Atlantida

He must have read on my face the signs of too apparently expressed

surprise, for he said in a tone in which I divined a tinge of

defiance: "The choice of these books surprises you a bit?"

"I can't say it surprises me," I replied, "since I don't know the

nature of the work for which you have collected them. In any case I

dare say, without fear of being contradicted, that never before has

officer of the Arabian Office possessed a library in which the

humanities were so, well represented."

He smiled evasively, and that day we pursued the subject no further.

Among Saint-Avit's books I had noticed a voluminous notebook secured

by a strong lock. Several times I surprised him in the act of making

notations in it. When for any reason he was called out of the room he

placed his album carefully in a small cabinet of white wood, provided

by the munificence of the Administration. When he was not writing and

the office did not require his presence, he had the mehari which he

had brought with him saddled, and a few minutes later, from the

terrace of the fortifications, I could see the double silhouette

disappearing with great strides behind a hummock of red earth on the

horizon.

Each time these trips lasted longer. From each he returned in a kind

of exaltation which made me watch him with daily increasing

disquietude during meal hours, the only time we passed quite alone

together.

"Well," I said to myself one day when his remarks had been more

lacking in sequence than usual, "it's no fun being aboard a submarine

when the captain takes opium. What drug can this fellow be taking,

anyway?"

Next day I looked hurriedly through my comrade's drawers. This

inspection, which I believed to be my duty, reassured me momentarily.

"All very good," I thought, "provided he does not carry with him his

capsules and his Pravaz syringe."

I was still in that stage where I could suppose that André's

imagination needed artificial stimulants.

Meticulous observation undeceived me. There was nothing suspicious in

this respect. Moreover, he rarely drank and almost never smoked.

And nevertheless, there was no means of denying the increase of his

disquieting feverishness. He returned from his expeditions each time

with his eyes more brilliant. He was paler, more animated, more

irritable.

One evening he left the post about six o'clock, at the end of the

greatest heat of the day. We waited for him all night. My anxiety was

all the stronger because quite recently caravans had brought tidings

of bands of robbers in the neighborhood of the post.