FORGOTTEN BOOK: THE TREASURE OF ATLANTIS

The Treasure of Atlantis by J. Allan Dunn (from All-Around Magazine, December 1916; book publication [paperbound], 1970, [hardcover] 1971)

Murdock, a world-famous orchid hunter, had just returned from a dangerous trek into the Brazilian jungles, but not unscathed.  A wound from a poison arrow has determined his fate.  But before his death, he told a strange story to Stanley Morse, the adventurer and explorer.  Hidden deep in the jungle, high on a plateau, was a strange and vibrant city, the remnant of an Atlantean civuilization that had originated in ancient Minos.  "Temples cut from the living rock, great buildings of stone set along the shore of a mighty lake amid tropical foliage and cultivated fields.  Paved roadways, and people thronging them clad in brilliant garments.  Boats on the lake, with banks of oars and striped sails.  A city set in a bowl of gray cliffs in the shadow of a snow-capped peak with a plume of smoke coming from it like the curl of a lazy fire!"  The name of the city was Dor.  It was peopled by a white race that had existed there for millennia, isolated from the rest of the world and from the natives of the jungle below -- although natives had been taken in the past to act as a serving class and as slaves.  Entrance to the city was forbidden; indeed, there appeared to be no approach available.  The only proof that Murdock had of its existence was a golden chalice, marked with drawings and inscriptions that appeared to have originated in ancient Crete.

Murdock died that night, leaving the chalice to Morse, along with a map to the valley where the ancient city lay.

Accompanied by archaeologist and anthropologist Gordon Laidlaw, Morse sets out to find the fabled city.  Laidlaw is a strange person, half giant and half dwarf, with a large and strong torso and "short, curved legs like those of a Pekingnese spaniel," supporting his upper frame.  Laidlaw held to an unpopular theory that "the lost country of Atlantis, or its remains, is to be found somewhere on the American continent, where it was left after a mighty cataclysm split the earth into the continents of Africa and America and formed the Atlantic Ocean."

Morse and Laidlaw, accompanied by their two Indian guides,Maya and Xolo, are near the unbreachable cliff that protects the city of Dor when a secret door in the cliff opens and four natives emerge carrying a bound man.  They leave the man at the base of the cliff as a sacrifice to the giant vultures flying overhead and disappear into the secret passage.  Morse and Laidlaw make quick work of the vultures with their rifles and rescue the man.  He is Kiron, by his appearance a man of Greek descent, and one of the two rulers of Dor.  He shares the throne with his beautiful and overly-ambitious cousin Rana.  Rana, guided by the evil high priest Ra, had plotted to kill Kiron and usurp all power for herself, but this had to be done surreptitiously because Kiron was a highly popular ruler.

When the natives who had abandoned Kiron returned several days later to dispose of his body, Kiron, Morse, and Laidlaw kill them and then enter the passage to the city.  There is a major cermony going on and Rana is surprised that Kiron showed up, alive.  Kiron introduces the two explorers as his friends and honored guests.  Morse, because he is a perfect specimen, joins Kiron and Rana on the dias, while Laidlaw, because of his physical imperfections, is placed with the priests.  This suits Laidlaw because he can better study the ancient civilization while with the priests.

Rana gets the hots (or, at least, what passes for the hots in the early twentieth century) for Morse.  She has some sort of hypniotic power that entrances men.  Morse, however, soon realizes the depths of her cruelty and -- for this reason -- is able to withstand her charms.  Ra is threatened by Rana's attraction to Morse and plots to get rid of him.  The city is in the midst of a celebration of the Sun God and the Moon Goddess, the two ruling deities represented by Dor's religions.  Galdiator-type games are held and Morse is forced to accept a challenge from the unbeatable warrior Aulus.  Luckily, Morse has had instructions by some of the West's best pugilists, and defeats the brutish galadiator -- although not handily.  (Let us note here that these bread and circus games are bloody but seldom result in death, and that the people of Dor had also turned from blood sacrifices a numbr of yers before -- something that the high priest Ra resented.) 

Morse and Laidlaw are to be inducted into the nobility of the city though a secret ceremony.  Ra manages to add a thirty-foot anaconda into the ceremony, and the snake nearly kills out two heroes, but Laidlaw's strength defeats it.  Morse encounters Leola, the high priestess of the Amazon-like cult to the Moon Goddess.  Leola, who has eschewed all contact with men, is the younger and even more beautiful sister of Rana.  Morse is smitten with the high priestess and shortly afterwards rescues her from drowning.  Morse realizes he is in love with Leola and she, despite her vows, appears to love him.  Among Leola's priestesses is the girl whom Kiron loves, but has been lured to the man-hating religion.

What else?  Well, the city rests upon a volcano which has been giving ominous rumblings lately.  And the servant and slave classes are getting restless and a full-scale rebellion may be on hand.  And there's the mythical beast rumored to live in one of the nearby caves.  And lots and lots of gems and jewelry are tossed intot he depths of the lake as an offering to the gods. Meanwhile, Ra keeps plotting and appears to be willing to sacrifice Rana if she decides to get too cozy with Morse...

It's a typical lost race/lost civilization template popular early in the twentieth century, back in the days when much of the world remained unexplored and mysterious.  The story is elevated by rapid pacing, exotic descriptions, and fairly decent writing.  (Although, truth to tell, there are more than a few clunky phrases scattered throughout the book.)

The author, J. Allan Dunn (1871? 1872? [dates differ]-1941) was a jouralist, explorer, sailor, and pulp writer noted for his adventure, South Seas, pirate, detective and westerns stories.  Over his pulp career, which began when he was in his early thirties, Dunn published more than two thousand stories and some forty novels.  He claimed to have been one of the first white explorers in New Guinea.  He was a good friend of Jack London, and once was caught pawning stolen jewelry and items from friends -- including a pair of pajamas belong to London -- but was never prosecuted.  Reportedly Dunn's interest in London's wife Charmian (and vice versa) prompted London to renew his interest in his wife.  He married for the first time in Hawaii, where he lived in a house once occupied by Robert Louis Stevenson.  (No biggie -- almost every house in that are was once occupied by Stevenson at one time or another.)  He inherited some money and built his own yacht, circumnavigating the globe three times.  His second wife had problems.  She once took a gun and threatened to kill herself and their two-year-old child.  She held the gun to her head, but when Dunn called to her, she turned, and accidentally fried the gun, killing their boy.  Dunn stood by her for the next eight years, finally divorcing her in 1918.  Dunn served in the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I, and was decorated three times, and perhaps reached the rank of major and staff officer.  He may have married a third time because there's was a 1927 report that he had disappeared mysteriously and that his wife was looking foe him.  He did marry for the fourth (or was it third?) time in 1936, to his agent.

Dunn was the director of the Explorer's Club, a member and vice-president of the Adventurers' Club of New York, and a member of the Circumnavigators Club, the Advertising Club, and San Francisco's Bohemian Club.

He supposedly died of malaria, which he had contacted during his days in Hawaii.  Dunn had an interesting, complicated, and partly unverified life.  What could not be denied, however, was his tatent for telling a thumping good yarn.

The Treasure of Atlantis was published by Centaur Press, a short-lived paperback imprint founded by Charles M. Collins and Donald M. Grant.  Grant was well-known for published books undr his own imprint, as well as through early specialist houses such as Grandon, Grant-Hadley Enterprises. and The Buffalo Book Company.  Centaur eventually published 17 titles from 1969 through 1980, including twelve in its "Time-Lost" series of neglected pulp fantasy tales.  The Treasure of Atlantis is available at UPenn's Online Book Page.