As the sphere turned further the beam lit up an irregular pile of stones. All their corners and edges were rounded but they still suggested square and oblong blocks of masonry. Opposite the row of columns came a blank space where little was visible except the shadowy outline of more great monoliths in the distance; then a long smooth slope running upwards from the sea bottom at an angle of about thirty degrees and quite different in appearance from it. A dull iridescent sparkle which showed as the searchlight moved across its polished surface made it seem likely that it was a vast slab of granite. The columns appeared again and they had completed the circle.
'We are much handicapped,' remarked the Doctor, 'that the ship above can no longer move us as directed. I haf wished to make a tour of at least an hour before deciding the better place for excavation but we must drill here or not at all—so let us be busy.'
With Count Axel's help the drilling machine was set in motion at the base of the nearest column, which was quite near them. Inside the sphere they could not hear the faintest murmur as it bored into the solidified lava and the indicator on a small dial near the door was the only means of knowing when it had completed the first hole. A charge of explosive was inserted down a tube by an automatic loader, with an electric wire attached which could be reeled out as the bathysphere was drawn up, then the drill was set to work upon another boring.
All the time these operations were in progress fish came and went beyond the windows, flitting like ghostly shadows in and out of the bright beam. A sabre-toothed Viper fish snapped its wicked jaws within a few inches of Sally's face, but on touching the fused quartz, whipped off again, startled perhaps by this invisible barrier. The shrimps at this depth were big fellows eight to ten inches in length. They appeared to be bright scarlet with jet black eyes whereas, at about 1,500 feet the McKay had noticed that they were only pale pink and near the surface a transparent white. Seven black jellies came bobbing along in an uneven row and then a large umbrella-like pink one with luminous spots at the base of each of its threadlike tentacles. Nearly every creature seemed to possess its own lighting apparatus, some having a coppery or silvery iridescence over their whole bodies, others luminous teeth, or portholes in their sides; only the Palid Sailfins and Eels showed no illumination. For an hour, that ghostly shadow dance, lit by displays of ever changing coloured fireworks, went on without a second's interruption, then the Doctor reported the first borings to be completed and Nicky asked Oscar, who had taken over the deck end of the telephone, to have the sphere pulled up 300 feet.
As they ascended the McKay noticed that they were not going up quite straight but at an angle and, for a second, he feared that the sphere would be dashed against the solid wall upon their right.
His mouth set tight as he waited for instant oblivion to overwhelm them. He had just time to think grimly that this was the sort of unexpected calamity which he had visualised, when the wall top came into view six feet away and they passed clear above it. The whole episode was over so quickly that the others had failed even to realise the danger and the narrowness of their escape.
The wires connected with the charges in the bore holes had reeled out automatically as they rose and when they halted the Doctor put his hand on the lever to explode them.
'It's no good I'm afraid.' The McKay shook his head. 'We only remained stationary on the bottom because the drill and the claws held us. The ship is drifting to eastward slightly, and as she is not under power they won't be able to tow us back to the place we've mined.'
The Doctor grunted with disappointment. 'I will explode the charges all the same,' he said after a moment. 'We may see the effect perhaps when we descend again even if we cannot collect the debris.'
No faintest sound came to indicate that the explosion had taken place when the Doctor pressed the lever of the detonator but, just after, the bathysphere lifted slightly as the water was forced upwards, then settled till the cable took its weight again with a very gentle jerk. Nicky requested that they should be lowered and six minutes later they came to rest on the bottom.
They turned the bathysphere on its own axis and could not recognise any of the stone masses as those which they had seen before. A faint cloudiness at one point, seen in the extreme end of the searchlight's beam, indicated the probable direction of their previous position, as the explosion would have pulverised some of the stone and lava into fine dust, but they were too far off to glimpse the row of columns.
Further mining operations were obviously useless so it was decided to rise thirty feet and then drift with the ship. For the next twenty-five minutes they moved very slowly to the westward passing through two huge pillars and then across a comparatively open space, at one side of which great blocks and hummocks were vaguely discernable in the distance.
