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A BIT OF ATLANTIS 
 
 BY 
 
 Douglas Erskine. 
 1 1 
 
 SUu^tratcb 
 
 BY 
 
 H. JuLiEN AND R. G. Mathews. 
 
 MONTREAL : 
 
 A. T. CHAPMAN 
 
 1900. 
 
Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year 
 1899, by A. T. Chapman, at the Department of Agriculture, 
 
 JOHN LOVELL & SON, PRINTERS. 
 
55SSb 
 
 GN7BI 
 El 
 
 TO 
 
 My Honored Friend 
 
 SIR J. WILLIAM DAWSON, 
 
 c.m.g., ll.d., f.r.s., f.g.s., etc. 
 
 In Grateful Recognition of Wise Counsel and Kindly 
 Encouragement in My Student Days, 
 
 with much respect and esteem, this volume is 
 
 iditated. 
 
 510 
 
CONXENXS. 
 
 Introduction 11 
 
 Chapter I. 
 The Storm 60 
 
 Chapter II. 
 Duvarnay and the de Montvilles 63 
 
 Chapter III. 
 The de Montvilles, continued 59 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 
 The Denesmores 66 
 
 Chapter V. 
 An Eventful Voyage 71 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 A Mysterious Country 77 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 Tlie Mystery Deepens 92 
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 Comfortable Quarters and Strange Recollections 105 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 
 Unwelcome Visitors 113 
 
 Chapter X. 
 A Warm Reception 121 
 
 Chapter XI. 
 Jim, and the Key to the Mystery of the Island 129 
 
 Chapter XII. 
 The Last Will of Atlas, King of Atlantis 138 
 
 Chapter XIII. 
 ITie Treasure Chamber and the King 150 
 
 Chapter XIV. 
 The Doom of the Island 160 
 
 Chapter XV. 
 Without each other the light would have gone from their 
 
 lives 175 
 
 Chapter XVI. 
 The Heritage Returns 183 
 
 Chapter XVII. 
 Down to the Eventide 191 
 
ILIvUSTTRAXlONS 
 
 Altenburgh Castle Frontispiece, 
 
 Profile of Atlantis 10 
 
 Dolphin's Ridge 40 
 
 In the midst of the breakers 62 
 
 A park-like country with magnificent trees 79 
 
 A matchless view 92 
 
 A magnificently imposing structure 95 
 
 A hall or audience chamber of such immensity and magni- 
 ficence 98 
 
 Fiends and dragons and hobgoblins , 124 
 
 A man of majestic form . . 162 
 
 A great column of inky smoke arose from the summit of 
 Mount Royal 162 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The object of this work is suggestive, rather 
 than intended to uphold a theory. While the 
 subject may not be of equal interest to all, from 
 a purely historical or scientific point of view, an 
 element of romance may tend to popularize it, 
 and induce a wider study. 
 
 The author desires to acknowledge his indebt- 
 edness to those who are mentioned in the Intro- 
 duction, especially to the Hon. Ignatius Donnelly, 
 from whose work he received many valuable 
 suggestions, and also Messrs. Harper Bros., of 
 New York, by whose kind permission the profile 
 and maps of " Atlantis" are reproduced. He is 
 also greatly indebted to '* The Cruise of the Chal- 
 lenger," Prescott's Histories of Mexico and Peru, 
 and The Origin of the Aryans, by Doctor Isaac 
 Taylor, for much useful data. 
 
 While this work was going through the press, 
 the death occurred of Sir William Dawson, to 
 whom it is dedicated. A great and good man, 
 he has passed away full of years and honors, 
 leaving the record of a noble life's work well 
 done. 
 
 D. E. 
 
 MONTRKAIv, 1899. 
 
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 "Seldom has punishment, though lame of foot, 
 " failed to overtake the wicked.'* This was an 
 old truth even when Horace so well expressed it, 
 and from the time of Noah's Flood down to the 
 latest offender in the grip of justice, object les- 
 sons, stern and terrible, have never been wanting 
 to emphasize it. Nevertheless, in all ages, men 
 and nations have shown a strange readiness to 
 forget it, untiii they themselves have been over- 
 taken by the "lame" but surefooted avenger. 
 
 In the many expressions of appreciation, 
 which have reached the author, concerning this 
 work, the dominating thought has been the 
 timeliness of the lesson which may be learned 
 from the fate of Atlantis. The world may not 
 be growing worse in the aggregate, but pros- 
 perity and increase of wealth have so often re- 
 sulted in national or individual disaster, that in 
 such a time, of which the signs are presently 
 not wanting^ a dangeir signal can never be 
 amiss. 
 
 The favour with which "A Bit of Atlantis" 
 has been received, and the opinion, expressed 
 in many forms, that it does emphasize this les- 
 son, encourages the belief that, although the 
 signal may be but a rushlight, it may still serve 
 to mark the rocks, on which many goodly vessels 
 have made shipwrecks. 
 
 D. E. 
 
 Montreal, May ist, 1900. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE * 'fabled Atlantis" is a familiar 
 expression, and perhaps one which 
 correctly states the opinion held by the 
 great majority of those who have any 
 opinion on the subject; but ever since 
 the days of Solon there have been those 
 who have stoutly maintained that, far 
 away in the dim past, a mighty Island 
 Empire existed, where now the waters of 
 the Atlantic roll '^a thousand fathoms 
 deep"; which Empire pushed out its 
 civilization and influence, on the one 
 hand into Europe, and across Asia, to the 
 shoreis of the Pacific; and on the other 
 across the Continent of America, until 
 its western borders were bounded by the 
 other side of the same Ocean. 
 
 Plato, in his Dialogues, (Timaeus), 
 has given a most circumstantial account 
 of the Empire of Atlantis up to a certain 
 point; where, however, his story abruptly 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 terminates. After stating that his ances- 
 tor, Solon, visited Sais at the head of 
 the Nile Delta, where he learned from 
 the Egyptian priests many things which 
 had been preserved in their history about 
 what had taken place in ancient times, 
 and particularly how the men of his own 
 city, Athens, had driven back a mighty 
 western nation, which had conquered all 
 others but the Greeks ; he proceeds with 
 the tale which had come down to him 
 from Solon as follows: — 
 
 '^Many great and wonderful deeds are 
 recorded of your State in our histories ; 
 but one of them exceeds all the rest in 
 greatness and valor; for these histories 
 tell of a mighty power which was aggress- 
 ing wantonly against the whole of 
 Europe and Asia, and to which your city 
 put an end. This power came forth out 
 of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days 
 the Atlantic was navigable; and there 
 was an Island situated in front of the 
 straits, which you call the Columns of 
 Heracles; the island was larger than 
 Libya and Asia put together, and was 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 the way to other islands, and from the 
 islands you might pass through the 
 whole of the opposite continent which 
 surrounded the true ocean ; for this sea 
 which is within the Straits of Heracles 
 is only a harbor, having a narrow 
 entrance, but that other is a real sea, and 
 the surrounding land may be most truly 
 called a continent. Now, in the island 
 of Atlantis there was a great and 
 wonderful empire, which had rule over 
 the whole island and several others, as 
 well as over parts of the continent ; and, 
 besides these, they subjected the parts of 
 Libya within the Columns of Heracles 
 as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as 
 Tyrrhenia. The vast power thus gather- 
 ed into one endeavored to subdue at one 
 blow our country and yours, and the 
 whole of the land which was within the 
 straits, and then, Solon, your country 
 shone forth, in the excellence of her 
 virtue and strength, among all mankind; 
 for she was the first in courage and 
 military skill, and was the leader of the 
 Hellenes. And when the rest fell oif 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 from her, being compelled to stand alone, 
 after having undergone the very ex- 
 tremity of danger, she defeated and 
 triumphed over the invaders, and pre- 
 served from slavery those who were not 
 yet subjected, and freely liberated all the 
 others who dwelt within the limits of 
 Heracles. But afterwards there occurred 
 violent earthquakes and floods, and in a 
 single day and night of rain all your 
 warlike men in a body sunk into the 
 earth, and the Island of Atlantis in like 
 manner disappeared, and was sunk be- 
 neath the sea. And that is the reason 
 why the sea in those parts is impassable 
 and impenetrable, because there is such 
 a quantity of shallow mud in the way; 
 and this was caused by the subsidence of 
 
 the island 
 
 *^But, in addition to the gods whom 
 you have mentioned, I would specially 
 invoke Mnemosyne; for all the important 
 part of what I have to tell is dependent 
 on her favor, and if I can recollect and 
 recite enough of what was said by the 
 priests and brought hither by Solon, I 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 doubt not that I shall satisfy the require- 
 ments of this theatre. To that task, 
 then, I will at once address myself. 
 
 **Let me begin by observing, first of 
 all, that nine thousand was the sum of 
 years which had elapsed since the war 
 which was said to have taken place 
 between all those who dwelt outside 
 the Pillars of Heracles and tho^ who 
 dwelt within them; this war I am now 
 to describe. Of the combatants on the 
 one side, the City of Athens was 
 reported to have been the ruler, and to 
 have directed the contest; the combatants 
 on the other side were led by the Kings 
 of the Islands of Atlantis, which, as I 
 was saying, once had an extent greater 
 than that of Libya and Asia; and, when 
 afterward sunk by an earthquake, be- 
 came an impassable barrier of mud to 
 voyagers sailing from hence to the 
 ocean. The progress of the history will 
 unfold the various tribes of barbarians and 
 Hellenes which then existed, as they 
 successively appear on the scene; but I 
 must begin by describing, first of all, the 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Athenians as they were in that day and 
 their enemies who fought with them, 
 and I shall have to tell of the power and 
 form of government of both of them. 
 Let us give the precedence to Athens 
 
 *^Many great deluges have taken 
 place during the nine thousand years, 
 for that is the number of years which 
 have elapsed since the time of which 
 I am speaking, and in all the ages 
 and changes of things there has never 
 been any settlement of the earth flow- 
 ing down from the mountains as in other 
 places which is worth speaking of; it 
 has always been carried round in a 
 circle, and disappeared in the depths 
 below. The consequence is that, in 
 comparison of what then was, there 
 are remaining in small islets only the 
 bones of the wasted body, as they may 
 be called, all the richer and softer parts 
 of the soil having fallen away, and the 
 mere skeleton of the country being 
 left 
 
 *^And next, if I have not forgotten 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 what I heard when I was a child, I will 
 impart to you the character and origin 
 of their adversaries; for friends should 
 not keep their stories to themselves, but 
 have them in common. Yet, before pro- 
 ceeding further in the narrative, I ought 
 to warn you that you must not be sur- 
 prised if you should hear Hellenic names 
 given to foreigners. I will tell you the 
 reason of this; Solon, who was intending 
 to use the tale for his poem, made an 
 investigation into the meaning of the 
 names, and found that the early Egyp- 
 tians in writing them down had trans- 
 lated them into their own language, and 
 he recovered the meaning of the several 
 names and retranslated them, and 
 copied them out again in our language. 
 My great-grandfather, Dropidas, had the 
 original writing, which is still in my 
 possession, and was carefully studied 
 by me when I was a child. Therefore, 
 if you hear names such as are used in 
 this country, you must not be surprised, 
 for I have told you the reason of them. 
 ^ ^ The tale which was of great length 
 
18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 began as follows : — I have before re- 
 marked, in speaking of the allotments of 
 the gods, that they distributed the whole 
 earth into portions differing in extent, 
 and made themselves temples and sacri- 
 fices. And Poseidon, receiving for ,his 
 lot the island of Atlantis, begat children 
 by a mortal woman, and settled them in 
 a part of the island which I will proceed 
 to describe. On the side toward the sea, 
 and in the centre of the whole island, 
 there was a plain which is said to have 
 been the fairest of all plains, and very 
 fertile. Near the plain again, and also 
 in the centre of the island, at a distance 
 of about fifty stadia, there was a moun- 
 tain not very high on any side. In this 
 mountain there dwelt one of the earth- 
 born primeval men of that country, 
 whose name was Evenor, and he had a 
 wife named Leucippe, and they had an 
 only daughter who was named Cleito. 
 The maiden was growing up to woman- 
 hood when her father and mother died : 
 Poseidon fell in love with her, and had 
 intercourse with her ; and, breaking the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 ground, enclosed the hill in which she 
 dwelt all round, making alternate zones 
 of sea and land larger and smaller, en- 
 circling one another ; there were two of 
 land and three of water, which he turned 
 as with a lathe out of the centre of the 
 island, equidistant every way so that no 
 man could get to the island, for ships 
 and voyages were not yet heard of. He 
 himself, as he was a god, found no 
 difficulty in making special arrangements 
 for the centre island, bringing two 
 streams of water under the earth, which 
 he caused to ascend as springs, one of 
 warm water and the other of cold, and 
 making every variety of food to spring 
 up abundantly in the earth. He also 
 begat and brought up five pairs of male 
 children, dividing the island of Atlantis 
 into ten portions ; he gave to the first- 
 born of the eldest pair his mother's 
 dwelling and the surrounding allotment, 
 which was the largest and best, and 
 made him king over the rest ; the others 
 he made princes, and gave them rule 
 over many men and a large territory. 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 And he named them all ; the eldest, who 
 was king, he named Atlas, and from him 
 the whole island and the ocean received 
 the name of Atlantic. To his twin 
 brother, who was born after him, and 
 obtained as his lot the extremity of the 
 island toward the Pillars of Heracles as 
 far as the country which is still called 
 the region of Gades in that part of the 
 world, he gave the name which in the 
 Hellenic language is Eumelus, in the 
 language of the country which is named 
 after him, Gadeirus. Of the second pair 
 of twins he called one Ampheres and the 
 other Evaemon. To the third pair of 
 twins he gave the name Mneseus to the 
 elder and Autochthon to the one who 
 followed him. Of the fourth pair of 
 twins he called the elder Alasippis and the 
 younger Mestor. And of the fifth pair 
 he gave to the elder the name of Azaes 
 and to the younger Diaprepes. All 
 these and their descendants were the in- 
 habitants and rulers of divers islands in 
 the open sea ; and also, as has been 
 already said, they held sway in the other 
 
INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 direction over the country within the 
 Pillars as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenian 
 Now Atlas had a numerous and honor- 
 able family, and his eldest branch always 
 retained the kingdom which the eldest 
 son handed on to his eldest for many 
 generations ; and they had such an 
 amount of wealth as was never before 
 possessed by kings and potentates, and 
 is not likely ever to be again, and they 
 were furnished with everything which 
 they could have, both in city and coun- 
 try. For, because of the greatness of 
 their empire, many things were brought 
 to them from foreign countries, and the 
 island itself provided much of what was 
 required by them for the uses of life. In 
 the first place, they dug out of the earth 
 whatever was to be found there, mineral 
 as well as metal, and that which is now 
 only a name, and was then something 
 more than a name — orichalcum — was dug 
 out of the earth in many parts of the 
 island, and, with the exception of gold, 
 was esteemed the most precious of metals 
 among the^^men of [those days. There 
 
22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 was an abundance of wood for carpen- 
 ters' work, and sufficient maintenance 
 for tame and wild animals. Moreover, 
 there were a great number of elephants 
 in the island, and there was provision 
 for animals of every kind, both for those 
 which live in lakes and marshes and 
 rivers, and also for those which live in 
 mountains and on plains, and therefore 
 for the animal which is the largest and 
 most voracious of them. Also, what- 
 ever fragrant things there are in the 
 earth, whether roots or herbage or woods 
 or distilling drops of flowers or fruits, 
 grew and thrived in that land ; and, 
 again, the cultivated fruit of the earth, 
 both the dry, edible fruit and other 
 species of food, which we call by the 
 general name of legumes, and the fruits 
 having a hard rind, affording drinks and 
 meats and ointments, and good store of 
 chestnuts and the like which may be 
 used to play with, and are fruits which 
 spoil with keeping — and the pleasant 
 kinds of dessert which console us after 
 dinner, when we are full and tired of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 eating"— all these that sacred island lying 
 beneath the sun brought forth fair and 
 wondrous in infinite abundance. All 
 these things they received from the earth, 
 and they employed themselves in con- 
 structing their temples and palaces and 
 harbors and docks, and they arranged 
 the whole country in the following man- 
 ner : First of all they bridged over the 
 zones of sea which surrounded the an- 
 cient metropolis and made a passage into 
 and out of the royal palace, and then 
 they began to build the palace in the 
 habitation of the gods and of their ances- 
 tors. This they continued to ornament 
 in successive generations, every king 
 surpassing the one who came before him 
 to the utmost of his power, until they 
 made the building a marvel to behold for 
 size and for beauty. And, beginning 
 from the sea, they dug a canal three hun- 
 dred feet in width and one hundred feet 
 in depth and fifty stadia in length, which 
 they carried through to the outermost zone, 
 making a passage from the sea up to this, 
 which became a harbor, and leaving an 
 
24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Opening sufficient to enable the largest 
 vessels to find ingress. Moreover, they 
 divided the zones of land which parted 
 the zones of sea, constructing bridges of 
 such a width as would leave a passage 
 for a single trireme to pass out of one 
 into another, and roofed them over, and 
 there was a way underneath for the ships, 
 for the banks of the zones were raised 
 considerably above the water. Now, the 
 largest of the zones into which a passage 
 was cut from the sea was three stadia in 
 breadth, and the zone of land which 
 came next of equal breadth ; but the 
 next two, as well the zone of water as of 
 land, were two stadia, and the one which 
 surrounded the central island was a sta- 
 dium only in width. The island in which 
 the palace was situated had a diameter 
 of five stadia. This, and the zones and 
 the bridge, which was the sixth part of a 
 stadium in width, they surrounded by a 
 stone wall, on either side placing towers, 
 and gates on the bridges where the sea 
 passed in. The stone which was used in 
 the work they quarried from underneath 
 
INTRODUCTION. 26 
 
 the centre island and from underneath 
 the zones, on the outer as well as the 
 inner side. One kind of stone was white, 
 another black and a third red ; and, as 
 they quarried, they at the same time hol- 
 lowed out docks double within, having 
 roofs formed out of the native rock. 
 Some of their buildings were simple, but 
 in others they put together different 
 stones, which they intermingled for the 
 sake of ornament, to be a natural source 
 of delight. The entire circuit of the wall 
 which went round the outermost one 
 they covered with a coating of brass, 
 and the circuit of the next wall they 
 coated with tin, and the third, which en- 
 compassed the citadel, flashed with the 
 red light of orichalcum. The palaces in 
 the interior of the citadel were con- 
 structed in this wise : In the centre was 
 a holy temple dedicated to Cleito and 
 Poseidon, which remained inaccessible, 
 and was surrounded by an enclosure of 
 gold ; this was the spot in which they 
 originally begat the race of the ten 
 princes^ and thither they annually 
 2 
 
26 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 brought the fruits of the earth in their 
 season from all the ten portions, and per- 
 formed sacrifices to each of them. Here, 
 too, was Poseidon's own temple, of a 
 stadium in length and half a stadium in 
 width, and of a proportionate height, 
 having a sort of barbaric splendor. All 
 the outside of the temple, with the ex- 
 ception of the pinnacles, they covered 
 with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. 
 In the interior of the temple the roof was 
 of ivory, adorned everywhere with gold 
 and silver and orichalcum. All the other 
 parts of the walls and pillars and floor 
 they lined with orichalcum. In the 
 temple they placed statues of gold ; 
 there was the god himself standing in a 
 chariot — the charioteer of six winged 
 horses — and of such a size that he 
 touched the roof of the building with his 
 head ; around him there were a hundred 
 Nereids riding on dolphins, for such was 
 thought to be the number of them in 
 that day. There were also in the in- 
 terior of the building other images which 
 had been dedicated by private individuals. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 27 
 
 And around the temple on the outside 
 were placed statues of gold of all the ten 
 kings and of their wives ; and there were 
 many other great offerings, both of kings 
 and of private individuals, coming both 
 from the city itself and the foreign cities 
 over which they held sway. There was 
 an altar, too, which in size and workman- 
 ship corresponded to the rest of the work, 
 and there were palaces in like manner 
 which answered to the greatness of the 
 kingdom and the glory of the temple. 
 
 ** In the next place, they used foun- 
 tains both of cold and hot springs ; these 
 were very abundant, and both kinds 
 wonderfully adapted to use by reason of 
 the sweetness and excellence of their 
 waters. They constructed buildings 
 about them, and planted suitable trees ; 
 also cisterns, some open to the heaven, 
 others which they roofed over, to be used 
 in winter as warm baths ; there were the 
 king's baths, and the baths of private 
 persons, which were kept apart ; also 
 separate baths for women, and others 
 again for horses and cattle, and to them 
 
28 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 they gave as much adornment as was 
 suitable for them. The water which ran 
 off they carried, some to the grove of 
 Poseidon, where were growing all man- 
 ner of trees of wonderful height and 
 beauty, owing to the excellence of the 
 soil ; the remainder was conveyed by 
 aqueducts which passed over the bridges 
 to the outer circles ; and there were many 
 temples built and dedicated to many 
 gods ; also gardens and places of ex- 
 ercise, some for men, and some set apart 
 for horses, in both of the two islands 
 formed by the zones ; and in the centre 
 of the larger of the two there was a race- 
 course of a stadium in width, and in 
 length allowed to extend all round the 
 island for horses to race in. Also there 
 were guard-houses at intervals for the 
 body-guard, the more trusted of whom 
 had their duties appointed to them in the 
 lesser zone, which was nearer the Acro- 
 polis; while the most trusted of all had 
 houses given them within the citadel, and 
 about the persons of the kings. The 
 docks were full of triremes and naval 
 
INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 Stores, and all things were quite ready for 
 use. Enough of the plan of the royal 
 palace. Crossing the outer harbors, which 
 were three in number, you would come to 
 a wall which began at the sea and went all 
 round; this was everywhere distant fifty 
 stadia from the largest zone and harbor, 
 and enclosed the whole, meeting at the 
 mou:h of the channel toward the sea. 
 The entire area was densely crowded with 
 habitations ; and the canal and the largest 
 of the harbors were full of vessels and 
 merchants coming from all parts, who, 
 from their numbers, kept up a multitudin- 
 ous sound of human voices and din of all 
 sorts night and day. I have repeated his 
 descriptions of the City and the parts 
 about the ancient palace nearly as he 
 gave them, and now I must endeavor to 
 describe the nature and arrangement of 
 the rest of the country. The whole coun- 
 try was described as being very lofty 
 and precipitous on the side of the sea, but 
 the country immediately about and sur- 
 rounding the City was a level plain, itself 
 surrounded by mountains which descended 
 
30 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 towards the sea ; it was smooth and even, 
 but of an oblongs shape, extending in one 
 direction three thousand stadia, and going 
 up the country from the sea through the 
 centre of the island two thousand stadia ; 
 the whole regfion of the island lies towards 
 the south and is sheltered from the north. 
 The surrounding mountains he celebrated 
 for their number and size and beauty, in 
 which they exceeded all that are now to 
 be seen anywhere ; having in them also 
 many wealthy inhabited villages, and 
 rivers and lakes, and meadows supplying 
 food enough for every animal, wild or 
 tame, and wood of various sorts, abundant 
 for every kind of work. I will now 
 describe the plain which had been culti- 
 vated during many ages by many genera- 
 tions of kings. It was rectangular, and for 
 the most part straight and oblong; and 
 what it wanted of the straight line 
 followed the line of the circular ditch. 
 The depth and width and length of this 
 ditch were incredible, and gave the 
 impression that such a work, in addition to 
 so many other works, could hardly have 
 
INTRODUCTION. 31 
 
 been wrought by the hand of man. But I 
 must say what I have heard. It was 
 excavated to the depth of a hundred feet^ 
 and its breadth was a stadium every- 
 wht^re ; it was carried round the whole of 
 the plain, and was ten thousand stadia in 
 length. It received the streams which 
 came down from the mountains, and wind- 
 ing round the plain, and touching the City 
 at various points, was there let off into the 
 sea. From above likewise, straight canals 
 of a hundred feet in width were cut in the 
 plain, and again let off into the ditch 
 towards the sea; these canals were at 
 intervals of a hundred stadia, and by them 
 they brought down the wood from the 
 mountains to the City, and conveyed the 
 fruits of the earth in ships, cutting trans- 
 verse passages from one canal into 
 another, and to the City. Twice in the 
 year they gathered the fruits of the 
 earth — in winter having the benefit of the 
 rains, and in summer introducing the 
 water of the canals. As to the population, 
 each of the lots in the plain had an 
 appointed chief of men who were fit for 
 
32 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 military service, and the size of the lot 
 was to be a square of ten stadia each way, 
 and the total number of all the lots was 
 sixty thousand. 
 
