The words of Tatho were no sleeping draught for me that night. I began
to think that I had made somewhat a mistake in wrapping myself up so
entirely in my government of Yucatan, and not contriving to keep more in
touch with events that were passing at home in Atlantis. For many years
past it had been easy to see that the mariner folk who did traffic
across the seas spoke with restraint, and that only what news the
Empress pleased was allowed to ooze out beyond her borders. But, as
I say, I was fully occupied with my work in the colony, and had no
curiosity to pull away a veil intentionally placed. Besides, it has
always been against my principles to put to the torture men who had
received orders for silence from their superiors, merely that they shall
break these orders for my private convenience.
However, the iron discipline of our Priestly Clan left me no choice
of procedure. As was customary, I had been deprived of my office at a
moment’s notice. From that time on, all papers and authority belonged to
my successor, and, although by courtesy I might be permitted to remain
as a guest in the pyramid that had so recently been mine, to see another
sunrise, it was clearly enjoined that I must leave the territory then at
the topmost of my speed and hasten to report in Atlantis.
Tatho, to give him credit, was anxious to further my interests to the
utmost in his power. He was by my side again before the dawn, putting
all his resources at my disposal.
I had little enough to ask him. “A ship to take me home,” I said, “and I
shall be your debtor.”
The request seemed to surprise him. “That you may certainly have if you
wish it. But my ships are foul with the long passage, and are in need
of a careen. If you take them, you will make a slow voyage of it to
Atlantis. Why do you not take your own navy? The ships are in harbour
now, for I saw them there when we came in. Brave ships they are too.”
“But not mine. That navy belongs to Yucatan.”
“Well, Deucalion, you are Yucatan; or, rather, you were yesterday, and
have been these twenty years.”
I saw what he meant, and the idea did not please me. I answered stiffly
enough that the ships were owned by private merchants, or belonged to
the State, and I could not claim so much as a ten-slave galley.
Tatho shrugged his shoulders. “I suppose you know your own policies
best,” he said, “though to me it seems but risky for a man who has
attained to a position like yours and mine not to have provided himself
with a stout navy of his own. One never knows when a recall may be sent,
and, through lack of these precautions, a life’s earnings may very well
be lost in a dozen hours.”
“I have no fear for mine,” I said coldly.
“Of course not, because you know me to be your friend. But had another
man been appointed to this vice-royalty, you might have been sadly
shorn, Deucalion. It is not many fellows who can resist a snug hoard
ready and waiting in the very coffers they have come to line.”
“My Lord Tatho,” I said, “it is clear to me that you and I have grown to
be of different tastes. All of the hoard that I have made for myself in
this colony, few men would covet. I have the poor clothes you see me
in this moment, and a box of drugs such as I have found useful to the
stomach. I possess also three slaves, two of them scribes and the third
a sturdy savage from Europe, who cooks my victual and fills for me the
bath. For my maintenance during my years of service, here, I have bled
the State of a soldier’s ration and nothing beyond; and if in my name
any man has mulcted a creature in Yucatan of so much as an ounce of
bronze, I request you as a last service to have that man hanged for me
as a liar and a thief.”
Tatho looked at me curiously. “I do not know whether I admire you most
or whether I pity. I do not know whether to be astonished or to despise.
We had heard of much of your uprightness over yonder in Atlantis, of
your sternness and your justice, but I swear by the old Gods that no
soul guessed you carried your fancy so far as this. Why, man, money is
power. With money and the resources money can buy, nothing could stop
a fellow like you; whilst without it you may be tripped up and trodden
down irrevocably at the first puny reverse.”
“The Gods will choose my fate.”
“Possibly; but for mine, I prefer to nourish it myself. I tell you with
frankness that I have not come here to follow in the pattern you have
made for a vice-royalty. I shall govern Yucatan wisely and well to the
best of my ability; but I shall govern it also for the good of Tatho,
the viceroy. I have brought with me here my navy of eight ships and a
personal bodyguard. There is my wife also, and her women and her slaves.
All these must be provided for. And why indeed should it be otherwise?
If a people is to be governed, it should be their privilege to pay
handsomely for their prince.”
