Chapter 7: Back to Long Island

Jim, seated beside Lucille, was listening to Cain’s gruntings and chucklings as he expounded the situation to old Parrish.

It was the day following the scene in the amphitheatre. The four had been escorted back along the tongue of flooring into a hall with walls of fretted stone and sumptuous colorings. The floor was strewn with rich rugs woven of some vegetable fibre. There were divans and low chairs. At brief intervals, servitors, always smiling, passed carrying trays with wines and foods. And in the corridors were always glimpses of the guards.

“It was the rising of the full moon saved our lives, Dent,” Parrish explained. “It appears they have this sacrifice at each of the moon’s phases. The victims, captives or criminals, are eaten by the priests. We’ve got a week’s respite, Dent, and then--God help us.”

Jim’s arm tightened about Lucille, but the girl turned and smiled into his face. There was no longer any fear there. And Jim swore to himself that he would yet find some way of outwitting their devilish captors.

“What the devil are we supposed to be, criminals or what?” he asked her father. “Why do they smile at us all the time in that confounded way?”

Parrish questioned the Drilgo, but apparently he was unable to explain himself to him. “Maybe they think it an honor for us, Dent,” he answered, “or maybe it’s their idea of etiquette. Anyway, we four are to head the list when the moon’s at the three-quarters. God, if only we could reach the Atom Smasher, I’m certain I could find out how it works!”

Jim had tried more than once to reach it. Through the colonnades at the end of the hall he could see the mechanism standing on the platform, always being inspected by half a dozen or so of the dignitaries of Atlantis. But all his attempts to cross that tongue of flooring had been vetoed by the guards.

They had presented their hands to him, palms outward, and on the palms were fine steel points, about two inches long, set into leather gauntlets. It had been impossible to try conclusions with them.

Two days went by. Once a group of dignitaries had entered the hall and, with smiles and profuse bows, inspected the prisoners. Then they had departed. And Jim had paced the floor, to and fro, thinking desperately.

There was no sort of weapon with which to hazard an attack. Jim knew that they were under the closest observation. He could only wait and hope. And if all else failed, he meant to hurl himself, with Lucille in his arms, off the tongue of floor into the depths below when their time came.

On the third morning, after a troubled sleep induced by very weariness, Jim was awakened by one of the guards, and started up to see one of the bowing dignitaries before him, and Parrish and Lucille sitting up among their rugs.

Bowing repeatedly, the smiling old man addressed some words to Jim, and then turned to Parrish.

“He says he wants you to show him the way the Atom Smasher works,” said Parrish. “Now’s our chance, Dent. He thinks it’s simply an apparatus for neutralizing the blue-white ray. Don’t let him guess--”

“I won’t let him guess,” Jim answered. “Tell him we’ll go and show him--”

“I’ve told him, and he says only you are to go. He’s suspicious. Say something quickly, Dent.”

“Tell him,” said Jim, “that I must have my two assistants and the lady. Tell him I may also need the help of some of his people. It requires many men to operate the machine.”

Parrish translated, speaking in the Drilgo tongue, which was their only means of communication. The Atlantean considered. Then he spoke again.

“He says that we three men may go, but Lucille must be left behind,” groaned Parrish.

“The answer is no,” said Jim.

The old dignitary, who seemed somewhat crestfallen, departed with an expressive gesture. Jim and Parrish looked at each other.

“That’s our end,” groaned Parrish.

“No, he’ll bite,” answered Jim, with the first grin that had appeared on his countenance since their arrival. “Let’s make our plans quickly. We must contrive to get Lucille inside the machine, under the pretense of assisting with the mechanism. And Cain, of course,” he added, glancing at the goggly-eyed Drilgo. “You do your best to locate the starting mechanism, Parrish, and signal me the moment you’re ready. We’ll both leap in, and the four of us will sail--God, I don’t care where we sail to, so long as we get away from here! Into eternity, if need be. But I hope it’s Long Island!”

Back came the dignitary with two of the guards. Smiling at Jim, he indicated by signs that the three others might accompany him. The Atlanteans had bitten, as Jim had forecast.

The four proceeded along the hall and over the tongue of flooring. This time the force that had previously controlled their movements was not in action. At the farther end of the bridge they saw the group of dignitaries gathered about the Atom Smasher, examining it curiously. Over their heads the hooked arms of the hideous gods were raised. The Eye was darkened, as if with a curtain, and through the glass roof, high overhead, the sunlight streamed down upon the empty amphitheatre.

In spite of their smiles, the dignitaries of Atlantis were very much on the alert, as their tense attitudes denoted. Two more guards had appeared, and Jim saw that they were uncovering some apparatus at the base of the Eye. They were swinging a camera-like object toward him, its lens focused upon the Atom Smasher. It was not difficult to understand what was in the minds of the Atlanteans. The dignitaries were uneasy and mistrustful, and at the first suspicion of treachery they meant to loose the blue-white Ray contained in the apparatus, and blow the Atom Smasher and the group about it to destruction.

Jim intercepted a sign from Parrish, indicating that he was to make pretense of assisting him. He bent over the machine, Lucille beside him. Parrish was busily examining the wheels and levers. He was adjusting the thumbscrews, moving the needles along the dials.

One of the Atlanteans spoke, and Cain translated into “Drilgo” for Parrish’s benefit. Parrish answered. Then, without raising his head, the old man said quietly, “I’ve located the starting lever, Dent. You and Lucille get inside quickly and pretend you’re doing something to the machinery.”