my forehead. "It is
an order," I said. "If our Lord the Sun gives me life, I will obey."

"Then let us begone from this place," said Zaemon, and took me by the
arm and waved a way for us with the Symbol. No further word did I have
with Nais, fearing to embroil her with these rebels who clustered round,
but I caught one hot glance from her eyes, and that had to suffice
for farewell. The dense ranks of the crowd opened, and we walked
away between them scathless. Fiercely though they lusted for my life,
brimming with hate though they made their cries, no man dared to rush
in and raise a hand against me. Neither did they follow. When we reached
the outskirts of the crowd, and the ranks thinned, they had a mind, many
of them, to surge along in our wake; but Zaemon whirled the Symbol back
before their faces with a blaze of lurid light, and they fell to their
knees, grovelling, and pressed on us no more.

The rain still fell, and in the light of the camp fires as we passed
them, the wet gleamed on the old man's wasted body. And far before us
through the darkness loomed the vast bulk of the Sacred Mountain, with
the ring of eternal fires encincturing its crest. I sighed as I thought
of the old peaceful days I had spent in its temple and groves.

But there was to be no more of that studious leisure now. There was work
to be done, work for Atlantis which did not brook delay. And so when we
had progressed far out into the waste, and there was none near to view
(save only the most High Gods), we found the place where the passage
was, whose entrance is known only to the Seven amongst the Priests; and
there we parted, Zaemon to his hermitage in the dangerous lands, and I
by this secret way back into the capital.




9. PHORENICE, GODDESS


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

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

The way was long, the floor was monstrous uneven, and the air, as I have
said, bad; and I knew that day would be far advanced before the signs
told me that I had passed beneath the walls, and was well within
the precincts of the city. And here the vow of the Seven hampered my
progress; for it is ordained that under no circumstances, whatever the
stress, shall egress be made from this passage before mortal eye. One
branch after another did I try, but always found loiterers near the
exits. I had hoped to make my emergence by that path which came inside
the royal pyramid. But there was no chance of coming up unobserved here;
the place was humming like a hive. And so, too, with each of the
five next outlets that I visited. The city was agog with some strange
excitement.

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

Here was a pretty pass. No one but the attendant priests of the temple
could move the mechanism which closed and opened the massive stone which
filled the doorway; and if all had gone out to attend this spectacle,
whatever it might be, that was stirring the city, why there I should be
no nearer enlargement than before.

There was no sound of life within the temple precincts; there were
evidences of decay and disuse spread broadcast on every hand; but
according to the ancient law there should be eternally one at least on
watch in the priests' dwellings, so down the passages which led to them
I made my way. It would have surprised me little to have found even
these deserted. That the old order was changed I knew, but I was only
then beginning to realise the ruthlessness with which it had been swept
away, and how much it had given place to the new.

However, there can be some faithful men remaining even in an age of
general apostasy, and on making my way to the door of the dwelling
(which lay in the roof of the temple) I gave the call, and presently it
was opened to me. The man who stood before me, peering dully through
the gloom, had at least remained constant to his vows, and I made the
salutation before him with a feeling of respect.

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

Ro did before me the greater obeisance. He wore his beard curled in the
prevailing fashion, but it was badly done. His clothing was ill-fitting
and unbrushed. He always had been a slovenly fellow. "The temple door
is shut," he said, "and I only have the secret of its opening. My lord
comes here, therefore, by the secret way, and as one of the Seven. I am
my lord's servant."

"Then I ask this small service of you. Tell me, what stirs the city?"

"That impious Phorenice has declared herself Goddess, and declares that
she will light the sacrifice with her own divine fire. She will do it,
too. She does everything. But I wish the flames may burn her when she
calls them down. This new Empress is the bane of our Clan, Deucalion,
these latter days. The people neglect us; they bring no offerings; and
now, since these rebels have been hammering at the walls, I might have
gone hungry if I had not some small store of my own. Oh, I tell you, the
cult of the true Gods is well-nigh oozed quite out of the land."

"My brother, it comes to my mind that the Priests of our Clan have been
limp in their service to let these things come to pass."

"I suppose we have done our best. At least, we did as we were taught.
But if the people will not come to hear your exhortations, and neglect
to adore the God, what hold have you over their religion? But I tell
you, Deucalion, that the High Gods try our own faith hard. Come into the
dwelling here. Look there on my bed."

I saw the shape of a man, untidily swathed in reddened bandages.

"This is all that is left of the poor priest that was my immediate
superior in this cure. It was his turn yesterday to celebrate the weekly
sacrifice to our Lord the Sun with the circle of His great stones.
Faugh! Deucalion, you should have seen how he was mangled when they
brought him back to me here."

"Did the people rise on him? Has it come to that?"

"The people stayed passive," said Ro bitterly, "what few of them had
interest to attend; but our Lord the Sun saw fit to try His minister
somewhat harshly. The wood was laid; the sacrifice was disposed upon it
according to the prescribed rites; the procession had been formed round
the altar, and the drums and the trumpets were speaking forth, to let
all men know that presently the smoke of their prayer would be wafted
up towards Those that sit in the great places in the heavens. But then,
above the noise of the ceremonial, there came the rushing sound of
wings, and from out of the sky there flew one of those great featherless
man-eating birds, of a bigness such as seldom before has been seen."

"An arrow shot in the eye, or a long-shafted spear receives them best."

"Oh, all men know what they were taught as children, Deucalion; but
these priests were unarmed, according to the rubric, which ordains that
they shall intrust themselves completely to the guardianship of the
High Gods during the hours of sacrifice. The great bird swooped down,
settling on the wood pyre, and attacked the sacrifice with beak and
talon. My poor superior here, still strong in his faith, called loudly
on our Lord the Sun to lend power to his arm, and sprang up on the altar
with naught but his teeth and his bare arms for weapons. It may be
that he expected a miracle--he has not spoke since, poor soul, in
explanation--but all he met were blows from leathery wings, and rakings
from talons which went near to disembowelling him. The bird brushed him
away as easily as we could sweep aside a fly, and there he lay bleeding
on the pavement beside the altar, whilst the sacrifice was torn and
eaten in the presence of all the people. And then, when the bird was
glutted, it flew away again to the mountains."

"And the people gave no help?"

"They cried out that the thing was a portent, that our Lord the Sun
was a God no longer if He had not power or thought to guard His own
sacrifice; and some cried that there was no God remaining now, and
others would have it that there was a new God come to weigh on the
country, which had chosen to take the form of a common man-eating bird.
But a few began to shout that Phorenice stood for all the Gods now in
Atlantis, and that cry was taken up till the stones of the great
circle rang with it. Some may have made proclamations because they were
convinced; many because the cry was new, and pleased them; but I am sure
there were not a few who joined in because it was dangerous to leave
such an outburst unwelcomed. The Empress can be hard enough to those who
neglect to give her adulation."

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

"I am a priest," said Ro, "and I speak as I have been taught, and defend
the Faith as I have been commanded. Whether there is a Faith any longer,
I am beginning to doubt. But, anyway, it yields a poor enough livelihood
nowadays. There have been no offerings at this temple this five months
past, and if I had not a few jars of corn put by, I might have starved
for anything the pious of this city cared. And I do not think that the
affair of that sacrifice is likely to put new enthusiasm into our cold
votaries."

"When did it happen?"

"Twenty hours ago. To-day Phorenice conducts the sacrifice herself.
That has caused the stir you spoke about. The city is in the throes of
getting ready one of her pageants."

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

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

"It is not."

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

"The future is in the hands of the most High Gods, Ro, and I at least
believe that They will deal out our fates to each of us as They in Their
infinite wisdom see best, though you seem to have lost your faith. And
now I must be your debtor for a passage out through the doors. Plagues!
man, it is no use your holding out your hand to me. I do not own a coin
in all the world."

He mumbled something about "force of habit" as he led the way down
towards the door, and I responded tartly enough about the unpleasantness
of his begging customs. "If it were not for your sort and your customs,
the Priests' Clan would not be facing this crisis to-day."

"One must live," he grumbled, as he pressed his levers, and the massive
stone in the doorway swung ajar.

"If you had been a more capable man, I might have seen the necessity,"
said I, and passed into the open and left him. I could never bring
myself to like Ro.

A motley crowd filled the street which ran past the front of this
obscure temple, and all were hurrying one way. With what I had been
told, it did not take much art to guess that the great stone circle of
our Lord the Sun was their mark, and it grieved me to think of how many
venerable centuries that great fane had upreared before the weather and
the earth tremors, without such profanation as it would witness to-day.
And also the thought occurred to me, "Was our Great Lord above drawing
this woman on to her destruction? Would He take some vast and final act
of vengeance when she consummated her final sacrilege?"

But the crowd pressed on, thrilled and excited, and thinking little
(as is a crowd's wont) on the deeper matters which lay beneath the bare
spectacle. From one quarter of the city walls the din of an attack from
the besiegers made itself clearly heard from over the house, and the
temples and the palaces intervening, but no one heeded it. They had
grown callous, these townsfolk, to the battering of rams, and the flight
of fire-darts, and the other emotions of a bombardment. Their nerves,
their hunger, their desperation, were strung to such a pitch that little
short of an actual storm could stir them into new excitement over the
siege.

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

The crowd merged me into their ranks without question, and with them I
pressed forward down the winding streets, once so clean and trim, now so
foul and mud-strewn. Men and women had died of hunger in these streets
these latter years, and rotted where they lay, and we trod their bones
underfoot as we walked. Yet rising out of this squalor and this misery
were great pyramids and palaces, the like of which for splendour and
magnificence had never been seen before. It was a jarring admixture.

In time we came to the open space in the centre of the city, which even
Phorenice had not dared to encroach upon with her ambitious building
schemes, and stood on the secular ground which surrounds the most
ancient, the most grand, and the breast of all this world's temples.

Since the beginning of time, when man first emerged amongst the beasts,
our Lord the Sun has always been his chiefest God, and legend says that
He raised this circle of stones Himself to be a place where votaries
should offer Him worship. It is the fashion amongst us moderns not to
take these old tales in a too literal sense, but for myself, this one
satisfies me. By our wits we can lift blocks weighing six hundred men,
and set them as the capstones of our pyramids. But to uprear the stones
of that great circle would be beyond all our art, and much more would
it be impossible to-day, to transport them from their distant quarries
across the rugged mountains.

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

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

For long enough we stood there, our Lord the Sun burning high and
fiercely from the clear blue sky above our heads. The din of the rebels'
attack upon the walls came to us clearly, even above the gabble of the
multitude, but no one gave attention to it. Excitement about what was to
befall in the circle mastered every other emotion.

I learned afterways that so pressing was the rebels' attack, and so
destructive the battering of their new war engines, that Phorenice had
gone off to the walls first to lend awhile her brilliant skill for its
repulse, and to put heart into the defenders. But as it was, the day had
burned out to its middle and scorched us intolerably, before the noise
of the drums and horns gave advertisement that the pageant had formed in
procession; and of those who waited in the crowd, many had fainted with
exhaustion and the heat, and not a few had died. But life was cheap in
the city of Atlantis now, and no one heeded the fallen.

Nearer and nearer drew the drums and the braying of the other music,
and presently the head of a glittering procession began to arrive and
dispose itself in the space which had been set apart. Many a thousand
poor starving wretches sighed when they saw the wanton splendour of it.
But these lords and these courtiers of this new Atlantis had no concern
beyond their own bellies and their own backs, except for their one alien
regard--their simpering affection for Phorenice.

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

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

Ylga, the fan-girl, alone of all that vast multitude round the Sun
temple contained herself with her formal paces and duties. She looked
pained and troubled. It was plain to see, even from the distance where
I stood, that she carried a heavy heart under the jewels of her robe.
It was fitting, too, that this should be so. Though she had been long
enough divorced from his care and fostered by the Empress, Ylga was
a daughter of Zaemon, and he was the chiefest of our Lord the Sun's
ministers here on earth. She could not forget her upbringing now at
this supreme moment when the highest of the old Gods was to be formally
defied. And perhaps also (having a kindness for Phorenice) she was not a
little dreadful of the consequences.

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

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

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

She raised her glance aloft, and all other eyes followed it. The heaven
was clear as the deep sea, a gorgeous blue. But as the words came from
her, so a small mist was born in the sky, wheeling and circling like a
ball, although the day was windless, and rapidly growing darker and more
compact. So dense had it become, that presently it threw a shadow on
part of the sacred circle and soothed it into twilight, though all
without where the people stood was still garish day. And in the ball of
mist were little quick stabs and splashes of noiseless flame.

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

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

She broke off and strained towards the sky. Her face was contorted. Her
limbs shook. "O mighty Father," she cried, "who hast made me a God and
an equal, hear me! Hear me!"

Out of the black cloud overhead there came a blinding flash of light,
which spat downwards on to the altar. The cloven-hoofed horse gave one
shrill neigh, and one convulsion, and fell back dead. Flames crackled
out from the wood pile, and the air became rich with the smell of
burning flesh. And lo! in another moment the cloud above had melted into
nothingness, and the flames burnt pale, and the smoke went up in a thin
blue spiral towards the deeper blueness of the sky.

Phorenice, the Empress, stood there before the great stone, and before
the snake and the outstretched hand of life which were inscribed upon
it, flushed, exultant, and once more radiantly lovely; and the knot of
priests within the circle, and the great mob of people without, fell to
the ground adoring.

"Phorenice, Goddess!" they cried. "Phorenice, Goddess of all Atlantis!"

But for myself I did not kneel. I would have no part in this apostasy,
so I stood there awaiting fate.




10. A WOOING


A murmur quickly sprang up round me, which grew into shouts. "Kneel,"
one whispered, "kneel, sir, or you will be seen." And another cried:
"Kneel, you without beard, and do obeisance to the only Goddess, or by
the old Gods I will make myself her priest and butcher you!" And so the
shouts arose into a roar.

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

So when the silence had grown again, and Phorenice turned and saw me
standing alone amongst all the prostrate worshippers, I stepped out from
the crowd and passed between two of the great stones, and went across
the circle to where she stood beside the altar. I did not prostrate
myself. At the prescribed distance I made the salutation which she
herself had ordered when she made me her chief minister, and then hailed
her with formal decorum as Empress.

"Deucalion, man of ice," she retorted.

"I still adhere to the old Gods!"

"I was not referring to that," said she, and looked at me with a
sidelong smile.

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

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

The girl bowed her shoulders, and went away cowed, and Phorenice turned
to me. "My lord," she said, "I am like a young bird in the nest that has
suddenly found its wings. Wings have so many uses that I am curious to
try them all."

"May each new flight they take be for the good of Atlantis."

"Oh," she said, with an eye-flash, "I know what you have most at heart.
But we will go back to the pyramid, and talk this out at more leisure. I
pray you now, my lord, conduct me back to my riding beast."

It appeared then that I was to be condoned for not offering her worship,
and so putting public question on her deification. It appeared also that
Ylga's interference was looked upon as untimely, and, though I could not
understand the exact reasons for either of these things, I accepted
them as they were, seeing that they forwarded the scheme that Zaemon had
bidden me carry out.

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

So I led this lovely sinful woman back to the huge red mammoth which
stood there tamely in waiting, and the smell of the sacrifice came
after us as we walked. She mounted the stair to the golden castle on the
shaggy beast's back, and bade me mount also and take seat beside her.
But the place of the fan-girl behind was empty, and what we said as we
rode back through the streets there was none to overhear.

She was eager to know what had befallen me after the attack on the gate,
and I told her the tale, laying stress on the worthiness of Nais,
and uttering an opinion that with care the girl might be won back to
allegiance again. Only the commands that Zaemon laid upon me when he
and I spoke together in the sacred tongue, did I withhold, as it is
not lawful to repeat these matters save only in the High Council of the
Priests itself as they sit before the Ark of the Mysteries.

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

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

"Ay," she answered, with a sigh that I think was real enough in its way,
"an Empress loses much that meaner woman gets as her common due."

"In what particular?"

"She misses the honest wooing of her equals."

"If you set up for a Goddess--" I said.

"Pah! I wish to be no Goddess to you, Deucalion. That was for the common
people; it gives me more power with them; it helps my schemes. All you
Seven higher priests know that trick of calling down the fire, and it
pleased me to filch it. Can you not be generous, and admit that a woman
may be as clever in finding out these natural laws as your musty elder
priests?"

"Remains that you are Empress."

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

I looked on her glorious beauty, but as I live it left me cold. But I
remembered the command that had been laid upon me, and forced a smile.
"I may have been fastidious," I said, "but I do not regret waiting this
long."

"Nor I. But I have played my life as a maid, time enough. I am a woman,
ripe, and full-blooded, and the day has come when I should be more than
what I have been."

I let my hand clench on hers. "Take me to husband then, and I will be a
good man to you. But, as I am bidden speak to Phorenice the woman now,
and not to the Empress, I offer fair warning that I will be no puppet."

She looked at me sidelong. "I have been master so long that I think
it will come as enjoyment to be mastered sometimes. No, Deucalion, I
promise that--you shall be no puppet. Indeed, it would take a lusty lung
to do the piping if you were to dance against your will."

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

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

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

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

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

"Then I would that another woman were Empress, and that I were some
ill-dressed creature of the gutter that a strong man could pick up by
force, and carry away to his home for sheer passion. Ah! How I could
revel in it! How I could respond if he caught my whim!" She laughed.
"But I should lead him a sad life of it if my liking were not so strong
as his."

"We are as we are made, and we cannot change our inwards which move us."

She looked at me with a sullen glance. "If I do not change yours, my
Deucalion, there will be more trouble brewed for this poor Atlantis
that you set such store upon. There will be ill doings in this coming
household of ours if my love grows for you, and yours remains still
unborn."

I believe she would have had me fondle her there in the golden castle on
the mammoth's shabby back, before the city streets packed with curious
people. She had little enough appetite for privacy at any time. But for
the life of me I could not do it. The Gods know I was earnest enough
about my task, and They know also how it repelled me. But I was a true
priest that day, and I had put away all personal liking to carry out the
commands which the Council had laid upon me. If I had known how to set
about it, I would have fallen in with her mood. But where any of those
shallow bedizened triflers about the court would have been glibly in his
element, I stuck for lack of a dozen words.

There was no help for it but to leave all, save what I actually felt,
unsaid. Diplomacy I was trained in, and on most matters I had a glib
enough tongue. But to palter with women was a lightness I had always
neglected, and if I had invented would-be pretty speeches out of my
clumsy inexperience, Phorenice would have seen through the fraud on the
instant. She had been nurtured during these years of her rule on a
pap of these silly protestations, and could weigh their value with an
expert's exactness.

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

"I had always heard," she said, "that you colonists in Yucatan were far
ahead of those in Egypt in all the arts and graces. But you, sir, do
small credit to your vice-royalty. Why, I have had gentry from the Nile
come here, and you might almost think they had never left their native
shores."

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

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

But here, by a lucky chance for me, an incident occurred which saved me
from further baiting. The rebels outside the walls were conducting their
day's attack with vigour and some intelligence. More than once during
our procession the lighter missiles from their war engines had sung
up through the air, and split against a building, and thrown splinters
which wounded those who thronged the streets. Still there had been
nothing to ruffle the nerves of any one at all used to the haps of
warfare, or in any way to hinder our courtship. But presently, it seems,
they stopped hurling stones from their war engines, and took to loading
them with carcases of wood lined with the throwing fire.

Now, against stone buildings these did little harm, save only that they
scorched horribly any poor wretch that was within splash of them when
they burst; but when they fell upon the rude wooden booths and rush
shelters of the poorer folk, they set them ablaze instantly. There was
no putting out these fires.

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

The guards who led it, tugged manfully at the chains which hung from the
jagged metal collar round its neck, so that the spikes ran deep into its
flesh, and reminded it keenly of its bondage. But the beast's terror
at the fire, which was native to its constitution, mastered all its
new-bought habits of obedience. From time unknown men have hunted the
mammoth in the savage ground, and the mammoth has hunted men; and the
men have always used fire as a shield, and mammoths have learned to
dread fire as the most dangerous of all enemies.

Phorenice's brow began to darken as the great beast grew more restive,
and she shook her red curls viciously. "Some one shall lose a head for
this blundering," said she. "I ordered to have this beast trained to
stand indifferent to drums, shouting, arrows, stones, and fire, and the
trainers assured me that all was done, and brought examples."

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

She turned on me with a gleam. "Are you afraid for my neck, then,
Deucalion?"

"I have no mind to be bereaved before I have tasted my wedded life."

"Pish! There is little enough of danger. I will stay and ride it out. I
am not one of your nervous women, sir. But go you, if you please."

"There is little enough chance of that now."

Blood flowed from the mammoth's neck where the spikes of the collar tore
it, and with each drop, so did the tameness seem to ooze out from it
also. With wild squeals and trumpetings it turned and charged viciously
down the way it had come, scattering like straws the spearmen who
tried to stop it, and mowing a great swath through the crowd with its
monstrous progress. Many must have been trodden under foot, many killed
by its murderous trunk, but only their cries came to us. The golden
castle, with its canopy of royal snakes, was swayed and tossed, so that
we two occupants had much ado not to be shot off like stones from a
catapult. But I took a brace with my feet against the front, and one
arm around a pillar, and clapped the spare arm round Phorenice, so as to
offer myself to her as a cushion.

She lay there contentedly enough, with her lovely face just beneath my
chin, and the faint scent of her hair coming in to me with every breath
I took; and the mammoth charged madly on through the narrow streets. We
had outstripped the taint of smoke, and the original cause of fear, but
the beast seemed to have forgotten everything in its mad panic. It
held furiously on with enormous strides, carrying its trunk aloft, and
deafening us with its screams and trumpetings. We left behind us quickly
all those who had trod in that glittering pageant, and we were carried
helplessly on through the wards of the city.

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

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

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

"Now here," thought I, "this mad beast will come to sudden stop, and as
like as not will swerve round sharply and charge back again towards the
heart of the city." And I braced myself to withstand the shock, and took
fresh grip upon the woman who lay against my breast. But with louder
screams and wilder trumpetings the mammoth held straight on, and
presently came to the harbour's edge, and sent the spray sparkling in
sheets amongst the sunshine as it went with its clumsy gait into the
water.

But at this point the pace was very quickly slackened. The great sewers,
which science devised for the health of the city in the old King's
time, vomit their drainings into this part of the harbour, and the solid
matter which they carry is quickly deposited as an impalpable sludge.
Into this the huge beast began to sink deeper and deeper before it could
halt in its rush, and when with frightened bellowings it had come to
a stop, it was bogged irretrievably. Madly it struggled, wildly it
screamed and trumpeted. The harbour-water and the slime were churned
into one stinking compost, and the golden castle in which we clung
lurched so wildly that we were torn from it and shot far away into the
water.

Still there, of course, we were safe, and I was pleased enough to be rid
of the bumpings.

Phorenice laughed as she swam. "You handle yourself like a sore man,
Deucalion. I owe you something for lending me the cushion of your body.
By my face! There's more of the gallant about you when it comes to the
test than one would guess to hear you talk. How did you like the ride,
sir? I warrant it came to you as a new experience."

"I'd liefer have walked."

"Pish, man! You'll never be a courtier. You should have sworn that with
me in your arms you could have wished the bumping had gone on for ever.
Ho, the boat there! Hold your arrows. Deucalion, hail me those fools in
that boat. Tell them that, if they hurt so much as a hair of my mammoth,
I'll kill them all by torture. He'll exhaust himself directly, and when
his flurry's done we'll leave him where he is to consider his evil ways
for a day or so, and then haul him out with windlasses, and tame him
afresh. Pho! I could not feel myself to be Phorenice, if I had no fine,
red, shaggy mammoth to take me out for my rides."

