[Illustration: “Suddenly I heard the Professor’s voice just as if he
were right out there on the desert.”]
THE RADIO BOYS
SEEK THE LOST ATLANTIS
By GERALD BRECKENRIDGE
Author of
_“The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border,” “The Radio Boys with the
Revenue Guards,” “The Radio Boys on Secret Service Duty,” “The Radio
Boys Search for the Inca’s Treasure,” “The Radio Boys Rescue the Lost
Alaska Expedition,” “The Radio Boys in Darkest Africa.”_
[Illustration: Radio]
Frontispiece
A. L. BURT COMPANY
Publishers New York
THE
RADIO BOYS SERIES
A SERIES OF STORIES FOR BOYS OF ALL AGES
By GERALD BRECKENRIDGE
The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border
The Radio Boys on Secret Service Duty
The Radio Boys with the Revenue Guards
The Radio Boys Search for the Inca’s Treasure
The Radio Boys Rescue the Lost Alaska Expedition
The Radio Boys Seek the Lost Atlantis
The Radio Boys In Darkest Africa
Copyright, 1923
By A. L. BURT COMPANY
Made in “U. S. A.”
PREFACE
Dear Boys:
One of the greatest, if not _the_ greatest story of all the ages, is the
legend of Atlantis. According to this legend, there existed at one time
a great continent in the Atlantic Ocean not far west of the Pillars of
Hercules, those two great rocks of Gibraltar in Spain and Jibel Kebir in
Morocco which guard the entrance to the Mediterranean.
The legend says that this continent was the first region in which man
rose from barbarism to civilization, and that in the course of ages it
became a populous and mighty nation from whose shores immigrants went
out to settle the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, the valley of the
Mississippi, the valley of the Amazon, the Pacific coast of South
America, the shores of the Mediterranean, of the Baltic, the Black Sea
and the Caspian and the western coast of Europe and Africa.
From this continent, continues the legend, the first colonists
penetrated western Africa clear to Egypt where they took root in the
Nile valley and developed what is today conceded to be the earliest
known civilization.
Many other startling statements are made in this legend. For instance,
it is said that the civilizations of the Incas in Peru and the Mayas in
Central America, like the civilization of Egypt, were derived from
Atlantis through immigration; that the Atlanteans were the first
manufacturers of iron, and that the implements of the “Bronze Age” in
Europe were derived from them; that the Phoenician alphabet, parents of
all European alphabets, was derived from Atlantis, bearing a startling
resemblance to the alphabet of the vanished race of the Mayas in Central
America, whose ancient cities are just this very day, as you can read in
your papers, being unearthed; that the gods and goddesses of the ancient
Greeks, the Phoenicians, the Hindus and the Scandinavians were merely
the kings and queens and heroes of Atlantis, about whose real historic
actions the migrating Atlanteans remembered stories which eventually
went to create the mythology of their descendants.
There is much else of this sort, all culminating in the great
outstanding feature of the legend which is that Atlantis was destroyed
in a terrible convulsion of nature, and sank beneath the ocean with
almost all its inhabitants, leaving only a few of the loftiest peaks
sticking above the water, which today comprise the islands of Madeira,
the Azores and the Bermudas.
From this cataclysm a few Atlanteans, it is related, escaped to
neighboring shores in rafts and ships, bearing their tale of horror. And
from these tales arose the legend of a great Flood or Deluge, which has
survived to our own time in the Book of Genesis in the Bible and in the
mythologies of all peoples of both the Old and the New Worlds.
This is the legend, then, and that for thousands of years it was
regarded as a fable proves nothing.
People used to believe the legends of the buried cities of Pompeii and
Herculaneum were myths. They believed so for a thousand years, before
archaeologists exposed the ruins. The historian Herodotus was called
“the father of liars” for a thousand years, because he wrote of the
wonders of the ancient civilizations of the Nile valley and of Chaldea.
But now it is known he spoke the truth.
It is so with this legend of Atlantis, of which the great Greek, Plato,
has left us the most detailed account. All these thousands of years
since Plato wrote his account of Atlantis, 400 years before the Birth of
Christ, he has been regarded as a poetizer. But in the light of recent
researches, which really are just beginning, it appears as if what he
wrote was not legend but history, and as if, indeed, his story is one of
the most valuable documents which have come down to us from antiquity.
Some day you must hunt up and read for yourselves a book entitled
“Atlantis or the Antediluvian World.” Written by Ignatius Donnelly, it
was published by Harper & Brothers in 1882. In it are collected Plato’s
story of Atlantis and a wealth of evidences which go to prove, in the
author’s opinion, that Atlantis did actually exist, that it was the home
of the white race, the Semitic race and, perhaps, the Turanian, and that
it was destroyed by a convulsion of Nature.
