“Will you come,” said Anthea, “to Atlantis with us?”
“To know that you are dreaming shows that the dream is nearly at an end,” he told himself; “or perhaps it’s only a game, like ‘How many miles to Babylon?’”
So he said aloud: “Thank you very much, but I have only a quarter of an hour to spare.”
“It doesn’t take any time,” said Cyril; “time is only a mode of thought, you know, and you’ve got to go some time, so why not with us?”
“Very well,” said the learned gentleman, now quite certain that he was dreaming.
Anthea held out her soft, pink hand. He took it. She pulled him gently to his feet. Jane held up the Amulet.
“To just outside Atlantis,” said Cyril, and Jane said the Name of Power.
“You owl!” said Robert, “it’s an island. Outside an island’s all water.”
“I won’t go. I _won’t_,” said the Psammead, kicking and struggling in its bag.
But already the Amulet had grown to a great arch. Cyril pushed the learned gentleman, as undoubtedly the first-born, through the arch—not into water, but on to a wooden floor, out of doors. The others followed. The Amulet grew smaller again, and there they all were, standing on the deck of a ship whose sailors were busy making her fast with chains to rings on a white quay-side. The rings and the chains were of a metal that shone red-yellow like gold.
Everyone on the ship seemed too busy at first to notice the group of newcomers from Fitzroy Street. Those who seemed to be officers were shouting orders to the men.
They stood and looked across the wide quay to the town that rose beyond it. What they saw was the most beautiful sight any of them had ever seen—or ever dreamed of.
The blue sea sparkled in soft sunlight; little white-capped waves broke softly against the marble breakwaters that guarded the shipping of a great city from the wilderness of winter winds and seas. The quay was of marble, white and sparkling with a veining bright as gold. The city was of marble, red and white. The greater buildings that seemed to be temples and palaces were roofed with what looked like gold and silver, but most of the roofs were of copper that glowed golden-red on the houses on the hills among which the city stood, and shaded into marvellous tints of green and blue and purple where they had been touched by the salt sea spray and the fumes of the dyeing and smelting works of the lower town.