“Very well then. Please be seated here while Lulluma and I prepare food for you.” Nahou waved his hand towards the even grass which bordered the marble surround of the pool and added, “I ask only that you refrain from examining the buildings where we live. Our companions are away and it would be dangerous to wake them before they arise of their own free will.”
“We would not dream of abusing your hospitality,” Count Axel assured him, and the two beautiful beings walked leisurely away from them.
“This party’s got me beat entirely,” admitted the McKay when their hosts were out of earshot. “Are we dead or drunk or dreaming? That’s what I’d like to know.”
Sally leaned against his shoulders; “Does it matter my dear? This place is infinitely more lovely than any dream could be. I feel just as though I’d come home again after a long, long journey. You heard what that wonderful girl said about our taking off our clothes? Well, I don’t mind a little bit. I wish that God had been a bit kinder about my ankles, but I’m not ashamed of my body.”
“What’s the matter with your ankles?” asked the McKay loyally. “To hear you talk anyone would imagine that your legs had no shape to them at all. They may not be as slim as Camilla’s but they’re sensible and the bits where they crease behind your knees are devilish attractive. I was looking at them just now.”
“Nelson—Andy—McKay! I don’t keep my ankles behind my knees but I think you’re a darling,” sighed Sally as she spread herself out luxuriously on the warm grass.
They all removed their drenched outer garments and sat there silently, almost stupefied with fatigue; gratefully drinking in the warmth of what Lulluma had termed the earth-shine, which streamed upon them in sun-like radiance from the broad band of golden light running right round the roof of the high cavern above the island’s protective water channel.
Presently Nahou returned, carrying a big bowl of red metal which Doctor Tisch recognised as orichalcum. Having set it down he took from it first a smaller bowl containing a variety of fresh fruit, then another which held flat round wheaten wafers and, lastly a stack of thin gold plates. As he handed round the latter he tapped the big bowl with his finger. “This is for your pips and rinds and scraps. It is our habit here to consume all waste matter with fire immediately.”
Lulluma then appeared with a large oval dish which had a number of compartments. In its centre there was some sort of meat, already cut into joints and round this were heaped half a dozen kinds of vegetables, some cooked and others raw like the ingredients of a salad.
“I hope you will like this,” she said anxiously. “It is the loin of a small animal which you would call a buck, I think. We breed them in captivity and it is the only kind of meat we have in our island.”
The Doctor beamed. “It smells most tempting Fraulein—but if you have only one kind of meat do you not get very tired of it?”
She shook her head. “We eat it only occasionally—when we feel like a change from fish and fruit. I give it to you to-day because your bodies have need of such nourishment. Fortunately some was killed about a week ago.”
“You have fish here then?” asked the McKay.
“Yes, a dozen kinds which we breed in the lake behind the temple. Eat now, or your food will grow cold.”
Camilla and Nicky exchanged an awkward glance. No knives or spoons or forks had been provided, but Count Axel put out his hand at once and took a small joint of the roast meat in his fingers, just as if he had never seen table implements in his life.
As the others followed his example Nahou smiled; “I know what you are thinking. ‘How strange that a people who eat their meals from gold should pick up cooked food in their bare hands.’ But our life here has been reduced to the essence of simplicity. Gold is unbreakable, does not tarnish and conveys no metallic taint to food; also plates and dishes are essential—but not so knives and forks. The use of them would only mean unnecessary labour and we have no slaves to do our work for us.”
Lulluma squatted down on her heels before them as they ate. Only her admirable manners restrained her curiosity about the visitors. She was longing desperately to question them about themselves but all she said was; “Do you like the flavour of the meat?”
Count Axel threw a bone into the metal bowl and turned to her with a bow as he took another piece. “It is excellent, and your cooking does you honour. You are right too about it being like buck—we should call this venison—and it is regarded as something of a luxury in the countries from which we come.”
“It has a pleasant flavour,” agreed Nahou, “but we have no opportunity to compare it with other meats. That is as well perhaps otherwise we might have become—as you—a people whose staple diet is meat, and that is not healthy. Animal flesh has certain properties which are of the greatest value when taken with discretion, but eaten frequently and in too large quantities meat coarsens the body and leads to many of the internal complaints which are so prevalent among the white races of the upper world.” He too was eagerly awaiting the time when he could hear the story of his guest’s journey, but for the moment confined himself to polite conversation.
