Avon Fantasy Reader No. 9 — page 38: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Man seem to run to extremes in size, and with it brought Atlantis here! It may have been an accident, or, which is more likely, he may have been a priest of Zeus, a fanatic, who considered that Zeus had given him the secret of the divine thunderbolts in order that the dissolute, warring city might be annihilated. The transported island left a huge pit in the earth, a pit which the ocean filled, and which closed, submerging the rest of the island, when the sea-water struck the hot rock of the bottom. That was the tidal wave and earthquake that devastated the Mediterranean. ‘Poseidon buried the grave of Atlantis with his waves.’ | “They came out somewhere in this world, Jack, all but about two hun- dred feet being above the sea. It would be the farm-lands and the slum district that were submerged. They colonized the upper world, the surface of the planet. They grew crowded, found little land, only the hard black rock of the plateau. With their resonator, if it survived, or with some other tool of the sort, they bored through to this inner world. Their scientists would have known that it was here. Maybe they found a natural passage somewhere. At any rate, they built the ventilators, and this and other cities, copying the zoning and architecture of the old island, perhaps a myth by now, and making the ventilating system automatic, controlled by some strange property of orichalcum and of that crystal to emit the singing flame as well as light, the flame acting as a governor as I first suggested. It is a. radioactive and electrical phenomenon, I feel sure. _ “For a long time they lived happily. Probably they were able to raise food under the artificial light, or in greenhouses. Their science would care for that. Then, before their last orichalcum was used up, they made their entire world unified, automatic, and settled down to the business of living. We shall know more when I have seen their library, for the script is much like old Phoenician. The library will be intact, for one of their laws makes q ~ desecration of the library punishable by death. Evidently it was closely _ connected with the temple, and hence holy. Then something happened, I cannot guess what, and the fungus swallowed up their world. Perhaps they were entirely blotted out. Perhaps they escaped to some other cavern, some other world even. Time may tell. We have a good deal to do, here, . and in other cities. Now let us take a bit of rest somewhere, and then plan 7 for the future.” | : As we turned to leave, I chanced to look up. There, midway to the misted ceiling, was a little balcony of black marble, over the gate. With a word to Doc, I pressed the control and floated up toward it. Doc, seeing my purpose, followed. ! There was little to see, but it told a great deal, more than we could have hoped. On the floor of the balcony was a square, box-like contrivance, with an extension and a lens. It turned out to be what it seemed, a camera. Beside it was a pitiful little pile of grey dust, all that remained of the cameraman. | 36 = Comicbooksseom