Dennis Wheatley - They Found Atlantis

The McKay waited until she vanished then he turned back to Nahou and said slowly: 'This travelling business— is it true that you and she have both been in the upper world among ordinary human beings?'

Nahou nodded. 'Yes, Lulluma is young yet but I and my companions have visited your country and other centres of modern civilisation many times.'

'Ah!' the McKay's eyes brightened. 'I felt certain that must be so. It's the only possible explanation of you being able to speak such darn good English. There's a way out of this place somehow then. A long tunnel which leads up under the sea and comes up in the Azores eh? By Jove I we're not sunk yet—we'll get back after all 1'

Nahou regarded him a little sadly. 'Did you learn much of the tradition which still exists about Atlantis before you came on this expedition?' he asked slowly.

'Enough to write a book,' declared the McKay. 'No offence of course—but I'm fed to the teeth with the whole darned business.'

'Then you will know that the earlier Atlanteans were credited with powers which the ignorant term "Magic"?'

'O-ah! Sons of the God going in unto the daughters of men, Nephilim, and all that sort of thing—hence the Flood. Yes, I know all about that but what's it got to do with this secret entrance to the place by which we can get home?'

'We still retain certain of those powers,' said Nahou gently, 'and they enable us to travel in the spirit, but none of my race have ever left this island in our physical bodies for over eleven thousand years. 1 am afraid my friend that you must put out of your mind once and for all any hope of being able to return.'

Count Axel Treads the Fields of Aspodel

Count Axel was the first to wake. All his friends were still sleeping soundly on either side of him but Lulluma was sitting near by busily stitching at some form of garment.

His first impression was of her serene untroubled smile and that she was no creation of his subconscious imagination but warm flesh and blood; his next, that he had grown a beard. As he passed his hand over his face he felt it—a stubby growth on his lips and chin.

'How do you feel now?' she asked, laying aside her work and standing up.

He took a long breath and sighed contentedly. 'If I were on my death bed I believe that the sight of you would be enough to raise me from it—but I never awoke feeling less like death than I do at the moment.'

'That is as it should be—you have slept well, nearly a week.'

'A week! surely that is impossible?'

'Almost a week,' she assured him, 'and you look terribly dirty. Come with me and you shall have a bath.'

Axel took the hand that she held out to pull him to his feet. Then he noticed that he and his friends had been stripped during their sleep; but the girl beside him did not seem the least embarrassed by his nakedness and he could not help murmuring as he surveyed the others: 'Don't they look funny without their clothes?'

Lulluma chuckled. 'The fat doctor is a very queer shape. The tall dark man has a good body though, also the fair one whom you call Nicky.'

'Yes,' he agreed, as he studied his friends with complete detachment, 'Vladimir is a fine figure of a man and both the

girls do credit to their race. Camilla is particularly lovely.'

Luiluma jerked his hand with sudden petulance, 'She is just passable—but she is nothing like as good-looking as I ami'

Count Axel had drawn her attention to Camilla's loveliness with deliberate intent. She had risen to the bait magnificently and he almost trembled with joy at this first real assurance that she was as vulnerable as any ordinary human girl. When he turned and looked into her eyes he meant every word as he said, 'You are right—in all my life I have never seen anyone quite so beautiful as you.'

She shrugged her well-covered shoulders; 'My mother carried out her ideas of my type quite well in me I think, but you may change your opinion when you see my companions. I would not change my nature with any of them but they are more beautiful. I am too short and lack the grace which they possess. Come now and wash.'

He followed her to one of the blocks of buildings which faced each other across the pool, each of them had six curtained entrances. She pulled aside the hangings over one doorway and disclosed a large square room furnished with spartan simplicity. There was a couch against the far wall, a dressing-table to one side, above which was set a large metal mirror and against the other wall stood a single oblong coffer. In the middle of the floor was a low sunken bath.

'This is my room,' announced Luiluma. 'You are not afraid of me I hope like the little muscular man who nearly had a fit when he found that Nahou and I were about to remove his damp trousers.'

Count Axel stood in the doorway, his hands on his hips and quite at his ease. 'No,' he replied, passing his fingers over his chin. 'If you do wish to eat me I am yours to eat, but first I would prefer to remove this beard—if that is possible. It would be more comfortable for us both.'

'Later on, if I find that I like you I might try,' she said with delightful frankness, 'but I would hardly care to touch you as you are. Look I Nahou has provided this sharp steel against your waking. In this vase you will find oil for lather and here is a linen towel. Water will enter the bath from the hot spring if you press down the Triton's head which decorates its end. After you have finished remove the spigot from the bottom and it will drain away. On the bed there I have put out a selection of men's garments. Since you are the first to wake you can choose which you like best. Now I will leave you to make yourself presentable.'

As she turned to go he laid his hand gently on her arm to detain her. 'Forgive me,' he said, 'but, since neither of us suffer from any shyness may I confess one thing to you?— I have never found it altogether easy to wash my own back.'

Lulluma looked at him for a moment and then she began to laugh again. 'Well really,' she declared, 'you are almost civilised. Quite like one of us. I will bath you with pleasure if you like?'

When Axel looked at himself in Lulluma's highly polished metal mirror he saw that he was indeed a filthy sight, but after some initial difficulty with Nahou's big hand-ground razor he got the hang of it and soon his chin was as smooth as silk. A good wash restored his face to its normal appearance and then he studied himself again. He saw a long humorous countenance smiling at him lazily and decided that his forty-odd years had not treated him too harshly. He felt no more than thirty and the abnormally long sleep seemed to have removed half a dozen years of deepening wrinkles from round his eyes and mouth. With an impulsive gesture he swung round to Lulluma.

'Well, how do I look now?'

She was sitting on her divan polishing her toe-nails and she looked up with a start. 'Why—you're quite good-looking,' her big eyes widened, 'I thought you were almost an old man and was only attracted by something about your mind which your friends do not possess ... before!'

As he turned on the water she stood up and added: 'I only consented to bath you out of courtesy you know—but now I think it will be rather fun.'

With a little wriggle of her shoulders she slipped off her red dress and picked up the vase of oil. Then amid splash-ings and laughter she scrubbed him so vigorously that he had to cry for mercy.

He chose a green tunic and when she had helped him to adjust it they went outside together. The others were still sound asleep so she offered to show him the island and they strolled off side by side.

In the grove of palm trees behind the temple there was 264

another group of buildings. A wide kitchen, a small laundry, and a row of workshops for metallurgy, dyeing, weaving, and distilling. All were quite deserted and showed no signs of recent labour. The rows of golden plates and dishes were arranged neatly in the kitchen racks, every tool and implement in the shops occupied its special place; no trace of waste material marred the scrupulous cleanness in any corner.