Dennis Wheatley - They Found Atlantis

Their two-hour sleep had refreshed them but they still felt slow and groggy from their previous expenditure of nervous energy. They agreed, as the McKay and Count Axel had done, that to talk was the best way of preventing themselves dropping off to sleep, but they had little to say to each other.

Nicky's contribution to the conversation consisted almost entirely of periodic exclamations—'Where the devil are we, Doctor?—Oh, God, I'm tired!—Doctor, what the hell are we going to do?' which he repeated at brief intervals.

The Doctor had not even the shadow of a theory to advance and could only mutter gutturally, 'I haf no idea-no idea at all. Of our future I can guess nothing and for the present we can only obey the Herr Kapitan's orders.'

It was almost at the end of their watch when they heard the muted patter of naked feet. The Doctor instantly flashed on his torch while Nicky sprang up and roused the others.

The McKay was wide awake at once: 'Prepare for action,' he said in a sharp whisper.

For a moment the other, newly awakened, members of the party could not get a grip of their surroundings. Automatically they stumbled to their feet, picked up their weapons, and adjusted the board shields over their left forearms. Then the pattering footsteps and the horrible smell of rotten fish which the advancing herd carried with them brought full realisation of past events and their present peril.

'It's—it's not a nightmare then?' Sally choked. 'We're really here— Oh, this is-'

'Silence!' the McKay cut her short. 'If they can't scent us they'll believe we're still in the sphere. Quick Doctor—put out that torch.'

They waited then, their blood throbbing again at full pulse through their arteries—tense and expectant—anticipating that the attack might open at any moment as they listened to that soft padding of innumerable footsteps in the darkness.

The sound ceased. The great cavern became silent as death. They could hear their own laboured breathing and judged that the unseen horde had halted somewhere in the centre and the far end of the big oval rock-roofed chamber.

Nothing happened. Camilla began to tremble. Sally put out a protective hand to her although little tremors of fear were running through her own body. The men were grouped round them, nervously fingering their weapons, ready instantly, at the McKay's order to press the buttons of their torches.

Suddenly there came a noise like thunder—a dull heavy rumbling in the far distance. It continued for some minutes yet seemed to grow no louder. Then it stopped abruptly.

The McKay shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Then this new silence was broken by the chirping and muttering of the herd out there in the darkness.

The thunder rolled again—this time much nearer. The unseen roof and walls of the cavern vibrated and quivered under the repercussion from the blows of some unknown force. The very air was tremulous.

Nicky cowered back against the wall. Camilla endeavoured to gulp down sobs engendered by the extremity of fear which seemed to grip her physically below the breasts. Sally was half fainting. The two leaned on each other for support or else their legs would have given way beneath them. The rest held their ground, white-faced and with protruding eyes which strained in vain to see one inch ahead in that impenetrable blackness.

Time passed. Not one of the little group could attempt to assess its duration but at last the thunder ceased again and now the shrill note of the submen's chatter had risen to a fiendish clamour.

Vladimir felt his dark hair clinging damp about his temples. The Doctor's soft collar was a wet rag round his neck. Everyone of the eight humans was sweating or shivering as they stood there—black night all about them—listening to those ghoulish cries.

A new note suddenly drowned the screeching. The thunder had turned to the roar and hiss of tossing water. A blur of silvery light appeared low down at the far end of the harbour. With horrifying suddenness it increased in size and leapt towards them.

Next second the foremost wave, released by some great subterranean floodgate, slapped against the wall—curved upwards scintillating with a million flashing lights and descended, drenching the little party on the quay with great splashes from the backwash.

Below them now, on their left under the quayside, they could see the furious churning of the waters as they seethed and foamed, lit dully by the lights of another great haul of deep sea creatures thrashing and leaping in a frantic effort to escape.

The luminosity from the harbour now lit a fair portion of the cavern with a dim ghostly light. Its roof and furthest walls were not visible, but the herd could be seen in a leprous mass, tightly packed together yet constantly moving like some vast blotchy writhing animal. Its nearest fringe was no more than fifty yards from the McKay but obviously they had no knowledge of his presence.

'Steady,' he said in a low voice. 'Steady now, they've come down here for the fish—not for us.'

'It's close on twelve hours since they had their last feed,' muttered Count Axel.

Again they waited, relieved a little, but still acutely anxious. It was almost certain that the submen would spread out along the quay and find them crouching there against the wall at its furthest extremity.

Sally was just behind the McKay. He could hear her breath coming in quick short gasps. Occasionally she choked in an endeavour to steady herself. Suddenly she screamed.

Her scream was so wild that it echoed right round the lofty chamber. Something soft had touched her shoe. For an instant she had thought it was Doctor Tisch's foot, but the thing had stayed there and, before she had time to move, twined round her ankle like the gentle caress of some slim fingerless hand. Now its grip tightened and it began to pull.

Instantly the semi-darkness was shattered. The torches flashed out—cutting great swathes through the greyish gloom—dazzling and bewildering.

Vladimir saw the 'thing' first and, dropping his weapon grabbed her round the shoulders. Another second and the others had seen it too. An octopus had reached its long tentacle up from the waters that seethed three feet below upon their left and, passing it in front of Doctor Tisch, had her by the leg. The fleshy pointed arm with its long row of suckers was taut with the brute's effort to drag her off the quayside into the harbour.

They had no knives with which to sever the tentacle so they slashed at it with their steel levers while Vladimir exerted all his strength to prevent Sally being wrenched from his embrace. The McKay jerked Bozo's automatic from his trousers top, focused the curved beak and enormous soulless eye of the octopus in the beam of his torch, then fired down into it.

A fountain of black liquid spouted into the air but still the creature kept its hold on Sally's ankle and reached up another waving tentacle which searched blindly for her companions. Sally screamed and screamed. Terrified, heartrending cries came shrilling from her wide open mouth and Nicky, as he flashed his torch on her face noticed, quite consciously, despite his own terror, that one of her back teeth had been crowned with gold.

The McKay fired again and again—and yet again. At last the tentacle loosened its grip; the others threshed the water furiously for a moment and the octopus sank from sight hidden under the mass of fish.

Sally went limp in Vladimir's arms, then slid to the floor like a half-empty sack as he released her, for the submen, warned of their presence by her screams, were now surging towards them.

As the McKay switched from shooting the octopus he saw the great grey-white herd all facing his direction. The front ranks wavered, pressing back in fear, but the hundreds behind thrust them forward with shrill cries and clamour.