Dennis Wheatley - They Found Atlantis

The two latter were now saying that, after all, the Doctor was a very clever man and, wild as theories might be, it was a darned shame not to give him a chance to try them out since Camilla could well afford it.

The McKay was generally regarded as an interfering fool, as it was in the nature of the man to confess that his scepticism the night before had been mainly responsible for the party falling through. He still stoutly maintained his complete disbelief in the whole fantastic story, but readily agreed to adopt a benevolent neutrality if the matter was reopened.

When they were summoned to the presence an hour later therefore, the Doctor had everybody's sympathy and backing. Even Sally's interest had been re-awakened, for she had just received an unexpected parcel from the town. It contained a table cloth and a dozen mats embroidered in the local Madeira work. A strange gift, to be sure, for a girl who always lived in hotels, but enclosed was a scribbled note from the McKay, 'Souvenir of some very pleasant hours you were kind enough to devote to an old man in Madeira.'

It must have cost him a lot she knew, probably more than he could really afford, and on thinking it over she saw that his choice of a gift was a subtle suggestion that she would soon be married, a pretty compliment. He evidently felt very contrite about the night before to go to such lengths to make his peace.

The Doctor gave a jerky little bow and addressed Camilla with a certain awkward dignity.

'Gncidige Herzogin. It was with great distress that I heard the reversal of your decision yesterday.'

Camilla smiled her golden smile. 'I'm sure I owe you an apology, Doctor, but things were fixed up in such a hurry. When it was pointed out to me last night that, after cancelling lots of engagements to which I've been looking forward, maybe we'd be weeks at sea without finding anything after all, I felt I'd rather not go, but I'm willing to hear anything you have to say.'

'Thank you. I hope to convince you that my proposition is no dream but a practical exploration which will bring results.' As the Doctor plumped himself down in an armchair the others settled themselves, then he began :

'The principal historical evidence for the one time existence of Atlantis is based on an account by Plato. He lived in Greece during the fourth century B.C. and received his

particulars via his compatriot Solon who had travelled to Egypt half a century earlier.

'While in Egypt, Solon visited the city of Sais which lies in the Delta. There he conversed with an Egyptian priest and recounted to him something of Greek beliefs and what we now term their mythology; upon which, to quote if you permit, the Egyptian replied:

' "Oh Solon, Solon, you Greeks are but children . . . in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, or science which is

hoary with age."

The priest then went on to say that the reason for this

was that there had been many partial destructions of mankind both by fire and Hood, which had wiped out whole races and their histories with them; leaving nothing to prove that they had ever existed except vague legends among the distant peoples who had escaped these calamities. He instanced the story of Phaeton who, unable to manage the steeds of his father's chariot, the Sun, was said to have burnt up all that was upon the earth, and explained that this Gieek myth was really a memory of distant time when a declination of the bodies moving round the earth and in the heavens had caused a great conflagration.'

'What's all that got to do with Atlantis though?' Nicky asked.

'Be patient please,' the Doctor reproved him gruffly. 'This Egyptian Priest then gave Solon an account of the last great natural occurrence which had decimated a large portion of the human race, the Atlanteans, nine thousand years before; and I shall now give you the salient facts which emerge from Plato's written version of the story which came to him from Solon.

'There was once an island situated in front of the Straits of Gibraltar. It was larger than Lybia and Asia Minor put together and was the way to other islands from which one could pass through the whole of the opposite continent surrounding the true ocean. By that he meant America of

course and he actually refers to the Mediterranean as being

no more than an inland sea.

'In this island there was a great and wonderful Empire, founded, so legend relates, by the god Poseidon—or Neptune if you prefer— who begat children by a mortal woman. The centre of the island was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of ail places and very fertile. Near the plain was a small mountain and this was enclosed with alternate zones of water and land equidistant every way and turned, as with a lathe, out of the centre of the land. This district the god gave to his eldest son named Atlas; and to his twin brother, Gadeirus, who was born after him he gave the extremity of the island nearest the Straits of Gibraltar, and to others of his children other regions were given.

'Atlas was made King over them all, giving his name to the whole island continent and the surrounding ocean; and the royal line descended from him direct for many generations. The wealth or these kings and their kingdom is stated to have been greater than that of any known before or since —that is, to Plato's time. The Atlanteans were great miners and dug out of the earth every kind of mineral including orichalcuin, of which there were large deposits, and this they considered more valuable than any other metal except gold. There were great forests which supplied them with all sorts of woods and sheltered many species of wild animals including elephants which furnished them with ivory. Flowers, cereals and fruits both wild and cultivated grew in great abundance and variety including one fruit which is spoken of as having a hard rind and providing drink, flesh and ointment.

'They employed themselves in building temples, palaces, and docks and bridged over the zones of water which surrounded the ancient metropolis; also they dug a canal three hundred feet in width and a hundred feet deep which they carried about six miles in order to link up the capital with the open sea, thus making the circular zones of water into a great inland harbour.

The central island upon which the Palaces and Temples stood was surrounded by a high stone wall with towers flanking its approach across the bridges, and the two zones of land also had stone walls protecting the whole length of their outer circuits. The stone which was used in the work was of three colours, white, black and red. It was quarried from underneath the outer as well as the inner sides of the land zones and they removed it in such a fashion as to hollow out covered docks having roofs formed out of the native rock. The wall which went round the outermost canal they covered with a coating of brass; the next wall they coated with tin, and the third which encompassed the citadel flashed with the red light of orichalcum.

'Within the citadel was the great temple of Poseidon and this was ornamented with increasing splendour by many generations until the whole of the outside, with the exception of the pinnacles, had been plated with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the interior of the temple the roof was of ivory adorned everywhere with precious metals, and the temple contained many solid golden statues, together with that of the god himself which was of such a size that it touched the roof of the building with its head. This huge statue of Poseidon represented him standing in a chariot drawn by six winged horses and surrounded by a hundred nereids riding on dolphins.

'Between the buildings of the capital there were pleasure gardens containing fountains of both hot and cold water supplied from underground springs; also cisterns, some open to the heavens and others roofed over which were used in winter as warm baths. In the grove of Poseidon, which appears to have been a very beautiful park, many rare trees flourished owing to the excellence of the soil. The surplus water was carried off by means of aqueducts passing over the bridges to the outer canal. There were many places set apart for exercise and in the centre of the larger land zone there was a race course a stadium in width which circled the whole island.