“Why, I thought you knew,” murmured Aelios, with a look of surprise. “This is Atlantis, of course.” “Atlantis!” I ejaculated, in overpowering amazement. “Atlantis!” And confused visions of a lost continent swarmed through my mind, and I wondered whether this could be the sunken world described by Plato. But before I could utter another word, my attention was diverted by an unpardonable intrusion. “Great shades of Alexander, having a nice little tête-a-tête, are you?” came a familiar voice from the rear; and Stranahan, stalking up uninvited, deposited himself on a seat just to the left of Aelios, and grinningly requested us not to heed him, but to go right on with our little talk. CHAPTER XII The Submergence The arrival of Stranahan, of course, had its effect. Not only did he interrupt my conversation with Aelios at a crucial point, but he made it impossible for the discussion to take a personal turn. I realized, to be sure, that he was actuated by motives of good fellowship, but I felt that he exhibited remarkably poor sense; and I am afraid that I displayed not a little of my displeasure in the forced welcome that I frowned upon the intruder. But Stranahan appeared to be afflicted with no foolish sensitiveness; and, having decided to join us, he seemed not to notice the frozen reception I accorded him. And like one determined to see things through to the end, he remained resolutely with us. He seemed scarcely discouraged by his limited knowledge of the language, which made him a total stranger to most of what we were saying; and for a good part of our conversation, he sat by in gaping ignorance, venturing an occasional remark with such poor display of grammar and pronunciation that I could only smile. Yet our discussion was so engrossing that for minutes at a time I quite forgot the existence of Stranahan. Even the bright sparkling eyes of Aelios had for the moment no more than an impersonal interest for me, for I found myself making a discovery so strange, so amazing and so utterly unprecedented as to upset my conception of human history. “Can this really be Atlantis?” I heard myself inquiring, once the disturbance created by Stranahan’s arrival had subsided. “Can this really be the famous lost Atlantis?” “The lost Atlantis?” repeated Aelios, looking perplexed. “I didn’t know there was any lost Atlantis.” I explained as briefly as possible the legend of the ancient continent that was said to have sunk beneath the sea. “If there’s any truth in the story, that was one of the greatest disasters in history,” I remarked, trying to lend importance to what I felt to be but the flimsiest of myths. “Disaster!” echoed Aelios, her perplexity deepening. “Disaster! This is the first time I ever heard any one call the submergence a disaster!” “Do you mean, then, that there actually was a submergence?” I demanded. “That a whole continent sank beneath the waves?”