Lulluma looked at Count Axel again: “When you have slept,” she said, “you must tell me all about the upper world. I know it only slightly and there is so much that I want to hear.”
“You know it?” he exclaimed, “and Nahou knows it—but how? I confess that I am completely mystified.”
She smiled. “I will tell you—that and many other things—all in good time.”
Nahou removed the meat dish and as they started tasting the fruits, some of which were similar to varieties they knew and others totally different, Lulluma fetched some round goblets made of the halves of cocoanut shells, highly polished and mounted on gold stems.
“Now that you have eaten you must drink,” she said, and poured out for each of them in turn from a golden jug.
It was an opaque greeny-yellow liquid and, as her guests tasted it, they realised that it was some sort of fruit juice—diluted with water, sweet flavoured yet with a refreshing tang which cleansed the palate.
Sally guessed it to be a mixture of limes and grenadillas but there was some other taste in it which eluded her completely.
When they had had all the fruit they needed Nahou went into one of the low buildings and brought back another set of cups. Tiny ones this time, and with them he produced a big flask.
“This is a cordial which will aid your digestion,” he told them as he handed round the cups. “It is rather strong so you would do well to sip it slowly.”
Camilla sipped and choked immediately. The sticky dark-green fluid was not unlike Chartreuse. It was flavoured with flowers and herbs and was highly alcoholic. The fiery spirit sent a warm glow right through her body as it went down.
While Nicky thumped her on the back the McKay sniffed at his tiny cup suspiciously then, having tasted its contents with extreme caution, he suddenly looked up.
“Thank God you’ve got liquor on the island. Well, here’s how!” Next moment he tossed off the cordial, sat with compressed lips and starting eyes for a second, then let out a long drawn sigh of extreme contentment.
“A-a-a-a-h! By Jove—I needed that!”
“Will you have some more?” Nahou proffered the flask but the McKay shook his head.
“Not now thanks. I’ll come again another day if I may. That’s the stuff to give ’em with a vengeance.”
Now that they had eaten their fatigue returned and they all felt terribly drowsy. Nahou glanced at Lulluma and she nodded; then he said: “If you are willing I propose to send you into a dreamless sleep. You have suffered much in your journey here I know and if I do not it may be that hauntings of your recent past will trouble your unconscious minds.”
They showed their acquiescence by a series of sleepy nods, except for the McKay, who did not care for the idea of giving up his free will to anybody, but he remained silent.
“Look now at this gold plate,” Nahou continued, holding
it before him so that the light shone full upon it. They obeyed—except for the McKay who kept his eyes focused on Nahou’s knees a few inches lower down, while he wondered if he had not been a bit of an idiot to refuse another go of that excellent liquor. Lulluma rose and stood behind Nahou where he sat, cross-legged on the ground, placing her left hand on his head. Then the two Atlanteans concentrated, willing their guests to sleep.
“Won’t we get rheumatism sleeping in these damp things?” Camilla asked drowsily, but no one replied to her. A great silence seemed to have descended on the garden again, broken only by the continuous splashing of the water which gushed from the satyr’s head into the pool.
One by one the strangers in Paradise closed their eyes. The light reflected by the golden plate seemed to have obscured everything else and about them spread only a gentle golden radiance. They sank back on to the grass and fell into a dreamless sleep.
The McKay alone remained conscious but he wished to sleep too. Politeness restrained him from saying that he preferred to do so in his own way without any assistance but, seeing the others slumbering he turned over and curled himself up.
Lulluma removed her hand from Nahou’s head. “They won’t wake for a long time,” she said in her own tongue. “They look revolting now don’t they? But when they wake they will have lost some of the horrid lines on their faces and after a bath some of them may not be quite so awful to look at. We had better take off those strange damp clothes they wear.”
Nahou rose to his feet and followed her silently. With gentle care the two Atlanteans began systematically to strip their guests, then to arrange them one by one, as they were denuded of their clothing, in more comfortable attitudes with pillows under their heads. Suddenly Lulluma began to titter. Only the McKay and Doctor Tisch remained to be dealt with and they had just pulled off the latter’s woollen pants.
