ower
part of the leg bare and disclosing the sandaled feet. The hair was
long and flowed about the shoulders. But what struck Jim most forcibly
was the look of utter gentleness and benignity upon these faces.

"I guess we've fallen into pretty good hands after all," he whispered
to Parrish.

But one of the dignitaries upon the platform, an elderly man with a
face reminiscent of William Jennings Bryan in his inspired moments,
was leaning forward out of his curved chair and addressing the old
man, and, to Jim's astonishment, Parrish was answering.

But these were not the liquid accents of the Atlanteans. The words
resembled the barking of a dog, and across Jim's brain there suddenly
flashed the explanation. The dignitary was speaking in the tongue of
the Drilgoes, which Parrish, of course, would have learned in his five
years of captivity.

Suddenly Parrish turned to Jim. "He wants to know where we come from,"
he said. "I've told him from a far country. He thinks we're
ambassadors from some of the parts of Europe that the Atlanteans who
sailed away some years ago landed at. It's no use trying to
explain--they don't seem to have succeeded in inventing an Atom
Smasher for themselves."

Jim nodded, and the colloquy went on and on, while the Atlanteans
listened with languid interest, their kind and smiling faces seeming
to exude benignity. At length the session seemed to have ended.

Parrish wore a wide grin. "Everything's coming right, dear," he told
Lucille. "The old chap says we are to be the guests of the city either
for a night or for a week. It's something to do with the moon, and
there seems to be a full moon to-night. Some quaint superstition or
other. And then I guess we'll have a chance to get away in the Atom
Smasher. I've learned something of the mechanism, and it won't be hard
to operate it. We've fallen into good hands."

* * * * *

A squad of four soldiers or policemen, with shorter robes and what
looked like truncheons in their hands, made signs to the three to
accompany them. Amid mutual bows, the city's guests filled into a
small court-way, closed at the further end, on which a number of
Atlanteans were standing.

While Jim was wondering what the next move was to be, to his
astonishment the whole courtyard began to rise slowly up the walls of
the tall buildings on either side.

"An elevator!" gasped Lucille. "Now I do feel that everything is
coming out all right,