r that Tob
dreaded very much for his own skin if I came by harm, and I thought with
a warming heart of the threats that Tatho must have used in his kind
anxiety for my safety. It is pleasant when one's old friends do not omit
to pay these little attentions.

3. A RIVAL NAVY

Now, when we came up with the coasts of Atlantis, though Tob, with
the aid of his modern instruments, had made his landfall with most
marvellous skill and nearness, there still remained some ten days' more
journey in which we had to retrace our course, till we came to that arm
of the sea up which lies the great city of Atlantis, the capital.

The sight of the land, and the breath of earth and herbage which came
off from it with the breezes, were, I believe, under the Gods, the
means of saving the lives of all of us. For, as is necessary with long
cross-ocean voyages, many of our ships' companies had died, and still
more were sick with scurvy through the unnatural tossing, or (as some
have it) through the salt, unnatural food inseparable from shipboard.
But these last, the sight and the smells of land heartened up in
extraordinary fashion, and from being helpless logs, unable to move even
under blows of the scourge, they became active again, able to help in
the shipwork, and lusty (when the time came) to fight for their lives
and their vessels.

From the moment that I was deposed in Yucatan, despite Tatho's
assurances, there had been doubts in my mind as to what nature would
be my reception in Atlantis. But I had faced this event of the future
without concern: it was in the hands of the Gods. The Empress Phorenice
might be supreme on earth; she might cause my head to be lopped from its
proper shoulders the moment I set foot ashore; but my Lord the Sun was
above Phorenice, and if my head fell, it would be because He saw best
that it should be so. On which account, therefore, I had not troubled
myself about the matter during the voyage, but had followed out my calm
study of the higher mysteries with an unloaded mind.

But when our navy had retraced sufficiently the course that had been
overrun, and came up with the two vast headlands which marked the
entrance to the inland waters, there, a bare two days from the Atlantis
capital, we met with another navy which was, beyond doubt, waiting to
give us a reception. The ships were riding at anchor in a bay which lent
them shelter, but they had scouts on the high land above, who cried
the alarm