"I learned, therefore, from Denys, not only that the central part of
Atlantis, the cradle and home of the dynasty of Neptune, had not sunk
in the disaster described by Plato as engulfing the rest of the
Atlantide isle, but also that it corresponded to the Tuareg Ahaggar,
and that, in this Ahaggar, at least in his time, the noble dynasty of
Neptune was supposed to be still existent.
"The historians of Atlantis put the date of the cataclysm which
destroyed all or part of that famous country at nine thousand years
before Christ. If Denis de Milet, who wrote scarcely three thousand
years ago, believed that in his time, the dynastic issue of Neptune
was still ruling its dominion, you will understand that I thought
immediately--what has lasted nine thousand years may last eleven
thousand. From that instant I had only one aim: to find the possible
descendants of the Atlantides, and, since I had many reasons for
supposing them to be debased and ignorant of their original splendor,
to inform them of their illustrious descent.
"You will easily understand that I imparted none of my intentions to
my superiors at the University. To solicit their approval or even
their permission, considering the attitude they had taken toward me,
would have been almost certainly to invite confinement in a cell. So I
raised what I could on my own account, and departed without trumpet or
drum for Oran. On the first of October I reached In-Salah. Stretched
at my ease beneath a palm tree, at the oasis, I took infinite pleasure
in considering how, that very day, the principal of Mont-de-Marsan,
beside himself, struggling to control twenty horrible urchins howling
before the door of an empty class room, would be telegraphing wildly
in all directions in search of his lost history professor."
M. Le Mesge stopped and looked at us to mark his satisfaction.
I admit that I forgot my dignity and I forgot the affectation he had
steadily assumed of talking only to Morhange.
"You will pardon me, sir, if your discourse interests me more than I
had anticipated. But you know very well that I lack the fundamental
instruction necessary to understand you. You speak of the dynasty of
Neptune. What is this dynasty, from which, I believe, you trace the
descent of Antinea? What is her rôle in the story of Atlantis?"
M. Le Mesge smiled with condescension, meantime winking at Morhange
with the eye nearest to him. Morhange was listening without
expression, without a word, chin in hand, elbow on knee.
"Plato will answer for me, sir," said the Professor.
And he added, with an accent of inexpressible pity: "Is it really possible that you have never made the acquaintance of
the introduction to the Critias?"