“We shall not agree on this. You have the power now, and can employ it
as you choose. If I thought it would be of any use, I should like to
supplicate you most humbly to deal with lenience when you come to tax
these people who are under you. They have grown very dear to me.”
“I have disgusted you with me, and I am grieved for it. But even to
retain your good opinion, Deucalion--which I value more than that of any
man living--I cannot do here as you have done. It would be impossible,
even if I wished it. You must not judge all other men by your own
strong standard: a Tatho is by no means a colossus like a Deucalion. And
besides, I have a wife and children, and they must be provided for, even
if I neglect myself.”
“Ah, there,” I said, “it does seem that I possess the advantage. I have
no wife, to clog me.”
He caught up my word quickly. “It seems to me you have nothing that
makes life worth living. You have neither wife, children, riches, cooks,
retinue, dresses, nor anything else in proportion to your station. You
will pardon my saying it, old comrade, but you are plaguey ignorant
about some matters. For example, you do not know how to dine. During
every day of a very weary voyage, I have promised myself when sitting
before the meagre sea victual, that presently the abstinence would be
more than repaid by Deucalion’s welcoming feast. Oh, I tell you that
feast was one of the vividest things that ever came before my eyes. And
then when we get to the actuality, what was it? Why, a country farmer
every day sits down to more delicate fare. You told me how it was
prepared. Well, your savage from Europe may be lusty, and perchance is
faithful, but he is a devil-possessed cook. Gods! I have lived better on
a campaign.
“I know this is a colony here, without any of the home refinements; but
if in the days to come, the deer of the forest, the fish of the stream,
and the other resources of the place are not put to better use than
heretofore, I shall see it my duty as ruler to fry some of the
kitchen staff alive in grease so as to encourage better cookery. Gods!
Deucalion, have you forgotten what it is to have a palate? And have
you no esteem for your own dignity? Man, look at your clothes. You are
garbed like a herdsman, and you have not a gaud or a jewel to brighten
you.”
“I eat,” I said coldly, “when my hunger bids me, and I carry this one
robe upon my person till it is worn out and needs replacement. The
grossness of excessive banqueting, and the effeminacy of many clothes
are attainments that never met my fancy. But I think we have talked here
over long, and there seems little chance of our finding agreement. You
have changed, Tatho, with the years, and perhaps I have changed also.
These alterations creep imperceptibly into one’s being as time advances.
Let us part now, and, forgetting these present differences, remember
only our friendship of twenty years agone. That for me, at any rate, has
always had a pleasant savour when called up into the memory.”
Tatho bowed his head. “So be it,” he said.
“And I would still charge myself upon your bounty for that ship. Dawn
cannot be far off now, and it is not decent that the man who has ruled
here so long, should walk in daylight through the streets on the morning
after his dismissal.”
“So be it,” said Tatho. “You shall have my poor navy. I could have
wished that you had asked me something greater.”
“Not the navy, Tatho; one small ship. Believe me, more is wasted.”
“Now, there,” said Tatho, “I shall act the tyrant. I am viceroy here
now, and will have my way in this. You may go naked of all possessions:
that I cannot help. But depart for Atlantis unattended, that you shall
not.”
And so, in fine, as the choice was set beyond me, it was in the “Bear,”
Tatho’s own private ship, with all the rest of his navy sailing in
escort, that I did finally make my transit.
But the start was not immediate. The vessels lay moored against the
stone quays of the inner harbour, gutted of their stores, and with crews
exhausted, and it would have been suicide to have forced them out then
and there to again take the seas.
So the courtesies were fulfilled by the craft whereon I abode hauling
out into the entrance basin, and anchoring there in the swells of the
fairway; and forthwith she and her consorts took in wood and water,
cured meat and fish ashore, and refitted in all needful ways, with all
speed attainable.
For myself there came then, as the first time during twenty busy years,
a breathing space from work. I had no further connection with the
country of my labours; indeed, officially, I had left it already. Into
the working of the ship it was contrary to rule that I should make
any inspection or interest, since all sea matters were the exclusive
property of the Mariners’ Guild, secured to them by royal patent, and
most jealously guarded.
