They Found Atlantis lw-1

by Dennis Wheatley

  'Yes,' she snapped, 'what's the meaning of all this?'

  'A little meeting to save you inconvenience tomorrow. Will you be seated—to the left there next to my friend Mr. Slinger. You know each other of course.'

  'So he's your friend, eh?' Sally cried bitterly, 'and he's up and dressed so he's let us in for this.' Her glance flashed murder at Slinger, then it fell on the still form of the Roumanian Prince.

  'Oh, what have you done to him!' She started forward but Oxford Kate waved her back.

  'Don't worry please, Miss Hart. He very foolishly resisted when I sent for him, so my men were compelled to hit him over his thick skull with their rubber truncheons—he will come round in a minute.'

  'You brute!' Ignoring his signal she fell on her knees beside Vladimir just as Camilla was brought into the room.

  'Kate' turned to her at once. 'La Duchessa Da Solento-Ragina?'

  Camilla's face was pale but her eyes were steady. 'What is this?' she asked in a low voice. 'A hold up?'

  Vladimir groaned and Camilla, catching sight of Sally 89

  bending over him, ran to them without waiting for an answer.

  'Oh my poor lamb!' she exclaimed, slipping her arm gently beneath his head.

  His painful grimace gave way to a sudden smile. 'Camilla, it is you! 1 was sprung upon too much but to see you safe is my reimburse for all distresses.'

  'He was the only one who had the pluck to put up a fight,' said Sally, glancing indignantly at the others.

  'My brave Vladimir,' Camilla whispered and, with tears filling her blue eyes for a second, she stooped and kissed him swiftly on the cheek.

  'Very pretty,' sneered the big man at the desk. 'Now, if you've quite finished I would be glad if you would give me your attention.'

  The two girls stared angrily at him but he motioned to a couple of his men. 'Get the Prince up into a chair and if the ladies won't sit down kindly persuade them.'

  As the gunmen advanced Prince Vladimir staggered to his feet unaided and collapsed next to Nicky on the settee. The girls did as they were told without further argument. 'Kate's' eight men took up positions at the entrances of the apartment and he sat down heavily behind the desk again.

  For a moment he remained silent, his hard eyes travelling without a flicker of emotion over each of their faces in turn, apparently assessing and registering the qualities of his prisoners, then he said quietly:

  'My business concerns only the Duchess, but it occurred to me that if I saw her alone, she would pass on some garbled version of our interview to the rest of you immediately she got the opportunity. It is better therefore that you should hear what I have to say then there can be no excuse for any of you men attempting any heroics under the impression that you can prevent me carrying out my decision regarding her.

  'I hope it is obvious to you all that my word is now law on board this ship. Anyone who endeavours to interfere with my wishes will be summarily dealt with. Captain Ardow and his men are in my pay so you need not imagine that you will receive any assistance from the crew——

  'Damn it, man!' the McKay broke in, 'this is worse than piracy!'

  Thanks,' Oxford Kate snapped with equal sharpness. 'If you are thinking of treating me to a dissertation on the punishment meted out to seafaring criminals at Execution Dock in the years gone by you may save yourself the trouble.'

  'It's a kidnapping hold up,' cried Camilla. 'But you're making a big mistake if you think you can extort money from me.'

  'I don't,' he replied evenly. 'That would be crude and my plans have been worked out with considerable care. To begin with, you, my dear Duchess, are going to die.'

  The effect of his words was electric. The whole party stiffened with a cold positive horror. Camilla went deadly white and clutched at Sally. Axel's thin lips contracted in a sudden spasm, Nicky jerked back his legs and sat forward with staring eyes, while the Prince staggered to his feet and let out a roar like a bull.

  One of the gunmen jabbed him in the ribs with an automatic and he fell back with a choking cough on to the settee but, his eyes night-black with rage, he would have struggled up again if the McKay had not held him down by the shoulders from behind for fear that they would shoot him.

