The Romance of Atlantis Read Online Free PDF

ourselves in.”
    Salustra became instantly attentive. “Speak without riddles, old man,” she said sharply. “What dost thou mean to say?”
    The old man gulped a few times. “This is no ordinary earthquake and there has been no such activity on the seismograph on Mount Atla since the last atom-splitter convinced our ancestors this was too devastating a weapon to be controlled by man.”
    Salustra now threw a colorful wrapper about herself, reached for her father’s jeweled chain and stood up, immediately alert.
    “If we do not shatter the atom in the air because of what it may do to us, how can others safely use it?” She looked up, struck by a sudden thought. “To the north is only the land of the Althrustri, and they are much too backward to have developed nuclear energy.”
    Mahius waved his hand expressively. “Its manufacture is no secret, Majesty. Millions of Atlanteans have been concerned with its production and use, and some of these are Althrustrian-born, with a prior loyalty to their native land.”
    “What art thou suggesting, old man?”
    He shrugged. “Like thyself, Majesty, I ask where they got it, and no reasonable answer, except one, suggests itself.”
    The Empress’ eyes flashed. “I cannot accept the suggestion that any Atlantean, however discontented, could submit his country’s fate to the whims of the barbarian.”
    Mahius sat silent for a few moments. “That is not my immediate concern, Majesty.”
    She looked up in surprise. “And what could that be?”
    “We know the atom-splitter must be touched off deeply underground, lest it set up a chain reaction that could destroy the earth with its terrible heat.”
    She gave him an impatient glance. “Yes, man, go on.”
    “If the Althrustri have exploded the atom in the atmosphere, it could already, with its tremendous release of thermal energy, have begun a vaporizing action on mountains of solid ice at the pole.”
    She looked at him thoughtfully. “And if so, how would this first manifest itself?”
    “It is too early to say, but as the heat chewed at the ice, there would be all the progressive elements of a great thaw; first, the pulverizing effect, and then as the radiation continues, a melting of an ice field as great as the Atlantic Ocean itself.”
    “That would certainly mean an end of the Althrustri.”
    He nodded gravely. “And perhaps of Atlantis, as the oracles have prophesied for centuries.”
    She spoke sharply. “They named no time, old man.”
    “Not quite so, Majesty.” He repeated serenely, “When the land is so corrupt that even the beasts in the fields and the birds in the sky flee it, then shall we see the latter days and the vengeance of the gods.”
    Her lips curled in vexation. “Give me not the gods, Mahius. It is too early in the day for oracles. Besides—” she looked at a timepiece by her bed “—it is time to sit again with the Twelve Provinces. I must get ready for this meaningless sop to tradition.”
    Mahius rose with an effort, his old bones creaking more than their wont. “I will meet thee there, Majesty, perhaps with more information.”
    “Go to, old man,” she said. “And let us face this more immediate ordeal of the provincial Assembly together.”
    Four times a year Salustra sat for three days with the representatives of the Twelve Provinces. The Commoner was chosen by popular referendum, the Noble by the aristocracy, each for six years, and none might serve longer without express consent of the sovereign. “In this way,” Lazar had said, “corruption can be minimized. It takes three years to become vulnerable to graft, another two years to overcome the fear of being caught!”
    The sovereign was the last authority, and the lowliest might appeal over the heads of the highest public official. Treachery and the betrayal of public trust were the most heinous crimes, punished by confiscation and death. The sons of convicted representatives were disenfranchised for ten years. Elections