slaves on the galley's row-banks were for the most part savages
from Europe, and the smell of them was so offensive that the voyage

lost all its pleasures; and as, moreover, the wind carried with it
an infiniteabundance of small grit from some erupting fire

mountain, we were anxious to linger as little as possible.
Besides, if I may confess to such a thing without being unduly

degraded, although by my priestly training I had been taught
stoicism, and knew that all the future was in the hands of the

Gods, I was frailly human still to have a very vast curiosity as to
what would be the form of my own reception at Atlantis. I could

imagine myself taken a formal prisoner on landing, and set on a
formal trial to answer for my cure of the colony of Yucatan; I

could imagine myself stepping ashore unknown and unnoticed, and
after a due lapse, being sent for by the Empress to take up new

duties; but the manner of my real welcome was a thing I did not
even guess at.

We came in sight of the peak of the sacred mountain, with its
glare of eternal fires which stand behind the city, one morning

with the day's break, and the whips of the boatswains cracked more
vehemently, so that those offensive slaves should give the galley

a final spurt. The wind was adverse, and no sail could be spread,
but under oars alone we made a pretty pace, and the sides of the

sacred mountain grew longer, and presently the peaks of the
pyramids in the city, the towers of the higher buildings, began to

show themselves as though they floated upon the gleaming water. It
was twenty years since I had seen Atlantis last, and my heart

glowed with the thought of treading again upon her paving-stones.
The splendid city grew out of the sea as we approached, and to

every throb of the oars, the shores leaped nearer. I saw the
temple where I had been admitted first to manhood; I saw the

pyramid in whose heart I had been initiated to the small mysteries;
and then (as the lesser objects became discernible) I made out the

house where a father and a mother had reared me, and my eyes became
dim as the memories rose.

We drew up outside the white walls of the harbour, as the law
was, and the slaves panted and sobbed in quietude over the

oar-looms. For vessels thus stationed there is, generally, a
sufficiency of waiting, for a port-captain is apt to be so

uncertain of his own dignity, that he must e'en keep folks waiting
to prove it to them. But here for us it might have been that the

port-captain's boat was waiting. The signal was sounded from the
two castles at the harbour's entrance, the chain which hung between

them was dropped, and a ten-oared boat shot out from behind the
walls as fast as oars could drive her. She raced up alongside and

the questions were put:
"That should be Dason's galley?"

"It was," said Tob.
"Oh, I saw Dason's head on your beak," said the port-captain.

"You were Tatho's captain?"
"And am still. Tatho's fleet was sent by Dason and his friends

to the sea-floor, and so we took this stinking galley to finish
the voyage in, seeing that it was the only craft left afloat."

The port-captain was roving his eye over the group of us who
stood on the after-deck. "I fear me, captain, that you'll have but

a dangerous reception. I do not see my Lord Deucalion. Or does he
come with some other navy? Gods, captain, if you have let him get

killed whilst under your charge, the Empress will have the skin
torn slowly off you living."

"What with Phorenice and Tatho both so curious for his
welfare," said Tob, "my Lord Deucalion seems but a dangerous

passenger. But I shall save my hide this voyage." He jerked at me
with his thumb. "He's there to put in a word for me himself."

The port-captain stared for a moment, as if unbelieving, and
then, as though satisfied, made obeisance like a fellow well used

to ceremonial. "I trust my lord, in his infinite strength, will
pardon my sin in not knowing him by his nobleness before. But

truth to tell, I had looked to see my lord more suitably
apparelled."

"Pish," I said; "if I choose to dress simply, I cannot object
to being mistaken for a simple man. It is not my pleasure to

advertise my quality by the gauds on my garb. If you think amends
are due to me, I pray of your charity that this inquisition may

end."
The fellow was all bows and obsequiousness. "I am the humblest

of my lord's servants," he said. "It will be my exceeding
honour to pilot my lord's galley into the berth appointed in

harbour."
The boat shot ahead, and our galley-slaves swung into stroke

again. Tob watched me with a dry smile as he stood directing the
men at the helms.

"Well," I said, humouring his whim, "what is it?"
"I'm thinking," said Tob, "that my Lord Deucalion will remember

me only as a very rude fellow when he steps ashoreamongst all
this fine gentility."

"You don't think," said I, "anything of the kind."
"Then I must prove my refinement," said Tob, "and not

contradict." He picked up my hand in his huge, hard fist, and
pressed it. "By the Gods, Deucalion, you may be a great prince,

but I've only known you as a man. You're the finest fighter of
beasts and men that walks this world to-day, and I love you for it.

That spear-stroke of yours on the lizard is a thing the singers in
the taverns shall make chaunts about."

We drew rapidly into the harbour, the soldiers in the entrance
castle blowing their trumpets in welcome as we passed between them.

The captain of the port had run up my banner to the masthead of his
boat, having been provided with one apparently for this purpose of

announcement, and from the quays, across the vast basin of the
harbour, there presently came to us the noises of musicians, and

the pale glow of welcoming fires, dancing under the sunlight. I
was almost awed to think that an Empress of Atlantis had come to

such straits as to feel an interest like this in any mere returning
subject.

It was clear that nothing was to be done by halves. The
port-captain's boat led, and we had no choice but to follow. Our

galley was run up alongside the royal quay and moored to its posts
and rings of gold, all of which are sacred to the reigning house.

"If Dason could only have foreseen this honour," said Tob, with
grisly jest, "I'm sure he'd have laid in a silken warp to make

fast on the bollards instead of mere plebeian hemp. I'm sure
there'd be a frown on Dason's head this minute, if the sun

hadn't scorched it stiff. My Lord Deucalion, will you pick your
way with niceness over this common ship and tread on the genteel

carpet they've spread for you on the quay yonder?"
The port-captain heard Tob's rude banter and looked up with a

face of horror, and I remembered, with a small sigh, that colonial
freedom would have no place here in Atlantis. Once more I must

prepare myself for all the dignity of rank, and make ready to tread
the formalities of vast and gorgeousceremonial.

But, be these things how they may, a self-respecting man must
preserve his individuality also, and though I consented to enter a

pavilion of crimson cloth, specially erected to shelter me till the
Empress should deign to arrive, there my complaisance ended. Again

the matter of clothes was harped upon. The three gorgeously
caparisoned chamberlains, who had inducted me to the shelter, laid

before me changes of raiment bedecked with every imaginable kind of
frippery, and would have me transform myself into a popinjay in

fashion like their own.
Curtly enough, I refused to alter my garb, and when one of

them stammeringly referred to the Empress's tastes I asked him with
plainness if he had got any definite commands on this paltry matter

from her mightiness.