The McKay estimated that they were drifting at about 200 yards an hour and he explained that in addition to the kedge anchors, which Captain Ardow had thrown out, the bathysphere was acting as a super kedge which assisted in slowing up the ship's movement. Even at this low speed their position must have altered at least a mile and a half since the Doctor and Nicky had found the Atlantean remains the previous afternoon—if they had been shifting steadily in one direction. The wind had changed twice however so the probability was that they were still within a mile of the spot over which the ship had been when Count Axel staged his explosion, but it was possible of course that the ruins of the sunken city covered a much greater area.
A large headed rat-tailed macrourid a foot in length and with at least six lights had paused to peer in at the window when, without warning, the sphere suddenly began to rise.
'Oh, what's happening?' cried Camilla in a frightened voice. 'I do pray that there's not another storm approaching. Ask Nicky—ask why they are pulling us up.'
Nicky asked, paused for a moment, then said with a start, 'Ah—what's that?'
'Tell us. I'd much rather know the worst,' Camilla urged him.
'It's the worst all right,' he muttered. 'Oscar says that Kate's just come on board and wants to see us.'
'Oh heavens 1' exclaimed Sally, 'I knew this would happen. What are we going to do?'
'Steady m'dear,' the McKay took her hand and pressed it. 'Kate won't try and eat you. Besides the tender should be alongside by now and we'll—' He broke off suddenly as he remembered the Bozo was within six feet of him, placed there by Slinger for the special purpose of reporting any further measures against their captors which they might be indiscreet enough to discuss in his hearing.
'How can the tender help? Its crew won't be armed and it would be hours before they could get us assistance. Whereas Kate's there—already—up on deck—waiting for us,' Sally burst out excitedly.
'But what are you so scared he's going to do to you m'dear?'
'Oh, I don't know—I don't know. But he's found out about that will and he'll be furious. You know that horrid cold merciless stare of his.'
'I've got much more to fear than you darling,' Camilla gulped and suddenly burst into tears.
Vladimir did not know how to contain himself any longer. The sight of his so beautiful Duchess weeping in a fit of uncontrollable terror from fear of this bully Kate was too much for him. Bozo was seated immediately in his rear. With a sudden totally unexpected movement he swung round and smashed his great fist into the gunman's face.
Bozo's head was jerked backward and hit the steel side of the bathysphere a terrific crack. His gun slipped from his fingers before he knew what had hit him and he slid down to the floor unconscious, black blood streaming from his broken nose.
The Prince grabbed the automatic and laughed with boyish glee. 'Now,' he declared waving the weapon dangerously in challenge to the world, 'who shall lay a touch upon my pet-lamb. Camilla my so loved remit your fears I beg. Anyone who speaks unpleasantness to you so beautiful I will shoot, yes instantly—just as I would a dirty dog.'
'For God's sake be careful with that thing!' cried the McKay.
'Have no troubles my nice Capt
ain. With firearms I am an intimate, and in shooting I crack like a double dab.'
'Well I congratulate you Prince,' said Count Axel. 'That was a courageous piece of business and admirably executed. This man's pistol may come in handy if the fears of the Duchess and Sally are justified, but I do hope you won't use it except in the last extremity. Remember there will be at least a dozen like it against you and a couple of machine guns as well.'
'I don't see that you've done much good anyhow,' remarked Nicky gloomily. 'It will only infuriate them when they find that you've knocked out one of their men, and we've no means of getting rid of the body even if he were dead. The moment he fails to come out of the sphere and they find him unconscious they'll cover us with their rods and take that one off you.'
'My poor Nicky you are made jealous,' the Prince 192
laughed again, 'because I also can now say "I hit him— didn't I—right on the nose."'
