Now it would be to tell how with a of men, I and recharged, and up that of which us by fifteen times. It must be that they panic-stricken in that of all those who in under the city by the mine on which they had set such great store, none came back, and that the of panic which had out the city soon gave way to of and joy. And it must be in memory also that these were without of the name, were for the most part very vilely, and, that their each the equal of his neighbour, were without or also.
So when the panic began, it spread like a through all their ranks, and there were none to the flying, none to direct those of more who and fought.
My of attack was simple. I them without a halt. I and my stopped to play the defensive. We one flank, and through a centre, and then we were the other flank, and once more our passage through the solid mass. And so by them on the run, and in of would come the next attack, panic to them and ferment, till presently those in the lines to away the and the corn-lands of the country, and those in the were only of a to them.
It was no of arms this up of the leaguer, and no soldier would wish to it as such. It was taking of the of the moment, and as such it was successful. Given an open on their own ground, these would have till none stand, and by numbers would have any that the city have sent against them, they had in or what you will. For it must be they were from cowards, being Atlantean all, just as were those the city, and were, moreover, to and by the under which they had groaned, and the they had been to endure.
Still, as I say, the were scattered, and the was from that moment, and it was plain to see that the might be to end, if no was used for its final suppression. Too great severity, though it may be their portion, only such to desperations.
Now, up these fugitives, to make sure that there was no in their retreat, and to send the lesson of panic home to them, had us a long from the city walls; and as we had all through the of the day and my men were wearied, I to where we were for the night some half-ruined houses which would make a temporary fortification. Fortunately, a of little cloven-hoofed which had been by some of the in their to into our lines, and as we killed five they were clear again, there was a soldier’s supper for us, and the were and cooking it.
Sentries the and their to one another, and the sat by the and their hurts, and with the officers I talked over the of the day, and the methods of each charge, and the other of the fighting. It is the special of soldiers to over these with gusto, though they are without for laymen.
The hour on for sleep, and up from every side. It was clear that all my officers were out, and only the talk through to their commander. Yet I had a of being left alone again with my thoughts, and pressed them on with remorselessly. But in the end they were saved the of off into my talk. A came up and saluted. “My lord,” he reported, “there is a woman come up from the city we have trying to come into the bivouac.”
“How is she named?”
“She will not say.”
“Has she business?’
“She will say none. She only to see my lord.”
“Bring her here to the fire,” I ordered, and then on second that the woman, she might be, had news likely for my private ear (or otherwise she would not have come to so a rendezvous), I said to the sentry: “Stay,” and got up from the ground the fire, and with him to the line.
“Where is she?” I asked.
“My are her. She might be a to these rebels, with designs to put a knife into my lord’s heart, and then we would suffer. The Empress,” he added simply, “seems to set good store upon my lord at present, and we know the of her tormentors.”
“Your is frank,” I said, and then he me the woman. She was up in and cloak, but one who loved Nais as I loved not mistake the of Ylga, her sister, of swathings. So I told the to her without her for speech, and then her out from the of their lines.
“It is something of the most pressing that has you out here, Ylga?”
“You know me, then? There must be something than the ordinary us two, Deucalion, if you who walked all these mufflings.”
I let that pass. “But what’s your errand, girl?”
“Aye,” she said bitterly, “there’s my reward. All your concern’s for the message, none for the carrier. Well, good my lord, you are husband to the Phorenice no longer.”
“This is news.”
“And true enough, too. She will have no more of you, you, you, you from her, and, after the of is done, then come pains and penalties.”
“The Empress can do no wrong. I will have you speak of the Empress.”
“Oh, be done with that old fable! It me. The woman was for love of you, and now she’s with jealousy. She that you gave Nais some of your priest’s magic, and that she till you choose to come and her, though the day be a century from this. And if you wish to know the method of her enlightenment, it is simple. There is another next to the one which you did your and billing, and that leads to another in which another prisoner. The all that passed, and to by telling it.
“But his news came a stale. It that with the pressure of the morning’s ceremonies, they to a ration, and when at last his did him, it was late, that by then Phorenice had herself publicly to a husband, and Nais had her green drug. However, the must needs try and his for what it would fetch; and, as was natural, had such a off for his pains; and after that your Phorenice as you may guess. And now you may thank me, sir, for to you not to go to Atlantis.”
“But I shall go back. And if the Empress to cut my also from its proper column, that is as the High Gods will.”
