Astounding Stories of Super-Science January 1931 Part 6

_AND OTHERS!_

[Ill.u.s.tration: _They tilted her rudders and dove to the abysm below._]

The Sunken Empire

_By H. Thompson Rich_

Concerning the strange adventures of Professor Stevens with the Antillians on the floors of the mysterious Sarga.s.so Sea.

"Then you really expect to find the lost continent of Atlantis, Professor?"

Martin Stevens lifted his bearded face sternly to the reporter who was interviewing him in his study aboard the torpedo-submarine _Nereid_, a craft of his own invention, as she lay moored at her Brooklyn wharf, on an afternoon in October.

"My dear young man," he said, "I am not even going to look for it."

The aspiring journalist--Larry Hunter by name--was properly abashed.

"But I thought," he insisted nevertheless, "that you said you were going to explore the ocean floor under the Sarga.s.so Sea?"

"And so I did." Professor Stevens admitted, a smile moving that gray beard now and his blue eyes twinkling merrily. "But the Sarga.s.so, an area almost equal to Europe, covers other land as well--land of far more recent submergence than Atlantis, which foundered in 9564 B. C., according to Plato. What I am going to look for is this newer lost continent, or island rather--namely, the great island of Antillia, of which the West Indies remain above water to-day."

"Antillia?" queried Larry Hunter, wonderingly. "I never heard of it."

Again the professor regarded his interviewer sternly.

"There are many things you have never heard of, young man," he told him. "Antillia may be termed the missing link between Atlantis and America. It was there that Atlantean culture survived after the appalling catastrophe that wiped out the Atlantean homeland, with its seventy million inhabitants, and it was in the colonies the Antillians established in Mexico and Peru, that their own culture in turn survived, after Antillia too had sunk."

"My Lord! You don't mean to say the Mayas and Incas originated on that island of Antillia?"

"No, I mean to say they originated on the continent of Atlantis, and that Antillia was the stepping stone to the New World, where they built the strange pyramids we find smothered in the jungle--even as thousands of years before the Atlanteans established colonies in Egypt and founded the earliest dynasties of pyramid-building Pharaohs."

Larry was pus.h.i.+ng his pencil furiously.

"Whew!" he gasped. "Some story, Professor!"

"To the general public, perhaps," was the reply. "But to scholars of antiquity, these postulates are pretty well known and pretty well accepted. It remains but to get concrete evidence, in order to prove them to the world at large--and that is the object of my expedition."

More hurried scribbling, then:

"But, say--why don't you go direct to Atlantis and get the real dope?"

"Because that continent foundered so long ago that it is doubtful if any evidence would have withstood the ravages of time," Professor Stevens explained, "whereas Antillia went down no earlier than 200 B.

C., archaeologists agree."

"That answers my question," declared Larry, his admiration for this doughty graybeard rising momentarily. "And now, Professor, I wonder if you'd be willing to say a few words about this craft of yours?"

"Cheerfully, if you think it would interest anyone. What would you care to have me say?"

"Well, in the first place, what does the name _Nereid_ mean?"

"Sea-nymph. The derivation is from the Latin and Greek, meaning daughter of the sea-G.o.d Nereus. Appropriate, don't you think?"

"Swell. And why do you call it a torpedo-submarine? How does it differ from the common or navy variety?"

Professor Stevens smiled. It was like asking what was the difference between the sun and the moon, when about the only point of resemblance they had was that they were both round. Nevertheless, he enumerated some of the major modifications he had developed.

Among them, perhaps the most radical, was its motive power, which was produced by what he called a vacuo-turbine--a device that sucked in the water at the snout of the craft and expelled it at the tail, at the time purifying a certain amount for drinking purposes and extracting sufficient oxygen to maintain a healthful atmosphere while running submerged.

Then, the structure of the _Nereid_ was unique, he explained, permitting it to attain depths where the pressure would crush an ordinary submarine, while mechanical eyes on the television principle afforded a view in all directions, and locks enabling them to leave the craft at will and explore the sea-bottom were provided.

This latter feat they would accomplish in special suits, designed on the same pneumatic principle as the torpedo itself and capable of sustaining sufficient inflation to resist whatever pressures might be encountered, as well as being equipped with vibratory sending and receiving apparatus, for maintaining communication with those left aboard.

All these things and more Professor Stevens outlined, as Larry's pencil flew, admitting that he had spent the past ten years and the best part of his private fortune in developing his plans.

"But you'll get it all back, won't you? Aren't there all sorts of Spanish galleons and pirate barques laden with gold supposed to be down there?"

"Undoubtedly," was the calm reply. "But I am not on a treasure hunt, young man. If I find one single sign of former life, I shall be amply rewarded."

Whereupon the young reporter regarded the subject of his interview with fresh admiration, not unmingled with wonder. In his own hectic world, people had no such scorn of gold. Gee, he'd sure like to go along! The professor could have his old statues or whatever he was looking for. As for himself, he'd fill up his pockets with Spanish doubloons and pieces of eight!

Larry was snapped out of his trance by a light knock on the door, which opened to admit a radiant girl in creamy knickers and green cardigan.

"May I come in, daddy?" she inquired, hesitating, as she saw he was not alone.

"You seem to be in already, my dear," the professor told her, rising from his desk and stepping forward.

Then, turning to Larry, who had also risen, he said:

"Mr. Hunter, this is my daughter, Diane, who is also my secretary."

"I am pleased to meet you, Miss Stevens," said Larry, taking her hand.

And he meant it--for almost anyone would have been pleased to meet Diane, with her tawny gold hair, warm olive cheeks and eyes bluer even than her father's and just as twinkling, just as intelligent.

"She will accompany the expedition and take stenographic notes of everything we observe," added her father, to Larry's amazement.

"What?" he declared. "You mean to say that--that--"