  'You can't!' cried Sally wildly. 'You can't!—you can't! Oh, you inhuman devil. She—she'll pay—of course she will,' and she threw her arms protectively about Camilla.

  'Kate' held up his hand for silence but they refused to heed him. Doctor Tisch's face had gone a deep suffused red, as though he was going to have a fit. 'No bloodshed,' he spluttered, 'no bloodshed. Herr Slinger I appeal to you!'

  The McKay released the Prince and stepped from behind him with his chin stuck out. 'Look here,' he said firmly, 'you can't get away with murder on the high seas in these days. Even if you butcher the lot of us, the truth will out, and if your own people don't give you away there are too many hands in the crew for one of them not to split on you. If you think you can make off safely because you've got this ship, you're mistaken. Within a week half the navies in the world will be after you.'

  'If you think that I could not kill her and get away with it you are wrong, my gallant Captain.' The fair man suddenly leaned forward across his desk. 'The Duchess, with her well-known love of excitement, has been sufficiently ill-advised to finance Doktor Herman Tisch's expedition for the rediscovery of the lost continent of Atlantis and become a member of it. You would not know it, of course, but the papers in London and New York are already full of wild statements regarding this unusual cruise. I have seen to that. Now the essential portion of the exploration is to be carried out by a series of descents into the ocean depths in Doctor Tisch's bathysphere. The public has been well informed, by my agents via the press, as to the very grave risk attaching to such courageous descents to the ocean bottom. Should some unfortunate accident occur to the bathysphere when the Duchess is in it no one will be the least surprised. The newspapers will run it as a great story for a week and preach delightful sermons about this beautiful and wealthy young woman who so courageously gave her life in the interests of science. After that there will be silence and no one outside this room would ever have cause for the least suspicion that the Duchess had been murdered.'

  'You, I imagine, have taken steps to become her heir?' Count Axel suggested quietly.

  'Exactly. You are a man of intelligence, Count.'

  'What!' barked the McKay. 'You mean to send her below with a time bomb in that damned thing. God man! You're English! You couldn't do it!'

  'I kill,' shouted Vladimir lurching to his feet again. 'I stamp out this so low swine.'

  The McKay, Axel and Doctor Tisch flung themselves upon him and forced him back before the gunmen could intervene. A storm of horrified protest rose from the others.

  'I won't go,' screamed Camilla, 'I won't! I won't!'

  'Silence!' 'Kate' brought his fist down with a crash on the desk. 'If you were not excitable and would listen instead of interrupting you would have heard, by this time, my true intention.'

  A sudden hush fell among them. The terrifying picture which had been conjured up in all their minds, and made more real by the stony unsmiling determination with which their captor spoke of it in his level cultured voice, had chilled their hearts and frayed all their nerves almost to panic but now, although they could not guess his meaning, something in the tone of his last words seemed to hold a glimmer of hope for Camilla.

  'You are far better looking than I had anticipated, he said gazing at her thoughtfully. 'However, that is beside the point. I kill without scruple when it is necessary—but never wantonly—so if you had been old and toothless I would still have had no objection to your living out your natural span—provided of course that you do exactly as I tell you. It is essential for my purpose that, as far as your friends in New York and London are concerned, you should die within a week.'

  Count Axel released his breath with a sharp sigh and spoke again. 'You mean that the Duchess is only to die officially?'

&nb
sp; 'Yes.'

  A murmur of intense relief ran round among them as the man behind the desk went on.

  'She will die in fact only if she refuses to do as she is told and, in such case you can scream your heads off but, believe me, I'll send her down in the bathysphere and see to it that she never comes up again. What's more I'll send the lot of you with her but, if she signs certain papers in accordance with my directions no one will have anything to fear.'

  'You mean her will? asked Axel.

  'Yes, that and a letter to her New York lawyer which she must write herself.'

  'Then you're planning to rob her of her entire fortune,' exclaimed Sally heatedly.