So there remained to me in my day, hours to gaze (if I would) upon the
quays, the harbours, the palaces, and the pyramids of the splendid city
before me which I had seen grow stone by stone from its foundations; or
to roam my eye over the pastures and the grain lands beyond the walls,
and to look longingly at the dense forests behind, from which field by
field we had so tediously ripped our territory.
Would Tatho continue the work so healthily begun? I trusted so, even in
spite of his selfish words. And at all hours, during the radiance of
our Lord the Sun, or under the stars of night, I was free to pursue
that study of the higher mysteries, on which we of the Priests’ Clan are
trained to set our minds, without aid of book or instrument, of image or
temple.
The refitting of the navy was gone about with speed. Never, it is said,
had ships been reprovisioned and caulked, and remanned with greater
speed for the over-ocean voyage. Indeed, it was barely over a month from
the day that they brought up in the harbour, they put out beyond the
walls, and began their voyage eastward over the hills and dale of the
ocean.
Rowing-slaves from Europe for this long passage of sea are not taken
now, owing to the difficulty in provisioning them, for modern humanity
forbids the practice of letting them eat one another according to the
home custom of their continent; sails alone are but an indifferent stand
by; but modern science has shown how to extract force from the Sun, when
He is free from cloud, and this (in a manner kept secret by mariners) is
made to draw sea-water at the forepart of the vessel, and eject it with
such force at the stern that she is appreciably driven forward, even
with the wind adverse.
In another matter also has navigation vastly improved. It is not
necessary now, as formerly, to trust wholly to a starry night (when
beyond sight of land) to find direction. A little image has been made,
and is stood balanced in the forepart of every vessel, with an arm
outstretched, pointing constantly to the direction where the Southern
Cross lies in the Heavens. So, by setting an angle, can a just course be
correctly steered. Other instruments have they also for finding a true
position on the ocean wastes, for the newer mariner, when he is at sea,
puts little trust in the Gods, and confides mightily in his own thews
and wits.
Still, it is amusing to see these tarry fellows, even in this modern
day, take their last farewell of the harbour town. The ship is stowed,
and all ready for sea, and they wash and put on all their bravery of
attire. Ashore they go, their faces long with piety, and seek some
obscure temple whose God has little flavour with shore folk, and here
they make sacrifice with clamour and lavish outlay. And, finally, there
follows a feast in honour of the God, and they arrive back on board, and
put to sea for the most part drunken, and all heavy and evil-humoured
with gluttony and their other excesses.
The voyage was very different to my previous sea-going. There was no
creeping timorously along in touch with the coasts. We stood straight
across the open gulf in the direction of home, came up with the band of
the Carib Islands, and worked confidently through them, as though they
had been signposts to mark the sea highway; and stopped only twice
to replenish with wood, water, and fruit. These commodities, too, the
savages brought us freely, so great was their subjection, and in
neither place did we have even the semblance of a fight. It was a great
certificate of the growing power of Atlantis and her finest over-sea
colony.
Then boldly on we went across the vast ocean beyond, with never a
sacrifice to implore the Gods that they should help our direction. One
might feel censure towards these rugged mariners for their impiety, but
one could not help an admiration for their lusty skill and confidence.
The dangers of the desolate sea are dealt out as the Gods will, and man
can only take them as they come. Storms we encountered, and the mariners
fought them with stubborn endurance; twice a blazing stone from Heaven
hissed into the sea beside us, though without injuring any of our ships;
and, as was unavoidable, the great beasts of the sea hunted us with
their accustomed savagery. But only once did we suffer material loss
from these last, and that was when three of the greater sea lizards
attacked the “Bear,” the ship whereon I travelled, at one and the same
time.
The hour of their onset was during the blazing midday heat, and the Sun
being at the full of His power, our machines were getting full force
from Him. The vessel was travelling forward faster than a man on dry
land could walk. But for the power escape she might as well have been
standing still when the beasts sighted her. There were three of them,
as I have said, and we saw them come up over the curve of the horizon,
beating the sea into foam with their flappers, and waving their great
necks like masts as they swam. Our navy was spread out in a long line
of ships, and in olden days each of the beasts would have selected a
separate prey, and proceeded for it; but, like man, these beasts have
learned the necessities of warfare, and they hunt in pack now and do not
separate their forces.