The boat was a ten-slave galley which was churning up from the farther
side of the harbour as hard as well-plied whips could make oars drive
her, but at the sound of my shouts the soldiers on her foredeck stopped
their arrowshots, and the steersman swerved her off on a new course to
pick us up. Till then we had been swimming leisurely across an angle of
the harbour, so as to avoid landing where the sewers outpoured; but we
stopped now, treading the water, and were helped over the side by most
respectful hands.

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

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

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

But it seemed she could be cloyed with flattery. "If you are tired of
your eyes," said she, "let me tell you that you have gone the way to
have them plucked out from their sockets. Kill my mammoth, would you,
because he has shown himself a trifle frolicsome? You and your sort want
more education, my man. I shall have to teach you that port-captains and
such small creatures are very easy to come by, and very small value when
got, but that my mammoth is mine--mine, do you understand?--the property
of Goddess Phorenice, and as such is sacred."

The port-captain abased himself before her. "I am an ignorant fellow,"
said he, "and heaven was robbed of its brightest ornament when Phorenice
came down to Atlantis. But if reparation is permitted me, I have two
prisoners in the cabin of the boat here who shall be sacrificed to the
mammoth forthwith. Doubtless it would please him to make sport with
them, and spill out the last lees of his rage upon their bodies."

"Prisoners you've got, have you? How taken?"

"Under cover of last night they were trying to pass in between the two
forts which guard the harbour mouth. But their boat fouled the chain,
and by the light of the torches the sentries spied them. They were
caught with ropes, and put in a dungeon. There is an order not to abuse
prisoners before they have been brought before a judgment?"

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

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

"Tut!" said Phorenice. "Is this a romance we have swum to? You see what
affectionate creatures we women are, Deucalion."--The galley was brought
up against the royal quay and made fast to its golden rings. I handed
the Empress ashore, but she turned again and faced the boat, her
garments still yielding up a slender drip of water.--"Produce your woman
prisoner, master captain, and let us see whether she is a runaway
wife, or a lovesick girl mad after her sweetheart. Then I will deliver
judgment on her, and as like as not will surprise you all with my
clemency. I am in a mood for tender romance to-day."

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

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

I saw the fellow stoop for his knife to cut a lashing, and presently who
should he bring out to the daylight but the girl I had saved from the
cave-tigers in the circus, and who had so strangely drawn me to her
during the hours that we had spent afterwards in companionship. It was
clear, too, that the Empress recognised her also. Indeed, she made no
secret about the matter, addressing her by name, and mockingly making
inquiries about the menage of the rebels, and the success of the
prisoner's amours.

"This good port-captain tells me that you made a most valiant attempt to
return, Nais, and for an excuse you told that it was your love for
some man in the city here which drew you. Come, now, we are willing to
overlook much of your faults, if you will give us a reasonable chance.
Point me out your man, and if he is a proper fellow, I will see that he
weds you honestly. Yes, and I will do more for you, Nais, since this day
brings me to a husband. Seeing that all your estate is confiscate as a
penalty for your late rebellion, I will charge myself with your dowry,
and give it back to you. So come, name me the man."

The girl looked at her with a sullen brow. "I spoke a lie," she said;
"there is no man."

I tried myself to give her advocacy. "The lady doubtless spoke what came
to her lips. When a woman is in the grip of a rude soldiery, any excuse
which can save her for the moment must serve. For myself, I should think
it like enough that she would confess to having come back to her old
allegiance, if she were asked."

"Sir," said the Empress, "keep your peace. Any interest you may show in
this matter will go far to offend me. You have spoken of Nais in your
narrative before, and although your tongue was shrewd and you did not
say much, I am a woman and I could read between the lines. Now regard,
my rebel, I have no wish to be unduly hard upon you, though once
you were my fan-girl, and so your running away to these ill-kempt
malcontents, who beat their heads against my city walls, is all the
more naughty. But you must meet me halfway. You must give an excuse
for leniency. Point me out the man you would wed, and he shall be your
husband to-morrow."

"There is no man."

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

The prisoner moistened her lips. "I am a maiden, and I have a maiden's
modesty. I will die as you choose, but I will not do this indecency."

"Well, I am a maiden too, and though because I am Empress also,
questions of State have to stand before questions of my private modesty,
I can have a sympathy for yours--although in truth it did not obtrude
unduly when you were my fan-girl, Nais. No, come to think of it, you
liked a tender glance and a pretty phrase as well as any when you were
fan-girl. You have grown wild and shy, amongst these savage rebels, but
I will not punish you for that.

"Let me call your favourites to memory now. There was Tarca, of course,
but Tarca had a difference with that ill-dressed father of yours, and
wears a leprosy on half his face instead of that beard he used to trim
so finely. And then there is Tatho, but Tatho is away overseas. Eron,
too, you liked once, but he lost an arm in fighting t'other day, and I
would not marry you to less than a whole man. Ah, by my face! I have it,
the dainty exquisite, Rota! He is the husband! How well I remember the
way he used to dress in a change of garb each day to catch your proud
fancy, girl. Well, you shall have Rota. He shall lead you to wife before
this hour to-morrow."

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

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

I looked once at Nais, and then I looked steadily back to Phorenice. The
command given by the mouth of Zaemon from the High Council of the Sacred
Mountain had to outweigh all else, and I answered that such was my
desire.

"Then," said she, glowering at me with her eyes, "you shall build me up
the pretty body of Nais beneath a throne of granite as a wedding gift.
And you shall do it too with your own proper hands, my Deucalion, whilst
I watch your devotion."

And to Nais she turned with a cruel smile. "You lied to me, my girl,
and you spoke truth to the soldiers in the harbour forts. There is a man
here in the city you came after, and he is the one man you may not have.
Because you know me well, and my methods very thoroughly, your love for
him must be very deep, or you would not have come. And so, being here,
you shall be put beyond mischief's reach. I am not one of those who see
luxury in fostering rivals.

"You came for attention at the hands of Deucalion. By my face! you shall
have it. I will watch myself whilst he builds you up living."




11. AN AFFAIR WITH THE BARBAROUS FISHERS


So this mighty Empress chose to be jealous of a mere woman prisoner!

Now my mind has been trained to work with a soldierly quickness in these
moments of stress, and I decided on my proper course on the instant the
words had left her lips. I was sacrificing myself for Atlantis by
order of the High Council of the Priests, and, if needful, Nais must
be sacrificed also, although in the same flash a scheme came to me for
saving her.

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

By this time the merchants, and the other dwellers adjacent to this part
of the harbour, where the royal quay stands, had come down, offering
changes of raiment, and houses to retire into. Phorenice was all
graciousness, and though it was little enough I cared for mere wetness
of my coat, still that part of the harbour into which we had been thrown
by the mammoth was not over savoury, and I was glad enough to follow her
example. For myself, I said no further word to Nais, and refrained even
from giving her a glance of farewell. But a small sop like this was no
meal for Phorenice, and she gave the port-captain strict orders for the
guarding of his prisoner before she left him.

At the house into which I was ushered they gave me a bath, and I eased
my host of the plainest garment in his store, and he was pleased enough
at getting off so cheaply. But I had an hour to spend outside on the
pavement listening to the distant din of bombardment before Phorenice
came out to me again, and I could not help feeling some grim amusement
at the face of the merchant who followed. The fellow was clearly ruined.
He had a store of jewels and gauds of the most costly kind, which were
only in fraction his own, seeing that he had bought them (as the custom
is) in partnership with other merchants. These had pleased Phorenice's
eye, and so she had taken all and disposed them on her person.

"Are they not pretty?" said she, showing them to me. "See how they flash
under the sun. I am quite glad now, Deucalion, that the mammoth gave us
that furious ride and that spill, since it has brought me such a bonny
present. You may tell the fellow here that some day when he has earned
some more, I will come and be his guest again. Ah! They have brought us
litters, I see. Well, send one away and do you share mine with me, sir.
We must play at being lovers to-day, even if love is a matter which will
come to us both with more certainty to-morrow. No; do not order more
bearers. My own slaves will carry us handily enough. I am glad you
are not one of your gross, overfed men, Deucalion. I am small and slim
myself, and I do not want to be husbanded by a man who will overshadow
me."

"Back to the royal pyramid?" I asked.

"No, nor to the walls. I neither wish to fight nor to sit as Empress
to-day, sir. As I have told you before, it is my whim to be Phorenice,
the maiden, for a few hours, and if some one I wot of would woo me now,
as other maidens are wooed, I should esteem it a luxury. Bid the slaves
carry us round the harbour's rim, and give word to these starers that,
if they follow, I will call down fire upon them as I did upon the
sacrifice."

Now, I had seen something of the unruliness of the streets myself, and
I had gathered a hint also from the officer at the gate of the royal
pyramid that night of Phorenice's welcoming banquet. But as whatever
there was in the matter must be common knowledge to the Empress, I did
not bring it to her memory then. So I dismissed the guard which had
come up, and drove away with a few sharp words the throng of gaping
sightseers who always, silly creatures, must needs come to stare at
their betters; and then I sat in the litter in the place where I was
invited, and the bearers put their heads to the pole.

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

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

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

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

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

She patted my arm laughingly as I stared curiously round the place. "I
tell all others in Atlantis that only the Gods have this secret," said
she, "and that They gave it to me as one of themselves. But I am no
Goddess to you, am I, Deucalion? And, by my face! I have no other
explanation of how this plan was invented. We'll suppose I must have
dreamed it. Look! The sea-water sluices in through that culvert, and
passes over these rough metal plates set in the floor, and then flows
out again yonder in its natural course. You see the yellow metal caught
in the ridges of the plates? That is gold. And my fellows here melt it
with fire into bars, and take it to my smith's in the city. The tides
vary constantly, as you priests know well, as the quiet moon draws them,
and it does not take much figuring to know how much of the sea passes
through these culverts in a month and how much gold to a grain should be
caught in the plates. My fellows here at first thought to cheat me, but
I towed two of them in the water once behind a galley till the cannibal
fish ate them, and since then the others have given me credit for--for
what do you think?"

"More divinity."

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

Was she laughing at me? Was she in earnest? I could not tell. Sometimes
she pointed out that her success and triumphs were merely the reward
of thought and brilliancy, and next moment she gave me some impossible
explanation and left me to deduce that she must be more than mortal or
the thing could never have been found. In good truth, this little woman
with her supple mind and her supple body mystified me more and more the
longer I stayed by her side; and more and more despairing did I grow
that Atlantis could ever be restored by my agency to peace and the
ancient Gods, even after I had carried out the commands of the High
Council, and taken her to wife.

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

Yet, such was the fascination of Phorenice, that when presently we
left her gold collectors, and stumbled into such peril, that a little
withholding of my hand would have gained her a passage to the nether
Gods, I found myself fighting when she called upon me, as seldom I have
fought before. And though, of course, some blame for this must be laid
upon that lust of battle which thrills even the coldest of us when blows
begin to whistle and war-cries start to ring, there is no doubt also
that the pleasure of protecting Phorenice, and the distaste for seeing
her pulled down by those rude, uncouth fishers put special nerve and
vehemence into my blows.

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

"In the old days," said she, "when yellow gold was tediously dredged up
grain by grain from river gravels in the dangerous lands, a quill
full would cost a rich man's savings, and so none but those whose high
station fitted them to be so adorned could wear golden ornaments. But
when the sea-water gave me gold here by the double handful a day, I
found that the price of these river hoards decreased, and one day--could
you credit it?--a common fellow, who was one of my smiths, came to me
wearing a collar of yellow gold on his own common neck. Well, I had
that neck divided, as payment for his presumption; and as I promised
to repeat the division promptly on all other offenders, that special
species of forwardness seems to be checked for the time. There are many
exasperations, Deucalion, in governing these common people."

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

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

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

I stepped to the ground. The rough fishers in the boats were beginning
to shout to those who dodged amongst the houses to see to it that we
did not escape, and the numbers who hemmed us in on the shore side were
increasing every moment. The prospect was unpleasant enough. We had come
out beyond the merchants' quarters, and were level with those small
huts of mud and grass which the fishing population deem sufficient for
shelter, and which has always been a spot where turbulence might be
expected. Indeed, even in those days of peace and good government in
the old King's time, this part of the city had rarely been without its
weekly riot.

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

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

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

The birds are faithful, once they have got a training, and are seldom
known to desert their owners; but, although the fishers treat them more
kindly than they do their wives, or children of their own begetting, the
life of the birds is precarious like that of their masters. The larger
beasts and fish of the sea prey on them as they prey on the smaller
fish, and so whatever care may be lavished upon them, they are most
liable to sudden cutting off.

And here is another thing that makes the life of the fisher most
precarious: if his fishing bird be slain, and the second which he has
in training also come by ill fortune, he is left suddenly bereft of all
utensils of livelihood, and (for aught his guild-fellows care) he may go
starve. For these fishers hold that the Gods of the sea regulate their
craft, and that if one is not pleasing to Them They rob him of his
birds; after which it would be impious to have any truck or dealing
with such a fellow; and accordingly he is left to starve or rob as he
chooses.

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

I went quickly towards the largest knot of these people, who were
skulking behind the houses, leaving the litter halted in the path behind
me, and I bade them sharply enough to disperse. "For an employment,"
I added, "put your houses in order, and clean the fish offal from the
lanes between them. To-morrow I will come round here to inspect, and put
this quarter into a better order. But for to-day the Empress (whose name
be adored) wishes for a privacy, so cease your staring."

"Then give us money," said a shrill voice from amongst the huts.

"I will send you a torch in an hour's time," I said grimly, "and rig you
a gallows, if you give me more annoyance. To your kennels, you!"

I think they would have obeyed the voice of authority if they had been
left to themselves. There was a quick stir amongst them. Those that
stood in the sunlight instinctively slipped into the shadow, and many
dodged into the houses and cowered in dark corners out of sight. But the
men in the two hide-covered fisher-boats that were paddling up, called
them back with boisterous cries.

I signed to the litter-bearers to move on quickly along their road.
There was need of discipline here, and I was minded to deal it out
myself with a firm hand. I judged that I could prevent them following
the Empress, but if she still remained as a glittering bait for them to
rob, and I had to protect her also, it might be that my work would not
be done so effectively.

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

I was not coveting a fight, but it seemed as if there would be no
avoidance of it now. The robe and the glittering gauds of which
Phorenice had recently despoiled the merchant, drew the eyes of these
people with keen attraction. The fishers in the boats paddled into
the surf which edged the beach, and leaped overside and left the frail
basket-work structures to be spewed up sound or smashed, as chance
ordered. And from the houses, and from the filthy lanes between them,
poured out hordes of others, women mixed with the men, gathering round
us threateningly.

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

"So much the more for those that are left," retorted another. "She
cannot burn all."

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

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

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

"Your back to mine, comrade," cried she, with a laugh, and then drew and
laid about her with fine dexterity. Bah! but it was mere slaughter, that
first bout.

The crowd hustled inwards with such greediness to seize what they could,
that none had space to draw back elbow for a thrust, and we two kept a
circle round us by sheer whirling of steel. It is necessary to do one's
work cleanly in these bouts, as wounded left on the ground unnoticed
before one are as dangerous as so many snakes. But as we circled round
in our battling I noted that all of Phorenice's quarry lay peaceful
and still. By the Gods! but she could play a fine sword, this dainty
Empress. She touched life with every thrust.

Yes, it was plain to see, now an example was given, that the throne of
Atlantis had been won, not by a lovely face and a subtle tongue alone;
and (as a fighter myself) I did not like Phorenice the less for the
knowledge. I could but see her out of the corner of my eye, and that
only now and again, for the fishers, despite their ill-knowledge of
fence, and the clumsiness of their weapons, had heavy numbers, and most
savage ferocity; and as they made so confident of being able to pull
us down, it required more than a little hard battling to keep them from
doing it. Ay, by the Gods! it was at times a fight my heart warmed to,
and if I had not contrived to pluck a shield from one fool who came too
vain-gloriously near me with one, I could not swear they would not have
dragged me down by sheer ravening savageness.

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

Condemn my weakness how you will, but I came very near then to liking
the Empress of Atlantis in the way she wished. And as for that other
woman who should have filled my mind, I will confess that the stress of
the moment, and the fury of the engagement, had driven both her and her
strait completely out beyond the marches of my memory. Of such frail
stuff are we made, even those of us who esteem ourselves the strongest.

Now it is a temptation few men born to the sword can resist, to throw
themselves heart and soul into a fight for a fight's sake, and it seems
that women can be bitten with the same fierce infection. The attack
slackened and halted. We stood in the middle of a ring of twisted dead,
and the rest of the fishers and their women who hemmed us in shrank back
out of reach of our weapons.

It was the moment for a truce, and the moment when a few strong words
would have sent them back cowering to their huts, and given us free
passage to go where we chose. But no, this Phorenice must needs sing a
hymn to her sword and mine, gloating over our feats and invulnerability;
and then she must needs ask payment for the bearers of her litter whom
they had killed, and then speak balefully of the burnings, and the
skinnings, and the sawings asunder with which this fishers' quarter
would be treated in the near future, till they learned the virtues of
deportment and genteel manners.

"It makes your backs creep, does it?" said Phorenice. "I do not wonder.
This severity must have its unpleasant side. But why do you not put it
beyond my power to give the order? Either you must think yourselves Gods
or me no Goddess, or you would not have gone on so far. Come now, you
nasty-smelling people, follow out your theory, and if you make a good
fight of it, I swear by my face I will be lenient with those who do not
fall."

But there was no pressing up to meet our swords. They still ringed us
in, savage and sullen, beyond the ring of their own dead, and would
neither run back to the houses, nor give us the game of further fight.
There was a certain stubborn bravery about them that one could not but
admire, and for myself I determined that next time it became my duty
to raise troops, I would catch a handful of these men, and teach them
handiness with the utensils of war, and train them to loyalty and
faithfulness. But presently from behind their ranks a stone flew, and
though it whizzed between the Empress and myself, and struck down a
fisher, it showed that they had brought a new method into their attack,
and it behoved us to take thought and meet it.

I looked round me up and down the beach. There was no sign of a rescue.
"Phorenice," I said in the court tongue, which these barbarous fishers
would know little enough of, "I take it that a whiff of the sea-breeze
would come very pleasant after all this warm play. As you can show such
pretty sword work, will you cut me a way down to the beach, and I will
do my poor best to keep these creatures from snapping at our heels?"

"Oh!" cried she. "Then I am to have a courtier for a husband after all.
Why have you kept back your flattering speeches till now? Is that your
trick to make me love you?"

"I will think out the reason for it another time."

"Ah, these stern, commanding husbands," said she, "how they do press
upon their little wives!" and with that leaped over the ring of dead
before her, and cut and stabbed a way through those that stood between
her and the waters which creamed and crashed upon the beach. Gods!
what a charge she made. It made me tingle with admiration as I followed
sideways behind her, guarding the rear. And I am a man that has spent so
many years in battling, that it takes something far out of the common to
move me to any enthusiasm in this matter.

There were two boats creaking and washing about in the edge of the surf,
but in one, happily, the wicker-work which made its frame was crushed
by the weight of the waves into a shapeless bundle of sticks, and would
take half a day to replace. So that, let us but get the other craft
afloat, and we should be free from further embroiling. But the fishers
were quick to see the object of this new manoeuvre. "Guard the boat,"
they shouted. "Smash her; slit her skin with your knives! Tear her with
your fingers! Swim her out to sea! Oh, at least take the paddles!"

But, if these clumsy fishers could run, Phorenice was like a legged
snake for speed. She was down beside the boat before any could reach
it, laughing and shouting out that she could beat them at every point.
Myself, I was slower of foot; and, besides, there was some that offered
me a fight on the road, and I was not wishful to baulk them; and
moreover, the fewer we left clamouring behind, the fewer there would be
to speed our going with their stones. Still I came to the beach in good
order, and laid hands on the flimsy boat and tipped her dry.

"Fighting is no trade for, me," I cried, "whilst you are here,
Phorenice. Guard me my back and walk out into the water."

I took the boat, thrusting it afloat, and wading with it till two lines
of the surf were past. The fishers swarmed round us, active as fish in
their native element, and strove mightily to get hands on the boat and
slit the hides which covered it with their eager fingers. But I had a
spare hand, and a short stabbing-knife for such close-quarter work, and
here, there, and everywhere was Phorenice the Empress, with her thirsty
dripping sword. By the Gods! I laughed with sheer delight at seeing her
art of fence.

But the swirl of a great fish into the shallows, and the squeal of
a fisher as he was dragged down and home away into the deep, made me
mindful of foes that no skill can conquer, and no bravery avoid. Without
taking time to give the Empress a word of warning, I stooped, and flung
an arm round her, and threw her up out of the water into the boat, and
then thrust on with all my might, driving the flimsy craft out to
sea, whilst my legs crept under me for fear of the beasts which swam
invisible beneath the muddied waters.

To the fishers, inured to these horrid perils by daily association,
the seizing of one of their number meant little, and they pressed on,
careless of their dull lives, eager only to snatch the jewels which
still flaunted on Phorenice's breast. Of the vengeance that might come
after they recked nothing; let them but get the wherewithal for one
night's good debauch, and they would forget that such a thing as the
morning of a morrow could have existence.

Two fellows I caught and killed that, diving down beneath, tried to slit
the skin of the boat out of sight under the water; and Phorenice cared
for all those that tried to put a hand on the gunwales. Yes, and she did
more than that. A huge long-necked turtle that was stirred out of the
mud by the turmoil, came up to daylight, and swung its great horn-lipped
mouth to this side and that, seeking for a prey. The fishers near it
dodged and dived. I, thrusting at the stern of the boat, could only hope
it would pass me by and so offered an easy mark. It scurried towards
me, champing its noisy lips, and beating the water into spray with its
flippers.

But Phorenice was quick with a remedy and a rescue. She passed her sword
through one of the fishers that pressed her, and then thrust the body
towards the turtle. The great neck swooped towards it; the long slimy
feelers which protruded from its head quivered and snuffled; and then
the horny green jaws crunched on it, and drew it down out of sight.

The boat was in deep water now, and Phorenice called upon me to come in
over the side, she the while balancing nicely so that the flimsy thing
should not be overset. The fishers had given up their pursuit, finding
that they earned nothing but lopped-off arms and split faces by coming
within swing of this terrible sword of their Empress, and so contented
themselves with volleying jagged stones in the hopes of stunning us or
splitting the boat. However, Phorenice crouched in the stern, holding
the two shields--her own golden target, and the rough hide buckler I
had won--and so protected both of us whilst I paddled, and though many
stones clattered against the shields, and hit the hide covering of the
boat, so that it resounded like a drum, none of them did damage, and we
drew quickly out of their range.




12. THE DRUG OF OUR LADY THE MOON


Our Lord the Sun was riding towards the end of His day, and the smoke
from a burning mountain fanned black and forbidding before His face.
Phorenice wrung the water from her clothes and shivered. "Work hard with
those paddles, Deucalion, and take me in through the water-gate and let
me be restored to my comforts again. That merchant would rue if he saw
how his pretty garments were spoiled, and I rue, too, being a woman,
and remembering that he at least has no others I can take in place of
these." She looked at me sidelong, tossing back the short red hair from
her eyes. "What think you of my wisdom in coming where we have come
without an escort?"

"The Empress can do no wrong," I quoted the old formula with a smile.

"At least I have shown you that I can fight. I caught you looking your
approval of me quite pleasantly once or twice. You were a difficult man
to thaw, Deucalion, but you warm perceptibly as you keep on being near
me. La, sir, we shall be a pair of rustic sweethearts yet, if this
goes on. I am glad I thought of the device of going near those smelly
fishers."

