Dennis Wheatley - They Found Atlantis

'I've no idea. You'd better ask Camilla.'

'Not very helpful are you?*

'Well, I don't think there is any immediate danger of her becoming Princess Renescu.'

'Good. Well the Count's out of it anyway. He's far too old. Now about me? What do you think of my chances?'

'Honestly I can't say Nicky. She likes you a lot I'm sure and last night she was talking to me in her cabin about your idea of making her a film star. She seemed terribly intrigued by that but-'

'Did she,' he interrupted joyfully. 'That's fine! Now look here Sally this is where you come in. She thinks a lot of you. Just back me all you know and I'll see you right. Tell her I'm the Katz pyjamas and do everything you can to sheer her off that rotten Prince. Then, the day she marries me I'll give you a cheque that will make you independent of her for life—get me?

Sally got him so thoroughly that for a second her mouth hung open with sheer amazement at his audacity in trying to bribe her, but she shut it slowly and murmured: 'Yes— I get you Nicky.'

'Well—is it a deal?'

'I don't quite know,' Sally hedged. 'Do you really love her?'

'Sure,' Nicky declared airily, 'I love her lots and I'm not after her cash like those other two. I make the sort of big money that most folks would be mighty glad to have.'

'Even then I hardly like to influence her judgment, besides —after all—I might get married myself and then I wouldn't need the cheque—would I?'

'Oh nuts. It's always good for a girl to have her own income. She can tell her old man where he gets off if he starts any rough stuff then. And who could you marry anyway unless—' He paused suddenly.

'Unless what?'

'Unless you've got your eye on that old Naval bird. He's not interested in Camilla—but you're always cooped up in some corner with him.' Nicky swung round to face her with a jerk. 'By Jabez! Sure enough that's why he was brought along on this fool trip.'

Sally flushed scarlet but she kept her grey eyes steady as she shrugged. 'What nonsense! Nicky you do get the most absurd ideas. The McKay is old enough to be my father— almost. Besides he's an arrant coward and I've no time for men who're as spineless as all that.'

'Coward my foot! You can't put that over on me.' Nicky grinned. 'Everyone knows he's a V.C. and that's the highest buttonhole they dish out for glory in the British Isles.'

'How do you know that?' Sally asked with veiled curiosity.

'A fellar back in the hotel told me before we started out. He won it at Zeebrugge or Jutland or some place where they cut each other's throats when I was in my pram. For jumping on a dock I think it was and shooting down ten Germans while his pals fixed a ladder from their ship. Murderous old devil, the thought of all those fools slaughtering each other makes me feel absolutely sick.'

'Yes Nicky I suppose it does,' murmured Sally thoughtfully.

'Now what about our little arrangement eh? If you've got 81

afancy for old square face that makes no difference to our deal, so can I consider it all fixed?'

'I'll think about it Nicky,' she replied standing up. 'For the moment I'm just remaining neutral if you -don't mind. I've got some letters to write now so I'm going below.'

'You won't say a word about this eh?' he asked anxiously.

'No,' she shook her head, 'I'm good at keeping secrets; and I'll let you know later if I feel I need that cheque.'

Sally's letters were of no immediate importance and she was much more anxious to have a few words with the McKay. When she found him however he was deep in a discussion with Count Axel about New Zealand, for both had visited the country and they discovered that they had mutual friends living there.

The moment being unpropitious Sally left them and it was not until after dinner, when the ship had dropped anchor off the little town of Horta, their base in the Azores, that she managed to get him on his own.

He was leaning on the rail placidly smoking a cigar as he watched the lights of the tiny port when Sally came up and said abruptly: 'I owe you an apology.'

'Oh that's all right m'dear,' he replied casually turning to smile over his shoulder at her. 'Children are always apt to be impetuous but aged people like myself get accustomed to making allowances for the error of their ways.'

'You're not aged—and I'm not a child,' she protested sullenly.

'Yes, you are m'dear—and a very pretty one.'

'You brute.' Sally felt her cheeks glow in the darkness. 'You would choose a moment like this to say things like that—wouldn't you? But I had no idea you were a V.C.'

'Oh that! Who's been telling tales out of school, eh?'

'Nicky—he heard it from a man in the hotel. He says you did terribly brave things at Zeebrugge. Won't you tell me about it?'

He wrinkled up his nose in faint mockery and began to sing in his deep bass voice:

'What shall we do with a drunken sailor?

What shall we do with a drunken sailor?

Hoist him up with a running bowline

Early in the morn-ing.

Hi! Hi! up she rises Hi! Hi! up she rises Hi! Hi! up—she—rises Early in the morn-ing.'

'No seriously,' Sally said in wheedling voice, 'do teii me?'

'There isn't much to tell. It was a dark and stormy night and the Captain said to the First Mate, "Mate, tell us a story Mate' and the Mate began as follows: "It was a dark and stormy night and the Captain said to the First Mate, 'Mate tell us a-'

'You idiot!' Sally interrupted. 'Please. I've never met a V.C. before. What did you do?'

'I wasn't joking. It was just like all the other shows of its kind, thousands of which received no recognition at all. I happened to be first off my ship when we were alongside the Mole and created a bit of trouble for the Bosch; then I helped a few of our wounded back just before we sheered off again. My Captain happened to see me so he put in a report. I thought I might perhaps get a mention in despatches and I was "struck all of an 'eap dearie" when the Cross came through. Honestly there was no conspicuous bravery in what I did.'

'Of course there was,' Sally insisted. 'Leading the attack and saving wounded under fire. If that isn't bravery—what is, and I was fool enough to call you a coward this morning because you said that you wouldn't go down in the bathysphere.'

'You are probably right m'dear. If it were a matter of duty it would be different although I'd be scared stiff all the same, but nothing would induce me to go below in that death trap just for the fun of the thing.'

'But if you're a V.C. you must be brave so I can't understand why you should be frightened of a little trip under water.'

'Can't you? Have you had a look at the chart in the lounge by any chance?'

'No.'

'All right—come on then.' He took her arm and led her back to the brightly lighted deck house. A map of the Azores was pinned to the bulkhead and he pointed a square stubby finger at a dark spot on the southern side of Fayal Island—the town of Horta.

'That's where we are now, and the Doctor is being very secret about where we're going next, but I can give a pretty shrewd guess. If his theory is correct the whole group of islands are the mountain tops of the sunken continent. Now you remember what it said in that account of Plato's—that the whole region of Atlantis lay towards the south and was sheltered from the north. Further that its capital was on alow mountain no more than sixty miles from the sea. Pretty obviously that meant on one of the foothills of the range which formed the northern coast so the canal which connected it with the open ocean must have been either between the island of St. Maria in the extreme west and St. Miguel further north or between St. Miguel and the big island of Pico north east of us. The odds are anyhow that it lies somewhere about equidistant between ail three and the Doctor would have used Pico for his base if it hadn't been practically uninhabited as you can see from the fact that there are no towns marked on it.'