Where were they journeying?
Quentin asked the same question you may be sure, and Blue Mantle told him—
‘To Stonehenge.’ And Quentin understood him perfectly, though Stonehenge was not the word Blue Mantle used, or anything like it.
‘The great temple is now complete,’ he said, ‘all but the altar stone. It will be the most wonderful temple ever built in any of the colonies of Atlantis. And it will be consecrated on the longest day of the year.’
‘Midsummer Day,’ said Quentin thoughtlessly—and, as usual, anxious to tell all he knew. ‘I know. The sun strikes through the arch on to the altar stone at sunrise. [p87 Hundreds of people go to see it: the ruins are quite crowded sometimes, I believe.’
‘Ruins?’ said the priest in a terrible voice. ‘Crowded? Ruins?’
‘I mean,’ said Quentin hastily, ‘the sun will still shine the same way even when the temple is in ruins, won’t it?’
‘The temple,’ said the priest, ‘is built to defy time. It will never be in ruins.’
‘That’s all you know,’ said Quentin, not very politely.
‘It is not by any means all I know,’ said the priest. ‘I do not tell all I know. Nor do you.’