Please take a look at the important information in this header.

We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an

electronic path open for the next readers.  Do not remove this.





**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**



**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**



*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations*



Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and

further information is included below.  We need your donations.





The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle



June, 1994  [Etext #139]





The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

*******This file should be named lostw10.txt or lostw10.zip********



Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, lostw11.txt.

VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, lostw10a.txt.





This etext was created by Judith Boss, Omaha, Nebraska.  The

equipment: an IBM-compatible 486/33, a Hewlett-Packard ScanJet

IIc flatbed scanner, and a copy of Calera Recognition Systems'

TrueScanRisc OCR program donated by Calera.





We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance

of the official release dates, for time for better editing.  We

have this as a goal to accomplish by the end of the year but we

cannot guarantee to stay that far ahead every month after that.



Please note:  neither this list nor its contents are final till

midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.

The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at

Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A

preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment

and editing by those who wish to do so.  To be sure you have an

up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes

in the first week of the next month.  Since our ftp program has

a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a

look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a

new copy has at least one byte more or less.





Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)



We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The

fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take

to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright

searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  This

projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If our value

per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $4

million dollars per hour this year as we release some eight text

files per month:  thus upping our productivity from $2 million.



The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext

Files by the December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion]

This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,

which is 10% of the expected number of computer users by the end

of the year 2001.



We need your donations more than ever!



All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/IBC", and are

tax deductible to the extent allowable by law ("IBC" is Illinois

Benedictine College).  (Subscriptions to our paper newsletter go

to IBC, too)



For these and other matters, please mail to:



Project Gutenberg

P. O. Box  2782

Champaign, IL 61825



When all other email fails try our Michael S. Hart, Executive

Director:

hart@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu (internet)   hart@uiucvmd   (bitnet)



We would prefer to send you this information by email

(Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail).



******

If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please

FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives:

[Mac users, do NOT point and click. . .type]



ftp mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu

login:  anonymous

password:  your@login

cd etext/etext91

or cd etext92

or cd etext93 [for new books]  [now also in cd etext/etext93]

or cd etext/articles [get suggest gut for more information]

dir [to see files]

get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]

GET 0INDEX.GUT

for a list of books

and

GET NEW GUT for general information

and

MGET GUT* for newsletters.



**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor**

(Three Pages)





***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***

Why is this "Small Print!" statement here?  You know: lawyers.

They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with

your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from

someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our

fault.  So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement

disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how

you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to.



*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT

By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm

etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept

this "Small Print!" statement.  If you do not, you can receive

a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by

sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person

you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical

medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.



ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS

This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-

tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor

Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at

Illinois Benedictine College (the "Project").  Among other

things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright

on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and

distribute it in the United States without permission and

without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth

below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext

under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.



To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable

efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain

works.  Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any

medium they may be on may contain "Defects".  Among other

things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or

corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other

intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged

disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer

codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.



LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES

But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,

[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this

etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all

liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including

legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR

UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,

INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE

OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE

POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.



If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of

receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)

you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that

time to the person you received it from.  If you received it

on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and

such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement

copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may

choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to

receive it electronically.



THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS".  NO OTHER

WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS

TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT

LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A

PARTICULAR PURPOSE.



Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or

the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the

above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you

may have other legal rights.



INDEMNITY

You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors,

officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost

and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or

indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause:

[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification,

or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.



DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"

You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by

disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this

"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,

or:



[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this

     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the

     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,

     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable

     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,

     including any form resulting from conversion by word pro-

     cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as

     *EITHER*:



     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and

          does *not* contain characters other than those

          intended by the author of the work, although tilde

          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may

          be used to convey punctuation intended by the

          author, and additional characters may be used to

          indicate hypertext links; OR



     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at

          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent

          form by the program that displays the etext (as is

          the case, for instance, with most word processors);

          OR



     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at

          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the

          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC

          or other equivalent proprietary form).



[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this

     "Small Print!" statement.



[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the

     net profits you derive calculated using the method you

     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you

     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are

     payable to "Project Gutenberg Association / Illinois

     Benedictine College" within the 60 days following each

     date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare)

     your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.



WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?

The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time,

scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty

free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution

you can think of.  Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg

Association / Illinois Benedictine College".



This "Small Print!" by Charles B. Kramer, Attorney

Internet (72600.2026@compuserve.com); TEL: (212-254-5093)

*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*







                          THE LOST WORLD



                   I have wrought my simple plan

                    If I give one hour of joy

                  To the boy who's half a man,

                    Or the man who's half a boy.







                          The Lost World



                    By SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE



                         COPYRIGHT, 1912



                             Foreword



            Mr. E. D. Malone desires to state that

          both the injunction for restraint and the

          libel action have been withdrawn unreservedly

          by Professor G. E. Challenger, who, being

          satisfied that no criticism or comment in

          this book is meant in an offensive spirit,

          has guaranteed that he will place no

          impediment to its publication and circulation.











                             Contents



CHAPTER

   I.  "THERE ARE HEROISMS ALL ROUND US"

  II.  "TRY YOUR LUCK WITH PROFESSOR CHALLENGER"

 III.  "HE IS A PERFECTLY IMPOSSIBLE PERSON"

  IV.  "IT'S JUST THE VERY BIGGEST THING IN THE WORLD"

   V.  "QUESTION!"

  VI.  "I WAS THE FLAIL OF THE LORD"

 VII.  "TO-MORROW WE DISAPPEAR INTO THE UNKNOWN"

VIII.  "THE OUTLYING PICKETS OF THE NEW WORLD"

  IX.  "WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN IT?

   X.  "THE MOST WONDERFUL THINGS HAVE HAPPENED"

  XI.  "FOR ONCE I WAS THE HERO"

 XII.  "IT WAS DREADFUL IN THE FOREST"

XIII.  "A SIGHT I SHALL NEVER FORGET"

 XIV.  "THOSE WERE THE REAL CONQUESTS"

  XV.  "OUR EYES HAVE SEEN GREAT WONDERS"

 XVI.  "A PROCESSION!  A PROCESSION!"









                          THE LOST WORLD









                          The Lost World



                            CHAPTER I



                "There Are Heroisms All Round Us"



Mr. Hungerton, her father, really was the most tactless person

upon earth,--a fluffy, feathery, untidy cockatoo of a man,

perfectly good-natured, but absolutely centered upon his own

silly self.  If anything could have driven me from Gladys, it

would have been the thought of such a father-in-law.  I am

convinced that he really believed in his heart that I came round

to the Chestnuts three days a week for the pleasure of his

company, and very especially to hear his views upon bimetallism,

a subject upon which he was by way of being an authority.



For an hour or more that evening I listened to his monotonous

chirrup about bad money driving out good, the token value of

silver, the depreciation of the rupee, and the true standards

of exchange.



"Suppose," he cried with feeble violence, "that all the debts in

the world were called up simultaneously, and immediate payment

insisted upon,--what under our present conditions would happen then?"



I gave the self-evident answer that I should be a ruined man,

upon which he jumped from his chair, reproved me for my habitual

levity, which made it impossible for him to discuss any

reasonable subject in my presence, and bounced off out of the

room to dress for a Masonic meeting.



At last I was alone with Gladys, and the moment of Fate had come! 

All that evening I had felt like the soldier who awaits the

signal which will send him on a forlorn hope; hope of victory and

fear of repulse alternating in his mind.



She sat with that proud, delicate profile of hers outlined

against the red curtain.  How beautiful she was!  And yet how

aloof!  We had been friends, quite good friends; but never could I

get beyond the same comradeship which I might have established

with one of my fellow-reporters upon the Gazette,--perfectly

frank, perfectly kindly, and perfectly unsexual.  My instincts

are all against a woman being too frank and at her ease with me. 

It is no compliment to a man.  Where the real sex feeling begins,

timidity and distrust are its companions, heritage from old wicked

days when love and violence went often hand in hand.  The bent

head, the averted eye, the faltering voice, the wincing figure--

these, and not the unshrinking gaze and frank reply, are the true

signals of passion.  Even in my short life I had learned as much as

that--or had inherited it in that race memory which we call instinct.



Gladys was full of every womanly quality.  Some judged her to be

cold and hard; but such a thought was treason.  That delicately

bronzed skin, almost oriental in its coloring, that raven hair,

the large liquid eyes, the full but exquisite lips,--all the

stigmata of passion were there.  But I was sadly conscious that

up to now I had never found the secret of drawing it forth. 

However, come what might, I should have done with suspense and

bring matters to a head to-night.  She could but refuse me, and

better be a repulsed lover than an accepted brother.



So far my thoughts had carried me, and I was about to break the

long and uneasy silence, when two critical, dark eyes looked

round at me, and the proud head was shaken in smiling reproof. 

"I have a presentiment that you are going to propose, Ned.  I do

wish you wouldn't; for things are so much nicer as they are."



I drew my chair a little nearer.  "Now, how did you know that I

was going to propose?" I asked in genuine wonder.



"Don't women always know?  Do you suppose any woman in the world

was ever taken unawares?  But--oh, Ned, our friendship has been so

good and so pleasant!  What a pity to spoil it!  Don't you feel how

splendid it is that a young man and a young woman should be able

to talk face to face as we have talked?"



"I don't know, Gladys.  You see, I can talk face to face with--

with the station-master."  I can't imagine how that official came

into the matter; but in he trotted, and set us both laughing. 

"That does not satisfy me in the least.  I want my arms round you,

and your head on my breast, and--oh, Gladys, I want----"



She had sprung from her chair, as she saw signs that I proposed

to demonstrate some of my wants.  "You've spoiled everything,

Ned," she said.  "It's all so beautiful and natural until this

kind of thing comes in!  It is such a pity!  Why can't you

control yourself?"



"I didn't invent it," I pleaded.  "It's nature.  It's love."



"Well, perhaps if both love, it may be different.  I have never

felt it."



"But you must--you, with your beauty, with your soul!  Oh, Gladys,

you were made for love!  You must love!"



"One must wait till it comes."



"But why can't you love me, Gladys?  Is it my appearance, or what?"



She did unbend a little.  She put forward a hand--such a gracious,

stooping attitude it was--and she pressed back my head.  Then she

looked into my upturned face with a very wistful smile.



"No it isn't that," she said at last.  "You're not a conceited

boy by nature, and so I can safely tell you it is not that. 

It's deeper."



"My character?"



She nodded severely.



"What can I do to mend it?  Do sit down and talk it over. 

No, really, I won't if you'll only sit down!"



She looked at me with a wondering distrust which was much more to

my mind than her whole-hearted confidence.  How primitive and

bestial it looks when you put it down in black and white!--and

perhaps after all it is only a feeling peculiar to myself. 

Anyhow, she sat down.



"Now tell me what's amiss with me?"



"I'm in love with somebody else," said she. 



It was my turn to jump out of my chair. 



"It's nobody in particular," she explained, laughing at the

expression of my face: "only an ideal.  I've never met the kind

of man I mean."



"Tell me about him.  What does he look like?"



"Oh, he might look very much like you."



"How dear of you to say that!  Well, what is it that he does that

I don't do?  Just say the word,--teetotal, vegetarian, aeronaut,

theosophist, superman.  I'll have a try at it, Gladys, if you

will only give me an idea what would please you."



She laughed at the elasticity of my character.  "Well, in the

first place, I don't think my ideal would speak like that,"

said she.  "He would be a harder, sterner man, not so ready to adapt

himself to a silly girl's whim.  But, above all, he must be a man

who could do, who could act, who could look Death in the face and

have no fear of him, a man of great deeds and strange experiences. 

It is never a man that I should love, but always the glories he had

won; for they would be reflected upon me.  Think of Richard Burton! 

When I read his wife's life of him I could so understand her love! 

And Lady Stanley!  Did you ever read the wonderful last chapter

of that book about her husband?  These are the sort of men that

a woman could worship with all her soul, and yet be the greater,

not the less, on account of her love, honored by all the world

as the inspirer of noble deeds."



She looked so beautiful in her enthusiasm that I nearly brought

down the whole level of the interview.  I gripped myself hard,

and went on with the argument.



"We can't all be Stanleys and Burtons," said I; "besides, we

don't get the chance,--at least, I never had the chance.  If I

did, I should try to take it."



"But chances are all around you.  It is the mark of the kind of

man I mean that he makes his own chances.  You can't hold him back. 

I've never met him, and yet I seem to know him so well.  There are

heroisms all round us waiting to be done.  It's for men to do them,

and for women to reserve their love as a reward for such men. 

Look at that young Frenchman who went up last week in a balloon. 

It was blowing a gale of wind; but because he was announced to go

he insisted on starting.  The wind blew him fifteen hundred miles

in twenty-four hours, and he fell in the middle of Russia.  That was

the kind of man I mean.  Think of the woman he loved, and how other

women must have envied her!  That's what I should like to be,--envied

for my man."



"I'd have done it to please you."



"But you shouldn't do it merely to please me.  You should do it

because you can't help yourself, because it's natural to you,

because the man in you is crying out for heroic expression. 

Now, when you described the Wigan coal explosion last month,

could you not have gone down and helped those people, in spite

of the choke-damp?"



"I did."



"You never said so."



"There was nothing worth bucking about."



"I didn't know."  She looked at me with rather more interest. 

"That was brave of you."



"I had to.  If you want to write good copy, you must be where the

things are."



"What a prosaic motive!  It seems to take all the romance out

of it.  But, still, whatever your motive, I am glad that you went

down that mine."  She gave me her hand; but with such sweetness

and dignity that I could only stoop and kiss it.  "I dare say I

am merely a foolish woman with a young girl's fancies.  And yet

it is so real with me, so entirely part of my very self, that I

cannot help acting upon it.  If I marry, I do want to marry a

famous man!"



"Why should you not?" I cried.  "It is women like you who brace

men up.  Give me a chance, and see if I will take it!  Besides, as

you say, men ought to MAKE their own chances, and not wait until

they are given.  Look at Clive--just a clerk, and he conquered

India!  By George!  I'll do something in the world yet!"



She laughed at my sudden Irish effervescence.  "Why not?" she said. 

"You have everything a man could have,--youth, health, strength,

education, energy.  I was sorry you spoke.  And now I am glad--so

glad--if it wakens these thoughts in you!"



"And if I do----"



Her dear hand rested like warm velvet upon my lips.  "Not another

word, Sir!  You should have been at the office for evening duty

half an hour ago; only I hadn't the heart to remind you.  Some day,

perhaps, when you have won your place in the world, we shall talk

it over again."



And so it was that I found myself that foggy November evening

pursuing the Camberwell tram with my heart glowing within me, and

with the eager determination that not another day should elapse

before I should find some deed which was worthy of my lady. 

But who--who in all this wide world could ever have imagined the

incredible shape which that deed was to take, or the strange

steps by which I was led to the doing of it?



And, after all, this opening chapter will seem to the reader to

have nothing to do with my narrative; and yet there would have

been no narrative without it, for it is only when a man goes out

into the world with the thought that there are heroisms all round

him, and with the desire all alive in his heart to follow any

which may come within sight of him, that he breaks away as I did

from the life he knows, and ventures forth into the wonderful mystic

twilight land where lie the great adventures and the great rewards. 

Behold me, then, at the office of the Daily Gazette, on the staff

of which I was a most insignificant unit, with the settled

determination that very night, if possible, to find the quest

which should be worthy of my Gladys!  Was it hardness, was it

selfishness, that she should ask me to risk my life for her

own glorification?  Such thoughts may come to middle age; but

never to ardent three-and-twenty in the fever of his first love.





                            CHAPTER II



            "Try Your Luck with Professor Challenger"



I always liked McArdle, the crabbed, old, round-backed,

red-headed news editor, and I rather hoped that he liked me. 

Of course, Beaumont was the real boss; but he lived in the

rarefied atmosphere of some Olympian height from which he could

distinguish nothing smaller than an international crisis or a

split in the Cabinet.  Sometimes we saw him passing in lonely

majesty to his inner sanctum, with his eyes staring vaguely and

his mind hovering over the Balkans or the Persian Gulf.  He was

above and beyond us.  But McArdle was his first lieutenant, and

it was he that we knew.  The old man nodded as I entered the

room, and he pushed his spectacles far up on his bald forehead.



"Well, Mr. Malone, from all I hear, you seem to be doing very

well," said he in his kindly Scotch accent.



I thanked him.



"The colliery explosion was excellent.  So was the Southwark fire. 

You have the true descreeptive touch.  What did you want to see

me about?"



"To ask a favor."



He looked alarmed, and his eyes shunned mine. "Tut, tut!  What is it?"



"Do you think, Sir, that you could possibly send me on some

mission for the paper?  I would do my best to put it through and

get you some good copy."



"What sort of meesion had you in your mind, Mr. Malone?"



"Well, Sir, anything that had adventure and danger in it. 

I really would do my very best.  The more difficult it was, the

better it would suit me."



"You seem very anxious to lose your life."



"To justify my life, Sir."



"Dear me, Mr. Malone, this is very--very exalted.  I'm afraid the

day for this sort of thing is rather past.  The expense of the

`special meesion' business hardly justifies the result, and, of

course, in any case it would only be an experienced man with a

name that would command public confidence who would get such

an order.  The big blank spaces in the map are all being filled in,

and there's no room for romance anywhere.  Wait a bit, though!"

he added, with a sudden smile upon his face.  "Talking of the

blank spaces of the map gives me an idea.  What about exposing a

fraud--a modern Munchausen--and making him rideeculous?  You could

show him up as the liar that he is!  Eh, man, it would be fine.

How does it appeal to you?"



"Anything--anywhere--I care nothing."



McArdle was plunged in thought for some minutes.



"I wonder whether you could get on friendly--or at least on

talking terms with the fellow," he said, at last.  "You seem to

have a sort of genius for establishing relations with

people--seempathy, I suppose, or animal magnetism, or youthful

vitality, or something.  I am conscious of it myself."



"You are very good, sir."



"So why should you not try your luck with Professor Challenger,

of Enmore Park?"



I dare say I looked a little startled.



"Challenger!" I cried.  "Professor Challenger, the famous zoologist! 

Wasn't he the man who broke the skull of Blundell, of the Telegraph?"



The news editor smiled grimly.



"Do you mind?  Didn't you say it was adventures you were after?"



"It is all in the way of business, sir," I answered.



"Exactly.  I don't suppose he can always be so violent as that. 

I'm thinking that Blundell got him at the wrong moment, maybe, or

in the wrong fashion.  You may have better luck, or more tact in

handling him.  There's something in your line there, I am sure,

and the Gazette should work it."



"I really know nothing about him," said I.  I only remember his

name in connection with the police-court proceedings, for

striking Blundell."



"I have a few notes for your guidance, Mr. Malone.  I've had my

eye on the Professor for some little time."  He took a paper from

a drawer. "Here is a summary of his record.  I give it you briefly:--



"`Challenger, George Edward.  Born: Largs, N. B., 1863.  Educ.:

Largs Academy; Edinburgh University.  British Museum Assistant, 1892. 

Assistant-Keeper of Comparative Anthropology Department, 1893. 

Resigned after acrimonious correspondence same year.  Winner of

Crayston Medal for Zoological Research.  Foreign Member of'--well,

quite a lot of things, about two inches of small type--`Societe

Belge, American Academy of Sciences, La Plata, etc., etc. 

Ex-President Palaeontological Society.  Section H, British

Association'--so on, so on!--`Publications: "Some Observations

Upon a Series of Kalmuck Skulls"; "Outlines of Vertebrate

Evolution"; and numerous papers, including "The underlying

fallacy of Weissmannism," which caused heated discussion at

the Zoological Congress of Vienna.  Recreations: Walking,

Alpine climbing.  Address: Enmore Park, Kensington, W.'



"There, take it with you.  I've nothing more for you to-night."



I pocketed the slip of paper.



"One moment, sir," I said, as I realized that it was a pink bald

head, and not a red face, which was fronting me.  "I am not very

clear yet why I am to interview this gentleman.  What has he done?"



The face flashed back again.



"Went to South America on a solitary expedeetion two years ago. 

Came back last year.  Had undoubtedly been to South America, but

refused to say exactly where.  Began to tell his adventures in a

vague way, but somebody started to pick holes, and he just shut

up like an oyster.  Something wonderful happened--or the man's a

champion liar, which is the more probable supposeetion.  Had some

damaged photographs, said to be fakes.  Got so touchy that he

assaults anyone who asks questions, and heaves reporters doun

the stairs.  In my opinion he's just a homicidal megalomaniac with

a turn for science.  That's your man, Mr. Malone.  Now, off you

run, and see what you can make of him.  You're big enough to look

after yourself.  Anyway, you are all safe.  Employers' Liability

Act, you know."



A grinning red face turned once more into a pink oval, fringed

with gingery fluff; the interview was at an end.



I walked across to the Savage Club, but instead of turning into

it I leaned upon the railings of Adelphi Terrace and gazed

thoughtfully for a long time at the brown, oily river.  I can

always think most sanely and clearly in the open air.  I took out

the list of Professor Challenger's exploits, and I read it over

under the electric lamp.  Then I had what I can only regard as

an inspiration.  As a Pressman, I felt sure from what I had been

told that I could never hope to get into touch with this

cantankerous Professor.  But these recriminations, twice

mentioned in his skeleton biography, could only mean that he was

a fanatic in science.  Was there not an exposed margin there upon

which he might be accessible?  I would try.



I entered the club.  It was just after eleven, and the big room

was fairly full, though the rush had not yet set in.  I noticed

a tall, thin, angular man seated in an arm-chair by the fire. 

He turned as I drew my chair up to him.  It was the man of all

others whom I should have chosen--Tarp Henry, of the staff of

Nature, a thin, dry, leathery creature, who was full, to those who

knew him, of kindly humanity.  I plunged instantly into my subject.



"What do you know of Professor Challenger?"



"Challenger?" He gathered his brows in scientific disapproval. 

"Challenger was the man who came with some cock-and-bull story

from South America."



"What story?"



"Oh, it was rank nonsense about some queer animals he had discovered. 

I believe he has retracted since.  Anyhow, he has suppressed it all. 

He gave an interview to Reuter's, and there was such a howl that he

saw it wouldn't do.  It was a discreditable business.  There were

one or two folk who were inclined to take him seriously, but he soon

choked them off."



"How?"



"Well, by his insufferable rudeness and impossible behavior. 

There was poor old Wadley, of the Zoological Institute.  Wadley sent

a message:  `The President of the Zoological Institute presents

his compliments to Professor Challenger, and would take it as a

personal favor if he would do them the honor to come to their

next meeting.'  The answer was unprintable."



"You don't say?"



"Well, a bowdlerized version of it would run:  `Professor

Challenger presents his compliments to the President of the

Zoological Institute, and would take it as a personal favor if he

would go to the devil.'"



"Good Lord!"



"Yes, I expect that's what old Wadley said.  I remember his wail

at the meeting, which began:  `In fifty years experience of

scientific intercourse----'  It quite broke the old man up."



"Anything more about Challenger?"



"Well, I'm a bacteriologist, you know.  I live in a

nine-hundred-diameter microscope.  I can hardly claim to take

serious notice of anything that I can see with my naked eye. 

I'm a frontiersman from the extreme edge of the Knowable, and I feel

quite out of place when I leave my study and come into touch with

all you great, rough, hulking creatures.  I'm too detached to

talk scandal, and yet at scientific conversaziones I HAVE heard

something of Challenger, for he is one of those men whom nobody

can ignore.  He's as clever as they make 'em--a full-charged

battery of force and vitality, but a quarrelsome, ill-conditioned

faddist, and unscrupulous at that.  He had gone the length of

faking some photographs over the South American business."



"You say he is a faddist.  What is his particular fad?"



"He has a thousand, but the latest is something about Weissmann

and Evolution.  He had a fearful row about it in Vienna, I believe."



"Can't you tell me the point?"



"Not at the moment, but a translation of the proceedings exists. 

We have it filed at the office.  Would you care to come?"



"It's just what I want.  I have to interview the fellow, and I

need some lead up to him.  It's really awfully good of you to

give me a lift.  I'll go with you now, if it is not too late."





Half an hour later I was seated in the newspaper office with a

huge tome in front of me, which had been opened at the article

"Weissmann versus Darwin," with the sub heading, "Spirited

Protest at Vienna.  Lively Proceedings."  My scientific education

having been somewhat neglected, I was unable to follow the whole

argument, but it was evident that the English Professor had

handled his subject in a very aggressive fashion, and had

thoroughly annoyed his Continental colleagues.  "Protests,"

"Uproar," and "General appeal to the Chairman" were three of the

first brackets which caught my eye.  Most of the matter might

have been written in Chinese for any definite meaning that it

conveyed to my brain.



"I wish you could translate it into English for me," I said,

pathetically, to my help-mate.



"Well, it is a translation."



"Then I'd better try my luck with the original."



"It is certainly rather deep for a layman."



"If I could only get a single good, meaty sentence which seemed

to convey some sort of definite human idea, it would serve my turn. 

Ah, yes, this one will do.  I seem in a vague way almost to

understand it.  I'll copy it out.  This shall be my link with

the terrible Professor."



"Nothing else I can do?"



"Well, yes; I propose to write to him.  If I could frame the

letter here, and use your address it would give atmosphere."



"We'll have the fellow round here making a row and breaking

the furniture."



"No, no; you'll see the letter--nothing contentious, I assure you."



"Well, that's my chair and desk.  You'll find paper there.  I'd like

to censor it before it goes."



It took some doing, but I flatter myself that it wasn't such a

bad job when it was finished.  I read it aloud to the critical

bacteriologist with some pride in my handiwork.





"DEAR PROFESSOR CHALLENGER," it said, "As a humble student of

Nature, I have always taken the most profound interest in your

speculations as to the differences between Darwin and Weissmann. 

I have recently had occasion to refresh my memory by re-reading----"





"You infernal liar!" murmured Tarp Henry.





--"by re-reading your masterly address at Vienna.  That lucid and

admirable statement seems to be the last word in the matter. 

There is one sentence in it, however--namely:  `I protest strongly

against the insufferable and entirely dogmatic assertion that

each separate id is a microcosm possessed of an historical

architecture elaborated slowly through the series of generations.' 

