Dennis Wheatley - They Found Atlantis

The fine old man shook his head. 'A courteous thought, but one to which I cannot agree. Now that we have accepted you there are neither hosts nor guests amongst us. Each will do his share and look first to the wants of his immediate neighbour, as is our custom here. Now, by all means, let us dine.'

The Atlanteans invaded the kitchen into which Luiluma had already run, carrying the good news to Axel and the two girls. A quarter of an hour later they were all laughing and jesting as they sat on the grass before the temple steps, participating in the alfresco banquet.

By the time they had finished the earthshine had dimmed to its lowest limit and there was only just sufficient light for them to see comfortably. To read by it would not have been possible but they could still see each other's faces as they would have in the gentle starlight of an August night in that upper world so far above their heads. Behind the pool the gardens were filled with shadows and the large trees were now black shapes, rising from mysterious scented belts of darkness, yet the air remained warm and still.

The plates and dishes were removed and then Nahou produced fresh goblets and half a dozen flasks from which hepoured a thick, dark-golden liquid.

'This is our wine for festivals,* he said. 'Ihope that you 284

will find it compares favourably with those of the upper world. I am chief vintager and responsible for its keeping.'

Doctor Tisch's eyes grew round with pleasure as he sipped it. 'This is Rhine Wine,' he declared, 'and the finest which I haf ever tasted although it has a something different flavour also. No Palatinate, even in the greatest years, could be so rich.'

'More like Chateau Y'Quem I should have said,' remarked the McKay with relish. 'Chateau Y'Quem, my friend, with a dash of old sherry flavour to it.'

'We call it Nektar ,' said Nahou with quiet satisfaction. 'It has been known under that name from the beginning of time. It is made by allowing the grapes to hang on the vines until all their water has been absorbed by the earthshine. They become wrinkled then, like raisins, so that all their flavour and sweetness is condensed.'

Vladimir gave a long-drawn happy sigh. 'A rose between two other thorns can smell as good,' he misquoted solemnly. 'This is not Hock, Y'Quem, or Sherry—it is Imperial Tokay and vintaged similarly.'

He swung round then with a great laugh to Camilla and raised his goblet in the air. 'Drink my sweet beautiful! for God is gracious to his child Vladimir Renescu. Gracious indeed to give me wine, that I never thought to taste again, for my wedding's night. Drink! and later we will make great happiness together. Drink, all of you, I beg. Pledge us in this so magnificent Tokay.'

Both his friends and the Atlanteans responded with the utmost heartiness. The former loved him for the brave simple soul they knew him to be and the people of the island were already attached to him more than to any of the other strangers, with the exception of Lulluma's preference for Axel, because his spontaneous gaiety fitted in so well with their own nature. Even Nicky raised a cheer, for now that Camilla was stripped of her millions she no longer held the glamour she had had for him and was no more than just a very pretty girl such as he had dallied with by the dozen in the past. Besides he was sitting next the auburn-haired Rahossis so Vladimir could have Camilla, and Sally into the bargain, as far as Nicky was concerned.

As the plaudits and good wishes ceased Nahou refilled the goblets and Menes held up his hand for silence.

'Dear children,' he said. 'None of us have yet heard more than a garbled version of the manner in which our friends arrived here. To come down through the sea and then through the black lands of the fish-eaters must indeed have been a desperate venture. You are all on tenterhooks I know to hear particulars of this wonderful journey.' He glanced at the McKay whom he had placed, quite naturally, as the leader of the party, 'Will you not entertain us by an account of your great achievement?'

'Well, Sir,' the McKay hesitated, 'I'd be only too pleased to tell you, but spinning a yarn about the adventure in which we've been involved is not my strong suit—Count Axel now is a born raconteur. He'd make a far better job of it than I should.'

The Count was persuaded without any difficulty and, with Lulluma nestling against his shoulder, thrilled by his every word, he told their story from the day of Doctor Tisch's arrival in Madeira.

The Atlanteans listened absorbedly, refraining courteously from interruptions except when Menes asked for a point to be explained—much as a judge does who may already know the answer but wishes that a, possibly ignorant, jury may be further informed.

When the tale was done many questions were put to Axel and the Atlanteans regarded the newcomers with a new admiration now that they understood to the full their fortitude and courage in the perils they had shared. Then Axel bowed to Menes;

'We too, Sir, have an even greater curiosity—since you at least knew of our race, whereas we were totally ignorant of yours. Is it permitted that we ask some questions in our turn?'

Menes inclined his high polished beautifully proportioned forehead; 'Ask, and you shall be answered my son.'

'These fish-eaters, as you call them,' Axel began. 'Are they human or animal?'

'They are neither—and to explain them I must go back many centuries,' Menes smiled. 'Perhaps it would be best if I recounted to you something of Atlantean history and explain how it is that although our great race were almost annihilated by the cataclysm, we twelve descendants of it live now, a mile beneath the ocean, at the present day.'

There were eager murmurs from Axel and his party and so the benign old man went on:

'The birth of our nation goes back into the mists of antiquity, further even than we can ever know. We can only say that we possess twenty-nine thousand years of recorded history. That is to say, our people had reached a sufficient degree of civilisation to hand down the story of their doings eighteen thousand years before the Flood, although of course in those early days they can have been little more than barbarians who elected chieftains, one of whom was strong enough to become paramount above the rest and keep the peace in order that progress towards true culture might begin.

'Those of you who believed in the legend which still lingers in the upper world of a great island, lying at one time in the centre of the North Atlantic, are correct. It was there that, for countless generations, safely secured from extermination by the savage hordes who populated the whole of the outer world through our surrounding seas, we advanced in all things to such a state that, apart from your mechanical inventions of the last hundred and fifty years, you can still show us nothing new.

'We domesticated many animals training them to our uses and, with patient care, converted the wild grasses into cereal crops. The larger portion of our island consisted of a great plain which lay to the southward under almost constant sunshine and which was blessed with an unusual degree of fertility, so that there was abundant food for all and yet still room for wild forests in which our ancestors preseved every sort of game.

'To tell you one tenth of the marvels of that country in the days before the cataclysm would take a year. Let it suffice that our architecture was advanced far beyond anything which man has yet achieved; our system of supply regulated to a degree in which no man ever needed to go hungry but no troublesome surplus ever arose; and that the systems of law and morality which we evolved through so many centuries have never been equalled for their justice and toleration.

'The time came, alas! when evil powers filled our people with greed and sloth. They began to accumulate riches, which in themselves could bring them no more than they