d, there is only one name that is
near to it in familiarity."

"You trouble me," I said, frowning. "I have tried to do my duty for its
own sake, and for the country's sake, not for the pattings and fondlings
of the vulgar. And besides, if there are names to be in every one's
mouth, they should be the names of the Gods."

Tatho shrugged his shoulders. "The Gods? They occupy us very little
these latter years. With our modern science, we have grown past the
tether of the older Gods, and no new one has appeared. No, my Lord
Deucalion, if it were merely the Gods who were your competitors on men's
lips, your name would be a thousand times the better known."

"Of mere human names," I said, "the name of this new Empress should come
first in Atlantis, our lord the old King being now dead."

"She certainly would have it so," replied Tatho, and there was something
in his tone which made me see that more was meant behind the words. I
drew him to one of the marble seats, and bent myself familiarly towards
him. "I am speaking," I said, "not to the new Viceroy of Yucatan, but
to my old friend Tatho, a member of the Priests' Clan, like myself, with
whom I worked side by side in a score of the smaller home governments,
in hamlets, in villages, in smaller towns, in greater towns, as we
gained experience in war and knowledge in the art of ruling people, and
so tediously won our promotion. I am speaking in Tatho's private abode,
that was mine own not two hours since, and I would have an answer with
that plainness which we always then used to one another."

The new Viceroy sighed whimsically. "I almost forget how to speak in
plain words now," he said. "We have grown so polished in these latter
days, that mere bald truth would be hissed as indelicate. But for the
memory of those early years, when we expended as much law and thought
over the ownership of a hay-byre as we should now over the fate of a
rebellious city, I will try and speak plain to you even now, Deucalion.
Tell me, old friend, what is it?"

"What of this new Empress?"

He frowned. "I might have guessed your subject," he said.

"Then speak upon it. Tell me of all the changes that have been made.
What has this Phorenice done to make her throne unstable in Atlantis?"

Tatho frowned still. "If I did not know you to be as honest as our Lord
the Sun, your questions would carry mischief with them. Phorenice has a
short way with those who are daring enough to discuss her pol