She held them aloft so that Nahou might also appreciate this strange covering worn by beings from the upper world. He began to laugh too and soon both of them became utterly convulsed and helpless. They were no longer a middle-aged man and grown woman, dominated by the restraint and responsibility which affects most adults, but a pair of beautiful children enjoying an absurd stupendous joke. Lulluma laughed until the tears ran from her lovely eyes down her delicately coloured cheeks, and Nahou began to cough—holding his sides in pain because he had been so shaken by his merriment.
They sat down on the ground and leaned against each other—a little exhausted now but still giving way to new fits of uncontrollable mirth as Lulluma explored the intricacies of Doctor Tisch’s long nether garments.
At last they recovered sufficiently to stand up again, then Lulluma regarded the Doctor’s round protuberant stomach with a surprised stare.
“He’s very fat, isn’t he?” she said solemnly.
Nahou nodded. “Yes, but we will teach him to breathe properly and that will soon reduce his body to normal. Providing of course that Menes permits them to remain here.”
“But he couldn’t do otherwise,” protested Lulluma quickly. “The poor things would all die in the darkness if we forced them to leave the island—and why should they not stay? We have food enough for all.”
“True. We shall have to concentrate our yellow rays on them while they sleep though, and also strengthen that aura about ourselves when we have finished touching them—for they have probably got every sort of horrible disease. Come—help me with the little man who has such a strange red face.” Nahou turned towards the McKay.
He had removed his own coat and Lulluma was only just beginning to unbutton his trousers when he stirred, grunted, and sat up.
“What the thunderin’ blazes—” he began, grabbing at his trousers in outraged modesty. He saw Lulluma bending over him with an amused smile, and then—behind her rounded shoulder—he caught sight of the stark naked bodies of his six friends as they lay sleeping in the sun.
He shut his eyes tightly for a moment then opened them again. Lulluma was still smiling at him.
“Good God!” he ejaculated, “it’s still there—I thought it was a dream but you’re real apparently. Anyhow whatever you are you’re not undressing me!”
“Please,” Lulluma pleaded gently. “Why shouldn’t I. You don’t seem to be deformed at all and you would be so much more comfortable.”
He shook his head firmly. “Very nice of you m’dear and I’m sure you don’t mean any harm, but although I’m not deformed I’d rather not.”
“You did not look at the gold plate as I suggested,” Nahou accused him mildly, “or else you would have been in a deep refreshing slumber.”
“No,” the McKay confessed, “I didn’t. I’m most awfully grateful for all you’re doing for us but I prefer my own way of going to sleep.”
Nahou shrugged his shoulders lightly. “That must be as you wish. No one person ever compels another here. We only help and guide each other where we can, and even in that we use the very greatest discretion in case the other person were offended—for then we should surely die of shame. You have accepted food and drink because you were hungry and thirsty—why then do you refuse my offer to throw you into a healing sleep which will refresh your whole body, now when you are so tired?”
The McKay considered for a moment then he glanced apologetically at the beautiful girl kneeling by his side. “If you don’t mind going for a stroll Miss—er—Lulluma I think I’d like to avail myself of Mr Nahou’s kind offer after all. It seems a sensible suggestion but I’m an old fashioned sort of cuss and with you—er—looking on you know—”
Lulluma felt an intense desire to giggle again. This little man was funnier even than the one they called the Doctor but from her childhood she had been trained to suppress any emotion which might give pain to other people. With a grave smile she stood up.
“Certainly I will leave you if you wish. Forgive me please that I should appear so ignorant of your customs—but I have had so little opportunity to travel yet.”
With a friendly wave of her hand she left them and, gathering up the soiled dishes disappeared behind the nearest block of buildings.
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! we’re not sunk yet—we’ll get back after all!”
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. I am afraid my friend that you must put out of your mind once and for all any hope of being able to return.”
CHAPTER XIX
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 nearby busily stitching at some form of garment.
“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.”
Lulluma jerked his hand with sudden petulance, “She is just passable—but she is nothing like as good-looking as I am!”
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.”
They Found Atlantis Page 29