“You are more of life than I thought. But I think, sir, our Phorenice your case very accurately. It was permitted me to the of this lady’s rage. ‘Shall I off his head?’ said she. ‘Pah! Shall I give him over to my tormentors, and by they do their worst? He would not his at their efforts. No; he must have a than any of these, and one also which will endure. I shall off his right hand and his left foot, so that he may be a man no longer, and then I shall drive him into the lands, where he may learn Fear. The shall him, the of the ground shall his rest. He shall know hunger, and he shall breathe air. And all the while he shall that I have Nais near me, and locked in her of stone, to play with as I choose, and to give over to what may come to my fancy.’ That is what she said, Deucalion. Now I ask you again will you go to meet her vengeance?”
“No,” I said, “it is no part of my plan to be and left to live.”
“So, being a woman of some sense, I judged. And, moreover, having some small still left for you, I have taken it upon myself to make a plan for your movement which may in with your whim. Does the name of Tob come to your memory?”
“One who was Captain of Tatho’s navy?”
“That same Tob. A gruff, fellow, and of tar, but to have a of his own. Tob away this night for parts unknown, to a with Tob for king. It he can little to earn at his in Atlantis these days, and has at his wife and ones hungry. He told me this at the when I put my under the by saying I wanted for you, sir, and so having me under his thumb, he was more loose-lipped than usual. You to have a on Tob, Deucalion. He said—I repeat his disrespect—you were just the he wanted, but you joined him or not, he would go to the Gods to do you service.”
“By the fellow’s side, I some in the sea beasts.”
“Well, go and do it again. Believe me, sir, it is your only chance. It would me much to the searing-iron on your stumps. I with Tob to clear of the the was up for the night, and as he is a very fellow, with no of under the darkness, he himself said he would come to a point of the which we upon, and there you. Come, Deucalion, let me lead you to the place.”
“My girl,” I said, “I see I you many thanks for what you have done on my behalf.”
“Oh, your thanks!” she said. “You may keep them. I did not come out here in the dark and the for thanks, though I well there would be little else offered.”—She at my sleeve.—“Now me your walking pace, sir. They will to want your in the directly, and we need after no too narrow for what’s along.”
So we set off, Ylga and I, the lights of the us, and she the way, I my to off from or from men. Few were passed us, those which had with the natural to the way. Once only did we touch one another, and that was where a tree-trunk a of water which from a boil-spring the sea.
“Are you sure of footing?” I asked, for the night was dark, and the of the water would the from the if one into it.
“No,” she said, “I am not,” and out and took my hand. I helped her over and then my grip, and she sighed, and slowly her hand away. Then on again we in silence, by side, hour after hour, and after league.
But at last we a rise, and us through the trees I see the of the great on which the city of Atlantis stands. The ground was and wet us, the trees were full of and spines, the way was hard. Ylga’s was to come in pants. But when I offered to take her arm, and help her, as some return against what she had done for me, she me enough. “I am no weakling,” said she, “if that is your only for wanting to touch me.”
Presently, however, we came out through the trees, and the part of our was done. We saw the ship to her in a mile away, and a object she was under the starlight. We our way to her along the level beaches.
Tob was a watch. We were the moment we came or shot, and to and our business; but he was when he we were those he expected. He called a and out his anchor-rope till his ship ground against the shingle, and then out his two to help us aboard.
I to Ylga with of thanks and farewell. “I will what you have done for me this night; and should the High Gods see fit to me to Atlantis and power, you shall taste my gratitude.”
“I do not want to return. I am of this old life here.”
“But you have your in the city, and your servants, and your wealth, and Phorenice will not you from their possession.”
“Oh, as for that, I go and be fan-girl tomorrow. But I do not want to go back.”
“Let me tell you it is no time for a lady like to go forward. I have been of Yucatan, Ylga, and know of making a in these new countries. And that was nothing with what this will be. I tell you it hardships, and privations, and which you not at. Few who go to in the beginning, and those only of the hardiest, and they earn new and new every day.”
“I do not care, and, besides, I can the work. I can cook, I can shoot a good arrow, and I can make garments, yes, though they were cut from the skins of and had to be with sinews. Because you clothes, and you have me only out as fan-girl, you think I am useless. Bah, Deucalion! Never let people to me about your perfection. You know less about a woman than a boy new from school.”
“I have learned all I to know about one woman, and of the memory of her, I not to ask her sister to come with me now.”
“Aye,” she said bitterly, “kick my pride. I well it was only second place to Nais I all the time I was wanting to come. Yet no one but a would have me of it. Gods! and to think that the men in Atlantis have me, and now I am at this!”
“I must go alone. It would have me to take your with me. But as it is, I I shall only your hate.”
“That is the most thing of all; I cannot myself to you. I ought to, I know, after the way you have me. But I do not, and there is the truth. I to the of you, and if I there was a way of you alive, and unmutilated, here in Atlantis, I do not think I should point out that Tob is of waiting, and will be off without you.” She her arms about my neck, and me on the mouth. “There, that is for good-bye, dear. You see I am reckless. I not what I do now, that you cannot me more than you have done all along for my forwardness.”