 "And of the inhabitants of the moun- 
 tains and of the rest of the country there 
 was also a vast multitude having leaders, 
 to whom they were assigned according to 
 their dwellings and villages. The leader 
 was required to furnish for the war the 
 sixth portion of a war chariot, so as to 
 make up a total of ten thousand chariots ; 
 also two^horses and riders upon them, and 
 a light chariot without a seat, accompanied 
 by a fighting man on foot, carrying a small 
 shield, and having a charioteer mounted to 
 guide the horses; also he was bound to 
 furnish two heavy-armed men, two arch- 
 ers, two slingers, three stone-shooters, and 
 three javelin men, who were skirmishers, 
 and four sailors to make up a complement 
 of twelve hundred ships. Such was the 
 order of war in the royal city ; that of the 
 other nine governments was different in 
 each of them, and would be wearisome to 
 narrate. As to offices and honors, the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 33 
 
 following was the arrangement from the 
 first: each of the ten kings, in his own 
 division and in his own City, had the 
 absomte control of the citizens, and in 
 many cases of the laws, punishing and 
 slaying whomsoever he would. 
 
 " Now, the relations of their govern- 
 ments to one another were regulated by 
 the injunctions of Poseidon as the law had 
 handed them down. These were inscribed 
 by the first men on a column of orichal- 
 cum, which was situated in the middle of 
 the island, at the temple of Poseidon, 
 whither the people were gathered together 
 every fifth and sixth years alternately, 
 thus giving equal honor to the odd and to 
 the even number. And when they were 
 gathered together they consulted about 
 public affairs, and inquired if any one had 
 transgressed in anything, and passed judg- 
 ment on him accordingly — and before 
 they passed judgment they gave their 
 pledges to one another in this wise: 
 There were bulls who had the range of 
 the temple of Poseidon ; and the ten who 
 were left alone in the temple, after they 
 
34 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 had offered prayers to the gods that they 
 might take the sacrifices which were 
 acceptable to them, hunted the bulls with- 
 out weapons, but with staves and nooses; 
 and the bull which they caught they led 
 up to the column; the victim was then 
 struck on the head by them, and slain 
 over the sacred inscription. Now, on the 
 column, besides the law, there was in- 
 scribed an oath invoking mighty curses on 
 the disobedient. When, therefore, after 
 offering sacrifice according to their cus- 
 toms, they had burnt the limbs of the bull, 
 they mingled a cup and cast in a clot of 
 blood for each of them; the rest of the 
 victim they took to the fire, after having 
 made a purification of the column all 
 round. Then they drew from the cup in 
 golden vessels, and, pouring a libation on 
 the fire, they swore that they would judge 
 according to the laws on the column, and 
 would punish any one who had previously 
 transgressed; and that for the future they 
 would not, if they could help, transgress 
 any of the incriptions, and would not com- 
 mand or obey any ruler who commanded 
 
INTRODUCTION. S") 
 
 them to act otherwise than according to 
 the laws of their father Poseidon. This 
 was the prayer which each of them offered 
 up for himself and for his family, at the 
 same time drinking and dedicating the 
 vessel in the temple of the god ; and after 
 spending some necessary time at supper, 
 when darkness came on and the fire about 
 the sacrifice was cool, all of them put on 
 most beautiful azare robes, and, sitting on 
 the ground at night near the embers of the 
 sacrifices on which they had sworn, and 
 extinguishing all the fire about the temple, 
 they received and gave judgment, if any 
 of them had any accusation to bring 
 against any one; and when they had 
 given judgment at daybreak they wrote 
 down their sentences on a golden tablet, 
 and deposited them as memorials with 
 their robes. There were many special 
 laws which the several kings had inscribed 
 about the temples, but the most important 
 was the following: That they were not 
 to take up arms against one another, and 
 they were all to come to the rescue if any 
 one in the City attempted to ovt?rthrow 
 
36 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the royal house. Like their ancestors, 
 they were to deliberate in common about 
 war and other matters, giving the 
 supremacy to the family of Atlas ; and the 
 king was not to have the power of life and 
 death over any of his kinsmen unless he 
 had the assent of the majority of the ten 
 kings. 
 
 " Such was the vast power which the 
 god settled in the lost island of Atlantis, 
 and this he afterward directed against our 
 land on the following pretext, as traditions 
 tell : For many generations, as long as the 
 divine nature lasted in them, they were 
 obedient to the laws and well affectioned 
 towards the gods, who were their kinsmen, 
 for they possessed true and in every way 
 great spirits, practising gentleness and wis- 
 dom in the various chances of life and in 
 their intercourse with one another. They 
 despised everything but virtue, not caring 
 for their present state of life, and thinking 
 lightly on the possession of gold and other 
 property, which seemed only a burden to 
 them ; neither were they intoxicated by 
 luxury, nor did wealth deprive them of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 37 
 
 their self-control, but they were sober, and 
 saw clearly that all these goods are in- 
 creased by virtuous friendship with one 
 another, and that by excessive zeal for 
 them, and honor of them, the good of 
 them is lost, and friendship perishes with 
 them. 
 
 " By such reflections, and by the con- 
 tinuance in them of a divine nature, all 
 that which we have described waxed and 
 increased in them ; but when this divine 
 portion began to fade away in them, and 
 became diluted too often, and with too 
 much of the mortal admixture, and the 
 human nature got the upper hand, then, 
 they being unable to bear their fortune, 
 became unseemly, and to him who had an 
 eye to see they began to appear base, and 
 had lost the fairest of their precious gifts ; 
 but to those who had no eye to see the 
 true happiness, they still appeared glorious 
 and blessed at the very time when they 
 were filled with unrighteous avarice and 
 power. Zeus, the god of gods, who rules 
 with law, and is able to see into such 
 things, perceiving that an honorable race 
 
38 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 was in a most wretched state, and wanting 
 to inflict punishment on them that they 
 might be chastened and improved, col- 
 lected all the gods into his most holy 
 habitation, which, being placed in the 
 centre of the world, sees all things that 
 partake of generation. And, when he had 
 called them all together, he spake as fol- 
 lows: — " Here Plato's history abruptly 
 ends. 
 
 While on a voyage in search of rest 
 and health, as the good steamer '' Kaiser 
 Wilhelm II." sailed over the waters, be- 
 neath which the '' fabled Atlantis '' is said 
 to have been engulfed, and particularly 
 when sailing past the Azores, almost within 
 a stone's throw of the lofty cliffs of Fayal, 
 the varied colors of the rocks recalled 
 Plato's description, and suggested the 
 thought that there might be some founda- 
 tion for the story. 
 
 Be that as it may, the subject has a 
 fascination which is' all its own, and there 
 are questions connected with it which 
 almost seem to require the existence of an 
 Atlantis to explain them. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 39 
 
 That there have been tremendous con- 
 vulsions of nature, by which many parts of 
 the earth's surface which were once dry 
 land are now beneath the ocean, is ad- 
 mitted, and no less an authority than Sir 
 Charles Lyell has made the statement 
 that *' it is not too much to say that every 
 spot which is now dry land has been sea 
 at some former period, and every part of 
 space now covered by the deepest oceans 
 has been land." 
 
 In an able and interesting article on 
 " The West Indian Bridge," by J. W. 
 Spencer, Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 
 LI II, p. lo, the statement is made, based 
 on the depth of the submerged channels 
 or drowned valleys of rivers now flowing 
 into the Atlantic, which can be traced far 
 out beyond the present coast line, that in 
 the early Pleistocene period, or the be- 
 ginning of the great Ice Age, " the West 
 Indian Bridge reached a height of from 
 two to more than two and a half miles " 
 above the present level of the land. 
 
 The deep sea soundings made by 
 H.M.S. '^Challenger" in 1872 and fol- 
 
DOLPHIN'S RID^E; 
 
INTRODUCTION. 41 
 
 lowing years and by the United States 
 ship '' Dolphin " showed a great elevation 
 in mid-Atlantic, in the neighborhood at 
 least of the supposed site of Atlantis, 
 rising some nine thousand feet above the 
 bottom of the ocean, to which the name of 
 the *' Dolphin's Ridge " was given, the 
 greater part of which would be over five 
 thousand feet above sea level if raised to 
 an elevation corresponding to the highest 
 point reached by the West Indian Bridge ; 
 and speaking of which and its connecting 
 ridges Mr. J. Starkie Gardner is of opin- 
 ion that a great extension of land existed 
 in the Eocene period, practically connect- 
 ing the Scilly and Channel Islands, Ire- 
 land and Brittany. Popular Science Re- 
 view^ July, 1878. 
 
 Besides this Ridge, there are other 
 elevations in the Atlantic which may have 
 been outlying islands of the great Island 
 Empire. Among others the Prince of 
 Monaco is said, while on an exploring ex- 
 pedition in his yacht, to have discovered a 
 huo-e mountain in the Atlantic a thousand 
 miles due west from Gibraltar, the top of 
 3 
 
42 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 which is only forty-two fathoms below the 
 surface of the water. 
 
 It has also been stated and argued that 
 the '* Dolphin's Ridge " must at one time 
 have been dry land, inasmuch as its sur- 
 face presents the inequalities, the moun- 
 tains and valleys, which could only have 
 been produced by the agency of water 
 acting above the water level. 
 
 Mr. Ignatius Donnelly has written an 
 exceedingly interesting book called " At- 
 lantis, the Antediluvian World," in which, 
 if his conclusions do not always appear to 
 flow very clearly from his premises, he has 
 collected an immense numberof facts which 
 seem to make the existence of an '' Atlan- 
 tean Empire " more than a probability, 
 and the effect of which is even startling in 
 the similarities shewn to exist between the 
 Old and New Worlds, especially between 
 the Old and the civilizations which ex- 
 isted in Mexico and Peru, which similarity 
 is such that it could scarcely have been 
 accidental or a mere coincidence. 
 
 Frenzel, a German writer, is of opinion 
 that both the Aztecs and the Peruvians 
 
INTRODUCTION. 43 
 
 were of Celtic origin : ** Aber woher kamen 
 
 diese Kelten denn dass es Kelten gewe- 
 
 sen sind,kann nicht mehr zweifelhaft sein,'"^ 
 and he then proceeds to answer the ques- 
 tion by shewing they were probably Irish. 
 
 On the other hand, it has been argued 
 on philological and other grounds by Dr. 
 Vincente Lopez, that the dominant race in 
 Peru was an off-shoot of the great Indo- 
 European Aryan family. Lopez, Les 
 Races aryennes du Perou. 
 
 The commonly accepted opinion con- 
 cerning the Aryans until late years at 
 least, was, that their original home to use 
 the words of Professor Max Miiller, was to 
 be found '' somewhere in Asia " ; and that 
 they had miq^rated westward into Europe. 
 During the last twenty years the opposite 
 theory has been adopted by a number of 
 scholars, including Dr. Schrader, Professor 
 Sayce and several others, who are of 
 opinion that the Aryans were a western 
 people which at some early period occu- 
 pied central Europe, and from there passed 
 
 *But whence came these Celts ? For that Celts were there 
 cannot be doubted. 
 
44 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 into Asia. If the theory of Dr. Lopez is 
 correct, that the Peruvians are of Aryan 
 origin, it suggests the question whether 
 the original home of the Aryans may not 
 have been in Atlantis, if the great Island 
 ever existed, rather than the swamps of 
 central Europe, and from thence spread 
 into Europe on the one hand and into 
 America on the other. 
 
 In his History of the Conquest of Peru, 
 Prescott in the introduction to the book 
 gives a view of the civilization of the 
 Incas, which he has also given of Mexican 
 civilization, in his Conquest of Mexico by 
 the Spaniards, and in both cases it is 
 impossible not to be struck by the remark- 
 able similarity which is there shown to 
 have existed between the institutions, 
 laws and customs of these countries and 
 those of the Old World. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the field which 
 this subject opens up is not only of im- 
 mense extent, but most interesting in its 
 nature. It extends from the mouth of the 
 Ganges to the Pacific Coast of America. 
 It takes in the Aryan controversy, and the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 45 
 
 question of who were the mound-builders 
 of the Mississippi Valley, and even 
 suggests the thought, that those ancient 
 Atlanteans may have sailed up the 
 Mississippi River, and by this means 
 reached Lake Superior, and there carried 
 on those tremendous mining operations of 
 which no one has hitherto been able to 
 offer any satisfactory explanation, or say 
 who were the people by whom these 
 works were executed ; but it is a strange 
 thought indeed which is sugg^ested, that 
 perhaps the bronze celts, now found in 
 Europe, may have been fashioned in the 
 Island of Atlantis, out of the copper of 
 Lake Superior and the tin of Cornwall. 
 
 It is not the purpose of these pages to 
 attempt an answer to these questions, but 
 rather to give, in the form of a narrative of 
 adventure, the substance of some of the 
 opinions which have been held concern- 
 ing the Empire of Atlantis. The *' Last 
 Will of Atlas, the King/' is in fact a 
 summary of these opinions and state- 
 ments. 
 
 For the setting of the story various cir- 
 
46 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cumstances have been utilized, and the 
 events described kept, for the most part, 
 within limits which have been paralleled 
 by actual occurrences. 
 
 As an example of this, it might be sup- 
 posed that the description of the treasure 
 chamber of Atlas was an exaggeration, 
 and more than an improbability, but the 
 description given in Prescott's History of 
 the Conquest of Peru, pp. 46 and 47, of 
 the treasure collected in the great temple 
 at Cuzco, shows that such a storehouse of 
 treasure would have excited no astonish- 
 ment among the Incas. The temple itself 
 was called the '^Coricancha," the place of 
 gold. The interior of the temple is 
 described as being ''literally a mine of 
 gold/'* On the western wall there was a 
 representation of the Deity in the form of 
 a human countenance, engraved on " a 
 massive plate of gold, of enormous dimen- 
 sions, thickly powdered with emeralds and 
 precious stones/' Even the gardens of the 
 temple contained representations of plants 
 and flowers and animals of gold; and it is 
 stated by Prescott, page 221, that the gold 
 
INTRODUCTION. 47 
 
 which was carried away by the Spaniards 
 on one occasion alone, was of the value of 
 about fifteen and a half millions of dollars. 
 
 Reference might be made to other inci- 
 dents. The repulse by a British expedi- 
 tion in Africa of a native attack, by 
 discharging rockets into the bushes where 
 the enemy had concealed themselves, 
 suggested the line of defence against the 
 cannibals, while the '' Rock Chambers," in 
 the " Mountain of Refuge," find their 
 counterpart in the galleries of Gibraltar, 
 the Caves of Ellora, or the great rock- 
 hewn temple of Mitzla in Central America. 
 
 Perhaps the statement which may seem 
 the most improbable is that which says 
 the ^' Mountain of Refuge " was fortified, 
 and that guns were mounted upon it, which 
 commanded the entrance to the harbour, 
 but even this was purposely introduced 
 as coming within the range of opinions 
 which have been expressed concerning the 
 achievements of the Atlanteans. Mr. 
 Donnelly, in the work already mentioned, 
 page 447, suggests the idea that the in- 
 vention of gunpowder may date back to 
 
48 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Atlantis ; and, further, that the Cyclopes, 
 instead of being supposed gigantic human 
 beings with a single eye in the middle of 
 their foreheads, were in reality great war- 
 ships, armed with some explosive material 
 in the nature of gunpowder. 
 
 The Story of Atlantis is, comparatively 
 speaking, an unfamiliar tale ; but, whether 
 it be that it is fiction or fact, there is a 
 strange fascination in the thought that the 
 cradle of our civilization was in a great 
 island, midway between America and 
 Europe, and that for untold ages it has 
 been buried hundreds of fathoms beneath 
 the waters of the Atlantic. Stranger 
 things have come to pass than that the 
 story should be found to be true, or even 
 that the ^' Dolphin's Ridge," situated as it 
 is in the prolongation of the great fire belt 
 of Southern Europe, may yet be brought 
 up from the depths of the ocean by some 
 mighty convulsion of nature ; but, however 
 that may be, there are, to quote Mr. Don- 
 nelly again, '' a thousand converging lines 
 of light from a multitude of researches 
 made by scholars in different fields of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 49 
 
 modern thought " which bear on the ques- 
 tion, and are well worth investigating on 
 their own account, and if it should be that 
 this humble attempt to fill in the spare 
 moments of a holiday shall have the 
 effect, in any measure, of directing atten- 
 tion to them, it will to that extent at least 
 have served a useful purpose. 
 
 Str. « Kaiser Wilhelm II.," 
 Off the Azores, Dec, 1895. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 The Storm. 
 
 ©N the 2 1 St of September, i8 — , a furi- 
 ous storm arose to the South-East 
 of the Azores, and moved in a westerly 
 direction across the Atlantic. Even in 
 those tempestuous latitudes the storm was 
 unprecedented, both in its violence and 
 duration. When it had passed, but few 
 of the vessels, unfortunate enough to be 
 in its path, were still afloat, and, for the 
 most part, those which eventually reached 
 port did so as shattered wrecks. 
 
 During the whole of the day and night 
 of the 2ist and the next day, the storm 
 continued to rage with unabated and even 
 increasing violence, until the driving mist 
 and blinding spray seemed to mingle sea 
 and sky together, so that the light was 
 shut out even at mid-day, and the dark- 
 ness of the night was as blackness which 
 might be felt. 
 
THE STORM. 6t 
 
 About midnight, on the 22nd, on the 
 deck of a vessel which had thus far es- 
 caped the almost universal destruction 
 wrought by the storm, the feeble light of a 
 ship's lantern shining through the window 
 of a deckhouse showed, but scarcely more 
 than in shadowy outline, the figure of a 
 tall and powerfully built man bending 
 over the wheel as he held the ship on her 
 course, and kept her driving before the 
 storm. 
 
 In the deckhouse were two persons, a 
 girl of about twenty, kneeling at the win- 
 dow and gazing out into the darkness^ 
 while an old negro woman, sitting on the 
 floor in a corner, was rocking herself to and 
 fro in helpless terror. 
 
 There was no one else in sight, for these 
 three persons had been alone on the ship 
 since the afternoon of the 21st. With 
 scarcely the possibility of escape before 
 them, and much less so without an officer 
 or sailor on board to navigate the ship, 
 they had waited through a night and a 
 day, expecting each moment the destruc- 
 tion which seemed inevitable. But as the 
 
52 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 hours passed and their sturdy little vessel 
 continued to ride the waves as buoyantly 
 as ever, thus showing that she was still 
 sound and seaworthy, the solitary helms- 
 man began to indulge some faint hope 
 that she might yet survive the storm, es- 
 pecially when towards midnight some les- 
 sening of its violence began to be percep- 
 tible ; bat scarcely had this reached the 
 point where the hope of escape became 
 more than a possibility, when they were 
 met by a new danger from which escape 
 seemed impossible, for without any warn- 
 ing, a tremendous wall of glistening white 
 rose up before them, shining out even 
 through the blackness of the storm and 
 the night. A roar, which drowned the 
 howling of the wind, burst upon their ears, 
 and the ship, seeming for an instant to 
 stand still like a living being in terror, 
 sprang forward as though tossed by the 
 hand of a giant, and they were in the 
 midst of the breakers. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 DUVARNAY AND THE DE MoNTVILLES. 
 
 A BOUT fifty miles from the City of 
 Ta Montreal, on the border of a 
 quiet Canadian village, stood the old 
 manoir of the Duvarnay Seigneury, a 
 massive structure of gray limestone, half 
 castle and half fortress, which overlooked, 
 from the rising ground on which it was 
 built, a wide expanse of forest, valley and 
 river surrounding the manor, and be- 
 yond, over miles of rich and fertile farms, 
 held by the censitaires of the Seigneury. 
 
 The Seigneur was Archibald de Mont- 
 ville, the fourth of the name who had 
 held it, the first having been his great 
 grandfather, Atalyn de Montville, who 
 came into possession of the Seigneury in 
 1764. 
 
 Atalyn de Montville was a younger 
 son in an ancient and famous Scottish 
 family, which still retained the prefix 
 
54 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 common in the time of Robert Bruce ; 
 but, although his elder brother was heir 
 to a title and vast estates, with princely- 
 revenues, his fortune was limited to a 
 few thousand pounds, inherited from his 
 mother. Thus it was that when, at the 
 age of twenty-three, he graduated from 
 the University of St. Andrews, he found 
 himself faced with the question of his 
 future. He had no liking for either the 
 Church, the Army or the Indian Service, 
 the usual refuge in those day for younger 
 sons, and other vocations open to them 
 were but few. 
 
 While he was still anxiously consider- 
 ing the question, a friend of the family, 
 an officer who had served under Wolfe at 
 Quebec, returned home, and through 
 this circumstance de Montville's atten- 
 tion was directed to Canada. Careful 
 enquiry resulted in his deciding to visit 
 the New World, and, after a favorable 
 voyage, he arrived at Montreal on the 
 2ist of June, 1764. 
 