Since Donnelly’s book, investigation has gone further. Savants uncovered
near the southern edge of the Sahara Desert about the time of the
outbreak of the Great War the ruins of two great cities of an unknown
civilization, believed to have been seats of a migration from Atlantis.
The war, however, halted their research, and up to a recent period the
investigation had not been resumed. In one of these cities, people of an
unknown white strain resided in a semi-savage state. I, therefore, have
made them the background for this story, and that you will like it is
the hope of
THE AUTHOR.
Emerson Hill,
Staten Island, N. Y.
1923.
CONTENTS
I. Introduction. 3
II. A Cry for Help. 11
III. The Mystery at the Oasis. 17
IV. The Mystery Deepens. 23
V. Allola’s Story. 32
VI. The Tale of the Slave Trader. 41
VII. Chasing Ostriches. 50
VIII. Bob’s Fight Against Odds. 58
IX. A Puzzling Prophecy. 67
X. Squelched by an Ostrich. 76
XI. The Stranger Revives. 85
XII. Amrath Speaks. 94
XIII. Korakum Reached. 101
XIV. A New Radio Station. 110
XV. Meeting the Revolutionists. 119
XVI. Revolt of the Exiles. 129
XVII. The Fight for the Pass. 136
XVIII. A Dark Hour. 147
XIX. At Low Ebb. 153
XX. An Old Friend Appears. 159
XXI. Reunion. 166
XXII. Frank to the Rescue. 176
XXIII. The Fliers Warn Korakum. 182
XXIV. Into the Coliseum. 190
XXV. A Surprise for the Janissaries. 199
XXVI. The Revolutionists Succeed. 207
XXVII. Athensi Falls. 213
XXVIII. Conclusion. 219
THE RADIO BOYS SEEK THE LOST ATLANTIS
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Jack Hampton wearily passed a hand across his eyes. Would they never
sight the oasis at which Ali had promised they would arrive at the end
of the day’s march? Even after many days of travel on camel-back, Jack
had not become sufficiently accustomed to the soft-footed swaying brute
to make a long day’s ride a pleasure.
And this was a long day’s ride indeed. Except for a brief halt at noon
the caravan had been on the march across the lifeless sand dunes of the
desert, unbroken by trees, rocks, animals or human beings, unbroken by
anything, in fact, except occasional stunted bushes, since dawn. In
another half hour the sun would descend, and if the promised oasis were
not sighted by then, they would be forced to spend another night on the
desert.
Looking back from his position at the head of the column, Jack could see
Bob Temple and Frank Merrick, both mounted as was he, behind them a half
dozen shuffling camels with astride each among the bundles a swarthy
Arab enfolded in the inevitable jillab, from the folds of which stuck
out a long-barrelled rifle, and bringing up the rear Jack’s father and
Ali, his head man, both engaged in conversation.
The loop aerial rigged up on Frank’s camel caught Jack’s gaze, and his
eyes brightened. He decided he would break the monotony of this desert
travel by kidding his friend. And with that purpose in view, he halted
his camel, to await Frank’s approach.
To himself Jack chuckled as he thought of the bewilderment and wonder
which Frank had aroused amongst the camel drivers by his aerial.
Attached to a light frame strapped to the camel’s hump, ground wire
trailing between the animal’s feet, Frank had rigged up the set the day
before upon Ali’s declaration that another day would see them at the
Oasis Aiz-Or. He wanted to be in a position to receive any message which
Professor Souchard, a Swiss savant, who awaited their coming, might send
out. For with him Professor Souchard had a duplex radio apparatus for
both sending and receiving, which the boys jointly had devised.
Many months before Professor Souchard had entered the Sahara to prepare
for their coming. Not that it was his first visit to the Great Desert,
however. On the contrary, twenty years of his life had been spent in
poking about its endless reaches in search of the ruins of an incredibly
ancient city which he had reason to believe had been founded in
prehistoric times by colonists from the lost continent of Atlantis, that
fabled land in the Atlantic ocean which had been the seat of all
civilization and had been swallowed up in a tremendous cataclysm of
Nature giving rise to the universal legends of The Flood.
Toward the end of his period of explorations, Professor Souchard had
come to an oasis lying far from the few known routes, the Oasis of
Aiz-Or, inhabited by a small desert tribe. From it he had glimpsed far
to the southward the peaks of a mountain range. When he asked the Arabs
what mountains lay there, they had replied it was the Land of Shaitun,
which in English means Satan. The mountains were accursed said the
Arabs, and all who ventured near were never heard of again.
At least five days’ travel intervened, said Professor Souchard’s hosts,
with no water holes in the direct route, although three small springs
bubbling from beneath great rocks lay somewhere between the oasis and
the mountain wall. But without guides, a traveller would be unable to
find them.