She ran from me into the of the trees.
“But this is foolishness,” I said. “I must take you through the that here and some gate of the city, and then come to the ship.”
“You need not for me. The are always safe. And, besides, I have a way. It is my to know that you will me now. You will that kiss.”
“Fare you well, Ylga,” I cried. “May the High Gods keep you in their care.”
But no reply came back. She had gone off into the forest. And so I to the beach, and into the water, and on the ship up the oars. Tob gave the word to haul-to the anchor, and her away from the beach.
“Greeting, my lord,” said he, “but I’d have been pleased to see you earlier. We’ve small and slow in this vessel, and it’s my idea that the sooner we’re away from here and range of pursuit, the it will be for my woman and who are in that of an after-castle. It’s long since I in such a small old-fashioned ship as this. She’s no machines, and she’s not a mannikin. Look at the of her and (in your ear) I’ve that there’s in her bottom. But she’s the best I’d the means to buy, and if she the place at the end I’ve got my on, we shall have to make a home there, or be to die, for she’ll have to us or back. She’s been a ship in the Egypt trade, and you know what that is for and in the wood.”
“You’d hands for your I came?”
“Oh yes. I’ve fifty and eight packed in the ship somehow, and trouble I’ve had to them away from the city. That of a port-captain us clean he see it that so many useful men might go out of harbour. Times are not what they were, I tell you, and the sea trade’s about done. All men of any skill have taken a woman or two and gone out in to try their in other lands. Why, I’d trouble to a score to help me work this ship. All my are just and simple, and if I land of them alive at the other end, we shall be doing well.”
“Still with luck and a good it should not take long to across to Europe.”
Tob his leg. “No Europe for me, my lord. Now, see the of being a mariner. I once some to the north of Europe, from the main by a strait, which I called the Tin Islands, that many of the beaches. I was there by storm, and said no word of the when I got back, and here you see it comes in useful. There’s no one in all Atlantis but me of those Tin Islands to-day, and we’ll go and for our ground, and a town and a on it.”
“With Tob for king?”
“Well, I have it out as such for many a day, but I know when I meet my better, and I’m to under Deucalion. My lord would have done to have a wife with him, though, and I it was by the good lady that spoke to me at the harbour, or I’d have mentioned it earlier. The in my Tin Islands go and themselves with woad, and are very and to look upon. They are sturdy, and should make good slaves, but one would have to in the taste one wish to be father to their children.”
“I am still husband to Phorenice.”
Tob grinned. “The Gods give you of her. But it is part of a mariner’s creed—and you will to be a here—that not across the seas. However, that may rest. But, to my Tin Islands again: they’ll you. And I tell you, a will not be so hard to out as it was in Egypt, or as you in Yucatan. There are there, of course, and no one who can need go hungry. But the are few. There are cave-bears and cave-tigers in small numbers, to be sure, and some river-horses and great snakes. But the to avoid the land; and as for birds, there is one that can a man. Oh, I tell you, it will be a most kingdom.”
“Tob to have himself king of the Tin Islands with much reality.”
He a little. “In truth I did, and there is no it, and I tell you plain, there is not another man that I would have this for but Deucalion. But don’t think I it, and don’t think I want to push myself above my place. This and the are taking the old ship along her ways. See those fire on the forts? We’re of them now. We’ll have them and the city out of by daylight, and the will not to up till then. But I unless the wind with the we’ll have to up to an when the makes. Tides very hard in these narrow seas. Aye, and there are some tide-rips my Tin Islands, as you shall see when we them.”
There were many when day came and the waters, and the that them in the shores. All to some of Phorenice to come up to take them to and in the of the city; and I that I was with them in all truth when they they would the ship till she them, they would another of the of Phorenice. However, their were to no small purpose. For the full of the we in our place, moving past the land, but yet not either or sail; and then, when the turned, away we once more with speed, comforted.
Tob’s woman must needs drink on deck, and all to her as a queen. But Tob her into the after-castle, to the her heels, and the send the their throats. “We are done with that foolery,” said he. “My Lord Deucalion will be king of this new we shall in the Tin Islands, and a right proper king he’ll make, as you ones would know, if you’d the with him as I have done.” Beneath which I read a regret, but said nothing, having my plans from the moment of on board, as will appear on a later sheet.
So on the great we our way, and though it the others on when they saw that the were of sails, it me when I how once the had been with the of shipping.
