“Nearly forty-eight years were consumed in the necessary preliminaries, and in that time Atlantis found itself forced halfway toward the realization of Agripides’ direct prophecies. The island of Antiles, a small republic located far to westward, had spied out the aggressive schemes of the Atlantean military experts, and enlarging upon them, had manufactured a fleet of poison-bearing aircraft capable of smiting whole cities with death and ruin. That they were aimed for a contemplated conflict with Atlantis there could be not a doubt; that such a conflict could not be averted by diplomacy was too self-evident to require demonstration; and that there was no resisting the destructive airships was generally, although unofficially, admitted. Conceivably, it was the dread of imminent disaster that restrained the minds of the people from vacillating at the last moment and that brought the plans of Agripides to their triumphant issue. “Agripides, unfortunately, did not survive to see the consummation of his plans. Such a happiness was more than he had hoped for; the years were already heavy upon him when his revolutionary ideas first won approval. But, dying peacefully at an advanced age in the year 15 B. S., he yet lived long enough to supervise the more important details of the project and to be assured of its eventual success. “In accordance with Agripides’ directions, a reinforced glass wall many layers thick was erected over the most picturesque part of Atlantis, for it was agreed that the rest (which included the site of many cities) was not worth saving. I shall not describe the steps taken to insure the health and comfort of the people after the Submergence, to rear elegant palaces and mansions, to duplicate the sunlight and to produce food chemically; I shall not even dwell upon the Good Destruction, except to say that all save the most essential of power-driven tools were piled up in the doomed part of the island, to be buried on the day of the Submergence together with the towers of the deserted cities. But what I must mention--and this is most important--is that not all our people were content to be submerged; that about one-third, irreconcilable to the last, emigrated eastward in a great body a few months before the Submergence. It was this that made us most sad when Agripides’ plans were fulfilled and we sank at last to the bottom of the sea.” “Have you ever heard what happened to them?” I inquired, marveling at this extraordinary migration. “No, how could we? We have never since established communication with the earth. But I was thinking that perhaps you, who are from the upper world, could give us some tidings of our lost fellow men.” “I am not sure but that I can,” I replied, slowly, thinking of the ancient Greeks and their striking resemblances to the Atlanteans and wondering whether the immigrants from the sunken island might not have been among the original settlers of Athens and Corinth.