Have you no desire, in view of later research, to modify

this statement?  Do you not think that it is over-accentuated? 

With your permission, I would ask the favor of an interview,

as I feel strongly upon the subject, and have certain suggestions

which I could only elaborate in a personal conversation.  With your

consent, I trust to have the honor of calling at eleven o'clock

the day after to-morrow (Wednesday) morning.



"I remain, Sir, with assurances of profound respect,

yours very truly,

                                             EDWARD D. MALONE."





"How's that?" I asked, triumphantly.



"Well if your conscience can stand it----"



"It has never failed me yet."



"But what do you mean to do?"



"To get there.  Once I am in his room I may see some opening. 

I may even go the length of open confession.  If he is a sportsman

he will be tickled."



"Tickled, indeed!  He's much more likely to do the tickling. 

Chain mail, or an American football suit--that's what you'll want. 

Well, good-bye.  I'll have the answer for you here on Wednesday

morning--if he ever deigns to answer you.  He is a violent,

dangerous, cantankerous character, hated by everyone who comes

across him, and the butt of the students, so far as they dare

take a liberty with him.  Perhaps it would be best for you if

you never heard from the fellow at all."





                           CHAPTER III



              "He is a Perfectly Impossible Person"



My friend's fear or hope was not destined to be realized.  When I

called on Wednesday there was a letter with the West Kensington

postmark upon it, and my name scrawled across the envelope in a

handwriting which looked like a barbed-wire railing.  The contents

were as follows:--





                              "ENMORE PARK, W.



"SIR,--I have duly received your note, in which you claim to

endorse my views, although I am not aware that they are dependent

upon endorsement either from you or anyone else.  You have

ventured to use the word `speculation' with regard to my

statement upon the subject of Darwinism, and I would call your

attention to the fact that such a word in such a connection is

offensive to a degree.  The context convinces me, however, that

you have sinned rather through ignorance and tactlessness than

through malice, so I am content to pass the matter by.  You quote

an isolated sentence from my lecture, and appear to have some

difficulty in understanding it.  I should have thought that only

a sub-human intelligence could have failed to grasp the point,

but if it really needs amplification I shall consent to see you

at the hour named, though visits and visitors of every sort are

exceeding distasteful to me.  As to your suggestion that I may

modify my opinion, I would have you know that it is not my habit to

do so after a deliberate expression of my mature views.  You will

kindly show the envelope of this letter to my man, Austin, when

you call, as he has to take every precaution to shield me from

the intrusive rascals who call themselves `journalists.'     

                         "Yours faithfully,

                            "GEORGE EDWARD CHALLENGER."





This was the letter that I read aloud to Tarp Henry, who had come

down early to hear the result of my venture.  His only remark

was, "There's some new stuff, cuticura or something, which is

better than arnica."  Some people have such extraordinary notions

of humor.



It was nearly half-past ten before I had received my message, but

a taxicab took me round in good time for my appointment.  It was

an imposing porticoed house at which we stopped, and the

heavily-curtained windows gave every indication of wealth upon

the part of this formidable Professor.  The door was opened by an

odd, swarthy, dried-up person of uncertain age, with a dark pilot

jacket and brown leather gaiters.  I found afterwards that he was

the chauffeur, who filled the gaps left by a succession of

fugitive butlers.  He looked me up and down with a searching

light blue eye.



"Expected?" he asked.



"An appointment."



"Got your letter?"



I produced the envelope.



"Right!"  He seemed to be a person of few words.  Following him

down the passage I was suddenly interrupted by a small woman, who

stepped out from what proved to be the dining-room door.  She was

a bright, vivacious, dark-eyed lady, more French than English in

her type.



"One moment," she said.  "You can wait, Austin.  Step in here, sir. 

May I ask if you have met my husband before?"



"No, madam, I have not had the honor."



"Then I apologize to you in advance.  I must tell you that he is

a perfectly impossible person--absolutely impossible.  If you

are forewarned you will be the more ready to make allowances."



"It is most considerate of you, madam."



"Get quickly out of the room if he seems inclined to be violent. 

Don't wait to argue with him.  Several people have been injured

through doing that.  Afterwards there is a public scandal and it

reflects upon me and all of us.  I suppose it wasn't about South

America you wanted to see him?"



I could not lie to a lady.



"Dear me!  That is his most dangerous subject.  You won't believe

a word he says--I'm sure I don't wonder.  But don't tell him so,

for it makes him very violent.  Pretend to believe him, and you

may get through all right.  Remember he believes it himself. 

Of that you may be assured.  A more honest man never lived. 

Don't wait any longer or he may suspect.  If you find him

dangerous--really dangerous--ring the bell and hold him off until

I come.  Even at his worst I can usually control him."



With these encouraging words the lady handed me over to the

taciturn Austin, who had waited like a bronze statue of

discretion during our short interview, and I was conducted to the

end of the passage.  There was a tap at a door, a bull's bellow

from within, and I was face to face with the Professor.



He sat in a rotating chair behind a broad table, which was

covered with books, maps, and diagrams.  As I entered, his seat

spun round to face me.  His appearance made me gasp.  I was

prepared for something strange, but not for so overpowering a

personality as this.  It was his size which took one's breath

away--his size and his imposing presence.  His head was enormous,

the largest I have ever seen upon a human being.  I am sure that

his top-hat, had I ever ventured to don it, would have slipped

over me entirely and rested on my shoulders.  He had the face and

beard which I associate with an Assyrian bull; the former florid,

the latter so black as almost to have a suspicion of blue,

spade-shaped and rippling down over his chest.  The hair was

peculiar, plastered down in front in a long, curving wisp over

his massive forehead.  The eyes were blue-gray under great black

tufts, very clear, very critical, and very masterful.  A huge

spread of shoulders and a chest like a barrel were the other

parts of him which appeared above the table, save for two

enormous hands covered with long black hair.  This and a

bellowing, roaring, rumbling voice made up my first impression

of the notorious Professor Challenger.



"Well?" said he, with a most insolent stare.  "What now?"



I must keep up my deception for at least a little time longer,

otherwise here was evidently an end of the interview.



"You were good enough to give me an appointment, sir," said I,

humbly, producing his envelope.



He took my letter from his desk and laid it out before him.



"Oh, you are the young person who cannot understand plain

English, are you?  My general conclusions you are good enough

to approve, as I understand?"



"Entirely, sir--entirely!"  I was very emphatic.



"Dear me!  That strengthens my position very much, does it not? 

Your age and appearance make your support doubly valuable.  Well, at

least you are better than that herd of swine in Vienna, whose

gregarious grunt is, however, not more offensive than the isolated

effort of the British hog."  He glared at me as the present

representative of the beast.



"They seem to have behaved abominably," said I.



"I assure you that I can fight my own battles, and that I have no

possible need of your sympathy.  Put me alone, sir, and with my

back to the wall.  G. E. C. is happiest then.  Well, sir, let us

do what we can to curtail this visit, which can hardly be

agreeable to you, and is inexpressibly irksome to me.  You had,

as I have been led to believe, some comments to make upon the

proposition which I advanced in my thesis."



There was a brutal directness about his methods which made

evasion difficult.  I must still make play and wait for a

better opening.  It had seemed simple enough at a distance. 

Oh, my Irish wits, could they not help me now, when I needed

help so sorely?  He transfixed me with two sharp, steely eyes. 

"Come, come!" he rumbled.



"I am, of course, a mere student," said I, with a fatuous smile,

"hardly more, I might say, than an earnest inquirer.  At the same

time, it seemed to me that you were a little severe upon

Weissmann in this matter.  Has not the general evidence since

that date tended to--well, to strengthen his position?"



"What evidence?"  He spoke with a menacing calm.



"Well, of course, I am aware that there is not any what you might

call DEFINITE evidence.  I alluded merely to the trend of modern

thought and the general scientific point of view, if I might so

express it."



He leaned forward with great earnestness.



"I suppose you are aware," said he, checking off points upon his

fingers, "that the cranial index is a constant factor?"



"Naturally," said I.



"And that telegony is still sub judice?"



"Undoubtedly."



"And that the germ plasm is different from the parthenogenetic egg?"



"Why, surely!" I cried, and gloried in my own audacity.



"But what does that prove?" he asked, in a gentle, persuasive voice.



"Ah, what indeed?" I murmured.  "What does it prove?"



"Shall I tell you?" he cooed.



"Pray do."



"It proves," he roared, with a sudden blast of fury, "that

you are the damnedest imposter in London--a vile, crawling

journalist, who has no more science than he has decency in

his composition!"



He had sprung to his feet with a mad rage in his eyes.  Even at

that moment of tension I found time for amazement at the

discovery that he was quite a short man, his head not higher than

my shoulder--a stunted Hercules whose tremendous vitality had all

run to depth, breadth, and brain.



"Gibberish!" he cried, leaning forward, with his fingers on the

table and his face projecting.  "That's what I have been talking

to you, sir--scientific gibberish!  Did you think you could match

cunning with me--you with your walnut of a brain?  You think you

are omnipotent, you infernal scribblers, don't you?  That your

praise can make a man and your blame can break him?  We must all

bow to you, and try to get a favorable word, must we?  This man

shall have a leg up, and this man shall have a dressing down! 

Creeping vermin, I know you!  You've got out of your station. 

Time was when your ears were clipped.  You've lost your sense of

proportion.  Swollen gas-bags!  I'll keep you in your proper place. 

Yes, sir, you haven't got over G. E. C.  There's one man who is

still your master.  He warned you off, but if you WILL come, by

the Lord you do it at your own risk.  Forfeit, my good Mr. Malone,

I claim forfeit!  You have played a rather dangerous game, and it

strikes me that you have lost it."



"Look here, sir," said I, backing to the door and opening it;

"you can be as abusive as you like.  But there is a limit. 

You shall not assault me."



"Shall I not?"  He was slowly advancing in a peculiarly menacing

way, but he stopped now and put his big hands into the

side-pockets of a rather boyish short jacket which he wore. 

"I have thrown several of you out of the house.  You will be the

fourth or fifth.  Three pound fifteen each--that is how it averaged. 

Expensive, but very necessary.  Now, sir, why should you not

follow your brethren?  I rather think you must."  He resumed his

unpleasant and stealthy advance, pointing his toes as he walked,

like a dancing master.



I could have bolted for the hall door, but it would have been

too ignominious.  Besides, a little glow of righteous anger was

springing up within me.  I had been hopelessly in the wrong

before, but this man's menaces were putting me in the right.



"I'll trouble you to keep your hands off, sir.  I'll not stand it."



"Dear me!"  His black moustache lifted and a white fang twinkled

in a sneer.  "You won't stand it, eh?"



"Don't be such a fool, Professor!" I cried.  "What can you hope for? 

I'm fifteen stone, as hard as nails, and play center three-quarter

every Saturday for the London Irish.  I'm not the man----"



It was at that moment that he rushed me.  It was lucky that I had

opened the door, or we should have gone through it.  We did a

Catharine-wheel together down the passage.  Somehow we gathered

up a chair upon our way, and bounded on with it towards the street. 

My mouth was full of  his beard, our arms were locked, our bodies

intertwined, and that infernal chair radiated its legs all round us. 

The watchful Austin had thrown open the hall door.  We went with

a back somersault down the front steps.  I have seen the two Macs

attempt something of the kind at the halls, but it appears to take

some practise to do it without hurting oneself.  The chair went

to matchwood at the bottom, and we rolled apart into the gutter. 

He sprang to his feet, waving his fists and wheezing like an asthmatic.



"Had enough?" he panted.



"You infernal bully!" I cried, as I gathered myself together.



Then and there we should have tried the thing out, for he was

effervescing with fight, but fortunately I was rescued from an

odious situation.  A policeman was beside us, his notebook in

his hand.



"What's all this?  You ought to be ashamed" said the policeman. 

It was the most rational remark which I had heard in Enmore Park. 

"Well," he insisted, turning to me, "what is it, then?"



"This man attacked me," said I.



"Did you attack him?" asked the policeman.



The Professor breathed hard and said nothing.



"It's not the first time, either," said the policeman, severely,

shaking his head.  "You were in trouble last month for the same thing. 

You've blackened this young man's eye.  Do you give him in charge, sir?"



I relented.



"No," said I, "I do not."



"What's that?" said the policeman.



"I was to blame myself.  I intruded upon him.  He gave me fair warning."



The policeman snapped up his notebook.



"Don't let us have any more such goings-on," said he.  "Now, then! 

Move on, there, move on!"  This to a butcher's boy, a maid, and

one or two loafers who had collected.  He clumped heavily down

the street, driving this little flock before him.  The Professor

looked at me, and there was something humorous at the back of his eyes.



"Come in!" said he.  "I've not done with you yet."



The speech had a sinister sound, but I followed him none the less

into the house.  The man-servant, Austin, like a wooden image,

closed the door behind us.





                            CHAPTER IV



         "It's Just the very Biggest Thing in the World"



Hardly was it shut when Mrs. Challenger darted out from

the dining-room.  The small woman was in a furious temper. 

She barred her husband's way like an enraged chicken in front of

a bulldog.  It was evident that she had seen my exit, but had not

observed my return.



"You brute, George!" she screamed.  "You've hurt that nice young man."



He jerked backwards with his thumb.



"Here he is, safe and sound behind me."



She was confused, but not unduly so.



"I am so sorry, I didn't see you."



"I assure you, madam, that it is all right."



"He has marked your poor face!  Oh, George, what a brute you are! 

Nothing but scandals from one end of the week to the other. 

Everyone hating and making fun of you.  You've finished my patience. 

This ends it."



"Dirty linen," he rumbled.



"It's not a secret," she cried.  "Do you suppose that the whole

street--the whole of London, for that matter----  Get away, Austin,

we don't want you here.  Do you suppose they don't all talk about you?

Where is your dignity?  You, a man who should have been Regius

Professor at a great University with a thousand students all

revering you.  Where is your dignity, George?"



"How about yours, my dear?"



"You try me too much.  A ruffian--a common brawling ruffian--

that's what you have become."



"Be good, Jessie."



"A roaring, raging bully!"



"That's done it!  Stool of penance!" said he.



To my amazement he stooped, picked her up, and placed her sitting

upon a high pedestal of black marble in the angle of the hall. 

It was at least seven feet high, and so thin that she could hardly

balance upon it.  A more absurd object than she presented cocked

up there with her face convulsed with anger, her feet dangling,

and her body rigid for fear of an upset, I could not imagine.



"Let me down!" she wailed. 



"Say `please.'"



"You brute, George!  Let me down this instant!"



"Come into the study, Mr. Malone."



"Really, sir----!" said I, looking at the lady.



"Here's Mr. Malone pleading for you, Jessie.



Say `please,' and down you come."



"Oh, you brute!  Please! please!"



"You must behave yourself, dear.  Mr. Malone is a Pressman. 

He will have it all in his rag to-morrow, and sell an extra

dozen among our neighbors.  `Strange story of high life'--you

felt fairly high on that pedestal, did you not?  Then a sub-title,

`Glimpse of a singular menage.'  He's a foul feeder, is Mr. Malone,

a carrion eater, like all of his kind--porcus ex grege diaboli--

a swine from the devil's herd.  That's it, Malone--what?"



"You are really intolerable!" said I, hotly.



He bellowed with laughter.



"We shall have a coalition presently," he boomed, looking from

his wife to me and puffing out his enormous chest.  Then, suddenly

altering his tone, "Excuse this frivolous family badinage, Mr. Malone. 

I called you back for some more serious purpose than to mix you

up with our little domestic pleasantries.  Run away, little woman,

and don't fret."  He placed a huge hand upon each of her shoulders. 

"All that you say is perfectly true.  I should be a better man if

I did what you advise, but I shouldn't be quite George

Edward Challenger.  There are plenty of better men, my dear, but

only one G. E. C.  So make the best of him."  He suddenly gave her

a resounding kiss, which embarrassed me even more than his violence

had done.  "Now, Mr. Malone," he continued, with a great accession

of dignity, "this way, if YOU please."



We re-entered the room which we had left so tumultuously ten

minutes before.  The Professor closed the door carefully behind

us, motioned me into an arm-chair, and pushed a cigar-box under

my nose.



"Real San Juan Colorado," he said.  "Excitable people like you

are the better for narcotics.  Heavens! don't bite it!  Cut--and

cut with reverence!  Now lean back, and listen attentively to

whatever I may care to say to you.  If any remark should occur to

you, you can reserve it for some more opportune time.



"First of all, as to your return to my house after your most

justifiable expulsion"--he protruded his beard, and stared at me

as one who challenges and invites contradiction--"after, as I

say, your well-merited expulsion.  The reason lay in your answer

to that most officious policeman, in which I seemed to discern

some glimmering of good feeling upon your part--more, at any

rate, than I am accustomed to associate with your profession. 

In admitting that the fault of the incident lay with you, you gave

some evidence of a certain mental detachment and breadth of view

which attracted my favorable notice.  The sub-species of the

human race to which you unfortunately belong has always been

below my mental horizon.  Your words brought you suddenly above it. 

You swam up into my serious notice.  For this reason I asked you

to return with me, as I was minded to make your further acquaintance. 

You will kindly deposit your ash in the small Japanese tray on the

bamboo table which stands at your left elbow."



All this he boomed forth like a professor addressing his class. 

He had swung round his revolving chair so as to face me, and he

sat all puffed out like an enormous bull-frog, his head laid back

and his eyes half-covered by supercilious lids.  Now he suddenly

turned himself sideways, and all I could see of him was tangled

hair with a red, protruding ear.  He was scratching about among

the litter of papers upon his desk.  He faced me presently with

what looked like a very tattered sketch-book in his hand.



"I am going to talk to you about South America," said he. 

"No comments if you please.  First of all, I wish you to understand

that nothing I tell you now is to be repeated in any public way

unless you have my express permission.  That permission will, in

all human probability, never be given.  Is that clear?"



"It is very hard," said I. "Surely a judicious account----"



He replaced the notebook upon the table.



"That ends it," said he.  "I wish you a very good morning."



"No, no!" I cried.  "I submit to any conditions.  So far as I can

see, I have no choice."



"None in the world," said he.



"Well, then, I promise."



"Word of honor?"



"Word of honor."



He looked at me with doubt in his insolent eyes.



"After all, what do I know about your honor?" said he.



"Upon my word, sir," I cried, angrily, "you take very great liberties! 

I have never been so insulted in my life."



He seemed more interested than annoyed at my outbreak.



"Round-headed," he muttered.  "Brachycephalic, gray-eyed,

black-haired, with suggestion of the negroid.  Celtic, I presume?"



"I am an Irishman, sir."



"Irish Irish?"



"Yes, sir."



"That, of course, explains it.  Let me see; you have given me

your promise that my confidence will be respected?  That confidence,

I may say, will be far from complete.  But I am prepared to give

you a few indications which will be of interest.  In the first

place, you are probably aware that two years ago I made a journey

to South America--one which will be classical in the scientific

history of the world?  The object of my journey was to verify some

conclusions of Wallace and of Bates, which could only be done by

observing their reported facts under the same conditions in which

they had themselves noted them.  If my expedition had no other

results it would still have been noteworthy, but a curious incident

occurred to me while there which opened up an entirely fresh line

of inquiry.



"You are aware--or probably, in this half-educated age, you are

not aware--that the country round some parts of the Amazon is

still only partially explored, and that a great number of

tributaries, some of them entirely uncharted, run into the

main river.  It was my business to visit this little-known

back-country and to examine its fauna, which furnished me with

the materials for several chapters for that great and monumental

work upon zoology which will be my life's justification.  I was

returning, my work accomplished, when I had occasion to spend a

night at a small Indian village at a point where a certain

tributary--the name and position of which I withhold--opens

into the main river.  The natives were Cucama Indians, an amiable

but degraded race, with mental powers hardly superior to the

average Londoner.  I had effected some cures among them upon my

way up the river, and had impressed them considerably with my

personality, so that I was not surprised to find myself eagerly

awaited upon my return.  I gathered from their signs that someone

had urgent need of my medical services, and I followed the chief

to one of his huts.  When I entered I found that the sufferer to

whose aid I had been summoned had that instant expired.  He was,

to my surprise, no Indian, but a white man; indeed, I may say a

very white man, for he was flaxen-haired and had some

characteristics of an albino.  He was clad in rags, was very

emaciated, and bore every trace of prolonged hardship.  So far as

I could understand the account of the natives, he was a complete

stranger to them, and had come upon their village through the

woods alone and in the last stage of exhaustion.



"The man's knapsack lay beside the couch, and I examined the contents. 

His name was written upon a tab within it--Maple White, Lake

Avenue, Detroit, Michigan.  It is a name to which I am prepared

always to lift my hat.  It is not too much to say that it will

rank level with my own when the final credit of this business

comes to be apportioned.



"From the contents of the knapsack it was evident that this man

had been an artist and poet in search of effects.  There were

scraps of verse.  I do not profess to be a judge of such things,

but they appeared to me to be singularly wanting in merit. 

There were also some rather commonplace pictures of river scenery,

a paint-box, a box of colored chalks, some brushes, that curved

bone which lies upon my inkstand, a volume of Baxter's `Moths and

Butterflies,' a cheap revolver, and a few cartridges.  Of personal

equipment he either had none or he had lost it in his journey. 

Such were the total effects of this strange American Bohemian.



"I was turning away from him when I observed that something

projected from the front of his ragged jacket.  It was this

sketch-book, which was as dilapidated then as you see it now. 

Indeed, I can assure you that a first folio of Shakespeare could

not be treated with greater reverence than this relic has been

since it came into my possession.  I hand it to you now, and I

ask you to take it page by page and to examine the contents."



He helped himself to a cigar and leaned back with a fiercely

critical pair of eyes, taking note of the effect which this

document would produce.



I had opened the volume with some expectation of a revelation,

though of what nature I could not imagine.  The first page was

disappointing, however, as it contained nothing but the picture

of a very fat man in a pea-jacket, with the legend, "Jimmy Colver

on the Mail-boat," written beneath it.  There followed several pages

which were filled with small sketches of Indians and their ways. 

Then came a picture of a cheerful and corpulent ecclesiastic in

a shovel hat, sitting opposite a very thin European, and the

inscription:  "Lunch with Fra Cristofero at Rosario."  Studies of

women and babies accounted for several more pages, and then there

was an unbroken series of animal drawings with such explanations

as "Manatee upon Sandbank," "Turtles and Their Eggs," "Black Ajouti

under a Miriti Palm"--the matter disclosing some sort of pig-like

animal; and finally came a double page of studies of long-snouted

and very unpleasant saurians.  I could make nothing of it, and said

so to the Professor.



"Surely these are only crocodiles?"



"Alligators!  Alligators!  There is hardly such a thing as a true

crocodile in South America.  The distinction between them----"



"I meant that I could see nothing unusual--nothing to justify

what you have said."



He smiled serenely.



"Try the next page," said he.



I was still unable to sympathize.  It was a full-page sketch of a

landscape roughly tinted in color--the kind of painting which an

open-air artist takes as a guide to a future more elaborate effort. 

There was a pale-green foreground of feathery vegetation, which

sloped upwards and ended in a line of cliffs dark red in color, and

curiously ribbed like some basaltic formations which I have seen. 

They extended in an unbroken wall right across the background. 

At one point was an isolated pyramidal rock, crowned by a great

tree, which appeared to be separated by a cleft from the main crag. 

Behind it all, a blue tropical sky.  A thin green line of vegetation

fringed the summit of the ruddy cliff.



"Well?" he asked.



"It is no doubt a curious formation," said I "but I am not

geologist enough to say that it is wonderful."



"Wonderful!" he repeated.  "It is unique.  It is incredible.  No one

on earth has ever dreamed of such a possibility.  Now the next."



I turned it over, and gave an exclamation of surprise.  There was

a full-page picture of the most extraordinary creature that I had

ever seen.  It was the wild dream of an opium smoker, a vision

of delirium.  The head was like that of a fowl, the body that of

a bloated lizard, the trailing tail was furnished with upward-

turned spikes, and the curved back was edged with a high serrated

fringe, which looked like a dozen cocks' wattles placed behind

each other.  In front of this creature was an absurd mannikin,

or dwarf, in human form, who stood staring at it.



"Well, what do you think of that?" cried the Professor, rubbing

his hands with an air of triumph.



"It is monstrous--grotesque."



"But what made him draw such an animal?"



"Trade gin, I should think."



"Oh, that's the best explanation you can give, is it?"



"Well, sir, what is yours?"



"The obvious one that the creature exists.  That is actually

sketched from the life."



I should have laughed only that I had a vision of our doing

another Catharine-wheel down the passage.



"No doubt," said I, "no doubt," as one humors an imbecile. 

"I confess, however," I added, "that this tiny human figure

puzzles me.  If it were an Indian we could set it down as

evidence of some pigmy race in America, but it appears to be

a European in a sun-hat."



The Professor snorted like an angry buffalo.  "You really touch

the limit," said he.  "You enlarge my view of the possible. 

Cerebral paresis!  Mental inertia!  Wonderful!"



He was too absurd to make me angry.  Indeed, it was a waste of

energy, for if you were going to be angry with this man you would

be angry all the time.  I contented myself with smiling wearily.

"It struck me that the man was small," said I.



"Look here!" he cried, leaning forward and dabbing a great hairy

sausage of a finger on to the picture.  "You see that plant

behind the animal; I suppose you thought it was a dandelion or a

Brussels sprout--what?  Well, it is a vegetable ivory palm, and

they run to about fifty or sixty feet.  Don't you see that the man

is put in for a purpose?  He couldn't really have stood in front of

that brute and lived to draw it.  He sketched himself in to give a

scale of heights.  He was, we will say, over five feet high. 

The tree is ten times bigger, which is what one would expect."



"Good heavens!" I cried.  "Then you think the beast was---- Why,

Charing Cross station would hardly make a kennel for such a brute!"



"Apart from exaggeration, he is certainly a well-grown specimen,"

said the Professor, complacently.