 Having letters of introduction to the 
 Governor, as well as others in Montreal, 
 
DUVARNAY AND THE DE MONTVILLES. 55 
 
 he found himself at once very agreeably 
 situated, and every facility afforded him 
 for obtaining the information which he 
 required. At the end of a month he had 
 fully decided to remain in Canada, and 
 further, to acquire a tract of land in some 
 suitable locality and people it with 
 settlers from his native country. 
 
 The next step was to decide on the site of 
 his proposed settlement. Within a com- 
 paratively short distance of Montreal, at 
 that time, the virgin forest extended in 
 almost every direction, broken only here 
 and there by some border settlement, 
 where a Seigneury, standing as an out- 
 post of civilization, carried the boundaries 
 of the colony beyond the immediate 
 neighborhood of the cities. 
 
 In order that he might obtain reliable 
 information, as to the conditions which 
 were necessary to success in such an 
 undertaking, which was an altogether 
 new and strange experience to him, 
 de Montville, with characteristic Scotch 
 caution, determined to visit some of these 
 settlements, and obtain this information 
 through personal observation. 
 
56 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 But while he was still occupied with 
 preparations for his expedition, an alto- 
 gether unexpected circumstance occurred, 
 through which he was at once relieved of 
 the pioneer work, which the opening up 
 of a new settlement would have entailed. 
 
 A few days before his intended depart- 
 ure from Montreal, de Montville met 
 Rodolphe Duvarnay, one of the best of 
 that grand old French Noblesse, which 
 was the embodiment of all that made for 
 courtesy, courage and honor. No one 
 held a higher place in the Councils of 
 New France, or had more worthily earned 
 the place which he held, than had Du- 
 varnay ; and the Seigneury, one of the 
 largest and richest in Canada, had been 
 granted him not only for the purpose of 
 extending the settlements and reclaiming 
 the country from the wilderness, but in 
 recognition of his services to the State as 
 well. 
 
 Taking up the work with his usual 
 energy and ability, the forest soon gave 
 place to smiling fields of waving grain, 
 and the borders of the settlement enlarged 
 
DUVARNAY AND THE DE MONTVILLES. 57 
 
 year by year, as the industrious settlers 
 from his native France continued to swell 
 the list of his censitaires, A magnificent 
 manor of stone gave an air of permanence 
 to the settlement, and furnished a place 
 of refuge for the colonists in the event of 
 a hostile attack ; but in the respect and 
 esteem in which the good Seigneur was 
 held, not only by his own people, but by 
 the Indians as well, the settlers had a 
 defence which was infinitely stronger than 
 the stone walls of the manor. To these 
 children of the forest he was the *^ Great 
 Father " to whom they came with all their 
 difficulties, and never failed to receive the 
 advice and assistance which they required. 
 As the years passed, the settlement^ 
 directed by Duvarnay himself, for no- 
 where did he find such a charm as in the 
 midst of his family and surrounded by his 
 devoted people, continued to prosper until 
 it was excelled by none in New France. 
 But evil days had come to Duvarnay. 
 His only son, as well as his nephew, had 
 fallen with Montcalm on the Plains of 
 Abraham, where he himself had been 
 4 
 
68 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 SO severely wounded, that evenatthe time 
 when he met de Montville he was still an 
 invalid. Three years later there came 
 a deadlier blow in the death of his wife, 
 who had never recovered from the shock 
 which the death of her son and the injury 
 to her husband had caused her. Now, 
 left with his daughter Adele, the only 
 remaining member of his family, with 
 shattered health, and only painful memor- 
 ies, when Canada was formally ceded 
 to Britain, he had determined to dispose 
 of his Seigneury and return to France, 
 to escape from surroundings by which 
 he was constantly reminded of his loss. 
 
 This being the position of affairs when 
 he met de Montville, it was soon 
 arranged that the latter should visit the 
 Seigneury, which he did without delay. 
 There his decision was quickly arrived 
 at. He purchased it from Duvarnay, 
 and when the latter sailed in September 
 to visit his native France, it was to 
 return again, which he did to end his 
 days with his children, for he had left 
 Adele in Canada, still the Lady of Du- 
 varnay, and the wife of Atalyn de Mont- 
 ville. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The de Montvilles, Continued. 
 
 A RCHIBALD de Montville had two 
 ^i\ children, Atalyn and Adele, the 
 latter when our story opens being in 
 her twentieth year. Tall, graceful, and 
 faultless in feature, she had all the dark. 
 Southern beauty as well as the charm 
 and vivacity of Adele Duvarnay, with the 
 sterling qualities of her Scottish fore- 
 fathers. From them she had inherited 
 her good, strong common sense and 
 capability, which was happily combined 
 with the quick and ready sympathy of 
 her ancestor whose name she bore. 
 From childhood she had displayed an 
 earnest and intense desire to be of use to 
 others, especially to the suffering and 
 the unfortunate, and her purpose in this 
 respect, always carried out in an emi- 
 nently practical manner, won for her the 
 love and gratitude of all with whom she 
 came in contact. 
 
60 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 Atalyn, her brother, was at that time 
 twenty-four years of age, six feet high, 
 well built and athletic-looking ; with the 
 fair complexion of his father's family, 
 he looked every inch a typical Saxon 
 who would be equal to any emergency 
 which might arise. When at rest his 
 strong, earnest face had a habit of 
 thoughtfulness which almost approached 
 reserve, and so much so that it was only 
 when circumstances called them forth, 
 that his rare intellectual strength and 
 attainments became apparent. From his 
 earliest years his character and conduct 
 had been irreproachable, but for this he 
 took no credit to himself, for, through a 
 happy combination of qualities in his 
 nature, the usual temptations and pitfalls 
 in the path of youth possessed no attrac- 
 tion for him, and it was in reality a 
 cause of constant surprise to him, that 
 any one should find such pursuits worth 
 a moment's thought. 
 
 But while this was the case, when he 
 chose, none of his companions could 
 surpass him in their schoolboy games or 
 
THE DE MONTVILLES,—(ConHnued,l 61 
 
 athletic contests, and not a few of his 
 feats of strength and skill remained the 
 standard with his school-fellows, even 
 after they had reached manhood. 
 
 It was, however, but rarely that he 
 chose to take part in them. His ruling 
 passion was an intense thirst for know- 
 ledge, and in the pursuit of it he found 
 his most congenial occupation. 
 
 The manor of Duvarnay could boast 
 of what was comparatively rare in those 
 days, a well-selected library, part of 
 which had been brought to it by Duvar- 
 nay himself, and which had been added 
 to by all the de Montvilles, with the ex- 
 ception perhaps of Archibald, who had 
 but little taste for literature or learning. 
 While still a schoolboy, Atalyn had read 
 and re-read everything in his own lan- 
 guage to be found in Duvarnay, and as 
 he progressed in his studies he gradually 
 became as familiar with the French 
 authors and the classics as he was with 
 the English works. 
 
 But not only had he a remarkable 
 aptitude for science and languages, he 
 
62 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 had what is rarely combined with it, the 
 power of making a practical application 
 of the knowledge which he acquired. He 
 had ^*the head to plan and the hands 
 to execute." He followed investigation 
 with experiment, and in his workshop 
 were models and designs without num- 
 ber. The machinery in the Village mill 
 was much more familiar to him in all its 
 details than it was to the miller himself, 
 and when a steam engine was installed 
 in a newly built factory in the village his 
 workshop soon boasted a working model, 
 and even with improvements upon it. 
 
 About the same time a work on the 
 then unfamiliar subject of electricity 
 came into his possession, and following 
 his study of it, he constructed a machine 
 which differed in no way in principle 
 from a modern dynamo. 
 
 It is not strange that unusual ability, 
 coupled as it was with great persever- 
 ance and a determined will, should have 
 placed Atalyn far in advance even of 
 those much older than himself, nor that 
 among the simple village people he 
 
THE DE MONTVILLES.—iConHnued.) 6j^ 
 
 should have come to be regarded with 
 wonder, and, after an experience with his 
 electrical machine, with a certain degree 
 of fear; but what was strange and un- 
 accountable was the fact, that his worthy 
 father from the first regarded Atalyn 
 and his pursuits with the strongest dis- 
 approval. Archibald de Montville was 
 a man of strict integrity, but with exceed- 
 ingly narrow and utilitarian ideas. Al- 
 though he could find no fault with 
 Atalyn's conduct, nor point to a task un- 
 completed, he saw in his studies, and 
 even in the steam engine and the dynamo, 
 only a waste of time and good materials. 
 Even when he graduated from Mc- 
 Gill University with a record which 
 placed him far above the highest point 
 up to that time attained by any one at 
 graduation, and which settled his reputa- 
 tion even then as a scientist, Archibald 
 de Montville, while secretly gratified, 
 was careful not to spoil his son by let- 
 ting his satisfaction be known to him, or 
 in any way admitting or recognizing his 
 success. 
 
€4 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 Atalyn had thus from his earliest 
 years a painful element in his life. He 
 had a strong nature, but it was intensely 
 sensitive and sympathetic, and he craved 
 sympathy most of all from his own. His 
 mother, it is true, regarded him with 
 affection and honest pride, but with the 
 cares and worries of her every-day duties, 
 she had but little time to give to him. 
 Thus he was forced more and more, as 
 his attainments carried him further, to fill 
 his life with his studies; but with it all 
 his life was a lonely one, and he was in 
 danger of being carried out of touch with 
 humanity altogether. 
 
 But, fortunately, at the time when he 
 most needed it, he was brought in con- 
 tact with the magnificent master mind of 
 the Principal of McGill University.* At 
 that time, still a young man himself, 
 and fully in touch with young men, he 
 was strong, well balanced, with an almost 
 boundless grasp of knowledge, yet withal 
 simple, tender and sympathetic; his was 
 
 *Sir William Dawson, whose death occurred while this work 
 was in press. 
 
THE DE MONTVILLES.—iContinued.) 65 
 
 exactly the influence which Atalyn requir- 
 ed at the most critical period of his life, 
 and when he graduated the good Principal 
 had in Atalyn, as, in after years, he had 
 in many others, his reward in seeing him 
 leave the College halls strong, noble, 
 well furnished, and fitted to exert an in- 
 fluence for good wherever his lot should 
 be cast. 
 
 But there was another bright spot in 
 the wilderness of Atalyn's experience. 
 If he lacked the appreciation of the other 
 members of his family, he had in Adele 
 an earnest and enthusiastic champion. 
 Fully capable of appreciating his ideas 
 and his work, she was heartily in sym- 
 pathy with him through it all ; and when 
 after having completed his studies at the 
 University, he decided to take a further 
 course in Paris, no one more heartily re- 
 joiced in the prospect of wider opportuni- 
 ties thus opened up before him, or more 
 sincerely mourned his departure, than did 
 his devoted sister. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Denesmores. 
 
 IN Paris, Atalyn continued his investi- 
 gations, chiefly into the then almost 
 unknown subject of electrical science, in 
 which he had, from the time his attention 
 was first directed to it, taken a deep in- 
 terest. As he became more familiar with 
 it, he also became profoundly convinced 
 that it was a subject of the greatest im- 
 portance, and that it would in time prove 
 capable of almost boundless application. 
 The electric machine which he had 
 evolved at Duvarnay was developed and 
 improved, until he at length succeeded in 
 producing a really excellent and quite 
 workable electric light, and demonstrated 
 the fact that it could be applied to pur- 
 poses of the greatest usefulness. 
 
 As has, however, been so often the 
 case, his success was regarded in some 
 quarters with anything but favor. There 
 
THE DENESMORES. 67 
 
 were those who could not see anything- 
 worthy of their approval in the alleged 
 discoveries of the young Canadian. They 
 had settled the question, that electrical 
 science, so called, was a myth, and that 
 there was nothing in connection with it 
 which was capable of being turned to 
 practical account. The president of a 
 learned Society even prepared and read 
 an exhaustive paper on the subject, in the 
 course of which he demonstrated, to the 
 satisfaction of himself and those who 
 were like minded, that electric illumina- 
 tion was impracticable, and no one with 
 the slightest claim to the name of 
 scientist could ever admit that it was, or 
 would ever become a possibility ; but 
 when the applause which greeted his 
 effort had subsided, and one of a number 
 of young men who stoutly championed 
 Atalyn and his work, and without his 
 knowledge had prepared the way to 
 cover the learned president with con- 
 fusion, arose and gravely announced that 
 the paper to which they had listened had 
 been read by the light of an electric 
 
€8 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 lamp, the fickle audience which had so 
 loudly applauded the man of science now- 
 indulged in uproarious laughter at his 
 expense, in which the whole of Paris 
 joined as the story became known, and 
 through it de Montville became the lion 
 of the hour. 
 
 Atalyn was not at all anxious for 
 notoriety, but this incident resulted in 
 his being brought into contact with many 
 whom he would not otherwise have met. 
 Among those who heard the story was 
 Sir George Denesmore, an English 
 Baronet, who was himself a scientist of 
 no mean order, and who, through this 
 incident, became acquainted with de 
 Montville and his discoveries, with the 
 importance of which he was at once most 
 profoundly impressed. 
 
 Besides this, he found in the electric 
 light exactly what seemed to meet a diffi- 
 <:ulty in his own experience, and, as a re- 
 sult of his enquiry, he arranged before 
 leaving Paris that two of the new electric 
 machines, with all their necessary attach- 
 ments, should be constructed for him. 
 
 But it was not only as a scientist that 
 
THE DENESMORES. G9^ 
 
 he felt interested in Atalyn. In the few 
 weeks of their acquaintance in Paris, a 
 strong feeling of respect and regard grew 
 up for the young man, by whom it was 
 heartily reciprocated, and when he left 
 Paris it was agreed that when his young 
 friend had completed his studies he 
 should visit Sir George before returning 
 to Canada. Accordingly, a few months 
 later, Atalyn crossed the Channel, and in 
 due time arrived at Eumaling Castle, 
 where he received a hearty welcome. 
 
 Sir George had always taken a deep 
 interest in the welfare of the masses in 
 his native country, and had done much to 
 ameliorate their condition. In Parlia- 
 ment, as the representative of the division 
 where his estates were situated, he had 
 succeeded in placing many laws on the 
 Statute Book by which their condition 
 was improved. On his own estates the 
 tenantry were given advantages and 
 opportunities possessed by but few in 
 those days, with the result that they were 
 happy and prosperous, and the revenues 
 of the estates were incidentally very 
 greatly increased besides. 
 
70 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 Some three years before his visit to 
 Paris, Sir George had taken up a more 
 extensive scheme for the benefit of his 
 less fortunate fellow-countrymen. Being 
 convinced that the inhabitants of the 
 more congested districts in England 
 would have greater opportunities for im- 
 proving their condition in the New World 
 than at home, he had obtained a grant of 
 a large tract of land in a healthy and fer- 
 tile region in the interior of British 
 Guiana, on which he had already estab- 
 lished a considerable number of settlers. 
 
 A town, which he named Eumaling, 
 had been laid out on the shore of a large 
 lake, which formed the headwaters of a 
 tributary of the Essequibo River, and 
 which at its western extremity was bound- 
 ed by an almost perpendicular wall of rock 
 several hundred feet in height, over which 
 a river, flowing down from some lake far 
 up in the mountains fell in a magnificent 
 cataract, which Sir George determined 
 should furnish the power to illuminate 
 the streets and dwellings of Eumaling, by 
 means ofde Montville's electric machines. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 An Eventful Voyage. 
 
 \ V«yHEN Atalyn arrived at Eumaling 
 YY Castle he found Sir George alone. 
 Lady Denesmore had been for some time 
 in feeble health, and, on the advice of the 
 family physician, had gone to Guiana on 
 Sir George's steamer, the ** Essequibo," 
 by which he kept up communication 
 with his colony. Their daughter, Ka- 
 therine, their only child, was, at the time 
 of his arrival, in London, preparing for 
 the voyage to Guiana with her father 
 by the '* Essequibo " on her return, which 
 was then daily expected. 
 
 Atalyn soon found himself as deeply 
 interested in the colony as was Sir 
 George himself, and entered heartily into 
 the work in which he found the latter 
 engaged, of selecting the cargo for the 
 next voyage of the steamer. In this his 
 experience in Canada was of the greatest 
 value, as he thoroughly understood the 
 
72 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 conditions which obtained in a new 
 country, and what was necessary and 
 useful in such a case. This was so ap- 
 parent that before he had been many 
 days at Eumaling, Sir George found 
 himself relying almost altogether on the 
 judgment and experience of his young 
 friend, who, later, much to the satisfac- 
 tion of the former, decided to accompany 
 them on their intended voyage. 
 
 In due time the ** Essequibo " arrived, 
 by which date the cargo had also been 
 selected, the dynamos received from 
 Paris, and everything was ready for the 
 voyage. 
 
 But with her arrival a new and alto- 
 gether unexpected state of affairs was 
 revealed. Although possessed of an 
 ample fortune, Sir George during the 
 past year, had found his colony a some- 
 what serious burden. He had antici- 
 pated that the expenses of such acolony 
 would have, to a large extent, to be 
 provided at the beginning, but he had 
 hoped and expected that with the har- 
 vest, which was m prospect, he would 
 
AN EVENTFUL VOYAGE. 73 
 
 obtain some relief. Instead, however, 
 of these expectations being realized, the 
 reports which he received by the steamer, 
 concerning the position of affairs in the 
 colony, were of a most serious and even 
 alarming nature. 
 
 Whether through mismanagement or 
 otherwise, the colonists had neglected to 
 cultivate their ground, or take any steps 
 whatever to provide for themselves, and 
 unless supplies were sent to them from 
 England the prospect was that in a few 
 months they would be in want. 
 
 But even more serious than this was 
 the fact that liabilities had been incurred 
 in various ways, which Sir George found 
 would tax his resources to the utmost, 
 and by reason of which it was imperative 
 that he should remain in England, until 
 he had succeeded in making provision 
 for the necessities which had so unex- 
 pectedly arisen. 
 
 In his trouble he turned almost in- 
 stinctively to Atalyn, and found, to his 
 relief, that the young man was in every 
 way as capable of acting with judicious 
 5 
 
74 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 promptness and decision in such an 
 emergency, as he was in dealing with a 
 difficult problem in science. To him the 
 probable source of the trouble appeared 
 to be a lack of system and management, 
 which required that some one capable of 
 dealing with such conditions should at 
 once be placed in charge of the colony, 
 with full authority to deal with them as 
 might be found necessary. Sir George, 
 who saw the wisdom of this conclusion, 
 requested Atalyn to further assist him in 
 selecting a person qualified to deal with 
 the case, and when the latter expressed 
 his willingness to proceed at once to Gui- 
 ana by the *' Essequibo," and endeavor 
 to improve the condition of affairs in the 
 settlement, he felt that the heaviest part 
 of his burden had been removed. 
 
 Such changes in the supplies, which 
 the altered condition of the colony had 
 made necessary, were quickly made, and 
 Atalyn was furnished by Sir George with 
 full authority to act as appeared neces- 
 sary, to meet the difficulties which he 
 should find on his arrival at Eumaling. 
 
AN EVENTFUL VOYAGE. 75 
 
 But Sir George had another source of 
 anxiety. Lady Denesmore's [health had 
 not improved, and from the report of the 
 *'Essequibo's " captain, who was an old 
 and trusted friend of the family, it was 
 clear that her condition was becoming" 
 even critical. 
 
 This made it appear absolutely neces- 
 sary that Katherine should join her 
 mother without delay, and the good cap- 
 tain strongly urged that she should do so. 
 Accordingly, accompanied by her faith- 
 ful old attendant, Dinah, she sailed on 
 the **Essequibo" when she left for 
 Guiana, which she did as speedily as 
 possible, without taking the colonists 
 who had intended going, as Sir George 
 had decided not to send out any further 
 settlers until the affairs of the colony 
 were placed in a more satisfactory posi- 
 tion. 
 
 On the sixth day after she sailed, the 
 **Essequibo" encountered the storm of 
 the 2 1 St Sept. On the afternoon of the 
 same day the crew were seized with a 
 sudden panic, the officers who attempted 
 
'16 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 to restrain them were overpowered and 
 thrown overboard in the struggle, and 
 then the terror-stricken cowards, rushing 
 to the boats, crowded into them as they 
 were lowered, only to be swamped as 
 they reached the water, and thus, almost 
 before our friends were aware of what 
 had occurred, they were left alone on the 
 ship. 
 
 Atalyn, reaching the deck as the last 
 of the boats disappeared, sprang to the 
 wheel and brought the steamer up before 
 the wind. Throughout the night and 
 during the next day, and until midnight, 
 he held her before the gale ; and then, 
 when at the moment they were dashed 
 into the breakers, and no escape seemed 
 possible, the steamer suddenly glided out 
 of the storm into waters calm as a lake ; 
 there came the reaction from the tremen- 
 dous strain of the past thirty-six hours, 
 exhausted nature could endure it no long- 
 er, and he fell unconscious on the deck. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 A Mysterious Country. 
 
 p/HEN Katherine, who was still at 
 the window of the deckhouse, saw 
 Atalyn fall, she hastily summoned 
 Dinah, and with her assistance placed him 
 on a couch in the house. Dinah quickly 
 and skilfully applied such remedies as 
 were available, and they soon had the sat- 
 isfaction of seeing him fall into a natural 
 and healthy sleep, from which he awoke, 
 fifteen hours later, feeling none the worse 
 for his experience in the storm, and ready 
 to do ample justice to the tempting repast 
 which Dinah had prepared, but which 
 was somewhat hastily despatched in his 
 anxiety to learn more about their sur- 
 roundings. 
 
 From the deck it was seen that they 
 were in an immense bay or harbor, some 
 three miles in width from east to west, 
 by two miles from north to south. The 
 
78 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 Steamer had drifted up to the north-east- 
 ern corner of the harbor, and now lay at 
 what appeared to be a point of land which 
 extended into the water, and really formed 
 a wharf or quay where she was fully pro- 
 tected from any storm which might arise. 
 
 The western side of the bay was shut in 
 by a high rocky ridge, which curved round 
 to the south, and ended abruptly in a 
 bold headland, three hundred feet high, 
 at the edge of a channel a quarter of a 
 mile in width, leading out through the 
 reefs which extended from the shore, and 
 by which channel the steamer had en- 
 tered the harbor. 
 
 On the east, a perpendicular wall of 
 rock, a thousand feet high, extended for 
 two miles from north to south, and, as they 
 afterwards discovered, formed a mountain 
 two miles in length, by one mile in width 
 at its widest part, somewhat oval in shape, 
 with perpendicular walls on all sides, and 
 apparently, like Mount Roraima in Brit- 
 ish Guiana, an inaccessible mass of rock, 
 which, from its resemblance to the latter, 
 Katherine had already named Roraima. 
 
