But as I took my place before that silent, staring multitude, I wished that I could have been safely back in my seat. Something suspiciously like fear overcame me--what right had I to be addressing this strange assemblage? What reason to expect that I could speak their language intelligibly? Yet necessity prodded me on; and, after gaping stonily at the spectators, I found myself somehow uttering a series of more or less connected sounds. I did not say what I had intended, and I suspect that more than one English word got itself intertwined with my Atlantean vocabulary; but I was encouraged when I observed that all eyes were fixed upon me with apparent interest, and that no one openly laughed or so much as tittered, though one or two (and among them Stranahan) could hardly suppress a smile. After a vague, sputtering introduction that I cannot begin to recall, I found myself on fairly solid ground. I declared that I could answer many of the questions which the previous speaker had put; I explained that my companions and myself were not barbarians, being representatives of the highest of modern civilizations; I stated that we had no evil intentions, having come to Atlantis by accident, and certainly not being the forerunners of a wave of invasion; and, at the same time, I offered our thanks for the treatment already accorded us, and expressed our intention to abide by the laws of Atlantis and to act in conformity with the best traditions of the land. As I took my seat, I could see from the faces of my hearers that I had produced a favorable effect. Many were the nods of approval that greeted me, and many the sympathetic smiles. But at the same time I could perceive that I had not made myself perfectly clear; and when a score of voices simultaneously requested that I return to the platform, I had no other choice. Questions regarding my native land were now rained upon me in profusion. But whether because of my limited knowledge of the language or because the experience of the Atlanteans differed so fundamentally from my own, I had great difficulty in making myself understood. My description of the growth and attainments of the modern world was listened to with interest, but with a lack of comprehension that I thought almost idiotic. Thus, when I declared that the United States was a leading nation because of its population of a hundred million, its rare inventions and its prolific manufactures, my hearers merely looked blank and asked how the country ranked in art; and when I stated (what surely is self-evident to all patriotic Americans) that New York is the greatest city on earth because of its tall buildings and its capacity for housing a million human beings in one square mile, my audience regarded me with something akin to horror, and one of the men--evidently a dolt, for he seemed quite serious--asked whether no steps had even been taken to abolish the evil.