So she had taken me out in the litter unattended for the plain purpose
of inviting a fight, and showing me her skill at arms, and perhaps, too,
of seeing in person how I also carried myself in a moment of stress.
Well, if we were to live on together as husband and wife, it was good
that each should know to a nicety the other's powers; and also, I am too
much of an old battler and too much enamoured with the glorious handling
of arms to quarrel very deeply with any one who offers me a tough
upstanding fight. Still for the life of me, I could not help comparing
Phorenice with another woman. With a similar chance open before us, Nais
had robbed me of the struggle through a sheer pity for those squalid
rebels who did not even call her chieftain; whilst here was this Empress
frittering away two score of the hardiest of her subjects merely to
gratify a whim.

Yet, loyal to my vow as a priest, and to the commands set upon me by the
high council on the Sacred Mountain, I tried to put away these wayward
thoughts and comparisons. As I rowed over the swingings of the waves
towards the forts which guard the harbour's mouth, I sent prayers to the
High Gods to give my tongue dexterity, and They through Their love for
the country of Atlantis, and the harassed people, whom it was my deep
wish to serve, granted me that power of speech which Phorenice loved.
Her eyes glowed upon me as I talked.

This beach of the fishers where we had had our passage at arms is safe
from ship attack from without, by reason of a chain of jagged rocks
which spring up from the deep, and run from the harbour side to the end
of the city wall. The fishers know the passes, and can oftentimes get
through to the open water beyond without touching a stone; or if they
do see a danger of hitting on the reef, leap out and carry their light
boats in their hands till the water floats them again. But here I had
neither the knowledge nor the dexterity, and, thought I, now the High
Gods will show finally if They wish this woman who has defiled them to
reign on in Atlantis, and if also They wish me to serve as her husband.

I cried these things in my heart, and waited to receive the omen. There
was no half-answer. A great wave rose in the lagoon behind us, a wave
such as could have only been caused by an earth tremor, and on its sleek
back we were hurled forward and thrown clear of the reefs with their
seaweeds licking round us, without so much as seeing a stone of the
barrier. I bowed my head as I rowed on towards the harbour forts. It was
plain that not yet would the High Gods take vengeance for the insults
which this lovely woman had offered Them.

The sentries in the two forts beat drums at one another in their
accustomed rotation, and in the growing dusk were going to pay little
enough attention to the fishingboat which lay against the great chain
clamouring to have it lowered. But luckily a pair of officers were
taking the air of the evening in a stone-dropping turret of the roof
of the nearer fort, and these recognised the tone of our shouts. They
silenced the drums, torches were lowered to make sure of our faces, and
then with a splash the great chain was dropped into the water to give us
passage.

A galley lay inside, nuzzling the harbour wall, and presently the ladder
of ropes was let down from the top of the nearest fort, and a crew came
down to man the oars. There were the customary changes of raiment too,
given as presents by the officers of the fort, and these we put on in
the cabin of the galley in place of the sodden clothes we wore. There
are fevers to be gained by carrying wet clothes after sunset, and though
from personal experience I have learned that these may be warded off
with drugs, I noticed with some grim amusement that the Empress had
sufficiently little of the Goddess about her to fear very much the
ailments which are due to frail humanity.

The galley rowed swiftly across the calm waters of the harbour, and made
fast to the rings of gold on the royal quay, and whilst we were waiting
for litters to be brought, I watched a lantern lit in the boat
which stood guard over Phorenice's mammoth. The huge red beast stood
shoulder-deep in the harbour water, with trunk up-turned. It was tamed
now, and the light of the boat's lantern fell on the little ripples sent
out by its tremblings. But I did not choose to intercede or ask
mercy for it. If the mammoth sank deeper in the harbour mud, and was
swallowed, I could have borne the loss with equanimity.

To tell the truth, that ride on the great beast's back had impressed me
unfavourably. In fact, it put into me a sense of helplessness that
was wellnigh intolerable. Perhaps circumstances have made me unduly
self-reliant: on that others must judge. But I will own to having a
preference for walking on my own proper feet, as the Gods in fashioning
our shapes most certainly intended. On my own feet I am able to guard my
own head and neck, and have done on four continents, throughout a long
and active life, and on many a thousand occasions. But on the back of
that detestable mammoth, pah! I grew as nervous as a child or a dastard.

However, I had little enough leisure for personal megrims just then.
Whilst we waited, Phorenice asked the port-captain (who must needs come
up officiously to make his salutations) after the disposal of Nais,
and was told that she had been clapped into a dungeon beneath the royal
pyramid, and the officer of the guard there had given his bond for her
safe-keeping.

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

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

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

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

"Poof! Deucalion, you are too stiff and formal. You ought to be mightily
honoured that I condescend to be jealous of your favours. Your hand,
sir, please, to help me into the litter. And now come in beside me,
and keep me warm against the night air. Ho! you guards there with the
torches! Keep farther back against the street walls. The perfume you are
burning stifles me."

Again there was a feast that night in the royal banqueting-hall; again I
sat beside Phorenice on the raised dais which stands beneath the symbols
of the snake and the out-stretched hand. What had been taken for granted
before about our forthcoming relationship was this time proclaimed
openly; the Empress herself acknowledged me as her husband that was to
be; and all that curled and jewelled throng of courtiers hailed me as
greater than themselves, by reason of this woman's choice. There was
method, too, in their salutation. Some rumour must have got about of my
preference for the older and simpler habits, and there was no drinking
wine to my health after the new and (as I considered) impertinent
manner. Decorously, each lord and lady there came forward, and each in
turn spilt a goblet at my feet; and when I called any up, whether man
or woman, to receive tit-bits from my platter, it was eaten simply and
thankfully, and not kissed or pocketed with any extravagant gesture.

The flaring jets of earth-breath showed me, too, so I thought, a plainer
habit of dress, and a more sober mien amongst this thoughtless mob
of banqueters. And, indeed, it must have been plain to notice, for
Phorenice, leaning over till the ruddy curls on her shoulder brushed
my face, chided me in a playful whisper as having usurped her high
authority already.

"Oh, sir," she pleaded mockingly, "do not make your rule over us too
ascetic. I have given no orders for this change, but to-night there are
no perfumes in the air; the food is so plain and I have half a mind to
burn the cook; and as for the clothes and gauds of these diners, by my
face! they might have come straight from the old King's reign before I
stepped in here to show how tasteful could be colours on a robe, or how
pretty the glint of a jewel. It's done by no orders of mine, Deucalion.
They have swung round to this change by sheer courtier instinct. Why,
look at the beards of the men! There is not half the curl about many of
them to-day that they showed with such exquisiteness yesterday. By my
face! I believe they'd reap their chins to-morrow as smooth as yours,
if you go on setting the fashions at this prodigious rate and I do not
interfere."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You must not expect that a man who has been divorced from love for all
of a busy life can learn all its niceties in an instant. Myself, I was
feeling proud of my progress. With any other schoolmistress than you,
Phorenice, I should not be near so forward. In fact (if one may judge by
my past record), I should not have begun to learn at all."

"I suppose you think I should be satisfied with that? Well, I am not. I
can be finely greedy over some matters."

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

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

She rose to her feet then, and when the banqueters had made their
salutation to us, I led her away from the banqueting-hall and down the
passages with their secret doors which led to her private chambers.
She clung on my arm, and once when we halted whilst a great stone
block swung slowly ajar to let us pass, she drooped her head against my
shoulder. Her breath came warm against my cheek, and the loveliness of
her face so close at hand surpasses the description of words. I think it
was in her mind that I should kiss the red lips which were held so near
to mine, but willing though I was to play the part appointed, I could
not bring myself to that. So when the stone block had swung, she drew
away with a sigh, and we went on without further speech.

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

"I am my own God," said she, "in all things but one. By my face! you are
a tardy wooer, Deucalion. Where do you go now?"

"To my own chamber."

"Oh, go then, go."

"Is there anything more I could do?"

"Nothing that your wit or your will would prompt you to. Yes, indeed,
you are finely decorous, Deucalion, in your old-fashioned way, but you
are a mighty poor wooer. Don't you know, my man, that a woman esteems
some things the more highly if they are taken from her by rude force?"

"It seems I know little enough about women."

"You never said a truer word. Bah! And I believe your coldness brings
you more benefit in a certain matter than any show of passion could
earn. There, get you gone, if the atmosphere of a maiden's bed-chamber
hurts your rustic modesty, and your Gods keep you, Deucalion, if that's
the phrase, and if you think They can do it. Get you gone, man, and
leave me solitary."

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

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

She regarded me half-sullenly. "I have lost my place," she said, "and it
seems I need never have spoken. She intended to have you all along, and
it was not a thing like that which could put her off. And you--you just
think me officious, if, indeed, you have ever given me another thought
till now."

"I never forget a kindness."

"Oh, you will learn that trick soon now. And you are going to marry her,
you! The city is ringing with it. I thought at least you were honest,
but when there is a high place to be got by merely taking a woman with
it, you are like the rest. I thought, too, that you would be one of
those men who have a distrust for ruddy hair. And, besides she is
little."

"Ylga," I said, "you have taught me that these walls are full of
crannies and ears. I will listen to no word against Phorenice. But I
would have further converse with you soon. If you still have a kindness
for me, go to the chamber that is mine and wait for me there. I will
join you shortly."

She drooped her eyes. "What do you want of me, Deucalion?"

"I want to say something to you. You will learn who it concerns later."

"But is it--is it fitting for a maiden to come to a man's room at this
hour?"

"I know little of your conventions here in this new Atlantis. I am
Deucalion, girl, and if you still have qualms, remembering that, do not
come."

She looked up at me with a sneer. "I was foolish," she said. "My lord's
coldness has grown into a proverb, and I should have remembered it. Yes;
I will come."

"Go now, then," said I, and waited till she had passed on ahead and was
out of sight and hearing. With Ylga to help me, my tasks were somewhat
lightened, and their sequence changed. In the first instance, now, I
had got to make my way with as little delay and show as possible into a
certain sanctuary which lay within the temple of our Lady the Moon. And
here my knowledge as one of the Seven stood me in high favour.

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

It was with some trouble, and after no little experiment that I groped
my way into this secret alley; but once there, the rest was easy. I had
never trodden it before certainly, but the plan of it had been taught
me at my initiation as one of the Seven, and the course of the windings
came back to me now with easy accuracy. I walked quickly, not only
because the air in those deep crannies is always full of lurking evils,
but also because the hours were fleeting, and much must be done before
our Lord the Sun again rose to make another day.

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

A shivering seized me as I thought of what was intended, for even a
warrior hardened to horrid sights and deeds may well have qualms when
he is called upon to juggle with life and death, and years and history,
with the welfare of his country in one hand, and the future of a woman
who is as life to him in the other. But again I told myself that
the hours flew, and laid hold of the jewel which is studded into the
forehead of the image with one hand, and then stretching out, thrust at
a corner of the eyebrow with the other. With a faint creak the massive
eyeball below, a stone that I could barely have covered with my back,
swung inwards. I stepped off the stair, and climbed into the gap. Inside
was the chamber which is hollowed from the head of the Goddess.

It was the first time I had seen this most secret place, but the aspect
of it was familiar to me from my teaching, and I knew where to find the
thing which would fill my need. Yet, occupied though I might be with the
stress of what was to befall, I could not help having a wonder and an
admiration for the cleverness with which it was hidden.

High as I was in the learning and mysteries of the Priestly Clan, the
structure of what I had come to fetch was hidden from me. Beforetime I
had known only of their power and effect; and now that I came to handle
them, I saw only some roughly rounded balls, like nut kernels, grass
green in colour, and in hardness like the wax of bees. There were three
of these balls in the hidden place, and I took the one that was needful,
concealing the others as I had found them. It may have been a drug, it
may have been something more; what exactly it was I did not know; only
of its power and effect I was sure, as that was set forth plainly in
the teaching I had learned; and so I put it in a pouch of my garment,
returning by the way I had come, and replacing all things in due order
behind me.

One look I took at the image of the Goddess before I left the temple.
The jet of earth-breath which burns eternally from the central altar
lit her from head to toe, and threw sparkles from the great jewel in
her forehead. Vast she was, and calm and peaceful beyond all human
imaginings, a perfect symbolism of that rest and quietness which many
sigh for so vainly on this rude earth, but which they will never attain
unless by their piety they earn a place in the hereafter, where our Lady
the Moon and the rest of the High Ones reign in Their eternal glorious
majesty.

It was with tired dragging limbs that I made my way back again to the
royal pyramid, and at last came to my own private chamber. Ylga awaited
me there, though at first I did not see her. The suspicions of these
modern days had taken a deep hold of the girl, and she must needs crouch
in hiding till she made sure it was I who came to the chamber, and,
moreover, that I came alone.

"Oh, frown at me if you choose," said she sullenly, "I am past caring
now for your good opinion. I had heard so much of Deucalion, and I
thought I read honesty in you when first you came ashore; but now I know
that you are no better than the rest. Phorenice offers you a high place,
and you marry her blithely to get it. And why, indeed, should you not
marry her? People say she is pretty, and I know she can be warm. I have
seen her warm and languishing to scores of men. She is clever, too, with
her eyes, is our great Empress; I grant her that. And as for you, it
tickles you to be courted."

"I think you are a very silly woman," I said.

"If you flatter yourself it matters a rap to me whom you marry, you are
letting conceit run away with you."

"Listen," I said. "I did not ask you here to make foolish speeches
which seem largely beyond my comprehension. I asked you to help me do a
service to one of your own blood-kin."

She stared at me wonderingly. "I do not understand."

"It rests largely with you as to whether Nais dies to-morrow, or whether
she is thrown into a sleep from which she may waken on some later and
more happy day."

"Nais!" she gasped. "My twin, Nais? She is not here. She is out in
the camp with those nasty rebels who bite against the city walls, if,
indeed, still she lives."

"Nais, your sister is near us in the royal pyramid this minute, and
under guard, though where I do not know." And with that I told her all
that had passed since the girl was brought up a prisoner in the galley
of that foolish, fawning captain of the port. "The Empress has decreed
that Nais shall be buried alive under a throne of granite which I am to
build for her to-morrow, and buried she will assuredly be. Yet I have a
kindness for Nais, which you may guess at if you choose, and I am minded
to send her into a sleep such as only we higher priests know of, from
which at some future day she may possibly awaken."

"So it is Nais; and not Phorenice, and not--not any other?"

"Yes; it is Nais. I marry the Empress because Zaemon, who is mouthpiece
to the High Council of the Priests, has ordered it, for the good of
Atlantis. But my inwards remain still cold towards her."

"Almost I hate poor Nais already."

"Your vengeance would be easy. Do not tell me where she is gaoled, and I
shall not dare to ask. Even to give Nais a further span of life I cannot
risk making inquiries for her cell, when there is a chance that those
who tell me might carry news to the Empress, and so cause more trouble
for this poor Atlantis."

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

I looked her between eyes and smiled. "I have no fear there. You will
not betray me, Ylga. Neither will you sell Nais."

"I seem to remember very small love for this same Nais just now," she
said bitterly. "But you are right about that other matter. I shall not
buy myself back at your expense. Oh, I am a fool, I know, and you can
give me no thanks that I care about, but there is no other way I can
act."

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

She bowed her head and left the chamber, and for long enough I was
alone. I sat down on the couch, and rested wearily against the wall.
My bones ached, my eyes ached, and most of all, my inwards ached. I had
thought to myself that a man who makes his life sufficiently busy
will find no leisure for these pains which assault frailer folk; but a
philosophy like this, which carried one well in Yucatan, showed poorly
enough when one tried it here at home. But that there was duty ahead,
and the order of the High Council to be carried into effect, the
bleakness of the prospect would have daunted me, and I would have prayed
the Gods then to spare me further life, and take me unto Themselves.

Ylga came back at last, and I got up and went quickly after her as
she led down a maze of passages and alleyways. "There has been no care
spared over her guarding," she whispered, as we halted once to move a
stone. "The officer of the guard is an old lover of mine, and I raised
his hopes to the burning point again by a dozen words. But when I wanted
to see his prisoner, there he was as firm as brass. I told him she was
my sister, but that did not move him. I offered him--oh, Deucalion, it
makes me blush to think of the things I did offer to that man, but there
was no stirring him. He has watched the tormentors so many times, that
there is no tempting him into touch of their instruments."

"If you have failed, why bring me out here?"

"Oh, I am not inveigling you into a lover's walk with myself, sir. You
tickle yourself when you think your society is so pleasant as that."

"Come, girl, tell me then what it is. If my temper is short, credit it
against my weariness."

"I have carried out my lord's commands in part. I know the cell where
Nais lives, and I have had speech with her, though not through the door.
And moreover, I have not seen her or touched her hand."

"Your riddles are beyond me, Ylga, but if there is a chance, let us get
on and have this business done."

"We are at the place now," said she, with a hard little laugh, "and if
you kneel on the floor, you will find an airshaft, and Nais will answer
you from the lower end. For myself, I will leave you. I have a delicacy
in hearing what you want to say to my sister, Deucalion."

"I thank you," I said. "I will not forget what you have done for me this
night."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"But it mayhap that a day will come when she whom you know of will be
suffered by the High Gods to live on this land of Atlantis no longer."

"If my lord will cherish my poor memory when he is free again, I shall
be grateful. He might, if he chose, write them on the stones: Here was
buried a maid who died gladly for the good of Atlantis, even though she
knew that the man she so dearly loved was husband to her murderess."

"You must not die," I whispered. "My breast is near broken at the very
thought of it. And for respite, we must trust to the ancient knowledge,
which in its day has been sent out from the Ark of the Mysteries."--I
took the green waxy ball in my fingers, and stretched them down the
crooked air-shaft to the full of my span.--"I have somewhat for you
here. Reach up and try to catch it from me."

I heard the faint rustle of her arm as it swept against the masonry, and
then the ball was taken over into her grasp. Gods! what a thrill went
through me when the fingers of Nais touched mine! I could not see her,
because of the crookedness of the shaft, but that faint touch of her was
exquisite.

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

"You will hide the thing in your garment, and when to-morrow the upper
stone closes down upon you and the light is gone, then you will take it
between your lips and let it dissolve as it will. Sleep will take you,
my darling, then, and the High Gods will watch over you, even though
centuries pass before you are roused."

"If Deucalion does not wake me, I shall pray never again to open an eye.
And now go, my lord and my dear. They watch me here constantly, and I
would not have you harmed by being brought to notice."

"Yes, I must go, my sweetheart. It will not do to have our scheme
spoiled by a foolish loitering. May the most High Gods attend your rest,
and if the sacrifice we make finds favour, may They grant us meeting
here again on earth before we meet--as we must--when our time is done,
and They take us up to Their own place."

"Amen," she whispered back, and then: "Kiss your fingers, dear, and
thrust them down to me."

I did that, and for an instant felt her fondle them down the crook of
the airshaft out of sight, and then heard her withdraw her little hand
and kiss it fondly. Then again she kissed her own fingers and stretched
them up, and I took up the virtue of that parting kiss on my finger-tips
and pressed it sacredly to my lips.

"Living, sleeping, or dead, always my darling," she whispered. And then,
before I could answer, she whispered again: "Go, they are coming for
me." And so I went, knowing that I could do no more to help her then,
and knowing that all our schemes would be spilt if any eye spied upon me
as I lay there beside the air shaft. But my chest was like to have split
with the dull, helpless anguish that was in it, as I made my way back to
my chamber through the mazy alleys of the pyramid.

"Do not look upon mine eyes, dear, when the time comes," had been her
last command, "or they will tell a tale which Phorenice, being a woman,
would read. Remember, we make these small denials, not for our own
likings, but for Atlantis, which is mother to us all."




13. THE BURYING ALIVE OF NAIS


There is no denying that the wishes of Phorenice were carried into quick
effect in the city of Atlantis. Her modern theory was that the country
and all therein existed only for the good of the Empress, and when she
had a desire, no cost could possibly be too great in its carrying out.

She had given forth her edict concerning the burying alive of Nais, and
though the words were that I was to build the throne of stone, it was an
understood thing that the manual labour was to be done for me by others.
Heralds made the proclamation in every ward of the city, and masons,
labourers, stonecutters, sculptors, engineers, and architects took hands
from whatever was occupying them for the moment, and hastened to the
rendezvous. The architects chose a chief who gave directions, and the
lesser architects and the engineers saw these carried into effect. Any
material within the walls of the city on which they set their seal,
was taken at once without payment or compensation; and as the blocks of
stone they chose were the most monstrous that could be got, they were
forced to demolish no few buildings to give them passage.

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

The throne was to be erected in the open square before the royal
pyramid. Seven tiers of stone were there for a groundwork, each a
knee-height deep, and each cut in the front with three steps. In the
uppermost layer was a cavity made to hold the body of Nais, and above
this was poised the vast block which formed the seat of the throne
itself.

Throughout the night, to the light of torches, relay after relay of the
stonecutters, and the masons, and the sweating labourers had toiled over
bringing up the stone and dressing it into fit shape, and laying it in
due position; and the engineers had built machines for lifting, and the
architects had proved that each stone lay in its just and perfect place.
Whips cracked, and men fainted with the labour, but so soon as one was
incapable another pressed forward into his place. No delay was brooked
when Phorenice had said her wish.

And finally, as the square began to fill with people come to gape at the
pageant of to-day, the chippings and the scaffolding were cleared away,
and with it the bodies of some half-score of workmen who had died from
accidents or their exertions during the building, and there stood the
throne, splendid in its carvings, and all ready for completion. The
lower part stood more than two man-heights above the ground, and no
stone of its courses weighed less than twenty men; the upper part was
double the weight of any of these, and was carved so that the royal
snake encircled the chair, and the great hooded head overshadowed it.
But at present the upper part was not on its bed, being held up high by
lifting rams, for what purposes all men knew.

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

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

And then came Phorenice, my bride that was to be that day, fresh from
sleep, and glorious in her splendid beauty. She was borne out from the
pyramid in an open litter of gold and ivory by fantastic savages from
Europe, her own refinement of feature being thrown up into all the
higher relief by contrast with their brutish ugliness. One could hear
the people draw a deep breath of delight as their eyes first fell upon
her; and it is easy to believe there was not a man in that crowd which
thronged the square who did not envy me her choice, nor was there a
soul present (unless Ylga was there somewhere veiled) who could by any
stretch imagine that I was not overjoyed in winning so lovely a wife.

For myself, I summoned up all the iron of my training to guard the
expression of my face. We were here on ceremonial to-day; a ghastly
enough affair throughout all its acts, if you choose, but still
ceremonial; and I was minded to show Phorenice a grand manner that would
leave her nothing to cavil at. After all that had been gone through and
endured, I did not intend a great scheme to be shattered by letting my
agony and pain show themselves, in either a shaking hand or a twitching
cheek. When it came to the point, I told myself, I would lay the living
body of my love in the hollow beneath the stone as calmly, and with as
little outward emotion, as though I had been a mere priest carrying out
the burial of some dead stranger. And she, on her part, would not,
I knew, betray our secret. With her, too, it was truly "Before all
Atlantis."

I think it spared a pang to find that there was to be no mockery or
flippancy in what went forward. All was solemn and impressive; and,
though a certain grandeur and sombreness which bit deep into my breast
was lost to the vulgar crowd, I fancy that the outward shape of the
double sacrifice they witnessed that day would not be forgotten by any
of them, although the inner meaning of it all was completely hidden from
their minds. When it suited her fancy, none could be more strict on the
ritual of a ceremony than this many-mooded Empress, and it appeared
that on this occasion she had given command that all things were to be
carried out with the rigid exactness and pomp of the older manner.