A MYSTERIOUS COUNTRY. 79 
 
 Like its namesake, it had a stream of 
 water flowing from its summit, which fell 
 in a curtain of mist to the ground on 
 the northern side of the mountain, and 
 ran in a sparkling stream in a north- 
 easterly direction to the sea. 
 
 To the north of the harbor, the land 
 rose from a beach of smooth white sand, 
 with an easy ascent, extending several 
 miles in an open, somewhat undulating 
 and park-like country, with magnificent 
 trees scattered over it in groups, and 
 clumps, or singly, while beneath them 
 the ground was covered with soft, velvety 
 grass as smooth as a lawn. Everywhere, 
 as far as the view extended, the place had 
 the same well-kept appearance, from 
 which it seemed to follow, as a matter of 
 course, that they had been driven by the 
 storm to some civilized country, and that 
 they might expect to see the inhabitants 
 at any moment. 
 
 Besides this, there was what appeared 
 to be even stronger evidence than the 
 general appearance of the country that 
 the place was inhabited, for they could 
 
80 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 see, in various directions, herds of cattle 
 grazing, or standing idly beneath the 
 trees, while near the base of the mountain 
 were flocks of all the varieties of fowls 
 usually found in a carefully stocked poul- 
 try yard. But, while all these things 
 seemed to leave no doubt but that there 
 were human inhabitants, the complete 
 absence of dwellings or buildings of any 
 description was to our friends a most un- 
 accountable circumstance, especially as 
 the point where the steamer had landed 
 appeared to be the place where the usual 
 surroundings of an ocean port would be 
 found. 
 
 The steamer had drifted to the quay in 
 the night, and consequently had been in her 
 comfortable berth during the whole day ; 
 but although her tall masts could be easily 
 seen for a very considerable distance, the 
 day passed and night fell without a hu- 
 man inhabitant having appeared in sight. 
 
 Atalyn was not without a feeling of 
 anxiety, for, although they had seen 
 neither men nor wild beasts, he was by no 
 means certain they were not to be found ; 
 
A MYSTERIOUS COUNTRY. 81 
 
 and if there were human inhabitants, it 
 appeared to him that if they were disposed 
 to be friendly, they would have approached 
 the steamer during the day, while, if, on 
 the other hand, they were hostile, they 
 might attack them in the darkness. 
 
 It was, however, impossible to move the 
 steamer away from the land, for, in addition 
 to everything else, she had gone into the 
 dock-like space, where, in fact, her keel 
 rested on the sandy bottom at low tide and 
 held her fast, and, in view of this, he 
 determined to keep watch, which he did, 
 but the night passed without incident or 
 disturbance of any kind. 
 
 The next morning, after discussing the 
 strangely mysterious state of affairs over 
 the breakfast table, he decided, in order to 
 ascertain more about the place, to go to 
 the top of a hill about half a mile from the 
 landing, and from which an extensive 
 view could be obtained of the surrounding 
 country. He determined, however, when^ 
 he set out to the hill, to leave his com- 
 panions on the steamer, as they could not 
 foresee what dangers might be encoun- 
 
^2 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 tered while away, and it was with some 
 anxiety they saw him set out on his ex- 
 pedition. But, while it was considered 
 advisable that they should not accompany 
 him, Katherine made what preparations 
 were possible to render assistance should 
 it be required. Atalyn's first care had 
 been to lay out some firearms which were 
 -on the steamer, so that they would be 
 available in case of attack. These she 
 brought on deck to be ready for use, and 
 then, taking a position where she could 
 watch his progress, awaited his return. 
 
 Katherine Denesmore was always equal 
 to an emergency. She was now twenty years 
 of age, and from her childhood had been 
 accustomed to a free, outdoor life ; equally 
 at home in the saddle or pulling an oar, 
 -she was besides an excellent shot, and an 
 expert on the golf links which she had 
 established at Eumaling Castle, after a 
 visit to Scotland. In appearance she was 
 unusually striking. Above the average 
 height, with a straight, graceful figure, 
 dark hair and eyes and classic features, 
 which her outdoor life had tinted with the 
 
A MYSTERIOUS COUNTRY. 83 
 
 bloom of health, she presented, as she 
 stood on the deck and swept the country 
 with a telescope, a rarely attractive pic- 
 ture. 
 
 But while she followed these outdoor 
 pursuits with intense delight and en- 
 thusiasm, they were not by any means the 
 things which were first or highest in her 
 estimation. In her studies and in acquir- 
 ing the accomplishments necessary and 
 usual for one in her position and station, 
 she had been as diligent and enthusiastic 
 as she was in her recreations ; but, most 
 of all, she was beloved for her goodness 
 of heart, her sympathy and kindness, and 
 the magnificently practical way in which 
 she carried out her desire to be of use, 
 and to render assistance wherever it was 
 required. No hut was too poor or mean 
 for her to visit and minister to the sick 
 or unfortunate, and no poor neglected 
 child too squalid or uninviting looking, to 
 be outside the range of her sympathy and 
 help. Thus, while it was not strange that 
 she should be a universal favorite with her 
 companions and friends, she was almost 
 
84 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 worshipped by those whose heavy bur- 
 dens she was constantly endeavoring to 
 lighten, and many and sincere were their 
 expressions of regret, when it became 
 known she was to leave Eumaling Castle, 
 even for a time. 
 
 Through the trying experience of the 
 storm she had calmly awaited the course 
 of events, watchingr for any opportunity of 
 rendering assistance, and ready when it was 
 required. In the same way, she had pre- 
 pared for the possibility of enemies being 
 encountered by Atalyn, on his expedition 
 to the hill-top, and then quietly awaited 
 either the enemy or his return. ^ 
 
 In less than an hour he arrived again 
 at the steamer, without having met with 
 an adventure of any kind. From the hill 
 top the view extended for several miles 
 to the north, on the east to the sea, and 
 westward to the rocky ridge which protect- 
 ed the harbor, and which was continued for 
 some distance northward. But nowhere 
 was a human being to be seen, although 
 he carefully examined the whole of the 
 country within his view with a telescope. 
 
A MYSTERIOUS COUNTRY. 85 
 
 The cattle scarcely stopped in their graz- 
 ing to look at him in passing, and even the 
 herds of deer and the birds showed no 
 alarm when he approached them. 
 
 Among the trees he saw fruits of every 
 description to be found in the tropics, 
 growing in the greatest profusion, while 
 gorgeous flowers bloomed on every side. 
 The grass, closely cropped by the animals, 
 grew in a smooth thick turf, as soft as a 
 velvet carpet, while through this enchant. 
 ing region the stream from the mountain 
 wound its way, here sparkling brightly in 
 the sunlight as it fell over some pebbly 
 descent, and there widening into a cool 
 pond, until it reached the sea. 
 
 Having satisfied themselves that there 
 were no enemies to be feared, at least in 
 their immediate neighborhood, our friends 
 now turned their attention to another cir- 
 cumstance which had from the first excited 
 their curiosity, and they now felt should be 
 investigated. In the solid walls of Mount 
 Roraima, on the western and northern 
 sides, which at the point where the 
 steamer lay were at right angles to each 
 
86 A BIT OF ATLANTIS, 
 
 Other, and formed a sharp corner, there 
 were a number of window-like openings at 
 regular intervals, and on the northern side, 
 at a point about fifty yards from the 
 steamer, a larger opening, like an arched 
 doorway, about six feet wide by eight in 
 height, and twelve feet from the ground. 
 
 There were no signs of life about these 
 openings except the flocks of rock pigeons 
 and other smaller birds which flew in and 
 out of them, from which Atalyn judged 
 that they were otherwise uninhabited. 
 
 In any case it was most important that 
 our friends should ascertain, whether or not 
 they had any neighbors in their immediate 
 vicinity, and to this end Atalyn, by means 
 of a ladder from the steamer, cautiously 
 ascended to the doorway, and seeing no 
 enemies, advanced into it, and found him- 
 self in an entry or vestibule about twenty 
 feet square, with an arched roof springing 
 from each side to the centre, where it was 
 fifteen feet in height. 
 
 Opposite the opening by which he had 
 entered, there was a massive door which 
 stood partially open, and which led into a 
 
A MYSTERIOUS COUNTRY. 87" 
 
 much larger chamber, the size of which he 
 could not determine without some means 
 of lighting- it, as it evidently extended for 
 some distance into the mountain. 
 
 He was, however, satisfied that the rock 
 chambers were uninhabited, except by the 
 birds which had built their nests within 
 them. The dust lay thickly on the floors, 
 unmarked by footsteps except his own, 
 and there was nothing to break the silence 
 but the fluttering of wings when some of 
 the birds flew in or out, which they con- 
 tinued doing without being disturbed by 
 his presence. 
 
 Having ascertained this much, he de- 
 scended, and then, after providing them- 
 selves with lanterns and other necessary 
 articles from the steamer, the whole party 
 ascended the ladder, which he drew up 
 after them and left in the first chamber, 
 after which they lighted the lanterns and 
 passed through the inner door, into an im- 
 mense hall cut out of the solid rock, which 
 they found was a hundred feet in length 
 by almost eighty feet in width, and with a 
 roof so lofty, that the light of the lanterns, 
 failed to reach it. 
 
€8 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 The floor of this chamber was smooth 
 and level, and covered with a fine dust 
 ■which lay unbroken and unmarked, except 
 where the prints of their own footsteps ap- 
 peared. In the western side of the cham- 
 ber there was a doorway leading into a 
 wide hall or corridor, which extended to- 
 wards the harbor, and between which 
 and the northern side of the mountain 
 were a series of chambers of different 
 sizes, lighted by the openings or windows 
 which they had seen from the outside. 
 
 At the end of the hall there was a larger 
 chamber which occupied the corner of the 
 mountain, and in which there were win- 
 dows looking out, both on the harbor and 
 northwards on the landscape in that direc- 
 tion. On the south and east sides of this 
 chamber were doorways leading into 
 smaller rooms, all of which were perfectly 
 lighted and ventilated by the windows in 
 the rocky walls. 
 
 At the end of the corridor, where it 
 opened out on the large central chamber, 
 the entrance was closed by a massive door 
 of bronze, as was also that to the large 
 
A MYSTERIOUS COUNTRY. 8;) 
 
 chamber from the vestibule, and both of 
 which doors were found to be in perfect 
 order. 
 
 When our friends had completed their 
 exploration they were almost speechless 
 with amazement. There could now be 
 no doubt but that at some period a people 
 capable of executingr the most tremendous 
 works had occupied the country. But 
 when ? And who were they ? And why 
 had they so unaccountably disappeared ? 
 The mystery was only deepened by what 
 they had seen, for the stupendous nature 
 of the work required to excavate the 
 chambers in the living rock, could only be 
 compared to some of those marvellous 
 achievements of the ancient Egyptians, 
 which can scarcely be paralleled in the 
 present day, even with the aid of all the 
 appliances which are now available. 
 
 But, if no satisfactory answer was as 
 yet forthcoming to the questions which 
 arose in their minds, Atalyn quickly 
 realized the value of the discovery which 
 they had made. The rainy season was 
 fast approaching, indeed it might be said 
 6 
 
90 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 to have already commenced, and the 
 steamer would afford them, at best, but a 
 very inadequate shelter from the tre- 
 mendous storms, which frequently pre- 
 vailed during- that part of the year. In 
 the rock chambers they would be safe, 
 and protected not only from the weather 
 but from enemies of almost every kind as 
 well, for, when the bronze doors were 
 closed and fastened from the inside, no 
 one could force an entrance to the cham- 
 bers, unless they were provided with 
 artillery. 
 
 Returning to the large central hall, they 
 found a small room on the eastern side of 
 the vestibule, out of which a much larger 
 one opened, and both of which were also 
 lighted by windows as on the other sides. 
 In the larger of these rooms they found 
 still further cause for surprise. At the 
 end opposite the entrance, a bronze pipe, 
 about eight inches in diameter, extended 
 from the floor up through the roof, and 
 near the floor were a number of openings 
 to which distributing pipes could be at- 
 tached, and which were now carefully 
 closed. 
 
A MYSTERIOUS COUNTRY. 91 
 
 It was evident that the purpose of the 
 pipe was to convey a supply of water to 
 the chambers, and from this it was ap- 
 parent that it must extend to the top of 
 the mountain where the water supply was 
 to be found. 
 
 But there was before them other evi- 
 dence of the high achievements and skill 
 of the people who had once lived in this 
 strange country. From the side of the 
 room a wide stairway, which was also cut 
 in the rock, led upwards with broad steps 
 and an easy ascent. Twenty-five feet from 
 the floor there was a landing forming a 
 wide platform, with seats cut from the 
 stone, and lighted by windows in the walls. 
 From it the next flight of steps ascended 
 in an opposite direction to the first, and 
 thus continued until it reached the top, 
 and ascending which our friends at length 
 passed through an opening in the rock, 
 closed by a door of bronze, similar to that 
 which closed the entrance from below, 
 and found themselves on the top of the 
 mountain, a thousand feet above the sea. 
 
CHAPTER VII, 
 
 The Mystery Deepens. 
 
 J7ZR0M the top of the mountain a match- 
 1 less view extended in every direc- 
 tion. On the east and west was the 
 sea almost at their feet. To the north 
 the landscape for a distance of about five 
 miles was apparently the same in its 
 general character, as they had observed in 
 the neighborhood of the mountain. The 
 rocky ridge on the western coast was con- 
 tinued northward, and gradually spread 
 and widened out in a series of hills and 
 valleys until it reached the eastern coast. 
 There it terminated, about fifteen miles 
 from Roraima, in a mountain on which 
 Atalyn, by an almost involuntary exclama- 
 tion, bestowed the name of Mount Royal, 
 as he recognized the familiar outlines of 
 the well-remembered eminence at Mont- 
 real, beneath whose shade his college days 
 had been passed. The bold bluff at its 
 

 " From the top of the mountain a matchless view extended 
 in every direction," p. 92. 
 
THE MYSTERY DEEPENS. 93 
 
 western end was apparently about the 
 same height as that on which they stood, 
 and, sinkinqf away in graceful undulating 
 lines from its highest point, it reached the 
 level of the sea at the eastern coast. 
 
 But it was not only the features of the 
 landscape before them which attracted 
 their attention, for their position was now 
 more clearly revealed than it had been 
 hitherto. Beyond the mountain was the 
 sea. They were on an island of no great 
 extent, with no other land in sight, even 
 from the lofty height on which they stood, 
 and, although they had a sound and sea- 
 worthy steamer at command, they knew 
 that without assistance they could not 
 safely venture to escape from it. 
 
 There was that, however, which even 
 more strongly attracted them in another 
 direction. The top of the mountain was 
 an almost level plain, with here and there 
 a slight eminence, which varied what 
 would otherwise have been monotonous. 
 
 Around the edge or margin of the plain 
 was a wall six feet high and ten feet wide, 
 cut for the most part from the solid rock, 
 
94 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 and where there were irregularities in it, 
 built of huge stones cut and fitted so 
 accurately, that it was with difficulty they 
 could be distinguished from the rock itself. 
 
 The whole mountain top had evidently 
 been laid out by a landscape gardener of 
 matchless skill, which was even then ap- 
 parent on every side. 
 
 A quarter of a mile from the entrance 
 to the stairway, and about midway be- 
 tween the two sides of the plain, there was 
 a small lake almost circular in form, and 
 some three hundred yards in diameter. A 
 stream of water flowing out of the lake in 
 a carefully constructed channel, ran past 
 the door at the stairway to the mountain 
 side, where it fell in the cataract which 
 was seen from the deck of the steamer, 
 while a small side channel, also cut in the 
 rock, led to the top of the pipe by which it 
 was conducted to the chambers below, but 
 which was now closed by a bronze cap 
 carefully fitted on the top of it. 
 
 Around the margin there were what ap- 
 peared to be lookout stations in the wall, 
 and in the garden-like enclosure, which 
 
> 
 
" A mai?iiiftceiitly iniyo-sin? structurs 
 high above the surrounding trees," p. 95, 
 
 rising 
 
THE MYSTERY DEEPENS. 95 
 
 practically included the whole of the 
 mountain top, were trees and shrubs, with 
 fruits and flowers of every description, 
 growing in the greatest profusion. Be- 
 neath the trees there was the same smooth, 
 grassy turf which was seen in the other 
 parts of the island, while scattered about 
 in all directions they saw herds of small 
 deer feeding on the rich grass, and alto- 
 gether undisturbed by their presence. 
 
 But beyond the lake, and almost in the 
 centre of the mountain top, they saw what 
 had filled them with amazement and ad- 
 miration, from the moment they passed 
 through the door from the stairway. On 
 a mound, somewhat elevated above the 
 general level, was a magnificently imposing 
 structure, built of some clear white material 
 and rising high above the surrounding 
 trees, by which the lower parts of the 
 building were to some extent concealed. 
 From the place where they stood there 
 was nothing to indicate that the building, 
 whether palace or temple they could not 
 tell, was a ruin ; on the contrary, it ap- 
 peared to be perfect in every particular, as 
 
96 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 though it were only then fresh from the 
 hands of its builders. 
 
 But here, as elsewhere, notwithstanding^ 
 the unmistakable evidence which was af- 
 forded of the presence of civilized human 
 beings at some former period, there was 
 the same unaccountable absence of any- 
 thing to indicate that they still remained 
 on the island. The dust lay thickly and 
 undisturbed in the chamber at the top of 
 the stairway, as it did in those below. The 
 animals and birds manifested no alarm 
 when approached, and, while the grass and 
 herbage were closely cropped, it nowhere 
 showed the hand or care of the gardener. 
 
 Atalyn was always cautious, and while 
 his companions remained concealed in the 
 doorway he went towards the building 
 alone, keeping as much as possible in the 
 shelter of the trees ; but when he had gone 
 completely around it he was satisfied that 
 it was deserted, and quickly returned for 
 the rest of the party. 
 
 Following a broad smooth road, which 
 circled the lake, they soon arrived at the 
 front of what was now seen to be a royal 
 
THE MYSTERY DEEPENS. 97 
 
 palace. Before it there was a magnificent 
 terrace set with shrubs and flowers, ar- 
 ranged with admirable taste, which was 
 still apparent, although the only care they 
 had known for ages, was that which had 
 been given by the animals in cropping the 
 herbage around them. 
 
 The palace, before which our friends 
 now stood, was of royal proportions, being 
 about six hundred feet in length by three 
 hundred and fifty in width, and three 
 stories in height, built of great blocks of a 
 clear white alabaster-like stone, which 
 shone and glistened in the sunshine. The 
 walls were ornamented with carvings and 
 sculpture of the most exquisite design and 
 artistic character, while the windows were 
 each a single crystal. A flight of steps,, 
 thirty feet wide, of the same white material 
 as the building itself, led up to an entrance 
 of almost unparalleled magnificence. The 
 broad steps and the portico at the entrance 
 were clear and transparent, so that they 
 seemed to vanish away beneath their feet^ 
 and as they ascended them there came over 
 them a strange and indescribable feeling 
 
^8 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 of awe and reverence, until they could al- 
 most imagine that when the majestic doors 
 of golden bronze before them opened, it 
 would be to usher them into that unseen 
 "world, where the sorrows and burdens of 
 humanity are gone forever. 
 
 How long they stood thus, as it were in 
 some invisible presence, they scarcely 
 knew, but Atalyn, rousing himself from 
 the spell which was upon them, advanced 
 to the massive doors, which yielded to his 
 touch, and together they passed through 
 them, followed by Dinah, into a vestibule, 
 from each side of which a broad flight of 
 steps led to the upper parts of the build- 
 ing. 
 
 Opposite the entrance there was a door 
 through which they passed, and found 
 themselves in a hall or audience chamber 
 of such immensity and magnificence, as to 
 baffle description. A hundred feet in 
 width by twice that depth, and fifty feet 
 high, every part of the chamber was of 
 the purest alabaster, so clear, and wrought 
 into such marvellous forms, that, as they 
 entered, pavement and pillar and roof and 
 
<z 
 
THE MYSTERY DEEPENS. 99 
 
 walls seemed to fadeaway, and leave them 
 in some ethereal realm of spirits. 
 
 As they stood on the threshold, with the 
 feelings of awe with which they had ap- 
 proached it deepened and intensified, the 
 great chamber was suddenly filled with an 
 indescribable radiance, as the rays of the 
 sun, falling upon hidden windows or prisms, 
 were projected into every part of it. 
 
 While they still remained at the door in 
 speechless wonder, the glowing colors be- 
 gan to fade, and soon gave place to a soft 
 white light which filled every part of it, 
 except directly opposite the entrance, 
 where there was a royal throne raised on 
 a dais, and which was now thrown into 
 bold relief by a rosy glow which streamed 
 from it and behind it, like the liorht of the 
 rising sun. 
 
 At length they turned away from the 
 almost unearthly scene, and slowly as- 
 cended one of the great stairways until 
 they reached the highest part of the build- 
 ing, but, although they could only glance 
 at a few of the numberless halls and rooms 
 which it contained, they were convinced, 
 
100 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 even from the moment they entered it, 
 that the wonderful palace, like the rest of 
 the island, was without a human inhabitant 
 except themselves. From the top of the 
 building the whole mountain top lay 
 spread out before them, and they saw in 
 every part of it the same careful arrange- 
 ment which they had observed in the parts 
 near the stairway. The wall completely 
 encircled the mountain, but at the south- 
 ern end of it there was what appeared to 
 be a lofty platform of rock, which extended 
 across its whole width, with two large 
 openings in it and three broad flights of 
 stairs, one at each side and one in the 
 centre, leading to the top of it. 
 
 After a somewhat hasty view from the 
 top of the palace, our friends descended to 
 the grounds, as they deemed it necessary 
 that they should examine every part of the 
 mountain top before leaving it, in order to 
 ascertain beyond question whether or not 
 there were inhabitants in any part of it. 
 
 It was now mid-day, and when they 
 reached the terrace in front of the palace 
 they found that Dinah, who had not ac- 
 
THE MYSTERY DEEPENS. 101 
 
 companied them to the roof, had prepared 
 a tempting luncheon, which she had antici- 
 pated would be required before they re- 
 turned to the steamer, and having done 
 ample justice to it, they now proceeded 
 to explore the remaining part of the moun- 
 tain top to the southward. 
 
 The same broad roadway, which ex- 
 tended from the entrance at the north to 
 the palace, was continued beyond it to the 
 platform at the south, which was reached 
 in a short time and without difficulty. 
 
 The mountain at its southern end was 
 somewhat rounded in form, and the plat- 
 form, extending across its full width, had a 
 length of half a mile, while in the centre it 
 was about two hundred yards in width. 
 From its appearance it seemed to have 
 been cut out of the solid rock, as were also 
 the stairways and the wall which sur- 
 rounded it on all sides. 
 
