The New Atlantis
The tension grew unendurable. The priests were advancing slowly, as
though assured that their quarry could not escape. In the lead Thotmes
was smiling and stroking his beard with one hand.
“Surrender,” he called out. “No harm will come to you—for a while. Not
till we need new beast-gods!”
Desquer’s face went a mottled red. But still there was no fear in the
man. He faced the throng, still holding his guns—and suddenly sheathed
one and began to search his pockets. His low voice rapped out.
“Quick, you fools! See if there’s anything on you we can use for
ammunition. It doesn’t have to be coal—carbon will do.”
Tony shot one hurried glance at the mob of priests. Desquer gave a
little cry of triumph and brought out a single coal-cartridge from his
tunic pocket. “Good! Only one, but—” He slipped it into the gun’s
firing cup.
There was a queer look, almost of amusement, on Tony’s dark face. He
gripped Jimmy’s arm and whispered, “Wait!”
Desquer stepped forward. He raised his gun and called, “Halt!”
A flashing smile came from Thotmes. The high priest did not reply. He
kept on....
And Desquer fired.
Thotmes seemed surprised. He paused, lifting his hands to a chest that
was a gory mass of red ruin. He stared at his bloodstained fingers.
From the priests went up a whisper of terror—as Thotmes fell! The high
priest of Alu was dead!
Desquer did not pause. He took one step forward, and another, as though
expecting his enemies to give back. But they did not.
They massed together grimly—and advanced.
This time the commander paused, his thick lips twisting. His hand dived
into his tunic pocket in a futile gesture. But there was no more
ammunition.
Tony was smiling. He touched Desquer’s arm.
“I’ve a bullet for you, commander.”
“Eh?” The glittering eyes widened. “Where—”
Desquer’s gaze focused on what Tony held in his palm. Lens-shaped and
lovely the great gem lay there, flashing in the red light of Alu. Like a
diamond it was—but it was not a diamond.
Jimmy said breathlessly, “Tony! You—”
“_The Earth Star!_” There was sweat on Desquer’s face.
“Go on,” Tony whispered. “Take it, commander! It’s carbon. You can use
it as a bullet. A coal-cartridge will kill a man. This jewel’s much
harder than stone. There’s no limit to the power of a carbon gun. You
can bring down the pyramid with this—commander!”
Desquer still did not move, and Tony deftly slipped the jewel into the
gun’s cup. It rested there in its strange setting, beautiful beyond
imagination, holding within its fiery heart fortunes and grandeur and
death. A jewel—but it was carbon, too. And Desquer’s eyes did not move
from the great gem.
“Shoot,” Tony said. “If you do, you lose the Earth Star. If you
don’t—it means death.”
The commander’s face was shining with sweat. He glanced up once to the
mob of priests, very close now. His gross frame shook with the agony of
indecision. To possess the Earth Star—and to know that its possession
meant certain doom! He had only to squeeze the trigger, and his enemies
would be blasted out of existence. But if he did that—
He would lose the Earth Star!
He snarled at Tony, “So you were the one! The Merlin—”
“_Fire!_”
Almost involuntarily Desquer brought up the gun and aimed it. He was
whispering curses under his breath, putting off until the last moment
the decision that must be made sooner or later. And he dared not wait
too long. The priests came closer.
The flickering red glow made Desquer’s features scarlet and black; his
eyes burned balefully, tortured and terrible. He said, “Damn you!
I—I’ll—”
His finger tightened on the trigger. And—stopped.
For the priests had paused. They were staring at the Earth Star. They,
too, were frozen motionless.
One cried, “The jewel! The jewel!”
The tableau held. Abruptly the priests gave back, hesitating. Tony heard
Jimmy’s gasp. He, too, was wondering what this meant.
* * * * *
He was never to know. Perhaps, in long-forgotten ages, another Earth
Star had been dug out from beneath the Atlantic, to form part of the
religion of Atlantis. Tony could not know. But he realized that the
priests recognized the jewel, or thought they did. They bowed before it!
Instantly Desquer realized his opportunity. He said quietly, “Come on.
We’re going into the pyramid—and smash the machine.”
Tony said, “You’re crazy. The priests won’t stand for _that_!”
Desquer grinned unpleasantly. Without warning the other gun was in his
hand; he clubbed it and swung. Tony felt a crashing blow on his head as
he ducked. Gasping with pain, he reeled in and closed with the giant
commander.
Jimmy had hold of Desquer’s arm but with one sweeping motion the officer
sent the boy sprawling. Desquer and Tony went down with a crash on the
stones. Soft cries came from the priests. They began to move forward
again, their superstitious terror gone.
