Dennis Wheatley - They Found Atlantis

He shrugged again. 'They might, but the competition's something frightful and most of the big men have their own axe to grind when they're out picking stars. However—' He paused feeling that now was the time to bring up his heavy artillery and produce the scheme he had hatched up for his own benefit while holding out the bait of fame to dazzle her.

'However—what,' she prompted leaning forward.

'Well. There's no denying that big money has its uses now and then. In this case for instance—say you set your mind on becoming a star. What's to prevent you forming a company. I've made a useful packet and I'd put in all I've got. If we were married we could go to some quiet place for a six months honeymoon where it would be fun instead of work for me to teach you all I know—and I know plenty. Then we'd get Markowitz to tune you up before directing you in a real big picture where we'd play opposite each other. Camilla if you were really game to do your bit by this time next year you could make Garbo come off her silent stunt and scream with jealousy.'

For a moment Camilla sat spellbound fascinated by the supreme crown to a lovely talentless woman's ambition that Nicky was offering her. Then a gay voice broke in behind them.

'Have you any more so marvellous stories Nicky for the cocks and bulls?'

The bridge party having just broken up, Prince Vladimir had come silently across the deck and caught the drift of Nicky's last sentences.

Furious with indignation Nicky stumbled to his feet and confronted the Roumanian.

'You damned eavesdropper! Get to hell out of here!' he cried, his face dead white, his hands clenched but trembling.

Vladimir's teeth flashed in a contemptuous grin. 'Hold t.f.a.—c 65

your peace whippersnap,' he sneered, 'or with one fist I will lift you overboard.'

'You lousy wop!' screamed Nicky temporarily blinded to fear by his almost maniacal anger at having had his attempt to get control of Camilla's fortune exposed and ridiculed.

The Prince's eyes suddenly went blacker than the night, his smile became fixed and terrifying. He lifted one huge fist.

'Stop!' Camilla threw herself between them as the McKay seized Vladimir's arm from behind.

'How dare you,' she stormed at the Prince. 'How dare you start quarrelling in front of me.' Then she swung on Nicky. 'You've been abominably rude—you'd better apologise I think—both of you to each other.'

'All right, I'm sorry,' muttered Nicky sullenly.

The Prince shrugged. 'In deference to my hostess I express regret.'

Camilla turned to Count Axel, who was standing by, and almost instinctively took his arm. 'Why is it,' she asked sadly as he led her back to the lounge, 'that those two cannot remain civil to each other for five minutes?'

'Alas Madame,' Count Axel's tone was filled with pained regret, 'the Prince is still very young and unfortunately possesses a most unreliable temper coupled with very few brains; while Nicky has the misfortune to have been deprived during his youth of those social advantages which are, after all, the most important part of a gentleman's education.' Thus, in one sentence. Count Axel disposed of any headway which his rivals might have made during the day.

The following morning the weather was again bright and clear. The sea, if anything, was even smoother, and the rise and fall of the water in the canvas swimming pool barely reflected the slight pitch of the ship as she held steadily on her course.

Camilla had not quite forgiven Vladimir. She did not resent his interruption of her tete-a-tete the night before so much as his tactless assumption that the possibility of her outgarboing Garbo, if she put her mind to it, was a story for cocks and bulls. Nicky did not put in an appearance when the rest of the party assembled round the swimming pool at ten o'clock. He was still under the impression that the Prince had shown him up for the fortune hunter that he was and unaware that Camilla's vanity had been so tickled by his proposals that she had failed to see his obvious self-interest at the bottom of the scheme. As he remained, like Achilles, sulking in his tent, Camilla selected Count Axel for the target of her smiles.

Feeling that he had many days before him the Count did not seek to press his advantage in the least but slim, supple and enchanting in her sunbathing suit she came to sit beside him after they had had their swim.

'You are neglecting me shamefully Count,' she declared. 'I hardly saw you yesterday.'

'Madame that was my loss,' he inclined his scholarly head in a little bow, 'but we have all today before us. Let me see if I cannot win your good graces by suggesting a new entertainment for you.'

She liked the way he called her Madame. It lent her dignity that she was never quite sure that she possessed. Smiling at him as she dangled her long legs over the side of the pool she said: 'Now's your chance then Count. I'm all for new amusements.'

'You will give me your promise then to play this game with me?'

'Well,' she hesitated. 'If it's to be with you alone I think I'd like to know first what it is.'

Count Axel's blue eyes twinkled under their half-lowered lids. 'It's a game for three,' he reassured her. 'You, I, and one other.'

'All right then—fire away.'

'We will get the good Doctor to stop this ship and take us down for a trial trip in his bathysphere.'

Camilla paled a little. 'But—but do you think that would be quite safe?'

'Certainly. We shall send it down empty first to see that its windows and door resist the pressure of the water. If all is well there should be no danger after.'

'I think I'd be scared of doing that.'

'A little perhaps—but not too much,' he encouraged her. "After all you do not mean to miss the wonderful thrill of seeing the sunken city if we find it surely—so you must make your first dive sometime. Why not now?'

'But would there be anything worth seeing here in the open sea?'

The Count raised his mental eyes to heaven at the stupidity of the question but his placid smile remained unchanged. 'Why yes. All sorts of fish, octopus perhaps, and all the teeming life of the great ocean. No aquarium that you have ever visited could compare with such a sight. If you will come I promise that you shall not have one dull moment and will thank me ever after for being the first to introduce you to such marvels.'

It was an invitation which many men might have hesitated to accept, but Camilla was no coward and although her voice was a little breathless she nodded. 'All right let's.'

Doctor Tisch was furious when he was informed of her decision. His only thought now was to reach the Azores as quickly as possible in order that Slinger and his confederates could get through with whatever dubious business they meditated against Camilla and her party—and leave him free to proceed with his scientific investigation.

He protested in vain that the bathysphere had already been tested in European waters, that the dive was pointless, and that oxygen would be wasted to no purpose. Count Axel met his every objection and, since there was not the faintest indication of bad weather approaching, the Doctor was compelled to give in.

By eleven o'clock the whole party and a good portion of the crew had assembled aft. The ship was hove to facing the gentle swell. The tackles attached to the winches hauled the bathysphere to the extremity of its runners, the great crane rumbled into motion and took up the slack of the cable. Then, with no perceptible drop, the big sphere, already one third submerged, slid from its steel guides into the water.

At a signal from Captain Ardow the cables were paid out, the empty bathysphere sank from sight to a depth of fifty feet, then the great arm of the crane swung round until, further forward, the cable was brought almost to the ship's side.