"But," I cried, "surely the whole experience of the human race is

not to be set aside on account of a single sketch"--I had turned

over the leaves and ascertained that there was nothing more in

the book--"a single sketch by a wandering American artist who may

have done it under hashish, or in the delirium of fever, or

simply in order to gratify a freakish imagination.  You can't, as

a man of science, defend such a position as that."



For answer the Professor took a book down from a shelf.



"This is an excellent monograph by my gifted friend, Ray Lankester!"

said he.  "There is an illustration here which would interest you. 

Ah, yes, here it is!  The inscription beneath it runs:  `Probable

appearance in life of the Jurassic Dinosaur Stegosaurus.  The hind

leg alone is twice as tall as a full-grown man.'  Well, what do you

make of that?"



He handed me the open book.  I started as I looked at the picture. 

In this reconstructed animal of a dead world there was certainly

a very great resemblance to the sketch of the unknown artist.



"That is certainly remarkable," said I.



"But you won't admit that it is final?"



"Surely it might be a coincidence, or this American may have seen

a picture of the kind and carried it in his memory.  It would be

likely to recur to a man in a delirium."



"Very good," said the Professor, indulgently; "we leave it at that. 

I will now ask you to look at this bone." He handed over the one

which he had already described as part of the dead man's possessions. 

It was about six inches long, and thicker than my thumb, with some

indications of dried cartilage at one end of it.



"To what known creature does that bone belong?" asked the Professor.



I examined it with care and tried to recall some half-

forgotten knowledge.



"It might be a very thick human collar-bone," I said.



My companion waved his hand in contemptuous deprecation.



"The human collar-bone is curved.  This is straight.  There is a

groove upon its surface showing that a great tendon played across

it, which could not be the case with a clavicle."



"Then I must confess that I don't know what it is."



"You need not be ashamed to expose your ignorance, for I don't

suppose the whole South Kensington staff could give a name to it." 

He took a little bone the size of a bean out of a pill-box. 

"So far as I am a judge this human bone is the analogue of the

one which you hold in your hand.  That will give you some idea of

the size of the creature.  You will observe from the cartilage that

this is no fossil specimen, but recent.  What do you say to that?"



"Surely in an elephant----"



He winced as if in pain.



"Don't!  Don't talk of elephants in South America.  Even in these

days of Board schools----"



"Well, I interrupted, "any large South American animal--a tapir,

for example."



"You may take it, young man, that I am versed in the elements of

my business.  This is not a conceivable bone either of a tapir or

of any other creature known to zoology.  It belongs to a very

large, a very strong, and, by all analogy, a very fierce animal

which exists upon the face of the earth, but has not yet come

under the notice of science.  You are still unconvinced?"



"I am at least deeply interested."



"Then your case is not hopeless.  I feel that there is reason

lurking in you somewhere, so we will patiently grope round for it.

We will now leave the dead American and proceed with my narrative. 

You can imagine that I could hardly come away from the Amazon

without probing deeper into the matter.  There were indications

as to the direction from which the dead traveler had come. 

Indian legends would alone have been my guide, for I found that

rumors of a strange land were common among all the riverine tribes. 

You have heard, no doubt, of Curupuri?"



"Never."



"Curupuri is the spirit of the woods, something terrible,

something malevolent, something to be avoided.  None can describe

its shape or nature, but it is a word of terror along the Amazon. 

Now all tribes agree as to the direction in which Curupuri lives. 

It was the same direction from which the American had come. 

Something terrible lay that way.  It was my business to find out

what it was."



"What did you do?"  My flippancy was all gone.  This massive man

compelled one's attention and respect.



"I overcame the extreme reluctance of the natives--a reluctance

which extends even to talk upon the subject--and by judicious

persuasion and gifts, aided, I will admit, by some threats of

coercion, I got two of them to act as guides.  After many

adventures which I need not describe, and after traveling a

distance which I will not mention, in a direction which I

withhold, we came at last to a tract of country which has

never been described, nor, indeed, visited save by my

unfortunate predecessor.  Would you kindly look at this?"



He handed me a photograph--half-plate size.



"The unsatisfactory appearance of it is due to the fact," said he,

"that on descending the river the boat was upset and the case which

contained the undeveloped films was broken, with disastrous results. 

Nearly all of them were totally ruined--an irreparable loss. 

This is one of the few which partially escaped.  This explanation

of deficiencies or abnormalities you will kindly accept.  There was

talk of faking.  I am not in a mood to argue such a point."



The photograph was certainly very off-colored.  An unkind critic

might easily have misinterpreted that dim surface.  It was a dull

gray landscape, and as I gradually deciphered the details of it I

realized that it represented a long and enormously high line of

cliffs exactly like an immense cataract seen in the distance,

with a sloping, tree-clad plain in the foreground.



"I believe it is the same place as the painted picture," said I.



"It is the same place," the Professor answered.  "I found traces

of the fellow's camp.  Now look at this."



It was a nearer view of the same scene, though the photograph was

extremely defective.  I could distinctly see the isolated,

tree-crowned pinnacle of rock which was detached from the crag.



"I have no doubt of it at all," said I.



"Well, that is something gained," said he.  "We progress, do we not? 

Now, will you please look at the top of that rocky pinnacle? 

Do you observe something there?"



"An enormous tree."



"But on the tree?"



"A large bird," said I.



He handed me a lens.



"Yes," I said, peering through it, "a large bird stands on the tree. 

It appears to have a considerable beak.  I should say it was a pelican."



"I cannot congratulate you upon your eyesight," said the Professor. 

"It is not a pelican, nor, indeed, is it a bird.  It may interest

you to know that I succeeded in shooting that particular specimen. 

It was the only absolute proof of my experiences which I was able

to bring away with me."



"You have it, then?"  Here at last was tangible corroboration.



"I had it.  It was unfortunately lost with so much else in the

same boat accident which ruined my photographs.  I clutched at it

as it disappeared in the swirl of the rapids, and part of its

wing was left in my hand.  I was insensible when washed ashore,

but the miserable remnant of my superb specimen was still intact;

I now lay it before you."



From a drawer he produced what seemed to me to be the upper

portion of the wing of a large bat.  It was at least two feet in

length, a curved bone, with a membranous veil beneath it.



"A monstrous bat!" I suggested.



"Nothing of the sort," said the Professor, severely.  "Living, as

I do, in an educated and scientific atmosphere, I could not have

conceived that the first principles of zoology were so little known. 

Is it possible that you do not know the elementary fact in

comparative anatomy, that the wing of a bird is really the

forearm, while the wing of a bat consists of three elongated

fingers with membranes between?  Now, in this case, the bone is

certainly not the forearm, and you can see for yourself that this

is a single membrane hanging upon a single bone, and therefore

that it cannot belong to a bat.  But if it is neither bird nor

bat, what is it?"



My small stock of knowledge was exhausted.



"I really do not know," said I.



He opened the standard work to which he had already referred me.



"Here," said he, pointing to the picture of an extraordinary

flying monster, "is an excellent reproduction of the dimorphodon,

or pterodactyl, a flying reptile of the Jurassic period.  On the

next page is a diagram of the mechanism of its wing.  Kindly compare

it with the specimen in your hand."



A wave of amazement passed over me as I looked.  I was convinced. 

There could be no getting away from it.  The cumulative proof

was overwhelming.  The sketch, the photographs, the narrative, and

now the actual specimen--the evidence was complete.  I said so--I

said so warmly, for I felt that the Professor was an ill-used man. 

He leaned back in his chair with drooping eyelids and a tolerant

smile, basking in this sudden gleam of sunshine.



"It's just the very biggest thing that I ever heard of!" said I,

though it was my journalistic rather than my scientific

enthusiasm that was roused.  "It is colossal.  You are a Columbus

of science who has discovered a lost world.  I'm awfully sorry if

I seemed to doubt you.  It was all so unthinkable.  But I

understand evidence when I see it, and this should be good enough

for anyone."



The Professor purred with satisfaction. 



"And then, sir, what did you do next?"



"It was the wet season, Mr. Malone, and my stores were exhausted. 

I explored some portion of this huge cliff, but I was unable to

find any way to scale it.  The pyramidal rock upon which I saw

and shot the pterodactyl was more accessible.  Being something of

a cragsman, I did manage to get half way to the top of that. 

From that height I had a better idea of the plateau upon the top

of the crags.  It appeared to be very large; neither to east nor

to west could I see any end to the vista of green-capped cliffs. 

Below, it is a swampy, jungly region, full of snakes, insects,

and fever.  It is a natural protection to this singular country."



"Did you see any other trace of life?"



"No, sir, I did not; but during the week that we lay encamped at

the base of the cliff we heard some very strange noises from above."



"But the creature that the American drew?  How do you account

for that?"



"We can only suppose that he must have made his way to the summit

and seen it there.  We know, therefore, that there is a way up. 

We know equally that it must be a very difficult one, otherwise the

creatures would have come down and overrun the surrounding country. 

Surely that is clear?"



"But how did they come to be there?"



"I do not think that the problem is a very obscure one," said the

Professor; "there can only be one explanation.  South America is,

as you may have heard, a granite continent.  At this single point

in the interior there has been, in some far distant age, a great,

sudden volcanic upheaval.  These cliffs, I may remark, are

basaltic, and therefore plutonic.  An area, as large perhaps as

Sussex, has been lifted up en bloc with all its living contents,

and cut off by perpendicular precipices of a hardness which

defies erosion from all the rest of the continent.  What is

the result?  Why, the ordinary laws of Nature are suspended. 

The various checks which influence the struggle for existence in

the world at large are all neutralized or altered.  Creatures survive

which would otherwise disappear.  You will observe that both the

pterodactyl and the stegosaurus are Jurassic, and therefore of a

great age in the order of life.  They have been artificially

conserved by those strange accidental conditions."



"But surely your evidence is conclusive.  You have only to lay it

before the proper authorities."



"So in my simplicity, I had imagined," said the Professor, bitterly. 

"I can only tell you that it was not so, that I was met at every

turn by incredulity, born partly of stupidity and partly of jealousy. 

It is not my nature, sir, to cringe to any man, or to seek to prove

a fact if my word has been doubted.  After the first I have not

condescended to show such corroborative proofs as I possess. 

The subject became hateful to me--I would not speak of it. 

When men like yourself, who represent the foolish curiosity

of the public, came to disturb my privacy I was unable to meet

them with dignified reserve.  By nature I am, I admit, somewhat

fiery, and under provocation I am inclined to be violent.  I fear

you may have remarked it."



I nursed my eye and was silent.



"My wife has frequently remonstrated with me upon the subject,

and yet I fancy that any man of honor would feel the same. 

To-night, however, I propose to give an extreme example of the

control of the will over the emotions.  I invite you to be

present at the exhibition."  He handed me a card from his desk. 

"You will perceive that Mr. Percival Waldron, a naturalist of

some popular repute, is announced to lecture at eight-thirty at

the Zoological Institute's Hall upon `The Record of the Ages.' 

I have been specially invited to be present upon the platform, and

to move a vote of thanks to the lecturer.  While doing so, I

shall make it my business, with infinite tact and delicacy, to

throw out a few remarks which may arouse the interest of the

audience and cause some of them to desire to go more deeply into

the matter.  Nothing contentious, you understand, but only an

indication that there are greater deeps beyond.  I shall hold

myself strongly in leash, and see whether by this self-restraint

I attain a more favorable result."



"And I may come?" I asked eagerly.



"Why, surely," he answered, cordially.  He had an enormously

massive genial manner, which was almost as overpowering as

his violence.  His smile of benevolence was a wonderful thing,

when his cheeks would suddenly bunch into two red apples, between

his half-closed eyes and his great black beard.  "By all means, come. 

It will be a comfort to me to know that I have one ally in the

hall, however inefficient and ignorant of the subject he may be. 

I fancy there will be a large audience, for Waldron, though an

absolute charlatan, has a considerable popular following.  Now, Mr.

Malone, I have given you rather more of my time than I had intended. 

The individual must not monopolize what is meant for the world. 

I shall be pleased to see you at the lecture to-night.  In the

meantime, you will understand that no public use is to be made

of any of the material that I have given you."



"But Mr. McArdle--my news editor, you know--will want to know

what I have done."



"Tell him what you like.  You can say, among other things, that

if he sends anyone else to intrude upon me I shall call upon him

with a riding-whip.  But I leave it to you that nothing of all

this appears in print.  Very good.  Then the Zoological

Institute's Hall at eight-thirty to-night."  I had a last

impression of red cheeks, blue rippling beard, and intolerant

eyes, as he waved me out of the room.





                            CHAPTER V



                           "Question!"



What with the physical shocks incidental to my first interview

with Professor Challenger and the mental ones which accompanied

the second, I was a somewhat demoralized journalist by the time I

found myself in Enmore Park once more.  In my aching head the one

thought was throbbing that there really was truth in this man's

story, that it was of tremendous consequence, and that it would

work up into inconceivable copy for the Gazette when I could

obtain permission to use it.  A taxicab was waiting at the end of

the road, so I sprang into it and drove down to the office. 

McArdle was at his post as usual.



"Well," he cried, expectantly, "what may it run to?  I'm thinking,

young man, you have been in the wars.  Don't tell me that he

assaulted you."



"We had a little difference at first."



"What a man it is!  What did you do?"



"Well, he became more reasonable and we had a chat.  But I got

nothing out of him--nothing for publication."



"I'm not so sure about that.  You got a black eye out of him,

and that's for publication.  We can't have this reign of terror,

Mr. Malone.  We must bring the man to his bearings.  I'll have a

leaderette on him to-morrow that will raise a blister.  Just give

me the material and I will engage to brand the fellow for ever. 

Professor Munchausen--how's that for an inset headline?  Sir John

Mandeville redivivus--Cagliostro--all the imposters and bullies

in history.  I'll show him up for the fraud he is."



"I wouldn't do that, sir."



"Why not?"



"Because he is not a fraud at all."



"What!" roared McArdle.  "You don't mean to say you really

believe this stuff of his about mammoths and mastodons and great

sea sairpents?"



"Well, I don't know about that.  I don't think he makes any

claims of that kind.  But I do believe he has got something new."



"Then for Heaven's sake, man, write it up!"



"I'm longing to, but all I know he gave me in confidence and on

condition that I didn't."  I condensed into a few sentences the

Professor's narrative.  "That's how it stands."



McArdle looked deeply incredulous.



"Well, Mr. Malone," he said at last, "about this scientific

meeting to-night; there can be no privacy about that, anyhow. 

I don't suppose any paper will want to report it, for Waldron has

been reported already a dozen times, and no one is aware that

Challenger will speak.  We may get a scoop, if we are lucky. 

You'll be there in any case, so you'll just give us a pretty

full report.  I'll keep space up to midnight."



My day was a busy one, and I had an early dinner at the Savage

Club with Tarp Henry, to whom I gave some account of my adventures. 

He listened with a sceptical smile on his gaunt face, and roared

with laughter on hearing that the Professor had convinced me.



"My dear chap, things don't happen like that in real life. 

People don't stumble upon enormous discoveries and then lose

their evidence.  Leave that to the novelists.  The fellow is as

full of tricks as the monkey-house at the Zoo.  It's all bosh."



"But the American poet?"



"He never existed."



"I saw his sketch-book."



"Challenger's sketch-book."



"You think he drew that animal?"



"Of course he did.  Who else?"



"Well, then, the photographs?"



"There was nothing in the photographs.  By your own admission you

only saw a bird."



"A pterodactyl."



"That's what HE says.  He put the pterodactyl into your head."



"Well, then, the bones?"



"First one out of an Irish stew.  Second one vamped up for

the occasion.  If you are clever and know your business you

can fake a bone as easily as you can a photograph."



I began to feel uneasy.  Perhaps, after all, I had been premature

in my acquiescence.  Then I had a sudden happy thought.



"Will you come to the meeting?" I asked.



Tarp Henry looked thoughtful.



"He is not a popular person, the genial Challenger," said he. 

"A lot of people have accounts to settle with him.  I should say he

is about the best-hated man in London.  If the medical students

turn out there will be no end of a rag.  I don't want to get into

a bear-garden."



"You might at least do him the justice to hear him state his own case."



"Well, perhaps it's only fair.  All right.  I'm your man for

the evening."



When we arrived at the hall we found a much greater concourse

than I had expected.  A line of electric broughams discharged

their little cargoes of white-bearded professors, while the dark

stream of humbler pedestrians, who crowded through the arched

door-way, showed that the audience would be popular as well

as scientific.  Indeed, it became evident to us as soon as we had

taken our seats that a youthful and even boyish spirit was abroad

in the gallery and the back portions of the hall.  Looking behind

me, I could see rows of faces of the familiar medical student type. 

Apparently the great hospitals had each sent down their contingent. 

The behavior of the audience at present was good-humored,

but mischievous.  Scraps of popular songs were chorused with

an enthusiasm which was a strange prelude to a scientific lecture,

and there was already a tendency to personal chaff which promised

a jovial evening to others, however embarrassing it might be to

the recipients of these dubious honors.



Thus, when old Doctor Meldrum, with his well-known curly-brimmed

opera-hat, appeared upon the platform, there was such a universal

query of "Where DID you get that tile?" that he hurriedly removed

it, and concealed it furtively under his chair.  When gouty

Professor Wadley limped down to his seat there were general

affectionate inquiries from all parts of the hall as to the exact

state of his poor toe, which caused him obvious embarrassment. 

The greatest demonstration of all, however, was at the entrance

of my new acquaintance, Professor Challenger, when he passed down to

take his place at the extreme end of the front row of the platform. 

Such a yell of welcome broke forth when his black beard first

protruded round the corner that I began to suspect Tarp Henry

was right in his surmise, and that this assemblage was there not

merely for the sake of the lecture, but because it had got rumored

abroad that the famous Professor would take part in the proceedings.



There was some sympathetic laughter on his entrance among the

front benches of well-dressed spectators, as though the

demonstration of the students in this instance was not unwelcome

to them.  That greeting was, indeed, a frightful outburst of

sound, the uproar of the carnivora cage when the step of the

bucket-bearing keeper is heard in the distance.  There was an

offensive tone in it, perhaps, and yet in the main it struck me

as mere riotous outcry, the noisy reception of one who amused and

interested them, rather than of one they disliked or despised. 

Challenger smiled with weary and tolerant contempt, as a kindly

man would meet the yapping of a litter of puppies.  He sat slowly

down, blew out his chest, passed his hand caressingly down his

beard, and looked with drooping eyelids and supercilious eyes at

the crowded hall before him.  The uproar of his advent had not

yet died away when Professor Ronald Murray, the chairman, and Mr.

Waldron, the lecturer, threaded their way to the front, and the

proceedings began.



Professor Murray will, I am sure, excuse me if I say that he has

the common fault of most Englishmen of being inaudible.  Why on

earth people who have something to say which is worth hearing

should not take the slight trouble to learn how to make it heard

is one of the strange mysteries of modern life.  Their methods

are as reasonable as to try to pour some precious stuff from the

spring to the reservoir through a non-conducting pipe, which

could by the least effort be opened.  Professor Murray made

several profound remarks to his white tie and to the water-carafe

upon the table, with a humorous, twinkling aside to the silver

candlestick upon his right.  Then he sat down, and Mr. Waldron,

the famous popular lecturer, rose amid a general murmur of applause. 

He was a stern, gaunt man, with a harsh voice, and an aggressive

manner, but he had the merit of knowing how to assimilate the

ideas of other men, and to pass them on in a way which was

intelligible and even interesting to the lay public, with a

happy knack of being funny about the most unlikely objects,

so that the precession of the Equinox or the formation of a

vertebrate became a highly humorous process as treated by him.



It was a bird's-eye view of creation, as interpreted by science,

which, in language always clear and sometimes picturesque, he

unfolded before us.  He told us of the globe, a huge mass of

flaming gas, flaring through the heavens.  Then he pictured the

solidification, the cooling, the wrinkling which formed the

mountains, the steam which turned to water, the slow preparation

of the stage upon which was to be played the inexplicable drama

of life.  On the origin of life itself he was discreetly vague. 

That the germs of it could hardly have survived the original

roasting was, he declared, fairly certain.  Therefore it had

come later.  Had it built itself out of the cooling, inorganic

elements of the globe?  Very likely.  Had the germs of it arrived

from outside upon a meteor?  It was hardly conceivable.  On the

whole, the wisest man was the least dogmatic upon the point. 

We could not--or at least we had not succeeded up to date in

making organic life in our laboratories out of inorganic materials. 

The gulf between the dead and the living was something which our

chemistry could not as yet bridge.  But there was a higher and

subtler chemistry of Nature, which, working with great forces

over long epochs, might well produce results which were impossible

for us.  There the matter must be left.



This brought the lecturer to the great ladder of animal life,

beginning low down in molluscs and feeble sea creatures, then up

rung by rung through reptiles and fishes, till at last we came to

a kangaroo-rat, a creature which brought forth its young alive,

the direct ancestor of all mammals, and presumably, therefore, of

everyone in the audience.  ("No, no," from a sceptical student in

the back row.)  If the young gentleman in the red tie who cried

"No, no," and who presumably claimed to have been hatched out of

an egg, would wait upon him after the lecture, he would be glad

to see such a curiosity.  (Laughter.)  It was strange to think that

the climax of all the age-long process of Nature had been the creation

of that gentleman in the red tie.  But had the process stopped? 

Was this gentleman to be taken as the final type--the be-all and

end-all of development?  He hoped that he would not hurt the

feelings of the gentleman in the red tie if he maintained that,

whatever virtues that gentleman might possess in private life,

still the vast processes of the universe were not fully justified

if they were to end entirely in his production.  Evolution was

not a spent force, but one still working, and even greater

achievements were in store.



Having thus, amid a general titter, played very prettily with his

interrupter, the lecturer went back to his picture of the past,

the drying of the seas, the emergence of the sand-bank, the

sluggish, viscous life which lay upon their margins, the

overcrowded lagoons, the tendency of the sea creatures to take

refuge upon the mud-flats, the abundance of food awaiting them,

their consequent enormous growth.  "Hence, ladies and gentlemen,"

he added, "that frightful brood of saurians which still affright

our eyes when seen in the Wealden or in the Solenhofen slates,

but which were fortunately extinct long before the first

appearance of mankind upon this planet."



"Question!" boomed a voice from the platform.



Mr. Waldron was a strict disciplinarian with a gift of acid

humor, as exemplified upon the gentleman with the red tie, which

made it perilous to interrupt him.  But this interjection

appeared to him so absurd that he was at a loss how to deal

with it.  So looks the Shakespearean who is confronted by a

rancid Baconian, or the astronomer who is assailed by a flat-

earth fanatic.  He paused for a moment, and then, raising his

voice, repeated slowly the words:  "Which were extinct before

the coming of man."



"Question!" boomed the voice once more.



Waldron looked with amazement along the line of professors upon

the platform until his eyes fell upon the figure of Challenger,

who leaned back in his chair with closed eyes and an amused

expression, as if he were smiling in his sleep.



"I see!" said Waldron, with a shrug.  "It is my friend Professor

Challenger," and amid laughter he renewed his lecture as if this

was a final explanation and no more need be said.



But the incident was far from being closed.  Whatever path the

lecturer took amid the wilds of the past seemed invariably to

lead him to some assertion as to extinct or prehistoric life

which instantly brought the same bulls' bellow from the Professor. 

The audience began to anticipate it and to roar with delight when

it came.  The packed benches of students joined in, and every

time Challenger's beard opened, before any sound could come forth,

there was a yell of "Question!" from a hundred voices, and an

answering counter cry of "Order!" and "Shame!" from as many more. 

Waldron, though a hardened lecturer and a strong man, became rattled. 

He hesitated, stammered, repeated himself, got snarled in a long

sentence, and finally turned furiously upon the cause of his troubles.



"This is really intolerable!" he cried, glaring across the platform. 

"I must ask you, Professor Challenger, to cease these ignorant and

unmannerly interruptions."



There was a hush over the hall, the students rigid with delight

at seeing the high gods on Olympus quarrelling among themselves. 

Challenger levered his bulky figure slowly out of his chair.



"I must in turn ask you, Mr. Waldron," he said, "to cease to make

assertions which are not in strict accordance with scientific fact."



The words unloosed a tempest.  "Shame!  Shame!"  "Give him a

hearing!"  "Put him out!"  "Shove him off the platform!"  "Fair

play!" emerged from a general roar of amusement or execration. 

The chairman was on his feet flapping both his hands and

bleating excitedly.  "Professor Challenger--personal--views--

later," were the solid peaks above his clouds of inaudible mutter. 

The interrupter bowed, smiled, stroked his beard, and relapsed

into his chair.  Waldron, very flushed and warlike, continued

his observations.  Now and then, as he made an assertion, he shot

a venomous glance at his opponent, who seemed to be slumbering

deeply, with the same broad, happy smile upon his face.



At last the lecture came to an end--I am inclined to think

that it was a premature one, as the peroration was hurried

and disconnected.  The thread of the argument had been rudely

broken, and the audience was restless and expectant.  Waldron sat

down, and, after a chirrup from the chairman, Professor Challenger

rose and advanced to the edge of the platform.  In the interests

of my paper I took down his speech verbatim.



"Ladies and Gentlemen," he began, amid a sustained interruption

from the back.  "I beg pardon--Ladies, Gentlemen, and Children--I

must apologize, I had inadvertently omitted a considerable

section of this audience" (tumult, during which the Professor

stood with one hand raised and his enormous head nodding

sympathetically, as if he were bestowing a pontifical blessing

upon the crowd), "I have been selected to move a vote of thanks

to Mr. Waldron for the very picturesque and imaginative address

to which we have just listened.  There are points in it with

which I disagree, and it has been my duty to indicate them as

they arose, but, none the less, Mr. Waldron has accomplished his

object well, that object being to give a simple and interesting

account of what he conceives to have been the history of our planet. 

Popular lectures are the easiest to listen to, but Mr. Waldron"

(here he beamed and blinked at the lecturer) "will excuse me when

I say that they are necessarily both superficial and misleading,

since they have to be graded to the comprehension of an

ignorant audience."  (Ironical cheering.)  "Popular lecturers

are in their nature parasitic."  (Angry gesture of protest from

Mr. Waldron.)  "They exploit for fame or cash the work which has

been done by their indigent and unknown brethren.  One smallest

new fact obtained in the laboratory, one brick built into the

temple of science, far outweighs any second-hand exposition which

passes an idle hour, but can leave no useful result behind it. 