They had started off on their with a two days’ in their equipment, and so, of after the great estuary, we were to coastwise, into every likely river and beach to fish and meat for victualling. “And when the winter comes,” said Tob, “as its will be than this old ship can stomach, I had to up and make a permanent ashore, and a of and setting sail again. It is the in these voyages. And I shall do it still, to my lord’s opinion.”
So here, having by this time a two months’ from the city, I saw my opportunity to speak what I had always in my mind. “Tob,” I said, “I am a poor, weak, man, and I am at your mercy, but what if I do not all the way to the Tin Islands, and you of this kingship?”
He perceptibly. “Aye,” he grunted, “you are very weak, my lord, and defenceless. We know all about that. But what’s else? You must tell all your meaning plain. I’m a common mariner, and little of your talk.”
“Why, this. That it is not my wish to the of Atlantis. If you will put me on any part of this that Europe, I will you to the Gods. I would I give you money, or (better still) articles that would be useful to you in your colonising; but as it is, you see me destitute.”
“As to that, you me nothing, having done more than your each time we have put in for the hunting. But it will not do, this plan of yours. I will that the of that in my Tin Islands sweet to me. But no, my lord, it will not do. You are no yet, and little of geography, but I must tell you that the part of Atlantis there”—he his thumb the line of trees, and the which the of surf—“is called the Dangerous Lands, and a man must needs be a and be learned in magic (so I am told) he can live there.”
I laughed. “We of the Priests’ Clan have some education, Tob, though it may not be on the same lines as your own. In fact, I may say I was in the the and the of our with a that would you. And once ashore, my will still be under the of the most High Gods.”
He something in his seaman’s way about to keep his own under of his own most right arm, but saying that he would keep the in his thoughts, he himself to go and see to the of the ship, and there left me.
But I think the of were a in of me have my way (which I should have had otherwise if it had not been peacefully), and on the third day after our talk he put the ship again for re-victualling. We into a river-mouth, over a bar, and ran up against the bank and fast there to trees, but ourselves a safe off with and poles, so that no on out of the thicket.
Fish-spearing and meat-hunting were set about with promptitude, and on the second day we were happy to a river-horse, which gave in all sufficiency. A space was on the bank, were lit, and the meat over the in strips, and when as much was as the ship would carry, the a final on what remained, up a great of with water, and were to continue the voyage.
With did Tob again attempt to make me sail on with them as their king, and as did I make refusal; and at last alone on the bank the of their feast, with my to me company, and he, and his men, and the in the little old ship, to river with the current.
“At least,” said Tob, “we’ll your memory with us, and make it big in the Tin Islands for everlasting.”
“Forget me,” I said, “I am nothing. I am an that has come in your way. But if you want to some memory with you that shall endure, the of the most High Gods as it was to you when you were children here in Atlantis. And afterwards, when your in power, and has come to magnificence, you may send to the old country for a priest.”
“We want no priest, one we shall make ourselves, and that will be me. And as for the old Gods—well, I have my ideas the here, and they agree to this: We are done with those old Gods for always. They out, if one may judge from Their present of usefulness in Atlantis, and, anyway, there will be no room for Them on the Tin Islands.—Let go those there aft, and her out.—We are under now, my lord, and recall, and so I am free to tell you what we have upon for our religious exercises. We shall set up the memory of a Hero on earth, and that. And when in years to come the picture of his dim, we shall make an image of him, as as our art permits, and him a temple for shelter, and there our and prayers. And as I say, my lord, I shall be priest, and when I am dead, the sons of my shall be after me, and the a king also.”
“Let me with you,” I said. “This must not be.”
The ship was away with the current, and they were sail. Tob had to to make himself heard. “Aye, but it shall be. For I, too, am a man after my kind, and I have ordered it so. And if you want the name of our Hero that some day shall be God, you wear it on yourself. Deucalion shall be God for our children.”
“This is blasphemy,” I cried. “Have a care, fool, or this will you.”
“We will it,” he back, “and the against us are small. Regard! Here is last of in the ship, and my woman has it against this moment. Regard, all men, together with Those above and Those below! I this as a to Deucalion, great lord that is to-day, Hero that shall be to-morrow, God that will be in time to come!” And then all those on the ship joined in the till they were the of my voice, and were their way out to sea through the breakers of the bar.
Solitary I at the of the forest, looking after them and sadly. Tob, despite his station, was a man I for more than many. Like all seamen, I that he paid his to one of the Gods, but till then I had him in his worship. His new came to me as a shock. If a man like Tob all the older Gods to set up on high some who had his fancy, what be from the mob, when by such a as Phorenice’s? It I was to my with a new added to all the other of Atlantis.
But then me I the of some great that had me, and was to attack through the thicket, and so I had other to think upon. I had to let Tob and his ship go out over the of the unwatched.