The incident at least had the effect of stopping Camilla's tears and she clung to Vladimir's free arm while she stared out of the porthole; no longer even registering the great lemon yellow Finger Squid they were passing on their way up, but endeavouring to persuade herself that her brave young Roumanian would protect her from Kate's wrath when they reached the surface.
Sally sat silent, clutching the McKay's hand in both of hers and trying to still her fears, while he, Count Axel and the Doctor considered the new position. Although they did not voice their thoughts all three had come to the conclusion that, courageous as Vladimir's action had been, considering that he might well have received a bullet in the back, his bravado would be of little use to them when the bathysphere was hoisted on to its supports. The McKay placed his chief hope in obtaining help through the people on the tender, but he was not acutely worried by Kate's arrival since he could not convince himself that there was any real reason why Kate should have any cause to put them through the mill.
Count Axel was dreading that Vladimir's rashness might precipitate a general massacre and had determined to keep within clutching distance of him directly they left the sphere; in order that he might prevent the Prince using the weapon he had secured unless it came to the unlikely point of their lives being actually threatened.
'Sally,' said Camilla in a low voice.
'Yes, darling?'
'Don't you think we ought to tell them—now.'
'I don't see that it matters dear. When we discussed it we agreed that their knowing would not make the least difference to our chances of escape. But tell them if you like.'
'Well,' Camilla hesitated. 'This is why Sally and I are so frightened. When Kate forced me to sign that will he didn't know that-'
She got no further. They had risen about 800 feet and only just moved on after one of the regulation halts for a tie to be removed. Now, quite unexpectedly, they stopped again.
For a moment they sat silent, expecting their steady up-t.F.A.—G 193
ward progress to be resumed, but nothing happened. The ball continued to hang motionless.
'Ask what is the matter,' said the Doctor. He had a faint but uncomfortable thought that the crane machinery might have jammed.
'What's happened? Anything wrong?' enquired Nicky into the telephone.
Oscar's voice came back in reply: 'Orders from the bridge that we are to let you remain suspended where you are mein Herr.'
Nicky informed the others and, as they pondered silently on this change of plan, he turned back to the instrument. 'Lets have it Oscar—what's the big idea?'
'Wait,' said Oscar. Then, after a pause of quite two minutes, he spoke again in a guttural whisper: 'A warship has arrived. It is British and they have lowered a boat.'
'Good man!' said Nicky, 'keep me posted if you can. With a beaming face he swung round and passed on the news.
'By Jove! ! Then my signals were picked up after all.' The McKay suddenly burst into song.
'What shall we do with a drunken sailor? What shall we do with a drunken sailor? Shave his chin with a rusty razor Early—in—the-'
'Stop!' shouted Sally, among a chorus of excited enquiries. 'What signals?'
'Why,' he announced with modest pleasure, 'I've been morsing from my cabin with the light switch every night since Kate first seized the yacht. Someone was bound to spot the flashes from the porthole sometime—but I didn't hope for much until we crossed the shipping belts on our way South.'
'O! you hero!' Sally's big grey eyes were damp with relief and joyful emotion. 'You never told us a thing about it— you've saved us after all!'
'By Crikey!' Vladimir slapped the McKay on the shoulder enthusiastically. 'You are a black horse and no mess up!'
'What's that,' Nicky asked eagerly at the telephone. Then he turned again: 'Oscar says that a Naval Officer and a party of men have just come on board.'
The McKay winked at Sally. 'Aren't you glad that scoundrel Kate came back now? He's arrived just in time to meet the Navy.'
Count Axel gave a low delighted chuckle. 'It has been an amazing experience and we are no worse after all. Now that the world knows of the hold-up the Duchess's fortune is safe, and while Kate has spent thousands in organising his coup, we have been quietly carrying on our diving just as we planned. All his schemes have gone for nothing while we have actually found Atlantis!'
'The exploration—you will not stop now Gnadige Hertz-ogin—but permit it to go on,' the Doctor asked anxiously.