I put forward this obvious reflection, not out of any desire to

disparage Mr. Waldron in particular, but that you may not lose

your sense of proportion and mistake the acolyte for the high priest." 

(At this point Mr. Waldron whispered to the chairman, who half rose

and said something  severely to his water-carafe.)  "But enough

of this!"  (Loud and prolonged cheers.)  "Let me pass to some

subject of wider interest.  What is the particular point upon

which I, as an original investigator, have challenged our

lecturer's accuracy?  It is upon the permanence of certain types

of animal life upon the earth.  I do not speak upon this subject

as an amateur, nor, I may add, as a popular lecturer, but I speak

as one whose scientific conscience compels him to adhere closely

to facts, when I say that Mr. Waldron is very wrong in supposing

that because he has never himself seen a so-called prehistoric

animal, therefore these creatures no longer exist.  They are

indeed, as he has said, our ancestors, but they are, if I may use

the expression, our contemporary ancestors, who can still be

found with all their hideous and formidable characteristics if

one has but the energy and hardihood to seek their haunts. 

Creatures which were supposed to be Jurassic, monsters who would

hunt down and devour our largest and fiercest mammals, still exist." 

(Cries of "Bosh!" "Prove it!" "How do YOU know?" "Question!") 

"How do I know, you ask me? I know because I have visited their

secret haunts.  I know because I have seen some of them." 

(Applause, uproar, and a voice, "Liar!")  "Am I a liar?" 

(General hearty and noisy assent.)  "Did I hear someone say that I

was a liar?  Will the person who called me a liar kindly stand up

that I may know him?"  (A voice, "Here he is, sir!" and an

inoffensive little person in spectacles, struggling violently,

was held up among a group of students.)  "Did you venture to call

me a liar?"  ("No, sir, no!" shouted the accused, and disappeared

like a jack-in-the-box.)  "If any person in this hall dares to

doubt my veracity, I shall be glad to have a few words with him

after the lecture."  ("Liar!")  "Who said that?"  (Again the

inoffensive one plunging desperately, was elevated high into the air.) 

"If I come down among you----" (General chorus of "Come, love, come!"

which interrupted the proceedings for some moments, while the

chairman, standing up and waving both his arms, seemed to be

conducting the music.  The Professor, with his face flushed,

his nostrils dilated, and his beard bristling, was now in a

proper Berserk mood.)  "Every great discoverer has been met with

the same incredulity--the sure brand of a generation of fools. 

When great facts are laid before you, you have not the intuition,

the imagination which would help you to understand them.  You can

only throw mud at the men who have risked their lives to open new

fields to science.  You persecute the prophets!  Galileo!  Darwin,

and I----" (Prolonged cheering and complete interruption.)



All this is from my hurried notes taken at the time, which give

little notion of the absolute chaos to which the assembly had by

this time been reduced.  So terrific was the uproar that several

ladies had already beaten a hurried retreat.  Grave and reverend

seniors seemed to have caught the prevailing spirit as badly as

the students, and I saw white-bearded men rising and shaking

their fists at the obdurate Professor.  The whole great audience

seethed and simmered like a boiling pot.  The Professor took a

step forward and raised both his hands.  There was something so

big and arresting and virile in the man that the clatter and

shouting died gradually away before his commanding gesture and

his masterful eyes.  He seemed to have a definite message. 

They hushed to hear it.



"I will not detain you," he said.  "It is not worth it.  Truth is

truth, and the noise of a number of foolish young men--and, I

fear I must add, of their equally foolish seniors--cannot affect

the matter.  I claim that I have opened a new field of science. 

You dispute it."  (Cheers.)  "Then I put you to the test.  Will you

accredit one or more of your own number to go out as your

representatives and test my statement in your name?"



Mr. Summerlee, the veteran Professor of Comparative Anatomy, rose

among the audience, a tall, thin, bitter man, with the withered

aspect of a theologian.  He wished, he said, to ask Professor

Challenger whether the results to which he had alluded in his

remarks had been obtained during a journey to the headwaters of

the Amazon made by him two years before.



Professor Challenger answered that they had.



Mr. Summerlee desired to know how it was that Professor

Challenger claimed to have made discoveries in those regions

which had been overlooked by Wallace, Bates, and other previous

explorers of established scientific repute.



Professor Challenger answered that Mr. Summerlee appeared to be

confusing the Amazon with the Thames; that it was in reality a

somewhat larger river; that Mr. Summerlee might be interested to

know that with the Orinoco, which communicated with it, some

fifty thousand miles of country were opened up, and that in so

vast a space it was not impossible for one person to find what

another had missed.



Mr. Summerlee declared, with an acid smile, that he fully

appreciated the difference between the Thames and the Amazon,

which lay in the fact that any assertion about the former could be

tested, while about the latter it could not.  He would be obliged

if Professor Challenger would give the latitude and the longitude

of the country in which prehistoric animals were to be found.



Professor Challenger replied that he reserved such information

for good reasons of his own, but would be prepared to give it

with proper precautions to a committee chosen from the audience. 

Would Mr. Summerlee serve on such a committee and test his story

in person?



Mr. Summerlee:  "Yes, I will."  (Great cheering.)



Professor Challenger:  "Then I guarantee that I will place in

your hands such material as will enable you to find your way. 

It is only right, however, since Mr. Summerlee goes to check my

statement that I should have one or more with him who may check his. 

I will not disguise from you that there are difficulties and dangers. 

Mr. Summerlee will need a younger colleague.  May I ask for volunteers?"



It is thus that the great crisis of a man's life springs out at him. 

Could I have imagined when I entered that hall that I was about to

pledge myself to a wilder adventure than had ever come to me in

my dreams?  But Gladys--was it not the very opportunity of which

she spoke?  Gladys would have told me to go.  I had sprung to my feet. 

I was speaking, and yet I had prepared no words.  Tarp Henry, my

companion, was plucking at my skirts and I heard him whispering,

"Sit down, Malone! Don't make a public ass of yourself."  At the

same time I was aware that a tall, thin man, with dark gingery hair,

a few seats in front of me, was also upon his feet.  He glared back

at me with hard angry eyes, but I refused to give way.



"I will go, Mr. Chairman," I kept repeating over and over again.



"Name!  Name!" cried the audience.



"My name is Edward Dunn Malone.  I am the reporter of the Daily

Gazette.  I claim to be an absolutely unprejudiced witness."



"What is YOUR name, sir?" the chairman asked of my tall rival.



"I am Lord John Roxton.  I have already been up the Amazon,

I know all the ground, and have special qualifications for

this investigation."



"Lord John Roxton's reputation as a sportsman and a traveler is,

of course, world-famous," said the chairman; "at the same time it

would certainly be as well to have a member of the Press upon

such an expedition."



"Then I move," said Professor Challenger, "that both these

gentlemen be elected, as representatives of this meeting, to

accompany Professor Summerlee upon his journey to investigate and

to report upon the truth of my statements."



And so, amid shouting and cheering, our fate was decided, and I

found myself borne away in the human current which swirled

towards the door, with my mind half stunned by the vast new

project which had risen so suddenly before it.  As I emerged from

the hall I was conscious for a moment of a rush of laughing

students--down the pavement, and of an arm wielding a heavy

umbrella, which rose and fell in the midst of them.  Then, amid a

mixture of groans and cheers, Professor Challenger's electric

brougham slid from the curb, and I found myself walking under the

silvery lights of Regent Street, full of thoughts of Gladys and

of wonder as to my future.



Suddenly there was a touch at my elbow.  I turned, and found

myself looking into the humorous, masterful eyes of the tall, thin

man who had volunteered to be my companion on this strange quest.



"Mr. Malone, I understand," said he.  "We are to be

companions--what?  My rooms are just over the road, in the Albany. 

Perhaps you would have the kindness to spare me half an hour, for

there are one or two things that I badly want to say to you."





                            CHAPTER VI



                  "I was the Flail of the Lord"



Lord John Roxton and I turned down Vigo Street together and

through the dingy portals of the famous aristocratic rookery. 

At the end of a long drab passage my new acquaintance pushed open

a door and turned on an electric switch.  A number of lamps shining

through tinted shades bathed the whole great room before us in a

ruddy radiance.  Standing in the doorway and glancing round me, I

had a general impression of extraordinary comfort and elegance

combined with an atmosphere of masculine virility.  Everywhere there

were mingled the luxury of the wealthy man of taste and the

careless untidiness of the bachelor.  Rich furs and strange

iridescent mats from some Oriental bazaar were scattered upon

the floor.  Pictures and prints which even my unpractised eyes

could recognize as being of great price and rarity hung thick upon

the walls.  Sketches of boxers, of ballet-girls, and of racehorses

alternated with a sensuous Fragonard, a martial Girardet, and a

dreamy Turner.  But amid these varied ornaments there were

scattered the trophies which brought back strongly to my

recollection the fact that Lord John Roxton was one of the great

all-round sportsmen and athletes of his day.  A dark-blue oar

crossed with a cherry-pink one above his mantel-piece spoke of

the old Oxonian and Leander man, while the foils and

boxing-gloves above and below them were the tools of a man who

had won supremacy with each.  Like a dado round the room was the

jutting line of splendid heavy game-heads, the best of their sort

from every quarter of the world, with the rare white rhinoceros

of the Lado Enclave drooping its supercilious lip above them all.



In the center of the rich red carpet was a black and gold Louis

Quinze table, a lovely antique, now sacrilegiously desecrated

with marks of glasses and the scars of cigar-stumps.  On it stood

a silver tray of smokables and a burnished spirit-stand, from

which and an adjacent siphon my silent host proceeded to charge

two high glasses.  Having indicated an arm-chair to me and placed

my refreshment near it, he handed me a long, smooth Havana. 

Then, seating himself opposite to me, he looked at me long and

fixedly with his strange, twinkling, reckless eyes--eyes of a

cold light blue, the color of a glacier lake.



Through the thin haze of my cigar-smoke I noted the details of a

face which was already familiar to me from many photographs--the

strongly-curved nose, the hollow, worn cheeks, the dark, ruddy

hair, thin at the top, the crisp, virile moustaches, the small,

aggressive tuft upon his projecting chin.  Something there was of

Napoleon III., something of Don Quixote, and yet again something

which was the essence of the English country gentleman, the keen,

alert, open-air lover of dogs and of horses.  His skin was of a

rich flower-pot red from sun and wind.  His eyebrows were tufted

and overhanging, which gave those naturally cold eyes an almost

ferocious aspect, an impression which was increased by his strong

and furrowed brow.  In figure he was spare, but very strongly

built--indeed, he had often proved that there were few men in

England capable of such sustained exertions.  His height was a

little over six feet, but he seemed shorter on account of a

peculiar rounding of the shoulders.  Such was the famous Lord

John Roxton as he sat opposite to me, biting hard upon his cigar

and watching me steadily in a long and embarrassing silence.



"Well," said he, at last, "we've gone and done it, young fellah

my lad."  (This curious phrase he pronounced as if it were all one

word--"young-fellah-me-lad.")  "Yes, we've taken a jump, you an' me. 

I suppose, now, when you went into that room there was no such

notion in your head--what?"



"No thought of it."



"The same here.  No thought of it.  And here we are, up to our

necks in the tureen.  Why, I've only been back three weeks from

Uganda, and taken a place in Scotland, and signed the lease and all. 

Pretty goin's on--what?  How does it hit you?"



"Well, it is all in the main line of my business.  I am a

journalist on the Gazette."



"Of course--you said so when you took it on.  By the way, I've

got a small job for you, if you'll help me."



"With pleasure."



"Don't mind takin' a risk, do you?"



"What is the risk?"



"Well, it's Ballinger--he's the risk.  You've heard of him?"



"No."



"Why, young fellah, where HAVE you lived?  Sir John Ballinger

is the best gentleman jock in the north country.  I could hold

him on the flat at my best, but over jumps he's my master. 

Well, it's an open secret that when he's out of trainin' he drinks

hard--strikin' an average, he calls it.  He got delirium on

Toosday, and has been ragin' like a devil ever since.  His room

is above this.  The doctors say that it is all up with the old

dear unless some food is got into him, but as he lies in bed with

a revolver on his coverlet, and swears he will put six of the

best through anyone that comes near him, there's been a bit of a

strike among the serving-men.  He's a hard nail, is Jack, and a

dead shot, too, but you can't leave a Grand National winner to

die like that--what?"



"What do you mean to do, then?" I asked.



"Well, my idea was that you and I could rush him.  He may be

dozin', and at the worst he can only wing one of us, and the

other should have him.  If we can get his bolster-cover round his

arms and then 'phone up a stomach-pump, we'll give the old dear

the supper of his life."



It was a rather desperate business to come suddenly into one's

day's work.  I don't think that I am a particularly brave man. 

I have an Irish imagination which makes the unknown and the untried

more terrible than they are.  On the other hand, I was brought up

with a horror of cowardice and with a terror of such a stigma. 

I dare say that I could throw myself over a precipice, like the Hun

in the history books, if my courage to do it were questioned, and

yet it would surely be pride and fear, rather than courage, which

would be my inspiration.  Therefore, although every nerve in my

body shrank from the whisky-maddened figure which I pictured in

the room above, I still answered, in as careless a voice as I

could command, that I was ready to go.  Some further remark of

Lord Roxton's about the danger only made me irritable.



"Talking won't make it any better," said I. "Come on."



I rose from my chair and he from his.  Then with a little

confidential chuckle of laughter, he patted me two or three times

on the chest, finally pushing me back into my chair.



"All right, sonny my lad--you'll do," said he.  I looked up

in surprise.



"I saw after Jack Ballinger myself this mornin'.  He blew a hole

in the skirt of my kimono, bless his shaky old hand, but we got a

jacket on him, and he's to be all right in a week.  I say, young

fellah, I hope you don't mind--what?  You see, between you an' me

close-tiled, I look on this South American business as a mighty

serious thing, and if I have a pal with me I want a man I can

bank on.  So I sized you down, and I'm bound to say that you came

well out of it.  You see, it's all up to you and me, for this old

Summerlee man will want dry-nursin' from the first.  By the way,

are you by any chance the Malone who is expected to get his Rugby

cap for Ireland?"



"A reserve, perhaps."



"I thought I remembered your face.  Why, I was there when you got

that try against Richmond--as fine a swervin' run as I saw the

whole season.   I never miss a Rugby match if I can help it, for

it is the manliest game we have left.  Well, I didn't ask you in

here just to talk sport.  We've got to fix our business.  Here are

the sailin's, on the first page of the Times.  There's a Booth boat

for Para next Wednesday week, and if the Professor and you can work

it, I think we should take it--what?  Very good, I'll fix it with him. 

What about your outfit?"



"My paper will see to that."



"Can you shoot?"



"About average Territorial standard."



"Good Lord! as bad as that?  It's the last thing you young fellahs

think of learnin'.  You're all bees without stings, so far as

lookin' after the hive goes.  You'll look silly, some o' these

days, when someone comes along an' sneaks the honey.  But you'll

need to hold your gun straight in South America, for, unless our

friend the Professor is a madman or a liar, we may see some queer

things before we get back.  What gun have you?"



He crossed to an oaken cupboard, and as he threw it open I caught

a glimpse of glistening rows of parallel barrels, like the pipes

of an organ.



"I'll see what I can spare you out of my own battery," said he.



One by one he took out a succession of beautiful rifles, opening

and shutting them with a snap and a clang, and then patting them

as he put them back into the rack as tenderly as a mother would

fondle her children.



"This is a Bland's .577 axite express," said he.  "I got that big

fellow with it."  He glanced up at the white rhinoceros.  "Ten more

yards, and he'd would have added me to HIS collection.





         `On that conical bullet his one chance hangs,

         'Tis the weak one's advantage fair.'



Hope you know your Gordon, for he's the poet of the horse and

the gun and the man that handles both.  Now, here's a useful

tool--.470, telescopic sight, double ejector, point-blank up to

three-fifty.  That's the rifle I used against the Peruvian

slave-drivers three years ago.  I was the flail of the Lord up in

those parts, I may tell you, though you won't find it in any

Blue-book.  There are times, young fellah, when every one of us

must make a stand for human right and justice, or you never feel

clean again.  That's why I made a little war on my own.  Declared it

myself, waged it myself, ended it myself.  Each of those nicks

is for a slave murderer--a good row of them--what?  That big one

is for Pedro Lopez, the king of them all, that I killed in a

backwater of the Putomayo River.  Now, here's something that

would do for you."  He took out a beautiful brown-and-silver rifle. 

"Well rubbered at the stock, sharply sighted, five cartridges to

the clip.  You can trust your life to that."  He handed it to me

and closed the door of his oak cabinet.



"By the way," he continued, coming back to his chair, "what do

you know of this Professor Challenger?"



"I never saw him till to-day."



"Well, neither did I.  It's funny we should both sail under sealed

orders from a man we don't know.  He seemed an uppish old bird. 

His brothers of science don't seem too fond of him, either. 

How came you to take an interest in the affair?"



I told him shortly my experiences of the morning, and he

listened intently.  Then he drew out a map of South America

and laid it on the table.



"I believe every single word he said to you was the truth," said

he, earnestly, "and, mind you, I have something to go on when I

speak like that.  South America is a place I love, and I think,

if you take it right through from Darien to Fuego, it's the

grandest, richest, most wonderful bit of earth upon this planet. 

People don't know it yet, and don't realize what it may become. 

I've been up an' down it from end to end, and had two dry

seasons in those very parts, as I told you when I spoke of the

war I made on the slave-dealers.  Well, when I was up there I

heard some yarns of the same kind--traditions of Indians and the

like, but with somethin' behind them, no doubt.  The more you

knew of that country, young fellah, the more you would understand

that anythin' was possible--ANYTHIN'1.  There are just some narrow

water-lanes along which folk travel, and outside that it is

all darkness.  Now, down here in the Matto Grande"--he swept his

cigar over a part of the map--"or up in this corner where three

countries meet, nothin' would surprise me.  As that chap said

to-night, there are fifty-thousand miles of water-way runnin'

through a forest that is very near the size of Europe.  You and

I could be as far away from each other as Scotland is from

Constantinople, and yet each of us be in the same great Brazilian forest. 

Man has just made a track here and a scrape there in the maze. 

Why, the river rises and falls the best part of forty feet,

and half the country is a morass that you can't pass over. 

Why shouldn't somethin' new and wonderful lie in such a country? 

And why shouldn't we be the men to find it out?  Besides," he

added, his queer, gaunt face shining with delight, "there's a

sportin' risk in every mile of it.  I'm like an old golf-ball--

I've had all the white paint knocked off me long ago. 

Life can whack me about now, and it can't leave a mark.  But a

sportin' risk, young fellah, that's the salt of existence. 

Then it's worth livin' again.  We're all gettin' a deal too soft

and dull and comfy.  Give me the great waste lands and the wide

spaces, with a gun in my fist and somethin' to look for that's

worth findin'.  I've tried war and steeplechasin' and aeroplanes,

but this huntin' of beasts that look like a lobster-supper dream

is a brand-new sensation." He chuckled with glee at the prospect.



Perhaps I have dwelt too long upon this new acquaintance, but he

is to be my comrade for many a day, and so I have tried to set

him down as I first saw him, with his quaint personality and his

queer little tricks of speech and of thought.  It was only the

need of getting in the account of my meeting which drew me at

last from his company.  I left him seated amid his pink radiance,

oiling the lock of his favorite rifle, while he still chuckled to

himself at the thought of the adventures which awaited us.  It was

very clear to me that if dangers lay before us I could not in all

England have found a cooler head or a braver spirit with which to

share them.



That night, wearied as I was after the wonderful happenings of

the day, I sat late with McArdle, the news editor, explaining to

him the whole situation, which he thought important enough to

bring next morning before the notice of Sir George Beaumont,

the chief.  It was agreed that I should write home full accounts

of my adventures in the shape of successive letters to McArdle,

and that these should either be edited for the Gazette as they

arrived, or held back to be published later, according to the

wishes of Professor Challenger, since we could not yet know what

conditions he might attach to those directions which should guide

us to the unknown land.  In response to a telephone inquiry, we

received nothing more definite than a fulmination against the

Press, ending up with the remark that if we would notify our boat

he would hand us any directions which he might think it proper to

give us at the moment of starting.  A second question from us

failed to elicit any answer at all, save a plaintive bleat from

his wife to the effect that her husband was in a very violent

temper already, and that she hoped we would do nothing to make

it worse.  A third attempt, later in the day, provoked a terrific

crash, and a subsequent message from the Central Exchange that

Professor Challenger's receiver had been shattered.  After that

we abandoned all attempt at communication.



And now my patient readers, I can address you directly no longer. 

From now onwards (if, indeed, any continuation of this narrative

should ever reach you) it can only be through the paper which

I represent.  In the hands of the editor I leave this account

of the events which have led up to one of the most remarkable

expeditions of all time, so that if I never return to England

there shall be some record as to how the affair came about.  I am

writing these last lines in the saloon of the Booth liner

Francisca, and they will go back by the pilot to the keeping of

Mr. McArdle.  Let me draw one last picture before I close the

notebook--a picture which is the last memory of the old country

which I bear away with me.  It is a wet, foggy morning in the late

spring; a thin, cold rain is falling.  Three shining mackintoshed

figures are walking down the quay, making for the gang-plank of

the great liner from which the blue-peter is flying.  In front of

them a porter pushes a trolley piled high with trunks, wraps,

and gun-cases.  Professor Summerlee, a long, melancholy figure,

walks with dragging steps and drooping head, as one who is already

profoundly sorry for himself.  Lord John Roxton steps briskly,

and his thin, eager face beams forth between his hunting-cap and

his muffler.  As for myself, I am glad to have got the bustling

days of preparation and the pangs of leave-taking behind me, and

I have no doubt that I show it in my bearing.  Suddenly, just as

we reach the vessel, there is a shout behind us.  It is Professor

Challenger, who had promised to see us off.  He runs after us, a

puffing, red-faced, irascible figure.



"No thank you," says he; "I should much prefer not to go aboard. 

I have only a few words to say to you, and they can very well be

said where we are.  I beg you not to imagine that I am in any way

indebted to you for making this journey.  I would have you to

understand that it is a matter of perfect indifference to me, and

I refuse to entertain the most remote sense of personal obligation. 

Truth is truth, and nothing which you can report can affect it in

any way, though it may excite the emotions and allay the curiosity

of a number of very ineffectual people.  My directions for your

instruction and guidance are in this sealed envelope.  You will

open it when you reach a town upon the Amazon which is called

Manaos, but not until the date and hour which is marked upon

the outside.  Have I made myself clear?  I leave the strict

observance of my conditions entirely to your honor.  No, Mr. Malone,

I will place no restriction upon your correspondence, since

the ventilation of the facts is the object of your journey; but

I demand that you shall give no particulars as to your exact

destination, and that nothing be actually published until your return. 

Good-bye, sir.  You have done something to mitigate my feelings

for the loathsome profession to which you unhappily belong. 

Good-bye, Lord John.  Science is, as I understand, a sealed book

to you; but you may congratulate yourself upon the hunting-field

which awaits you.  You will, no doubt, have the opportunity of

describing in the Field how you brought down the rocketing dimorphodon. 

And good-bye to you also, Professor Summerlee.  If you are still

capable of self-improvement, of which I am frankly unconvinced,

you will surely return to London a wiser man."



So he turned upon his heel, and a minute later from the deck I

could see his short, squat figure bobbing about in the distance

as he made his way back to his train.  Well, we are well down

Channel now.  There's the last bell for letters, and it's

good-bye to the pilot.  We'll be "down, hull-down, on the old

trail" from now on.  God bless all we leave behind us, and send

us safely back.





                           CHAPTER VII



            "To-morrow we Disappear into the Unknown"



I will not bore those whom this narrative may reach by an account

of our luxurious voyage upon the Booth liner, nor will I tell of

our week's stay at Para (save that I should wish to acknowledge

the great kindness of the Pereira da Pinta Company in helping us

to get together our equipment).  I will also allude very briefly

to our river journey, up a wide, slow-moving, clay-tinted stream,

in a steamer which was little smaller than that which had carried

us across the Atlantic.  Eventually we found ourselves through

the narrows of Obidos and reached the town of Manaos.  Here we

were rescued from the limited attractions of the local inn by

Mr. Shortman, the representative of the British and Brazilian

Trading Company.  In his hospital Fazenda we spent our time until

the day when we were empowered to open the letter of instructions

given to us by Professor Challenger.  Before I reach the surprising

events of that date I would desire to give a clearer sketch of my

comrades in this enterprise, and of the associates whom we had

already gathered together in South America.  I speak freely, and

I leave the use of my material to your own discretion, Mr.

McArdle, since it is through your hands that this report must

pass before it reaches the world.



The scientific attainments of Professor Summerlee are too well

known for me to trouble to recapitulate them.  He is better

equipped for a rough expedition of this sort than one would

imagine at first sight.  His tall, gaunt, stringy figure is

insensible to fatigue, and his dry, half-sarcastic, and often

wholly unsympathetic manner is uninfluenced by any change in

his surroundings.  Though in his sixty-sixth year, I have never

heard him express any dissatisfaction at the occasional hardships

which we have had to encounter.  I had regarded his presence as an

encumbrance to the expedition, but, as a matter of fact, I am now

well convinced that his power of endurance is as great as my own. 

In temper he is naturally acid and sceptical.  From the beginning

he has never concealed his belief that Professor Challenger is

an absolute fraud, that we are all embarked upon an absurd

wild-goose chase and that we are likely to reap nothing but

disappointment and danger in South America, and corresponding

ridicule in England.  Such are the views which, with much

passionate distortion of his thin features and wagging of his

thin, goat-like beard, he poured into our ears all the way from

Southampton to Manaos.  Since landing from the boat he has

obtained some consolation from the beauty and variety of the

insect and bird life around him, for he is absolutely

whole-hearted in his devotion to science.  He spends his days

flitting through the woods with his shot-gun and his

butterfly-net, and his evenings in mounting the many specimens

he has acquired.  Among his minor peculiarities are that he is

careless as to his attire, unclean in his person, exceedingly

absent-minded in his habits, and addicted to smoking a short

briar pipe, which is seldom out of his mouth.  He has been upon

several scientific expeditions in his youth (he was with

Robertson in Papua), and the life of the camp and the canoe is

nothing fresh to him.



