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The Lost Continent-Part7_C.J.Cutcliffe Hyne(1865-1944)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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choice; either I'll take you along home, and tell her what you said



before the whole ship's company (that are for the most part dead

now, poor souls!), and I'll leave her to perform on your carcase as



she sees fit by way of payment; or, as the other choice, I'll deal

with you here now myself."



"I thank you for the chance," said Dason, and knelt and offered

his neck to the axe. So Tob cut off his head, sticking it



on the galley's beak as an advertisement of what had been done.

The body he threw over the side, and one of the great man-eating



birds that hovered near, picked it up and flew away with it to its

nest amongst the crags. And so we were free to get a meal of the



fruits and the fresh meats which the galley offered, whilst the

oar-slaves sent the galley rushing onwards towards the capital.



There was a wine-skin in the after-castle, and I filled a horn

and poured some out at Tob's feet in salutation. "My man," I said,



"you have shown me a fight."

"Thanks," said he, "and I know you are a judge. 'Twas pretty



whilst it lasted; and, seeing that my lads were, for the most,

scurvy-rotten, I will say they fought with credit. I have lost my



Lord Tatho's navy, but I think Phorenice will see me righted there.

If those that are against her took so much trouble to kill my Lord



Deucalion before he could come to her aid, I can fancy she will not

be niggard in her joy when I put Deucalion safe, if somewhat dented



and blood-bespattered, on the quay."

"The Gods know," I said, for it is never my custom to discuss



policies with my inferiors, even though etiquette be for the moment

loosened, as ours was then by the thrill of battle. "The Gods will



decide what is best for you, Tob, even as they have decided that it

is best that I should go on to Atlantis."



The sailor held a horn filled from the wine-skin in his hand,

and I think was minded to pour a libation at my feet, even as I had



done at his. But he changed his mind, and emptied it down his

throat instead. "It is thirsty work, this fighting," he said, "and



that drink comes very useful."

I put my hand on his blood-smeared arm. "Tob," I said,



"whether I step into power again, or whether I go to the block

to-morrow, is another matter which the Gods alone know, but hear me



tell you now, that if a chance is given me of showing my gratitude,

I shall not forget the way you have served me in this voyage, and



the way you have fought this day."

Tob filled another brimming horn from the wine-skin and



splashed it at my feet. "That's good enough surety for me," he

said, "that my woman and brats never want from this day onward.



The Lord Deucalion for the block, indeed!"

4. THE WELCOME OF PHORENICE



Now I can say it with all truth that, till the rival navy met

us in the mouth of the gulf, I had thought little enough of my



importance as a recruit for the Empress. But the laying in wait

for us of those ships, and the wild ferocity with which they fought



so that I might fall into their hands, were omens which the

blindest could not fail to read. It was clear that I was expected



to play a lusty part in the fortunes of the nation.

But if our coming had been watched for by enemies it seemed



that Phorenice also had her scouts; and these saw us from the

mountains, and carried news to the capital. The arm of the sea at



the head of which the vast city of Atlantis stands, varies greatly

in width. In places where the mountains have over-boiled, and sent



their liquidcontents down to form hard stone below, the channel

has barely a river's wideness, and then beyond, for the next



half-day's sail it will widen out into a lake, with the sides

barelyvisible. Moreover, its course is winding, and so a runner



who knows his way across the flats, and the swamps, and between the

smoking hills which lie along the shore, and did not get overcome



by fire-streams, or water, or wandering beasts, could carry news

overland from seacoast to capital far speedier than even the most



shrewdly whipped of galleys could ferry it along the water.

Of course there were heavy risks that a lone traveller would



not make a safe passage by this land route, if he were bidden to

sacrifice all precautions to speed. But Phorenice was no niggard



with her couriers. She sent a corps of twenty to the headland that

overlooks the sea-entrance to the straits; they started with the



news, each on his own route; and it says much for their speed and

cleverness, that no fewer than seven of these agile fellows came



through scathless with their tidings, and of the others it was said

that quite three were known to have survived.



Still, about this we had no means of knowing at the time, and

pushed on in fancy that our coming was quite unheralded. The






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