It was plain they were making for our ship, and Tob, the captain, would
have had me go into the after-castle, and there be secure from their
marauding. He was responsible to the Lord Tatho, he said, for my safe
conduct; it was certain that the beasts would contrive to seize some of
the ship’s company before they were satiated; and if the hap came to the
Lord Deucalion, he (the captain) would have to give himself voluntarily
to the beasts then, to escape a very painful death at Tatho’s hands
later on.
However, my mind was set. A man can never have too much experience in
fighting enemies, whether human or bestial, and the attack of these
creatures was new to me, and I was fain to learn its method. So I gave
the captain a letter to Tatho, saying how the matter lay (and for which,
it may be mentioned, the rude fellow seemed little enough grateful), and
stayed in my chair under the awning.
The beasts surged up to us with champing jaws, and all the shipmen
stood armed on their defence. They came up alongside, two females (the
smaller) on the flank of the ship, the giant male by himself on the
other. Their great heads swooped about, as high as the yards that held
the sails, and the reek from them gave one physical sickness.
The shipmen faced the monsters with a sturdy courage. Arrows were
useless against the smooth, bull-like hides. Even the throwing fire
could not so much as singe them; nothing but twenty axe blows delivered
on an attacking head together could beat it back, and even these
succeeded only through sheer weight of metal, and did not make so much
as the scratch of a wound.
During all time beasts have disputed with man the mastery of the earth,
and it is only in Atlantis and Egypt and Yucatan that man has dared to
hold his own, and fight them with a mind made strong by many previous
victories. In Europe and mid-Africa the greater beasts hold full
dominion, and man admits his puny number and force, and lives in earth
crannies and the higher tree-tops, as a fugitive confessed. And upon the
great oceans, the beasts are lords, unchecked.
Still here, upon this desolate sea, although the giant lizards were new
to me, it was a pleasure to pit my knowledge of war against their brute
strength and courage. Ever since the first men did their business upon
the great waters, they fulfilled their instincts in fighting the beasts
with desperation. Hiding coward-like in a hold was useless, for if this
enemy could not find men above decks to glut them, they would break
a ship with their paddles, and so all would be slain. And so it was
recognised that the fight should go forward as desperately as might be,
and that it could only end when the beasts had got their prey and had
gone away satisfied.
It was in a one-sided conflict after this fashion then, that I found
myself, and felt the joy once more to have my thews in action. But after
my axe had got in some dozen lusty blows, which, for all the harm they
did, might have been delivered against some city wall, or, indeed,
against the ark of the Mysteries itself, I sought about me till I found
a lance, and with that made very different play.
The eyes of these lizards are small, and set deep in a bony socket, but
I judged them to be vulnerable, and it was upon the eyes of the beast
that I made my attack. The decks were slippery with the horrid slime of
them. The crew surged about in their battling, and, moreover, constantly
offered themselves as a rampart before me by reason of Tob, the
captain’s threats. But I gave a few shrewd progues with the lance to
show that I did not choose my will to be overridden, and presently was
given room for manoeuvre.
Deliberately I placed myself in the sight of one of the lizards, and
offered my body to its attack. The challenge was accepted. It swooped
like a dropping stone, and I swerved and drove in the lance at its oozy
eye.
I thanked the Gods then that I had been trained with the lance till
certain aim was a matter of instinct with me. The blade went true to
its mark and stuck there, and the shaft broke in my hand. The beast drew
off, blinded and bellowing, and beating the sea with its paddles. In a
great cataract of foam I saw it bend its great long neck, and rub its
head (with the spear still fixed) against its back, thereby enduring new
agonies, but without dislodging the weapon. And then presently, finding
this of no avail, it set off for the place from which it came with
extraordinary quickness, and rapidly grew smaller against the horizon.
The male and the other female lizard had also left us, but not in
similar plight. Tob, the captain, seeing my resolve to take hazards,
deliberately thrust a shipman into the jaws of each of the others,
so that they might be sated and get them gone. It was clear that Tob
dreaded very much for his own skin if I came by harm, and I thought with
a warming heart of the threats that Tatho must have used in his kind
anxiety for my safety. It is pleasant when one’s old friends do not omit
to pay these little attentions.