Lord John Roxton has some points in common with Professor

Summerlee, and others in which they are the very antithesis to

each other.  He is twenty years younger, but has something of the

same spare, scraggy physique.  As to his appearance, I have, as I

recollect, described it in that portion of my narrative which I

have left behind me in London.  He is exceedingly neat and prim

in his ways, dresses always with great care in white drill suits

and high brown mosquito-boots, and shaves at least once a day. 

Like most men of action, he is laconic in speech, and sinks

readily into his own thoughts, but he is always quick to answer a

question or join in a conversation, talking in a queer, jerky,

half-humorous fashion.  His knowledge of the world, and very

especially of South America, is surprising, and he has a

whole-hearted belief in the possibilities of our journey which is

not to be dashed by the sneers of Professor Summerlee.  He has a

gentle voice and a quiet manner, but behind his twinkling blue

eyes there lurks a capacity for furious wrath and implacable

resolution, the more dangerous because they are held in leash. 

He spoke little of his own exploits in Brazil and Peru, but it

was a revelation to me to find the excitement which was caused by

his presence among the riverine natives, who looked upon him as

their champion and protector.  The exploits of the Red Chief, as

they called him, had become legends among them, but the real

facts, as far as I could learn them, were amazing enough.



These were that Lord John had found himself some years before in

that no-man's-land which is formed by the half-defined frontiers

between Peru, Brazil, and Columbia.  In this great district the

wild rubber tree flourishes, and has become, as in the Congo, a

curse to the natives which can only be compared to their forced

labor under the Spaniards upon the old silver mines of Darien. 

A handful of villainous half-breeds dominated the country, armed

such Indians as would support them, and turned the rest into

slaves, terrorizing them with the most inhuman tortures in order

to force them to gather the india-rubber, which was then floated

down the river to Para.  Lord John Roxton expostulated on behalf

of the wretched victims, and received nothing but threats and

insults for his pains.  He then formally declared war against

Pedro Lopez, the leader of the slave-drivers, enrolled a band of

runaway slaves in his service, armed them, and conducted a

campaign, which ended by his killing with his own hands the

notorious half-breed and breaking down the system which he represented.



No wonder that the ginger-headed man with the silky voice and the

free and easy manners was now looked upon with deep interest upon

the banks of the great South American river, though the feelings

he inspired were naturally mixed, since the gratitude of the

natives was equaled by the resentment of those who desired to

exploit them.  One useful result of his former experiences was

that he could talk fluently in the Lingoa Geral, which is the

peculiar talk, one-third Portuguese and two-thirds Indian, which

is current all over Brazil.



I have said before that Lord John Roxton was a South Americomaniac. 

He could not speak of that great country without ardor, and this

ardor was infectious, for, ignorant as I was, he fixed my

attention and stimulated my curiosity.  How I wish I could

reproduce the glamour of his discourses, the peculiar mixture

of accurate knowledge and of racy imagination which gave them

their fascination, until even the Professor's cynical and

sceptical smile would gradually vanish from his thin face as

he listened.  He would tell the history of the mighty river so

rapidly explored (for some of the first conquerors of Peru

actually crossed the entire continent upon its waters), and yet

so unknown in regard to all that lay behind its ever-changing banks.



"What is there?" he would cry, pointing to the north.  "Wood and

marsh and unpenetrated jungle.  Who knows what it may shelter? 

And there to the south?  A wilderness of swampy forest, where

no white man has ever been.  The unknown is up against us on

every side.  Outside the narrow lines of the rivers what does

anyone know?  Who will say what is possible in such a country? 

Why should old man Challenger not be right?"  At which direct

defiance the stubborn sneer would reappear upon Professor

Summerlee's face, and he would sit, shaking his sardonic head

in unsympathetic silence, behind the cloud of his briar-root pipe.





So much, for the moment, for my two white companions, whose

characters and limitations will be further exposed, as surely as

my own, as this narrative proceeds.  But already we have enrolled

certain retainers who may play no small part in what is to come. 

The first is a gigantic negro named Zambo, who is a black

Hercules, as willing as any horse, and about as intelligent. 

Him we enlisted at Para, on the recommendation of the steamship

company, on whose vessels he had learned to speak a halting English.



It was at Para also that we engaged Gomez and Manuel, two

half-breeds from up the river, just come down with a cargo

of redwood.  They were swarthy fellows, bearded and fierce,

as active and wiry as panthers.  Both of them had spent their

lives in those upper waters of the Amazon which we were about

to explore, and it was this recommendation which had caused Lord

John to engage them.  One of them, Gomez, had the further

advantage that he could speak excellent English.  These men were

willing to act as our personal servants, to cook, to row, or to

make themselves useful in any way at a payment of fifteen dollars

a month.  Besides these, we had engaged three Mojo Indians from

Bolivia, who are the most skilful at fishing and boat work of all

the river tribes.  The chief of these we called Mojo, after his

tribe, and the others are known as Jose and Fernando.  Three white

men, then, two half-breeds, one negro, and three Indians made up

the personnel of the little expedition which lay waiting for its

instructions at Manaos before starting upon its singular quest.



At last, after a weary week, the day had come and the hour. 

I ask you to picture the shaded sitting-room of the Fazenda St.

Ignatio, two miles inland from the town of Manaos.  Outside lay

the yellow, brassy glare of the sunshine, with the shadows of the

palm trees as black and definite as the trees themselves.  The air

was calm, full of the eternal hum of insects, a tropical chorus

of many octaves, from the deep drone of the bee to the high,

keen pipe of the mosquito.  Beyond the veranda was a small

cleared garden, bounded with cactus hedges and adorned with

clumps of flowering shrubs, round which the great blue butterflies

and the tiny humming-birds fluttered and darted in crescents of

sparkling light.  Within we were seated round the cane table,

on which lay a sealed envelope.  Inscribed upon it, in the jagged

handwriting of Professor Challenger, were the words:--





"Instructions to Lord John Roxton and party.  To be opened at

Manaos upon July 15th, at 12 o'clock precisely."





Lord John had placed his watch upon the table beside him.



"We have seven more minutes," said he.  "The old dear is very precise."



Professor Summerlee gave an acid smile as he picked up the

envelope in his gaunt hand.



"What can it possibly matter whether we open it now or in seven

minutes?" said he.  "It is all part and parcel of the same system

of quackery and nonsense, for which I regret to say that the

writer is notorious."



"Oh, come, we must play the game accordin' to rules," said Lord John. 

"It's old man Challenger's show and we are here by his good will,

so it would be rotten bad form if we didn't follow his instructions

to the letter."



"A pretty business it is!" cried the Professor, bitterly. 

"It struck me as preposterous in London, but I'm bound to say

that it seems even more so upon closer acquaintance.  I don't

know what is inside this envelope, but, unless it is something

pretty definite, I shall be much tempted to take the next down-

river boat and catch the Bolivia at Para.  After all, I have

some more responsible work in the world than to run about

disproving the assertions of a lunatic.  Now, Roxton, surely

it is time."



"Time it is," said Lord John.  "You can blow the whistle." 

He took up the envelope and cut it with his penknife.  From it

he drew a folded sheet of paper.  This he carefully opened out

and flattened on the table.  It was a blank sheet.  He turned

it over.  Again it was blank.  We looked at each other in a

bewildered silence, which was broken by a discordant burst of

derisive laughter from Professor Summerlee.



"It is an open admission," he cried.  "What more do you want? 

The fellow is a self-confessed humbug.  We have only to return

home and report him as the brazen imposter that he is."



"Invisible ink!" I suggested.



"I don't think!" said Lord Roxton, holding the paper to the light. 

"No, young fellah my lad, there is no use deceiving yourself. 

I'll go bail for it that nothing has ever been written upon

this paper."



"May I come in?" boomed a voice from the veranda.



The shadow of a squat figure had stolen across the patch of sunlight. 

That voice!  That monstrous breadth of shoulder!  We sprang to our

feet with a gasp of astonishment as Challenger, in a round, boyish

straw-hat with a colored ribbon--Challenger, with his hands in his

jacket-pockets and his canvas shoes daintily pointing as he walked--

appeared in the open space before us.  He threw back his head, and

there he stood in the golden glow with all his old Assyrian

luxuriance of beard, all his native insolence of drooping eyelids

and intolerant eyes.



"I fear," said he, taking out his watch, "that I am a few minutes

too late.  When I gave you this envelope I must confess that I

had never intended that you should open it, for it had been my

fixed intention to be with you before the hour.  The unfortunate

delay can be apportioned between a blundering pilot and an

intrusive sandbank.  I fear that it has given my colleague,

Professor Summerlee, occasion to blaspheme."



"I am bound to say, sir," said Lord John, with some sternness of

voice, "that your turning up is a considerable relief to us, for

our mission seemed to have come to a premature end.  Even now I

can't for the life of me understand why you should have worked it

in so extraordinary a manner."



Instead of answering, Professor Challenger entered, shook hands

with myself and Lord John, bowed with ponderous insolence to

Professor Summerlee, and sank back into a basket-chair, which

creaked and swayed beneath his weight.



"Is all ready for your journey?" he asked.



"We can start to-morrow."



"Then so you shall.  You need no chart of directions now, since

you will have the inestimable advantage of my own guidance. 

From the first I had determined that I would myself preside over

your investigation.  The most elaborate charts would, as you

will readily admit, be a poor substitute for my own intelligence

and advice.  As to the small ruse which I played upon you in the

matter of the envelope, it is clear that, had I told you all my

intentions, I should have been forced to resist unwelcome

pressure to travel out with you."



"Not from me, sir!" exclaimed Professor Summerlee, heartily. 

"So long as there was another ship upon the Atlantic."



Challenger waved him away with his great hairy hand.



"Your common sense will, I am sure, sustain my objection and

realize that it was better that I should direct my own movements

and appear only at the exact moment when my presence was needed. 

That moment has now arrived.  You are in safe hands.  You will

not now fail to reach your destination.  From henceforth I take

command of this expedition, and I must ask you to complete your

preparations to-night, so that we may be able to make an early

start in the morning.  My time is of value, and the same thing

may be said, no doubt, in a lesser degree of your own.  I propose,

therefore, that we push on as rapidly as possible, until I have

demonstrated what you have come to see."



Lord John Roxton has chartered a large steam launch, the Esmeralda,

which was to carry us up the river.  So far as climate goes, it

was immaterial what time we chose for our expedition, as the

temperature ranges from seventy-five to ninety degrees both

summer and winter, with no appreciable difference in heat. 

In moisture, however, it is otherwise; from December to May is

the period of the rains, and during this time the river slowly

rises until it attains a height of nearly forty feet above its

low-water mark.  It floods the banks, extends in great lagoons

over a monstrous waste of country, and forms a huge district,

called locally the Gapo, which is for the most part too marshy

for foot-travel and too shallow for boating.  About June the

waters begin to fall, and are at their lowest at October

or November.  Thus our expedition was at the time of the dry

season, when the great river and its tributaries were more or

less in a normal condition.



The current of the river is a slight one, the drop being not

greater than eight inches in a mile.  No stream could be more

convenient for navigation, since the prevailing wind is

south-east, and sailing boats may make a continuous progress to

the Peruvian frontier, dropping down again with the current. 

In our own case the excellent engines of the Esmeralda could

disregard the sluggish flow of the stream, and we made as rapid

progress as if we were navigating a stagnant lake.  For three

days we steamed north-westwards up a stream which even here, a

thousand miles from its mouth, was still so enormous that from

its center the two banks were mere shadows upon the distant skyline. 

On the fourth day after leaving Manaos we turned into a tributary

which at its mouth was little smaller than the main stream. 

It narrowed rapidly, however, and after two more days' steaming

we reached an Indian village, where the Professor insisted that

we should land, and that the Esmeralda should be sent back to Manaos. 

We should soon come upon rapids, he explained, which would make its

further use impossible.  He added privately that we were now

approaching the door of the unknown country, and that the fewer

whom we took into our confidence the better it would be.  To this

end also he made each of us give our word of honor that we would

publish or say nothing which would give any exact clue as to the

whereabouts of our travels, while the servants were all solemnly

sworn to the same effect.  It is for this reason that I am

compelled to be vague in my narrative, and I would warn my readers

that in any map or diagram which I may give the relation of places

to each other may be correct, but the points of the compass are

carefully confused, so that in no way can it be taken as an actual

guide to the country.  Professor Challenger's reasons for secrecy

may be valid or not, but we had no choice but to adopt them,

for he was prepared to abandon the whole expedition rather than

modify the conditions upon which he would guide us.



It was August 2nd when we snapped our last link with the outer

world by bidding farewell to the Esmeralda.  Since then four days

have passed, during which we have engaged two large canoes from

the Indians, made of so light a material (skins over a bamboo

framework) that we should be able to carry them round any obstacle. 

These we have loaded with all our effects, and have engaged two

additional Indians to help us in the navigation.  I understand

that they are the very two--Ataca and Ipetu by name--who

accompanied Professor Challenger upon his previous journey. 

They appeared to be terrified at the prospect of repeating it,

but the chief has patriarchal powers in these countries, and

if the bargain is good in his eyes the clansman has little

choice in the matter.



So to-morrow we disappear into the unknown.  This account I am

transmitting down the river by canoe, and it may be our last word

to those who are interested in our fate.  I have, according to

our arrangement, addressed it to you, my dear Mr. McArdle, and I

leave it to your discretion to delete, alter, or do what you like

with it.  From the assurance of Professor Challenger's manner--and

in spite of the continued scepticism of Professor Summerlee--I

have no doubt that our leader will make good his statement, and

that we are really on the eve of some most remarkable experiences.





                           CHAPTER VIII



             "The Outlying Pickets of the New World"



Our friends at home may well rejoice with us, for we are at our

goal, and up to a point, at least, we have shown that the

statement of Professor Challenger can be verified.  We have not,

it is true, ascended the plateau, but it lies before us, and even

Professor Summerlee is in a more chastened mood.  Not that he

will for an instant admit that his rival could be right, but he

is less persistent in his incessant objections, and has sunk for

the most part into an observant silence.  I must hark back,

however, and continue my narrative from where I dropped it. 

We are sending home one of our local Indians who is injured,

and I am committing this letter to his charge, with considerable

doubts in my mind as to whether it will ever come to hand.



When I wrote last we were about to leave the Indian village where

we had been deposited by the Esmeralda.  I have to begin my

report by bad news, for the first serious personal trouble

(I pass over the incessant bickerings between the Professors)

occurred this evening, and might have had a tragic ending. 

I have spoken of our English-speaking half-breed, Gomez--a fine

worker and a willing fellow, but afflicted, I fancy, with the

vice of curiosity, which is common enough among such men.  On the

last evening he seems to have hid himself near the hut in which

we were discussing our plans, and, being observed by our huge

negro Zambo, who is as faithful as a dog and has the hatred which

all his race bear to the half-breeds, he was dragged out and

carried into our presence.  Gomez whipped out his knife, however,

and but for the huge strength of his captor, which enabled him to

disarm him with one hand, he would certainly have stabbed him. 

The matter has ended in reprimands, the opponents have been

compelled to shake hands, and there is every hope that all will

be well.  As to the feuds of the two learned men, they are

continuous and bitter.  It must be admitted that Challenger is

provocative in the last degree, but Summerlee has an acid tongue,

which makes matters worse.  Last night Challenger said that he

never cared to walk on the Thames Embankment and look up the river,

as it was always sad to see one's own eventual goal.  He is

convinced, of course, that he is destined for Westminster Abbey. 

Summerlee rejoined, however, with a sour smile, by saying

that he understood that Millbank Prison had been pulled down. 

Challenger's conceit is too colossal to allow him to be

really annoyed.  He only smiled in his beard and repeated

"Really!  Really!" in the pitying tone one would use to a child. 

Indeed, they are children both--the one wizened and cantankerous,

the other formidable and overbearing, yet each with a brain which

has put him in the front rank of his scientific age.  Brain, character,

soul--only as one sees more of life does one understand how distinct

is each.



The very next day we did actually make our start upon this

remarkable expedition.  We found that all our possessions fitted

very easily into the two canoes, and we divided our personnel,

six in each, taking the obvious precaution in the interests of

peace of putting one Professor into each canoe.  Personally, I

was with Challenger, who was in a beatific humor, moving about as

one in a silent ecstasy and beaming benevolence from every feature. 

I have had some experience of him in other moods, however, and

shall be the less surprised when the thunderstorms suddenly

come up amidst the sunshine.  If it is impossible to be at your

ease, it is equally impossible to be dull in his company, for one

is always in a state of half-tremulous doubt as to what sudden

turn his formidable temper may take.



For two days we made our way up a good-sized river some hundreds

of yards broad, and dark in color, but transparent, so that one

could usually see the bottom.  The affluents of the Amazon are,

half of them, of this nature, while the other half are whitish

and opaque, the difference depending upon the class of country

through which they have flowed.  The dark indicate vegetable

decay, while the others point to clayey soil.  Twice we came

across rapids, and in each case made a portage of half a mile or

so to avoid them.  The woods on either side were primeval, which

are more easily penetrated than woods of the second growth, and

we had no great difficulty in carrying our canoes through them. 

How shall I ever forget the solemn mystery of it?  The height of

the trees and the thickness of the boles exceeded anything which

I in my town-bred life could have imagined, shooting upwards in

magnificent columns until, at an enormous distance above our

heads, we could dimly discern the spot where they threw out their

side-branches into Gothic upward curves which coalesced to form

one great matted roof of verdure, through which only an

occasional golden ray of sunshine shot downwards to trace a thin

dazzling line of light amidst the majestic obscurity.  As we

walked noiselessly amid the thick, soft carpet of decaying

vegetation the hush fell upon our souls which comes upon us in

the twilight of the Abbey, and even Professor Challenger's

full-chested notes sank into a whisper.  Alone, I should have

been ignorant of the names of these giant growths, but our men of

science pointed out the cedars, the great silk cotton trees, and

the redwood trees, with all that profusion of various plants

which has made this continent the chief supplier to the human

race of those gifts of Nature which depend upon the vegetable

world, while it is the most backward in those products which come

from animal life.  Vivid orchids and wonderful colored lichens

smoldered upon the swarthy tree-trunks and where a wandering

shaft of light fell full upon the golden allamanda, the scarlet

star-clusters of the tacsonia, or the rich deep blue of ipomaea,

the effect was as a dream of fairyland.  In these great wastes of

forest, life, which abhors darkness, struggles ever upwards to

the light.  Every plant, even the smaller ones, curls and writhes

to the green surface, twining itself round its stronger and

taller brethren in the effort.  Climbing plants are monstrous and

luxuriant, but others which have never been known to climb

elsewhere learn the art as an escape from that somber shadow, so

that the common nettle, the jasmine, and even the jacitara palm

tree can be seen circling the stems of the cedars and striving to

reach their crowns.  Of animal life there was no movement amid

the majestic vaulted aisles which stretched from us as we walked,

but a constant movement far above our heads told of that

multitudinous world of snake and monkey, bird and sloth, which

lived in the sunshine, and looked down in wonder at our tiny, dark,

stumbling figures in the obscure depths immeasurably below them. 

At dawn and at sunset the howler monkeys screamed together and

the parrakeets broke into shrill chatter, but during the hot

hours of the day only the full drone of insects, like the beat of

a distant surf, filled the ear, while nothing moved amid the

solemn vistas of stupendous trunks, fading away into the darkness

which held us in.  Once some bandy-legged, lurching creature, an

ant-eater or a bear, scuttled clumsily amid the shadows.  It was the

only sign of earth life which I saw in this great Amazonian forest.



And yet there were indications that even human life itself was

not far from us in those mysterious recesses.  On the third day

out we were aware of a singular deep throbbing in the air,

rhythmic and solemn, coming and going fitfully throughout

the morning.  The two boats were paddling within a few yards

of each other when first we heard it, and our Indians remained

motionless, as if they had been turned to bronze, listening

intently with expressions of terror upon their faces.



"What is it, then?" I asked.



"Drums," said Lord John, carelessly; "war drums.  I have heard

them before."



"Yes, sir, war drums," said Gomez, the half-breed.  "Wild Indians,

bravos, not mansos; they watch us every mile of the way; kill us

if they can."



"How can they watch us?" I asked, gazing into the dark,

motionless void.



The half-breed shrugged his broad shoulders.



"The Indians know.  They have their own way.  They watch us. 

They talk the drum talk to each other.  Kill us if they can."



By the afternoon of that day--my pocket diary shows me that it

was Tuesday, August 18th--at least six or seven drums were

throbbing from various points.  Sometimes they beat quickly,

sometimes slowly, sometimes in obvious question and answer, one

far to the east breaking out in a high staccato rattle, and being

followed after a pause by a deep roll from the north.  There was

something indescribably nerve-shaking and menacing in that

constant mutter, which seemed to shape itself into the very

syllables of the half-breed, endlessly repeated, "We will kill

you if we can.  We will kill you if we can."  No one ever moved in

the silent woods.  All the peace and soothing of quiet Nature lay

in that dark curtain of vegetation, but away from behind there

came ever the one message from our fellow-man.  "We will kill you

if we can," said the men in the east.  "We will kill you if we

can," said the men in the north.



All day the drums rumbled and whispered, while their menace

reflected itself in the faces of our colored companions.  Even the

hardy, swaggering half-breed seemed cowed.  I learned, however,

that day once for all that both Summerlee and Challenger

possessed that highest type of bravery, the bravery of the

scientific mind.  Theirs was the spirit which upheld Darwin among

the gauchos of the Argentine or Wallace among the head-hunters

of Malaya.  It is decreed by a merciful Nature that the human brain

cannot think of two things simultaneously, so that if it be

steeped in curiosity as to science it has no room for merely

personal considerations.  All day amid that incessant and

mysterious menace our two Professors watched every bird upon the

wing, and every shrub upon the bank, with many a sharp wordy

contention, when the snarl of Summerlee came quick upon the deep

growl of Challenger, but with no more sense of danger and no more

reference to drum-beating Indians than if they were seated

together in the smoking-room of the Royal Society's Club in St.

James's Street.  Once only did they condescend to discuss them.



"Miranha or Amajuaca cannibals," said Challenger, jerking his

thumb towards the reverberating wood.



"No doubt, sir," Summerlee answered.  "Like all such tribes, I

shall expect to find them of poly-synthetic speech and of

Mongolian type."



"Polysynthetic certainly," said Challenger, indulgently.  "I am

not aware that any other type of language exists in this continent,

and I have notes of more than a hundred.  The Mongolian theory

I regard with deep suspicion."



"I should have thought that even a limited knowledge of

comparative anatomy would have helped to verify it," said

Summerlee, bitterly.



Challenger thrust out his aggressive chin until he was all beard

and hat-rim.  "No doubt, sir, a limited knowledge would have

that effect.  When one's knowledge is exhaustive, one comes to

other conclusions."  They glared at each other in mutual defiance,

while all round rose the distant whisper, "We will kill you--we

will kill you if we can."



That night we moored our canoes with heavy stones for anchors in

the center of the stream, and made every preparation for a

possible attack.  Nothing came, however, and with the dawn we

pushed upon our way, the drum-beating dying out behind us. 

About three o'clock in the afternoon we came to a very steep rapid,

more than a mile long--the very one in which Professor Challenger

had suffered disaster upon his first journey.  I confess that the

sight of it consoled me, for it was really the first direct

corroboration, slight as it was, of the truth of his story. 

The Indians carried first our canoes and then our stores through

the brushwood, which is very thick at this point, while we four

whites, our rifles on our shoulders, walked between them and any

danger coming from the woods.  Before evening we had successfully

passed the rapids, and made our way some ten miles above them,

where we anchored for the night.  At this point I reckoned that

we had come not less than a hundred miles up the tributary from

the main stream.



It was in the early forenoon of the next day that we made the

great departure.  Since dawn Professor Challenger had been

acutely uneasy, continually scanning each bank of the river. 

Suddenly he gave an exclamation of satisfaction and pointed to a

single tree, which projected at a peculiar angle over the side of

the stream.



"What do you make of that?" he asked.



"It is surely an Assai palm," said Summerlee.



"Exactly.  It was an Assai palm which I took for my landmark. 

The secret opening is half a mile onwards upon the other side of

the river.  There is no break in the trees.  That is the wonder

and the mystery of it.  There where you see light-green rushes

instead of dark-green undergrowth, there between the great cotton

woods, that is my private gate into the unknown.  Push through,

and you will understand."



It was indeed a wonderful place.  Having reached the spot marked

by a line of light-green rushes, we poled out two canoes through

them for some hundreds of yards, and eventually emerged into a

placid and shallow stream, running clear and transparent over a

sandy bottom.  It may have been twenty yards across, and was

banked in on each side by most luxuriant vegetation.  No one who

had not observed that for a short distance reeds had taken the

place of shrubs, could possibly have guessed the existence of

such a stream or dreamed of the fairyland beyond.



For a fairyland it was--the most wonderful that the imagination

of man could conceive.  The thick vegetation met overhead,

interlacing into a natural pergola, and through this tunnel of

verdure in a golden twilight flowed the green, pellucid river,

beautiful in itself, but marvelous from the strange tints thrown

by the vivid light from above filtered and tempered in its fall. 

Clear as crystal, motionless as a sheet of glass, green as the

edge of an iceberg, it stretched in front of us under its leafy

archway, every stroke of our paddles sending a thousand ripples

across its shining surface.  It was a fitting avenue to a land

of wonders.  All sign of the Indians had passed away, but animal

life was more frequent, and the tameness of the creatures showed

that they knew nothing of the hunter.  Fuzzy little black-velvet

monkeys, with snow-white teeth and gleaming, mocking eyes,

chattered at us as we passed.  With a dull, heavy splash an

occasional cayman plunged in from the bank.  Once a dark, clumsy

tapir stared at us from a gap in the bushes, and then lumbered

away through the forest; once, too, the yellow, sinuous form of a

great puma whisked amid the brushwood, and its green, baleful

eyes glared hatred at us over its tawny shoulder.  Bird life was

abundant, especially the wading birds, stork, heron, and ibis

gathering in little groups, blue, scarlet, and white, upon every

log which jutted from the bank, while beneath us the crystal

water was alive with fish of every shape and color.



