Dennis Wheatley - They Found Atlantis

'Would you like me to sing to you?' he suggested and without waiting for her assent he sat down on the grass and drew her down too. Tilting his face towards the radiance of the earthshine he closed his eyes. Nicky had very fine eyelashes. Then he lifted up the muted cross between a tenor and alto, which he called his voice and started to croon.

Fortunately Nicky kept his eyes closed in growing ecstasy as he sang: 'Dear Baby ... God gave me ... I'm holding .. * your hands!' Rahossis had never been called a baby before but she was always ready for a new experience. She was a little perplexed however when, having finished the last sob-note of 'Dear Baby' he embarked on 'In all the World . . . Mother-r-r-r . . . there's no one like you!' The tune of the second song was much the same as the first—both variations on about five notes and written specially for Nicky's particular talent.

He sang on—really enjoying himself now and plunging deeper and deeper into the part he had selected, being no psychologist, as most likely to soften and attract Rahossis.

Suddenly he ceased and buried his face in his hands; Rahossis jumped, for he had broken off in the middle of a long wriggle on middle C, and said anxiously, 'Are you not well Nicky—what is the matter?'

'Matter?' he muttered and gave his famous hollow laugh; 'the matter is that I'm miserable because I love you so— and you will never be mine!' The part did not quite fit but it served Nicky's purpose.

Rahossis looked relieved. 'But I have been yours,' she corrected him gently. 'Twice.'

'Words! . . . words!' he exclaimed tragically, now visualising himself in the role of betrayed lover. 'Rahossis—you are driving me to despair—I love you—I want you—we were made for each other. What is it that has come between us? You were so sweet to me only a few nights ago and now . . . ! You are flirting with that man Quet—don't deny it!'

'Oh I just find him amusing,' Rahossis said lightly.

'Don't lie to me! Not that! I could not bear it.' Nicky drew his hand across his eyes as the old cliches came back. 'Tell me the truth—I am brave and I can bear that, although life will never be the same again.' He groaned just as beautifully as he had in 'All for Love'. 'I am only just a poor man who loves you—I've worked my way up from nothing—I know that—but I love you Rahossis. I love you more than words can say.'

Rahossis was kind and generous to a fault and for the moment she was not bored. This was just like one of those romances which she and her companions were always following on their journeys—it was interesting to hear it at first hand. What odd words and gestures the people of the upper world use to make love—she thought. But Nicky was waiting there with a look like a hungry spaniel.

'Dear Nicky,' she said, 'I cannot always be alone" with you here—the life we lead is so different from yours.' She put up her hand and touched his face caressingly. He seized and kissed it, slipping into the role of the 'other' man like an eel into mud.

'Rahossis—dearest—you must leave all this—let's go away together. I'll take care of you I swear it. We'll start life anew. Just you and I in some place where no one knows us —It will be heaven to have you with me always. Poor little girl—you've had a rotten deal!'

Rahossis' expression had changed as these singularly inapt lines flowed from Nicky's beautifully curved mouth. His artistic temperament which always dominated his mentality at such times was his undoing.

She rose to her feet with dignity, pulled down her tunic and said coldly, 'I think you are jesting. You know we could not leave Atlantis, even if we wished, and I am neither poor nor a little girl.'

Nicky blinked as he realised the mess he had made and Rahossis turned to enter her apartment.

She walked into her room and sat down on her bed, but he followed, flinging himself at her knees.

'Rahossis!' he cried. 'I'm sorry—please forgive me—God knows I do love you and I'm nearly mad with wanting you. I can't sleep or eat—or think of anything else!' Then, without acting, he burst into tears.

Rahossis was horrified. She gathered him up in her arms as if he had been Ciston and held his head against her breast. 'Darling,' she murmured, 'there . . . there . . . there.'

But no amount of petting soothed Nicky's sobs. He was on a good thing and he was going to stay on it as long as he could. So he sobbed and sobbed until poor tender-hearted Rahossis grew anxious. She gave him a drink of water but still he sobbed. 'Come near me—let me love you ... darling —don't leave me!'

His hands started fumbling at her tunic and she had not the heart to stop him.

If Nicky had not been so fully occupied he might have noticed his ears burning for several of his friends were discussing him just then.

Axel and Lulluma had begun to stroll hand in hand towards the jungle directly their work for the day was over, but Sally and the McKay were seated by the lake-side in the meadow, so they paused to speak to them on the way.

The newly-married pair were engaged in what the Atlan-311

teans regarded as a most curious pastime. Having discovered that neither of them were allowed to do anything but amuse each other during the period of their honeymoon, the McKay had collected an odd assortment of items on the first day that the Atlanteans went back to work; two long, tapering, bamboo canes, two lengths of yarn from the weaving shop, a couple of sharp bent nails from Nahou and some little pieces of silvery dress material provided by Lulluma. With the addition of a couple of pieces of cane for floats he and Sally had constructed a couple of rough fishing rods and had spent a good portion of the last three afternoons by the placid waters of the lake, trying in vain for a catch.

The Atlanteans had been tremendously intrigued, breaking off their labours and coming to stare over the kitchen garden fence at this strange spectacle of two lovers solemnly gazing at the water in which they had dropped a bent hook covered in dough with a tiny bit of tinsel above it.

To polite enquiries the McKay had replied that they were 'fishing'—which the Atlanteans regarded as a gigantic joke.

Nahou, courteous as ever, had offered to operate the concealed dragnet which would enable them to secure as many fish as they wished, adding that they could throw back any they did not require into the lake again, but when the McKay rejected the suggestion it became quite evident to their new friends that they could not be fishing whatever else they might be up to.

Atlantean opinion then became divided into two camps. One school of thought inclined to the theory that the lovers could not be happy because they remained so quiet and that this offering of a small piece of dough on a string must be a propitiatory rite to some barbarous water god they followed. The other side postulated that there must be some queer hidden pleasure in the game which might add to the enjoyment of their own honeymoons if they could only find it out.

Lulluma inclined to the first belief. As she came up with Axel she paused beside Sally and eyed the rods dubiously for a moment. Then she stooped and said in a swift whisper: 'I'm so sorry you're unhappy darling—is there anything I can do?'

'But I'm not unhappy!' Sally lifted her face in swift 312

astonishment. 'I'm having a glorious time. I never dreamed that life could be so good—surely I look happy don't I?'

'Yes,' Luiluma agreed cautiously. 'It is only seeing you spend so much time at this queer game you play that made me wonder if you were ...'

'It was sweet of you to worry for me.' Sally caught her hand and pressed it gratefully. 'Sooner or later we'll really catch a fish—you'll see. The difficulty makes it all the more exciting in a way—but I am happy—divinely and deliriously so. Who could be otherwise in your enchanted island?'