 Midway between each of the stairs was 
 an archway, fifteen feet in height and 
 twenty feet wide, cut into the perpendi- 
 cular wall, and leading, as was found, 
 into another and larger tunnel which ex- 
 
102 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 tended across the whole width of the 
 mountain. The platform was deserted, 
 and Atalyn turned at once to the nearest 
 archway, which they entered, and cau- 
 tiously advanced until they reached the 
 cross tunnel with which it was connected. 
 
 Although at a considerable distance 
 from the entrance, they found the interior 
 of the tunnel was as clear as day, the light 
 being reflected and thrown into all parts 
 of it by some ingenious arrangement of 
 mirrors or reflectors. On the northern 
 side were a number of vaults or store- 
 rooms, some of which appeared to be 
 filled with stores of various kinds. On 
 the side next the sea was a gallery 
 running parallel with the tunnel, and 
 connecting with it by wide doorways or 
 arches, the roof of which gallery was 
 supported by heavy pillars of rock. 
 
 Near the centre, and completely sur- 
 rounding one of the pillars, there was a 
 large circular basin hewn out of the rock, 
 into which a stream of water flowed from 
 the lake, filling the basin with a constant 
 supply of clear fresh water, and then run- 
 
THE MYSTERY DEEPENS. lOS- 
 
 ning through a waste channel to the side 
 of the mountain, over which it fell into 
 the sea. 
 
 In the side of the gallery nearest the 
 sea, there were, at regular intervals, 
 ports or embrasures looking out on the 
 water, and in each of them a huge 
 breech-loading rifled gun, which, in so 
 far as mechanism and finish were con- 
 cerned, might have been taken for the 
 latest production of a Krupp or an 
 Armstrong. In all, Atalyn counted fifty 
 guns of different calibre, so arranged that 
 the fire of the whole battery could be 
 concentrated on any part of the channel, 
 which furnished the only entrance 
 through the reef into the harbor. In 
 the face of such defences the strongest 
 modern iron-clad would have been as 
 helpless as the war canoe of a savage, as 
 the plunging fire from this great height, 
 and from guns, many of which threw a 
 conical shell, which Atalyn estimated 
 should weigh about one thousand pounds 
 — a plentiful supply of which were found 
 in the store rooms — would pierce through 
 the deck and bottom of any vessel which 
 
104 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 came within range, whatever the material 
 used in its construction. 
 
 Why such a tremendous battery, cap- 
 able of throwing tons of metal in a single 
 broadside, should have been considered 
 necessary for the defence of the island, 
 unless, indeed, the war vessels of those 
 days had reached the same degree of per- 
 fection as had the guns themselves, was 
 a difficult question to answer ; but here, 
 as in the palace, was evidence of the fact, 
 that away in the dim past, the people 
 which then inhabited the island had at- 
 tained to a degree of civilization, which, 
 in some respects at least, equalled that of 
 the present day. 
 
 But there was no time for speculation 
 as to what the answer to this question 
 should be, or even for a careful examina- 
 tion of this ancient Gibraltar, as it was 
 imperative that our friends should reach 
 the steamer before nightfall. Passing 
 hastily through the remaining part of the 
 works, they returned to the stairway by 
 a road on the eastern side of the moun- 
 tain similar to that on the west, and in 
 due time reached the steamer, as the sun 
 disappeared from sight. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Comfortable Quarters and Strange 
 Recollections. 
 
 THOROUGHLY fatigued by their 
 exertions, and overwhelmed by the 
 amazing discoveries which had been 
 heaped one upon another during the day, 
 neither Atalyn nor Katherine could even 
 hazard a conjecture concerning them ; but 
 outside of the effects of either fatigue or 
 wonder, another thought, to which both 
 gave utterance at the same time, filled 
 their minds. 
 
 Almost from the moment when they 
 had first looked upon the island from the 
 deck of the steamer, they had felt that in 
 some strangely mysterious manner it was 
 all familiar to them, and yet every effort 
 to connect it with any part of their pre- 
 vious experience completely failed. 
 
 But while this was the case, each new 
 discovery which they made seemed to 
 7 
 
106 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 deepen the impression, that at some 
 former period of their lives, the mountain, 
 with its rock chambers, its gardens and 
 lake and palace, had been linked with 
 their existence, and, notwithstanding its 
 seeming impossibility, the feeling that 
 these impressions were in reality recol- 
 lections of a former experience, and not 
 mere disordered fancies, continued to 
 grow upon them, and strengthen with 
 every new experience on the island, until 
 they, in their inner consciousness at least, 
 if not openly, came to the conclusion, 
 with scarcely a question remaining in 
 their minds, that they were now revisit- 
 ing the scenes of a long-forgotten child- 
 hood. 
 
 But other matters of urgent necessity 
 now claimed their attention. The rainy 
 season had in fact already begun, and 
 the steamer, although in a great measure 
 protected from the fury of the 'storms by 
 the mountain, would afford but a very in- 
 adequate shelter. The rock chambers, 
 on the other hand, would furnish an ideal 
 refuge, and the work of preparing them 
 
STRANGE RECOLLECTIONS. 107 
 
 for occupation was taken up without 
 delay, as there was now no doubt that 
 the island was deserted, at least in the 
 neighborhood of Roraima, and no ex- 
 ploration of the northern parts could be 
 made until the return of the dry season. 
 
 Atalyn's first care was to construct a 
 light but convenient stairway to the door 
 in the mountain side, which could be 
 easily drawn up at night or whenever it 
 was desired to render access more diffi- 
 cult, and then, without waiting to com- 
 plete such arrangements as were required 
 in the interior of the chambers to be 
 occupied, a plentiful supply of everything 
 which they considered necessary was 
 stored in the large central chamber, after 
 which he carefully closed the exposed 
 parts of the steamer, and put it in the 
 best possible position to resist the fury 
 of the elements. 
 
 To Dinah the task of preparing the 
 different apartments for their occupation 
 was most congenial. The dust of ages 
 on the floors disappeared as if by magic, 
 and the walls soon rejoiced in tints pleas- 
 
108 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 ing to the eye, applied by her vigorous 
 brush. In each of the openings in the 
 walls Atalyn carefully fitted a window 
 which was strong enough to resist the 
 storms, and which could be opened dur- 
 ing fine weather. The floors were cov- 
 ered with rugs, and with suitable furni- 
 ture and even articles of ornament, of all 
 of which there was an ample store on 
 the steamer, the rock dwelling, under 
 Katherine's artistic arrangement, soon 
 assumed an appearance, not only of com- 
 fort, but even of luxurious elegance. A 
 piano, removed from the steamer by an 
 ingenious mechanical appliance, gave a 
 touch of home to the rock-girt salon, 
 while by the same means a convenient 
 range was installed, much to her satisfac- 
 tion, in Dinah's well-furnished kitchen. 
 
 But Atalyn saw in the course of their 
 preparations an opportunity for testing 
 some of the results of his investigations, 
 while adding to their comfort and the 
 convenience of their dwelling. Before 
 closing the steamer he removed to the 
 rock chambers one of the dynamos with 
 
STRANGE RECOLLECTIONS. 109 
 
 its attachments, together with a water 
 motor which had been specially con- 
 structed to operate it, besides a quantity 
 of pipe suitable for conveying a supply 
 of water to the apartments which they 
 occupied ; and after having completed 
 their other arrangements to render their 
 dwelling habitable, he attached the 
 water motor to the large pipe which con- 
 veyed the water from the lake on the top 
 of the mountain, and soon had the 
 satisfaction of seeing the rock chambers 
 brilliantly illuminated with electric light. 
 As it was the commencement of the 
 rainy season he also prepared a garden 
 plot, which by the time the dry season 
 returned, boasted of almost every variety 
 of plant to be found in an English or 
 Canadian garden. A stout paling built 
 from the shore near the steamer, to a 
 spur of rock which ran out from the 
 mountain, protected it from the animals, 
 and within it, in deference to Dinah's 
 wishes, he built near the waterfall, which 
 was also enclosed in the garden, a shelter 
 for a sedate cow with which she had 
 
110 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 established an acquaintance, and the 
 poultry which she took under her 
 special care, with the result that their 
 table was furnished with the choicest 
 products of the dairy and the poultry 
 yard, besides a boundless supply of fruits, 
 which were ripening in every part of the 
 island which they had visited. 
 
 Besides this, there was an almost un- 
 limited supply of everything necessary 
 for their use in the hold of the steamer. 
 There was thus no reason for anxiety on 
 their own account, but the certainty, 
 which they knew would soon be felt by 
 their friends, both in England and Can- 
 ada, that they had been lost in the storm, 
 weighed heavily upon them, especially in 
 view of the almost inevitable ruin which 
 the loss of the steamer would cause to 
 Sir George and his colony. 
 
 But our friends realized fully that it 
 would be folly to allow vain regrets to 
 interfere in any way with their devoting 
 their best efforts to the devising of some 
 means of escape from the island, and, 
 during the two months of storm and 
 
STRANGE RECOLLECTIONS. lU 
 
 tempest which followed their landing, 
 there was scarcely a day which did not 
 see some new plan discussed, only to be 
 discarded, as they felt that, in addition to 
 the risk to their own lives, the safety of 
 the steamer was a matter of sufficient im- 
 portance to forbid their attempting to 
 leave the island without further assis- 
 tance, unless it became absolutely neces- 
 sary to do so. 
 
 On the return of fine weather, when 
 the long dry season began, the explora- 
 tion of the remaining parts of the coun- 
 try was resumed, always with the hope 
 that some civilized inhabitants would be 
 discovered ; but after they had gone 
 through it until they stood on the high- 
 est point of Mount Royal, they found 
 they were without any doubt alone on 
 the island. 
 
 There was, it is true, throughout the 
 whole of it the same undoubted evidence, 
 that at some remote period it was occu- 
 pied by a highly civilized people, the re- 
 mains of whose work covered the entire 
 face of the country, even to the slopes of 
 
112 A BIT OF A TLANTIS. 
 
 Mount Royal, which still showed the 
 terraces laid out on its rocky sides, and 
 the channels which conveyed the waters 
 of a small lake on the top of the moun- 
 tain down its sides, to irrigate the fields 
 and gardens which occupied its slopes ; 
 but here, as elsewhere, it was clear from 
 the appearance of the country, that ages 
 must have passed away since that won- 
 derful people had disappeared. Unless, 
 therefore, some vessel should visit the 
 island and bring them help, they could 
 see no means by which they could safely 
 venture to leave it. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 Unwelcome Visitors. 
 
 @N the western coast, about two miles 
 from Roraima, there was a small, 
 almost land-locked bay, connected with 
 the open sea by a narrow and crooked 
 channel. 
 
 In the course of their explorations our 
 friends had passed it, although too far 
 to the eastward to be able to examine it 
 closely ; but as the channel, which could 
 be noted at a distance, might furnish an 
 entrance to either friend or foe, Atalyn 
 determined to visit it as soon as possible 
 in order to satisfy himself as to the 
 danger, or otherwise, which might be ex- 
 pected from that quarter. The day fol- 
 lowing their return from Mount Royal 
 he set out alone, going in the direction 
 of the bay, and carefully noting the 
 character of the country in passing 
 through it, which, however, was much 
 
114 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 the same in its general appearance as 
 that which they had already seen. 
 
 At the bay, the smooth, sandy shore 
 rose with a gentle ascent from the water 
 to a high rocky ridge which shut it in, 
 forming an almost semi-circular plain, 
 with a narrow opening to the north be- 
 tween the rocks and the water, and an- 
 other somewhat wider to the south. 
 
 As he turned the corner of the rocks 
 which hid it from view, he beheld a 
 ghastly spectacle. In the centre of the 
 space before him a huge fire had been 
 built, of which only ashes and cinders 
 now remained ; but scattered over the 
 sand in every direction, there lay spread 
 out a horrible profusion, the sickening 
 remains of a cannibal feast. 
 
 For some minutes, how long he 
 scarcely knew, Atalyn stood, filled with 
 an overmastering feeling of horror and 
 loathing ; then, as the sickening details 
 of the scene forced themselves upon him, 
 there came over him a fierce desire to 
 utterly destroy the wretched beings, who 
 were guilty of this hideous offence 
 against humanity. 
 
UNWELCOME VISITORS. 115 
 
 But, as he still continued gazing as if 
 fascinated, the thought of the danger to 
 himself and his companions, and the al- 
 most certainty of the horrible fate in 
 store for them, should the savages return 
 and discover them, came home to him. 
 That they would return was almost a 
 foregone conclusion, and it was equally 
 certain that their retreat might be dis- 
 covered, or they themselves surprised 
 when they least expected a visit from 
 such unwelcome neighbors. The danger 
 was a real one, and if they would escape 
 from it it w^as imperative that measures 
 should be taken without delay to meet it. 
 
 Atalyn was intensely practical, and it 
 had become second nature to him to act 
 with promptness in an emergency. In 
 order to meet the danger intelligently, 
 the first thing to be done was to ascer- 
 tain the exact position of affairs, to 
 which task he at once addressed himself. 
 From a careful examination of the beach 
 he concluded that six large war canoes 
 had landed, and from the appearance of 
 the place generally, that some two or 
 three days had elapsed since the canni- 
 
116 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 bals had left the island. A hundred or 
 more of these human wolves had thus 
 visited the bay, and were liable to return 
 at any time, perhaps to surprise them, for 
 with their fiendish cunning the savages 
 could easily approach even to the 
 steamer without being discovered. 
 
 The prospect was sufficiently disquiet- 
 ing to cause the gravest anxiety, and 
 Atalyn realized fully the extent of the 
 danger by which they were threatened. 
 Before leaving the place, to assure him- 
 self that none of the enemy were now in 
 sight, he climbed to the top of the ridge 
 which enclosed the bay, and from which 
 he could obtain an extended view in 
 every direction. 
 
 This done he returned at once to the 
 mountain and made his unwelcome dis- 
 covery known to Katherine, with whom 
 he discussed the threatened danger and 
 the best means of meeting it. At first 
 the sole question in his mind was how 
 best to utterly destroy the savages, and 
 plan after plan suggested itself only to 
 be rejected, because in all of them there 
 
UNWELCOME VISITORS. 11 7 
 
 was the danger that some of the enemy 
 would almost certainly escape, only to 
 return eventually with a force against 
 which all their resources would be un- 
 availing. 
 
 At length Katherine suggested the 
 possibility of so terrifying the savages by 
 a display, which to them would appear 
 nothing short of supernatural, that they 
 would, through fear for themselves, keep 
 away from the island for all time to 
 come. This suggestion seemed to meet 
 every difficulty, and besides it avoided 
 the necessity for taking human life, to 
 which our friends were both averse, even 
 though it were that of cannibals, and 
 almost unavoidable if they would save 
 their own lives. 
 
 This course was therefore adopted, 
 and Atalyn proceeded to carry it out at 
 once. As a precaution, however, he first 
 established a lookout at a point near the 
 top of the stairway from which the bay 
 and part of the shore could be seen, so 
 that they might have as much warning 
 as possible of the approach of the enemy, 
 
118 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 and each morning and evening, as well 
 as in the middle of the day, he visited the 
 watch tower, and thus kept himself in- 
 formed as to the presence or not of the 
 enemy on the island. 
 
 To carry out the plan which they had 
 adopted, he found the most ample re- 
 sources at his command ; he had at hand 
 three agents, fire, water and electricity. 
 An assortment of Chinese fireworks and 
 lanterns, intended for a celebration in 
 honor of the founding of Eumaling, fur- 
 nished the first ; the great waterpipe 
 from the top of the mountain the second, 
 and the dynamo the third ; with these 
 three forces, controlled by a trained 
 scientist as resourceful as was Atalyn, 
 almost any required effect could be 
 produced. 
 
 As a visit from the enemy was possible 
 at any moment, he lost no time in pre- 
 paring for them, and at the end of a week 
 he had completed his work so much to 
 his satisfaction, that he almost wished the 
 savages would pay them a visit, in order 
 that they might test the welcome which 
 he had prepared for them. 
 
UNWELCOME VISITORS. 119 
 
 If such were his wish it was not to 
 remain long unsatisfied, for on visiting 
 the lookout on the third morning after 
 he had completed the work, he saw ten 
 large war canoes drawn up on the beach, 
 while a host of savages were busily pre- 
 paring for the hideous feast which was 
 to follow, and here and there, scattered 
 about near the landing, where they had 
 been taken from the canoes and thrown 
 down on the sand, were a large number 
 of unfortunate victims, lying bound and 
 awaiting their horrid fate. 
 
 No time was lost in making everything 
 ready to receive the unwelcome visitors, 
 should they approach Roraima. Old 
 Dinah's first care was for her friend the 
 cow, which she drove into the enclosure, 
 and securely fastened in a pen, where she 
 was concealed from sight. The gate 
 was closed and barred ; two heavy wires 
 which were stretched on the outside of 
 the paling, one at the top and the other 
 midway between that and the ground, 
 were charged with a powerful current of 
 electricity, and all the other details of the 
 
120 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 plan for defeating the savages carefully 
 attended to. 
 
 Having thus made everything secure, 
 they drew up the stairway and placed a 
 barrier in the door so as to cut off all 
 access to their retreat, and Atalyn then 
 ascended to the lookout, where he re- 
 mained to keep a watch on the move- 
 ments of the savages. 
 
 Fortunately, at the distance at which 
 they were from the bay, the sickening 
 details of the orgie could not be seen, and 
 as the day passed it seemed as though 
 they were so occupied with the feast, that 
 they would probably leave the island, as 
 they did on former occasions when the 
 feast was over, without visiting any other 
 parts of it. 
 
 But towards evening, through an alto- 
 gether unexpected occurrence, they were 
 suddenly brought in force directly to the 
 mountain. It was well indeed for our 
 friends that they had been forewarned, 
 and had prepared for the enemy, and how 
 complete and effectual these preparations 
 were, can best be judged from the effect 
 which they produced, when the savages 
 came within reach of them 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 A Warm Reception. 
 
 THE event by which the savages were 
 brought to Roraima was the un- 
 expected escape of one of their prisoners. 
 While Atalyn was still watching them 
 from the lookout, and had almost con- 
 cluded that the danger was over, for that 
 day at least, he saw the figure of a man 
 suddenly spring up from the shade of a 
 clump of bushes, and set out at full speed 
 in the direction of the mountain. When 
 his flight was discovered he had already 
 gained a considerable distance, but about 
 fifty of his captors started in pursuit, and 
 as he ran towards the mountain he led 
 them directly to it. 
 
 When it became apparent that the 
 fugitive would probably reach the en- 
 closure without being overtaken, Atalyn 
 hurriedly descended from the lookout and 
 8 
 
122 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 turned off the electric current from the 
 wires as he reached the fence, and, with- 
 out a moment's hesitation, sprang over 
 it, and, continuing his flight across the 
 enclosure, concealed himself from view. 
 
 Quickly turning on the current again, 
 Atalyn saw the foremost of the savages 
 rush to the fence as the sun sank below 
 the horizon, and the sudden darkness of 
 the Tropics shut them out from sight ; 
 then, a moment later, there arose out of 
 it a chorus of yells of pain and terror, 
 which told them that the enemy had 
 encountered the protecting wires, with 
 their deadly current of electricity. 
 
 Thus far everything had come to pass 
 most fortunately, especially in the ar- 
 rival of the savages just as darkness fell 
 upon them, as it furnished all the condi- 
 tions necessary to give them the full 
 benefit of the preparations which had 
 been made for their reception. 
 
 Atalyn now proceeded to carry out his 
 programme. In the large chamber at 
 the foot of the stairway, where the 
 dynamo was installed, there was a 
 
A WARM RECEPTION. 123 
 
 window which commanded the whole 
 extent of the approach to the mountain, 
 from the harbor on the one side to the 
 stream on the other. At the side of the 
 window was a table, on which stood a 
 shaded lamp, showing- a number of elec- 
 tric switches and buttons which were 
 connected with wires leading to various 
 points, where at the proper time the 
 electric current would do its appointed 
 work. No ray of light escaped from the 
 windows ; outside everything was hid- 
 den in thick darkness, and no sound 
 broke the silence, save the rush of the 
 waterfall. 
 
 Suddenly, as Atalyn closed a switch, a 
 hideous looking face, shining with a 
 greenish light, looked out from the 
 branches of a tree near the gateway, 
 showing in its sickly glare the savages 
 huddled together in abject terror. 
 
 A moment later the face disappeared, 
 and from the opposite side of the 
 grounds near the steamer a fiendish 
 shape, more hideous and appalling, if 
 possible, than the last, and blazing with 
 
124 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 a fiery red light, glared upon them from 
 the top of a small palm tree, then an- 
 other and another, and several at the 
 same time, fiends and dragons and hob- 
 goblins, shining out in every imaginable 
 shade of color, glared and grinned upon 
 them as Atalyn moved the switches on 
 the board. Then there was a sudden 
 darkness, broken a moment later by the 
 flash from a small brass gun on the 
 deck of the steamer, from which a 
 huge rocket-like missile, spitting forth 
 a vicious train of fire, shot into the air, 
 mingling a howling, shrieking chorus 
 with the roar of the gun. 
 
 But no time was given to the terrified 
 cannibals to recover from the horror and 
 surprise which had seized upon them. 
 With the pressure of a button here and 
 there on the table, a tongue of flame 
 shot up at various points, in a semi-circle 
 beyond the place where the savages lay, 
 so as apparently to completely cut off 
 their escape. Then the flames grew into 
 a great vari-colored burning wall, out of 
 which whole battalions of fiery warriors 
 
Fiends and dragons and hobgoblins," p- 124. 
 
A WARM RECEPTION. 126 
 
 seemed to rush forth, attended by hosts 
 of blazing serpents and dragons. 
 
 Faster and more furiously the devour- 
 ing flames reached out, as though eager 
 to swallow up the terrified savages, when, 
 with a rattling volley of explosions from 
 hidden mines, the flaming warriors sud- 
 denly vanished, leaving them in utter 
 darkness. A moment later, from an an- 
 cient gun in a battery which Atalyn had 
 discovered at the top of the mountain, 
 directly above the landing, there burst 
 forth a roar which seemed to rock the 
 mountain itself, and out of the blaze 
 and flash from the gun there sprang a 
 huge, fiery dragon, darting hither and 
 thither and shrieking with fiendish glee, 
 until it appeared at length to stop for an 
 instant over the spot where the enemy 
 lay, then with a yell of triumph it darted 
 downward upon them and disappeared ; 
 but at the moment when it appeared to 
 touch the ground there was another ex- 
 plosion from a large gun on the steamer 
 which shook the solid earth, and out of 
 the blazing throat of the gun, apparently 
 
126 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 the same dragon shot up into the air, 
 shrieking and howling like a legion of 
 fiends let loose, and bearing away in its 
 talons what seemed to the horror-stricken 
 savages to be one of their number. 
 
 Fire and electricity had now done their 
 part, and Atalyn turned to administer 
 the last stroke of the punishment which 
 he had prepared for the invaders. 
 