'Of course, Doctor—of course.' Camilla gave him a gracious smile. 'We will refit as soon as we possibly can and then you shall carry on for just as long as you like.'
He seized her hand and kissed it, while the McKay broke into song once more:
'Hi! Hi! up she rises Hi! Hi! up she rises Hi! Hi! up—she--'
Suddenly the sphere began to move again. Not up—but down. They stared at each other questioningly. To find themselves sinking when they expected to be drawn up at any moment by their rescuers was startling enough but what followed held them silent with a quake of fear.
Instead of being gently lowered at the usual speed of two minutes to a hundred feet, the ball was gathering speed as it went down. Fish, squids, prawns, jellies, sea-snails and shoals of arrow worms began to flash past the windows at an alarming speed.
'Quick Nicky!' yelled the McKay. 'Order them to slow us up—what's that madman on the crane up to?' The appalling thought had flashed into his mind that the undercarriage of the sphere contained a load of dynamite and a couple of dozen fulminate of mercury detonators. If they hit bottom at this pace they would all be blown to hell.
'Stop us!' shouted Nicky into the telephone. 'Stop us, damn you or we'll crash for sure!'
No reply came from the other end, and so it seemed that Oscar had left the instrument. Then he heard a ragged fusillade of distant shots.
'Somethings wrong,' he gasped, 'they're shooting at each other up there.'
About sixteen minutes had elapsed since the bathysphere had started, without warning, on its upward journey. It had risen some eight hundred feet but now, despite the resistance of the v/ater, its weight and that of the eight people in it, caused fish and squids to slither past its rounded sides as it hurtled unchecked at full speed towards the bottom.
Fortunately Sally and Camilla were not aware of the acute danger due to the dynamite stored in its base, and anticipated no more than that it would hit the sea floor with a horrid bump. They were much more concerned in wondering what was going on above.
'Try again Nicky—try again,' Camilla cried anxiously. 'Ask what's happening up on deck.'
'I am,' bawled Nicky, 'can't you hear me—but the swine refuses to answer,' and it was true that he had never ceased to demand or plead for information from his instrument which was now so sinisterly dumb.
The McKay judged that they had dropped at least 700 feet. He knew that the crash must come at any second and then the horrible blackout. It would be almost instantaneous anyway, yet time is an illusion, happy days pass before their full joy is even remotely realised, one
can only savour something of them afterwards in retrospect; and anxious hours drag by while the minute hand of the clock crawls like a snail circling the dial. Who can say, when a man blows his brains out, that the pause between his finger pressing the trigger and the moment when he is really dead may not seem to him like a month of shattering overwhelming agony in which tissue is torn from tissue with unendurable successive and separate spasms of torture as the bullet crashes through his skull. He put his arm round Sally's shoulders then closed his eyes and waited.
Suddenly there was a terrific jolt, they were lifted from their seats for a second, then flung together in a tangled heap.
The bathysphere had been completely arrested in its rapid descent, and hovered uncertainly for a moment.
When they recovered from the shock they realised that the searchlight had gone out.
Nicky screamed down the telephone. He screamed and blasphemed in vain. He knew that the line was already dead.
Camilla clung to Vladimir. He had his two great arms locked round her in a defiant, protective embrace.
The Doctor scrambled to his feet and produced a hand torch. He flashed it at the window, the sphere was sinking again, but more slowly now, it had not had time to gather pace.
After what seemed to be an eternity but was actually no more than a minute they came to rest on the bottom with a gentle bump.
The blue beam from the Doctor's torch, focused on a porthole, penetrated the inky blackness no more than a foot, but into it there swam a new snake-like creature from above. Dead black, no more than three inches thick, and seemingly endless, it passed through the beam in graceful looping curves.
The McKay stared at it with sudden horror. He knew that it was no living thing but the cable coiling down from above as it sank in great festoons about them. It had snapped, and they were trapped there, 900 fathoms down, where no human hand could ever bring them aid.
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