but sorry credit to my training in
calmness that night. But she lay in my arms cold and nerveless as a
corpse, and by degrees my sober wits returned to me.

This was no place for either of us. Let the earth's tremors cease (as
was plainly threatened), let daylight come, and let a few of these
nerveless people round recover from their panic, and all the great cost
that had been expended might be counted as waste. We should be seen,
and it would not be long before some one put a name to Nais; and then
it would be an easy matter to guess at Deucalion under the beard and the
shaggy hair and the browned nakedness of the savage who attended on her.
Tell of fright? By the Gods! I was scared as the veriest trembler who
blundered amongst the dust-clouds that night when the thought came to
me.

With all that ruin spread around, it would be hopeless to think that any
of those secret galleries which tunnelled under the ground would be left
unbroken, and so it was useless to try a passage under the walls by the
old means. But I had heard shouts from that frightened mob which came to
me through the din and the darkness, that gave another idea for escape.
"The city is accursed," they had cried: "if we stay here it will fall
on us. Let us get outside the walls where there are no buildings to bury
us."

If they went, I could not see. But one gate lay nearest to the royal
pyramid, and I judged that in their panic they would not go farther than
was needful. So I put the body of Nais over my shoulder (to leave my
right arm free) and blundered off as best I could through the stifling
darkness.

It was hard to find a direction; it was hard to walk in the inky
darkness over ground that was tossed and tumbled like a frozen sea:
and as the earth still quaked and heaved, it was hard also to keep a
footing. But if I did fall myself a score of times, my dear burden got
no bruise, and presently I got to the skirts of the square, and found
a street I knew. The most venomous part of the shaking was done, and no
more buildings fell, but enough lay sprawled over the roadway to make
walking into a climb, and the sweat rolled from me as I laboured along
my way.

There was no difficulty about passing the gate. There was no gate. There
was no wall. The Gods had driven their plough through it, and it lay
flat, and proud Atlantis stood as defenceless as the open country.
Though I knew the cause of this ruin, though, in fact, I had myself in
some measu