Nothing daunted, Professor Souchard accompanied by his faithful
companion, Ben Hassim, had set out. For the mountains of Shaitun, he
believed, were unknown to geographers. And the ancient Egyptian
inscriptions which spoke of the great city of the past for which he had
been searching through the years referred to the mountains surrounding
it. Perhaps, therefore, the city he sought was within that mountain
wall.
The scientist and Ben Hassim finally did manage to attain to the foot of
the mountain wall, which rose unbroken from the plain, on the fifth day.
But their supply of water was exhausted, they were semi-delirious. For
two days they travelled along the base of the wall, seeking some pass or
valley which pierced the barrier.
At length on the seventh day they came upon a stone-paved road and,
scarcely able to believe the evidence of their senses, they began to
follow along it into the mountains. Before proceeding far, however, they
were overcome by fever and thirst and fell insensible. In this
condition, they were found and rescued.
Upon recovery they found themselves amidst great stone ruins of
ponderous architecture, in the midst of a luxuriant valley watered by a
broad stream encircling one side, which emerged from a tunnel in the
mountains and disappeared again into the mountains, not to reach the
surface more.
Their rescuers were kindly men, several of whom possessed a good command
of English, and they were white. But as Professor Souchard’s knowledge
of English was strictly limited, they could not understand each other
well.
However, while being nursed back to strength, the scientist managed to
make out that his rescuers were political refugees from another city in
the heart of the mountains known as Athensi, and that in this city and
the plateaus surrounding it dwelt a white race of semi-civilized people
ruled over by a religious Oligarchy. His rescuers were men of superior
intelligence and a high state of culture and that they had travelled
about the world was apparent. With his slight knowledge of English and a
smattering of their tongue which he picked up, he was able to come to
that conclusion.
To him it became apparent that the ruined city of Korakum, overgrown by
rank jungle growth and in the midst of which the Athensian exiles
cultivated little patches of garden, was the city he had been seeking.
But the little he could learn of Athensi fired his imagination.
Apparently, at some dim age in the past the settlers of this ruined city
which had been called Korakum had withdrawn into the mountain country
and built Athensi, where were palaces, temples, a vast Coliseum, above
all, a great Library housing thousands of papyrus rolls.
If he could only gain access to Athensi, thought Professor Souchard,
what wonders and mysteries of the ancient world, perhaps of a
civilization existing in Atlantis before the Flood, would be revealed.
However, on his recovery, the exiles told him it was best for him to
depart before the Athensian authorities discovered his presence, as they
wished to preserve isolation from the outside world and did not want
their secret discovered. Therefore, after supplying him with water and
food, they started him and Ben Hassim on the return journey.
Well did Jack recall the arrival of Professor Souchard at his father’s
home on Long Island with this tale. Mr. Hampton, himself an explorer and
engineer of wide reputation, had been enthusiastic. He had promised the
scientist, whose funds had become exhausted and who was unable to obtain
backing for further explorations in war-exhausted Europe, to finance an
expedition to Athensi.
With this promise, Professor Souchard had returned to Africa, and as
soon as he could put his affairs in shape for prolonged absence, Mr.
Hampton had followed. With him he had taken Jack and the latter’s close
chums, Bob Temple and Frank Merrick.
Those of our readers familiar with the three Radio Boys by reason of
following their adventures chronicled in “The Radio Boys on the Mexican
Border,” “With the Revenue Guards,” “On Secret Service Duty,” “In Search
of the Inca Treasure” and “Rescuing the Lost Expedition,” will realize
that three more reliable young fellows in just such a situation could
not be found.
Jack and Bob were both six feet tall, and Bob in addition was possessed
of extraordinary strength. As for Frank, an orphan, who made his home
with Bob on the Temple estate, adjoining that of the Hamptons’ near
Southampton, Long Island, what he lacked in inches and girth, was made
up in quickness of intellect. All three were students at Yale.
This was the way matters stood, with the party at length after its trip
across the Sahara from Khartum drawing near the Oasis Aiz-Or, when Jack
paused to await the approach of his comrades.
As Frank drew nearer, Jack smiled. He was thinking of the other’s
comical appearance. Wrapped in the voluminous jillab which all wore as
it provided greater protection against sand and heat than European
clothing, Frank was crowned by a sun helmet, startling by contrast, and
beneath it wore headphones clamped over his ears.
Jack was on the point of calling out some laughing remark about the
latter’s vain wait for a message from Professor Souchard, when Frank’s
face suddenly betrayed alarm. And with a shout he tore the headset from
his ears, sending the sun helmet spinning out on the floor of the
desert. Turning about, he beckoned wildly for Mr. Hampton and Ali to
approach.
“What is it?” shouted Jack. “What did you hear?”
For, that Frank had received some message filling him with alarm was
apparent.
Frank did not reply. His face grew pale beneath the heavy tan.