Atlantida

He placed on the table the book by which Morhange had been so

strangely moved. He adjusted his spectacles and began to read. It

seemed as if the magic of Plato vibrated through and transfigured this

ridiculous little old man.

"'Having drawn by lot the different parts of the earth, the gods

obtained, some a larger, and some, a smaller share. It was thus that

Neptune, having received in the division the isle of Atlantis, came to

place the children he had had by a mortal in one part of that isle.

It was not far from the sea, a plain situated in the midst of the

isle, the most beautiful, and, they say, the most fertile of plains.

About fifty stades from that plain, in the middle of the isle, was a

mountain. There dwelt one of those men who, in the very beginning, was

born of the Earth, Evenor, with his wife, Leucippe. They had only one

daughter, Clito. She was marriageable when her mother and father died,

and Neptune, being enamored of her, married her. Neptune fortified the

mountain where she dwelt by isolating it. He made alternate girdles of

sea and land, the one smaller, the others greater, two of earth and

three of water, and centered them round the isle in such a manner that

they were at all parts equally distant!..."

M. Le Mesge broke off his reading.

"Does this arrangement recall nothing to you?" he queried.

"Morhange, Morhange!" I stammered. "You remember--our route yesterday,

our abduction, the two corridors that we had to cross before arriving

at this mountain?... The girdles of earth and of water?... Two

tunnels, two enclosures of earth?"

"Ha! Ha!" chuckled M. Le Mesge.

He smiled as he looked at me. I understood that this smile meant: "Can

he be less obtuse than I had supposed?"

As if with a mighty effort, Morhange broke the silence.

"I understand well enough, I understand.... The three girdles of

water.... But then, you are supposing, sir,--an explanation the

ingeniousness of which I do not contest--you are supposing the exact

hypothesis of the Saharan sea!"

"I suppose it, and I can prove it," replied the irascible little old

chap, banging his fist on the table. "I know well enough what Schirmer

and the rest have advanced against it. I know it better than you do. I

know all about it, sir. I can present all the proofs for your

consideration. And in the meantime, this evening at dinner, you will

no doubt enjoy some excellent fish. And you will tell me if these

fish, caught in the lake that you can see from this window, seem to

you fresh water fish.