Desquer’s stubby fingers were sunk into Tony’s throat; he squeezed
viciously, his tiny eyes glinting. Though he lay undermost, he was
getting the better of the battle. Tony pumped blow after blow at the
commander’s face, but apparently without effect. He felt Jimmy at his
side, saw the boy try to tear the iron fingers from his brother’s neck.
And, too, Tony saw the carbon-pistol lying on the stones near by.
“Jimmy!” His voice was a cracked wheeze. “Gun—pyramid—”
Into Desquer’s eyes sprang murder-light. The fingers contracted, sending
agony down Tony’s spine. Jimmy understood, though, and dived for the
pistol. He snatched it up, leveled it at the pyramid and the oncoming
priests.
Desquer yelled like a beast. His fingers relaxed. Somehow he writhed
free, sprang up, plunged toward Jimmy.
“Don’t!” he bellowed. “Don’t—”
From the gun’s muzzle burst a raving blast of searing flame. The
incredible pressure that had made the Earth Star was released. Straight
through the ranks of the priests it bored an aisle, into the heart of
the pyramid, melting and wrecking solid stone with the terrific power of
its thrust. The volcanic fires of Earth itself seemed to be latent in
that—bullet!
Over the cries of the priests came a rumbling, crashing thunder. A block
fell, clattering down the pyramid’s side. The structure buckled. Its
whole side was torn out. The summit toppled and came thundering down,
amid clouds of smoking dust and ruin.
Tony staggered erect, staring up. Something was happening to the cavern
roof. The pyramid _had_ been a pillar, supporting it. And now the
support was gone—
Rocks fell from above. Cracks ran out like a great spider web. Something
silvery flashed down from above, glinting red in the crimson glow. Tony
remembered that above Alu was—the Midnight Sea!
And that sunless, tideless ocean was pouring into the cavern world
through the crevasse that had been torn in its floor!
The falling water became a column, a torrent, a bellowing Niagara. It
drowned the wreckage of the pyramid. Down the flood came thundering, and
icy tides lapped at Tony’s feet. He seized Jimmy’s arm, pushed him
along.
“We’ve got to get out of here!”
“How—how can we?”
“We can try—”
* * * * *
Their voices, raised to shouts, sounded like thin whispers above the
mighty rush of the ocean that was pouring into Alu. The priests ran
about aimlessly, and among them, Tony saw, was Commander Desquer. A knot
of the Atlanteans surrounded the officer. They were trying to pull him
down, like wolves surrounding a bison. Unarmed, Desquer yet was stronger
than his opponents.
Silently Jimmy pointed. Tony’s teeth showed in a mirthless grin.
“So what?” his lips formed. He was remembering Phil ...
The brothers plunged along the street, already knee deep in surging
black water. A louder thunder came from behind them. A new sound filled
the cavern—a deep hissing, like steam. Beyond the wreck of the pyramid,
Tony saw with a quick glance, crimson clouds were lifting. So the red
light of Alu was actually due to volcanic activity. And now the icy
waters of the Midnight Sea were finding the molten fires of lava—
More rocks fell thunderously. Looking back, Tony saw a single figure
charging after them—Desquer, a battered, bleeding giant who splashed on
through the water amid a hail of stone that dropped from the vaulted
heaven of Alu. All about him that deadly hail dropped. One glance Tony
had of Desquer rushing on, heavy shoulders hunched, teeth bared in a
mirthless grin—
Then he was gone! The avalanche from the cracking skies buried him. A
pile of rocks showed for an instant where he had been, and that, too,
vanished as the rising waters seethed past.
Tony said nothing, but as he fought past the temple of Osiris where
Phil’s body lay, he lifted his hand in a queer, quick salute. Perhaps
Phil would know, now, that his death had been avenged ...
Already the dark tides were seething at the tunnel-mouth that led to the
upper world. On the threshold Tony paused, to take one last look at
ruined Alu. The red light was darker now, and somber. The flaming clouds
boiled up endlessly; the rock shook and quaked underfoot. The Niagara
that poured from the roof of the cave looked like a solid obelisk, and
an odd thought came into Tony’s mind.
“A pillar of cloud by day ... and a pillar of smoke by night ...”
Alu, daughter of Atlantis, was dying as the mother continent had died.
Earth-fires and deluge were slaying her, wiping out all life, wrecking
the culture that had survived from the misty, unknown eons before Egypt
was. The huge temples, half submerged in seething tides, were falling in
ruin. All over the vast cavern darkness was falling.
The arched ramp they had seen on entering Alu was still visible, far
away. And now Tony saw that there were figures upon it, as there had
been at first. Figures with strange, misshapen heads—
The pitiable, terrible beast-gods of Alu, created by dead Thotmes’
science!
One glimpse Tony had of those far figures, outlined blackly against red
smoke. Then—the ramp fell.
