“Oh, I do hope so.” Camilla squeezed her arm. “We’ve all been so wonderfully happy here.”
“We’ll be happy again, m’dear, once this tragedy’s blown over. It’s part of God’s goodness that we’re so made as to forget such things in time.” The McKay spoke with a new confidence and they all felt a little cheered.
The Council of the Gods did not last long. In less than a quarter of an hour the temple doors opened again and the Atlanteans came out upon its steps.
There was a stirring in the shadows by the pool and Nicky roused at last as though he had received a summons. He saw his friends walking in a little group towards the temple and came up silently, unnoticed by them, in their rear.
Menes stood before the temple surrounded by his family. The McKay and the others halted at the bottom of the steps facing him and waited with strained expectancy for the pronouncement which he appeared ready to make.
After a moment he spoke. “On your arrival here from the upper world I was gravely troubled, yet I made no mention of my fears, for to cast shadows is to invite black thoughts which often breed evil actions. We accepted your coming only because in humanity we could not thrust you forth into the darkness again without a trial.
“Blood has now been spilled in anger by one of you, but he is only the instrument symbolising the impurities which have not yet been eradicated from the natures of you all. Had he not struck this blow, sooner or later another of you would have committed a lesser or greater evil; for at our first Council, although we were allowed to accept you, the auguries showed me no state of permanence in your relation with my people.
“This is the judgment of the Council of the Gods, and from it there is no appeal. You have brought lust, and anger, and death, into the Garden, so you must go hence—even as you came—before the morning light appears.”
CHAPTER XXIII
OUT OF PARADISE
The McKay woke in pitch black darkness. He blinked to assure himself that he really was awake and then memory flooded back to him.
He heard again Menes’ terrible pronouncement “You have brought lust and anger and death into the Garden, so you must go hence—even as you came—before the morning light appears.”
He saw his friends distraught and pleading—the Atlantean women covering their faces in pity for them—the men firm and unbending, now that the awful judgment of the Gods had been given for the preservation of their own race from evil.
He recalled every detail of the scene when he had stilled the clamour by yelling for silence. The way he had reasoned and argued with Menes, insisting that he simply could not send them all out to die of starvation or be murdered by the fish eaters and finally—since the old man proved immovable—his ultimatum, that if one hand was laid upon himself or his friends to compel their departure he would blow the Atlantean temple down with dynamite.
After that something queer had happened. The McKay did not quite clearly remember what. Menes’ eyes had seemed to grow very large and bright then his own knees had given way under him—the rest was blotted out.
He thought of Sally. A numb ache seemed to grip him in the stomach. Where was she? What in God’s name had become of her? He rolled over and sat up.
“Darling!” came a swift whisper in the darkness. “Darling—Oh, thank goodness you’ve come round—are you all right?”
The numb ache faded. With unutterable relief he stretched out a hand and found Sally crouching there beside him.
“I’m all right dearest,” he muttered. “But what happened to me?”
Axel’s voice came from a few feet away “Menes hypnotised you and sent you to sleep. He did the same with Vladimir when he tried to fight. The rest of us went quietly because it seemed more sensible to remain conscious so that we could collect food and things, before we left, than to be carried out. We’re all here together.”
“Where’s here?” demanded the McKay.
“About two miles from the island. The Atlanteans escorted us this far and helped us in carting you along.”
“Two miles eh. We’ll go back then and force an entry with the two bombs I’ve got left. Thank God I can feel them still in the pockets of my coat. I suppose some of you dressed me.” The McKay struggled to his feet. “Come on—which way is it. To attack and take the place is our only chance of life.”
“It’s no good,” muttered Nicky. “I got the wind up after they left us here and tried to beat it back to the island. I could see the light in the entrance of this tunnel all right but I couldn’t reach it. My head became swimmy and my legs gave way. Those devils are sitting there and they’ve put up some sort of thought-force barrier like the old man told us his people did ages ago to keep out the fish eaters.”
“They are not devils and they have every right to protect themselves from swine like you,” said Axel with unusual fierceness. “If you do not speak of Lulluma’s people with respect I will choke you.”
“And I with my so great hands will hold him for you Count,” added Vladimir. “The cad pig who runs to make comebacks while our Captain and myself are unable to make defences for our ladies, because we are sleeping as though drug drunk.”
“I didn’t mean to—I was frightened” whimpered Nicky. “I don’t want to die here in the dark—I don’t want to die.”
“Shut up” snapped the McKay angrily.
“You’re brave—I’m not” Nicky protested with a whining snarl. “I know you all blame me for this but what about the Doctor? Didn’t he let us in for the whole business in the beginning? He’s lucky to have got out of it so easily—that’s what I say. We’ll stagger round these passages for a few days until we’ve finished the fruit we’ve brought, then when we’re too weak to resist them those filthy beast men will creep up and eat us. I can’t face it. I can’t—I can’t!”
“Shut up damn you!” roared the McKay. “Aren’t things bad enough without our having to listen to your snivelling!”
“All right! All right!” Nicky muttered then he suddenly gasped “What’s that!” and next second gave a piercing scream.
