Dennis Wheatley - They Found Atlantis

already had, and they were no longer content to work, even

their easy hours, in the mines or fields.

'As with all other nations we had had in our midst from the beginning certain persons who practised what, for want of a better name, I will call the Black Art. At first they were comparatively harmless, dealing only in spells, love-tokens and minor witchcraft, but the time came when they began to concern themselves with what you call "science" and that proved the most unholy alliance which has ever entered the world.

'To secure our precious metals we had mines in those days as deep, and even deeper than you have now. Some of them ran to eleven or twelve thousand feet below the surface of the earth, but we lacked your wonderful mechanical lifts which I have observed with interest on my spiritual journeys to the upper world. In consequence the shifts of miners could be relieved only in batches of a few hundred every day. They went down for a period of two weeks and on their return to the sunshine had to be hauled up those many thousand feet by hand.

'You can well imagine how loathed and dreaded this twice yearly period of duty in the mines became to our people—for none was exempted—not even the sons of the inherited as does always the eldest male here.'

He paused for a moment and laid his hand on the shoulder of the gracious white-haired lady who sat next him. 'Semiramis, too, inherits her title from the great queens of those days, and when she dies, her daughter Tzarinska will take the name instead, just as my dear son Nahou will be known as Menes after my death—of what was I speaking, though?'

'Of the miners,' prompted Sally gently.

'Ah, yes. It was in this ever growing labour, as the mines grew deeper year by year, that the sorcerer-scientists saw their great chance to corrupt our people with their evil arts. They carried out many experiments in order to see if they could not succeed in creating life without the sanction of the Gods. "Black" Magicians in your upper world have endeavoured to do the same and have, as you may know, at times been partially successful. Such creatures are incubated in large glass containers and are termed Homunculii. They have the rudimentary form of man yet lack that God-given flame which you call the Soul. Our masters of Evil succeeded in the dread mystery at last, thus introducing a new and hideous race upon the earth. Beasts which moved and talked and functioned just like men although, unlike the lowest forms of true animal, they had not the faintest spark of the divine nature in them.'

'Those are the submen then,' murmured the McKay.

Menes nodded 'Yes. You of course, only saw their descendants after nearly a thousand generations, for they had the power to breed like other species, although they come to maturity very rapidly and their lives are short. Their first ancestors were sent down into the mines and trained to hew and carry so that our forefathers might be relieved of that irksome but health-giving labour. Later they were driven to work in droves and the only Atlanteans who remained in the mines were experts who directed the operations and overseers who supervised the slave gangs.' He sighed and paused; his audience waited patiently until he went on.

'The Gods move slowly but they miss nothing and when they found that man had usurped their privilege of giving life they were exceeding wrath. They gathered in their strength and might and power to discuss the evil which had been done by bringing brute beasts into the world, and they decided to destroy utterly our portion of the earth.

'Once they had made this decision they acted swiftly and in a single day and night of untold horror the greatest civilisation the world has ever known was blotted out. Thunderbolts streaked the air; the fountains of the deep gushed up, the floodgates of Heaven were opened, the rivers rose and overflowed their banks. Great winds carried men, houses, animals and trees like chaff before them through the torrential rain. The Palaces and Pyramids were shaken to their foundations and cracked as the earth shuddered beneth them. The earth sank into the ocean bed and vast tidal waves swept it from end to end. One, perhaps, out of every hundred thousand of our people escaped alive, the rest perished utterly—and after, the Empire of Atlantis became only a name—a legend which men speculate upon over their evening fires just as they would tell again an oft told fairy tale.'

Menes sank into silence again, the horror of this colossal t.f.a.—k 289

destruction of a mighty race, which he had conjured up and which they now knew to be true history, strong upon him.

It was only after what seemed a long while that Axel plucked up courage to ask: 'Would you tell us, Sir, how your own ancestors managed to escape this terrible calamity?'

'Surely, my son. Menes' gentle smile lit his face once more. 'You have traversed some portion of these big chambers and their connecting galleries. They were our mines. The chambers were concentration points where stores were kept and the slave gangs mustered. In certain of them Atlanteans resided permanently or almost so, for as I have said the Gods move slowly and a hundred years or more had elapsed between the introduction of the beast men and the great destruction.

'The earthshine had already been tapped to light the workings several thousand years before and this enabled the mine superintendents to live in some comfort. On this island site of ours there lived then an Atlantean named Petru. He had a house here with offices from which he administered his section of the mines—also, for our eternal blessing—a small garden.

'When the cataclysm came huge sections of the earth's crust were torn away and slid southward. All the upper galleries of the mines were, naturally, destroyed, but the lower workings remained unharmed and the sideways movement of the earth above sealed certain of the shafts, thus mercifully preventing these regions from being flooded.'

'You are the descendants of Petru then?' the McKay enquired as Menes paused for a drink from his goblet.

'Partly, but not altogether. As Petru's employment kept him underground for many months of the year his wife and sister lived here with him, also his family consisting of one son and three daughters. But, it chanced that when the calamity occurred they had several visitors. Petru's cousin was a learned priest named Zakar. All teaching whether civil or religious was given by the priests in those times and Zakar, who was a wise and upright man, held a high appointment in the College of Mines. In order to give certain of his more advanced students practical instruction he had brought four of them to stay for a few days with his cousin Petru, so that when the chastisement of the Gods occurred there were twelve Atlanteans—men, women and children—imprisoned here.

'Petru's sister, and his three daughters when they grew up, bore children to Zakar's students and that is the fount from which we spring.'

Axel nodded. 'We saw many females among the brute race which of course accounts for its survival, when they were imprisoned, too.'

'Yes. Females may not be as strong as males but their work on mechanical tasks in fields and mines is more consistent. Immediately it was discovered that these brute men could reproduce themselves the Black Scientists gave them their own women to labour with them. By so doing the complicated preparations and immense concentration of thought necessary to produce Homunculii in the laboratories were no longer required after a time. You tell me that these creatures are now blind. They were not so originally but many generations having lived in total darkness from birth to death they would naturally lose the faculty of sight by evolution.'

'You've made it wonderfully clear so far Sir,' said the McKay, 'but what I don't understand is how we got here.'