So she was borne up by her Europeans to the scarlet awning, and I handed
her to the ground. She seated herself on the cushions, and beckoned
me to her side, entwining her fingers with mine as has always been the
custom with rulers of Atlantis and their consorts. And there before us
as we sat, a body of soldiery marched up, and opening out showed Nais
in their midst. She had a collar of metal round her neck, with chains
depending from it firmly held by a brace of guards, so that she should
not run in upon the spears of the escort, and thus get a quick and
easy death, which is often the custom of those condemned to the more
lingering punishments.

But it was pleasant to see that she still wore her clothing. Raiment,
whether of fabric or skin, has its value, and custom has always given
the garments of the condemned to the soldiers guarding them. So as Nais
was not stripped, I could not but see that some one had given moneys
to the guards as a recompense, and in this I thought I saw the hand of
Ylga, and felt a gratitude towards her.

The soldiers brought her forward to the edge of the pavilion's shade,
and she was bidden prostrate herself before the Empress, and this she
wisely did and so avoided rough handling and force. Her face was
pale, but showed neither fear nor defiance, and her eyes were calm
and natural. She was remembering what was due to Atlantis, and I was
thrilled with love and pride as I watched her.

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

"Nais," said the Empress, "you have eaten from my platter when you were
fan-girl, and drunk from my cup, and what was yours I gave you. You
should have had more than gratitude, you should have had knowledge also
that the arm of the Empress was long and her hand consummately heavy.
But it seems that you have neither of these things. And, moreover, you
have tried to take a certain matter that the Empress has set apart for
herself. You were offered pardon, on terms, and you rejected it. You
were foolish. But it is a day now when I am inclined to clemency.
Presently, seated on that carved throne of granite which he has built me
yonder, I shall take my Lord Deucalion to husband. Give me a plain word
that you are sorry, girl, and name a man whom you would choose, and I
will remember the brightness of the occasion, you shall be pardoned and
wed before we rise from these cushions."

"I will not wed," she said quietly.

"Think for the last time, Nais, of what is the other choice. You will
be taken, warm, and quick, and beautiful as you stand there this minute,
and laid in the hollow place that is made beneath the throne-stone.
Deucalion, that is to be my husband, will lay you in that awful bed, as
a symbol that so shall perish all Phorenice's enemies, and then he will
release the rams and lower the upper stone into place, and the world
shall see your face no more. Look at the bright sky, Nais, fill your
chest with the sweet warm air, and then think of what this death will
mean. Believe me, girl, I do not want to make you an example unless you
force me."

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

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

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

The soldiers wheeled, and the two guards with the chains of the collar
which was on the neck of Nais prepared to put out force to drag her
up the steps. But she walked with them willingly, and with a colour
unchanged, and I rose from my seat, and made obeisance to the Empress
and followed them.

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

Yet, when I had bidden the guards unhasp the collar which held the
prisoner's neck, and clapped my arms around her, showing all the
roughness of one who has no mind that his captive shall escape or even
unduly struggle, a thrill gushed through me so potent that I was like
to have fainted, and it was only by supreme strain of will that I held
unbrokenly on with the ceremonial. I, who had never embraced a woman
with aught but the arm of roughness before, now held pressed to me one
whom I loved with an infinite tenderness, and the revelation of how love
can come out and link with love was almost my undoing. Yet, outwardly,
Nais made so sign, but lay half-strangled in my arms, as any woman does
that is being borne away by a spoiler.

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

So that the victim might not struggle out and be crushed, and so gain
an easy death when the stone descended, there were brazen clamps to fit
into grooves of the stones above the hollow where she lay, and these I
fitted in place above her, and fastened one by one, doing this butcher's
work with one hand, and still fiercely holding her down by the other.
Gods! and the sweat of agony dripped from me on to the thirsty stone as
I worked. I could not keep that in.

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

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

I came out from under the stone, and gave the sign to the engineers who
stood by the rams. The fires were taken away from their sides, and
the metal in them began to contract, and slowly the vast bulk of the
throne-stone began to creep down towards its bed.

But ah, so slowly! Gods! how my soul was torn as I watched and waited.

Yet I kept my face impassive, overlooking as any officer might a piece
of work which others were carrying out under his direction, and on which
his credit rested; and I stood gravely in my place till the rams had
let the stone come down on its final resting place, and had been carried
away by the engineers; and then I went round with the master architect
with his plumbline and level, whilst he tested this last piece of the
building and declared it perfect.

It was a useless form, this last, seeing that by calculation they knew
exactly how the stone must rest; but the guilds have their forms
and customs, and on these occasions of high ceremonial, they are
punctiliously carried out, because these middle-class people wish always
to appear mysterious and impressive to the poor vulgar folk who are
their inferiors. But perhaps I am hard there on them. A man who is
needlessly taken round to plumb and duly level the tomb where his love
lies buried living, may perhaps be excused by the assessors on high a
little spirit of bitterness.

I had gone up the steps to do my hateful work a man full of grief,
though outwardly unmoved. As I came down again I had a feeling of
incompleteness; it seemed as though half my inwards had been left behind
with Nais in the hollow of the stone, and their place was taken by a
void which ached wearily; but still I carried a passive face, and memory
that before all these private matters stood the command of the High
Council, which sat before the Ark of the Mysteries.

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

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

"The Empress can do no wrong," I said formally, and took the hand she
offered me, and helped her to rise. We walked out from the scarlet
awning into the glare of the sunshine, she leaning on me, flushing, and
so radiantly lovely that the people began to hail her with rapturous
shouts of "A Goddess; our Goddess Phorenice." But for me they had no
welcoming word. I think the set grimness of my face both scared and
repelled them.

We went up the steps which led to the throne, the people still shouting,
and I sat her in the royal seat beneath the snake's outstretched head,
and she drew me down to sit beside her.

She raised her jewelled hand, and a silence fell on that great throng,
as though the breath had been suddenly cut short for all of them.

Then Phorenice made proclamation:

"Hear me, O my people, and hear me, O High Gods from whom I am come.
I take this man Deucalion, to be my husband, to share with me the
prosperity of Atlantis, and join me in guarding our great possession.
May all our enemies perish as she is now perishing above whom we sit."
And then she put her arms around my neck, and kissed me hotly on the
mouth.

In turn I also spoke: "Hear me, O most High Gods, whose servant I am,
and hear me also, O ye people. I take this Empress, Phorenice, to
wife, to help with her the prosperity of Atlantis, and join with her in
guarding the welfare of that great possession. May all the enemies of
this country perish as they have perished in the past."

And then, I too, who had not been permitted by the fate to touch the
lips of my love, bestowed the first kiss I had ever given woman to
Phorenice, that was now being made my wife.

But we were not completely linked yet.

"A woman is one, and man is one," she proclaimed, following for the
first time the old form of words, "but in marriage they merge, so that
wife and husband are no more separate, but one conjointly. In token of
this we will now make the symbolic joining together, so that all may see
and remember." She took her dagger, and pricking the brawn on my forearm
till a head of blood appeared, set her red lips to it, and took it into
herself.

"Ah," she said, with her eyes sparkling, "now you are part of me indeed,
Deucalion, and I feel you have strengthened me already." She pulled down
the neck of her robe. "Let me make you my return."

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

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

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

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

"Words are poor things," I said, "and I am a man unused to women, and
have but a small stock of any phrases except the dryest. Remember,
Phorenice, a week agone, I did not know what love was, and now that I
have learned the lesson, somewhat of the suddenest, the language remains
still to come to me. My inwards speak; indeed they are full of speech;
but I cannot translate into bald cold words what they say."

And here, surely the High Gods took pity on my tied tongue and my
misery, and made an opportunity for bringing the ceremony to an end. A
man ran into the square shouting, and showing a wound that dripped,
and presently all that vast crowd which stood on the pavements, and the
sides of the pyramids, and the roofs of the temples, took up the cry,
and began to feel for their weapons.

"The rebels are in!" "They have burrowed a path into the city!" "They
have killed the cave-tigers and taken a gate!" "They are putting the
whole place to the storm!" "They will presently leave no poor soul of us
here alive!"

There then was a termination of our marriage cooings. With rebels merely
biting at the walls, it was fine to put strong trust in the defences,
and easy to affect contempt for the besiegers' powers, and to keep
the business of pageants and state craft and marryings turning on easy
wheels. But with rebel soldiers already inside the city (and hordes of
others doubtless pressing on their heels), the affairs took a different
light. It was no moment for further delay, and Phorenice was the first
to admit it. The glow that had been in her eyes changed to the glare of
the fighter, as the fellow who had run up squalled out his tidings.

I stood and stretched my chest. I seemed in need of air. "Here," I said,
"is work that I can understand more clearly. I will go and sweep this
rabble back to their burrows, Phorenice."

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

"Have your will," I said, and together we went down the steps of the
throne to the pavement below. Under my breath I said a farewell to Nais.

Our armour-bearers met us with weapons, and we stepped into litters, and
the slaves took us off hot foot. The wounded man who had first brought
the news had fallen in a faint, and no more tidings was to be got from
him, but the growing din of the fight gave us the general direction, and
presently we began to meet knots of people who dwelt near the place of
irruption, running away in wild panic, loaded down with their household
goods.

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

Now the advantage of the rebels, when it came to be looked upon by a
soldier's eye, was a thing of little enough importance. They had driven
a tunnel from behind a covering mound, beneath the walls, and had opened
it cleverly enough through the floor of a middle-class house. They had
come through into this, collecting their numbers under its shelter, and
doubtless hoping that the marriage of the Empress (of which spies had
given them information) would sap the watchfulness of the city guards.
But it seems they were discovered and attacked before they were
thoroughly ready to emerge, and, as a fine body of troops were barracked
near the spot, their extermination would have been merely a matter of
time, even if we had not come up.

It did not take a trained eye long to decide on this, and Phorenice,
with a laugh, lay back on the cushions of the litter, and returned her
weapons to the armour-bearer who came panting up to receive them. "We
grow nervous with our married life, my Deucalion," she said. "We are
fearful lest this new-found happiness be taken from us too suddenly."

But I was not to be robbed of my breathing-space in this wise. "Let me
crave a wedding gift of you," I said.

"It is yours before you name it."

"Then give me troops, and set me wide a city gate a mile away from
here."

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

"Why, my poor strategy teaches me this: these foolish rebels have set
all their hopes on this mine, and all their excitement on its present
success. If they are kept occupied here by a Phorenice, who will give
them some dainty fighting without checking them unduly, they will press
on to the attack and forget all else, and never so much as dream of a
sortie. And meanwhile, a Deucalion with his troop will march out of the
city well away from here, without tuck of drum or blare of trumpet, and
fall most unpleasantly upon their rear. After which, a Phorenice will
burn the house here at the mine's head, which is of wood, and straw
thatched, to discourage further egress, and either go to the walls to
watch the fight from there, or sally out also and spur on the rout as
her fancy dictates."

"Your scheme is so pretty, I would I could rob you of it for my own
credit's sake, and as it is, I must kiss you for your cleverness. But
you got my word first, you naughty fellow, and you shall have the men
and do as you ask. Eh, sir, this is a sad beginning of our wedded life,
if you begin to rob your little wife of all the sweets of conquest from
the outset."

She took back the weapons and target she had given to the armour-bearer,
and stepped over the side of the litter to the ground. "But at least,"
she said, "if you are going to fight, you shall have troops that will do
credit to my drill," and thereupon proceeded to tell off the companies
of men-at-arms who were to accompany me. She left herself few enough to
stem the influx of rebels who poured ceaselessly in through the
tunnel; but as I had seen, with Phorenice, heavy odds added only to her
enjoyment.

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

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

Nais must forgive my weakness in seeking to forget her even for a
breathing-space. Had that opportunity been denied me, I believe the
agony of remembering would have snapped my brain-strings for always.




14. AGAIN THE GODS MAKE CHANGE


Now it would be tedious to tell how with a handful of highly trained
fighting men, I charged and recharged, and finally broke up that horde
of rebels which outnumbered us by fifteen times. It must be remembered
that they grew suddenly panic-stricken in finding that of all those
who went in under the city walls by the mine on which they had set such
great store, none came back, and that the sounds of panic which had
first broken out within the city soon gave way to cries of triumph and
joy. And it must be carried in memory also that these wretched rebels
were without training worthy of the name, were for the most part
weaponed very vilely, and, seeing that their silly principles made each
the equal of his neighbour, were practically without heads or leaders
also.

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

My scheme of attack was simple. I hunted them without a halt. I and my
fellows never stopped to play the defensive. We turned one flank, and
charged through a centre, and then we were harrying the other flank,
and once more hacking our passage through the solid mass. And so by
constantly keeping them on the run, and in ignorance of whence would
come the next attack, panic began to grow amongst them and ferment, till
presently those in the outer lines commenced to scurry away towards
the forests and the spoiled corn-lands of the country, and those in the
inner packs were only wishful of a chance to follow them.

It was no feat of arms this breaking up of the rebel leaguer, and no
practised soldier would wish to claim it as such. It was simply taking
advantage of the chances of the moment, and as such it was successful.
Given an open battle on their own ground, these desperate rebels would
have fought till none could stand, and by sheer ferocious numbers
would have pulled down any trained troops that the city could have sent
against them, whether they had advanced in phalanx or what formation
you will. For it must be remembered they were far removed from cowards,
being Atlantean all, just as were those within the city, and were,
moreover, spurred to extraordinary savageness and desperation by the
oppression under which they had groaned, and the wrongs they had been
forced to endure.

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

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

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

The hour drew on for sleep, and snores went up from every side. It was
clear that all my officers were wearied out, and only continued the
talk through deference to their commander. Yet I had a feverish dread
of being left alone again with my thoughts, and pressed them on with
conversation remorselessly. But in the end they were saved the rudeness
of dropping off into unconsciousness during my talk. A sentry came up
and saluted. "My lord," he reported, "there is a woman come up from the
city whom we have caught trying to come into the bivouac."

"How is she named?"

"She will not say."

"Has she business?'

"She will say none. She demands only to see my lord."

"Bring her here to the fire," I ordered, and then on second thoughts
remembering that the woman, whoever she might be, had news likely enough
for my private ear (or otherwise she would not have come to so uncouth
a rendezvous), I said to the sentry: "Stay," and got up from the ground
beside the fire, and went with him to the outer line.

"Where is she?" I asked.

"My comrades are holding her. She might be a wench belonging to these
rebels, with designs to put a knife into my lord's heart, and then we
sentries would suffer. The Empress," he added simply, "seems to set
good store upon my lord at present, and we know the cleverness of her
tormentors."

"Your thoughtfulness is frank," I said, and then he showed me the woman.
She was muffled up in hood and cloak, but one who loved Nais as I loved
could not mistake the form of Ylga, her twin sister, because of mere
swathings. So I told the sentries to release her without asking her for
speech, and then led her out from the bivouac beyond earshot of their
lines.

"It is something of the most pressing that has brought you out here,
Ylga?"

"You know me, then? There must be something warmer than the ordinary
between us two, Deucalion, if you could guess who walked beneath all
these mufflings."

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

"Aye," she said bitterly, "there's my reward. All your concern's for the
message, none for the carrier. Well, good my lord, you are husband to
the dainty Phorenice no longer."

"This is news."

"And true enough, too. She will have no more of you, divorces you,
spurns you, thrusts you from her, and, after the first splutter of wrath
is done, then come pains and penalties."

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

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

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

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

"You are more sick of life than I thought. But I think, sir, our
Phorenice judges your case very accurately. It was permitted me to hear
the outbursting of this lady's rage. 'Shall I hew off his head?' said
she. 'Pah! Shall I give him over to my tormentors, and stand by whilst
they do their worst? He would not wrinkle his brow at their fiercest
efforts. No; he must have a heavier punishment than any of these, and
one also which will endure. I shall lop off his right hand and his left
foot, so that he may be a fighting man no longer, and then I shall drive
him forth crippled into the dangerous lands, where he may learn Fear.
The beasts shall hunt him, the fires of the ground shall spoil his rest.
He shall know hunger, and he shall breathe bad air. And all the while he
shall remember that I have Nais near me, living and locked in her coffin
of stone, to play with as I choose, and to give over to what insults may
come to my fancy.' That is what she said, Deucalion. Now I ask you again
will you go back to meet her vengeance?"

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

"So, being a woman of some sense, I judged. And, moreover, having some
small kindness still left for you, I have taken it upon myself to make
a plan for your further movement which may fall in with your whim. Does
the name of Tob come back to your memory?"

"One who was Captain of Tatho's navy?"

"That same Tob. A gruff, rude fellow, and smelling vile of tar, but
seeming to have a sturdy honesty of his own. Tob sails away this night
for parts unknown, presumably to found a kingdom with Tob for king. It
seems he can find little enough to earn at his craft in Atlantis these
latter days, and has scruples at seeing his wife and young ones hungry.
He told me this at the harbour side when I put my neck under the axe by
saying I wanted carriage for you, sir, and so having me under his thumb,
he was perhaps more loose-lipped than usual. You seem to have made
a fine impression on Tob, Deucalion. He said--I repeat his hearty
disrespect--you were just the recruit he wanted, but whether you joined
him or not, he would go to the nether Gods to do you service."

"By the fellow's side, I gained some experience in fighting the greater
sea beasts."

"Well, go and do it again. Believe me, sir, it is your only chance. It
would grieve me much to hear the searing-iron hiss on your stumps. I
bargained with Tob to get clear of the harbour forts before the chain
was up for the night, and as he is a very daring fellow, with no fear of
navigating under the darkness, he himself said he would come to a point
of the shore which we agreed upon, and there await you. Come, Deucalion,
let me lead you to the place."

"My girl," I said, "I see I owe you many thanks for what you have done
on my poor behalf."

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

So thereon we set off, Ylga and I, leaving the lights of the bivouac
behind us, and she showed the way, whilst I carried my weapons ready to
ward off attacks whether from beasts or from men. Few words were passed
between us, except those which had concern with the dangers natural
to the way. Once only did we touch one another, and that was where
a tree-trunk bridged a rivulet of scalding water which flowed from a
boil-spring towards the sea.

"Are you sure of footing?" I asked, for the night was dark, and the heat
of the water would peel the flesh from the bones if one slipped into it.

"No," she said, "I am not," and reached out and took my hand. I helped
her over and then loosed my grip, and she sighed, and slowly slipped her
hand away. Then on again we went in silence, side by side, hour after
hour, and league after league.

But at last we topped a rise, and below us through the trees I could see
the gleam of the great estuary on which the city of Atlantis stands. The
ground was soggy and wet beneath us, the trees were full of barbs and
spines, the way was monstrous hard. Ylga's breath was beginning to come
in laboured pants. But when I offered to take her arm, and help her,
as some return against what she had done for me, she repulsed me rudely
enough. "I am no poor weakling," said she, "if that is your only reason
for wanting to touch me."

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

Tob was keeping a keen watch. We were challenged the moment we came
within stone or arrow shot, and bidden to halt and recite our business;
but he was civil enough when he heard we were those whom he expected.
He called a crew and slacked out his anchor-rope till his ship ground
against the shingle, and then thrust out his two steering oars to help
us clamber aboard.

I turned to Ylga with words of thanks and farewell. "I will never forget
what you have done for me this night; and should the High Gods see fit
to bring me back to Atlantis and power, you shall taste my gratitude."

"I do not want to return. I am sick of this old life here."

"But you have your palace in the city, and your servants, and your
wealth, and Phorenice will not disturb you from their possession."

"Oh, as for that, I could go back and be fan-girl tomorrow. But I do not
want to go back."

"Let me tell you it is no time for a gently nurtured lady like yourself
to go forward. I have been viceroy of Yucatan, Ylga, and know somewhat
of making a foothold in these new countries. And that was nothing
compared with what this will be. I tell you it entails hardships, and
privations, and sufferings which you could not guess at. Few survive
who go to colonise in the beginning, and those only of the hardiest, and
they earn new scars and new batterings every day."

"I do not care, and, besides, I can share the work. I can cook, I can
shoot a good arrow, and I can make garments, yes, though they were
cut from the skins of beasts and had to be sewn with backbone sinews.
Because you despise fine clothes, and because you have seen me only
decked out as fan-girl, you think I am useless. Bah, Deucalion! Never
let people prate to me about your perfection. You know less about a
woman than a boy new from school."

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

"Aye," she said bitterly, "kick my pride. I knew well enough it was only
second place to Nais I could get all the time I was wanting to come. Yet
no one but a boor would have reminded me of it. Gods! and to think that
half the men in Atlantis have courted me, and now I am arrived at this!"

"I must go alone. It would have made me happier to take your esteem with
me. But as it is, I suppose I shall carry only your hate."

"That is the most humiliating thing of all; I cannot bring myself to
hate you. I ought to, I know, after the brutal way you have scorned me.
But I do not, and there is the truth. I seem to grow the fonder of you,
and if I thought there was a way of keeping you alive, and unmutilated,
here in Atlantis, I do not think I should point out that Tob is tired
of waiting, and will probably be off without you." She flung her arms
suddenly about my neck, and kissed me hotly on the mouth. "There, that
is for good-bye, dear. You see I am reckless. I care not what I do now,
knowing that you cannot despise me more than you have done all along for
my forwardness."

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

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

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

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

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

"Greeting, my lord," said he, "but I'd have been pleased to see you
earlier. We've small enough force and slow enough heels in this vessel,
and it's my idea that the sooner we're away from here and beyond range
of pursuit, the safer it will be for my woman and brats who are in that
hutch of an after-castle. It's long enough since I sailed in such a
small old-fashioned ship as this. She's no machines, and she's not even
a steering mannikin. Look at the meanness of her furniture and (in your
ear) I've suspicions that there's rottenness in her bottom. But she's
the best I'd the means to buy, and if she reaches the place at the
farther end I've got my eye on, we shall have to make a home there, or
be content to die, for she'll never have strength to carry us farther
or back. She's been a ship in the Egypt trade, and you know what that is
for getting worm and rot in the wood."

"You'd enough hands for your scheme before I came?"

"Oh yes. I've fifty stout lads and eight women packed in the ship
somehow, and trouble enough I've had to get them away from the city.
That thief of a port-captain wellnigh skinned us clean before he could
see it lawful that so many useful fighting men might go out of harbour.
Times are not what they were, I tell you, and the sea trade's about
done. All sailor men of any skill have taken a woman or two and gone
out in companies to try their fortunes in other lands. Why, I'd trouble
enough to get half a score to help me work this ship. All my balance are
just landsmen raw and simple, and if I land half of them alive at the
other end, we shall be doing well."

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

Tob slapped his leg. "No savage Europe for me, my lord. Now, see the
advantage of being a mariner. I found once some islands to the north
of Europe, separated from the main by a strait, which I called the Tin
Islands, seeing that tin ore litters many of the beaches. I was driven
there by storm, and said no word of the find when I got back, and here
you see it comes in useful. There's no one in all Atlantis but me knows
of those Tin Islands to-day, and we'll go and fight honestly for our
ground, and build a town and a kingdom on it."

"With Tob for king?"

"Well, I have figured it out as such for many a day, but I know when I
meet my better, and I'm content to serve under Deucalion. My lord would
have done wiser to have brought a wife with him, though, and I thought
it was understood by the good lady that spoke to me down at the harbour,
or I'd have mentioned it earlier. The savages in my Tin Islands go naked
and stain themselves blue with woad, and are very filthy and brutish to
look upon. They are sturdy, and should make good slaves, but one would
have to get blunted in the taste before one could wish to be father to
their children."

"I am still husband to Phorenice."