Vladimir had crept forward fumbling in the darkness and, as his hands touched Nicky, reached up and grabbed him round the neck.
“Help!” gurgled Nicky “He—lp! he’s stran—gling—me.
Camilla had been the first to realise what was happening and she flung herself forward on the struggling pair.
“Vladimir. Stop!” she cried imperatively, wrenching at his great shoulders. “I won’t have you a murderer—for God’s sake stop!”
He obeyed her almost before the others had time to move and turning took her in his arms.
“There—my so beautiful” he soothed her “Our Public Cad Number One is frightened so it gives me pleasure to present him with something to be frightened for. If he opens his teeth again I will kick him as I have often thought to do with both boots of my feet—which someone has put on while I slept.”
“We all got into our original clothes before we came away,’ Axel remarked “and naturally we dressed you and the McKay too. We have our old weapons as well and enough food to last us a week.”
“How about the torches?” asked the McKay. “They’re more important almost than anything. For God’s sake don’t say you forgot them, or have the batteries run down?”
“No, we have them here. I’m economising light—that’s all.”
“That’s sensible enough but isn’t it risky to stay here without showing a flash now and then?”
“That is not necessary” Axel replied softly “we have one blessing at least though I would have robbed you ot it if I could. Lulluma insisted on coming with us. Her mental faculties can penetrate this pitch black night and she will warn us in good time of the approach of anything evil.”
“Lulluma!” exclaimed the McKay.
“I am here,” her low voice came out of the impenetrable gloom close by. “I have not quarrelled with my people and have done my duty to them, giving a man child and a girl so, though they grieved,
they could not refuse to let me go. Your chances will be more than doubled by having me with you and, is it not said in your world above that a woman shall leave all and cleave unto the man she loves?”
“You are a daughter who would make proudness in the heart of Kings!” Vladimir declared while the McKay was left speechless with admiration at her courage but Nicky caught at the word ‘chances’ and muttered churlishly.
“Lulluma and Axel talked about chances early this morning before we left the island. I overheard them—but now we’re out here they say our hopes are slender as a thread.”
“Slender!” cried the McKay. “What in heaven’s name d’you mean! Is there any chance for us at all?”
Axel heaved a heavy sigh. “You mustn’t count on it please. The odds are so terribly against our scheme being practical, but after Menes’ decree last night, when you were all down and out, I thought of it and Lulluma did the rest. She took me to the library—a place that none of us knew of before—in a secret room at the back of the temple. There were hundreds of books there—at least writings done with a fine iron point on sheets of copper.”
“Go on man” urged the McKay.
“Well, we worked frantically all night there and at last we found a plan of the original Atlantean mine workings. You remember what Menes told us about Zakar’s attempt to break out. This is the gallery that he travelled when he made his great effort to reach the mountain peaks still remaining above water that we call the Azores.”
Camilla trembled. “There is a hope for us then. There is a hope?”
“A faint one, no more. Zakar or his companions had actually used the map we found and marked all sorts of things upon it. The water-logged galleries and chambers are clearly etched in. This road to the upper world which he tried to clear had many notes beside it. Lulluma translated them for me. They show the places where he drove the beast men that he had under his control into clearing great falls of rock, sometimes several hundred yards in length. They show too the spot where tragedy overtook him. He was very near the surface then but the passage is still blocked. The Atlanteans of his own generation could not clear it, after he was killed, without slave labour but there is just a possibility that we might succeed by using our dynamite.”
“Good God man! Why didn’t you say this before,” the McKay exclaimed. “Come on now all of you—which way does this passage run?”
Axel flashed his torch to the northwestward but his voice was still heavy with doubt as he went on. “I do beg you all not to count on this. Even if we can blast our way through the blockage that held up Zakar’s friends, there may be others beyond which are quite impassable.”
“No matter,” cried the McKay. “I’ll not throw in the sponge until I know myself we’re sunk for good,” and grabbing Sally’s arm he began to stride along the tunnel.
“Better go steady” Axel advised as he followed with the rest. “We’ve got the best part of ten miles to cover before we even reach the place where the tunnel’s marked as choked and every yard of it will be up hill.”
The McKay checked his pace a little, but pressed on eagerly with a brief remark. “We’ll rest for ten minutes in every hour we have to march.”
For half an hour they progressed, almost in silence, through the long straight upward sloping mine galleries which turned at sharp angles now and again—flashing their torches every few moments—then Lulluma said:
“Be careful. We come to a great chasm soon here.”
Axel’s torch picked it up a hundred yards further on. It was one of the rifts in the earth where the land had sunk. Across a black gulf only a blank wall of rock showed ahead, but Zakar had made steps in the cliff face and clinging to each other in couples they descended into the crevasse.
At a depth of eighty feet or more the tunnel showed again, its entrance supported by great blocks of masonry. They entered it and pressed forward, coming to one of the lofty chambers shortly after.
Here they took their first rest, but Lulluma startled them just as they started off again by saying. “The beast men have been here quite recently. I can feel it. They are not far away.”
