Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1901-11-15

THE GREAT CITY OF ATLANTIS HAD
VANISHED Externally.
ion, that once took the flavor of and
threw aside when he cloyed me"
II have Nais here l said, land pres
emily we two will be all that are left
alive of this nation"
"Nais is quite welcome to my leav-
ings," she laughed. II will look down
upon your country cooings when pres
emily go back to the place behind the
stars from which came. You are
very rustic person, Deucalion. They
tell me, too, that three or four of these
foul-smelling old men up here have
named you king. Did you swell with
much dignity? Or did you remember
that there was a pretty empress left
that would still be empress SO long as
there was an Atlantis to govern?
Come, sir, find your tongue. BY my
face! you must have hungered for me
very madly these years we have been
parted, if new-grown ruggedness of
feature is an evidence"
Have your gibe. L do not gibe back
at woman who presently will die"
Bah! Deucalion, you live behind
the times. Have they not told you
that l know the great secret and am
indeed goddess now? My arts can
make life run on eternally."
''Then the waters presently will test
them hard" said, but there the talk
was taken into other lips. Zaemon
went forward to the front of the litter
with the symbol of our Lord the Sun
glowing in his hand, and burst into
flow of cursing. 1t was hard for me
to hear his words. The roar of the
waters which poured up over the land,
and beat in vast waves against the
Sacred Mountain itself, grew nearer
and more loud. But the. old man had
his say.
Phorenice gave orders to her guards
for his killing; yes, tried even to rise
from the litter and do the work her
self; but Zaemon held the symbol to
his front, and its power in that SUI
preme moment mastered all the arts
that could be brought against it. The
majesty of the most high gods was vim
dicated, and that splendid empress
knew it and lay back sullenly among
the cushions of her litter beaten
woman.
Only one person in that rigid knot
ofpeople found power 10 leave the rest,
and that was Ylga. She came out to
the side of the ark, and leaned up and
cried me farewell through the gath
ering roar of the flood.
II would l might save you and take
you with us, said
"As for that" she said, with a ges-
ture, 81 would not come if you asked
me. l am not woman that will take
anything less than all. But 1 shall
meet what comes presently with the
memory that you will have me always
somewhere in your recollection. 1
know somewhat of men, even men of
your stamp, Deucalion, and you will
never forget that you came very near
to loving me once"
| think, too, she said something fur
ther, concerning Nais, but the below
ing rush of the waters drowned all
other words. A great mist made from
the steam sent up by the swamped
burning mountains stopped all accur-
ate view, though the blaze from the
fires lit it like gold. But had last
sight of horde of soldiery rushing
up the slopes of the mountain, with
scum of surge billowing at their
heels and licking many of them back in
its clutch. And then my eye fell on old
Zaemon waving to me with the symbol
to shut down the door in the roof of
the ark
obeyed his last command, and went
down the stair and closed all ingress
behind me. There We're bolts placed
ready, and shot these into their SOCK
cts, and there were Nais and | alone,
and cut off from all the rest of our
world that remained.
] went to the place where she Law,
and put my arms tightly around her.
Without, we heard men beating des-
perately on the ark with their weap-
ons, and some who even climbed by the
battens to the top and wrenched to
try and move the door from its fasten-
ings. The end was coming very near
to them now, and the great crowd OF
them were mad with terror,
would have given much to have
known how Phorenice Jared in that
final tumult, and how she faced it.
could see her, with her lovely face and
her wondrous eyes, and her rudy hair
curling about her neck, and by all the
gods! thought more of her at that
last moment than of the poor land she
had conquered and misgoverned and
brought to this horrid destruction.
There, is no denying the fascination
which Phorenice carried with her. ).
But the end did not daily long with
it's coming. There was little surge
that lifted the ark hands breadth or
so in it's cradle, and set it back again
with jar and CULVER. The blows
from axes and weapons ceased on its,
lower part, but redoubled into frenzied
gatherings onits rounded roof. There
were some screams and cries also
which came to us but duly through
the thickness of it's ponderous sheathS
ing, though likely enough they were
sent forth af tho full p}fch ~ h,,uau