Atlantis Found

"Once we enter the chamber," Gu

Giordino needed no coaxing. "Then let's move on," he said, rising to his feet. "I'm begi

Without waiting for Gu

"There it is, just as the colonel described it," said Gu

"One of us is supposed to shout 'Eureka,' " exclaimed Giordino, happy at last to get out of the wind and rain.

"I don't know about you, but I'm getting rid of my rain gear and backpack so I can be comfortable."

"I'm with you."

Within minutes, their backpacks were removed and their foul-weather gear laid out inside the tu

They walked on, half curious, half uneasy, following the beams of their lights, wondering what they were going to find. The tu

"I wonder how this poor devil came to be here," said Gu

Giordino swung his flashlight around the room, illuminating a small fire pit and various tools and furniture- all of them looked handmade from wood and lava rock. There were also the remains of seal hides and a pile of bones in the opposite corner.

"Judging from the cut of what's left of his clothes, I'd say he was a marooned sailor, a castaway on the island for God only knows how long before he died."

"Odd the colonel didn't mention him," said Gu

"The Madras made an unscheduled stop for water after being blown far off the normal sailing track in 1779. This lost soul must have arrived later. No other ship called on the island for probably another fifty or hundred years."

"I can't begin to imagine how terrible it must have been for him, alone on an ugly rain-cold pile of volcanic rock with no prospects of rescue and the threat of a lonely death hovering over him."

"He made a fire pit," said Giordino. "What do you think he used for wood? There's little but scrub brush on the island."

"He must have burned what brush he could scrounge…" Gu

"I was just thinking," mused Giordino. "How many of those awful cabbages do you think the poor fellow must have eaten?"

"You won't know how they taste until you've tried one."

Giordino probed his beam on the walls, revealing the same type of inscriptions that he'd briefly seen in the Telluride chamber. A black obsidian pedestal rose from the center of the floor where the black skull had sat until removed by the British colonel. The lights also picked out a cave-in of fallen rocks that spilled down, covering the far wall of the chamber.

"I wonder what's on the other side of this rock pile."

"Another wall?"

"Maybe, maybe not." There was a vague certainty in Gu

Giordino had learned many years before to trust the intelligence and intuitive genius of little Rudi Gu

"I am."

"Damn!" Giordino hissed under his breath. "Our friends from Telluride must have gotten here first."

"What makes you think that?"

Giordino played his beam over the rockfall. "Their modus operandi. They have a fetish for blowing up tu

"I don't think so. This fall looks old, very old, considering the dust that has filled in among the rocks. I'll bet my Christmas bonus that this fall occurred centuries before the colonel or the old castaway stepped in here, and neither was curious and bothered to dig through and see what was on the other side." Then Gu

"I'm not sure my testosterone is up to this."

"Shut up and dig."

Gu

Because he was the smallest, Gu

"What do you see?" asked Giordino.

"A short corridor leading to another chamber less than twenty feet away" Then he squirmed through. He stood up, brushed himself off, and removed several more rocks from the opposite side so Giordino, with his broad shoulders, would have an easier passage. They hesitated for a moment, beaming their combined lights into the chamber ahead, seeing strange reflections.

"I'm glad I listened to you," said Giordino, as he walked slowly forward.

"I have positive vibes. I'll bet you ten bucks nobody beat us to it."

"Skeptic that I am, you're on."

Feeling a little apprehensive now, and with a growing sense of trepidation, they stepped into the second chamber and swept their lights around the walls and floor. There were no inscriptions in here, but they froze at the astonishing sight revealed under the yellow-white beams of their flashlights, staring in almost religious awe at the twenty mummified figures that sat upright in stone chairs hewn from the rock. The two that faced the entrance sat on a raised platform. The rest were grouped to the sides in the shape of a square horseshoe.

"What is this place?" Giordino whispered, half expecting to see ghosts lurking in the shadows.

"We're in a tomb," Gu

The mummies and the black hair on their skulls were in a remarkable state of preservation. Their facial features were perfectly intact and their garments were complete, with red, blue, and green dyes still discernible in the fabric. The two mummies at the end sat on stone chairs elaborately carved with various species of sea life. Their finery appeared more intricately woven and colorful than the others. Copper bands with exquisite engraved designs inlaid with what Gu