 Stretching out from the mountain side 
 to the gate, there was an iron pipe con- 
 nected with the larger one, which con- 
 veyed the waters of the lake to the 
 chamber. To the end of it, at the gate, 
 he had attached a flexible nozzle, which 
 by an ingenious appliance he could move 
 in any direction, by turning a wheel in the 
 chamber where they were. Adjusting 
 the nozzle so that it bore directly on the 
 savages, who were still huddled together 
 near the gate in a very stupor of fright, 
 and with the stream, under the tremen- 
 dous pressure from the column of water 
 one thousand feet high directed upon 
 them, he opened the valve which con- 
 trolled it. 
 
A WARM RECEPTION. 127 
 
 As the icy water struck them with all 
 its force, they were thrown and tumbled 
 hither and thither like autumn leaves in 
 a gale. Awakened from their stupor 
 they sprang up, yelling with uncon- 
 trollable terror, and rushing headlong 
 through the darkness, regardless of the 
 obstacles in their way, with only the one 
 thought of escaping from the demons 
 whose sport they had been, they at 
 length gained their canoes, and scarcely 
 waiting to make known their terrible ex- 
 perience to their companions they put to 
 sea, choosing rather all the dangers of a 
 voyage in the darkness, than the risk of 
 another encounter with the powers of 
 evil. 
 
 No savage ever again ventured near 
 the island, but around their camp-fires 
 the story of their experience on the 
 ** Island of Devils " filled the listeners 
 with a terror which was scarcely less 
 than that felt by those who told the 
 story ; and the fate of their unfortunate 
 companion, who had been carried away 
 by the dragon before the eyes of his 
 
128 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 comrades, so the story was told, became 
 a tradition of the tribe ; for when the 
 savages reached their own country one 
 of their number was missing, but 
 Atalyn found him the next morning, still 
 grasping the deadly wire which slew him, 
 and he gave him a decent burial. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 Jim, and the Key to the Mystery of 
 THE Island. 
 
 C^IMPLE as had been the means em- 
 ^2y ployed, the rout of the cannibals 
 was complete, and much less time was 
 required to bring it about than to de- 
 scribe it. 
 
 But although there was little reason 
 to fear a return of the enemy, Atalyn 
 did not consider it prudent to leave their 
 shelter until daylight, even to search for 
 the fugitive, who he rightly judged 
 would remain in hiding until the 
 morning. 
 
 As soon as it was light he went in 
 search of him, followed by Dinah, who, 
 from the moment the escaped prisoner 
 came into view, had shown a strange 
 uneasiness. 
 
 After a few moments' searching they 
 found him concealed beneath some 
 
130 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 bushes near the base of the mountain, 
 and lying- in a state of unconsciousness. 
 He was a fine-looking, well-built negro 
 of perhaps thirty years of age, and evi- 
 dently a prisoner taken by the savages, 
 as he had nothing of the Carib in his 
 appearance. 
 
 Atalyn was about to raise him up, 
 when Dinah, with a cry like a wounded 
 animal, rushed forward, and taking the 
 head of the unconscious man in her lap, 
 with tears and lamentations gave herself 
 up to uncontrollable grief. 
 
 At length Atalyn gathered from her in- 
 coherent exclamations that the fugitive 
 was her son Jim, who had been taken from 
 her when little more than a child, and sold 
 into slavery, and who was now returned to 
 her, as she thought, a lifeless form. 
 
 Being satisfied that he was still living, 
 and that he had not suffered any serious 
 injury, Atalyn quickly obtained and ad- 
 ministered a simple remedy, and soon had 
 the satisfaction of restoring her son to old 
 Dinah, as she thought, from the dead. 
 
 Jim proved himself a most valuable 
 
A KEY TO THE MYSTERY. 131 
 
 addition to the little community. Natur- 
 ally skillful, and accustomed to all kinds of 
 work in his slavery days, he insisted on 
 doing everything- which was to be done, 
 and could not find sufficient means by 
 which to express his gratitude for his de- 
 liverance from the horrid fate which 
 threatened him at the hands of the canni- 
 bals. Thus, between Jim and Dinah, 
 whose gratitude was as strong as his own, 
 the wants of our friends were more than 
 anticipated, and they were left free to con- 
 tinue their investigations, which they 
 carried on more earnestly than ever, in the 
 hope of finding out the secret of the mys- 
 terious island, to which their steamer had 
 been so providentially directed four 
 months before. 
 
 Strangely enough, it was Jim who fur- 
 nished them with the information which 
 cleared up the mystery. It was now the 
 middle of the fine season, and they had 
 fitted up apartments in the palace on the 
 mountain, which at that time of the year 
 was much more pleasant than their dwell- 
 ing in the rock, however comfortable the 
 latter had proved in the rainy season. 
 
132 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 As soon as they were established in the 
 palace, they began a systematic explora- 
 tion of the vast building, in the course of 
 which they went carefully through every 
 part of it ; but almost up to the last, al- 
 though they found many things suitable for 
 their use, and which greatly contributed 
 to their comfort, they found nothing which 
 gave them the information which they 
 nought. 
 
 At length they came to a chamber near 
 the centre of the building, approached by 
 a difficult labyrinthian passage-way, which 
 was altogether different in appearance from 
 the other parts of the palace which they 
 had seen. At one end of the chamber 
 there was an altar, approached by several 
 steps, and beyond it on the wall a golden 
 representation of the sun. A flood of 
 pure white light completely filled the 
 room, but its source was unseen, and no 
 window or opening which communicated 
 with the outer air was in sight. 
 
 While they still remained standing at 
 the entrance, gazing on the shining sun, on 
 ivhich the light was directed by some un- 
 
A KEY TO THE MYSTERY. 13a. 
 
 seen contrivance, so that it seemed to 
 burn and blaze and send out a dazzling 
 stream of light, Jim suddenly approached 
 the altar, and began to move certain orna- 
 mental parts on the front of it ; pressing in- 
 a golden petal here, moving a leaf aside 
 there, until, with a loud click, a part of the 
 top flew up and revealed a cavity within. 
 
 From this he drew out a curiously 
 shaped casket, made of bronze and orna-^ 
 mented on the outside in much the same 
 manner as the altar itself. There was 
 nothing else in the cavity which contained 
 the casket, which Jim took up and carried 
 out to the part of the palace which they 
 occupied. 
 
 While they watched him thus go to the 
 altar and take out the box, as though he 
 knew where it was hidden, and possessed 
 the key by which its hiding place was 
 revealed, Jim, seeing their expression of 
 wonder and surprise, explained that, when 
 in Central America, he had seen a temple 
 with an altar similar to the one before 
 them, and had been shown how to open it 
 by a great traveller, who had found pieces. 
 
13i A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 of bright metal in the altar with strange 
 figures on them. 
 
 While he was giving this explanation 
 he was examining the box, and in a few 
 minutes succeeded in opening it, as he 
 had opened the altar. In it there were a 
 number of thin metal plates of a peculiar 
 red color, fastened together by two links 
 which were passed through them at one 
 end, so as to allow of their being succes- 
 sively turned over. 
 
 The tablets were inscribed on both 
 sides with strange looking figures, which 
 completely -^ covered them. As Atalyn 
 took them up and began to turn them over^ 
 an exclamation of surprise escaped from 
 him, for, as he did so, he saw here and 
 there a familiar character, and as he con- 
 tinued to examine them the meaning of 
 the inscription began to appear. Won- 
 derful and almost impossible as this may 
 seem, it had come about in a most natural 
 and ordinary manner, when Atalyn's char- 
 acteristics are considered. 
 
 As has been seen, he had from his 
 earliest years shown a peculiar apti- 
 tude for languages, and had made a 
 
A KEY TO THE MYSTERY. 135 
 
 point of acquirinor a knowledore of every 
 languao^e to which his attention was 
 drawn. To meet with a word or quota- 
 tion from a strange tongue was itself suffi- 
 cient to set him to work to acquire it. 
 
 When a student at McGill University, 
 he chanced to meet a certain M. de Bras- 
 seur, a French traveller and explorer, who 
 had spent several years in Yucatan, which 
 he had devoted to the study of the ancient 
 writings and inscriptions, found almost 
 everywhere in that part of Central Am- 
 erica, and who, he later concluded, was 
 the explorer to whom Jim had referred. 
 
 These inscriptions and writings, to 
 which his attention had been drawn, were 
 written in the language of the Mayas, 
 whose alphabet, with a description and 
 explanation of the language, was pre- 
 served by Bishop Landa, in his history of 
 the Mayas and their country. This 
 alphabet, it is claimed, the Mayas re- 
 ceived from the Colhuas, who were suc- 
 ceeded in Yucatan by the Mayas about 
 looo B.C. 
 
 De Brasseur was an enthusiast on the 
 subject of his investigations, and he found 
 
136 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 in the young student one who was equally 
 so. Together they studied the inscrip- 
 tions and writings which the explorer had 
 brought with him, with the result that 
 Atalyn soon surpassed his instructor in his 
 mastery of the language, and much of the 
 credit which the famous explorer even- 
 tually received for his successful re- 
 searches was in reality due to the assist- 
 ance given him by the young Canadian 
 student. 
 
 Now, on the tablets before him, Atalyn 
 recognized the same familiar letters, some- 
 what archaic in form, it is true, but still 
 sufficiently clear to be deciphered with 
 comparative ease, and thus it was that, 
 although the inscription before him had 
 been placed on these ancient tablets 
 countless ages before history began, and 
 in a land the very existence of which is 
 now by some denied, when the tablets 
 lay before him in the old palace on the 
 mountain, he read at once in the super- 
 scription these words : *' The Last Will of 
 Atlas, King of Atlantis." 
 
 Here, then, was the solution of the mys- 
 tery. The island to which they had been 
 
A KEY TO THE MYSTERY. 137 
 
 SO providentially driven by the storm was 
 a " Bit of Atlantis," and the marvellous 
 works they had found on it had come 
 down from that wonderful people, through 
 all the countless ages which had passed 
 away since they lived in that earthly 
 paradise. In these tablets was perhaps 
 written the story of their achievements 
 and their misfortunes, and to the task of 
 learning that history, our friends now ad- 
 dressed themselves. 
 
 The sun had scarcely disappeared in 
 the west when they began, Atalyn trans- 
 lating and Katherine writing, as he de- 
 ciphered the words on the tablets. As 
 the wonderful story was unfolded, and its 
 direct personal bearing on themselves and 
 their own fortunes was realized, they for- 
 got the passing hours, and when the last 
 words were written on the page before 
 them, the eastern horizon was aglow with 
 the light of morning; and truly a story 
 more wonderful in itself, and in its revela- 
 tions concerning those to whom it was 
 now made known, might well challenge 
 the most daring flight of the imagination 
 to conceive. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Last Will of Atlas, King of 
 Atlantis. 
 
 I" 
 
 AM Atlas the King. I am the last of 
 the Kings of Atlantis, for the king- 
 *Mom has vanished, and I go soon back 
 ^' again to the Mighty One from whom I 
 
 ^' But to you, my sons, Atlas and 
 *^ Eumelus, who bear the names of the 
 " first of our race to reign over the mighty 
 '' Empire of Atlantis, and whom I have 
 " sent forth to the land of the rising sun, 
 *' that you might play your part like men, 
 '' as your fathers did in Atlantis, I now 
 " address my last words, and on you I lay 
 '' my commands. But, lest they should 
 " appear to you unreasonable, I will first 
 " recount to you the history of your native 
 '* country, and the manner and reason of 
 " its disasters and final destruction. 
 
 " Know, then, that the island in the 
 " mighty ocean, from which you set sail 
 
LAST WILL OF ATLAS. 139 
 
 '' with the last of the warriors of Atlantis, 
 '* by my command, to go to the land of 
 '' the rising sun, was but a fragment of the 
 ^' once Mighty Empire of Atlantis, for the 
 " time was when there was an island in 
 •* the great sea, three thousand miles in 
 '' length and one thousand miles wide, in 
 " which was the seat of our empire, and 
 " where our fathers reigned as kings. 
 
 " But not only over that great island 
 '' did they reign, for our empire extended 
 " far out towards the rising sun, beyond 
 ** the pillars which are the gateway to the 
 ^* sea which is surrounded by the land, 
 *' then past the confines of that sea, and, 
 " further still, until it reached the borders 
 " of the mighty ocean itself. To the set- 
 *' ting of the sun our empire covered the 
 " opposite continent, until it reached the 
 " other side of the same ocean, by which 
 '' it was bounded on the east. 
 
 *' Of the splendor and magnificence of 
 " that empire you saw but little, for, alas ! 
 '' while you were still of too tender years 
 " to understand these things, the hour of 
 *' its destruction came, and of all the once 
 
140 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 " mighty Atlantis there remained only 
 "this island, from whence you went out, 
 ^' and where now I, your King and your 
 " father, await the summons to go out to 
 ** the Great Unknown Land from whence 
 " we do not return. 
 
 " But, in the days of its prosperity, the 
 ** empire of Atlantis was the glory of the 
 '' whole earth, for the splendor of its 
 " temples and palaces, and the mighty 
 "works which were found in it, have 
 " never been and never will be excelled. 
 " Of gold and precious jewels there was 
 *' such abundance that no men could esti- 
 " mate their value. From the earth there 
 *' sprang up all manner of grains and 
 " fruits and flowers, and fragrant things, 
 ** which could be required for food, or the 
 ** other uses of man, or to give pleasure 
 ^' by their beauty and bright colors. In 
 " this was our nation the first and the 
 ** benefactors of all those who shall dwell 
 ** in the earth, for we took the herbs and 
 *' the grass of the desert and the wilder- 
 " ness, and from them we, by our wisdom 
 " and culture, produced the plants and 
 
LAST WILL OF ATLAS. 141 
 
 " grains which now furnish food and cloth- 
 '' ing for mankind. Likewise we took the 
 •* wild beasts of the forests, and through 
 '' us they became the servants of man. 
 
 *' Then besides those things which were 
 '* produced in the country itself, and the 
 " animals kept for our use, and with which 
 '' for the most part you are familiar, our 
 '* ships brought to Atlantis the productions 
 '^ of all the most distant parts of our em- 
 '' pire, and from foreign countries as well, 
 " so that there was to be found in it all 
 *' that could by any be desired. 
 
 *' Chiefly I would mention that our 
 " ships ascended the mighty river, which 
 "flows through the centre of the opposite 
 " continent lying to the westward, until 
 " they came to the region wherein are the 
 " great seas whose waters are fresh, and 
 *' there they found and dug out of the 
 " earth the precious metal which is red ; 
 "and again they sailed to the eastward 
 '• and brought to us the white metal from 
 '' the island which lies near to the great 
 " continent, and by mixing these metals 
 " together we obtained the material with 
 
142 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 " which to fashion all those things, which 
 ''gave the artificers of our nation that 
 *' which maintained its pre-eminence in the 
 " earth, and especially that with which 
 *^ they fashioned our mighty warships, 
 ** and those instruments whose thunder 
 '^ and lightning fla sh terrified our enemies 
 *' and the thunderbolts of which destroyed 
 "them. 
 
 '' But it needs not that I dwell further 
 '* on the glories of our nation, for, alas ! 
 " they have gone forever ; rather will I 
 "hasten to tell you how they were lost. 
 
 *' So prosperous were our people, and so 
 " greatly did they multiply, that at length 
 " the land could not contain them, and 
 " thus it came to pass that many of them 
 '' moved to the lands to the westward, 
 " where they founded great and mighty 
 " nations which remain to this day ; also 
 " they removed to the east, and in course 
 "of time they peopled the islands from 
 "whence we obtained the white metal, 
 " and then they passed through the strait, 
 " which is guarded by the mountains 
 "which are called the pillars of Heracles, 
 
LAST WILL OF ATLAS. 143 
 
 *' until they possessed the lands on the 
 ' ^ shores of that sea and the whole of the 
 " continent to the northward, and from 
 '* that they again pressed further towards 
 ^' the rising sun, as the land became too 
 ** strait to contain them, carrying with 
 " them our language, our laws and our 
 " civilization. 
 
 " On the other continent also, where 
 '* the inhabitants are dark-skinned, our 
 '' people founded colonies, and the great 
 *' mountains of that region are called by 
 " our name. Thus were our customs, our 
 " laws and our civilization spread abroad 
 " throughout the whole earth, until all 
 " lands were filled with the glory and 
 '' owned the power of Atlantis. 
 
 '' But through the riches and fame 
 *' which our people thus acquired, and as 
 ^*they increased in wealth and power, 
 *^ they became haughty and overbearing ; 
 *^ they gave themselves up to all manner 
 ** of excesses and pleasures, and no longer 
 * * sought to excel in those virtues through 
 ** which they had become strong and 
 ** mighty, and had obtained their pre- 
 
144 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 '^ eminence in the world. This they did, 
 ** although our wise men, and those who 
 ^ ^ still sought to save them and our 
 
 * * empire from the ruin which they fore- 
 **saw would result from such evil prac- 
 
 * * tices, warned and besought them to 
 ** avoid and abandon them, but they re- 
 
 * Ejected and refused the warnings and 
 
 * Sprayers of the wise men, and, as the 
 * ' years passed, for this did not happen in 
 *^a short time, they rather increased in 
 *' wickedness, until at length, so corrupt 
 *' did the people, both high and low, be- 
 ^^ come, that the Mighty One, our Creator, 
 *' by whose power was our empire upheld, 
 ^* and to whom the hearts of our nation 
 ^'atthe first were turned as one man, 
 *' looked down upon them, and, where 
 ** there had once been only virtue and all 
 ^^ those qualities which are worthy of es- 
 *^ teem. He now saw only corruption and 
 *Wileness unspeakable. 
 
 '' In a dream of the night, this Mighty 
 '' One, whom I have served throughout my 
 '' whole life with all my powers, warned me 
 " that the destruction which was surely to 
 
LAST WILL OF ATLAS. 145 
 
 *' come on those of the evil h'fe was about 
 " to fall. I was bidden to seek refuore in 
 *^ the great mountain, where the waters do 
 *' not fail ; and then my children, when I 
 '• had sought refuge with you and the few 
 " who were still faithful to me, in one ter- 
 *' rible day and night the judgments of the 
 ^' Mighty One descended on the rebellious 
 ** race, and when that awful night had 
 " passed, except the land which had been 
 '' given to us for a refuge, the mighty islands 
 " of Atlantis had gone down into the depths 
 " of the ocean, and in the place where it 
 '* had been there was a sea of mud. 
 
 *' From that day of awful vengeance, my 
 " children, my life was spent for you alone. 
 " Your mother had passed into the great 
 '' beyond before the dreadful day of de- 
 *' struction had come to our people, and so 
 '* I watched over your tender years, and 
 ** strove to give to you both a father's and 
 *' a mother's care. As your years increased, 
 ^' it was my consolation and joy to see you 
 '' grow in wisdom and in all those manly 
 " virtues which had made our nation great. 
 " When at length you had reached man- 
 
146 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 ** hood, and you were prepared to go out 
 " into the world, and take your place as 
 " men worthy of our royal line, then 
 '* knew that my work was done, and that 
 " the time had come for me to prepare for 
 " the last journey, to the land where those 
 *' who had gone before were awaiting me. 
 
 '' But in that hour there was given to 
 " me, my children, to see what the future 
 " years would bring to you and to the 
 *' house of Atlas. I saw you journey to 
 " the islands near the great Continent, and 
 " I saw you play a noble part for the land 
 '' of your adoption. 
 
 '' Then I saw the years pass by, and 
 *' those who came after you were noble and 
 ** virtuous, and brave and tender. Their 
 '* voices were heard in the Councils of the 
 " mighty nation, which, like the resurrec- 
 *^ tion of Atlantis, grew up in those islands, 
 '* and their blood w as spilled in its defence, 
 '' until at length, m the fullness of time, 
 *^ when the centuries had become thou- 
 *' sands, and even the name of Atlantis had 
 '' become a tradition, I saw coming again 
 " to the Mountain of Refuge, you, my son 
 
LAST WILL OF ATLAS. 147 
 
 " Atlas, as you appeared in the glory of 
 ^' your strength on that day when I sent 
 '' you forth into the world ; and with you 
 " there came one who, descended from 
 " your brother Eumelus, brought back again 
 *' to me the day when your mother ascend- 
 '' ed the throne of Atlantis, my Queen 
 " and theirs. Then was my heart glad, 
 " for, although the throne and the empire 
 '' of Atlantis had perished, I knew that the 
 '' house of Atlas would still remain a 
 ** power for good in the world. 
 
 *' But I saw, too, a stranger take our 
 ** place, and drive out one whose right it 
 ** was to dwell in the home of his fathers. 
 '' But to you, my son, the heritage of your 
 ** fathers will soon return. It has been 
 *' wasted these many years by the usurper, 
 *' the name of Atlas has been made a hiss- 
 *' ing and a reproach, but not by our own, 
 " and to you, my son, it remains to restore 
 '' its ancient fame and honor. 
 
 '' The vision passed away, and I knew 
 *' that my work was done. I sent you 
 " forth, my son, to bear your part in the 
 " world, not burdened with unnecessary 
 
148 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 '' riches, but with ample for all your wants, 
 '' and with all that could aid you in your 
 '^ work. 
 
 *' Your good ship sailed away to the 
 " eastward ; with you I sent those who 
 " had cast in their lot with me, and I charged 
 '' them to serve you faithfully. I stood 
 " on the Mountain of Refuge, and gazed 
 '' after you; my blessing went with you, and 
 " it has followed you down through all the 
 *' ages since that day. Then I did com- 
 '* mand that no man, except those who 
 '^ should serve you, should touch this sa- 
 " cred island, and this Mountain of Refuge, 
 '* until you, my children, whose right it is, 
 " should come to your heritage. 
 
 " Now, be it known to you, my child- 
 '' ren, that this, my last will and my dying 
 " wish, was written that you might know 
 " that I have awaited your coming, and 
 " have guarded the treasures which are 
 ^' yours. In the treasure-house beyond 
 '' the altar, I gathered together that which 
 " has awaited your coming, and then I have 
 *' entered in to keep my watch, until you 
 ** come to claim your oVv^n. In the centre 
 
LAST WILL OF ATLAS. 149 
 
 ** of the golden sun behind the altar is 
 " the key to the treasure-house. Enter it 
 " without fear, for what is therein is yours, 
 " and I your father am there, waiting for 
 " your coming. Only, my children, suffer 
 ** a word of warning ; riches unthinkable 
 " are yours, but beware of the evil through 
 ** which, by their riches, the men of Atlan- 
 " tis went down to destruction. 
 