Tob grinned. "The Gods give you joy of her. But it is part of a
mariner's creed--and you will grow to be a mariner here--that wedlock
does not hold across the seas. However, that matter may rest. But,
coming to my Tin Islands again: they'll delight you. And I tell you, a
kingdom will not be so hard to carve out as it was in Egypt, or as you
found in Yucatan. There are beasts there, of course, and no one who
can hunt need ever go hungry. But the greater beasts are few. There
are cave-bears and cave-tigers in small numbers, to be sure, and some
river-horses and great snakes. But the greater lizards seem to avoid the
land; and as for birds, there is rarely seen one that can hurt a grown
man. Oh, I tell you, it will be a most desirable kingdom."

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

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

There were many fearful glances backwards when day came and showed the
waters, and the burning mountains that hemmed them in beyond the shores.
All seemed to expect some navy of Phorenice to come surging up to take
them back to servitude and starvation in the squalid wards of the city;
and I confess ingenuously that I was with them in all truth when they
swore they would fight the ship till she sank beneath them, before they
would obey another of the commands of Phorenice. However, their brave
heroics were displayed to no small purpose. For the full flow of the
tide we hung in our place, barely moving past the land, but yet not
seeing either oar or sail; and then, when the tide turned, away we went
once more with speed, mightily comforted.

Tob's woman must needs bring drink on deck, and bid all pour libations
to her as a future queen. But Tob cuffed her back into the after-castle,
slamming to the hatch behind her heels, and bidding the crew send the
liquor down their dusty throats. "We are done with that foolery," said
he. "My Lord Deucalion will be king of this new kingdom we shall
build in the Tin Islands, and a right proper king he'll make, as you
untravelled ones would know, if you'd sailed the outer seas with him as
I have done." Beneath which I read a regret, but said nothing, having
made my plans from the moment of stepping on board, as will appear on a
later sheet.

So on down the great estuary we made our way, and though it pleasured
the others on board when they saw that the seas were desolate of sails,
it saddened me when I recalled how once the waters had been whitened
with the glut of shipping.

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

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

He brightened perceptibly. "Aye," he grunted, "you are very weak, my
lord, and mighty defenceless. We know all about that. But what's
else? You must tell all your meaning plain. I'm a common mariner, and
understand little of your fancy talk."

"Why, this. That it is not my wish to leave the continent of Atlantis.
If you will put me down on any part of this side that faces Europe, I
will commend you strongly to the Gods. I would I could give you
money, or (better still) articles that would be useful to you in your
colonising; but as it is, you see me destitute."

"As to that, you owe me nothing, having done vastly more than your share
each time we have put in shore for the hunting. But it will not do, this
plan of yours. I will shamedly confess that the sound of that kingship
in my Tin Islands sounds sweet to me. But no, my lord, it will not do.
You are no mariner yet, and understand little of geography, but I must
tell you that the part of Atlantis there"--he jerked his thumb towards
the line of trees, and the mountains which lay beyond the fringe
of surf--"is called the Dangerous Lands, and a man must needs be a
salamander and be learned in magic (so I am told) before he can live
there."

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

He muttered something in his profane seaman's way about preferring to
keep his own fate under control of his own most strong right arm, but
saying that he would keep the matter in his thoughts, he excused himself
hurriedly to go and see to somewhat concerning the working of the ship,
and there left me.

But I think the sweets of kingly rule were a strong argument in favour
of letting me have my way (which I should have had otherwise if it had
not been given peacefully), and on the third day after our talk he
put the ship inshore again for re-victualling. We lurched into a
river-mouth, half swamped over a roaring bar, and ran up against the
bank and made fast there to trees, but booming ourselves a safe distance
off with oars and poles, so that no beast could leap on board out of the
thicket.

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

With sturdy generosity did Tob again attempt to make me sail on with
them as their future king, and as steadfastly did I make refusal; and
at last stood alone on the bank amongst the gnawed bones of their feast,
with my weapons to bear me company, and he, and his men, and the women
stood in the little old ship, ready to drop down river with the current.

"At least," said Tob, "we'll carry your memory with us, and make it big
in the Tin Islands for everlasting."

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

"We want no priest, except one we shall make ourselves, and that will
be me. And as for the old Gods--well, I have laid my ideas before the
fellows here, and they agree to this: We are done with those old Gods
for always. They seem worn out, if one may judge from Their present lack
of usefulness in Atlantis, and, anyway, there will be no room for Them
on the Tin Islands.--Let go those warps there aft, and shove her head
out.--We are under weigh now, my lord, and beyond recall, and so I am
free to tell you what we have decided upon for our religious exercises.
We shall set up the memory of a living Hero on earth, and worship that.
And when in years to come the picture of his face grows dim, we shall
doubtless make an image of him, as accurate as our art permits, and
build him a temple for shelter, and bring there our offerings and
prayers. And as I say, my lord, I shall be priest, and when I am dead,
the sons of my body shall be priests after me, and the eldest a king
also."

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

The ship was drifting rapidly away with the current, and they were
hoisting sail. Tob had to shout to make himself heard. "Aye, but it
shall be. For I, too, am a strong man after my kind, and I have ordered
it so. And if you want the name of our Hero that some day shall be God,
you wear it on yourself. Deucalion shall be God for our children."

"This is blasphemy," I cried. "Have a care, fool, or this impiety will
sink you."

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

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

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




15. ZAEMON'S SUMMONS


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

To the educated, many of these legends are known to be mythical; but
withal there are enough disquietudes remaining to make life very arduous
and stocked with peril. Everywhere the mountains keep their contents
on the boil; earth tremors are every day's experience; gushes of unseen
evil vapours steal upon one with such cunningness and speed, that it is
often hard to flee in time before one is choked and killed; poisons well
up into the rivers, yet leave their colour unchanged; great cracks split
across the ground reaching down to the fires beneath, and the waters
gush into these, and are shot forth again with devastating explosion;
and always may be expected great outpourings of boiling mud or molten
rock.

Yet with all this, there are great sombre forests in these lands, with
trees whose age is unimaginable, and fires amongst the herbage are rare.
All beneath the trees is water, and the air is full of warm steam and
wetness. For a man to live in that constant hot damp is very mortifying
to the strength. But strength is wanted, and cunning also beyond the
ordinary, for these dangerous lands are the abode of the lizards, which
of all beasts grow to the most enormous size and are the most fearsome
to deal with.

There are countless families and species of these lizards, and with some
of them a man can contend with prospect of success. But there are others
whose hugeness no human force can battle against. One I saw, as it came
up out of a lake after gaining its day's food, that made the wet land
shake and pulse as it trod. It could have taken Phorenice's mammoth into
its belly,* and even a mammoth in full charge could not have harmed it.
Great horny plates covered its head and body, and on the ridge of its
back and tail and limbs were spines that tore great slivers from the
black trees as it passed amongst them.


* TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: Professor Reeder of the Wyoming State University
has recently unearthed the skeleton of a Brontosaurus, 130 ft. in
length, which would have weighed 50 tons when alive. It was 35 ft. in
height at the hips, and 25 ft. at the shoulder, and 40 people could be
seated with comfort within its ribs. Its thigh bone was 8 ft. long. The
fossils of a whole series of these colossal lizards have been found.


Now and again these monsters would get caught in some vast fissuring
of the ground, but not often. Their speed of foot was great, and their
sagacity keen. They seemed to know when the worst boilings of the
mountains might be expected, and then they found safety in the deeper
lakes, or buried themselves in wallows of the mud. Moreover, they were
more kindly constituted than man to withstand one great danger of these
regions, in that the heat of the water did them no harm. Indeed, they
will lie peacefully in pools where sudden steam-bursts are making the
water leap into boiling fountains, and I have seen one run quickly
across a flow of molten rock which threatened to cut it off, and not be
so much as singed in the transit.

In the midst of such neighbours, then, was my new life thrown, and
existence became perilous and hard to me from the outset. I came near to
knowing what Fear was, and indeed only a fervent trust in the most High
Gods, and a firm belief that my life was always under Their fostering
care, prevented me from gaining that horrid knowledge. For long enough,
till I learned somewhat of the ways of this steaming, sweltering land,
I was in as miserable a case as even Phorenice could have wished to see
me. My clothes rotted from my back with the constant wetness, till I
went as naked as a savage from Europe; my limbs were racked with agues,
and I could find no herbs to make drugs for their relief; for days
together I could find no better food than tree-grubs and leaves; and
often when I did kill beasts, knowing little of their qualities, I ate
those that gave me pain and sickness.

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

So I cut myself a ladder of footholes on the inside of the trunk till I
had reached a point ten man-heights from the ground, and there cut other
notches, and with tree branches made a floor on which I might rest.
Later, for luxury, I carved me arrow-slit windows in the walls of my
chamber, and even carried up sand for a hearth, so that I might cook my
victual up there instead of lighting a fire in all the dangers of the
open below.

By degrees, too, I began to find how the large-scaled fish of the rivers
and the lesser turtles might be more readily captured, and so my ribs
threatened less to start through their proper covering of skin as the
days went on. But the lack of salads and gruels I could never overcome.
All the green meat was tainted so powerfully with the taste of tars that
never could I force my palate to accept it. And of course, too, there
remained the peril of the greater lizards and the other dangers native
to the place.

But as the months began to mount into years, and the brute part of my
nature became more satisfied, there came other longings which it was
less easy to provide for. From the ivory of a river horse's tooth I had
endeavoured to carve me a representative of Nais as last I had seen her.
But, though my fingers might be loving, and my will good, my art was
of the dullest, and the result--though I tried time and time again--was
always clumsy and pitiful. Still, in my eyes it carried some suggestion
of the original--a curve here, an outline there, and it made my old love
glow anew within me as I sat and ate it with my eyes. Yet it did little
to satisfy my longings for the woman I had lost; rather it whetted my
cravings to be with her again, or at least to have some knowledge of her
fate.

Other men of the Priests' Clan have come out and made an abode in these
Dangerous Lands, and by mortifying the flesh, have gained an intimacy
with the Higher Mysteries which has carried them far past what mere
human learning and repetition could teach. Indeed, here and there one,
who from some cause and another has returned to the abodes of men, has
carried with him a knowledge that has brought him the reputation amongst
the vulgar for the workings of magic and miracles, which--since all arts
must be allowed which aid so holy a cause--have added very materially to
the ardour with which these common people pursue the cult of the Gods.
But for myself I could not free my mind to the necessary clearness for
following these abstruse studies. During that voyage home from Yucatan I
had communed with them with growing insight; but now my mind was not my
own. Nais had a lien upon it, and refused to be ousted; and, in truth,
her sweet trespass was my chief solace.

But at last my longing could no further be denied. Through one of
the arrow-slit windows of my tree-house I could see far away a great
mountain top whitened with perpetual snow, which our Lord the Sun dyed
with blood every night of His setting. Night after night I used to watch
that ruddy light with wide straining eyes. Night after night I used to
remember that in days agone when I was entering upon the priesthood, it
had been my duty to adore our great Lord as He rose for His day behind
the snows of that very mountain. And always the thought followed on
these musings, that from that distant crest I could see across the
continent to the Sacred Mount, which had the city below it where I had
buried my love alive.

So at last I gave way and set out, and a perilous journey I made of it.
In the heavy mists, which hung always on the lower ground, my way lay
blind before me, and I was constantly losing it. Indeed, to say that
I traversed three times the direct distance is setting a low estimate.
Throughout all those swamps the great lizards hunted, and as the country
was new to me I did not know places of harbour, and a hundred times was
within an ace of being spied and devoured at a mouthful. But the High
Gods still desired me for Their own purposes, and blinded the great
beasts' eyes when I slunk to cover as they passed. Twice rivers of
scalding water roared boiling across my path, and I had to delay till I
could collect enough black timber from the forests to build rafts that
would give me dry ferriage.

It will be seen then that my journey was in a way infinitely tedious,
but to me, after all those years of waiting, the time passed on winged
feet. I had been separated from my love till I could bear the strain
no longer; let me but see from a distance the place where she lay, and
feast my eyes upon it for a while, and then I could go back to my abode
in the tree and there remain patiently awaiting the will of the Gods.

The air grew more chilly as I began to come out above the region of
trees, on to that higher ground which glares down on the rest of the
world, and I made buskins and a coat of woven grasses to protect my body
from the cold, which began to blow upon me keenly. And later on, where
the snow lay eternally, and was blown into gullies, and frozen into
solid banks and bergs of ice, I had hard work to make any progress
amongst its perilous mazes, and was moreover so numbed by the chill,
that my natural strength was vastly weakened. Overhead, too, following
me up with forbidding swoops, and occasionally coming so close that I
had to threaten it with my weapons, was one of those huge man-eating
birds which live by pulling down and carrying off any creature that
their instincts tell them is weakly, and likely soon to die.

But the lure ahead of me was strong enough to make these difficulties
seem small, and though the air of the mountain agreed with me ill,
causing sickness and panting, I pressed on with what speed I could
muster towards the elusive summit. Time after time I thought the next
spurt would surely bring me out to the view for which my soul yearned,
but always there seemed another bank of snow and ice yet to be climbed.
But at last I reached the crest, and gave thanks to the most High Gods
for Their protection and favour.

Far, far away I could see the Sacred Mountain with its ring of fires
burning pale under the day, and although the splendid city which nestled
at its foot could not be seen from where I stood, I knew its position
and I knew its plan, and my soul went out to that throne of granite in
the square before the royal pyramid, where once, years before, I had
buried my love. Had Phorenice left the tomb unviolated?

I stood there leaning on my spear, filling my eye with the prospect,
warming even to the smoke of mountains that I recognised as old
acquaintances. Gods! how my love burned within me for this woman. My
whole being seemed gone out to meet her, and to leave room for nothing
beside. For long enough a voice seemed dimly to be calling me, but
I gave it no regard. I had come out to that hoary mountain top for
communion with Nais alone, and I wanted none others to interrupt.

But at length the voice calling my name grew too loud to be neglected,
and I pulled myself out of my sweet musing with a start to think that
here, for the first time since parting with Tob and his company, I
should see another human fellow-being. I gripped my weapon and asked who
called. The reply came clearly from up the slopes of mountain, and I saw
a man coming towards me over the snows. He was old and feeble. His body
was bent, and his hair and beard were white as the ground on which he
trod, and presently I recognised him as Zaemon. He was coming towards
me with incredible speed for a man of his years and feebleness, but he
carried in his hand the glowing Symbol of our Lord the Sun, and holy
strength from this would add largely to his powers.

He came close to me and made the sign of the Seven, which I returned
to him, with its completion, with due form and ceremony. And then he
saluted me in the manner prescribed as messenger appointed by the High
Council of the Priests seated before the Ark of the Mysteries, and I
made humble obeisance before him.

"In all things I will obey the orders that you put before me," I said.

"Such is your duty, my brother. The command is, that you return
immediately to the Sacred Mountain, so that if human means may still
prevail, you, as the most skilful general Atlantis owns within her
borders, may still save the country from final wreck and punishment. The
woman Phorenice persists in her infamies. The poor land groans under
her heel. And now she has laid siege to our Sacred Mountain itself, and
swears that not one soul shall be left alive in all Atlantis who does
not bend humbly to her will."

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

"Nais rests where you left her, untouched. Phorenice knows by her
arts--she has stolen nearly all the ancient knowledge now--that still
you live, and she keeps Nais unharmed beneath the granite throne in the
hopes that some time she may use her as a weapon against you. Little she
knows the sternness of our Priests' creed, my brother. Why, even I, that
am the girl's father, would sacrifice her blithely, if her death or ruin
might do a tittle of good to Atlantis."

"You go beyond me with your devotion."

The old man leaned forward at me, with glowering brow. "What!"

"Or my old blind adherence to the ancient dogma has been sapped and
weakened by events. You must buy my full obedience, Zaemon, if you want
it. Promise me Nais--and your arts I know can snatch her--and I will be
true servant to the High Council of the Priest, and will die in the
last ditch if need be for the carrying out of order. But let me see Nais
given over to the fury of that wanton woman, and I shall have no inwards
left, except to take my vengeance, and to see Atlantis piled up in ruins
as her funeral-stone."

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

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

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

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

"Nay," said the old man, "I have no tiredness, and as for coming with
me, there you will not be able. But follow at what pace you may."

He turned and set off down the snowy slopes of the mountain and I
followed; but gradually he distanced me; and so he kept on, with speed
always increasing, till presently he passed out of my sight round the
spur of an ice-cliff, and I found myself alone on the mountain side.
Yes, truly alone. For his footmarks in the snow from being deep, grew
shallower, and less noticeable, so that I had to stoop to see them. And
presently they vanished entirely, and the great mountain's flank lay
before me trackless, and untrodden by the foot of man since time began.

I was not shaken by any great amazement. Though it was beyond my poor
art to compass this thing myself, having occupied my mind in exile more
with memories of Nais than in study of those uppermost recesses of the
Higher Mysteries in which Zaemon was so prodigiously wise, still I had
some inkling of his powers.

Zaemon I knew would be back again in his dwelling on the Sacred
Mountain, shaken and breathless, even before I had found an end to his
tracks in the snow, and it behoved me to join him there in the quickest
possible time. I had his promise now for my reward, and I knew that he
would carry it into effect. Beforetime I had made an error. I had valued
Atlantis most, and Nais, my private love, as only second. But now it was
in my mind to be honest with others even as with myself. Though all
the world were hanging on my choice, I could but love my Nais most, and
serve her first and foremost of all.




16. SIEGE OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN


Now, my passage across the great continent of Atlantis, if tedious and
haunted by many dangers, need not be recounted in detail here. Only one
halt did I make of any duration, and that was unavoidable. I had killed
a stag one day, bringing it down after a long chase in an open savannah.
I scented the air carefully, to see if there was any other beast which
could do me harm within reach, and thinking that the place was safe,
set about cutting my meat, and making a sufficiency into a bundle for
carriage.

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

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

With the dawn, when the night beasts had gone to their lairs, I
clambered down again, and leaning heavily on my spear, limped onwards
through the sombre forests along my way. The moss which grows on the
northern side of each tree was my guide, but gradually I began to note
that I was seeing moss all round the trees, and, in fact, was growing
light-headed with the pain and the swelling of the limb. But still I
pressed onwards with my journey, my last instinct being to obey the
command of the High Council, and so procure the enlargement of Nais as
had been promised.

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

But after an interval, wit returned, and I found myself on a bed of
leaves in a cleft between two rocks, which was furnished with some poor
skill, and fortified with stakes and buildings against the entrance of
the larger marauding beasts. My wound was dressed with a poultice of
herbs, and at the other side of the cavern there squatted a woman,
cooking a mess of wood-grubs and honey over a fire of sticks.

"How came I here?" I asked.

"I brought you," said she.

"And who are you?"

"A nymph, they call me, and I practise as such, collecting herbs and
curing the diseases of those that come to me, telling fortunes, and
making predictions. In return I receive what each can afford, and if
they do not pay according to their means, I clap on a curse to make them
wither. It's a lean enough living when wars and the pestilence have left
so few poor folk to live in the land."

"Do you visit Atlantis?"

"Not I. Phorenice would have me boiled in brine, living, if she could
lay easy hands on me. Our dainty Empress tolerates no magic but her own.
They say she is for pulling down the Priests off their Mountain now."

"So you do get news of the city?"

"Assuredly. It is my trade to get good news, or otherwise how could I
tell fortunes to the vulgar? You see, my lord, I detected your quality
by your speech, and knowing you are not one of those that come to me for
spells, and potions, I have no fear in speaking to you plainly."

"Tell me then: Phorenice still reigns?"

"Most vilely."

"As a maiden?"

"As the mother of twin sons. Tatho's her husband now, and has been these
three years."

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

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

"They came to each of the cities of Yucatan in turn, and though
the colonists slew them in thousands, the weight of numbers always
prevailed. They ate clean each city they took, and left it to the beasts
of the forest, and went on to the next. And so in time they reached the
coast towns, and Tatho and the few that survived took ship, and
sailed home. They even ate Tatho's wife for him. They must be curious
persevering things, these little hairy men. The Gods send they do not
get across the seas to Atlantis, or they would be worse plague to the
poor country than Phorenice."

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

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

"In its accustomed darkness, so they say. Who cares for Egypt these
latter years? Who cares for anyone or anything for that matter except
for himself and his own proper estate? Time was when the country folk
and the hunters hereabouts brought me offerings to this cave for sheer
piety's sake. But now they never come near unless they see a way of
getting good value in return for their gifts. And, by result, instead
of living fat and hearty, I make lean meals off honey and grubs. It's
a poor life, a nymph's, in these latter years I tell you, my lord. It's
the fashion for all classes to believe in no kind of mystery now."

"What manner of pestilence is this you spoke of?"

"I have not seen it. Thank the Gods it has not come this way. But they
do say that it has grown from the folk Phorenice has slain, and whose
bodies remain unburied. She is always slaying, and so the bodies lie
thicker than the birds and beasts can eat them. For which of our sins,
I wonder, did the Gods let Phorenice come to reign? I wish that she and
her twins were boiled alive in brine before they came between an honest
nymph of the forest and her living.

"They say she has put an image of herself in all the temples of the
city now, and has ordered prayers and sacrifices to be made night
and morning. She has decreed all other Gods inferior to herself
and forbidden their worship, and those of the people that are not
sufficiently devout for her taste, have their hamstrings slit by their
tormentors to aid them constantly into a devotional attitude.--Will you
eat of my grubs and honey? There is nothing else. Your back was bloody
with carrying meat when I met you, but you had lost your load. You must
either taste this mess of mine now, or go without."

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

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

But not one in ten of these outlying settlers remained. The houses were
silent when I reached them, the fire-hearth before the door weed-grown,
and the patch of vegetables taken back by the greedy fingers of the
forest into mere scrub and jungle. And farther on, when villages began
to appear, strongly-walled as the custom is, to ward off the attacks of
beasts, the logs which aforetime had barred the gateway lay strewn in
a sprouting undergrowth, and naught but the kitchen middens remained to
prove that once they had sheltered human tenants. Phorenice's influence
seemed to have spread as though it were some horrid blight over the
whole face of what was once a smiling and an easy-living land.

So far I had met with little enough interference from any men I had come
across. Many had fled with their women into the depths of the forest at
the bare sight of me; some stood their ground with a threatening face,
but made no offer to attack, seeing that I did not offer them insult
first; and a few, a very few, offered me shelter and provision. But as
I neared the city, and began to come upon muddy beaten paths, I passed
through governments that were more thickly populated, and here appeared
strong chance of delay. The watcher in the tower which is set above each
village would spy me and cry: "Here is a masterless man," and then the
people that were within would rush out with intent to spoil me of my
weapons, and afterwards to appoint me as a labourer.

I had no desire to slay these wretched folk, being filled with pity at
the state to which they had fallen; and often words served me to make
them stand aside from the path, and stare wonderingly at my fierceness,
and let me go my ways. And when at other times words had no avail, I
strove to strike as lightly as could be, my object being to get forward
with my journey and leave no unnecessary dead behind me. Indeed, having
found the modern way of these villages, it grew to be my custom to turn
off into the forest, and make a circuit whenever I came within smell of
their garbage.

Similarly, too, when I got farther on, and came amongst greater towns
also, I kept beyond challenge of their walls, having no mind to risk
delay from the whim of any new law which might chance to be set up by
their governors. My progress might be slinking, but my pride did not
upbraid me very loudly; indeed, the fever of haste burned within me so
hot and I had little enough carrying space for other emotions.

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

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

Across the plain before me lay the grim great walls of the city, with
the heads of its temples, and its palaces, and its pyramids showing
beyond. The step-sides of the royal pyramid held my eye. Phorenice had
expended some of her new-found store of gold in overlaying their former
whiteness with sheets of shining yellow metal. But it was not that
change that moved me. I was remembering that, in the square before the
pyramid, there stood a throne of granite carved with the snake and the
outstretched hand, and in the hollow beneath the throne was Nais, my
love, asleep these eight years now because of the drug that had been
given to her, but alive still, and waiting for me, if only I on my
part could make a way to the place where Zaemon defied the Empress, and
announce my coming.