  'Why take two bites at a cherry,' he replied evenly. 'Do I appear to you the ordinary gangster who risks a long term in Sing Sing for the sake of a few thousand dollars. However many fools may sneer at it there is some benefit to be derived from a decent education.' He fingered his 'old school tie' with grim unsmiling humour.

  'But what's to become of her if you take all her money?' Sally asked bitterly. 'She—she'll starve.'

  He shrugged his broad shoulders. 'Quite a lot of people are starving already through no fault of their own. She has been remarkably fortunate to have had the enjoyment of so much money for so long, and I see no reason at all why she should actually die of hunger. She is doubly lucky in having been blessed with good looks as well as money. I can't take those from her—at least I could—but I have no intention of doing that, so let her utilise them to provide for her future as other women have to.'

  'See here,' Nicky remarked, 'that means you'll have to land us all some place sometime, and it's not going to be so funny for you when the police have heard this story.'

  'You underrate my intelligence, I fear,' 'Kate' sat back and brought the tips of his square blunt practical fingers together. 'Let me outline for you my intentions regarding this interesting cruise. In a few minutes the Duchess will sign her last will and testament and the letter which I require. I shall take these documents ashore and register them through the ordinary post to New York tomorrow, or rather this morning. That is the last you see of me. The cruise will then proceed as previously arranged under Doctor Tisch's guidance. My men however, will remain on board to assist Captain Ardow in his management of the crew and to make quite certain that none of you communicate by wireless or other means with the authorities on shore or passing vessels. The search for Atlantis will develop entirely as planned. Numerous descents will be made in the bathysphere and my friend Slinger will transmit carefully edited reports of each descent over the radio for the use of the press in both hemispheres. On the seventh day from now, by which time the documents will be in the possession of the Duchess's lawyers, an unfortunate "accident" will occur—at least Slinger will wireless a report of it so that the world will learn from the headlines of its newspapers that the beautiful Duchess and her friends, with the exception of Miss Hart, have lost their lives a mile deep in the ocean—and of course her executors will meet to deal with the instructions in her will. This ship will then return to Horta. Slinger will land and hurry to New York in order to give a personal account of the tragedy and convince the lawyers beyond question that the report is genuine. Further he will state that Miss Hart is so upset by the occurrence that rather than face countless interviews with the press she has decided to be landed at an unknown destination and travel incognito until the public interest in the tragedy has died down.

  'Captain Ardow then has his instructions. Having landed Slinger the ship will proceed on a delightful three weeks' cruise to the Falkland Islands. You will all be landed there with a supply of stores sufficient to keep you from starvation. Turning north again the ship will land my men at a small South American port whence they will travel by various means to rejoin me in New York. Captain Ardow will then dispose of this ship at a secret destination. I have never visited the Falklands and I fear that you will find the small uninhabited island upon which we intend to land you a somewhat inhospitable place, but in due course you will doubtless manage to make your way back to civilisation. By that time, however, an ample period will have elapsed for the Duchess's executors to deal with the instructions in her will and, having suitably rewarded my companions, I shall have had an opportunity of distributing her wealth beyond all trace through various intricate channels. Your adventures will probably make a great story for the newspapers in a year or two's time and by then, of course, I shall have disappeared for good and all so that even the underworld of New York will not have the faintest idea as to my whereabouts—any complaints, eh?'

  The McKay's face looked grimmer, greyer, and more lined than ever. He knew those barren rock islands that lie to the northward of the Falkland group. It would be no joke to be marooned on one of those with a couple of women. Ships only passed at rare intervals, a year might well elapse before they could attract attention to themselves or build a boat sufficiently seaworthy to carry them across those rough cold seas to one of the larger, inhabited, islands.