 ** Again, a last word. Escape from this 
 *' island, for this mountain is no longer a 
 " Mountain of Refuge, when my days of 
 '' watching are over ; but faint not, for my 
 " blessing will still attend you, and so 
 *' shall you prosper while in your hearts 
 ^* you continue to guard those virtues 
 " and noble qualities which made our 
 " nation great.'' 
 
# 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 The Treasure Chamber and the King. 
 
 HEN the last words were written 
 the pen fell from Katherine's 
 fingers, and her overwrought feelings 
 found relief in tears. 
 
 As for Atalyn, he was scarcely less 
 affected, and for a time neither could 
 trust themselves to utter a word. 
 
 All was now clear to them. The un- 
 accountably familiar appearance of the 
 island and the palace where they now 
 were, had come down to them both, a 
 strange and mysterious inheritance, from 
 the days when Atlas and Eumelus had 
 played beneath the trees on the Moun- 
 tain of Refuge, and from the one, the 
 last of the kings, who, sending forth 
 their fathers into the great world, re- 
 mained in the palace on the mountain, 
 majestic in his lonely vigil, and watching 
 through the long ages, which would pass 
 before they returned again. 
 
THE TREASURE CHAMBER. 151 
 
 Now his last message was before them, 
 and they knew he was awaiting them in 
 the treasure chamber behind the altar. 
 Of the treasures which were there they 
 thought not ; all their thought was cen- 
 tred on that old man, who, solitary and 
 alone, had seen the last of his people 
 and his children sail out on the great 
 ocean, and had then taken up his watch 
 which was to endure until they came 
 again, even although his weary spirit 
 had gone out to the great beyond. 
 
 Together they arose, and without a 
 word being spoken, they went to the 
 altar chamber and up to the golden sun ; 
 then, when Atalyn pressed on its centre, 
 a door of bronze opened before them in 
 the wall, and the treasure chamber was 
 revealed. 
 
 Lighted from the top in the same 
 mysterious manner as the altar chamber, 
 they were for a moment almost blinded 
 by the blazing light from gold and pre- 
 cious jewels, which were literally heaped 
 up before them. But it was not these they 
 sought, nor on these that their eyes were 
 
152 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 fixed, for, opposite the entrance, seated 
 as when he entered that chamber to 
 begin his lonely vigil, they saw a man of 
 majestic form, scarcely yet beginning to 
 show the approach of age, and apparently 
 in the full noonday of his strength. No 
 mark was there upon him to show that 
 ages had passed away since his weary 
 spirit had gone to its rest, but in every 
 line the form before them was as perfect 
 and lifelike, as it was when he reigned 
 over the mighty Empire of Atlantis. 
 
 Standing in the doorway, they gazed 
 with awe-struck reverence on the figure 
 before them ; then, moving forward, 
 Atalyn laid his hand on that of the 
 peaceful watcher. As he did so Kather- 
 ine, looking from one to the other, saw 
 in the form and features of her com- 
 panion the counterpart of the one who 
 was once the King of Atlantis. 
 
 Long and tenderly did they linger in 
 the presence of their great ancestor, and 
 when at length they turned away, they 
 reverently closed the door with scarcely 
 a glance at the gold and jewels, which 
 
" Seated as when he entered that chamber to begin h 
 watch, they saw a man of majestic form," p. 152. 
 
 lonely 
 
THE TREASURE CHAMBER. 153 
 
 were heaped up around them. Then 
 they returned and read again his last 
 message to them, as though they would 
 listen for his voice to come to them from 
 the written page. 
 
 Again and again they read the words 
 until they seemed to burn themselves 
 into their minds, but, as they did so, the 
 pages faded out, and there remained 
 before them only the last words of warn- 
 ing, as the message he would now give 
 to them : ** Escape from this island, for 
 '* this mountain will no longer be a 
 " Mountain of Refuge, when my days of 
 ** watching are over." This was his 
 direction and his warning to them. 
 Without hesitation they accepted it as 
 such, and without delay they determined 
 to act upon it. 
 
 With Jim's assistance, Atalyn now 
 considered it possible to navigate the 
 steamer with at least some degree of 
 safety, but, however that might be, they 
 felt they were now subject to the orders 
 of the King, and their duty was to obey 
 them. 
 
 10 
 
154 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 Atalyn's first care was to thoroughly 
 examine the steamer, which he found in 
 perfect order, notwithstanding- her rough 
 experience in the storm, and, having 
 satisfied himself on this point, he turned 
 to the other preparations which were 
 necessary before they could secure the 
 inheritance, which had come to them 
 in such a marvellous and unexpected 
 manner. The stores of gold and pre- 
 cious stones had to be secured and con- 
 veyed to the steamer, and this alone was 
 a work of many days. 
 
 In the treasure chamber they found 
 cases of bronze, prepared for the jewels 
 and precious stones, into which they 
 caretully placed them, and when they 
 had done so they counted fifty cases filled 
 with incalculable riches. 
 
 But when they began to secure the 
 store of gold, it was then that the magni- 
 tude of their task became apparent. In 
 the chamber there were vessels and or- 
 naments of solid gold almost without 
 number, and many of immense size and 
 weight. Besides these there were heaped 
 
THE TREASURE CHAMBER. 155 
 
 up, as men heap up wood or iron, bars 
 of the precious metal piled upon each 
 other, until the imagination was stag- 
 gered, and refused to take in the meaning 
 of the riches before them. 
 
 Daily, however, the work went on. 
 Jim was invaluable. He first brought a 
 store of planks from the steamer to the 
 palace, which he forthwith proceeded to 
 convert into substantial cases, suitable for 
 containing the different articles, which in 
 due time, with the aid of a prosaic truck, 
 he conveyed to the stairway and stored 
 in one of the chambers at the foot of it, 
 until they were ready to embark on the 
 steamer for the homeward voyage. 
 
 From the time when they first decided 
 to leave the island, and without a spoken 
 word concerning it, both Atalyn and 
 Katherine found the same thought arise 
 in their minds, that when they left it, 
 they would bear with them the one who 
 had watched and waited, throughout the 
 long ages, for their coming. But, as 
 though they would still have his care 
 and direction, they left him as they had 
 
156 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 found him still seated in the treasure 
 chamber, and as they continued their 
 work, there seemed to come to them the 
 conviction, that in some mysterious 
 manner they were being guarded and 
 cared for through his presence. 
 
 By the time the work was completed 
 the month of April had arrived, and with 
 it the short rainy season. The weather 
 suddenly became tempestuous, and our 
 friends congratulated themselves that the 
 treasures had been safely stored in the 
 rock chambers in the mountain, and that 
 they had with them there the one who 
 had been Atlas the King ; for when the 
 last of the gold and jewels had been 
 safely removed, they had reverently and 
 tenderly borne him forth out of the pal- 
 ace and into the sunshine, which he had 
 last looked upon when he stood on the 
 mountain top, and gazed over the ocean, 
 on the white sails of the ship which was 
 bearing away his people and his children 
 from his sight, and then they passed along 
 the old familiar path beside the lake to 
 the stairway, and down to the chambers 
 
THE TREASURE CHAMBER. 167 
 
 below, into one which they had with lov- 
 ing care prepared for his reception. 
 
 None too soon did they reach their shel- 
 ter. Indeed, they had scarcely entered it, 
 when a storm of unparalleled fury burst 
 upon the island, and continued to rage for 
 several days, with even increasing vio- 
 lence. 
 
 During the storm the rain fell in tor- 
 rents, and the thunderous roar of the 
 breakers on the reefs penetrated even to 
 the chambers in the rock ; but, more 
 alarming still, in the midst of the tempest 
 the mountain was shaken as if to its 
 foundations by a sharp earthquake shock. 
 
 The storm ceased as suddenly as it 
 began, after having raged for five days, 
 but when Atalyn looked out after it was 
 over, he was appalled by the destruction 
 which it had wrought. Great trees which 
 had defied the storms of centuries were 
 levelled to the ground, and the whole 
 face of the country was changed, so that 
 it was now a confused mass of tangled 
 ruin. Fortunately, the steamer was un- 
 injured, the mountain had protected it 
 
158 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 from the fury of the storm, and this alone 
 had saved it from being wrecked. 
 
 But there was another circumstance 
 which brought the greatest alarm and 
 uneasiness to our friends, and caused them 
 to hasten their preparations for leaving 
 the island in every possible way. For 
 some days Atalyn had observed that the 
 tide had risen to an altogether abnor- 
 mal height. At first he supposed it 
 might be caused by the effect of the 
 storm, in driving unusual quantities of 
 water through the channel into the 
 bay ; but when, as he found, it re- 
 mained at the same height after the 
 storm had passed, it was evident that 
 some other reason must be found to 
 account for it. 
 
 As soon, therefore, as the weather mo- 
 derated sufficiently to permit of his doing 
 so, he carefully examined the shore and 
 the basin where the steamer lay. This 
 was in reality an ancient Atlantean dock, 
 apparently the actual spot from which 
 the ship, with Atlas and Eumelus and the 
 last of the warriors of Atlantis, had set 
 out on its voyage to Britain. 
 
THE TREASURE CHAMBER. 159 
 
 Across the entrance, and indeed well 
 into it, a bank of sand had accumulated, 
 through which the steamer had been 
 driven, with scarcely sufficient water to 
 enter it at high tide, while it rested alto- 
 gether on the sand when the tide was out. 
 
 In those seas, the crystal waters offer 
 no impediment to sight, and even the 
 smallest objects are visible at great 
 depths. 
 
 When Atalyn reached a point where 
 the entrance to the dock could be seen, 
 he noticed at once that there were se- 
 veral feet of water between the keel of the 
 steamer and the sand, although it was 
 then low tide. More than this, there was 
 on the sand beneath the steamer the well 
 defined mark which she had left on it, 
 thus proving conclusively that it had not 
 been washed away by the action of the 
 water. There was no longer any room 
 for doubt or question as to the cause of 
 the abnormal tides. The evidence was 
 before him. The island was sinking. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Doom of the Island. 
 
 THE warning which they had received 
 from Atlas the King, to escape 
 from the island, had not been given 
 without good reason. It was truly now 
 no refuge for them, and their preparations 
 for leaving it were pressed forward with 
 almost feverish haste. 
 
 The treasures of the old palace were 
 carried on board, even Katherine insist- 
 ing on sharing the work with the others, 
 and at length the morning arrived on 
 which they had fixed to leave their 
 island refuge, now no longer a refuge, 
 but threatened with the most appalling 
 of disasters. 
 
 Jim had begun work hours before, and 
 the volumes of smoke issuing from the 
 steamer's funnel told that she would soon 
 be ready for the voyage. Old Dinah 
 insisted on taking her friend, the cow» 
 
THE DOOM OF THE ISLAND. 161 
 
 which she had comfortably installed on 
 board with an abundant supply of food, 
 and besides which she had taken every- 
 thing she could gather from her garden, 
 or remove from the house. 
 
 But now an unaccountable change be- 
 gan to come over the landscape. The 
 hour of ten had been fixed for sailing, but 
 at nine the sky, which had been without 
 a cloud, became overcast, and a peculiar 
 yellowish haze gathered around the hori- 
 zon. The air was absolutely still, and 
 breathing seemed to become every mo- 
 ment more difficult. Everywhere the 
 animals and birds shewed signs of the 
 greatest alarm and uneasiness, and every- 
 thing indicated some approaching catas- 
 trophe. 
 
 To Atalyn these signs were fraught 
 with the gravest meaning, and he hurried 
 their preparations to the utmost. At last 
 nothing remained but to bear on board 
 Atlas the King, but, as they did so, the 
 island trembled with a sudden shock to its 
 very foundations. Quickly casting off the 
 lines which held the steamer, Atalyn 
 
162 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 rushed to the engine-room and set the 
 engines in motion. Katherine was already 
 at the wheel when he reached the deck, the 
 steamer had begun to back steadily out 
 of the dock, and was soon far out into the 
 harbor, turned towards the channel lead- 
 ing out to sea. 
 
 Again he went below and reversed the 
 engines, and then going on deck took the 
 wheel, as the steamer began to gain head- 
 way away from the land. 
 
 For a moment only he had allowed 
 himself to glance at the island, as he 
 guided the steamer away from it, but, in 
 the few minutes which had elapsed, what 
 a change had taken place. The stream, 
 which had been pure sparkling water 
 was flowing with thick mud. Away to 
 the north a great column of inky smoke 
 arose from the summit of Mount Royal, 
 and spread out in a huge threatening 
 cloud above it, which seemed to be 
 closing down like some dread destroyer 
 upon the fated island. 
 
 Steadily the steamer went forward, 
 with Atalyn at the helm, carefully pilot- 
 
" A great column of inky smoke arose from the summit 
 of Mount Royal," p ir,2. 
 
THE DOOM OF THE ISLAND. 163 
 
 ing her through the channel, until, at 
 length, they reached the open sea, and 
 set their course to the north-east. 
 
 When safely clear of the land he 
 turned to look at the island, which now 
 presented a grand and appalling spec- 
 tacle. From the top of Mount Royal, 
 great volumes of flame rolled out, rend- 
 ing and scattering the darkness, and 
 tinging the inky cloud above it with a 
 lurid glow. 
 
 On Roraima a huge geyser of mud 
 arose where the lake had been, standing 
 up high in the air so as to be seen from 
 the deck, and already it began to flow 
 over the battlements into the sea. 
 Around the reefs a curling line of 
 breakers began to run with a hungry, 
 cruel look, like a wild animal half in 
 fear and half in anger, yet not a breath 
 stirred the deathlike stillness of the 
 atmosphere. 
 
 On the island all was commotion. 
 Animals were running hither and thither 
 in frenzied terror, seeking some way of 
 escape from the impending destruction. 
 
164 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 A flock of small birds flew out to the 
 steamer and perched on the yards, while 
 a great eagle, flying from his ruined 
 home on Mount Royal to Roraima, but, 
 finding there no safety, rose high in the 
 air and sailed away to the west. 
 
 The steamer was rapidly leaving the 
 land, and Atalyn, to give Jim a view of 
 the spectacle of terrific grandeur which 
 was now presented, called him to the 
 deck, but only a moment did he look 
 upon it, then terror-stricken he rushed 
 to the furnaces and worked with frantic 
 energy, to hasten their escape from the 
 neighborhood of the doomed island. 
 
 As for Atalyn he could scarcely con- 
 ceal his anxiety, for he feared a sudden 
 collapse of the island, which would de- 
 stroy the steamer in the vortex, or over- 
 whelm her with a tidal wave even at a 
 distance from it. But, as the hours 
 passed, the sea remained without a 
 ripple, and, as the steamer continued 
 steadily to increase her distance from the 
 land, the danger appeared to lessen, 
 until, before the sun had set, the island 
 
THE DOOM OF THE ISLAND. 165 
 
 had disappeared below the western 
 horizon, and only the black cloud, 
 lighted by the glow from the volcano, 
 could be seen. But still they held their 
 course throughout the night, and when 
 they looked to the westward in the morn- 
 ing, even the cloud of smoke had dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 In the afternoon the smoke of a 
 steamer was seen ahead, and soon 
 H. M. S. ^* Argus" came up with the 
 ** Essequibo." After hearing their story, 
 and furnishing Atalyn with a crew and 
 such assistance as he required, the Man- 
 of-War steamed away to the island, but 
 when they reached the place where it 
 had been they found only a sea of mud. 
 This last '* Bit of Atlantis '' had disap- 
 peared beneath the ocean, as the great 
 island itself had gone down ages before. 
 
 Six days later the " Essequibo " 
 reached Portsmouth harbor, which they 
 had left six months before. After they 
 had placed the gold and the jewels in 
 safety, and leaving Jim and Dinah to 
 guard the precious remains of Atlas the 
 
166 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 King, Atalyn and Katherine set out at 
 once to relieve the sorrow of their friends, 
 by whom they had long since been given 
 up as lost. 
 
 With Sir George things had gone 
 badly indeed. The unsatisfactory state 
 of his colony and its demands upon 
 him were taxing his resources to the 
 utmost ; the supposed loss of his 
 steamer with its valuable cargo had in- 
 creased his difficulties to an alarming 
 degree, indeed to such an extent that he 
 feared even the home, which his ances- 
 tors had held ever since the history of 
 the country began, and no one could 
 tell how long before that time, would 
 be lost to him. 
 
 But all this was as nothing compared 
 with the loss of his only child, which he 
 felt had indeed left him desolate. Added 
 to this was his sorrow and regret for the 
 untimely death, of which he had now no 
 doubt, of the young man who had coma 
 to him with such ready assistance in his 
 hour of need, and for whose loss he now 
 felt that he was in a certain sense res- 
 
THE DOOM OF THE ISLAND. ^67 
 
 ponsible. But besides this, he had from 
 the first felt himself strangely drawn 
 to Atalyn ; this feeling had grown into 
 a sincere regard and esteem before he 
 had left on his ill-fated voyage to 
 Guiana, and his sorrow for Atalyn was 
 equalled only by that which he felt for 
 the loss of his own child. 
 
 Thus it was, that when our friends left 
 Portsmouth on that glorious spring 
 morning for Eumaling Castle, Sir George 
 had become so much affected by his mis- 
 fortunes and his sorrow, that he had al- 
 most reached a condition of settled melan- 
 choly ; and although he still endeavored to 
 bear up bravely against the tide of adver- 
 sity which seemed to have set in against 
 him, he was conscious that he was fighting 
 a losing battle, the result of which was 
 neither remote nor uncertain. 
 
 Lady Denesmore had returned to Eng- 
 land, immediately on its becoming appar- 
 ent that the *' Essequibo '' had been lost. 
 Although herself almost overwhelmed by 
 her sorrow and grief, she devoted all her 
 little remaining energy to the task of en- 
 
168 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 deavoring to assist and encourag^e her 
 husband, but it was only too apparent that 
 she was rapidly fadins;^ away, and would 
 soon follow her daughter, for whom, al- 
 though her grief was buried in silence, she 
 sorrowed as only those bereft of all their 
 brightest hopes can sorrow. 
 
 From the opening of the year, up to 
 which time they had continued to hope 
 even against hope for tidings of the lost 
 steamer, the conviction had forced itself 
 upon them, that there was no longer room 
 for hope, that the " Essequibo " had es- 
 caped that fatal September storm. The 
 cloud of sorrow and despair had gradually 
 settled down upon them, until, at the time 
 when those for whom they sorrowed were 
 already hastening to them, it appeared 
 only too clearly that the burden must soon 
 prove too great to be borne. 
 
 Good old Dr. Burton was the lifelong 
 friend of the family, as well as their physi- 
 cian. He had been unremitting in his en- 
 deavors to help his friends in their great 
 trouble, but he knew only too well that 
 unless relief came very speedily, the end 
 must soon come to them. 
 
THE DOOM OF THE ISLAND. 169 
 
 Never had he been so strongly im- 
 pressed with the utter hopelessness of 
 their case as he was when he saw them 
 one bright spring morning, when he made 
 his usual visit to the castle ; as he drove 
 away from it, he despaired altogether of 
 the possibility of any improvement in their 
 condition, for he realized that it was only 
 by bringing back again those they mourn- 
 ed as dead that they could be roused from 
 their despondency, and he himself had 
 long ago, even before the distracted 
 parents had done so, lost all hope that the 
 storm had failed to claim its victims. 
 
 With his mind thus occupied the good 
 doctor continued on his way, but no light 
 broke in on the darkness of the case ; the 
 trouble was beyond his skill ; he was help- 
 less. 
 
 But scarcely had he reached this con- 
 clusion, when the seemingly impossible 
 came to pass. From a carriage which 
 had approached from the opposite direc- 
 tion, but which in his preoccupation he 
 had altogether failed to notice, he heard 
 his name pronounced, and looking up he 
 beheld in it Katherine Denesmore. 
 11 
 
170 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 The surprise of the worthy Doctor was 
 beyond description. Had she risen from 
 the grave before his eyes, it could not have 
 been more complete. But there was no 
 room for any such supposition on his part, 
 for never had he noted such a bloom of 
 health as that which had come to her, 
 while revisiting the home of her fathers in 
 Atlantis. 
 
 As he realized the fact that it was no 
 vision he beheld, but a healthy, vigorous 
 mortal, and that the relief which they 
 had longed for, but had no longer dared 
 to hope for, had come to his friends, 
 his surprise gave way to joy, not only 
 because joy had come to Sir George 
 and Lady Denesmore, but because Kather- 
 ine was to him almost as one of his own 
 children. He had watched over her through 
 infancy and childhood, and no one had 
 mourned her untimely fate more deeply 
 and sincerely than the good old Doctor 
 himself. 
 
 A few words of explanation sufficed to 
 give him all he wished to know for the 
 present, so impatient was he to relieve 
 
THE DOOM OF THE ISLAND. 171 
 
 the great trouble of his friends, from whom, 
 although he had given words of cheer, he 
 had turned so hopelessly scarcely thirty 
 minutes before. At once he turned back 
 to the castle, for he j udged it best that the 
 good news should not be brought to them 
 too suddenly. Bidding them follow him 
 more slowly, he set out at a pace which was 
 amazing to his steady-going cob, and when 
 Atalyn and Katherine arrived at the castle 
 they found Sir George and Lady Denes- 
 more eagerly awaiting them, their sorrow 
 already forgotten in their joy in receiving 
 them back as from the dead. 
 
 For Atalyn their welcome was not less 
 warm, than that which they had for their 
 daughter. They reahzcd fully that it was 
 to him they owed her restoration to them ; 
 but, even without this, it would have been 
 as hearty and unreserved as it was, for his 
 own sake, for Sir George had lost none of 
 his feeling of regard for the young man, 
 and in this the feeling of Lady Denesmore 
 soon equalled that of her husband. 
 
 To describe in all its depth and inten- 
 sity the happiness of Sir George and Lady 
 
172 A BIT OF ATLANTIS, 
 
 Denesmore when they realized that their 
 daughter was indeed restored to them, that 
 she had come through the terrible exper- 
 ience of the storm and all that had followed 
 it safely, and was now before them in 
 the enjoyment of even more magnificent 
 health and vigor than she had ever known, 
 would be beyond the power of words. 
 The crushing sorrow which had left them 
 prostrate and helpless and without a rem- 
 nant of hope was gone, and almost for- 
 gotten in the great joy which had so unex- 
 pectedly come to them, 
 
 The story of the island and its un- 
 heard-of revelations was told and repeated 
 again and again, as once and again some 
 reference to one circumstance or another 
 brought out some part of their wonderful 
 experience on the island which had been 
 overlooked. 
 
