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 fugitiveconfessed. 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" target="_blank" title="ad.绝望地；拼命地">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, therebyenduring 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 femalelizard had also left us, but not

in similar plight. Tob, the captain, seeing my resolve to take
hazards, deliberatelythrust 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.
3. A RIVAL NAVY

Now, when we came up with the coasts of Atlantis, though Tob,
with the aid of his modern instruments, had made his landfall with

most marvellous skill and nearness, there still remained some ten
days' more journey in which we had to retrace our course, till we

came to that arm of the sea up which lies the great city of
Atlantis, the capital.

The sight of the land, and the breath of earth and herbage
which came off from it with the breezes, were, I believe, under the

Gods, the means of saving the lives of all of us. For, as is
necessary with long cross-ocean voyages, many of our ships'

companies had died, and still more were sick with scurvy through
the unnatural tossing, or (as some have it) through the salt,

unnatural food inseparable from shipboard. But these last, the
sight and the smells of land heartened up in extraordinary fashion,

and from being helpless logs, unable to move even under blows of
the scourge, they became active again, able to help in the

shipwork, and lusty (when the time came) to fight for their lives
and their vessels.

From the moment that I was deposed in Yucatan, despite Tatho's
assurances, there had been doubts in my mind as to what nature

would be my reception in Atlantis. But I had faced this event of
the future without concern: it was in the hands of the Gods. The

Empress Phorenice might be supreme on earth; she might cause my
head to be lopped from its proper shoulders the moment I set foot

ashore; but my Lord the Sun was above Phorenice, and if my head
fell, it would be because He saw best that it should be so. On

which account, therefore, I had not troubled myself about the
matter during the voyage, but had followed out my calm study of the

higher mysteries with an unloaded mind.
But when our navy had retraced sufficiently the course that

had been overrun, and came up with the two vast headlands which
marked the entrance to the inland waters, there, a bare two days

from the Atlantis capital, we met with another navy which was,
beyond doubt, waiting to give us a reception. The ships were

riding at anchor in a bay which lent them shelter, but they had
scouts on the high land above, who cried the alarm of our approach,

and when we rounded the headland, they were standing out to dispute
our passage.

Of us there were now but five ships, the rest having been lost
in storms, or fallen behind because all their crews were dead from

the scurvy; and of the strangers there were three fine ships, and
three galleys of many oars apiece. They were clean and bright and

black; our ships were storm-ragged and weather-worn, and had
bottoms that were foul with trailing ocean weed. Our ships hung

out the colours and signs of Tatho and Deucalion openly and without
shame, so that all who looked might know their origin and errand;

but the other navy came on without banner or antient, as though
they were some low creatures feeling shame for their birth.

Clear it seemed also that they would not let us pass without
a fight, and in this there was nothing uncommon; for no law carries

out over the seas, and a brother in one ship feels quite free to
harry his brother in another vessel if he meets him out of earshot