Dennis Wheatley - They Found Atlantis

'Really Captain!' Count Axel raised his eyebrows. 'Isn't that a little ungenerous. May one enquire in what way I, particularly, have incurred your displeasure?'

'Well—you encouraged them to go under in that blasted ball from the beginning—didn't you?'

'Yes, I did. I was anxious that none of my friends should miss such a remarkable experience. You would, I think, feel the same if you had been down yourself and knew the strange beauty which lies beneath our feet. I was wrong to persuade the others perhaps but it had not occurred to me that we might be caught so suddenly in a storm. Surely that was rather an exceptional occurrence and one usually has ample warning when bad weather is approaching?'

'True,' the McKay admitted a little reluctantly, 'you might do a full season's diving and not get caught again like that, but I've been scared of these descents from the first. Something else may happen. Say one of the windows was cracked against a jutting rock as you are lowered to the bottom. You'd all be dead in ten seconds.'

Count Axel smiled as he drained his whisky. 'Such a misfortune is most unlikely. Anyhow I shall not let today's unpleasant experience prevent me from going down again immediately the weather clears.'

"By the time that happens we may all be on our way to the Falklands,' said the McKay gloomily.

'True. For the moment I had forgotten our more serious trouble. I should be terribly distressed though if we are shanghaied before we can go down again, because I am certain now that we are about to succeed in proving the Atlantis theory.'

'You did find something on this last dive then?'

'Yes—not much. We were down for so little time. Our first landing was useless owing to the fact that the ship had drifted from its original position, but we tried moving aquarter of a mile to the east and found ourselves on the fringe of a group of enormous stones. They had been rounded by the centuries of friction from the currents on the ocean floor but they were quite unlike any natural formation. We only saw them for a moment and then we were pulled up. We asked the reason over the telephone and were told "Captain Ardow's orders". Having no knowledge of the approaching storm we were very annoyed, and puzzled. Then we got your message. The trouble began about half an hour afterwards and by the time we were up to five-hundred feet that infernal ball was being tossed about like a crazy thing. The telephonist was being violently ill already and one by one the others followed suit. Sally was the last to give way except for Vladimir and he, poor fellow, knocked himself out when the cable was slackened too suddenly and the sphere nearly turned turtle.'

'Well, I'm glad I was out of that party,' the McKay remarked grimly; 'but if you're right and you have actually found remains of the Atlantean city, I still don't see how the Doctor's going to prove it. Any hieroglyphics which may have been on these stones will have been erased by the currents long ago.'

'Above the sea floor yes, but remember that they are half buried in solid lava and, just as the lava from Vesuvius covered and preserved the contents of the houses in Pompeii so that by scraping it away even wall paintings, and the most fragile ornaments have been recovered—so it should be here.'

'Perhaps, but it is impossible for you to carry on any excavations while you are cooped up in the bathysphere, and equally impossible for you to get outside it,'

'The bathysphere will do our excavating for us,' smiled the Count. 'Rough and ready excavating I admit, so unfortunately there is little likelihood of our getting any but broken remains to the surface. However, it is a very remarkable piece of mechanism, and in its undercarriage it contains an electric drill capable of boring holes in the lava wherever we want them. Another attachment will insert dynamite charges in the holes then we shall be drawn up a few hundred feet and explode them.'

'I see. After that I suppose the sphere will go down again and collect the bits with its claws and shovels so that you can bring them up with you and sort out your catch at your leisure.'

'Exactly.'

The McKay nodded. 'Well, I certainly take off my hat to the little Doctor for having thought it all out so thoroughly. But I doubt if you will be able to go down tomorrow.'

The ship had covered about fifteen knots and was now coming under the lee of Pico island but she still rolled and shuddered each time the great waves buffeted her beam and clouds of spray mingled with the rain that lashed her decks.

That evening Count Axel and the McKay dined alone. The others were far too ill to join them and Vladimir, they feared, had sustained slight concussion. He had received the blow on his head while endeavouring to hold Camilla steady and, sick as she was, she sent hour by hour to enquire after him.

When Slinger arrived on his nightly visit to enforce the curfew he smiled at the McKay.

'Great stuff today, Captain. The show you put up getting in the bathysphere enables me to give the waiting world a real thrill tomorrow.'

The McKay only grunted.

'EX NAVAL CAPTAIN, ZEEBRUGGE V.C. SAVES MILLIONAIRE DUCHESS AND HER PARTY.' Slinger went on with an amiable grin, 'That's the headline twenty million people will be goggling over at their breakfast tables. I've radioed a great description of your epic battle with the elements and started a rumour that the lovely Duchess is thinking of marrying her brave rescuer. I'm beginning to think I ought to have been a journalist and not a lawyer after all.'

'You're a bloody crook!' said the McKay sullenly.

'So it seems,' agreed the imperturbable Slinger. 'I am that greatest of all tragedies. A gifted and conscientious professional man who has failed to make an honest living. Now drink up and think that over between the sheets.'

On the Friday conditions were slightly better but, although the storm had blown itself out, the sky was still leaden and high seas put any descent in the bathysphere out of the question. The ship still rolled and pitched with a beastly lurching motion and every rivet in it strained when an unusually large wave lifted its screw out of the water.

The Doctor spent the morning with four members of the crew straigtening out the fantastic tangle in which the last half mile of communication hose had had to be abandoned on the previous day. Then, when it had been coiled down again, although the bathysphere platform was still awash, he was helped into his ball so that he might test the telephone and lighting wires. To his intense relief their inch thick rubber coating had saved them and, when he came for'ard to lunch he was able to state that they still carried the current to the instruments.

For want of something better to do, apparently, Count Axel offered to lend his assistance in straightening up the contents of the sphere and getting it all in order so that they could descend again without delay when the sea was calmer. Slinger's permission was obtained for the Count to go aft and so, when the meal was over, he disappeared for the afternoon with the Doctor.

Nicky had put in an appearance for lunch and although his bout of sea sickness seemed to have done him little harm he was peevish and irritable. His mind was obsessed once more with the question of whether he would get back to Hollywood 'this year—next year—now—or never' and the cherry stones on his plate having declared 'Never' he had gone off in a fit of black depression to mope alone in a corner of the lounge. The McKay sought out Camilla's maid and sent a message by her to the two girls.

'Captain McKay presents his compliments to the ladies and if they are capable of getting up they will feel far better out in the air on deck.'

This resulted in both Sally and Camilla staggering up the hatchway about an hour later and, having selected a corner sheltered from the wind, the McKay soon had them tucked up warm and comfortable in a couple of deck chairs.