He placed on the table the book by which Morhange had been so
strangely moved. He adjusted his spectacles and began to read. It
seemed as if the magic of Plato vibrated through and transfigured this
ridiculous little old man.
"'Having drawn by lot the different parts of the earth, the gods
obtained, some a larger, and some, a smaller share. It was thus that
Neptune, having received in the division the isle of Atlantis, came to
place the children he had had by a mortal in one part of that isle.
It was not far from the sea, a plain situated in the midst of the
isle, the most beautiful, and, they say, the most fertile of plains.
About fifty stades from that plain, in the middle of the isle, was a
mountain. There dwelt one of those men who, in the very beginning, was
born of the Earth, Evenor, with his wife, Leucippe. They had only one
daughter, Clito. She was marriageable when her mother and father died,
and Neptune, being enamored of her, married her. Neptune fortified the
mountain where she dwelt by isolating it. He made alternate girdles of
sea and land, the one smaller, the others greater, two of earth and
three of water, and centered them round the isle in such a manner that
they were at all parts equally distant!..."
M. Le Mesge broke off his reading.
"Does this arrangement recall nothing to you?" he queried.
"Morhange, Morhange!" I stammered. "You remember--our route yesterday,
our abduction, the two corridors that we had to cross before arriving
at this mountain?... The girdles of earth and of water?... Two
tunnels, two enclosures of earth?"
"Ha! Ha!" chuckled M. Le Mesge.
He smiled as he looked at me. I understood that this smile meant: "Can
he be less obtuse than I had supposed?"
As if with a mighty effort, Morhange broke the silence.
"I understand well enough, I understand.... The three girdles of
water.... But then, you are supposing, sir,--an explanation the
ingeniousness of which I do not contest--you are supposing the exact
hypothesis of the Saharan sea!"
"I suppose it, and I can prove it," replied the irascible little old
chap, banging his fist on the table. "I know well enough what Schirmer
and the rest have advanced against it. I know it better than you do. I
know all about it, sir. I can present all the proofs for your
consideration. And in the meantime, this evening at dinner, you will
no doubt enjoy some excellent fish. And you will tell me if these
fish, caught in the lake that you can see from this window, seem to
you fresh water fish.