Dennis Wheatley - They Found Atlantis

She nodded. The earthshine is under our control and for ten hours out of every twenty-four we dim it, turning its principal energy into other channels. You saw all the little trenches in the vegetable garden—it pumps the water up which irrigates those and makes the fountains among the clumps of flowers play.'

'I see,' Axel murmured. 'I wondered how you could find time to water everything, but that makes it unnecessary.'

As he spoke a young boy came dashing out of one of the buildings. He raced across the grass and flung his arms round Lulluma.

'My darling,' she cooed in his own tongue, stooping to Yembrace him. 'So you are back at last—did you have a good journey?'

'Yes—yes,' his dark eyes were bright with excitement. 'I found a long lonely beach and examined all the shells, then a wooden boat came past with men in it and I went over the water to them. They caught fish out of the sea, and two days later they took it home. I followed, to find out where they lived but they had only dark dirty huts and no gardens —Poor people, I was so sorry for them I...'

He broke off suddenly to stare at the strangers. Lulluma translated what he had said then, as an afterthought, introduced him: This is Ciston—the youngest amongst us.'

Apparently he understood the drift of her last words for he bowed gravely giving the Doctor, Axel and the McKay a friendly smile apiece.

The McKay grinned back and held out his hand. 'Shake me'lad,' he said. 'You and I will make some boats to float on that pond together.'

Ciston took the proffered hand though he could not understand what the stranger was saying, but Lulluma did and in that second, all thought of him as a weatherbeaten, truculent little man with absurd inhibitions passed from her. He could be gentle with a child and would make toy boats for the boy's amusement. Her heart warmed towards him and, to his intense embarrassment, she stooped and kissed him impulsively upon the neck.

'Now for your swim,' she said quickly to Ciston, giving the McKay a moment to recover from her assault, and the boy bounded away like some young faun. His head was covered with dark thick close-cropped curls and his body was a golden brown. Axel thought of a young Sicilian fisher-boy as Ciston plunged fearlessly into the pool.

He swam with ease and grace and they were still watching him when Camilla and Sally appeared. Their corn-coloured hair now hung round their shoulders and both wore only Atlantean tunics. Camilla's was blue with a silver border and Sally's a dove-grey edged with something which looked like mother of pearl. Rahossis accompanied them. She was a good few inches taller than either of the cousins and a magnificent woman of Junoesque proportions. Her skin was very white and her hair Titian red—shorter than Lulluma's. It made a halo for her head and clustered all over it in a forest of auburn curls.

The McKay put his hand in front of his eyes as Sally approached in her almost transparent tunic and she flushed a bright lobster pink as she said abruptly: 'Don't be a fool, Nelson—Andy—McKay, and get rid of those hideous trousers. When in Rome, you know ..

Then he removed his hand and she saw that he was laughing so she added defensively: 'Don't you think this suits me?'

'Very becoming, me'dear,' he chuckled, 'very becoming. God forbid that I should ever prevent any Roman lady doing her duty.'

'We're not Romans,' said Camilla, who caught the last words as she preened herself in front of Axel, 'we're Atlanteans now—and we've got to stay like this for the rest of our lives.'

Rahossis had drawn Lulluma aside. 'Well,' she said indulgently in Atlantean, 'this is a fine piece of good fortune for you, my sweet—I'm so glad that you were here when they arrived.'

'And for you, darling, too,' replied Lulluma. 'None of the five men will look at me now that they have seen you.'

'Nonsense.' Rahossis shrugged her fine shoulders. 'The one they call the Count is kissing your little feet already in his mind. I can tell from the way he's watching you out of the corner of his eye. As for myself—I could take any of the others if I wished but I do not think I want to. They are such intensely stupid people. Those girls are like small children—why, your little boy, Ciston, is more entertaining to talk to and any one of the men would bore me in an hour, But if you wish to enjoy yourself lose no time about it.'

'Why, darling?' asked Lulluma quickly.

'Because Menes has returned and he will exercise his sole right of re-calling all the others. There will be a council tonight for nothing like this has ever happened in our history before.'

Lulluma shrugged. 'What of it, dearest?'

'Our ancient law limits our number to twelve, and it may be thought that by allowing the strangers to remain we should bring about our own destruction. If so, Menes will order them to leave the island.'

Menes Speaks

It was a certain awe that the McKay's party watched the procession of Atlanteans going into their temple some six hours later.

The earthshine had just begun to dim and it was the first suggestion of 'night' which the strangers had experienced in this subterranean island. The flowers lost colour though much of their fragrance still perfumed the air; a vague mysterious twilight crept stealthily among the shrubs and trees, veiling them in a new secrecy, and a renewed sense of unreality troubled the newcomers, except Vladimir and Camilla, with fresh speculations as to whether they were alive or dead.

These two were occupied with happier thoughts for Vladimir had woken early that afternoon and, after his ablutions, taken Camilla for a walk through the meadow to the jungle. Tall, bronzed, handsome, his magnificent body set off in its full strength and beauty by the light Atlantean costume, he was as splendid a specimen of manhood as any of his hosts. In this new setting his qualities far outweigh those of either of his rivals, at least in Camilla's eyes, and, moreover, it was to him she had turned in every crisis of their dark journey. They were here for the rest of their lives it seemed, and she knew in her heart that she had always liked him best, so in a passionate outburst she had confessed that she loved him and promised to marry him just as soon as he wished.

Their news had been received with enthusiastic congratulations by their friends but when the practical side of the matter was discussed and it was discovered that the Atlanteans never married, or at least had no sort of marriage ceremony, Camilla had become a little dubious about the matter.

It seemed to her conventional mind not quite right somehow just to go off into the wood as Luiluma suggested. That might be all very well for these lovely savages, and privately that was how Camilla thought of the Atlanteans, but it wasn't like being really married at all. In fact, looked at squarely there would be no permanent tie, only casual indulgence in what she had always been taught to regard as sin.

'Besides,' as she said privately to Sally, 'if there's no service or anything I wouldn't really be his wife so what hold would I have over him if he starts to go after one of these Atlantean girls later on. I do love Vladimir terribly of course but they are such a frightfully good looking lot that I'm scared about losing him already. That's why I said "yes', before one of them could snap him up, this afternoon.'

Sally agreed about the extremely dangerous beauty of Luiluma and her friends but forbore to point out that if a man's pledge to a woman he said he loved was worth nothing when given to her alone, no amount of bells and rings and blessings was going to make it any more binding however many people heard him make it before an altar. She knew the way Camilla's mind worked and could only sympathise while being just a little bit amazed to see her cousin's complete change of attitude brought about by coming into collision with other women as beautiful as herself.