eard Parrish shambling toward him over the
heaving ground.

"She's not hurt, I think, only fainted," said Jim. "Which way,
Parrish? You lead us."

"Down the slope," panted Parrish. "We'll be in the ferns in a minute.
We can hide there for a while, till she's able to walk. God help us
all! And I was once Professor of Physical Chemistry at Columbia!"

The outcry might have seemed comical under other circumstances; as it
was, Jim heartily re-echoed old Parrish's sentiments in his heart.

The last shock was subsiding in faint earth tremors. The two men
plunged down into the heavy fog, which quickly covered them, Jim
carrying Lucille in his arms. He felt the ferny undergrowth all about
him, the thick boles of tree-ferns emerged out of the mist.

"We can stop here for a while," panted Parrish. "Crouch down! They'll
never find us in this fog, and in a few minutes, when Lucille's
better, we can go on."

* * * * *

"You must tell me where we are and what our chances are," said Jim,
after again ascertaining that Lucille was unharmed.

"I'll tell you, Dent, as quick as I can. It's the place where I've
spent five years of hell as the slave of that devil, Tode. I never
dreamed, when we were working on the old Atom Smasher, that he had
adapted it to travel in the fourth dimension. He's taken us back
twelve thousand years or so to the island of Atlantis. History hasn't
begun yet. Atlantis is the only civilization in the world. The rest
are Drilgoes, Neanderthal men, wandering in the forests, and still in
their stone age.

"It's true, Dent, what old Plato learned from the Egyptian priests.
Atlantis has been slowly sinking for thousands of years, and all
that's left now is the one great island that we're on. Nearly all the
Atlanteans, the Cro-Magnon men, have perished, except for a few who
have crossed in ships to the coasts of France and Spain. They'll be
the founders of modern Europe--Basques and Iberians, and Bretons and
Welshmen. Our ancestors! It makes my brain reel to think of it!"

"Go on! Go on!" said Jim.

"There's a great city on the island, known as Atlantis too. As big as
London or New York. With flying-machines and temples and art galleries
and big ships that they're building to carry them away when the next
subsidence comes. They know they're doomed, for every few days there's
an eruption now.

"Tode means to make himself master of Atlantis, and transport it into
another epoch