Only the occasional flash of a torch stabbed the darkness as they tramped on, but they moved more warily now, filled with apprehension.
A broken section where the roof of a gallery had fallen in impeded their progress for a little and Vladimir swore loudly, having stubbed his toe against a sharp piece of rock.
Another chasm, this time of lesser depth, was negotiated, and then they entered a seemingly endless tunnel which sloped steeply uphill. A mile up it they paused to rest again, but they had hardly regained their breath when Lulluma pressed against Axel and whispered. “The beast men. They have crossed our trail and scented it. They are following us now.”
McKay heard her and called for silence, but although they all strained their ears to listen they could not catch the faintest sound. The very silence of the grave brooded over those chill black catacombs untrodden by man for over a hundred centuries.
“Are you sure you’re not mistaken?” he asked after a moment.
“I am certain” she insisted. “I hear with my mind which is more delicately attuned than any human ear. They are coming after us. The soft padding of their naked feet comes quite clearly to me.”
“All right!” he said. “We’d best move on again.”
After a further mile of uphill going the tunnel ended in another chamber.
“For God’s sake stop,” gasped Nicky as they entered it “the pace you set is frightful. We can out distance those brutes if they come up just as we did before. Let’s take a breather now.”
The McKay knew that from fear of what lay behind them they must have walked the last lap at nearly five miles an hour in spite of the gradient. Sally was panting heavily beside him and Camilla in his rear. Of the women only Lulluma seemed unaffected. Common sense told him that he had got to suit the pace to the weakest members of the party. Reluctantly he halted and announced “Very well then, we’ll take a spell.”
They sat down on the rocky floor and endeavoured to control their laboured breathing but, before the ten minutes were up they were spurred on again.
Faint, almost imperceptible at first, yet gradually quite clearly they heard the steady pad—pad—pad of running feet approaching up the tunnel they had just traversed.
The flickering torches showed that the cavern they were now in had many entrances but Lulluma did not hesitate a moment. With Axel beside her she dived into one and almost unconsciously they all broke from a quick walk into a trot, as they followed.
The floor sloped upward again and it was heavy going. Nicky puffed and laboured in their rear in spite of his boasted fitness.
Another mile, or perhaps two, for they could only judge the distances roughly, was covered, and the sound of following footsteps had died away when Lulluma suddenly exclaimed.
“Be careful—we are approaching another earth rift.”
They dropped back into a rapid walk and, within a few yards, found that her peculiar gifts of judging direction and determining localities in the darkness from her memory of the mine plan, had not deceived her. A crevasse opened up before them.
This time it had no steps to descend in order to reach a continuation of the tunnel lower down. That gaped opposite to them, open and black in the beam of the torches.
In past centuries a bridge of stones had perhaps spanned the chasm but, if so, it had fallen away. The gulf yawned wide and deep at their feet.
“We’ve got to jump it” declared the McKay. “It’s not much over two yards—a child could do it.”
He was not far out in his estimate but eight feet is a lot when a slip means being dashed to death in a fathomless pit shrouded by darkness.
“Give us a lead Sally me’dear!” To ask her to go first was perhaps the most courageous thing he had ever done, but he knew that he had got to get the women over somehow and not even Vladimir could have carried their weight as well as his own in such a ju
mp.
“Stand back” gasped Sally “and I’ll do it!”
She took a run. The McKay’s heart seemed to rise and choke his throat, while the others focused their torches on the opposite edge. Sally sprang high in the air, and landed a good four feet clear over the gap, barking her knees on the hard rock as she fell but in an ample margin of safety.
“Bravo!” called Axel “now the next; Lulluma darling you could jump twice that distance easily.”
Without a word Lulluma took a flying leap and landed on the further brink, where Sally pulled her to her feet.
Camilla had one of the torches and, in flashing it round, noticed a jutting snag of rock waist high in the tunnel wall at their side. She swung out on it as Lulluma reached the other brink and next moment she was over.
Axel and the McKay followed. Only Vladimir and Nicky were left, the latter goggling at the crevasse in horror.
The Prince caught a glimpse of Nicky’s face in the wavering torch light. “Now Public Cad Number One, do you jump or do I kick you” he said with grim delight.
“I—I can’t” stuttered Nicky. “I’m weighted down—the stuff I’m carrying is so heavy.
“What stuff?” snapped the McKay from the further side.
“Food and—and when I overheard Axel talking to Lulluma of a chance to get away I—I took a few souvenirs.”
“Souvenirs!” the biting contempt in the McKay’s voice cut the darkness like a whip, but Vladimir had seized Nicky again and thrust a hand into his coat pocket.
As he pulled it out the torch light showed the dull gleam of gold between his fingers. Then as he opened them they saw in his palm a lump of the rich metal encrusted with precious stones.
“So that’s where he disappeared to just before we left,” Axel exclaimed angrily. “The dirty little thief was busy robbing the temple.”
Vladimir hurled the gem studded piece of gold down into the abyss then he grabbed Nicky by the scruff of the neck.
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