  Count Axel was seeking for faults in the plan which their round-skulled sprucely dressed captor had outlined but he could find no reason why it should not be carried to completion. The utilisation of the public's interest in Camilla's doings to facilitate his coup was a devilishly ingenious piece of business. Countless newspaper readers in both hemispheres had been following the glamorous career of the beautiful millionairess ever since she came of age. They had glowed to the accounts of her romance with Solento-Ragina, devoured the columns of print upon her wedding, almost indecently lapped up the details of her trousseau and her honeymoon, then of her divorce. There had been rumours since of her marrying again, alternating with articles on her choice of underclothes and hats. Now, Oxford Kate had made her front page news again with the story of this expedition and at the same time made the world Atlantis and bathysphere conscious. Her adventurous nature would be stressed and the dangers of the bathysphere diving grossly exaggerated. During the next week, 20,000,000 people would read Slinger's accounts of their hazardous descents into the deep and then the blow would fall. The news of the accident would be flashed to every city in the world within ten minutes of its first being sent out, and why should it occur to anyone for a second to doubt the truth of it when the ground had been so well prepared. Slinger's personal testimony when he arrived in New York a few days later would set the final seal upon it. Count Axel took off his mental hat to Mr. Kate while hoping profoundly that he might yet devise a way to outwit him.

  Nick stood up and faced the desk, his Greek god features distorted to a mask of fury:

  'Two years you say before we'll get back to civilisation. To hell with that! I've got important contracts I can't afford to miss—besides what'll my public do without my pictures? You can't know who I am.'

  'I know quite well who you are,' 'Kate's' hard passionless stare met the indignant eyes of the crooner, 'and if I have any insolence from you young man, I'll get Captain Ardow to put you on a ten hour job a day shovelling coal in the stokehold.'

  Nicky's mouth twisted venomously but he wilted where he stood and flung himself down on the settee again, as 'Kate' turned to Slinger:

  'Have you got that draft letter for the Duchess?'

  'Here it is, Chief.'

  Thanks.' He stood up. 'Now Duchess, will you please come and sit here.'

  Camilla shrunk back against Sally. 'No, no,' she muttered, shaking her head. 'No.'

  'Let me try and persuade you.'

  'It's no use,' she stuttered, 'I can't, I oh—' she broke off suddenly and burst into tears.

  'Come. Surely you do not mean to compel me to take extreme measures?' There was a harshness now in 'Kate's' tone which made them all think again those horrifying thoughts which had come to them when they first believed that he meant to kill her. By giving ample opportunity for that fear to sink well into their consciousness while expatiating upon the ease with which he could do it and get away, he had very skilfully prepared his ground; for now, by comparison the loss, e
ven of her entire fortune, seemed only a minor matter and Sally voiced their feelings when she patted Camilla's hands and said:

  'Go on, darling. Do as he says. This is an awful business but if you sign the papers at least we'll remain alive.'

  That's the ticket, thought the McKay. While there's life there's hope.

  'Would you—would you really, Sally?' Camilla asked tearfully.

  'I would darling—I certainly would if I were you,' and so, owing to 'Kate's' careful manipulation of the sequence of events Camilla sat down with far less fuss than might have been expected to sign away her fortune.

  'This is the letter to your family lawyer whom you call Simon John,' 'Kate' said placing a typed sheet of paper in front of her. 'In so many words it says that in view of the fact that you are setting out today on this expedition, and intend personally to share with others in your party the risk of making numerous descents in the bathysphere, you feel that it is only right to set your affairs in order just in case any unforeseen misfortune should overtake you. There's a little joke about that showing that you think it extremely unlikely. Then you go on to say that you are enclosing a new will embodying your final wishes over which you've been thinking a lot and that the principal alteration in it is owing to your dissatisfaction with the way in which the Hart Institute funds are administered. You add that as it has been drawn up by Mr. Slinger, who did a certain amount of legal work for you in Paris and who of course they know has been handling your personal affairs for the last few months, you feel sure that they will find it all in order. Then there's another little joke about the old man's golf average, and you send your love to that little dog Skip of his you used to be so fond of. It's a nice chatty letter couched as you would write it in ordinary colloquialisms. Now please copy it out in your own hand on this blank piece of headed paper.'

  Camilla dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief, then t.f.*.—o 97