 They had brought with them the pre- 
 cious tablets, with Atalyn's translation of 
 them, and one of the cases of the most 
 costly gems which they had found in the 
 old palace, but, when Katherine read the 
 story of the tablets, as it brought up 
 
THE DOOM QF THE ISLAND. 173 
 
 before them the picture of the lonely 
 watcher, guarding the treasures which he 
 had gathered together for his children, and 
 patiently awaiting their coming through- 
 out the countless ages which had passed 
 since they had, by his command, sailed 
 away to those other islands in the East, 
 where in due time the glory and magnifi- 
 cence which had departed from Atlantis 
 should find their resurrection, all sense of 
 the immeasurable distance of time, the 
 ages upon ages which had passed away, 
 seemed to vanish, until their kinsman, who 
 was once the King of Atlantis, came into 
 their lives as one who had walked and 
 spoken with them, and only as yesterday 
 had passed into the great beyond. 
 
 And so it was, that when at length they 
 had taken in the scope of the wonderful 
 story, with all its tremendous bearing on 
 their own fortunes, their thoughts became 
 crystallized into feelings of sincere and 
 earnest sorrow and regret for that majestic 
 old man, their great ancestor, to whose 
 thoughtful care they owed all the good 
 fortune which had come to them ; and they 
 
174 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 determined that before any other duty 
 was performed, even before the day 
 passed, he should find a resting place with 
 his children. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 << Without each other the Light 
 would have gone from their lives.'* 
 
 JTZHE days which followed the arrival of 
 ' the " Essequibo " in England were 
 busy ones. The disposition of the trea- 
 sures of Atlantis entailed no small amount 
 of work and thought, but for the time 
 nothing further was done than to place 
 them in safety, and make arrangements by 
 which the value of the bars of gold would 
 be ascertained, while the remaining part 
 of the treasures were stored in a safe place 
 to await their final disposition. The first 
 thing, however, which was done was to 
 relieve Sir George's anxiety by providing 
 for all the claims of the colony. 
 
 As soon as possible, the *' Essequibo " 
 was refitted and again despatched to 
 Guiana, in charge of a competent person, 
 under whose efficient management the 
 colony soon began to flourish, and even- 
 
176 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 tually proved for the settlers all that Sir 
 George had hoped it would become. 
 
 In carrying out the details of these 
 arrangements several weeks passed, and 
 Atalyn, as they were concluded, had 
 begun to consider the question of his re- 
 turn to Canada, when Sir George unex- 
 pectedly received a letter from Adele, 
 informing him of her father^s death. 
 
 When it had apparently become certain 
 that the " Essequibo " was lost. Sir 
 George had written to Atalyn s parents, 
 giving them the information which he had 
 concerning it ; it now appeared from 
 Adele's letter that, from the time he was 
 informed of the supposed death of his son, 
 Archibald de Montville began to sink 
 beneath the blow, and a month from the 
 day on which he received the fatal letter, 
 he was gathered to his fathers. 
 
 To Atalyn the blow came with terrible 
 force, for, although his father had never in 
 reality been to him all that a father should 
 be, he now felt that it was not because of 
 any lack of affection, but in reality be- 
 cause he had not understood him, and the 
 
" THE LIGHT WOULD HAVE GONE." 177 
 
 thought came with it that, mistaken as he 
 was, and obstinately blind as he had re- 
 mained to the fact that he had from the 
 first made his life a success, he must still 
 have been sorely disappointed, because he 
 was unable to appreciate the fact, that 
 anythinof outside of his own narrow world 
 could be considered a success. Through 
 it all, it was now seen, his very life was 
 wrapped up in that of his son, and when 
 he was taken away from him, his life faded 
 out because its object was gone. When 
 Atalyn thus realized the strength of his 
 father's affection for him, it seemed as 
 though all the sorrow and regret of a life- 
 time were gathered up in the first hours of 
 bitter grief which followed the breaking to 
 him of the sorrowful news. 
 
 But his duty required that he should 
 return at once to Duvarnay. His mother 
 and sister were now alone, and bearing 
 their sorrow as best they could. It is true 
 they would by that time have learned of 
 his escape, for his first care, on arriving in 
 England, had been to send them the 
 news, but, while their burden of grief 
 
178 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 would be lightened when they knew he 
 was still spared to them, he realized fully 
 that they now required his presence and 
 help, and he at once prepared for the 
 voyage to Canada. 
 
 To the reader who has followed thus 
 far the fortunes of Atalyn de Montville 
 and Katherine Denesmore, it would 
 appear passing strange indeed if, during 
 the half a year which had elapsed since 
 they first met, they had not come to 
 regard each other with feelings deeper 
 than those of mere friendship, or if, 
 when de Montville left Eumaling Castle 
 to sail for Canada, they should thence- 
 forth follow separate paths for the rest of 
 their lives. 
 
 It will be remembered that when he 
 first arrived at Eumaling Castle, Kath- 
 erine was in London, and only returned 
 a few days before the date on which the 
 ** Essequibo " was to sail for Guiana. 
 During the period between her return 
 and their departure on the voyage, the 
 thoughts of all were occupied, to the ex- 
 clusion of all else, with the unfavorable 
 
" THE LIGHT WOULD HAVE GONE." 179 
 
 news from his colony which had come to 
 Sir George, and even to a greater degree 
 by their anxiety concerning Lady Denes- 
 more, and by the changes in their plans 
 which had in consequence become neces- 
 sary. 
 
 During the first days of the voyage, 
 there had grown up between them a 
 feeling of camaraderie and hearty good 
 fellowship, such as sometimes exists 
 between those who have been com- 
 panions from childhood, but is rarely 
 found in those who have met only in 
 later life. In a word, they each found in 
 the other a thoroughly congenial com- 
 panion, and had the voyage continued 
 without adventure, it is more than pro- 
 bable that, on their arrival in Guiana, 
 they would have had a very clear under- 
 standing as to their future. 
 
 But with the storm there came an 
 interruption. While it continued, every 
 nerve was strained in the struggle, which 
 was a fight for life. On the island there 
 was from the first the seemingly impene- 
 trable mystery which surrounded every- 
 
180 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 thing with which they came in contact ; 
 then the discoveries of each successive 
 day, culminating in the astounding reve- 
 lations of the Last Will of Atlas, fol- 
 lowed by their preparations for leaving 
 the island, and at the last by the tre- 
 mendous tragedy, for they could call it 
 by no other name, which had witnessed 
 the destruction of this '' Bit of Atlan- 
 tis," the last remnant of the home of 
 their fathers. 
 
 Nor had they, on the homeward 
 voyage, room for other thoughts than 
 that of removing the sorrow to which 
 they knew their friends were a prey, 
 since it was beyond question that, long 
 before that time, they must have given 
 them up as lost. At Eumaling Castle, 
 after their arrival, each moment was 
 filled with duties which claimed their 
 whole attention, even up to the time 
 when the sorrowful news arrived from 
 Canada. 
 
 In this way, up to the time when 
 Atalyn began his hurried preparations 
 for his voyage, they had gone from day 
 
" THE LIGHT WOULD HAVE GONE." 181 
 
 to day, full of quiet, restful content and 
 happiness in each other's presence, yet 
 without either of them noting or realiz- 
 ing how much they had become to each 
 other. 
 
 But, when the time approached when 
 Atalyn was to leave Eumaling Castle, 
 there came to each of them a sudden and 
 complete realization of the fact, which 
 until then had been hidden from them, 
 that their very lives had, as it were, 
 become so entwined together, that to 
 separate them would be to destroy them. 
 Through all their perils and adventures, 
 although neither in word nor thought 
 had the question presented itself, they had 
 been drawn insensibly together, as each 
 succeeding experience had revealed them 
 more clearly to each other, until they 
 now knew that without each other the 
 light would have gone from their lives, 
 and existence would become a dreary 
 wasting desert. 
 
 But when this revelation came to them, 
 there was neither doubt nor hesitation ; 
 they understood each other before even a 
 
182 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 word was spoken, and there came to them 
 the deep, satisfying happiness and perfect 
 content, which can only come with the 
 knowledge that each is everything to the 
 other. 
 
 To Sir George and Lady Denesmore, 
 the event came as a fitting crown to their 
 joy and satisfaction in the restoration of 
 their only child to them. They knew 
 that it was to Atalyn they owed that 
 restoration, but it was because they also 
 knew that her happiness was safe in his 
 keeping, and because of his magnificent 
 character and qualities, that they felt they 
 could ask no better fortune for their 
 daughter, than that she should become 
 the wife of Atalyn de Montville, and 
 when he left on his voyage to Canada, it 
 was to return again in time for a quiet 
 September wedding, on the aniversary of 
 the day on which they had set out toge- 
 ther on their voyage to the New World. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Heritage Returns. 
 
 IN due course Atalyn arrived in Mont- 
 real and proceeded at once to Duvar- 
 nay, where he found his mother and Adele, 
 bearing their burden of sorrow bravely, but 
 sadly in need of his presence and help, 
 for, owing to the circumstances attending 
 the death of Archibald de Montville, the 
 affairs of the Seigneury were left, to a 
 large extent, in a state of confusion. 
 
 In Atalyn's hands confusion soon gave 
 place to order, and at the end of two 
 months from the time he arrived in Can- 
 ada he left Duvarnay in the care of a 
 trustworthy agent, and set sail again for 
 England, accompanied by his mother and 
 sister. 
 
 As the steamer was about to leave the 
 dock at Montreal, a number of letters, 
 which had just then arrived by the Eng- 
 lish mail, were brought to him. Among 
 
184 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 them were letters from Katherine and Sir 
 George, but with them there was also 
 one bearing a Scottish postmark, which 
 proved to be from an Edinburgh solicitor, 
 notifying him that the last of the elder 
 branch of the de Montville family had 
 passed away leaving no heirs, and that 
 the title and estates in consequence hav- 
 ing reverted to him, he was now Earl of 
 Altenburgh. 
 
 This was a complete surprise to Atalyn, 
 as the last Earl was a comparatively 
 young man, but, beyond this, he had but 
 little information concerning him, as there 
 had been practically no communication 
 between the two branches of the family 
 from a period shortly after the time when 
 Atalyn de Montville left Scotland in 
 1764. 
 
 As was subsequently ascertained, there 
 was a strange similarity between the his- 
 tory of the elder branch of the family, 
 and the nation over which, in the dim past, 
 it had reigned. James de Montville 
 succeeded his father as Earl of Alten- 
 burgh in 1769. Up to that time the de 
 
THE HERITAGE RETURNS. 185 
 
 Montville family had been noted for their 
 personal integrity, and the energy and 
 ability with which they had devoted them- 
 selves to the furthering of every good 
 work. 
 
 But when James succeeded his father in 
 1769, the old order was changed. In fact, 
 he seemed to possess but few, if any, of 
 the characteristics of the house of de Mont- 
 ville. Of an indolent disposition, he paid 
 no attention to public affairs, and even 
 in course of time entirely neglected his 
 own. The care and management of his 
 estates were left, to a constantly increas- 
 ing extent, in the hands of an unscru- 
 pulous agent, who, taking advantage of 
 his employer's indolence and negligence, 
 looked only to his own interests. Before 
 he had reached middle age he had given 
 himself up altogether to a life of volup- 
 tuous ease, which was abruptly terminated 
 by apoplexy when in his fiftieth year. 
 
 His son and grandson followed him in 
 turn, each worse than the last. Both 
 came to an untimely end, and were suc- 
 ceeded by his great grandson James. 
 12 
 
186 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 In the latter, all the vices of the pre- 
 ceding three generations were present and 
 intensified, and to them he added that 
 of a spendthrift, and openly lawless and 
 abandoned character. Giving himself up 
 altogether to debauchery and excesses of 
 every nature, he soon wrecked both his 
 health and his fortune, and when, while 
 he was still a young man, he was found 
 lifeless on the highway, where he had 
 fallen from his horse when returning 
 home in a state of intoxication, he left 
 no one to succeed him, and but a wreck 
 of the family fortune remained. 
 
 All this Atalyn only discovered later. 
 Now he could only guess as to the 
 circumstances which had so unexpect- 
 edly brought him into the position of 
 head of his family; but, as he did so, the 
 words of Atlas the King came to his 
 recollection : ^' To you, my son, the 
 '* heritage of your fathers will soon 
 ** return." 
 
 The voyage was uneventful, and in 
 due time they arrived at Eumaling 
 Castle, where, it is needless to say, they 
 
THE HERITAGE RETURNS. 187 
 
 were heartily welcomed. Nor was it 
 strange that the altogether unexpected 
 and surprising turn of affairs, which 
 furnished such a striking confirmation 
 of the prediction found in the Last Will 
 of Atlas, should have excited the liveliest 
 interest in their minds. 
 
 After having spent a week at Eumal- 
 ing Castle, Atalyn, leaving his mother 
 and sister with Lady Denesmore and 
 Katherine, and accompanied by Sir 
 George, left for Scotland. 
 
 The de Montville estates were situated 
 in a romantic region near the border, 
 and comprised miles of mountain and 
 valley and forest and river, with a large 
 lake at the foot of the eminence, on 
 which Altenburgh Castle was built. 
 
 The castle itself, one of the most 
 imposing and magnificent in Scotland, 
 dated back in part to a period beyond 
 the beginning of history in that part of 
 the country ; and in its more modern 
 parts, which had been added to it from 
 time to time, the original design had 
 been so well adhered to, that the whole 
 
188 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 Structure appeared as if it had been 
 designed by one master mind. 
 
 When Sir George and Atalyn ap- 
 proached the great doorway, which was 
 in the oldest part of the building, the 
 latter could not forbear an exclamation 
 of surprise and pleasure, for he saw 
 before him, complete in every detail, 
 the counterpart of the magnificent en- 
 trance to the old palace on the moun- 
 tain in Atlantis. 
 
 But if he found an unexpected wel- 
 come and pleasure in the familiar lines, 
 which the vandalism and neglect of the 
 past four generations had fortunately 
 spared, he found ample cause for dis- 
 satisfaction and regret in the condition 
 of the place generally. The castle was 
 in a state of dilapidation throughout, 
 and, apart from a suite of rooms which 
 had been occupied by the last incum- 
 bent, had apparently been closed for 
 years. 
 
 The grounds surrounding it and the 
 park were a tangled mass of brushwood, 
 while the broken walls gave access to 
 
THE HERITAGE RETURNS. 189 
 
 bands of wandering gypsies, and in- 
 truders of every description. 
 
 The various farms and holdings be- 
 longing to the estate, which had been 
 let to tenants, were found to be in an 
 equally bad condition. The buildings 
 and walls were in a state of ruin, but, 
 notwithstanding this, the rents had been 
 increased from year to year, until many 
 of the tenants had abandoned their 
 holdings, which were thus left vacant, 
 and rapidly returning to the wilderness. 
 Thus, through the excesses of the 
 owner, and the dishonesty of the agent 
 in charge of the estates, they had been 
 wasted until but little remained oi them, 
 and that little was encumbered to the 
 fullest extent, which its worthless owner 
 for the time had found possible. 
 
 Much of this was apparent to any one 
 who visited the place ; the rest Atalyn 
 ascertained when he had summoned the 
 solicitor who had notified him of the 
 death of his predecessor, and with his 
 assistance had obtained full information 
 from the agent and the tenants. 
 
1 90 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 From the investigation which he made, 
 the dishonesty of the agent was shown 
 beyond question ; the delight of the 
 tenants was unbounded when they knew 
 that he had been dismissed on the spot, 
 as were also the bailiffs and underlings 
 who were employed by him in grinding 
 down the tenants, and had shared the 
 plunder with him. 
 
 Having thus driven out those who 
 had enriched themselves at the expense 
 of the spendthrift lord and his unfor- 
 tunate tenants, Atalyn lost no time in 
 setting to work to restore his patrimony 
 to what it had been before it fell into 
 the hands of James de Montville in 1769. 
 Fortunately, the treasures of Atlas fur- 
 nished him with unlimited resources for 
 the restoration of the old castle and its 
 surroundings, and when Sir George 
 returned to England at the end of a few 
 weeks, an army of workmen was already 
 employed in removing all traces of the 
 disastrous reign of Atalyn's unworthy 
 predecessors. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 " Down to the Eventide/* 
 
 ®N the 15th of September, the anni- 
 versary of the day on which the 
 " Essequibo" had sailed on her memorable 
 voyage, there was a quiet wedding in the 
 old church at Eumaling, and Katherine 
 Denesmore became Countess of Alten- 
 burgh. Among the villagers there was 
 rejoicing such as had been unknown for 
 many a long year, and no one bestowed a 
 heartier blessing on the bride than did 
 good old Doctor Burton. 
 
 But if there were rejoicings at Eumaling, 
 even when it meant that the one who had 
 been the friend of the poor and unfortunate 
 was leaving them for another home, what 
 shall be said of the joy which prevailed 
 at Altenburgh, when they welcomed the 
 young Earl and his wife, whose coming 
 had ended the long years of oppression 
 and persecution, and had restored to them 
 
192 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 the good old days when, as the saying went, 
 " the real lord lived in the old castle/' 
 
 To Katherine the castle was home from 
 the moment when, in the entrace to it, she 
 looked on the well-remembered lines of 
 the great doorway of the old palace on the 
 Mountain of Atlantis. 
 
 Whether or not it was a strange inherit- 
 ance which had come down to them from 
 the far away time when Atlas and Euma- 
 leus played as children around the borders 
 of the lake, or gathered flowers around 
 the palace, or wandered through its cham- 
 bers or corridors, they had felt on the 
 Mountain of Refuge that strange, restful 
 satisfaction which the exile feels when per- 
 haps, after years of toil and hardship and 
 loneliness, among strangers, he at last finds 
 himself again in the home of his childhood; 
 or, like the Swiss mountaineer, finding again 
 the life which was fading away, when he 
 sees once more his native village. 
 
 Now they found, not only in the door- 
 way, but in the surroundings and in the old 
 castle itself, changed, it was true, to accom- 
 modate itself lo the different circum- 
 
"DOWN TO THE EVENTIDE." 193 
 
 Stances, but still almost a reproduction of 
 the home on the mountain, and the same 
 realization that it was the home of their 
 fathers. 
 
 Here they could rest, with all their sur- 
 roundings reminding them of the magni- 
 ficent past, and the grand old name 
 which was their inheritance, which still 
 spoke of Atlas the King, and even of the 
 towering heights of the Mountain of Re- 
 fuge. 
 
 As they passed through the great door- 
 way into the well-remembered halls, their 
 thoughts turned to their great ancestor, 
 whose words had guided them, and to whose 
 thoughtful care they owed the rest and 
 happiness which had come to them. They 
 went forward through halls and chambers, 
 until they had gone though the labyrin- 
 thian passage, and stood in what seemed 
 the altar chamber of the old palace. 
 
 Before them was the counterpart of the 
 altar, and on the wall the same blazing sun, 
 the symbol of Adonai, the Mighty One, 
 to whom Atlas the King had given the ser- 
 vice of his whole life. And when Atalyn 
 pressed the centre of the glowing symbol. 
 
194 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 the door opened, and revealed to them the 
 same treasure chamber beyond it. It was 
 empty, but where could be found a more 
 fitting resting place for that brave old 
 heart which had defied the ages, and kept 
 his watch until his children returned to him. 
 
 A few days later, Sir George and Lady 
 Denesmore, with Adele and her mother, 
 arrived at Altenburgh, and with them they 
 brought Atlas the King. Tenderly they 
 bore him through the stately halls and into 
 the treasure chamber, which was to be the 
 place of his rest ; for more than ever the 
 ages seemed to have faded out, and he ta 
 have come into their own times and their 
 own lives ; and then they left him, as he 
 might have seemed when, in the glory of 
 his strength, he sat on the throne of 
 Atlantis. 
 
 But when they returned they found the 
 long years of his watching were indeed 
 over, for where they had left the majestic 
 form of the King, they found only a little 
 heap of dust. 
 
 In the centre of the treasure chamber 
 they raised a stately tomb, on which was 
 
"DOWN TO THE EVENTIDE." 195 
 
 inscribed the words : " Atlas, King of 
 Atlantis," and in it they placed an urn, in 
 which was gathered all that was mortal of 
 their great ancestor, now at least at rest. 
 
 But, before they had completed this 
 tribute of respect to their kinsman, they 
 had again the truth of his words brought 
 home to them. In the altar Atalyn found 
 a recess, like that which contained the 
 Last Will of Atlas ; in it was a casket of 
 bronze, in which they found a stained and 
 weather-beaten parchment, on which, in 
 cramped and crabbed writing, were the 
 words : ** He who bears the name of 
 ** James de Montville is a cotter's son* 
 " The real James de Montville lived but 
 ** one hour, and I put the cotters child in 
 ** his place. May God forgive me the 
 ** wrong I have done. August i4thy 
 ** 1 74 1. — Mary Donaldson.'* 
 
 It was true that a usurper had taken 
 their place, and it was also true that those 
 who had brought dishonor on the name 
 of Atlas were not of that name, but 
 strangers to it. They had received the 
 reward of their evil-doing, and now there 
 
196 A BIT OF ATLANTIS. 
 
 was peace and prosperity in Altenburg^h, 
 such as had not been seen even in the 
 best of the old days, before the stranger 
 had usurped the place which belonged to 
 the house of Atlas. 
 
 The years passed, and there came to 
 Atalyn and Katherine the joys and the 
 sorrows which are the common lot of 
 humanity; but there came to them, too, 
 the blessings of the needy and the sor- 
 rowful, and in their lives there was only 
 that which brought to them, in all fullness, 
 the benediction which it was promised by 
 their great ancestor would be their reward 
 for well-doing. 
 
 As the years passed, too, the old halls 
 of Altenburgh and Eumaling echoed to 
 the joyous laughter of children's voices, 
 for to Sir George and Lady Denesmore 
 the presence of their grandchildren was 
 as the renewing of their youth ; and when 
 they came to Eumaling — it was but a step 
 across the valley to Aldenmere House — to 
 find again the music of the little voices* 
 and Lord and Lady Kenleigh, whom the 
 children called *^ Uncle Joe" and '' Aunt 
 Adele." 
 
"DOWN TO THE EVENTIDE." 19T 
 
 And as Atalyn and Archibald and 
 George and Katherine and Adele grew 
 up from babyhood, their toddling steps 
 were followed and guided with watch-dog 
 faithfulness by old Dinah and Jim, to 
 whom they were as the apple of the eye. 
 
 Still the years passed ; the little ones 
 grew up, a joy and a comfort to their 
 parents, and worthy of the blessing of 
 Atlas the King. Again there came a 
 time when Archibald de Montville was 
 the Seigneur of Duvarnay, and George 
 was the possessor of Eumaling Castle. 
 And so through the long eventide of life^ 
 surrounded by their children and child- 
 ren's children. Lord and Lady Altenburgh 
 went calmly forward. But, as the 
 shadows lengthened, and in the midst of 
 the happiness and peace of their lives, 
 which the years had only drawn more 
 closely together, there came sometimes 
 to them a longing for their childhood's 
 home, but they knew that longing must 
 remain unsatisfied, for that home had 
 gone down into the depths of the ocean 
 with " A Bit of Atlantis." 
 
 The End. 
 
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