In that covert of the woods I lay a day and a night raging with myself
for not discovering some plan to get within the defences of the Sacred
Mountain, but in the morning which followed, there came a man towards me
running.

"You need not threaten me with your weapons," he cried. "I mean no harm.
It seems that you are Deucalion; though I should not have known you
myself in those rags and skins, and behind that tangle of hair and
beard. You will give me your good word I know. Believe me, I have not
loitered unduly."

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

"Zaemon laid a command on me. He came to my house, though how he got
there I cannot tell, seeing that Phorenice's army blocks all possible
passage to and from the Mountain. I told him I wished to be mixed with
none of his schemings. I am a peaceful man, Deucalion, and have taken a
wife who requires nourishment. I still serve in the same temple, though
we have swept out the old Gods by order of the Empress, and put her
image in their place. The people are tidily pious nowadays, those that
are left of them, and the living is consequently easy. Yes, I tell you
there are far more offerings now than there were in the old days. And
so I had no wish to be mixed with matters which might well make me be
deprived of a snug post, and my head to boot."

"I can believe it all of you, Ro."

"But there was no denying Zaemon. He burst into one of his black furies,
and while he spoke at me, I tell you I felt as good as dead. You know
his powers?"

"I have seen some of them."

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

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

"Had I, with a wife depending on me, any other choice? I asked his
pleasure. It was to find you when you came in here from some distant
part of the land, and deliver to you his message.

"'Then tell me where is the meeting place,' said I, 'and when.'

"'There is none appointed, nor is the day fixed,' said he. 'You must
watch and search always for him. But when he comes, you will be guided
to his place.' Well, Deucalion, I think I was guided, but how, I do
not know. But now I have found you, and if there's such a thing as
gratitude, I ask you to put in your word with Zaemon that this deadness
be taken away from my hand. It's an awful thing for a man to be forced
to go through life like this, for no real fault of his own. And Zaemon
could cure it from where he sat, if he was so minded."

"You seem still to have a very full faith in some of the old Gods'
priests," I said. "But so far, I do not see that your errand is done. I
have had no message yet."

"Why, the message is so simple that I do not see why he could not have
got some one else to carry it. You are to make a great blaze. You may
fire the grasses of the plain in front of this wood if you choose. And
on the night which follows, you are to go round to that flank of the
Sacred Mountain away from the city where the rocks run down sheer, and
there they will lower a rope and haul you up to their hands above."

"It seems easy, and I thank you for your pains. I will ask Zaemon that
your hand may be restored to you."

"You shall have my prayers if it is. And look, Deucalion, it is a small
matter, and it would be less likely to slip your memory if you saw to it
at once on your landing. Later, you may be disturbed. Phorenice is bound
to pull you down off your perch up there now she has made her mind to
it. She never fails, once she has set her hand to a thing. Indeed,
if she was no Goddess at birth, she is making herself into one very
rapidly. She has got all the ancient learning of our Priests, and more
besides. She has discovered the Secret of Life these recent months--"

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

"I know nothing of her means. But she has the secret, and now she is as
good an immortal (so she says) as any of them. Well, Deucalion, it is
dangerous for me to be missing from my temple overlong, so I will go.
You will carry that matter we spoke of in your mind? It means much
to me."--His eye wandered over my ragged person--"And if you think my
service is of value to you--"

"You see me poor, my man, and practically destitute."

"Some small coin," he murmured, "or even a link of bronze? I am at
great expense just now buying nourishment for my wife. Well, if you have
nothing, you cannot give. So I'll just bid you farewell."

He took himself off then, and I was not sorry. I had never liked Ro. But
I wasted no more precious time then. The grass blazed up for a signal
almost before his timorous heels were clear of it, and that night when
the darkness gave me cover, I took the risk of what beasts might be
prowling, and went to the place appointed. There was no rope dangling,
but presently one came down the smooth cliff face like some slender
snake. I made a loop, slipped it over a leg, and pulled hard as a
signal. Those above began to haul, and so I went back to the Sacred
Mountain after an absence of so many toilsome and warring years. There
were none to disturb the ascent. Phorenice's troops had no thought to
guard that gaunt, bare, seamless precipice.

The men who hauled me up were old, and panted heavily with their task,
and, until I knew the reason, I wondered why a knot of younger priests
had not been appointed for the duty. But I put no question. With us of
the Priests' Clan on the Sacred Mountain, it is always taken as granted
that when an order is given, it is given for the best. Besides, these
priests did not offer themselves to question. They took me off at once
to Zaemon, and that is what I could have wished.

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

"Is Phorenice dead?" I asked.

"It remains for you to slay her, and take your kingdom, if, indeed,
when all is done, there remains a man or a rood of land to govern. The
sentence has gone out that she is to die, and it shall be carried into
effect, even though we have to set loose the most dreadful powers that
are stored in the Ark of the Mysteries, and wreck this continent in our
effort. We have borne with her infamies all these years by command sent
down by the most High Gods; but now she has gone beyond endurance, and
They it is who have given the word for her cutting off."

"You are one of the highest Three; I am only one of the Seven; you best
know the cost."

"There can be no counting the cost now, my brother, and my king. It is
an order."

"It is an order," I repeated formally, "so I obey."

"If it were not impious to do so, it would be easy to justify this
decision of the Gods. The woman has usurped the throne; yet she was
forgiven and bidden rule on wisely. She has tampered with our holy
religion; yet she was forgiven. She has killed the peoples of Atlantis
in greedy useless wars, and destroyed the country's trade; yet she was
forgiven. She has desecrated the old temples, and latterly has set up
in them images of herself to be worshipped as a deity; yet she was
forgiven. But at last her evil cleverness has discovered to her the
tremendous Secret of Life and Death, and there she overstepped the
boundary of the High Gods' forbearance.

"I myself went to carry a final warning, and once more faced her in
the great banqueting-hall. Solemnly I recited to her the edict, and she
chose to take it as a challenge. She would live on eternally herself and
she would share her knowledge with those that pleased her. Tatho that
was her husband should also be immortal. Indeed, if she thought fit, she
would cry the secret aloud so that even the common people might know it,
and death from mere age would become a legend.

"She cared no wit how she might upset the laws of Nature. She was
Phorenice, and was the highest law of all. And finally she defied me
there in that banqueting-hall and defied also the High Gods that stood
behind my mouth. 'My magic is as strong as yours, you pompous fool,'
she cried, 'and presently you shall see the two stand side by side upon
their trial.'

"She began to collect an army from that moment, and we on our part made
our preparations. It was discovered by our arts that you still lived,
and King of Atlantis you were made by solemn election. How you were
summoned, you know as nearly as it is lawful that one of your degree
should know; how you came, you understand best yourself; but here you
are, my brother, and being King now, you must order all things as you
see best for the preservation of your high estate, and we others live
only to give you obedience."

"Then being King, I can speak without seeming to make use of a threat.
I must have my Queen first, or I am not strong enough to give my whole
mind to this ruling."

"She shall be brought here."

"So! Then I will be a General now, and see to the defences of this
place, and view the men who are here to stand behind them."

I went out of the dwelling then, Zaemon giving place and following me.
It was night still but there is no darkness on the upper part of the
Sacred Mountain. A ring of fires, fed eternally from the earth-breath
which wells up from below, burns round one-half of the crest, lighting
it always as bright as day, and in fact forming no small part of its
fortification. Indeed, it is said that, in the early dawn of history,
men first came to the Mountain as a stronghold because of the natural
defence which the fires offered.

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

Looking at the additions, in the ancient days, I can well imagine that
none but the most daring could have made the ascent. But one generation
has thrown a bridge over a bad gap here, and another has cut into the
living stone and widened a ledge there, till in these latter years there
is a path with cut steps and carved balustrade such as the feeblest or
most giddy might traverse with little effort or exertion. But always
when these improvers made smooth the obstacles, they were careful to
weaken in no possible way the natural defences but rather to add to
them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On the Sacred Mountain itself vast storehouses were dug in the rock, and
here the grain was teemed in great yellow heaps, and each generation of
those that were set over it, took a pride in adding to the accumulation.

In more modern days it had been a custom amongst the younger and more
forward of the Priests to scoff at this ancient provision, and to hold
that a treasure of gold, or weapons, or jewels would have more value and
no less of dignity; and more than once it has been a close thing
lest these innovators should not be out-voted. But as it was, the old
constitution had happily been preserved, and now in these years of trial
the Clan reaped the benefit. And so with these granaries, and a series
of great tanks and cisterns which held the rainfall, there was no chance
of Phorenice reducing our stronghold by mere close investment, even
though she sat down stubbornly before it for a score of years.

But it was the paucity of men for the defence which oppressed me most.
As I took my way about the head of the Mountain, inspecting all points,
the emptiness of the place smote me like a succession of blows. The
groves, once so trim, were now shaggy and unpruned. Wind had whirled
the leaves in upon the temple floors, and they lay there unswept. The
college of youths held no more now than a musty smell to bear witness
that men had once been grown there. The homely palaces of the higher
Priests, at one time so ardently sought after, lay many of them empty,
because not even one candidate came forward now to canvass for election.

Evil thoughts surged up within me as I saw these things, that were
direct promptings from the nether Gods. "There must be something
wanting," these tempters whispered, "in a religion from which so many of
its Priests fled at the first pinch of persecution."

I did what I could to thrust these waverings resolutely behind me; but
they refused to be altogether ousted from my brain; and so I made a
compromise with myself: First, I would with the help that might be given
me, destroy this wanton Phorenice, and regain the kingdom which had been
given me to my own proper rule; and afterwards I would call a council
of the Seven and council of the Three, and consider without prejudice
if there was any matter in which our ancient ritual could be amended
to suit the more modern requirements. But this should not be done till
Phorenice was dead and I was firmly planted in her room. I would not be
a party, even to myself, to any plan which smacked at all of surrender.

And there as I walked through the desolate groves and beside the cold
altars, the High Gods were pleased to show their approval of my scheme,
and to give me opportunity to bind myself to it with a solemn oath and
vow. At that moment from His distant resting-place in the East, our Lord
the Sun leaped up to begin another day. For long enough from where I
stood below the crest of the Mountain, He Himself would be invisible.
But the great light of His glory spread far into the sky, and against it
the Ark of the Mysteries loomed in black outline from the highest crag
where it rested, lonely and terrible.

For anyone unauthorised to go nearer than a thousand paces to this
storehouse of the Highest Mysteries meant instant death. On that day
when I was initiated as one of the Seven, I had been permitted to go
near and once press my lips against its ample curves; and the rank of
my degree gave me the privilege to repeat that salute again once on each
day when a new year was born. But what lay inside its great interior,
and how it was entered, that was hidden from the Seven, even as it was
from the other Priests and the common people in the city below. Only
those who had been raised to the sublime elevation of the Three had a
knowledge of the dreadful powers which were stored within it.

I went down on my knees where I was, and Zaemon knelt beside me, and
together we recited the prayers which had been said by the Priests from
the beginning of time, giving thanks to our great Lord that He has
come to brighten another day. And then, with my eyes fixed on the black
outline of the Ark of Mysteries I vowed that, come what might, I at
least would be true servant of the High Gods to my life's end, and that
my whole strength should be spent in restoring Their worship and glory.




17. NAIS THE REGAINED


Now, from where we stood together just below the crest of the Sacred
Mountain, we could see down into the city, which lay spread out below
us like a map. The harbour and the great estuary gleamed at its
farther side; and the fringe of hills beyond smoked and fumed in their
accustomed fashion; the great stone circle of our Lord the Sun stood
up grim and bare in the middle of the city; and nearer in reared up the
great mass of the royal pyramid, the gold on its sides catching new gold
from the Sun. There, too, in the square before the pyramid stood the
throne of granite, dwarfed by the distance to the size of a mole's hill,
in which these nine years my love had lain sleeping.

Old Zaemon followed my gaze. "Ay," he said with a sigh, "I know where
your chief interest is. Deucalion when he landed here new from Yucatan
was a strong man. The King whom we have chosen--and who is the best we
have to choose--has his weakness."

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

"I have passed my word to that already, and you shall have her, but at
the cost of damaging somewhat this new kingdom of yours. Maybe too at
the same time we may rid you of this Phorenice and her brood. But I do
not think it likely. She is too wily, and once we begin our play, she is
likely to guess whence it comes, and how it will end, and so will make
an escape before harm can reach her. The High Gods, who have sent
all these trials for our refinement, have seen fit to give her some
knowledge of how these earth tremors may be set a-moving."

"I have seen her juggle with them. But may I hear your scheme?"

"It will be shown you in good time enough. But for the present I would
bid you sleep. It will be your part to go into the city to-night, and
take your woman (that is my daughter) when she is set free, and bring
her here as best you can. And for that you will need all a strong man's
strength."--He stepped back, and looked me up and down.--"There are not
many folk that would take you for the tidy clean-chinned Deucalion now,
my brother. Your appearance will be a fine armour for you down yonder in
the city to-night when we wake it with our earth-shaking and terror.
As you stand now, you are hairy enough, and shaggy enough, and naked
enough, and dirty enough for some wild savage new landed out of Europe.
Have a care that no fine citizen down yonder takes a fancy to your
thews, and seizes upon you as his servant."

"I somewhat pity him in his household if he does."

Old Zaemon laughed. "Why, come to think of it, so do I."

But quickly he got grave again. Laughter and Zaemon were very rare
playmates. "Well, get you to bed, my King, and leave me to go into the
Ark of Mysteries and prepare there with another of the Three the things
that must be done. It is no light business to handle the tremendous
powers which we must put into movement this night. And there is danger
for us as there is for you. So if by chance we do not meet again till we
stand up yonder behind the stars, giving account to the Gods, fare you
well, Deucalion."

I slept that day as a soldier sleeps, taking full rest out of the hours,
and letting no harassing thought disturb me. It is only the weak who
permit their sleep to be broken on these occasions. And when the dark
was well set, I roused and fetched those who should attend to the rope.
Our Lady the Moon did not shine at that turn of the month: and the air
was full of a great blackness. So I was out of sight all the while they
lowered me.

I reached the tumbled rocks that lay at the deep foot of the cliff,
and then commenced to use a nice caution, because Phorenice's soldiers
squatted uneasily round their camp-fires, as though they had forebodings
of the coming evil. I had no mind to further stir their wakefulness. So
I crept swiftly along in the darkest of the shadows, and at last came to
the spot where that passage ends which before I had used to get beneath
the walls of the city.

The lamp was in place, and I made my way along the windings swiftly. The
air, so it seemed to me, was even more noxious with vapours than it had
been when I was down there before, and I judged that Zaemon had already
begun to stir those internal activities which were shortly to convulse
the city. But again I had difficulty in finding an exit, and this, not
because there were people moving about at the places where I had to come
out, but because the set of the masonry was entirely changed. In olden
times the Priests' Clan oversaw all the architects' plans, and ruled out
anything likely to clash with their secret passages and chambers. But
in this modern day the Priests were of small account, and had no say in
this matter, and the architects often through sheer blundering sealed up
and made useless many of these outlets and hiding-places.

As it was then, I had to get out of the network of tunnels and galleries
where I could, and not where I would, and in the event found myself at
the farther side of the city, almost up to where the outer wall joins
down to the harbour. I came out without being seen, careful even in this
moment of extremity to preserve the ordinances, and closed all traces of
exit behind me. The earth seemed to spring beneath my feet like the deck
of a ship in smooth water; and though there was no actual movement as
yet to disturb the people, and indeed these slept on in their houses and
shelters without alarm, I could feel myself that the solid deadness
of the ground was gone, and that any moment it might break out into
devastating waves of movement.

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

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

Few disturbed that furious hurry. At first here and there some wretch
who harboured in the gutter cried: "A thief! Throw a share or I pursue."
But if any of these followed, I do not know. At any rate, my speed then
must have out-distanced anyone. Presently, too, as the swing of the
earth underfoot became more keen, and the stonework of the buildings by
the street side began to grate and groan and grit, and sent forth little
showers of dust, people began to run with scared cries from out of their
doors. But none of these had a mind to stop the ragged, shaggy, savage
man who ran so swiftly past, and flung the mud from his naked feet.

And so in time I came to the great square, and was there none too soon.
The place was filling with people who flocked away from the narrow
streets, and it was full of darkness, and noise, and dust, and sickness.
Beneath us the ground rippled in undulations like a sea, which with
terrifying slowness grew more and more intense.

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

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

In that night of dust and darkness it was hard to see the outline of
one's own hand, but I think that the Gods in some requital for the love
which had ached so long within me, gave me special power of sight. As
I watched, I saw the great carved rock which formed the capstone of the
throne move slightly and then move again, and then again; a tiny jerk
for each earth-pulse, but still there was an appreciable shifting; and,
moreover, the stone moved always to one side.

There was method in Zaemon's desperate work, and this in my blind panic
of love and haste, I had overlooked. So I went up the steps of the
throne on the side from which the great capstone was moving, and clung
there afire with expectation.

More and more violent did the earth-swing grow, though the graduations
of its increase could not be perceived, and the din of falling houses
and the shrieks and cries of hurt and frightened people went louder
up into the night. Thicker grew the dust that filled the air, till one
coughed and strangled in the breathing, and more black did the night
become as the dust rose and blotted the rare stars from sight. I clung
to an angle of the granite throne, crouching on the uppermost step but
one below the capstone, and could scarcely keep my place against the
violence of the earth tremors.

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

Louder grew the crash of falling masonry; and from the royal pyramid
itself, though indeed I could not even see its outline through the
darkness, there came sounds of grinding stones and cracking bars of
metal which told that even its superb majestic strength had a breaking
strain. There came to my mind the threat that old Zaemon had thundered
forth in that painted, perfumed banqueting-hall: "You shall see," he had
cried to the Empress, "this royal pyramid which you have polluted
with your debaucheries torn tier from tier, and stone from stone, and
scattered as feathers spread before a wind!"

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

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

She had taken her place in the middle of a great flagstone, and stood
there swaying her supple body to the shocks. Her face was calm, and its
loveliness was untouched by the years. From time to time she brushed
away the dust as it settled on the short red hair which curled about her
neck. There was no trace of fear written upon her face. There was some
weariness, some contempt, and I think a tinge of amusement. Yes, it took
more than the crumbling of her royal pyramid to impress Phorenice with
the infinite powers of those she warred against.

Gods! How the sight of her cool indifference maddened me then. I had
it in me to have strangled her with my hands if she had come within
my reach. But as it was, she stood in her place, swaying easily to the
earth-waves as a sailor sways on a ship's deck, and beside her, crouched
on the same great flagstone, and overcome with nausea was Ylga, who
again was raised to be her fan-girl. It came to my mind that Ylga was
twin sister to Nais, and that I owed her for an ancient kindness, but I
had leisure to do nothing for her then, and indeed it was little enough
I could have done. With each shock the great capstone of the throne to
which I clung jarred farther and farther from its bed place, and my love
was coming nearer to me. It was she who claimed all my service then.

Once in their blind panic a knot of the people in the square thought
that the granite stone was too solid to be overturned, and saw in it
an oasis of safety. They flocked towards it, many of them dragging
themselves up the steep deep high steps on hands and knees because their
feet had been injured by the billowing flagstones of the square.

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

Farther and farther the great stone that made the top of the throne slid
out from its bed, but its slowness of movement maddened me. A life's
education left me in that moment, and I had no trace of stately patience
left. In my puny fury I thrust at the great block with my shoulder and
head, and clawed at it with my hands till the muscles rose on me
in great ropes and knots, and the High Gods must have laughed at my
helplessness as They looked. All was being ordered by the Three who were
Their trusted servants, in Their good time. The work of the Gods may be
done slowly, but it is done exceeding sure.

But at last, when all the people of the city were numb with terror,
and incapable of further emotion (save only for Phorenice who still had
nerve enough to show no concern), what had been threatened came to pass.
The capstone of the throne slid out till it reached the balance, and the
next shock threw it with a roar and a clatter to the ground. And then a
strange tremor seized me.

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

It began to come to my mind, however, that the infernal uproar of the
earth tremor was beginning to slacken somewhat, as though Zaemon knew
he had done the work that he had promised, and was minded to give the
wretched city a breathing space. So I took my fortitude in hand, and
clambered up on to the flat of the stone. The lightning flashes had
ceased and all was darkness again and stifling dust, but at any moment
the sky might be lit once more, and if I were seen in that place, shaggy
and changed though I might be, Phorenice, if she were standing near,
would not be slow to guess my name and errand.

So changed was I for the moment, that I will finely confess that the
idea of a fight was loathsome to me then. I wanted to have my business
done and get gone from the place.

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

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

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

This was no place for either of us. Let the earth's tremors cease (as
was plainly threatened), let daylight come, and let a few of these
nerveless people round recover from their panic, and all the great cost
that had been expended might be counted as waste. We should be seen,
and it would not be long before some one put a name to Nais; and then
it would be an easy matter to guess at Deucalion under the beard and the
shaggy hair and the browned nakedness of the savage who attended on her.
Tell of fright? By the Gods! I was scared as the veriest trembler who
blundered amongst the dust-clouds that night when the thought came to
me.

With all that ruin spread around, it would be hopeless to think that any
of those secret galleries which tunnelled under the ground would be left
unbroken, and so it was useless to try a passage under the walls by the
old means. But I had heard shouts from that frightened mob which came to
me through the din and the darkness, that gave another idea for escape.
"The city is accursed," they had cried: "if we stay here it will fall
on us. Let us get outside the walls where there are no buildings to bury
us."

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

It was hard to find a direction; it was hard to walk in the inky
darkness over ground that was tossed and tumbled like a frozen sea:
and as the earth still quaked and heaved, it was hard also to keep a
footing. But if I did fall myself a score of times, my dear burden got
no bruise, and presently I got to the skirts of the square, and found
a street I knew. The most venomous part of the shaking was done, and no
more buildings fell, but enough lay sprawled over the roadway to make
walking into a climb, and the sweat rolled from me as I laboured along
my way.

There was no difficulty about passing the gate. There was no gate. There
was no wall. The Gods had driven their plough through it, and it lay
flat, and proud Atlantis stood as defenceless as the open country.
Though I knew the cause of this ruin, though, in fact, I had myself in
some measure incited it, I was almost sad at the ruthlessness with which
it had been carried out. The royal pyramid might go, houses and palaces
might be levelled, and for these I cared little enough; but when I saw
those stately ramparts also filched away, there the soldier in me woke,
and I grieved at this humbling of the mighty city that once had been my
only mistress.

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

All men who were poor would try to seize what lay nearest to their
hands, and those of higher station, and any soldiers who could be
collected and still remained true to command, would ruthlessly stop and
strip any man they saw making off with plunder. I had no mind to clash
with these guardians of law and property, and so I fled on swiftly
through the night with my burden, using the unfrequented ways; and
crying to the few folk who did meet me that the woman had the plague,
and would they lend me the shelter of their house as ours had fallen.
And so in time we came to the place where the rope dangled from the
precipice, and after Nais had been drawn up to the safety of the Sacred
Mountain, I put my leg in the loop of the rope and followed her.

Now came what was the keenest anxiety of all. We took the girl and laid
her on a bed in one of the houses, and there in the lit room for the
first time I saw her clearly. Her beauty was drawn and pale. Her eyes
were closed, but so thin and transparent had grown the lids that one
could almost see the brown of the pupil beneath them. Her hair had grown
to inordinate thickness and length, and lay as a cushion behind and
beside her head.

