“As you observe, we have not been disappointed. But now, fellow citizens, the great problem arises. The prisoners appear to be unclean as well as wanton and unprincipled men. Contrary to all regulations, they have been catching fish from the Salty River and using them for food. They have been slaying unoffending crabs and turtles, and--disgusting though the idea be--frying and eating them! They have been polluting water of the stream; they have been trampling down the rarest seaweeds, and beating to death the daintiest of water-flowers; they have been scrawling all sorts of crude and outlandish designs on the delicate pink and blue of the roof-bearing columns. “But all this--criminal though it be--we may overlook for the moment. The chief problem presented by the arrival of these aliens is of such wide-reaching social consequence that their minor transgressions pale into insignificance. For the first time in more than three thousand years, the principles of Agripides have been violated. Visitors from outside have at last appeared; at last we are in danger of contamination by the passions and vices of the upper world. Whether the invasion was deliberate is not definitely known, but how it was made is sufficiently clear: the barbarian ship, which was equipped to travel under the sea, was sucked into the whirlpool at the ocean entrance of Atlantis and forced into the valve through which the waters of the Salty River find admittance. Of course, this trespass may have been merely accidental; but remembering the warlike and unfriendly ways of the upper world, I personally suspect that the intrusion was planned with cunning design, and that other invading craft--possibly a whole invading fleet--may be expected to arrive. Fellow citizens, what is your opinion?” * * * * * Amid general silence the speaker took his seat--applause was apparently unknown among the Atlanteans. But this fact did not then enter into my thoughts; I was too much enraged at the tall young man’s misstatements. With a lack of self-consciousness that I can explain only by my blinding fury, I found myself doing the unprecedented. Springing excitedly to my feet, I demanded, hotly, in the native tongue, “Friends, may I say a word?” Instantly hundreds of pairs of eyes were turned upon me in surprise; I saw that I had no more been expected to speak than if I had been a tree or a stone. But the glances that were darted at me were not unfriendly, and as yet I was too much incensed to regret my words. “Certainly, you may say all you wish,” rang out the clear, well-rounded tones of the lady leader of the debate. “This is the Hall of Public Enlightenment, you know, and any person with anything to say will gladly be heard.” “Go on, old sport, give it to them good!” whispered Stranahan into my ear, although he could not have caught the drift of what was happening; and, with his words rankling in my mind, I started toward the speaker’s space.