For three days we made our way up this tunnel of hazy

green sunshine.  On the longer stretches one could hardly

tell as one looked ahead where the distant green water ended

and the distant green archway began.  The deep peace of this

strange waterway was unbroken by any sign of man.



"No Indian here.  Too much afraid.  Curupuri," said Gomez.



"Curupuri is the spirit of the woods," Lord John explained. 

"It's a name for any kind of devil.  The poor beggars think that

there is something fearsome in this direction, and therefore they

avoid it."



On the third day it became evident that our journey in the canoes

could not last much longer, for the stream was rapidly growing

more shallow.  Twice in as many hours we stuck upon the bottom. 

Finally we pulled the boats up among the brushwood and spent the

night on the bank of the river.  In the morning Lord John and I

made our way for a couple of miles through the forest, keeping

parallel with the stream; but as it grew ever shallower we

returned and reported, what Professor Challenger had already

suspected, that we had reached the highest point to which the

canoes could be brought.  We drew them up, therefore, and

concealed them among the bushes, blazing a tree with our axes, so

that we should find them again.  Then we distributed the various

burdens among us--guns, ammunition, food, a tent, blankets, and

the rest--and, shouldering our packages, we set forth upon the

more laborious stage of our journey.



An unfortunate quarrel between our pepper-pots marked the outset

of our new stage.  Challenger had from the moment of joining us

issued directions to the whole party, much to the evident

discontent of Summerlee.  Now, upon his assigning some duty to

his fellow-Professor (it was only the carrying of an aneroid

barometer), the matter suddenly came to a head.



"May I ask, sir," said Summerlee, with vicious calm, "in what

capacity you take it upon yourself to issue these orders?"



Challenger glared and bristled.



"I do it, Professor Summerlee, as leader of this expedition."



"I am compelled to tell you, sir, that I do not recognize you in

that capacity."



"Indeed!" Challenger bowed with unwieldy sarcasm.  "Perhaps you

would define my exact position."



"Yes, sir.  You are a man whose veracity is upon trial, and this

committee is here to try it.  You walk, sir, with your judges."



"Dear me!" said Challenger, seating himself on the side of one of

the canoes.  "In that case you will, of course, go on your way,

and I will follow at my leisure.  If I am not the leader you

cannot expect me to lead."



Thank heaven that there were two sane men--Lord John Roxton

and myself--to prevent the petulance and folly of our learned

Professors from sending us back empty-handed to London. 

Such arguing and pleading and explaining before we could get

them mollified!  Then at last Summerlee, with his sneer and his

pipe, would move forwards, and Challenger would come rolling and

grumbling after.  By some good fortune we discovered about this

time that both our savants had the very poorest opinion of Dr.

Illingworth of Edinburgh.  Thenceforward that was our one safety,

and every strained situation was relieved by our introducing the

name of the Scotch zoologist, when both our Professors would form

a temporary alliance and friendship in their detestation and

abuse of this common rival.



Advancing in single file along the bank of the stream, we soon

found that it narrowed down to a mere brook, and finally that it

lost itself in a great green morass of sponge-like mosses, into

which we sank up to our knees.  The place was horribly haunted

by clouds of mosquitoes and every form of flying pest, so we were

glad to find solid ground again and to make a circuit among the

trees, which enabled us to outflank this pestilent morass, which

droned like an organ in the distance, so loud was it with insect life.



On the second day after leaving our canoes we found that the

whole character of the country changed.  Our road was

persistently upwards, and as we ascended the woods became

thinner and lost their tropical luxuriance.  The huge trees of

the alluvial Amazonian plain gave place to the Phoenix and coco

palms, growing in scattered clumps, with thick brushwood between. 

In the damper hollows the Mauritia palms threw out their graceful

drooping fronds.  We traveled entirely by compass, and once or

twice there were differences of opinion between Challenger and

the two Indians, when, to quote the Professor's indignant words,

the whole party agreed to "trust the fallacious instincts of

undeveloped savages rather than the highest product of modern

European culture."  That we were justified in doing so was shown

upon the third day, when Challenger admitted that he recognized

several landmarks of his former journey, and in one spot we

actually came upon four fire-blackened stones, which must have

marked a camping-place.



The road still ascended, and we crossed a rock-studded slope

which took two days to traverse.  The vegetation had again

changed, and only the vegetable ivory tree remained, with a

great profusion of wonderful orchids, among which I learned to

recognize the rare Nuttonia Vexillaria and the glorious pink and

scarlet blossoms of Cattleya and odontoglossum.  Occasional brooks

with pebbly bottoms and fern-draped banks gurgled down the shallow

gorges in the hill, and offered good camping-grounds every evening

on the banks of some rock-studded pool, where swarms of little

blue-backed fish, about the size and shape of English trout,

gave us a delicious supper.



On the ninth day after leaving the canoes, having done, as I

reckon, about a hundred and twenty miles, we began to emerge from

the trees, which had grown smaller until they were mere shrubs. 

Their place was taken by an immense wilderness of bamboo, which

grew so thickly that we could only penetrate it by cutting a

pathway with the machetes and billhooks of the Indians.  It took

us a long day, traveling from seven in the morning till eight at

night, with only two breaks of one hour each, to get through

this obstacle.  Anything more monotonous and wearying could not be

imagined, for, even at the most open places, I could not see more

than ten or twelve yards, while usually my vision was limited to

the back of Lord John's cotton jacket in front of me, and to the

yellow wall within a foot of me on either side.  From above came

one thin knife-edge of sunshine, and fifteen feet over our heads

one saw the tops of the reeds swaying against the deep blue sky. 

I do not know what kind of creatures inhabit such a thicket, but

several times we heard the plunging of large, heavy animals quite

close to us.  From their sounds Lord John judged them to be some

form of wild cattle.  Just as night fell we cleared the belt of

bamboos, and at once formed our camp, exhausted by the

interminable day.



Early next morning we were again afoot, and found that the

character of the country had changed once again.  Behind us was

the wall of bamboo, as definite as if it marked the course of

a river.  In front was an open plain, sloping slightly upwards

and dotted with clumps of tree-ferns, the whole curving before

us until it ended in a long, whale-backed ridge.  This we reached

about midday, only to find a shallow valley beyond, rising once

again into a gentle incline which led to a low, rounded sky-line. 

It was here, while we crossed the first of these hills, that an

incident occurred which may or may not have been important.



Professor Challenger, who with the two local Indians was in the van

of the party, stopped suddenly and pointed excitedly to the right. 

As he did so we saw, at the distance of a mile or so, something

which appeared to be a huge gray bird flap slowly up from the

ground and skim smoothly off, flying very low and straight, until

it was lost among the tree-ferns.



"Did you see it?" cried Challenger, in exultation.  "Summerlee, did

you see it?"



His colleague was staring at the spot where the creature had disappeared.



"What do you claim that it was?" he asked.



"To the best of my belief, a pterodactyl."



Summerlee burst into derisive laughter "A pter-fiddlestick!" said he. 

"It was a stork, if ever I saw one."



Challenger was too furious to speak.  He simply swung his pack

upon his back and continued upon his march.  Lord John came abreast

of me, however, and his face was more grave than was his wont. 

He had his Zeiss glasses in his hand.



"I focused it before it got over the trees," said he. "I won't

undertake to say what it was, but I'll risk my reputation as a

sportsman that it wasn't any bird that ever I clapped eyes on in

my life."



So there the matter stands.  Are we really just at the edge of

the unknown, encountering the outlying pickets of this lost world

of which our leader speaks?  I give you the incident as it

occurred and you will know as much as I do.  It stands alone, for

we saw nothing more which could be called remarkable.



And now, my readers, if ever I have any, I have brought you up

the broad river, and through the screen of rushes, and down the

green tunnel, and up the long slope of palm trees, and through

the bamboo brake, and across the plain of tree-ferns.  At last

our destination lay in full sight of us.  When we had crossed

the second ridge we saw before us an irregular, palm-studded

plain, and then the line of high red cliffs which I have seen

in the picture.  There it lies, even as I write, and there can

be no question that it is the same.  At the nearest point it is

about seven miles from our present camp, and it curves away,

stretching as far as I can see.  Challenger struts about like

a prize peacock, and Summerlee is silent, but still sceptical. 

Another day should bring some of our doubts to an end. 

Meanwhile, as Jose, whose arm was pierced by a broken bamboo,

insists upon returning, I send this letter back in his charge,

and only hope that it may eventually come to hand.  I will write

again as the occasion serves.  I have enclosed with this a rough

chart of our journey, which may have the effect of making the

account rather easier to understand.





                            CHAPTER IX



                  "Who could have Foreseen it?"



A dreadful thing has happened to us.  Who could have foreseen it? 

I cannot foresee any end to our troubles.  It may be that we are

condemned to spend our whole lives in this strange, inaccessible place. 

I am still so confused that I can hardly think clearly of the facts

of the present or of the chances of the future.  To my astounded

senses the one seems most terrible and the other as black as night.



No men have ever found themselves in a worse position; nor is

there any use in disclosing to you our exact geographical

situation and asking our friends for a relief party.  Even if

they could send one, our fate will in all human probability be

decided long before it could arrive in South America.



We are, in truth, as far from any human aid as if we were in

the moon.  If we are to win through, it is only our own qualities

which can save us.  I have as companions three remarkable men, men

of great brain-power and of unshaken courage.  There lies our one

and only hope.  It is only when I look upon the untroubled faces

of my comrades that I see some glimmer through the darkness. 

Outwardly I trust that I appear as unconcerned as they.  Inwardly I

am filled with apprehension.



Let me give you, with as much detail as I can, the sequence of

events which have led us to this catastrophe.



When I finished my last letter I stated that we were within seven

miles from an enormous line of ruddy cliffs, which encircled,

beyond all doubt, the plateau of which Professor Challenger spoke. 

Their height, as we approached them, seemed to me in some places

to be greater than he had stated--running up in parts to at least

a thousand feet--and they were curiously striated, in a manner

which is, I believe, characteristic of basaltic upheavals. 

Something of the sort is to be seen in Salisbury Crags at Edinburgh. 

The summit showed every sign of a luxuriant vegetation, with bushes

near the edge, and farther back many high trees.  There was no

indication of any life that we could see.



That night we pitched our camp immediately under the cliff--a

most wild and desolate spot.  The crags above us were not merely

perpendicular, but curved outwards at the top, so that ascent was

out of the question.  Close to us was the high thin pinnacle of

rock which I believe I mentioned earlier in this narrative.  It is

like a broad red church spire, the top of it being level with the

plateau, but a great chasm gaping between.  On the summit of it

there grew one high tree.  Both pinnacle and cliff were

comparatively low--some five or six hundred feet, I should think.



"It was on that," said Professor Challenger, pointing to this

tree, "that the pterodactyl was perched.  I climbed half-way up

the rock before I shot him.  I am inclined to think that a good

mountaineer like myself could ascend the rock to the top, though

he would, of course, be no nearer to the plateau when he had done so."



As Challenger spoke of his pterodactyl I glanced at Professor

Summerlee, and for the first time I seemed to see some signs of a

dawning credulity and repentance.  There was no sneer upon his

thin lips, but, on the contrary, a gray, drawn look of excitement

and amazement.  Challenger saw it, too, and reveled in the first

taste of victory.



"Of course," said he,  with his clumsy and ponderous sarcasm,

"Professor Summerlee will understand that when I speak of a

pterodactyl I mean a stork--only it is the kind of stork which

has no feathers, a leathery skin, membranous wings, and teeth in

its jaws."  He grinned and blinked and bowed until his colleague

turned and walked away.



In the morning, after a frugal breakfast of coffee and manioc--we

had to be economical of our stores--we held a council of war as

to the best method of ascending to the plateau above us.



Challenger presided with a solemnity as if he were the Lord Chief

Justice on the Bench.  Picture him seated upon a rock, his absurd

boyish straw hat tilted on the back of his head, his supercilious

eyes dominating us from under his drooping lids, his great black

beard wagging as he slowly defined our present situation and our

future movements.



Beneath him you might have seen the three of us--myself,

sunburnt, young, and vigorous after our open-air tramp;

Summerlee, solemn but still critical, behind his eternal pipe;

Lord John, as keen as a razor-edge, with his supple, alert figure

leaning upon his rifle, and his eager eyes fixed eagerly upon

the speaker.  Behind us were grouped the two swarthy half-breeds

and the little knot of Indians, while in front and above us towered

those huge, ruddy ribs of rocks which kept us from our goal.



"I need not say," said our leader, "that on the occasion of my

last visit I exhausted every means of climbing the cliff, and

where I failed I do not think that anyone else is likely to

succeed, for I am something of a mountaineer.  I had none of the

appliances of a rock-climber with me, but I have taken the

precaution to bring them now.  With their aid I am positive I

could climb that detached pinnacle to the summit; but so long as

the main cliff overhangs, it is vain to attempt ascending that. 

I was hurried upon my last visit by the approach of the rainy

season and by the exhaustion of my supplies.  These considerations

limited my time, and I can only claim that I have surveyed about

six miles of the cliff to the east of us, finding no possible

way up.  What, then, shall we now do?"



"There seems to be only one reasonable course," said Professor Summerlee. 

"If you have explored the east, we should travel along the base of the

cliff to the west, and seek for a practicable point for our ascent."



"That's it," said Lord John.  "The odds are that this plateau is of

no great size, and we shall travel round it until we either find an

easy way up it, or come back to the point from which we started."



"I have already explained to our young friend here," said

Challenger (he has a way of alluding to me as if I were a school

child ten years old), "that it is quite impossible that there

should be an easy way up anywhere, for the simple reason that if

there were the summit would not be isolated, and those conditions

would not obtain which have effected so singular an interference

with the general laws of survival.  Yet I admit that there may

very well be places where an expert human climber may reach the

summit, and yet a cumbrous and heavy animal be unable to descend. 

It is certain that there is a point where an ascent is possible."



"How do you know that, sir?" asked Summerlee, sharply.



"Because my predecessor, the American Maple White, actually made

such an ascent.  How otherwise could he have seen the monster

which he sketched in his notebook?"



"There you reason somewhat ahead of the proved facts," said the

stubborn Summerlee.  "I admit your plateau, because I have seen

it; but I have not as yet satisfied myself that it contains any

form of life whatever."



"What you admit, sir, or what you do not admit, is really of

inconceivably small importance.  I am glad to perceive that the

plateau itself has actually obtruded itself upon your intelligence." 

He glanced up at it, and then, to our amazement, he sprang from his

rock, and, seizing Summerlee by the neck, he tilted his face into

the air.  "Now sir!" he shouted, hoarse with excitement.  "Do I

help you to realize that the plateau contains some animal life?"



I have said that a thick fringe of green overhung the edge of the cliff. 

Out of this there had emerged a black, glistening object.  As it came

slowly forth and overhung the chasm, we saw that it was a very large

snake with a peculiar flat, spade-like head.  It wavered and quivered

above us for a minute, the morning sun gleaming upon its sleek,

sinuous coils.  Then it slowly drew inwards and disappeared.



Summerlee had been so interested that he had stood unresisting

while Challenger tilted his head into the air.  Now he shook his

colleague off and came back to his dignity.



"I should be glad, Professor Challenger," said he, "if you could

see your way to make any remarks which may occur to you without

seizing me by the chin.  Even the appearance of a very ordinary

rock python does not appear to justify such a liberty."



"But there is life upon the plateau all the same," his colleague

replied in triumph.  "And now, having demonstrated this important

conclusion so that it is clear to anyone, however prejudiced or

obtuse, I am of opinion that we cannot do better than break up

our camp and travel to westward until we find some means of ascent."



The ground at the foot of the cliff was rocky and broken so that

the going was slow and difficult.  Suddenly we came, however,

upon something which cheered our hearts.  It was the site of an

old encampment, with several empty Chicago meat tins, a bottle

labeled "Brandy," a broken tin-opener, and a quantity of other

travelers' debris.  A crumpled, disintegrated newspaper revealed  

itself as the Chicago Democrat, though the date had been obliterated.



"Not mine," said Challenger.  "It must be Maple White's."



Lord John had been gazing curiously at a great tree-fern which

overshadowed the encampment.  "I say, look at this," said he. 

"I believe it is meant for a sign-post."



A slip of hard wood had been nailed to the tree in such a way as

to point to the westward.



"Most certainly a sign-post," said Challenger.  "What else? 

Finding himself upon a dangerous errand, our pioneer has left

this sign so that any party which follows him may know the way he

has taken.  Perhaps we shall come upon some other indications as

we proceed."



We did indeed, but they were of a terrible and most unexpected nature. 

Immediately beneath the cliff there grew a considerable patch of high

bamboo, like that which we had traversed in our journey.  Many of

these stems were twenty feet high, with sharp, strong tops, so that

even as they stood they made formidable spears.  We were passing

along the edge of this cover when my eye was caught by the gleam of

something white within it.  Thrusting in my head between the stems,

I found myself gazing at a fleshless skull.  The whole skeleton was

there, but the skull had detached itself and lay some feet nearer to

the open.



With a few blows from the machetes of our Indians we cleared the

spot and were able to study the details of this old tragedy. 

Only a few shreds of clothes could still be distinguished, but

there were the remains of boots upon the bony feet, and it was

very clear that the dead man was a European.  A gold watch by

Hudson, of New York, and a chain which held a stylographic pen,

lay among the bones.  There was also a silver cigarette-case,

with "J. C., from A. E. S.," upon the lid.  The state of the

metal seemed to show that the catastrophe had occurred no great

time before.



"Who can he be?" asked Lord John.  "Poor devil! every bone in his

body seems to be broken."



"And the bamboo grows through his smashed ribs," said Summerlee. 

"It is a fast-growing plant, but it is surely inconceivable that

this body could have been here while the canes grew to be twenty

feet in length."



"As to the man's identity," said Professor Challenger, "I have no

doubt whatever upon that point.  As I made my way up the river

before I reached you at the fazenda I instituted very particular

inquiries about Maple White.  At Para they knew nothing. 

Fortunately, I had a definite clew, for there was a particular

picture in his sketch-book which showed him taking lunch with a

certain ecclesiastic at Rosario.  This priest I was able to find,

and though he proved a very argumentative fellow, who took it

absurdly amiss that I should point out to him the corrosive

effect which modern science must have upon his beliefs, he none

the less gave me some positive information.  Maple White passed

Rosario four years ago, or two years before I saw his dead body. 

He was not alone at the time, but there was a friend, an American

named James Colver, who remained in the boat and did not meet

this ecclesiastic.  I think, therefore, that there can be no doubt

that we are now looking upon the remains of this James Colver."



"Nor," said Lord John, "is there much doubt as to how he met

his death.  He has fallen or been chucked from the top, and so

been impaled.  How else could he come by his broken bones, and

how could he have been stuck through by these canes with their

points so high above our heads?"



A hush came over us as we stood round these shattered remains and

realized the truth of Lord John Roxton's words.  The beetling

head of the cliff projected over the cane-brake.  Undoubtedly he

had fallen from above.  But had he fallen?  Had it been an accident? 

Or--already ominous and terrible possibilities began to form round

that unknown land.



We moved off in silence, and continued to coast round the line

of cliffs, which were as even and unbroken as some of those

monstrous Antarctic ice-fields which I have seen depicted as

stretching from horizon to horizon and towering high above the

mast-heads of the exploring vessel.



In five miles we saw no rift or break.  And then suddenly we

perceived something which filled us with new hope.  In a hollow

of the rock, protected from rain, there was drawn a rough arrow

in chalk, pointing still to the westwards.



"Maple White again," said Professor Challenger.  "He had some

presentiment that worthy footsteps would follow close behind him."



"He had chalk, then?"



"A box of colored chalks was among the effects I found in

his knapsack.  I remember that the white one was worn to a stump."



"That is certainly good evidence," said Summerlee.  "We can only

accept his guidance and follow on to the westward."



We had proceeded some five more miles when again we saw a white

arrow upon the rocks.  It was at a point where the face of the

cliff was for the first time split into a narrow cleft.  Inside the

cleft was a second guidance mark, which pointed right up it with

the tip somewhat elevated, as if the spot indicated were above

the level of the ground.



It was a solemn place, for the walls were so gigantic and the

slit of blue sky so narrow and so obscured by a double fringe

of verdure, that only a dim and shadowy light penetrated to

the bottom.  We had had no food for many hours, and were very

weary with the stony and irregular journey, but our nerves were

too strung to allow us to halt.  We ordered the camp to be pitched,

however, and, leaving the Indians to arrange it, we four, with

the two half-breeds, proceeded up the narrow gorge.



It was not more than forty feet across at the mouth, but it

rapidly closed until it ended in an acute angle, too straight

and smooth for an ascent.  Certainly it was not this which our

pioneer had attempted to indicate.  We made our way back--the

whole gorge was not more than a quarter of a mile deep--and

then suddenly the quick eyes of Lord John fell upon what we

were seeking.  High up above our heads, amid the dark shadows,

there was one circle of deeper gloom.  Surely it could only be

the opening of a cave.



The base of the cliff was heaped with loose stones at the spot,

and it was not difficult to clamber up.  When we reached it, all

doubt was removed.  Not only was it an opening into the rock, but

on the side of it there was marked once again the sign of the arrow. 

Here was the point, and this the means by which Maple White and his

ill-fated comrade had made their ascent.



We were too excited to return to the camp, but must make our

first exploration at once.  Lord John had an electric torch in

his knapsack, and this had to serve us as light.  He advanced,

throwing his little clear circlet of yellow radiance before him,

while in single file we followed at his heels.



The cave had evidently been water-worn, the sides being smooth

and the floor covered with rounded stones.  It was of such a size

that a single man could just fit through by stooping.  For fifty

yards it ran almost straight into the rock, and then it ascended

at an angle of forty-five.  Presently this incline became even

steeper, and we found ourselves climbing upon hands and knees

among loose rubble which slid from beneath us.  Suddenly an

exclamation broke from Lord Roxton.



"It's blocked!" said he.



Clustering behind him we saw in the yellow field of light a wall

of broken basalt which extended to the ceiling.



"The roof has fallen in!"



In vain we dragged out some of the pieces.  The only effect was

that the larger ones became detached and threatened to roll down

the gradient and crush us.  It was evident that the obstacle was

far beyond any efforts which we could make to remove it.  The road

by which Maple White had ascended was no longer available.



Too much cast down to speak, we stumbled down the dark tunnel and

made our way back to the camp.



One incident occurred, however, before we left the gorge, which

is of importance in view of what came afterwards.



We had gathered in a little group at the bottom of the chasm,

some forty feet beneath the mouth of the cave, when a huge rock

rolled suddenly downwards--and shot past us with tremendous force. 

It was the narrowest escape for one or all of us.  We could not

ourselves see whence the rock had come, but our half-breed

servants, who were still at the opening of the cave, said that

it had flown past them, and must therefore have fallen from

the summit.  Looking upwards, we could see no sign of movement

above us amidst the green jungle which topped the cliff. 

There could be little doubt, however, that the stone was aimed

at us, so the incident surely pointed to humanity--and malevolent

humanity--upon the plateau.



We withdrew hurriedly from the chasm, our minds full of this new

development and its bearing upon our plans.  The situation was

difficult enough before, but if the obstructions of Nature were

increased by the deliberate opposition of man, then our case was

indeed a hopeless one.  And yet, as we looked up at that

beautiful fringe of verdure only a few hundreds of feet above

our heads, there was not one of us who could conceive the idea

of returning to London until we had explored it to its depths.



On discussing the situation, we determined that our best course

was to continue to coast round the plateau in the hope of finding

some other means of reaching the top.  The line of cliffs, which

had decreased considerably in height, had already begun to trend

from west to north, and if we could take this as representing the

arc of a circle, the whole circumference could not be very great. 

At the worst, then, we should be back in a few days at our

starting-point.



We made a march that day which totaled some two-and-twenty miles,

without any change in our prospects.  I may mention that our

aneroid shows us that in the continual incline which we have

ascended since we abandoned our canoes we have risen to no less

than three thousand feet above sea-level.  Hence there is a

considerable change both in the temperature and in the vegetation. 

We have shaken off some of that horrible insect life which is

the bane of tropical travel.  A few palms still survive, and many

tree-ferns, but the Amazonian trees have been all left behind. 

It was pleasant to see the convolvulus, the passion-flower, and

the begonia, all reminding me of home, here among these

inhospitable rocks.  There was a red begonia just the same color

as one that is kept in a pot in the window of a certain villa

in Streatham--but I am drifting into private reminiscence.



That night--I am still speaking of the first day of our

circumnavigation of the plateau--a great experience awaited us,

and one which for ever set at rest any doubt which we could have

had as to the wonders so near us.



You will realize as you read it, my dear Mr. McArdle, and

possibly for the first time that the paper has not sent me on a

wild-goose chase, and that there is inconceivably fine copy

waiting for the world whenever we have the Professor's leave to

make use of it.  I shall not dare to publish these articles

unless I can bring back my proofs to England, or I shall be

hailed as the journalistic Munchausen of all time.  I have no

doubt that you feel the same way yourself, and that you would not

care to stake the whole credit of the Gazette upon this adventure

until we can meet the chorus of criticism and scepticism which

such articles must of necessity elicit.  So this wonderful

incident, which would make such a headline for the old paper,

must still wait its turn in the editorial drawer.



And yet it was all over in a flash, and there was no sequel to it,

save in our own convictions.



What occurred was this.  Lord John had shot an ajouti--which is a

small, pig-like animal--and, half of it having been given to the

Indians, we were cooking the other half upon our fire.  There is

a chill in the  air after dark, and we had all drawn close to

the blaze.  The night was moonless, but there were some stars,

and one could see for a little distance across the plain. 

