Dennis Wheatley - They Found Atlantis

Sally's heart missed a beat. He had never said anything quite so nice to her before. Their troubles faded almost magically out of her mind. The sunshine seemed brighter and life full of pleasant possibilities once more, but before she had a chance to reply he had somersaulted into the water, swum round the pool beneath its surface, and come up puffing like a grampus as he shook the water from his eyes and crisp sandy grey hair.

'Don't sit there like a broody hen you young idiot,' he admonished her. 'Get your clothes off and come in for a swim.

After all, why not, thought Sally. So she went down to her cabin and donned a backless bathing suit which displayed her figure to perfection, then joined him in the water.

Prince Vladimir cast a disapproving eye upon them now and again as he restlessly paced the deck near the pool. He was not a young man of great intelligence, perhaps, but the heart of a lion beat with splendid regularity under his great breast bone and he was utterly disgusted to find himself in the company of men who possessed so little courage. In Nicky he felt 'damp feet' as he called it, could be forgiven, for after all Nicky was a 'cad' and one did not expect bravery from such people; but that Count Axel should sit placidly smoking right up in the bows of the ship, whole skinned yet unashamed, and the English Captain disport himself with senseless laughter while they were all held prisoners, filled him with disgust and contempt for both of them.

Even when Doctor Tisch appeared to tell them that the bathysphere had been sent down for a trial descent the announcement only roused them from their despondency for a moment. In their extreme preoccupation with the knowledge that, unless they could devise some way to outwit their captors, they were all to be shipped off to a desert island on the borders of the southern iceberg zone, where they would suffer moftths of acute distress, if not death— from exposure—they had forgotten all about Atlantis. With the exception of the McKay they had not even noticed consciously that the ship had left its anchorage off Horta in the previous night and now lay in the open sea, with the land only showing as a distant smudge on the horizon.

Upon being reminded of the object which had brought them all on board their reaction was only an added fury that any enterprise so speculative should have lured them into this damnable trap, and they soon relapsed into their squirrel-like mental revolutions upon the now sickening subject of their uncertain future.

After his swim the McKay joined Count Axel up in the bows of the vessel. 'Well,' he enquired with a smile, 'did sleep bring you inspiration?'

The Count shrugged. 'No I confess myself at my wit's end. There are ways of course in which we could prevent Slinger leaving us in five days' time. Mussolini's for example which was used to prevent communist leaders from addressing public meetings when Italy very nearly went Red after the war—a pint of castor oil or its equivalent—that would lay him out for two or three days at least, but we couldn't put it into practice as long as he is accompanied by a couple of these gunmen each time he visits us. Have you had any ideas?'

'Not a ghost of one,' lied the McKay.

'Then it seems that we shall have to face a situation which I do not care to dwell upon. Think of these poor young women on the rock where we are to be left stranded. The hideous discomfort, the piercing cold of those southern regions. We may be there for a year before we are picked up by a passing vessel or can get away. I have few possessions but I would give them all to be assured that I am only dreaming of this colossal frame up.'

'Yes, we're in it up to the neck,' the McKay agreed bitterly. He had had no brilliant brainwave for their salvation, only a simple almost automatic idea, for one of his training, which might, as an outside chance lead to their rescue. Having little faith in it himself he did not even consider it worth mentioning and entirely shared the Count's extreme anxiety.

'The others don't know what they're in for yet,' he added thoughtfully, 'so best keep it from them till they have to face it for themselves. It would be no kindness to the women to cause them suffering in anticipation as to what we're likely to be up against this time next month; and I blamed myself afterwards for saying as much as I did when we had our conference yesterday. Unless we can detain Slinger I don't think there's the least chance of that will being set aside—do you? This bloke "Kate's" been a damn sight too clever for the lot of us.'

'Yes, he must have worked everything out to the last detail, and if we move against Slinger or these gunmen we would just be asking to be shot. The whole affair must have been planned months back, that's why I hinted that the Doctor was in it, yesterday. What do you make of him?'

'Oh, he's not a bad little cuss. Absolutely potty on this Atlantis business of course, but he's a genuine scientist all right. I looked up his record in the ship's library so I hardly think your theory about his being in with all these crooks can be right.'

Count Axel smiled lazily. 'It is just because he is so potty —a monomaniac almost, one might say—about what he terms his life work of the rediscovery of the lost continent that I believe him to be involved. Such expeditions as this are very costly you know and it is not easy to find anyone with sufficient money to finance them. Most capitalists who could afford to do so are hard-headed business men requiring a definite return for such an outlay. The uncertainty of actually securing gold from the venture would bar it out except in the case of a limited few. Farquason was such a one. A man of great vision who knew how to apply his dreams to modern commercial undertakings, and when he had made big money he was willing to apply that to the realisation of dreams which might bring no financial reward.

'Unfortunately he dreamed once too often. He will come back again of course, such men always do, but in the meantime he's had a nasty set-back and had to leave the Doctor in the lurch. Honestly I believe that Slinger or his Chief heard of the Doctor's project in Paris and j the plight in which Farquason had left him, then tempted him to bring this ship down to Madeira by a promise that if he kept his eyes and mouth shut they would enable him to continue with this work in which he is so passionately interested.'

'If you are right we should be well advised to exclude him from our councils.'

'Certainly. Except in the case of some plan which necessitates an open united attack I think it would be wise if we all kept our own counsel for the moment.' Count Axel also had a germ of a scheme already in his mind which was too vague for him to wish to share until he had had further time to deliberate upon it.

'However,' he added blandly, 'I believe the Doctor to be more sinned against than sinning. He could not possibly have suspected their intention of shipping us, and him, down to the Falklands. Consequently he is probably almost as much at his wit's end as we are now and would do anything he possibly could to help us. You see if my theory is right they've tricked him too and he would commit murder rather than be robbed of his great chance to rediscover Atlantis.'

'You really do believe in Atlantis then? Surely if the Doctor is in with Slinger's gang that adds enormously to the supposition that it's only a myth and that they've utilised the old story to bait in an exceedingly clever job.'

'No, my dear Captain. There you are wrong. That is just where these people have been so diabolically cunning. The Doctor is in dead earnest regarding his Atlantis theory so they made use of his fanatical conviction about it to induce Camilla and her friends to come on board this ship. Believe me, so certain am I that the Doctor is right, that if I had a million, and we had some unquestionable manner in which we could prove our bet, 1 would wager you nine-tenths of it that the land once trodden by living Atlanteans now lies beneath our feet.