Dennis Wheatley - They Found Atlantis

The nearest were no more than ten yards away and held their long spears blindly before them. A shower of heavy stones came hurtling down, thrown from the back of the mob which was still hidden in the darkness.

'Bombs!' yelled the McKay. 'Axel, keep yours—the rest of you let 'em have it!'

They hurled their canisters while Camilla crouched above the unconscious Sally.

The nearest submen began to stab with a jerky motion of their spears but the light of the torches seemed to disconcert them, for they shielded their faces with their free hands, and jabbed indiscriminately at the empty air. Knocking a couple aside, the McKay lashed out with his lever felling a fat fleshy creature who goggled at him blindly.

As he swiped at another he prayed for the explosion of the bombs. In another minute his little party must be crushed up against the wall or forced off the quay into the water by the relentless pressure of the herd.

Suddenly one of the grenades went off. The crash seemed to shake the roof. Then another and another followed. The submen dropped their spears and broke in wild confusion, screeching vilely.

The McKay had already decided that, if their chance did come, they must take it immediately to get out of this dangerous corner and not let themselves be trapped again in any similar situation.

He gave one swift glance behind him to assure himself that his party was all together—paused for a second as he saw Sally unconscious on the floor, but started forward as Vladimir dragged her up and slung her bodily across his shoulder.

'Ouick—keep your formation and follow me!' the McKay 238

exclaimed then, as the fourth bomb exploded, he led the party back in the direction from which they had come nearly five hours before, striking close beside the wall.

The cavern was now like a scene from hell conjured up by the vivid brush of some early Flemish painter. A broad swathe of silvery-grey luminosity, given off by the big haul of fish and squids, rose above the whole length of the harbour, fading into darkness about ten feet up. As the party of humans advanced along the blank wall which curved in a great arc round the inland side of the quay the herd were thrown up in silhouette against the silvery grey mist. Screeching with terror little knots of them ran blindly from side to side, slipping and falling in the blood of their wounded or blundering into the piles of corpses which marked the places where the bombs had fallen.

The party advanced to near the spot where they had first struck the wall after they left the sphere, when Sally began to whimper. They halted a moment for Vladimir to set her down and the McKay forced a sip of brandy, from his flask, between her lips.

'Think you can walk m'dear?' he asked urgently.

Sally stared with terrified eyes at the nightmare figures moving in the silvery haze. 'Oh God!' she gulped. 'If we're caught I—I believe they'll eat us.'

'We'll be dead before that,' Nicky's voice quavered.

'Can you walk Sally?' repeated the McKay. 'We've got to make an effort now.'

'Yes,' she shuddered, 'I'll manage somehow.'

Camilla and Doctor Tisch took her arms, Vladimir dropped to the rear, and they hurriedly set off again in their original formation. Instead of fleeing as they had the night before, the submen were concentrating now at the far end of the chamber, and a scatter of rocks and stones began to fall.

They were wildly aimed and most of them pitched among their own gibbering wounded, but a few clopped against the wall and one caught Nicky on the shoulder.

'Up shields!' ordered the McKay, as he continued to press forward, then, when they had advanced another hundred yards he saw a lofty break in the wall beyond the place where the herd were massed together.

'That's the way they come,' he whispered to Axel. 'God knows where it leads but we've got to chance that and get through it somehow. I had hoped that the bombs would clear this place altogether.'

'You forget the fish,' Count Axel whispered back. 'Last night they had full stomachs when you attacked them, but now they are empty and they will not leave this place until they have secured their food.'

The stones were flying faster now, clicking and rattling as they bounded from the flat rock floor. A dozen had already thudded on the shields which the party held over their heads and faces.

Within fifty feet of the enemy the McKay halted. The big arch showed quite distinctly now, lit by the unearthly glow thrown up from the harbour. Between it and him a solid jam of the naked sub-race, males and females, were pressed—jostling each other as they threw their stones—a hundred deep, barring the passage.

'Clear me that entrance Count,' said the McKay, 'use both your bombs.'

Count Axel lobbed one carefully into the centre of the crowd and threw the other high with all his strength, so that it landed just short of the archway.

'This is sheer murder,' murmured the Doctor in a horror-stricken voice.

'D'you think I like it?' snapped the McKay.

They waited then, clustered together, their shields held up to protect them from the still-falling stones which continued to clatter all about them.

A blinding flash lit the cavern for a second. Again the whole place vibrated with the crash. Another followed two seconds afterwards. Once more there came those piercing screams of agony and the frantic gibbering as the herd parted, stampeding in great batches. One group, distraught with terror, rushed straight off the quayside into the harbour, another blindly collided with the wall only ten feet from where the McKay was crouching.

'Come on now,' he called, 'stick together and follow me!' Then at a quick trot he headed for the archway.

The submen seemed to know of their approach by the flashing of the torches, and with animal courage, turned to attack their tormentors.

For five minutes the little party of humans fought their way forward, striking out ruthlessly with their steel levers.

The filthy stench of rotten fish was so nauseating now they were right among the herd that they were nearly overcome by it.

They were terribly handicapped by the semi-darkness, as the beams of their torches only lit the thing upon which they were focused for the moment, and everything outside the rays was hidden from them.

Tripping and stumbling over dead bodies and writhing wounded they literally hacked their way through the mass of short, naked, stinking, grey-white people until, at last, the McKay reached the entrance of the lofty arch.

It was black and empty. In it he turned to assure himself that the rest had got through. The others were close upon his heels. Vladimir and Bozo were beating off the submen in a desperate rear-guard action.

'Come on,' he called. 'We've got the legs of them, and a clear run before us.' Then he plunged into the tunnel.

The others followed, breaking clear of the mob almost immediately. Yet, as they ran, they knew that they were pursued, for even the echo of their own flying feet did not entirely drown the soft padding of those countless others and the shrill birdlike voices of the submen twittered angrily in their ears.

Count Axel lit the way, his torch focused to the front but downwards, so that they should not rush headlong over some precipice hidden in the velvet blackness. Once or twice the McKay flashed his light up to the roof or walls. The tunnel was about twenty feet in height, and, apparently hewn out of the solid rock.

After a few moments they outdistanced their pursuers. The cries and patter had died behind them. They eased their pace and dropped into a steady loping trot.

The tunnel ended abruptly and, almost before they had realised it, they were traversing a level open space which sloped downwards. The roof was visible, but no walls until, two hundred yards further on they ran slap into one. Turning left they sped along it, hoping to find a break in its smooth surface but, before they did so that stealthy padding of the now silent mob upon their heels, could be heard again.