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

In other ways too she had altered. The nails of her fingers had grown to
such a great length that they were twisted in spirals, and the fingers
themselves and her hands were so waxy and transparent that the bony core
upon which they were built showed itself beneath the flesh in plain dull
outline. Her clay-cold lips were so white, that one sighed to remember
the full beauty of their carmine. Her shoulders and neck had lost their
comely curves, and made bony hollows now in which the dust of entombment
lodged black and thickly.

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

An hour I watched; two hours I watched; three hours--and yet she showed
no flicker of life. The heat of her body given her by the bath, was the
same as the heat of my own. But in the feel of her skin when I stroked
it with my hand, there was something lacking still. Only when our Lord
the Sun rose for His day did I break off my watching, whilst I said the
necessary prayer which is prescribed, and quickly returned again to the
gloom of the house.

I was torn with anxiety, and as the time went on and still no sign of
life came back, the hope that had once been so high within me began to
sicken and leave me downcast and despondent. From without, came the
din of fighting. Already Phorenice had sent her troops to storm the
passageway, and the Priests who defended it were shattering them with
volleys of rocks. But these sounds of war woke no pulse within me. If
Nais did not wake, then the world for me was ended, and I had no spirit
left to care who remained uppermost. The Gods in Their due time will
doubtless smite me for this impiety. But I make a confession of it here
on these sheets, having no mind to conceal any portion of this history
for the small reason that it does me a personal discredit.

But as the hours went on, and still no flicker of life came to lessen
the dumb agony that racked me, I grew more venturesome, and added more
essences to the bath, and drugs also such as experience had shown might
wake the disused tissues into life. I watched on with staring eyes,
rubbing her wasted body now and again, and always keeping the heat of
the bath at a constant. From the first I had barred the door against
all who would have come near to help me. With my own hands I had laid
my love to sleep, and I could not bear that others should rouse her,
if indeed roused she should ever be. But after those first offers, no
others came, and the snarl and din of fighting told of what occupied
them.

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

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

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

Still further, too, was I wrung by a torment of doubt as to whether life
or these rackings would in the end be conqueror. After each paroxysm
the colour ebbed back from her again, and for a while she would lie
motionless. But strength and power seemed gradually to grow, and at last
these prevailed, and drove death and sleep beneath them. Her eyelids
struggled with their fastenings. Her lips parted, and her bosom heaved.
With shivering gasps her breath began to pant between her reddening
lips. At first it rattled dryly in her throat, but soon it softened and
became more regular. And then with a last effort her eyes, her glorious
loving eyes, slowly opened.

I leaned over and called her softly by name.

Her eyes met mine, and a glow arose from their depths that gave me the
greatest joy I have met in all the world.

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




18. STORM OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN


It was Nais herself who sent me to attend to my sterner duties. The din
of the attack came to us in the house where I was tending her, and she
asked its meaning. As pithily as might be, for she was in no condition
for tedious listening, I gave her the history of her nine years' sleep.

The colour flushed more to her face. "My lord is the properest man in
all the world to be King," she whispered.

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

"How we poor women are made the chattels of you men! But, for myself, I
seem to like the traffic well enough. You should not have let me stand
in the way of Atlantis' good, Deucalion. Still, it is very sweet to know
you were weak there for once, and that I was the cause of your weakness.
What is that bath over yonder? Ah! I remember; my wits seem none of the
clearest just now."

"You have made the beginning. Your strength will return to you by quick
degrees. But it will not bear hurrying. You must have a patience."

"Your ear, sir, for one moment, and then I will rest in peace. My poor
looks, are they all gone? You seem to have no mirror here. I had visions
that I should wake up wrinkled and old."

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

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

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

But, if the din of the fighting was any guide, mine was a narrowing
kingdom. Every hour it seemed to grow fiercer and more near, and it was
clear that some of the gates in the passage up the cleft in the
cliff, impregnable though all men had thought them, had yielded to the
vehemence of Phorenice's attack. And, indeed, it was scarcely to be
marvelled at. With all her genius spurred on to fury by the blow that
had been struck at her by wrecking so fair a part of the city, the
Empress would be no light adversary even for a strong place to resist,
and the Sacred Mountain was no longer strong.

Defences of stone, cunningly planned and mightily built, it still
possessed, but these will not fight alone. They need men to line them,
and, moreover, abundance of men. For always in a storm of this kind,
some desperate fellows will spit at death and get to hand grips, or
slingers and archers slip in their shot, or the throwing-fire gets home,
or (as here) some newfangled machine like Phorenice's fire-tubes, make
one in a thousand of their wavering darts find the life; and so, though
the general attacking loses his hundreds, the defenders also are not
without their dead.

The slaughter, as it turned out, had been prodigious. As fast as the
stormers came up, the Priests who held the lowest gate remaining to us
rained down great rocks upon them till the narrow alley of the stair
was paved with their writhing dead. But Phorenice stood on a spur of the
rock below them urging on the charges, and with an insane valour company
after company marched up to hurl themselves hopelessly against the
defences. They had no machines to batter the massive gates, and their
attack was as pathetically useless as that of a child who hammers
against a wall with an orange; and meanwhile the terrible stones from
above mowed them down remorselessly.

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

Two gates then had she carried in this dreadful fashion, slaughtering
those Priests that stood behind, them who had not been already shot
down. And here I came down from above to take my share in the fight.
There was no trumpet to announce my coming, no herald to proclaim my
quality, but the Priests as a sheer custom picked up "Deucalion!" as a
battle-cry; and some shouted that, with a King to lead, there would be
no further ground lost.

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

There came shouts to them from behind to carry on their advance; but
they did not budge; and presently a glittering officer panted up, and
commenced to strike right and left amongst them with his sword. From
where I stood on the high rampart above the gate, I could see him
plainly, and recognised him at once.

"It matters not what they use for their battle-cry," he was shouting.
"You have the orders of your divine Empress, and that is enough. You
should be proud to die for her wish, you cowards. And if you do not
obey, you will die afterwards under the instruments of the tormentors,
very painfully. As for Deucalion, he is dead any time these nine years."

"There it seems you lie, my Lord Tatho," I shouted down to him.

He started, and looked up at me.

"So you are there in real truth, then? Well, old comrade, I am sorry.
But it is too late to make a composition now. You are on the side of
these mangy Priests, and the Empress has made an edict that they are to
be rooted out, and I am her most obedient servant."

"You used to be skilful of fence," I said, and indeed there was little
enough to choose between us. "If it please you to stop this pitiful
killing, make yourself the champion of your side, and I will stand for
mine, and we will fight out this quarrel in some fair place, and bind
our parties to abide by the result."

"It would be a grand fight between us two, old friend, and it goes hard
with me to balk you of it. But I cannot pleasure you. I am general here
under Phorenice, and she has given me the strongest orders not to peril
myself. And besides, though you are a great man, Deucalion, you are not
chief. You are not even one of the Three."

"I am King."

Tatho laughed. "Few but yourself would say so, my lord."

"Few truly, but what there are, they are powerful. I was given the name
for the first time yesterday, and as a first blow in the campaign there
was some mischief done in the city. I was there myself, and saw how you
took it."

"You were in Atlantis!"

"I went for Nais. She is on the mountain now, and to-morrow will be my
Queen. Tatho, as a priest to a priest, let me solemnly bring to your
memory the infinite power you bite against on this Sacred Mountain. Your
teaching has warned you of the weapons that are stored in the Ark of
the Mysteries. If you persist in this attack, at the best you can merely
lose; at the worst you can bring about a wreck over which even the High
Gods will shudder as They order it."

"You cannot scare us back now by words," said Tatho doggedly. "And
as for magic, it will be met by magic. Phorenice has found by her own
cleverness as many powers as were ever stored up in the Ark of the
Mysteries."

"Yet she looked on helplessly enough last night, when her royal pyramid
was trundled into a rubbish heap. Zaemon had prophesied that this should
be so, and for a witness, why I myself stood closer to her than we two
stand now, and saw her."

"I will own you took her by surprise somewhat there. I do not understand
these matters myself; I was never more than one of the Seven in the old
days; and now, quite rightly, Phorenice keeps the knowledge of her magic
to herself: but it seems time is needed when one magic is to be met by
another."

"Well," I said, "I know little about the business either. I leave these
matters now to those who are higher above me in the priesthood. Indeed,
having a liking for Nais, it seems I am debarred from ever being given
understanding about the highest of the higher Mysteries. So I content
myself with being a soldier, and when the appointed day comes, I shall
fall and kiss my mother the Earth for the last time. You, so I am told,
have ambition for longer life."

He nodded. "Phorenice has found the Great Secret, and I am to be the
first that will share it with her. We shall be as Gods upon the earth,
seeing that Death will be powerless to touch us. And the twin sons she
has borne me, will be made immortal also."

"Phorenice is headstrong. No, my lord, there is no need to shake your
head and try to deny it. I have had some acquaintance with her. But the
order has been made, and her immortality will be snatched from her very
rudely. Now, mark solemnly my words. I, Deucalion, have been appointed
King of Atlantis by the High Council of the Priests who are the
mouthpiece of the most High Gods, and if I do not have my reign, then
there will be no Atlantis left to carry either King or Empress. You know
me, Tatho, for a man that never lies."

He nodded.

"Then save yourself before it is too late. You shall have again your
vice-royalty in Yucatan."

"But, man, there is no Yucatan. A great horde of little hairy creatures,
that were something less than human and something more than beasts,
swept down upon our cities and ate them out. Oh, you may sneer if you
choose! Others sneered when I came home, till the Empress stopped them.
But you know what a train of driver ants is, that you meet with in the
forests? You may light fires across their path, and they will march into
them in their blind bravery, and put them out with their bodies, and
those that are left will march on in an unbroken column, and devour
all that stands in their path. I tell you, my lord, those little hairy
creatures were like the ants--aye, for numbers, and wooden bravery, as
well as for appetite. As a result to-day, there is no Yucatan."

"You shall have Egypt, then."

He burst at me hotly. "I would not take seven Egypts and ten Yucatans.
My lord, you think more poorly of me than is kind, when you ask me to
become a traitor. In your place would you throw your Nais away, if the
doing it would save you from a danger?"

"That is different."

"In no degree. You have a kindness for her. I have all that and more for
Phorenice, who is, besides, my wife and the mother of my children. If I
have qualms--and I freely confess I know you are desperate men up there,
and have dreadful powers at your command--my shiverings are for them and
not for myself. But I think, my lord, this parley is leading to nothing,
and though these common soldiers here will understand little enough of
our talk, they may be picking up a word here and there, and I do not
wish them to go on to their death (as you will see them do shortly)
and carry evil reports about me to whatever Gods they chance to come
before."

He saluted me with his sword and drew back, and once more the missiles
began to fly, and the doomed wretches, who had been halting beside
the steep rock walls of the pass began once more to press hopelessly
forward. They had scaling-ladders certainly, but they had no chance of
getting these planted. They could do naught but fill the narrow way with
their bodies, and to that end they had been sent, and to that end
they humbly died. Our Priests with crow and lever wrenched from their
lodging-places the great rocks which had been made ready, and sent them
crashing down, so that once more screams filled the pass, and the horrid
butchery was renewed.

But ever and again, some arrow or some sling-stone, or some fire-tube's
dart would find its way up from below and through the defences, and
there we would be with a man the less to carry on the fight. It was well
enough for Phorenice to be lavish with her troops; indeed, if she wished
for success, there were no two ways for it; and when those she had
levied were killed, she could readily press others into the service,
seeing that she had the whole broad face of the country under her rule.
But with us it was different. A man down on our side was a man whose
arm would bitterly be missed, and one which could in no possible way be
replaced.

I made calculation of the chances, and saw clearly that, if we continued
the fight on the present plan, they would storm the gates one after
another as they came to them, and that by the time the uppermost gate
was reached, there would be no Priest alive to defend it. And so, not
disdaining to fashion myself on Phorenice's newer plan, which held that
a general should at times in preference plot coldly from a place of some
safety, and not lead the thick of the fighting, I left those who stood
to the gate with some rough soldier's words of cheer, and withdrew again
up the narrow stair of the pass.

This one approach to the Sacred Mountain was, as I have said before,
vastly more difficult and dangerous in the olden days when it stood as
a mere bare cleft as the High Gods made it. But a chasm had been bridged
here, a shelf cut through the solid rock there, and in many places the
roadway was built up on piers from distant crags below so as to make all
uniform and easy. It came to my mind now, that if I could destroy this
path, we might gain a breathing space for further effort.

The idea seemed good, or at least no other occurred to me which would
in any way relieve our desperate situation, and I looked around me for
means to put it into execution. Up and down, from the mountain to the
plains below, I had traversed that narrow stair of a pass some thousands
of times, and so in a manner of speaking knew every stone, and every
turn, and every cut of it by heart. But I had never looked upon it with
an eye to shaving off all roadway to the Sacred Mountain, and so now,
even in this moment of dreadful stress, I had to traverse it no less
than three times afresh before I could decide upon the best site for
demolition.

But once the point was fixed, there was little delay in getting the
scheme in movement. Already I had sent men to the storehouses amongst
the Priests' dwellings to fetch me rams, and crows, and acids, and
hammers, and such other material as was needed, and these stood handy
behind one of the upper gates. I put on every pair of hands that could
be spared to the work, no matter what was their age and feebleness;
yes, if Nais could have walked so far I would have pressed her for the
labour; and presently carved balustrade, and wayside statue, together
with the lettered wall-stones and the foot-worn cobbles, roared down
into the gulf below, and added their din to the shrieks and yells and
crashes of the fighting. Gods! But it was a hateful task, smashing down
that splendid handiwork of the men of the past. But it was better that
it should crash down to ruin in the abyss below, than that Phorenice
should profane it with her impious sandals.

At first I had feared that it would be needful to sacrifice the knot of
brave men who were so valiantly defending the gate then being attacked.
It is disgusting to be forced into a measure of this kind, but in hard
warfare it is often needful to the carrying out of his schemes for a
general to leave a part of his troops to fight to a finish, and without
hope of rescue, as valiantly as they may; and all he can do for their
reward is to recommend them earnestly to the care of the Gods. But when
the work of destroying the pathway was nearly completed, I saw a chance
of retrieving them.

We had not been content merely with breaking arches, and throwing down
the piers. We had got our rams and levers under the living rock itself
on which all the whole fabric stood; and fire stood ready to heat the
rams for their work; and when the word was given, the whole could be
sent crashing down the face of the cliffs beyond chance of repair.

All was, I say, finally prepared in this fashion, and then I gave the
word to hold. A narrow ledge still remained undestroyed, and offered
footway, and over this I crossed. The cut we had made was immediately
below the uppermost gate of all, and below it there were three more
massive gates still unviolated, besides the one then being so vehemently
attacked. Already, the garrisons had been retired from these, and I
passed through them all in turn, unchallenged and unchecked, and came to
that busy rampart where the twelve Priests left alive worked, stripped
to the waist, at heaving down the murderous rocks.

For awhile I busied myself at their side, stopping an occasional
fire-tube dart or arrow on my shield and passing them the tidings. The
attack was growing fiercer every minute now. The enemy had packed the
pass below well-nigh full of their dead, and our battering stones had
less distance to fall and so could do less execution. They pressed
forward more eagerly than ever with their scaling ladders, and it was
plain that soon they would inevitably put the place to the storm. Even
during the short time I was there, their sling-stones and missiles took
life from three more of the twelve who stood with me on the defence.

So I gave the word for one more furious avalanche of rock to be pelted
down, and whilst the few living were crawling out from those killed
by the discharge, and whilst the next band of reinforcements came
scrambling up over the bodies, I sent my nine remaining men away at a
run up the steep stairway of the path, and then followed them myself.
Each of the gates in turn we passed, shutting them after us, and
breaking the bars and levers with which they were moved, and not till
we were through the last did the roar of shouts from below tell that the
besiegers had found the gate they bit against was deserted.

One by one we balanced our way across the narrow ledge which was left
where the path had been destroyed, and one poor Priest that carried a
wound grew giddy, and lost his balance here, and toppled down to his
death in the abyss below before a hand could be stretched out to steady
him. And then, when we were all over, heat was put to the rams, and they
expanded with their resistless force, and tore the remaining ledges from
their hold in the rock. I think a pang went through us all then when
we saw for ourselves the last connecting link cut away from between the
poor remaining handful of our Sacred Clan on the Mountain, and the rest
of our great nation, who had grown so bitterly estranged to us, below.

But here at any rate was a break in the fighting. There were no further
preparations we could make for our defence, and high though I knew
Phorenice's genius to be, I did not see how she could very well do other
than accept the check and retire. So I set a guard on the ramparts of
the uppermost gate to watch all possible movements, and gave the word to
the others to go and find the rest which so much they needed.

For myself, dutifully I tried to find Zaemon first, going on the errand
my proper self, for there was little enough of kingly state observed on
the Sacred Mountain, although the name and title had been given me.
But Zaemon was not to be come at. He was engaged inside the Ark of the
Mysteries with another of the Three, and being myself only one of the
Seven, I had not rank enough in the priesthood to break in upon their
workings. And so I was free to turn where my likings would have led me
first, and that was to the house which sheltered Nais.

She waked as I came in over the threshold, and her eyes filled with a
welcome for me. I went across and knelt where she lay, putting my
face on the pillow beside her. She was full of tender talk and sweet
endearments. Gods! What an infinity of delight I had missed by not
knowing my Nais earlier! But she had a will of her own through it all,
and some quaint conceits which made her all the more adorable. She
rallied me on the new cleanness of my chin, and on the robe which I had
taken as a covering. She professed a pretty awe for my kingship, and
vowed that had she known of my coming dignities she would never have
dared to discover a love for me. But about my marriage with Phorenice
she spoke with less lightness. She put out her thin white hand, and drew
my face to her lips.

"It is weak of me to have a jealousy," she murmured, "knowing how
completely my lord is mine alone; but I cannot help it. You have said
you were her husband for awhile. It gives me a pang to think that I
shall not be the first to lie in your arms, Deucalion."

"Then you may gaily throw your pang away," I whispered back. "I was
husband to Phorenice in mere word for how long I do not precisely know.
But in anything beyond, I was never her husband at all. She married
me by a form she prescribed herself, ignoring all the old rites and
ceremonies, and whether it would hold as legal or not, we need not
trouble to inquire. She herself has most nicely and completely annulled
that marriage as I have told you. Tatho is her husband now, and father
to her children, and he seems to have a fondness for her which does him
credit."

We said other things too in that chamber, those small repetitions
of endearments which are so precious to lovers, and so beyond the
comprehension of other folk, but they are not to be set down on these
sheets. They are a mere private matter which can have no concern to
any one beyond our two selves, and more weighty subjects are piling
themselves up in deep index for the historian.

Phorenice, it seemed, had more rage against the Priests' Clan on the
Mountain and more bright genius to help her to a vengeance than I had
credited. Her troops stormed easily the gates we had left to them, and
swarmed up till they stood where the pathway was broken down. In the
fierceness of their rush, the foremost were thrust over the brink by
those pressing up behind, before the advance could be halted, and these
went screaming to a horrid death in the great gulf below. But it was no
position here that a lavish spending of men could take, and presently
all were drawn off, save for some half-score who stood as outpost
sentries, and dodged out of arrow-shot behind angles of the rock.

It seems, too, that the Empress herself reconnoitered the place, using
due caution and quickness, and so got for herself a full plan of its
requirements without being obliged to trust the measuring of another
eye. With extraordinary nimbleness she must have planned an engine such
as was necessary to suit her purposes, and given orders for its making;
for even with the vast force and resources at her disposal, the speed
with which it was built was prodigious.

There was very little noise made to tell of what was afoot. All the
woodwork and metalwork was cut, and tongued, and forged, and fitted
first by skilled craftsmen below, in the plain at the foot of the cleft;
and when each ponderous balk and each crosspiece, and each plank was
dragged up the steep pass through the conquered gates, it was ready
instantly for fitting into its appointed place in the completed machine.

The cleft was straight where they set about their building, and there
was no curve or spur of the cliff to hide their handiwork from those of
the Priests who watched from the ramparts above our one remaining gate.
But Phorenice had a coyness lest her engine should be seen before it
was completed, and so to screen it she had a vast fire built at the
uppermost point where the causeway was broken off, and fed diligently
with wet sedge and green wood, so that a great smoke poured out, rising
like a curtain that shut out all view. And so though the Priests on the
rampart above the gate picked off now and again some of those who tended
the fire, they could do the besiegers no further injury, and remained up
to the last quite in ignorance of their tactics.

The passage up the cleft was in shadow during the night hours, for,
though all the crest of the Sacred Mountain was always lit brightly by
the eternal fires which made its defence on the farther side, their glow
threw no gleam down that flank where the cliff ran sheer to the plains
beneath. And so it was under cover of the darkness that Phorenice
brought up her engine into position for attack.

Planking had been laid down for its wheels, and the wheels themselves
well greased, and it may be that she hoped to march in upon us whilst
all slept. But there was a certain creaking and groaning of timbers,
and laboured panting of men, which gave advertisement that something was
being attempted, and the alarm was spread quietly in the hope that if a
surprise had been planned, the real surprise might be turned the other
way.

A messenger came to me running, where I sat in the house at the side of
my love, and she, like the soldier's wife she was made to be, kissed me
and bade me go quickly and care for my honour, and bring back my wounds
for her to mend.

On the rampart above the gate all was silence, save for the faint rustle
of armed men, and out of the black darkness ahead, and from the other
side of the broken causeway, came the sounds of which the messenger bad
warned me.

The captain of the gate came to me and whispered: "We have made no light
till the King came, not knowing the King's will in the matter. Is it
wished I send some of the throwing-fire down yonder, on the chance that
it does some harm, and at the same time lights up the place? Or is it
willed that we wait for their surprise?"

"Send the fire," I said, "or we may find that Phorenice's brain has been
one too many for us."

The captain of the gate took one of the balls in his hand, lit the fuse,
and hurled it. The horrid thing burst amongst a mass of men who were
labouring with a huge engine, sputtering them with its deadly fire, and
lighting their garments. The plan of the engine showed itself plainly.
They had built them a vast great tower, resting on wheels at its base,
so that it might by pushed forward from behind, and slanting at its foot
to allow for the steepness of the path and leave it always upright.

It was storeyed inside, with ladders joining each floor, and through
slits in the side which faced us bowmen could cover an attack. From its
top a great bridge reared high above it, being carried vertically till
the tower was brought near enough for its use. The bridge was hinged at
the third storey of the tower, and fastened with ropes to its extreme
top; but, once the ropes were cut, the bridge would fall, and light upon
whatever came within its swing, and be held there by the spikes with
which it was studded beneath.

I saw, and inwardly felt myself conquered. The cleverness of Phorenice
had been too strong for my defence. No war-engine of which we had
command could overset the tower. The whole of its massive timbers
were hung with the wet new-stripped skins of beasts, so that even the
throwing-fire could not destroy it. What puny means we had to impede
those who pushed it forward would have little effect. Presently it would
come to the place appointed, and the ropes would be cut, and the bridge
would thunder down on the rampart above our last gate, and the stormers
would pour out to their final success.

Well, life had loomed very pleasant for me these few days with a warm
and loving Nais once more in touch of my arms, but the High Gods in
Their infinite wisdom knew best always, and I was no rebel to stay
stiff-necked against their decision. But it is ever a soldier's
privilege, come what may, to warm over a fight, and the most exquisitely
fierce joy of all is that final fight of a man who knows that he must
die, and who lusts only to make his bed of slain high enough to carry a
due memory of his powers with those who afterwards come to gaze upon it.
I gripped my axe, and the muscles of my arms stood out in knots at the
thought of it. Would Tatho come to give me sport? I feared not. They
would send only the common soldiers first to the storm, and I must be
content to do my killing on those.