Well, suddenly out of the darkness, out of the night, there swooped

something with a swish like an aeroplane.  The whole group of us

were covered for an instant by a canopy of leathery wings, and I

had a momentary vision of a long, snake-like neck, a fierce, red,

greedy eye, and a great snapping beak, filled, to my amazement,

with little, gleaming teeth.  The next instant it was gone--and

so was our dinner.  A huge black shadow, twenty feet across,

skimmed up into the air; for an instant the monster wings blotted

out the stars, and then it vanished over the brow of the cliff

above us.  We all sat in amazed silence round the fire, like the

heroes of Virgil when the Harpies came down upon them.  It was

Summerlee who was the first to speak.



"Professor Challenger," said he, in a solemn voice, which

quavered with emotion, "I owe you an apology.  Sir, I am very

much in the wrong, and I beg that you will forget what is past."



It was handsomely said, and the two men for the first time shook hands. 

So much we have gained by this clear vision of our first pterodactyl. 

It was worth a stolen supper to bring two such men together.



But if prehistoric life existed upon the plateau it was not

superabundant, for we had no further glimpse of it during the

next three days.  During this time we traversed a barren and

forbidding country, which alternated between stony desert and

desolate marshes full of many wild-fowl, upon the north and

east of the cliffs.  From that direction the place is really

inaccessible, and, were it not for a hardish ledge which runs at

the very base of the precipice, we should have had to turn back. 

Many times we were up to our waists in the slime and blubber of

an old, semi-tropical swamp.  To make matters worse, the place

seemed to be a favorite breeding-place of the Jaracaca snake, the

most venomous and aggressive in South America.  Again and again

these horrible creatures came writhing and springing towards us

across the surface of this putrid bog, and it was only by keeping

our shot-guns for ever ready that we could feel safe from them. 

One funnel-shaped depression in the morass, of a livid green in

color from some lichen which festered in it, will always remain

as a nightmare memory in my mind.  It seems to have been a

special nest of these vermins, and the slopes were alive with

them, all writhing in our direction, for it is a peculiarity

of the Jaracaca that he will always attack man at first sight. 

There were too many for us to shoot, so we fairly took to our

heels and ran until we were exhausted.  I shall always remember

as we looked back how far behind we could see the heads and necks

of our horrible pursuers rising and falling amid the reeds. 

Jaracaca Swamp we named it in the map which we are constructing.



The cliffs upon the farther side had lost their ruddy tint, being

chocolate-brown in color; the vegetation was more scattered along

the top of them, and they had sunk to three or four hundred feet

in height, but in no place did we find any point where they could

be ascended.  If anything, they were more impossible than at the

first point where we had met them.  Their absolute steepness is

indicated in the photograph which I took over the stony desert.



"Surely," said I, as we discussed the situation, "the rain must

find its way down somehow.  There are bound to be water-channels

in the rocks."



"Our young friend has glimpses of lucidity," said Professor

Challenger, patting me upon the shoulder.



"The rain must go somewhere," I repeated.



"He keeps a firm grip upon actuality.  The only drawback is that

we have conclusively proved by ocular demonstration that there

are no water channels down the rocks."



"Where, then, does it go?" I persisted.



"I think it may be fairly assumed that if it does not come

outwards it must run inwards."



"Then there is a lake in the center."



"So I should suppose."



"It is more than likely that the lake may be an old crater,"

said Summerlee.  "The whole formation is, of course, highly volcanic. 

But, however that may be, I should expect to find the surface of the

plateau slope inwards with a considerable sheet of water in the center,

which may drain off, by some subterranean channel, into the marshes

of the Jaracaca Swamp."



"Or evaporation might preserve an equilibrium," remarked

Challenger, and the two learned men wandered off into one of

their usual scientific arguments, which were as comprehensible as

Chinese to the layman.



On the sixth day we completed our first circuit of the cliffs,

and found ourselves back at the first camp, beside the isolated

pinnacle of rock.  We were a disconsolate party, for nothing

could have been more minute than our investigation, and it was

absolutely certain that there was no single point where the most

active human being could possibly hope to scale the cliff. 

The place which Maple White's chalk-marks had indicated as his

own means of access was now entirely impassable.



What were we to do now?  Our stores of provisions, supplemented by

our guns, were holding out well, but the day must come when they

would need replenishment.  In a couple of months the rains might

be expected, and we should be washed out of our camp.  The rock

was harder than marble, and any attempt at cutting a path for so

great a height was more than our time or resources would admit. 

No wonder that we looked gloomily at each other that night, and

sought our blankets with hardly a word exchanged.  I remember

that as I dropped off to sleep my last recollection was that

Challenger was squatting, like a monstrous bull-frog, by the fire,

his huge head in his hands, sunk apparently in the deepest thought,

and entirely oblivious to the good-night which I wished him.



But it was a very different Challenger who greeted us in the

morning--a Challenger with contentment and self-congratulation

shining from his whole person.  He faced us as we assembled for

breakfast with a deprecating false modesty in his eyes, as who

should say, "I know that I deserve all that you can say, but I

pray you to spare my blushes by not saying it."  His beard

bristled exultantly, his chest was thrown out, and his hand was

thrust into the front of his jacket.  So, in his fancy, may he

see himself sometimes, gracing the vacant pedestal in Trafalgar

Square, and adding one more to the horrors of the London streets.



"Eureka!" he cried, his teeth shining through his beard. 

"Gentlemen, you may congratulate me and we may congratulate

each other.  The problem is solved."



"You have found a way up?"



"I venture to think so."



"And where?"



For answer he pointed to the spire-like pinnacle upon our right.



Our faces--or mine, at least--fell as we surveyed it.  That it

could be climbed we had our companion's assurance.  But a horrible

abyss lay between it and the plateau.



"We can never get across," I gasped.



"We can at least all reach the summit," said he.  "When we are up

I may be able to show you that the resources of an inventive mind

are not yet exhausted."



After breakfast we unpacked the bundle in which our leader had

brought his climbing accessories.  From it he took a coil of the

strongest and lightest rope, a hundred and fifty feet in length,

with climbing irons, clamps, and other devices.  Lord John was

an experienced mountaineer, and Summerlee had done some rough

climbing at various times, so that I was really the novice at

rock-work of the party; but my strength and activity may have

made up for my want of experience.



It was not in reality a very stiff task, though there were

moments which made my hair bristle upon my head.  The first half

was perfectly easy, but from there upwards it became continually

steeper until, for the last fifty feet, we were literally

clinging with our fingers and toes to tiny ledges and crevices in

the rock.  I could not have accomplished it, nor could Summerlee,

if Challenger had not gained the summit (it was extraordinary to

see such activity in so unwieldy a creature) and there fixed the

rope round the trunk of the considerable tree which grew there. 

With this as our support, we were soon able to scramble up the

jagged wall until we found ourselves upon the small grassy

platform, some twenty-five feet each way, which formed the summit.



The first impression which I received when I had recovered my

breath was of the extraordinary view over the country which we

had traversed.  The whole Brazilian plain seemed to lie beneath

us, extending away and away until it ended in dim blue mists upon

the farthest sky-line.  In the foreground was the long slope,

strewn with rocks and dotted with tree-ferns; farther off in the

middle distance, looking over the saddle-back hill, I could just

see the yellow and green mass of bamboos through which we had

passed; and then, gradually, the vegetation increased until it

formed the huge forest which extended as far as the eyes could

reach, and for a good two thousand miles beyond.



I was still drinking in this wonderful panorama when the heavy

hand of the Professor fell upon my shoulder.



"This way, my young friend," said he; "vestigia nulla retrorsum.  

Never look rearwards, but always to our glorious goal."



The level of the plateau, when I turned, was exactly that on

which we stood, and the green bank of bushes, with occasional

trees, was so near that it was difficult to realize how

inaccessible it remained.  At a rough guess the gulf was forty

feet across, but, so far as I could see, it might as well have

been forty miles.  I placed one arm round the trunk of the tree

and leaned over the abyss.  Far down were the small dark figures

of our servants, looking up at us.  The wall was absolutely

precipitous, as was that which faced me.



"This is indeed curious," said the creaking voice of Professor Summerlee.



I turned, and found that he was examining with great interest the

tree to which I clung.  That smooth bark and those small, ribbed

leaves seemed familiar to my eyes.  "Why," I cried, "it's a beech!"



"Exactly," said Summerlee.  "A fellow-countryman in a far land."



"Not only a fellow-countryman, my good sir," said Challenger,

"but also, if I may be allowed to enlarge your simile, an ally of

the first value.  This beech tree will be our saviour."



"By George!" cried Lord John, "a bridge!"



"Exactly, my friends, a bridge!  It is not for nothing that

I expended an hour last night in focusing my mind upon

the situation.  I have some recollection of once remarking

to our young friend here that G. E. C. is at his best when

his back is to the wall.  Last night you will admit that all

our backs were to the wall.  But where will-power and intellect

go together, there is always a way out.  A drawbridge had to be

found which could be dropped across the abyss.  Behold it!"



It was certainly a brilliant idea.  The tree was a good sixty

feet in height, and if it only fell the right way it would easily

cross the chasm.  Challenger had slung the camp axe over his

shoulder when he ascended.  Now he handed it to me.



"Our young friend has the thews and sinews," said he.  "I think

he will be the most useful at this task.  I must beg, however,

that you will kindly refrain from thinking for yourself, and that

you will do exactly what you are told."



Under his direction I cut such gashes in the sides of the trees

as would ensure that it should fall as we desired.  It had

already a strong, natural tilt in the direction of the plateau,

so that the matter was not difficult.  Finally I set to work in

earnest upon the trunk, taking turn and turn with Lord John. 

In a little over an hour there was a loud crack, the tree swayed

forward, and then crashed over, burying its branches among the

bushes on the farther side.  The severed trunk rolled to the very

edge of our platform, and for one terrible second we all thought

it was over.  It balanced itself, however, a few inches from the

edge, and there was our bridge to the unknown.



All of us, without a word, shook hands with Professor Challenger,

who raised his straw hat and bowed deeply to each in turn.



"I claim the honor," said he, "to be the first to cross to the

unknown land--a fitting subject, no doubt, for some future

historical painting."



He had approached the bridge when Lord John laid his hand upon

his coat.



"My dear chap," said he, "I really cannot allow it."



"Cannot allow it, sir!"  The head went back and the beard forward.



"When it is a matter of science, don't you know, I follow your

lead because you are by way of bein' a man of science.  But it's

up to you to follow me when you come into my department."



"Your department, sir?"



"We all have our professions, and soldierin' is mine.  We are,

accordin' to my ideas, invadin' a new country, which may or may

not be chock-full of enemies of sorts.  To barge blindly into it

for want of a little common sense and patience isn't my notion

of management."



The remonstrance was too reasonable to be disregarded. 

Challenger tossed his head and shrugged his heavy shoulders.



"Well, sir, what do you propose?"



"For all I know there may be a tribe of cannibals waitin' for

lunch-time among those very bushes," said Lord John, looking

across the bridge.  "It's better to learn wisdom before you get

into a cookin'-pot; so we will content ourselves with hopin' that

there is no trouble waitin' for us, and at the same time we will

act as if there were.  Malone and I will go down again, therefore,

and we will fetch up the four rifles, together with Gomez and

the other.  One man can then go across and the rest will cover

him with guns, until he sees that it is safe for the whole crowd

to come along."



Challenger sat down upon the cut stump and groaned his

impatience; but Summerlee and I were of one mind that Lord John

was our leader when such practical details were in question. 

The climb was a more simple thing now that the rope dangled down

the face of the worst part of the ascent.  Within an hour we had

brought up the rifles and a shot-gun.  The half-breeds had ascended

also, and under Lord John's orders they had carried up a bale of

provisions in case our first exploration should be a long one. 

We had each bandoliers of cartridges.



"Now, Challenger, if you really insist upon being the first man

in," said Lord John, when every preparation was complete.



"I am much indebted to you for your gracious permission," said

the angry Professor; for never was a man so intolerant of every

form of authority.  "Since you are good enough to allow it, I

shall most certainly take it upon myself to act as pioneer upon

this occasion."



Seating himself with a leg overhanging the abyss on each side,

and his hatchet slung upon his back, Challenger hopped his way

across the trunk and was soon at the other side.  He clambered

up and waved his arms in the air.



"At last!" he cried; "at last!"



I gazed anxiously at him, with a vague expectation that some

terrible fate would dart at him from the curtain of green

behind him.  But all was quiet, save that a strange, many-

colored bird flew up from under his feet and vanished among

the trees.



Summerlee was the second.  His wiry energy is wonderful in so frail

a frame.  He insisted upon having two rifles slung upon his back,

so that both Professors were armed when he had made his transit. 

I came next, and tried hard not to look down into the horrible

gulf over which I was passing.  Summerlee held out the butt-end

of his rifle, and an instant later I was able to grasp his hand. 

As to Lord John, he walked across--actually walked without support! 

He must have nerves of iron.



And there we were, the four of us, upon the dreamland, the lost

world, of Maple White.  To all of us it seemed the moment of our

supreme triumph.  Who could have guessed that it was the prelude

to our supreme disaster?  Let me say in a few words how the

crushing blow fell upon us.



We had turned away from the edge, and had penetrated about fifty

yards of close brushwood, when there came a frightful rending

crash from behind us.  With one impulse we rushed back the way

that we had come.  The bridge was gone!



Far down at the base of the cliff I saw, as I looked over, a

tangled mass of branches and splintered trunk.  It was our

beech tree.  Had the edge of the platform crumbled and let

it through?  For a moment this explanation was in all our minds. 

The next, from the farther side of the rocky pinnacle before us

a swarthy face, the face of Gomez the half-breed, was

slowly protruded.  Yes, it was Gomez, but no longer the Gomez

of the demure smile and the mask-like expression.  Here was a

face with flashing eyes and distorted features, a face convulsed

with hatred and with the mad joy of gratified revenge.



"Lord Roxton!" he shouted.  "Lord John Roxton!"



"Well," said our companion, "here I am."



A shriek of laughter came across the abyss.



"Yes, there you are, you English dog, and there you will remain! 

I have waited and waited, and now has come my chance.  You found

it hard to get up; you will find it harder to get down.  You cursed

fools, you are trapped, every one of you!"



We were too astounded to speak.  We could only stand there staring

in amazement.  A great broken bough upon the grass showed whence

he had gained his leverage to tilt over our bridge.  The face had

vanished, but presently it was up again, more frantic than before.



"We nearly killed you with a stone at the cave," he cried; "but

this is better.  It is slower and more terrible.  Your bones will

whiten up there, and none will know where you lie or come to

cover them.  As you lie dying, think of Lopez, whom you shot five

years ago on the Putomayo River.  I am his brother, and, come

what will I will die happy now, for his memory has been avenged."

A furious hand was shaken at us, and then all was quiet.



Had the half-breed simply wrought his vengeance and then escaped,

all might have been well with him.  It was that foolish,

irresistible Latin impulse to be dramatic which brought his

own downfall.  Roxton, the man who had earned himself the name of

the Flail of the Lord through three countries, was not one who

could be safely taunted.  The half-breed was descending on the

farther side of the pinnacle; but before he could reach the ground

Lord John had run along the edge of the plateau and gained a point

from which he could see his man.  There was a single crack of his

rifle, and, though we saw nothing, we heard the scream and then

the distant thud of the falling body.  Roxton came back to us with

a face of granite.



"I have been a blind simpleton," said he, bitterly,  "It's my

folly that has brought you all into this trouble.  I should have

remembered that these people have long memories for blood-feuds,

and have been more upon my guard."



"What about the other one?  It took two of them to lever that tree

over the edge."



"I could have shot him, but I let him go.  He may have had no

part in it.  Perhaps it would have been better if I had killed

him, for he must, as you say, have lent a hand."



Now that we had the clue to his action, each of us could cast

back and remember some sinister act upon the part of the

half-breed--his constant desire to know our plans, his arrest

outside our tent when he was over-hearing them, the furtive

looks of hatred which from time to time one or other of us

had surprised.  We were still discussing it, endeavoring to adjust

our minds to these new conditions, when a singular scene in the

plain below arrested our attention.



A man in white clothes, who could only be the surviving half-

breed, was running as one does run when Death is the pacemaker. 

Behind him, only a few yards in his rear, bounded the huge

ebony figure of Zambo, our devoted negro.  Even as we looked,

he sprang upon the back of the fugitive and flung his arms

round his neck.  They rolled on the ground together.  An instant

afterwards Zambo rose, looked at the prostrate man, and then,

waving his hand joyously to us, came running in our direction. 

The white figure lay motionless in the middle of the great plain.



Our two traitors had been destroyed, but the mischief that they

had done lived after them.  By no possible means could we get back

to the pinnacle.  We had been natives of the world; now we were

natives of the plateau.  The two things were separate and apart. 

There was the plain which led to the canoes.  Yonder, beyond the

violet, hazy horizon, was the stream which led back to civilization. 

But the link between was missing.  No human ingenuity could suggest

a means of bridging the chasm which yawned between ourselves and

our past lives.  One instant had altered the whole conditions of

our existence.



It was at such a moment that I learned the stuff of which my

three comrades were composed.  They were grave, it is true, and

thoughtful, but of an invincible serenity.  For the moment we

could only sit among the bushes in patience and wait the coming

of Zambo.  Presently his honest black face topped the rocks and

his Herculean figure emerged upon the top of the pinnacle.



"What I do now?" he cried.  "You tell me and I do it."



It was a question which it was easier to ask than to answer. 

One thing only was clear.  He was our one trusty link with the

outside world.  On no account must he leave us.



"No no!" he cried.  "I not leave you.  Whatever come, you always

find me here.  But no able to keep Indians.  Already they say too

much Curupuri live on this place, and they go home.  Now you

leave them me no able to keep them."



It was a fact that our Indians had shown in many ways of late

that they were weary of their journey and anxious to return. 

We realized that Zambo spoke the truth, and that it would be

impossible for him to keep them.



"Make them wait till to-morrow, Zambo," I shouted; "then I can

send letter back by them."



"Very good, sarr! I promise they wait till to-morrow, said the negro. 

"But what I do for you now?"



There was plenty for him to do, and admirably the faithful fellow

did it.  First of all, under our directions, he undid the rope

from the tree-stump and threw one end of it across to us.  It was

not thicker than a clothes-line, but it was of great strength,

and though we could not make a bridge of it, we might well find

it invaluable if we had any climbing to do.  He then fastened his

end of the rope to the package of supplies which had been carried

up, and we were able to drag it across.  This gave us the means

of life for at least a week, even if we found nothing else. 

Finally he descended and carried up two other packets of mixed

goods--a box of ammunition and a number of other things, all of

which we got across by throwing our rope to him and hauling it back. 

It was evening when he at last climbed down, with a final assurance

that he would keep the Indians till next morning.



And so it is that I have spent nearly the whole of this our first

night upon the plateau writing up our experiences by the light of

a single candle-lantern.



We supped and camped at the very edge of the cliff, quenching

our thirst with two bottles of Apollinaris which were in one of

the cases.  It is vital to us to find water, but I think even Lord

John himself had had adventures enough for one day, and none of us

felt inclined to make the first push into the unknown.  We forbore

to light a fire or to make any unnecessary sound.



To-morrow (or to-day, rather, for it is already dawn as I write)

we shall make our first venture into this strange land.  When I

shall be able to write again--or if I ever shall write again--I

know not.  Meanwhile, I can see that the Indians are still in

their place, and I am sure that the faithful Zambo will be here

presently to get my letter.  I only trust that it will come to hand.





P.S.--The more I think the more desperate does our position seem. 

I see no possible hope of our return.  If there were a high tree

near the edge of the plateau we might drop a return bridge

across, but there is none within fifty yards.  Our united

strength could not carry a trunk which would serve our purpose. 

The rope, of course, is far too short that we could descend by it. 

No, our position is hopeless--hopeless!





                            CHAPTER X



            "The most Wonderful Things have Happened"



The most wonderful things have happened and are continually

happening to us.  All the paper that I possess consists of five

old note-books and a lot of scraps, and I have only the one

stylographic pencil; but so long as I can move my hand I will

continue to set down our experiences and impressions, for, since

we are the only men of the whole human race to see such things,

it is of enormous importance that I should record them whilst

they are fresh in my memory and before that fate which seems to

be constantly impending does actually overtake us.  Whether Zambo

can at last take these letters to the river, or whether I shall

myself in some miraculous way carry them back with me, or,

finally, whether some daring explorer, coming upon our tracks

with the advantage, perhaps, of a perfected monoplane, should

find this bundle of manuscript, in any case I can see that what I

am writing is destined to immortality as a classic of true adventure.



On the morning after our being trapped upon the plateau by

the villainous Gomez we began a new stage in our experiences. 

The first incident in it was not such as to give me a very

favorable opinion of the place to which we had wandered.  As I

roused myself from a short nap after day had dawned, my eyes fell

upon a most singular appearance upon my own leg.  My trouser had

slipped up, exposing a few inches of my skin above my sock. 

On this there rested a large, purplish grape.  Astonished at the

sight, I leaned forward to pick it off, when, to my horror, it burst

between my finger and thumb, squirting blood in every direction. 

My cry of disgust had brought the two professors to my side.



"Most interesting," said Summerlee, bending over my shin. 

"An enormous blood-tick, as yet, I believe, unclassified."



"The first-fruits of our labors," said Challenger in his booming,

pedantic fashion.  "We cannot do less than call it Ixodes Maloni. 

The very small inconvenience of being bitten, my young friend,

cannot, I am sure, weigh with you as against the glorious

privilege of having your name inscribed in the deathless roll

of zoology.  Unhappily you have crushed this fine specimen at

the moment of satiation."



"Filthy vermin!" I cried.



Professor Challenger raised his great eyebrows in protest, and

placed a soothing paw upon my shoulder.



"You should cultivate the scientific eye and the detached

scientific mind," said he.  "To a man of philosophic temperament

like myself the blood-tick, with its lancet-like proboscis and

its distending stomach, is as beautiful a work of Nature as the

peacock or, for that matter, the aurora borealis.  It pains me to

hear you speak of it in so unappreciative a fashion.  No doubt,

with due diligence, we can secure some other specimen."



"There can be no doubt of that," said Summerlee, grimly, "for one

has just disappeared behind your shirt-collar."



Challenger sprang into the air bellowing like a bull, and tore

frantically at his coat and shirt to get them off.  Summerlee and

I laughed so that we could hardly help him.  At last we exposed

that monstrous torso (fifty-four inches, by the tailor's tape). 

His body was all matted with black hair, out of which jungle we

picked the wandering tick before it had bitten him.  But the

bushes round were full of the horrible pests, and it was clear

that we must shift our camp.



But first of all it was necessary to make our arrangements with

the faithful negro, who appeared presently on the pinnacle with a

number of tins of cocoa and biscuits, which he tossed over to us. 

Of the stores which remained below he was ordered to retain as

much as would keep him for two months.  The Indians were to have

the remainder as a reward for their services and as payment for

taking our letters back to the Amazon.  Some hours later we saw

them in single file far out upon the plain, each with a bundle on

his head, making their way back along the path we had come. 

Zambo occupied our little tent at the base of the pinnacle, and

there he remained, our one link with the world below.



And now we had to decide upon our immediate movements.  We shifted

our position from among the tick-laden bushes until we came to a

small clearing thickly surrounded by trees upon all sides. 

There were some flat slabs of rock in the center, with an

excellent well close by, and there we sat in cleanly comfort

while we made our first plans for the invasion of this new country. 

Birds were calling among the foliage--especially one with a

peculiar whooping cry which was new to us--but beyond these

sounds there were no signs of life.



Our first care was to make some sort of list of our own stores,

so that we might know what we had to rely upon.  What with the

things we had ourselves brought up and those which Zambo had sent

across on the rope, we were fairly well supplied.  Most important

of all, in view of the dangers which might surround us, we had our

four rifles and one thousand three hundred rounds, also a shot-gun,

but not more than a hundred and fifty medium pellet cartridges. 

In the matter of provisions we had enough to last for several

weeks, with a sufficiency of tobacco and a few scientific

implements, including a large telescope and a good field-glass. 

All these things we collected together in the clearing, and as

a first precaution, we cut down with our hatchet and knives a

number of thorny bushes, which we piled round in a circle some

fifteen yards in diameter.  This was to be our headquarters for

the time--our place of refuge against sudden danger and the

guard-house for our stores.  Fort Challenger, we called it.



IT was midday before we had made ourselves secure, but the heat

was not oppressive, and the general character of the plateau, both

in its temperature and in its vegetation, was almost temperate. 

The beech, the oak, and even the birch were to be found among

the tangle of trees which girt us in.  One huge gingko tree,

topping all the others, shot its great limbs and maidenhair

foliage over the fort which we had constructed.  In its shade

we continued our discussion, while Lord John, who had quickly

taken command in the hour of action, gave us his views.



"So long as neither man nor beast has seen or heard us, we are

safe," said he.  "From the time they know we are here our

troubles begin.  There are no signs that they have found us out

as yet.  So our game surely is to lie low for a time and spy out

the land.  We want to have a good look at our neighbors before we

get on visitin' terms."



"But we must advance," I ventured to remark.



"By all means, sonny my boy!  We will advance.  But with

common sense.  We must never go so far that we can't get back

to our base.  Above all, we must never, unless it is life or

death, fire off our guns."



"But YOU fired yesterday," said Summerlee.



"Well, it couldn't be helped.  However, the wind was strong and

blew outwards.  It is not likely that the sound could have

traveled far into the plateau.  By the way, what shall we call

this place?  I suppose it is up to us to give it a name?"



There were several suggestions, more or less happy, but

Challenger's was final.



"It can only have one name," said he.  "It is called after the

pioneer who discovered it.  It is Maple White Land."



Maple White Land it became, and so it is named in that chart

which has become my special task.  So it will, I trust, appear

in the atlas of the future.



The peaceful penetration of Maple White Land was the pressing

subject before us.  We had the evidence of our own eyes that the

place was inhabited by some unknown creatures, and there was that

of Maple White's sketch-book to show that more dreadful and more

dangerous monsters might still appear.  That there might also

prove to be human occupants and that they were of a malevolent

character was suggested by the skeleton impaled upon the bamboos,

which could not have got there had it not been dropped from above. 

