Book excerpt: It is the '70s, a time of cosmic, sometimes alarming, optimism, which could justify all manner of scientific, and not so scientific, investigations. In such a transcendent spirit, Peter Tompkins surprises both his wife and son by introducing into the household a second mate, a Manhattan socialite named Betty. And, in 1974, he moves to Bimini, with Ptolemy in tow, to search for the lost continent of Atlantis.