And Nais, what of her? I had a quiet mind there. When any spoilers came
to the house where she lay, she would know that Deucalion had been taken
up to the Gods, and she would not be long in following him. She had her
dagger. No, I had no fears of being parted long from Nais now.




19. DESTRUCTION OF ATLANTIS


A tottering old Priest came up and touched me on the shoulder.

"Well?" I said sharply, having small taste for interruption just now.

"News has been carried to the Three, my King, of what is threatened."

"Then they will know that I stand here now, brother, to enjoy the finest
fight of my life. When it is finished I shall go to the Gods, and be
there standing behind the stars to welcome them when presently they also
arrive. They have my regrets that they are too old and too feeble to die
and look upon a fine killing themselves."

"I have commands from them, my King, to lay upon you, which I fear you
will like but slenderly. You are forbidden to find your death here in
the fighting. They have a further use for you yet."

I turned on the old man angrily enough. "I shall take no such order,
my brother. I am not going to believe it was ever given. You must have
misunderstood. If I am a man, if I am a Priest, if I am a soldier, if
I am a King, then it stands to my honour that no enemy should pass this
gate whilst yet I live. And you may go back and throw that message at
their teeth."

The old man smiled enviously. He, too, had been a keen soldier in his
day. "I told them you would not easily believe such a message, and asked
them for a sign, and they bore with me, and gave me one. I was to give
you this jewel, my King."

"How came they by that? It is a bracelet from the elbow of Nais."

"They must have stripped her of it. I did not know it came from Nais.
The word I was to bring you said that the owner of the jewel was inside
the Ark of the Mysteries, and waited you there. The use which the Three
have for you further concerns her also."

Even when I heard that, I will freely confess that my obedience was
sorely tried, and I have the less shame in setting it down on these
sheets, because I know that all true soldiers will feel a sympathy for
my plight. Indeed, the promise of the battle was very tempting. But in
the end my love for Nais prevailed, and I gave the salutation that was
needful in token that I heard the order and obeyed it.

To the knot of Priests who were left for the defence, I turned and made
my farewells. "You will have what I shall miss, my brothers," I said. "I
envy you that fight. But, though I am King of Atlantis, still I am only
one of the Seven, and so am the servant of the Three and must obey their
order. They speak in words the will of the most High Gods, and we must
do as they command. You will stand behind the stars before I come, and
I ask of you that you will commend me to Those you meet there. It is not
my own will that I shall not appear there by your side."

They heard my words with smiles, and very courteously saluted me with
their weapons, and there we parted. I did not see the fight, but I know
it was good, from the time which passed before Phorenice's hordes broke
out on to the crest of the Mountain. They died hard, that last remnant
of the lesser Priests of Atlantis.

With a sour enough feeling I went up to the head of the pass, and then
through the groves, and between the temples and colleges and houses
which stood on the upper slopes of the Sacred Mountain, till I reached
that boundary, beyond which in milder days it was death for any but the
privileged few to pass. But the time, it appeared to me, was past for
conventions, and, moreover, my own temper was hot; and it is likely
that I should have strode on with little scruple if I had not been
interrupted. But in the temple which marked the boundary, there was old
Zaemon waiting; and he, with due solemnity of words, and with the whole
of some ancient ritual ordained for that purpose, sought dispensation
from the High Gods for my trespass, and would not give me way till he
was through with his ceremony.

Already Phorenice's tower and bridge were in position, for the clash and
yelling of a fight told that the small handful of Priests on the rampart
of the last gate were bartering their lives for the highest return in
dead that they could earn. They were trained fighting men all, but old
and feeble, and the odds against them were too enormous to be stemmed
for over long. In a very short time the place would be put to the storm,
and the roof of the Sacred Mountain would be at the open mercy of the
invader. If there was any further thing to be done, it was well that it
should be set about quickly whilst peace remained. It seemed to me
that the moment for prompt action, and the time for lengthy pompous
ceremonial was done for good.

But Zaemon was minded otherwise. He led me up to the Ark of the
Mysteries, and chided my impatience, and waited till I had given it my
reverential kiss, and then he called aloud, and another old man came
out of the opening which is in the top of the Ark, and climbed painfully
down by the battens which are fixed on its sides. He was a man I had
never seen before, hoary, frail, and emaciated, and he and Zaemon were
then the only two remaining Priests who had been raised to the highest
degree known to our Clan, and who alone had knowledge of the highest
secrets and powers and mysteries.

"Look!" cried Zaemon, in his shrill old voice, and swept a trembling
finger over the shattered city, and the great spread of sea and country
which lay in view of us below. I followed his pointing and looked, and a
chill began to crawl through me. All was plainly shown. Our Lord the Sun
burned high overhead in a sky of cloudless blue, and day shimmered in
His heat. All below seemed from that distance peaceful and warm and
still, save only that the mountains smoked more than ordinary, and some
spouted fires, and that the sea boiled with some strange disorder.

But it was the significance of the sea that troubled me most. Far out on
the distant coast it surged against the rocks in enormous rolls of surf;
and up the great estuary, at the head of which the city of Atlantis
stands, it gushed in successive waves of enormous height which never
returned. Already the lower lands on either side were blotted out
beneath tumultuous waters, the harbour walls were drowned out of sight,
and the flood was creeping up into the lower wards of the great city
itself.

"You have seen?" asked Zaemon.

"I have seen."

"You understand?"

"In part."

"Then let me tell you all. This is the beginning, and the end will
follow swiftly. The most High Gods, that sit behind the stars, have a
limit to even Their sublime patience; and that has been passed. The city
of Atlantis, the great continent that is beyond, and all that are in
them are doomed to unutterable destruction. Of old it was foreseen that
this great wiping-out would happen through the sins of men, and to this
end the Ark of the Mysteries was built under the direction of the Gods.
No mortal implements can so much as scratch its surface, no waves or
rocks wreck it. Inside is stored on sheets of the ancient writing all
that is known in the world of learning that is not shared by the
common people, also there is grain in a store, and sweet water in tanks
sufficient for two persons for the space of four years, together with
seeds, weapons, and all such other matters as were deemed fit.

"Out of all this vast country it has been decreed by the High Gods that
two shall not perish. Two shall be chosen, a man and a woman, who are
fit and proper persons to carry away with them the ancient learning to
dispose of it as they see best, and afterwards to rear up a race who
shall in time build another kingdom and do honour to our Lord the
Sun and the other Gods in another place. The woman is within the Ark
already, and seated in the place appointed for her, and though she is a
daughter of mine, the burden of her choosing is with you. For the man,
the choice has fallen upon yourself."

I was half numb with the shock of what was befalling. "I do not know
that I care to be a survivor."

"You are not asked for your wishes," said the old man. "You are given an
order from the High Gods, who know you to be Their faithful servant."

Habit rode strong upon me. I made salutation in the required form, and
said that I heard and would obey.

"Then it remains to raise you to the sublime degree of the Three, and if
your learning is so small that you will not understand the keys to many
of the Powers, and the highest of the Mysteries, when they are handed to
you, that fault cannot be remedied now."

Certainly the time remaining was short enough. The fight still raged
down at the gate in the pass, though it was a wonder how the handful of
Priests had held their ground so long. But the ocean rolled in upon the
land in an ever-increasing flood, and the mountains smoked and belched
forth more volleys of rock as the weight increased on their lower parts,
and presently those that besieged the Mountain could not fail to see
the fate that threatened them. Then there would be no withholding their
rush. In their mad fury and panic they would sweep all obstruction
resistlessly before them, and those who stood in their path might look
to themselves.

But there was no hurrying Zaemon and his fellow sage. They were without
temple for the ceremony, without sacrifice or incense to decorate it.
They had but the sky for a roof to make their echoes, and the Gods
themselves for witnesses. But they went through the work of raising
me to their own degree, with all the grand and majestic form which has
gathered dignity from the ages, and by no one sentence did they curtail
it. A burning mountain burst with a bellowing roar as the incoming
waters met its fires, but gravely they went on, in turn reciting their
sentences. Phorenice's troops broke down the last resistance, and poured
in a frenzied stream amongst the groves and temples, but still they
quavered never in the ritual.

It had been said that this ceremony is the grandest and the most
impressive of all those connected with our holy religion; and certainly
I found it so; and I speak as one intimate with all the others. Even the
tremendous circumstances which hemmed them in could do nothing to make
these frail old men forget the deference which was due to the highest
order of the Clan.

For myself, I will freely own I was less rapt. I stood there bareheaded
in the heat, a man trying to concentrate himself, and yet torn the while
by a thousand foreign emotions. The awful thing that was happening all
around compelled some of my attention. A continent was in the very act
and article of meeting with complete destruction, and if Zaemon and
the other Priest were strong enough to give their minds wholly up to a
matter parochial to the priesthood, I was not so stoical. And moreover,
I was filled with other anxieties and thoughts concerning Nais. Yet I
managed to preserve a decent show of attention to the ceremony; making
all those responses which were required of me; and trying as well as
might be to preserve in my mind those sentences which were the keys to
power and learning, and not mere phrasings of grandeur and devotion.

But it became clear that if the ceremony of my raising did not soon
arrive at its natural end, it would be cut short presently with
something of suddenness. Phorenice's conquering legions swarmed out
on to the crest of the Mountain, and now carried full knowledge of the
dreadful thing that was come upon the country. They were out of all
control, and ran about like men distracted; but knowing full well that
the Priests would have brought this terrible wreck to pass by virtue of
the powers which were stored within the Ark of the Mysteries, it would
be their natural impulse to pour out a final vengeance upon any of these
same Priests they could come across before it was too late.

It began to come to my mind that if the ceremony did not very shortly
terminate, the further part of the plan would stand very small chance
of completion, and I should come by my death after all by fighting to a
finish, as I had pictured to myself before. My flickering attention saw
the soldiers coming always nearer in their frantic wanderings, and saw
also the sea below rolling deeper and deeper in upon the land.

The fires, too, which ringed in half the mountain, spurted up to
double their old height, and burned with an unceasing roar. But for all
distraction these things gave to the two old Priests who were raising
me, we might have been in the quietness of some ancient temple, with no
so much as a fly to buzz an interruption.

But at last an end came to the ceremony. "Kneel," cried Zaemon, "and
make obeisance to your mother the Earth, and swear by the High Gods that
you will never make improper use of the powers over Her which this day
you have been granted."

When I had done that, he bade me rise as a fully installed and duly
initiated member of the Three. "You will have no opportunity to practise
the workings of this degree with either of us, my brother," said he,
"for presently our other brother and I go to stand before the Gods to
deliver to Them an account of our trust, and of how we have carried it
out. But what items you remember here and there may turn of use to you
hereafter. And now we two give you our farewells, and promise to commend
you highly to the Gods when soon we meet Them in Their place behind
the stars. Climb now into the Ark, and be ready to shut the door which
guards it, if there is any attempt by these raging people to invade that
also. Remember, my brother, it is the Gods' direct will that you and the
woman Nais go from this place living and sound, and you are expressly
forbidden to accept challenge or provocation to fight on any pretext
whatever. But as long as may be done in safety, you may look out upon
Atlantis in her death-throes. It is very fitting that one of the only
two who are sent hence alive, should carry the full tale of what has
befallen."

I went to the top of the Ark of Mysteries then, climbing there by the
battens which are fastened to the sides, and then descended by the stair
which is inside and found Nais in a little chamber waiting for me.

"I was bidden stay here by Zaemon," she said, "who forced me to this
place by threats and also by promises that my lord would follow. He is
very ungentle, that father of mine, but I think he has a kindness for us
both, and any way he is my father and I cannot help loving him. Is there
no chance to save him from what is going to happen?"

"He will not come into this Ark, for I asked him. It has been ordained
from the ancient time when first the Ark was built, that when the day
for its purpose came, one woman and one man should be its only tenants,
and they are here already. Zaemon's will in the matter is not to be
twisted by you or by me. He has a message to be delivered to the Gods,
and (if I know him at all), he grudges every minute that is lost in
carrying it to them."

I left her then, and went out again up the stair, and stood once more on
the roof of the Ark. On the Mountain top men still ran about distracted,
but gradually they were coming to where the Ark rested on the highest
point. For the moment, however, I passed them lightly. The drowning of
the great continent that had been spread out below filled the eye. Ocean
roared in upon it with still more furious waves. The plains and the
level lands were foaming lakes. The great city of Atlantis had vanished
eternally. The mountains alone kept their heads above the flood, and
spewed out rocks, and steam, and boiling stone, or burst when the waters
reached them and created great whirlpools of surging sea, and twisted
trees, and bubbling mud.

In the space of a few breaths every living creature that dwelt in the
lower grounds had been smothered by the waters, save for a few who
huddled in a pair of galleys that were driven oarless inland, over what
had once been black forest and hunting land for the beasts. And even as
I watched, these also were swallowed up by the horrid turmoil of sea,
and nothing but the sea beasts, and those of the greater lizards which
can live in such outrageous waters, could have survived even that
state of the destruction. Indeed, none but those men who had now found
standing-ground on the upper slopes of the Sacred Mountain survived,
and it was plain that their span was short, for the great mass of the
continent sank deeper and more deep every minute before our aching eyes,
beneath the boiling inrush of the seas.

But though the great mass of the soldiery were dazed and maddened at the
prospect of the overwhelming which threatened them, there were some with
a strength of mind too valiant to give any outward show of discomposure.
Presently a compact little body of people came from out the houses and
the temples, and headed directly across the open ground towards the Ark.
On the outside marched Phorenice's personal guards with their weapons
new blooded. They had been forced to fight a way through their own
fellow soldiers. The poor demented creatures had thought it was every
one for himself now, till these guards (by their mistress's order)
proved to them that Phorenice still came first.

And in the middle of them, borne in a litter of gold and ivory by her
grotesque European slaves, rode the Empress, still calm, still lovely,
and seemingly divided in her sentiments between contempt and amusement.
Her two children lay in the litter at her feet. On her right hand
marched Tatho gorgeously apparelled, and with a beard curled and plaited
into a thousand ringlets. On the other side, plying her industry with
unruffled defence, walked Ylga, once again fan-girl, and so still second
lady in this dwindling kingdom.

The party of them halted half a score of paces from the Ark by
Phorenice's order. "Do not go nearer to those unclean old men. They
carry a rank odour with them, and for the moment we are short of
essences to sweeten the air of their neighbourhood." She lifted her
eyebrows and looked up at me. "Truly a quiet little gathering of old
acquaintances. Why, there is Deucalion, that once I took the flavour of
and threw aside when he cloyed me."

"I have Nais here," I said, "and presently we two will be all that are
left alive of this nation."

"Nais is quite welcome to my leavings," she laughed. "I will look down
upon your country cooings when presently I go back to the Place behind
the stars from which I came. You are a very rustic person, Deucalion.
They tell me too that three or four of these smelling old men up
here have named you King. Did you swell much with dignity? Or did
you remember that there was a pretty Empress left that would still be
Empress so long as there was an Atlantis to govern? Come, sir, find your
tongue. By my face! you must have hungered for me very madly these years
we have been parted, if new-grown ruggedness of feature is an evidence."

"Have your gibe. I do not gibe back at a woman who presently will die."

"Bah! Deucalion, you will live behind the times. Have they not told you
that I know the Great Secret and am indeed a Goddess now? My arts can
make life run on eternally."

"Then the waters will presently test them hard," I said, but there the
talk was taken into other lips. Zaemon went forward to the front of
the litter with the Symbol of our Lord the Sun glowing in his hand, and
burst into a flow of cursing. It was hard for me to hear his words. The
roar of the waters which poured up over the land, and beat in vast waves
against the Sacred Mountain itself, grew nearer and more loud. But the
old man had his say.

Phorenice gave orders to her guards for his killing; yes, tried even to
rise from the litter and do the work herself; but Zaemon held the Symbol
to his front, and its power in that supreme moment mastered all the arts
that could be brought against it. The majesty of the most High Gods
was vindicated, and that splendid Empress knew it and lay back sullenly
amongst the cushions of her litter, a beaten woman.

Only one person in that rigid knot of people found power to leave the
rest, and that was Ylga. She came out to the side of the Ark, and leaned
up, and cried me a farewell through the gathering roar of the flood.

"I would I might save you and take you with us," I said.

"As for that," she said, with a gesture, "I would not come if you asked
me. I am not a woman that will take anything less than all. But I shall
meet what comes presently with the memory that you will have me always
somewhere in your recollection. I know somewhat of men, even men of your
stamp, Deucalion, and you will never forget that you came very near to
loving me once."

I think, too, she said something further, concerning Nais, but the
bellowing rush of the waters drowned all other words. A great mist made
from the stream sent up by the swamped burning mountains stopped all
accurate view, though the blaze from the fires lit it like gold. But
I had a last sight of a horde of soldiery rushing up the slopes of the
Mountain, with a scum of surge billowing at their heels, and licking
many of them back in its clutch. And then my eye fell on old Zaemon
waving to me with the Symbol to shut down the door in the roof of the
Ark.

I obeyed his last command, and went down the stair, and closed all
ingress behind me. There were bolts placed ready, and I shot these into
their sockets, and there were Nais and I alone, and cut off from all the
rest of our world that remained.

I went to the place where she lay, and put my arms tightly around her.
Without, we heard men beating desperately on the Ark with their weapons,
and some even climbed by the battens to the top and wrenched to try and
move the door from its fastenings. The end was coming very nearly to
them now, and the great crowd of them were mad with terror.

I would have given much to have known how Phorenice fared in that final
tumult, and how she faced it. I could see her, with her lovely face, and
her wondrous eyes, and her ruddy hair curling about her neck, and by
all the Gods! I thought more of her at that last moment than of the
poor land she had conquered, and misgoverned, and brought to this horrid
destruction. There is no denying the fascination which Phorenice carried
with her.

But the end did not dally long with its coming. There was a little surge
that lifted the Ark a hand's breadth or so in its cradle, and set it
back again with a jar and a quiver. The blows from axes and weapons
ceased on its lower part, but redoubled into frenzied batterings on its
rounded roof. There were some screams and cries also which came to
us but dully through the thickness of its ponderous sheathing, though
likely enough they were sent forth at the full pitch of human lungs
outside. And when another surge came, roaring and thundering, which
picked up the great vessel as though it had been a feather, and spun it
giddily; and after that we touched earth or rock no more.

We tossed about on the crest and troughs of delirious seas, a sport for
the greedy Gods of the ocean. The lamp had fallen, and we crouched there
in darkness, dully weighed with the burden of knowledge that we alone
were saved out of what was yesterday a mighty nation.




20. ON THE BOSOM OF THE DEEP


The Ark was rudderless, oarless, and machineless, and could travel only
where the High Gods chose. The inside was dark, and full of an ancient
smell, and crowded with groanings and noise. I could not find the
fire-box to relight the fallen lamp, and so we had to endure blindly
what was dealt out to us. The waves tossed us in merciless sport, and I
clung on by the side of Nais, holding her to the bed. We did not speak
much, but there was full companionship in our bereavement and our
silence.

When Atlantis sank to form new ocean bed, she left great whirlpools and
spoutings from her drowned fires as a fleeting legacy to the Gods of the
Sea. And then, I think (though in the black belly of the Ark we could
not see these things), a vast hurricane of wind must have come on next
so as to leave no piece of the desolation incomplete. For seven nights
and seven days did this dreadful turmoil continue, as counted for us
afterwards by the reckoner of hours which hung within the Ark, and then
the howling of the wind departed, and only the roll of a long still
swell remained. It was regular and it was oily, as I could tell by the
difference of the motion, and then for the first time I dared to go up
the stair, and open the door which stood in the roof of the Ark.

The sweet air came gushing down to freshen the foulness within, and as
the Ark rode dryly over the seas, I went below and brought up Nais to
gain refreshment from the curing rays of our Lord the Sun. Duly the pair
of us adored Him, and gave thanks for His great mercy in coming to light
another day, and then we laid ourselves down where we were to doze, and
take that easy rest which we so urgently needed.

Yet, though I was tired beyond words, for long enough sleep would not
visit me. Wearily I stared out over the oily sunlit waters. No blur
of land met the eye. The ring of ocean was unbroken on every side, and
overhead the vault of heaven remained unchanged. The bosom of the deep
was littered with the poor wreckage of Atlantis, to remind one, if there
had been a need, that what had come about was fact, and not some horrid
dream. Trees, squared timber, a smashed and upturned boat of hides, and
here and there the rounded corpse of a man or beast shouldered over the
swells, and kept convoy with our Ark as she drifted on in charge of the
Gods and the current.

But sleep came to me at last, and I dropped off into unconsciousness,
holding the hand of Nais in mine, and when next I woke, I found her
open-eyed also and watching me tenderly. We were finely rested, both of
us, and rest and strength bring one complacency. We were more ready
now to accept the station which the High Gods had made for us without
repining, and so we went below again into the belly of the Ark to eat
and drink and maintain strength for the new life which lay before us.

A wonderful vessel was this Ark, now we were able to see it at leisure
and intimately. Although for the first time now in all its centuries
of life it swam upon the waters, it showed no leak or suncrack. Inside,
even its floor was bone dry. That it was built from some wood, one could
see by the grainings, but nowhere could one find suture or joint. The
living timbers had been put in place and then grown together by an
art which we have lost to-day, but which the Ancients knew with much
perfection; and afterwards some treatment, which is also a secret
of those forgotten builders, had made the wood as hard as metal and
impervious to all attacks of the weather.

In the gloomy cave of its belly were stored many matters. At one end, in
great tanks on either side of central alley, was a prodigious store of
grain. Sweet water was in other tanks at the other end. In another place
were drugs and samples, and essences of the life of beasts; all these
things being for use whilst the Ark roamed under the guidance of the
Gods on the bosom of the deep. On all the walls of the Ark, and on all
the partitions of the tanks and the other woodwork, there were carved
in the rude art of bygone time representations of all the beasts which
lived in Atlantis; and on these I looked with a hunter's interest, as
some of them were strange to me, and had died out with the men who had
perpetuated them in these sculptures. There was a good store of weapons
too and the tools for handicrafts.

Now, for many weeks, our life endured in this Ark as the Gods drove it
about here and there across the face of the waters. We had no government
over direction; we could not by so much as a hair's breadth a day
increase her speed. The High Gods that had chosen the two of us to be
the only ones saved out of all Atlantis, had sole control of our fate,
and into Their hands we cheerfully resigned our future direction.

Of that land which we reached in due time, and where we made our abiding
place, and where our children were born, I shall tell of in its place;
but since this chronicle has proceeded so far in an exact order of the
events as they came to pass, it is necessary first to narrate how we
came by the sheets on which it is written.

In a great coffer, in the centre of the Ark's floor, the whole of the
Mysteries learned during the study of ages were set down in accurate
writing. I read through some of them during the days which passed, and
the awfulness of the Powers over which they gave control appalled me. I
had seen some of these Powers set loose in Atlantis, and was a witness
of her destruction. But here were Powers far higher than those; here was
the great Secret of Life and Death which Phorenice also had found, and
for which she had been destroyed; and there were other things also of
which I cannot even bring my stylo to scribe.

The thought of being custodian of these writings was more than I could
endure, and the more the matter rested in my mind, the more intolerable
became the burden. And at last I took hot irons, and with them seared
the wax on the sheets till every letter of the old writings was
obliterated. If I did wrong, the High Gods in Their infinite justice
will give me punishment; if it is well that these great secrets should
endure on earth, They in their infinite power will dictate them afresh
to some fitting scribes; but I destroyed them there as the Ark swayed
with us over the waves; and later, when we came to land, I rewrote upon
the sheets the matters which led to great Atlantis being dragged to her
death-throes.

Nais, that I love so tenderly--

[TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: The remaining sheets are too broken to be legible.]





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