Over Alu the roaring desolation of death and ruin held sway!
Tony turned to the white-faced Jimmy. Already the water was tearing at
their thighs.
“Come on,” he shouted. “We’re getting out of here. Fast!”
They fled up the tunnel ...
The rest was sheer nightmare. Somehow they found their way, following
always the passages that led up, hiding from terrified, frantic Copts,
fleeing through corridors whose walls shook with the grip of earthquake.
Up and up they went, finding at last a frightened Copt who agreed to
guide them to the surface. His own world was falling in pieces about
him, and he wished only to escape. A cave-in crushed him not long after,
but the passage stretched unbroken before the brothers. They toiled
on ...
Daylight filtered in yellow brilliance through a crack in the rock.
Exhausted, haggard, filthy scarecrows, the two squeezed through into
blazing sunlight. About them lay rolling dunes. They were in a rocky
little valley.
They dropped to the sand and lay there motionless for hours, scarcely
conscious of the burning sun.
The soft mutter of a gyro motor woke them. Tony sat up, blinking. He was
in time to see a plane land softly not far away, and a figure in flying
uniform step out.
* * * * *
Jimmy was still sleeping. Tony lurched forward to greet the new arrival.
His eyes were misty with sleep, and he did not at first recognize the
pilot—not till the latter took out an automatic and held it ready.
Then he saw it was Zadah, the Rajah’s secretary.
Tony stopped, swaying a little, his arms hanging limp at his sides.
Zadah’s round face was triumphant. The beady eyes shone with triumph.
“Luck,” he said. “I’ve been cruising about for hours just on an off
chance. I just happened to sight you—”
“The Copts.” Tony said thickly. “They—”
Zadah nodded. “I know. Your legionnaire got through—Jacklyn. There’s an
army of troopers at the mouth of Sub-Sahara. But—where’s the Earth
Star? If you escaped, that means Desquer didn’t get it.”
“It’s gone. Desquer got it—and used it. The Earth Star’s destroyed,
Zadah.”
The other hesitated. Something he saw in Tony’s eyes made him realize
that the latter spoke truth. Abruptly baffled rage sprang into Zadah’s
round face.
“Gone! Then—”
He lifted the gun, his lips white with fury at the wreckage of his
plans. “Maybe! If you’re lying, I’ll find the jewel on your bodies.”
Tony tensed himself for a spring that he knew in advance would be
futile. But, before he could move, another figure hurled itself forward.
Jimmy’s slight frame dived at the killer.
Zadah’s gun barked. Jimmy cried out; the Oriental swung his weapon back
to Tony. But he was too late. His wrist was held in a grip of iron.
Tony’s dark face was close to his own, and there was death in the somber
eyes.
Zadah screamed.
Tony said not a word. Very slowly, very carefully, he bent Zadah’s hand
back. The latter’s finger was still on the trigger. The gun pointed at
last at the killer’s heart.
Then Tony smiled—and the muscles of his hand contracted.
The report was shatteringly loud in the desert stillness.
Tony let the limp body slide down, and turned back to Jimmy. The boy was
dead. Zadah’s bullet had made a neat little hole in the brown shirt.
After a moment Tony carried the body of his brother to the plane and put
it aboard. He followed. He sent the gyro winging up over the desert.
Beneath him the Sahara stretched, a white wilderness under the flaming
heat of the Sun. To the north could be seen an encampment, the troopers
that had arrived, too late, at the mouth of Sub-Sahara. Tony set the
controls and fled beyond them.
The desert gave place to the Mediterranean, and that, in turn, to the
Pacific Ocean. The cool blueness of night folded down. Moonlight
silvered the waves.
Tony opened a trap-door in the floor and let the body of his brother
slide through. Phil rested in the temple of Osiris—and Jimmy would lie
beneath the waves that hid Atlantis.
He went back to the controls, staring ahead at an empty horizon.
Westward lay New York. He could go back there now; the motive for
keeping hidden had vanished. No one would know who the Merlin was. Some
men might guess, might be convinced that either Phil or Jimmy had stolen
the Earth Star—but they would never dare make an accusation, and Seth
Martell would need make no compromises with his honor and his ideals.
Only Tony would know that the Merlin had been his brother Phil.
For ten minutes he had been alone with Phil in the Temple of Osiris.
And, before the youth died, he had told Tony the truth—that he was the
Merlin. He had given his brother the Earth Star to keep. But no one
would ever know that now.
Tony’s throat was tight. He stared at the dim horizon of sky and sea,
knowing that beyond it lay New York, and a life he could take up again
where he had left it. A life he must live—alone.
A faint glow brightened to the west. The tallest towers of Manhattan
were pillars of light against the sky.