Our situation, stranded without possibility of escape in such a

land, was clearly full of danger, and our reasons endorsed every

measure of caution which Lord John's experience could suggest. 

Yet it was surely impossible that we should halt on the edge of

this world of mystery when our very souls were tingling with

impatience to push forward and to pluck the heart from it.



We therefore blocked the entrance to our zareba by filling it up

with several thorny bushes, and left our camp with the stores

entirely surrounded by this protecting hedge.  We then slowly and

cautiously set forth into the unknown, following the course of

the little stream which flowed from our spring, as it should

always serve us as a guide on our return.



Hardly had we started when we came across signs that there were

indeed wonders awaiting us.  After a few hundred yards of thick

forest, containing many trees which were quite unknown to me, but

which Summerlee, who was the botanist of the party, recognized as

forms of conifera and of cycadaceous plants which have long

passed away in the world below, we entered a region where the

stream widened out and formed a considerable bog.  High reeds of

a peculiar type grew thickly before us, which were pronounced to

be equisetacea, or mare's-tails, with tree-ferns scattered

amongst them, all of them swaying in a brisk wind.  Suddenly Lord

John, who was walking first, halted with uplifted hand.



"Look at this!" said he.  "By George, this must be the trail of

the father of all birds!"



An enormous three-toed track was imprinted in the soft mud before us. 

The creature, whatever it was, had crossed the swamp and had passed

on into the forest.  We all stopped to examine that monstrous spoor. 

If it were indeed a bird--and what animal could leave such a mark?--

its foot was so much larger than an ostrich's that its height upon

the same scale must be enormous.  Lord John looked eagerly round him

and slipped two cartridges into his elephant-gun.



"I'll stake my good name as a shikarree," said he, "that the

track is a fresh one.  The creature has not passed ten minutes. 

Look how the water is still oozing into that deeper print! 

By Jove!  See, here is the mark of a little one!"



Sure enough, smaller tracks of the same general form were running

parallel to the large ones.



"But what do you make of this?" cried Professor Summerlee,

triumphantly, pointing to what looked like the huge print of a

five-fingered human hand appearing among the three-toed marks.



"Wealden!" cried Challenger, in an ecstasy.  "I've seen them in

the Wealden clay.  It is a creature walking erect upon three-toed

feet, and occasionally putting one of its five-fingered forepaws

upon the ground.  Not a bird, my dear Roxton--not a bird."



"A beast?"



"No; a reptile--a dinosaur.  Nothing else could have left such

a track.  They puzzled a worthy Sussex doctor some ninety years

ago; but who in the world could have hoped--hoped--to have seen a

sight like that?"



His words died away into a whisper, and we all stood in

motionless amazement.  Following the tracks, we had left the

morass and passed through a screen of brushwood and trees. 

Beyond was an open glade, and in this were five of the most

extraordinary creatures that I have ever seen.  Crouching down

among the bushes, we observed them at our leisure.



There were, as I say, five of them, two being adults and three

young ones.  In size they were enormous.  Even the babies were as

big as elephants, while the two large ones were far beyond all

creatures I have ever seen.  They had slate-colored skin, which

was scaled like a lizard's and shimmered where the sun shone

upon it.  All five were sitting up, balancing themselves upon their

broad, powerful tails and their huge three-toed hind-feet, while

with their small five-fingered front-feet they pulled down the

branches upon which they browsed.  I do not know that I can bring

their appearance home to you better than by saying that they

looked like monstrous kangaroos, twenty feet in length, and with

skins like black crocodiles.



I do not know how long we stayed motionless gazing at this

marvelous spectacle.  A strong wind blew towards us and we were

well concealed, so there was no chance of discovery.  From time

to time the little ones played round their parents in unwieldy

gambols, the great beasts bounding into the air and falling with

dull thuds upon the earth.  The strength of the parents seemed to

be limitless, for one of them, having some difficulty in reaching

a bunch of foliage which grew upon a considerable-sized tree, put

his fore-legs round the trunk and tore it down as if it had been

a sapling.  The action seemed, as I thought, to show not only the

great development of its muscles, but also the small one of its

brain, for the whole weight came crashing down upon the top of

it, and it uttered a series of shrill yelps to show that, big as

it was, there was a limit to what it could endure.  The incident

made it think, apparently, that the neighborhood was dangerous,

for it slowly lurched off through the wood, followed by its mate

and its three enormous infants.  We saw the shimmering slaty

gleam of their skins between the tree-trunks, and their heads

undulating high above the brush-wood.  Then they vanished from

our sight.



I looked at my comrades.  Lord John was standing at gaze with his

finger on the trigger of his elephant-gun, his eager hunter's

soul shining from his fierce eyes.  What would he not give for

one such head to place between the two crossed oars above the

mantelpiece in his snuggery at the Albany!  And yet his reason

held him in, for all our exploration of the wonders of this

unknown land depended upon our presence being concealed from

its inhabitants.  The two professors were in silent ecstasy. 

In their excitement they had unconsciously seized each other by

the hand, and stood like two little children in the presence of a

marvel, Challenger's cheeks bunched up into a seraphic smile, and

Summerlee's sardonic face softening for the moment into wonder

and reverence.



"Nunc dimittis!" he cried at last.  "What will they say in

England of this?"



"My dear Summerlee, I will tell you with great confidence exactly

what they will say in England," said Challenger.  "They will say

that you are an infernal liar and a scientific charlatan, exactly

as you and others said of me."



"In the face of photographs?"



"Faked, Summerlee!  Clumsily faked!"



"In the face of specimens?"



"Ah, there we may have them!  Malone and his filthy Fleet Street

crew may be all yelping our praises yet.  August the twenty-eighth--

the day we saw five live iguanodons in a glade of Maple White Land. 

Put it down in your diary, my young friend, and send it to your rag."



"And be ready to get the toe-end of the editorial boot in

return," said Lord John.  "Things look a bit different from the

latitude of London, young fellah my lad.  There's many a man who

never tells his adventures, for he can't hope to be believed. 

Who's to blame them?  For this will seem a bit of a dream to

ourselves in a month or two.  WHAT did you say they were?"



"Iguanodons," said Summerlee.  "You'll find their footmarks all

over the Hastings sands, in Kent, and in Sussex.  The South of

England was alive with them when there was plenty of good lush

green-stuff to keep them going.  Conditions have changed, and the

beasts died.  Here it seems that the conditions have not changed,

and the beasts have lived."



"If ever we get out of this alive, I must have a head with me,"

said Lord John.  "Lord, how some of that Somaliland-Uganda crowd

would turn a beautiful pea-green if they saw it!  I don't know

what you chaps think, but it strikes me that we are on mighty

thin ice all this time."



I had the same feeling of mystery and danger around us.  In the

gloom of the trees there seemed a constant menace and as we

looked up into their shadowy foliage vague terrors crept into

one's heart.  It is true that these monstrous creatures which we

had seen were lumbering, inoffensive brutes which were unlikely

to hurt anyone, but in this world of wonders what other survivals

might there not be--what fierce, active horrors ready to pounce

upon us from their lair among the rocks or brushwood?  I knew

little of prehistoric life, but I had a clear remembrance of one

book which I had read in which it spoke of creatures who would

live upon our lions and tigers as a cat lives upon mice.  What if

these also were to be found in the woods of Maple White Land!



It was destined that on this very morning--our first in the new

country--we were to find out what strange hazards lay around us. 

It was a loathsome adventure, and one of which I hate to think. 

If, as Lord John said, the glade of the iguanodons will remain

with us as a dream, then surely the swamp of the pterodactyls will

forever be our nightmare.  Let me set down exactly what occurred.



We passed very slowly through the woods, partly because Lord

Roxton acted as scout before he would let us advance, and partly

because at every second step one or other of our professors would

fall, with a cry of wonder, before some flower or insect which

presented him with a new type.  We may have traveled two or three

miles in all, keeping to the right of the line of the stream,

when we came upon a considerable opening in the trees.  A belt

of brushwood led up to a tangle of rocks--the whole plateau was

strewn with boulders.  We were walking slowly towards these

rocks, among bushes which reached over our waists, when we became

aware of a strange low gabbling and whistling sound, which filled

the air with a constant clamor and appeared to come from some

spot immediately before us.  Lord John held up his hand as a

signal for us to stop, and he made his way swiftly, stooping and

running, to the line of rocks.  We saw him peep over them and

give a gesture of amazement.  Then he stood staring as if

forgetting us, so utterly entranced was he by what he saw. 

Finally he waved us to come on, holding up his hand as a signal

for caution.  His whole bearing made me feel that something

wonderful but dangerous lay before us.



Creeping to his side, we looked over the rocks.  The place into

which we gazed was a pit, and may, in the early days, have been

one of the smaller volcanic blow-holes of the plateau.  It was

bowl-shaped and at the bottom, some hundreds of yards from where

we lay, were pools of green-scummed, stagnant water, fringed

with bullrushes.  It was a weird place in itself, but its

occupants made it seem like a scene from the Seven Circles of Dante. 

The place was a rookery of pterodactyls.  There were hundreds of

them congregated within view.  All the bottom area round the

water-edge was alive with their young ones, and with hideous

mothers brooding upon their leathery, yellowish eggs.  From this

crawling flapping mass of obscene reptilian life came the

shocking clamor which filled the air and the mephitic, horrible,

musty odor which turned us sick.  But above, perched each upon

its own stone, tall, gray, and withered, more like dead and dried

specimens than actual living creatures, sat the horrible males,

absolutely motionless save for the rolling of their red eyes or

an occasional snap of their rat-trap beaks as a dragon-fly went

past them.  Their huge, membranous wings were closed by folding

their fore-arms, so that they sat like gigantic old women,

wrapped in hideous web-colored shawls, and with their ferocious

heads protruding above them.  Large and small, not less than a

thousand of these filthy creatures lay in the hollow before us.



Our professors would gladly have stayed there all day, so

entranced were they by this opportunity of studying the life of a

prehistoric age.  They pointed out the fish and dead birds lying

about among the rocks as proving the nature of the food of these

creatures, and I heard them congratulating each other on having

cleared up the point why the bones of this flying dragon are

found in such great numbers in certain well-defined areas, as in

the Cambridge Green-sand, since it was now seen that, like penguins,

they lived in gregarious fashion.



Finally, however, Challenger, bent upon proving some point which

Summerlee had contested, thrust his head over the rock and nearly

brought destruction upon us all.  In an instant the nearest male

gave a shrill, whistling cry, and flapped its twenty-foot span of

leathery wings as it soared up into the air.  The females and

young ones huddled together beside the water, while the whole

circle of sentinels rose one after the other and sailed off into

the sky.  It was a wonderful sight to see at least a hundred

creatures of such enormous size and hideous appearance all

swooping like swallows with swift, shearing wing-strokes above

us; but soon we realized that it was not one on which we could

afford to linger.  At first the great brutes flew round in a huge

ring, as if to make sure what the exact extent of the danger

might be.  Then, the flight grew lower and the circle narrower,

until they were whizzing round and round us, the dry, rustling

flap of their huge slate-colored wings filling the air with a

volume of sound that made me think of Hendon aerodrome upon a

race day.



"Make for the wood and keep together," cried Lord John, clubbing

his rifle.  "The brutes mean mischief."



The moment we attempted to retreat the circle closed in upon us,

until the tips of the wings of those nearest to us nearly touched

our faces.  We beat at them with the stocks of our guns, but

there was nothing solid or vulnerable to strike.  Then suddenly

out of the whizzing, slate-colored circle a long neck shot out, and

a fierce beak made a thrust at us.  Another and another followed. 

Summerlee gave a cry and put his hand to his face, from which the

blood was streaming.  I felt a prod at the back of my neck, and

turned dizzy with the shock.  Challenger fell, and as I stooped

to pick him up I was again struck from behind and dropped on the

top of him.  At the same instant I heard the crash of Lord John's

elephant-gun, and, looking up, saw one of the creatures with a

broken wing struggling upon the ground, spitting and gurgling at

us with a wide-opened beak and blood-shot, goggled eyes, like some

devil in a medieval picture.  Its comrades had flown higher at the

sudden sound, and were circling above our heads.



"Now," cried Lord John, "now for our lives!"



We staggered through the brushwood, and even as we reached the

trees the harpies were on us again.  Summerlee was knocked down,

but we tore him up and rushed among the trunks.  Once there we

were safe, for those huge wings had no space for their sweep

beneath the branches.  As we limped homewards, sadly mauled and

discomfited, we saw them for a long time flying at a great height

against the deep blue sky above our heads, soaring round and

round, no bigger than wood-pigeons, with their eyes no doubt

still following our progress.  At last, however, as we reached

the thicker woods they gave up the chase, and we saw them no more.



A most interesting and convincing experience," said Challenger,

as we halted beside the brook and he bathed a swollen knee. 

"We are exceptionally well informed, Summerlee, as to the habits

of the enraged pterodactyl."



Summerlee was wiping the blood from a cut in his forehead, while

I was tying up a nasty stab in the muscle of the neck.  Lord John

had the shoulder of his coat torn away, but the creature's teeth

had only grazed the flesh.



"It is worth noting," Challenger continued, "that our young

friend has received an undoubted stab, while Lord John's coat

could only have been torn by a bite.  In my own case, I was

beaten about the head by their wings, so we have had a remarkable

exhibition of their various methods of offence."



"It has been touch and go for our lives," said Lord John,

gravely, "and I could not think of a more rotten sort of death

than to be outed by such filthy vermin.  I was sorry to fire my

rifle, but, by Jove! there was no great choice."



"We should not be here if you hadn't," said I, with conviction.



"It may do no harm," said he.  "Among these woods there must be

many loud cracks from splitting or falling trees which would be

just like the sound of a gun.  But now, if you are of my opinion,

we have had thrills enough for one day, and had best get back to

the surgical box at the camp for some carbolic.  Who knows what

venom these beasts may have in their hideous jaws?"



But surely no men ever had just such a day since the world began. 

Some fresh surprise was ever in store for us.  When, following

the course of our brook, we at last reached our glade and saw

the thorny barricade of our camp, we thought that our adventures

were at an end.  But we had something more to think of before we

could rest.  The gate of Fort Challenger had been untouched, the

walls were unbroken, and yet it had been visited by some strange

and powerful creature in our absence.  No foot-mark showed a trace

of its nature, and only the overhanging branch of the enormous

ginko tree suggested how it might have come and gone; but of its

malevolent strength there was ample evidence in the condition of

our stores.  They were strewn at random all over the ground, and

one tin of meat had been crushed into pieces so as to extract

the contents.  A case of cartridges had been shattered into

matchwood, and one of the brass shells lay shredded into pieces

beside it.  Again the feeling of vague horror came upon our

souls, and we gazed round with frightened eyes at the dark

shadows which lay around us, in all of which some fearsome shape

might be lurking.  How good it was when we were hailed by the

voice of Zambo, and, going to the edge of the plateau, saw him

sitting grinning at us upon the top of the opposite pinnacle.



"All well, Massa Challenger, all well!" he cried.  "Me stay here. 

No fear.  You always find me when you want."



His honest black face, and the immense view before us, which

carried us half-way back to the affluent of the Amazon, helped us

to remember that we really were upon this earth in the twentieth

century, and had not by some magic been conveyed to some raw

planet in its earliest and wildest state.  How difficult it was

to realize that the violet line upon the far horizon was well

advanced to that great river upon which huge steamers ran, and

folk talked of the small affairs of life, while we, marooned

among the creatures of a bygone age, could but gaze towards it

and yearn for all that it meant!



One other memory remains with me of this wonderful day, and with

it I will close this letter.  The two professors, their tempers

aggravated no doubt by their injuries, had fallen out as to

whether our assailants were of the genus pterodactylus or

dimorphodon, and high words had ensued.  To avoid their wrangling

I moved some little way apart, and was seated smoking upon the

trunk of a fallen tree, when Lord John strolled over in my direction.



"I say, Malone," said he, "do you remember that place where those

beasts were?"



"Very clearly."



"A sort of volcanic pit, was it not?"



"Exactly," said I.



"Did you notice the soil?"



"Rocks."



"But round the water--where the reeds were?"



"It was a bluish soil.  It looked like clay."



"Exactly.  A volcanic tube full of blue clay."



"What of that?" I asked.



"Oh, nothing, nothing," said he, and strolled back to where the

voices of the contending men of science rose in a prolonged duet,

the high, strident note of Summerlee rising and falling to the

sonorous bass of Challenger.  I should have thought no more of

Lord John's remark were it not that once again that night I

heard him mutter to himself:  "Blue clay--clay in a volcanic tube!" 

They were the last words I heard before I dropped into an

exhausted sleep.





                            CHAPTER XI



                    "For once I was the Hero"



Lord John Roxton was right when he thought that some specially

toxic quality might lie in the bite of the horrible creatures

which had attacked us.  On the morning after our first adventure

upon the plateau, both Summerlee and I were in great pain and

fever, while Challenger's knee was so bruised that he could

hardly limp.  We kept to our camp all day, therefore, Lord John

busying himself, with such help as we could give him, in raising

the height and thickness of the thorny walls which were our

only defense.  I remember that during the whole long day I was

haunted by the feeling that we were closely observed, though by

whom or whence I could give no guess.



So strong was the impression that I told Professor Challenger of

it, who put it down to the cerebral excitement caused by my fever. 

Again and again I glanced round swiftly, with the conviction that

I was about to see something, but only to meet the dark tangle of

our hedge or the solemn and cavernous gloom of the great trees

which arched above our heads.  And yet the feeling grew ever

stronger in my own mind that something observant and something

malevolent was at our very elbow.  I thought of the Indian

superstition of the Curupuri--the dreadful, lurking spirit of

the woods--and I could have imagined that his terrible presence

haunted those who had invaded his most remote and sacred retreat.



That night (our third in Maple White Land) we had an experience

which left a fearful impression upon our minds, and made us

thankful that Lord John had worked so hard in making our

retreat impregnable.  We were all sleeping round our dying fire

when we were aroused--or, rather, I should say, shot out of our

slumbers--by a succession of the most frightful cries and screams

to which I have ever listened.  I know no sound to which I could

compare this amazing tumult, which seemed to come from some spot

within a few hundred yards of our camp.  It was as ear-splitting

as any whistle of a railway-engine; but whereas the whistle is a

clear, mechanical, sharp-edged sound, this was far deeper in volume

and vibrant with the uttermost strain of agony and horror.  We clapped

our hands to our ears to shut out that nerve-shaking appeal.  A cold

sweat broke out over my body, and my heart turned sick at the misery

of it.  All the woes of tortured life, all its stupendous indictment

of high heaven, its innumerable sorrows, seemed to be centered and

condensed into that one dreadful, agonized cry.  And then, under

this high-pitched, ringing sound there was another, more intermittent,

a low, deep-chested laugh, a growling, throaty gurgle of merriment

which formed a grotesque accompaniment to the shriek with which it

was blended.  For three or four minutes on end the fearsome duet

continued, while all the foliage rustled with the rising of

startled birds.  Then it shut off as suddenly as it began.  For a

long time we sat in horrified silence.  Then Lord John threw a bundle

of twigs upon the fire, and their red glare lit up the intent faces

of my companions and flickered over the great boughs above our heads.



"What was it?" I whispered.



"We shall know in the morning," said Lord John.  "It  was close

to us--not farther than the glade."



"We have been privileged to overhear a prehistoric tragedy, the

sort of drama which occurred among the reeds upon the border of

some Jurassic lagoon, when the greater dragon pinned the lesser

among the slime," said Challenger, with more solemnity than I had

ever heard in his voice.  "It was surely well for man that he

came late in the order of creation.  There were powers abroad in

earlier days which no courage and no mechanism of his could have met. 

What could his sling, his throwing-stick, or his arrow avail him

against such forces as have been loose to-night?  Even with a

modern rifle it would be all odds on the monster."



"I think I should back my little friend," said Lord John,

caressing his Express.  "But the beast would certainly have a

good sporting chance."



Summerlee raised his hand.



"Hush!" he cried.  "Surely I hear something?"



From the utter silence there emerged a deep, regular pat-pat. 

It was the tread of some animal--the rhythm of soft but heavy pads

placed cautiously upon the ground.  It stole slowly round the

camp, and then halted near our gateway.  There was a low, sibilant

rise and fall--the breathing of the creature.  Only our feeble

hedge separated us from this horror of the night.  Each of us

had seized his rifle, and Lord John had pulled out a small bush

to make an embrasure in the hedge.



"By George!" he whispered.  "I think I can see it!"



I stooped and peered over his shoulder through the gap.  Yes, I

could see it, too.  In the deep shadow of the tree there was a

deeper shadow yet, black, inchoate, vague--a crouching form full

of savage vigor and menace.  It was no higher than a horse, but

the dim outline suggested vast bulk and strength.  That hissing

pant, as regular and full-volumed as the exhaust of an engine,

spoke of a monstrous organism.  Once, as it moved, I thought I

saw the glint of two terrible, greenish eyes.  There was an

uneasy rustling, as if it were crawling slowly forward.



"I believe it is going to spring!" said I, cocking my rifle.



"Don't fire!  Don't fire!" whispered Lord John.  "The crash of a

gun in this silent night would be heard for miles.  Keep it as a

last card."



"If it gets over the hedge we're done," said Summerlee, and his

voice crackled into a nervous laugh as he spoke.



"No, it must not get over," cried Lord John; "but hold your

fire to the last.  Perhaps I can make something of the fellow. 

I'll chance it, anyhow."



It was as brave an act as ever I saw a man do.  He stooped to

the fire, picked up a blazing branch, and slipped in an instant

through a sallyport which he had made in our gateway.  The thing

moved forward with a dreadful snarl.  Lord John never hesitated,

but, running towards it with a quick, light step, he dashed the

flaming wood into the brute's face.  For one moment I had a

vision of a horrible mask like a giant toad's, of a warty,

leprous skin, and of a loose mouth all beslobbered with fresh blood. 

The next, there was a crash in the underwood and our dreadful

visitor was gone.



"I thought he wouldn't face the fire," said Lord John, laughing,

as he came back and threw his branch among the faggots.



"You should not have taken such a risk!" we all cried.



"There was nothin' else to be done.  If he had got among us we

should have shot each other in tryin' to down him.  On the other

hand, if we had fired through the hedge and wounded him he would

soon have been on the top of us--to say nothin' of giving

ourselves away.  On the whole, I think that we are jolly well out

of it.  What was he, then?"



Our learned men looked at each other with some hesitation.



"Personally, I am unable to classify the creature with any

certainty," said Summerlee, lighting his pipe from the fire.



"In refusing to commit yourself you are but showing a proper

scientific reserve," said Challenger, with massive condescension. 

"I am not myself prepared to go farther than to say in general

terms that we have almost certainly been in contact to-night with

some form of carnivorous dinosaur.  I have already expressed my

anticipation that something of the sort might exist upon this plateau."



"We have to bear in mind," remarked Summerlee, that there are many

prehistoric forms which have never come down to us.  It would be

rash to suppose that we can give a name to all that we are likely

to meet."



"Exactly.  A rough classification may be the best that we can attempt. 

To-morrow some further evidence may help us to an identification. 

Meantime we can only renew our interrupted slumbers."



"But not without a sentinel," said Lord John, with decision. 

"We can't afford to take chances in a country like this. 

Two-hour spells in the future, for each of us."



"Then I'll just finish my pipe in starting the first one," said

Professor Summerlee; and from that time onwards we never trusted

ourselves again without a watchman.



In the morning it was not long before we discovered the source

of the hideous uproar which had aroused us in the night. 

The iguanodon glade was the scene of a horrible butchery. 

From the pools of blood and the enormous lumps of flesh

scattered in every direction over the green sward we imagined

at first that a number of animals had been killed, but on

examining the remains more closely we discovered that all this

carnage came from one of these unwieldy monsters, which had been

literally torn to pieces by some creature not larger, perhaps,

but far more ferocious, than itself.



Our two professors sat in absorbed argument, examining piece

after piece, which showed the marks of savage teeth and of

enormous claws.



"Our judgment must still be in abeyance," said Professor

Challenger, with a huge slab of whitish-colored flesh across

his knee.  "The indications would be consistent with the presence

of a saber-toothed tiger, such as are still found among the breccia

of our caverns; but the creature actually seen was undoubtedly of

a larger and more reptilian character.  Personally, I should

pronounce for allosaurus."



"Or megalosaurus," said Summerlee.



"Exactly.  Any one of the larger carnivorous dinosaurs would meet

the case.  Among them are to be found all the most terrible types

of animal life that have ever cursed the earth or blessed a museum." 

He laughed sonorously at his own conceit, for, though he had little

sense of humor, the crudest pleasantry from his own lips moved him

always to roars of appreciation.



"The less noise the better," said Lord Roxton, curtly.  "We don't

know who or what may be near us.  If this fellah comes back for

his breakfast and catches us here we won't have so much to laugh at. 

By the way, what is this mark upon the iguanodon's hide?"



On the dull, scaly, slate-colored skin somewhere above the

shoulder, there was a singular black circle of some substance

which looked like asphalt.  None of us could suggest what it

meant, though Summerlee was of opinion that he had seen

something similar upon one of the young ones two days before. 

Challenger said nothing, but looked pompous and puffy, as if he

could if he would, so that finally Lord John asked his opinion direct.



"If your lordship will graciously permit me to open my mouth,

I shall be happy to express my sentiments," said he, with

elaborate sarcasm.  I am not in the habit of being taken to task

in the fashion which seems to be customary with your lordship. 

I was not aware that it was necessary to ask your permission

before smiling at a harmless pleasantry."



It was not until he had received his apology that our touchy

friend would suffer himself to be appeased.  When at last his

ruffled feelings were at ease, he addressed us at some length from

his seat upon a fallen tree, speaking, as his habit was, as if he

were imparting most precious information to a class of a thousand.



"With regard to the marking," said he, "I am inclined to agree

with my friend and colleague, Professor Summerlee, that the

stains are from asphalt.  As this plateau is, in its very nature,

highly volcanic, and as asphalt is a substance which one

associates with Plutonic forces, I cannot doubt that it exists in

the free liquid state, and that the creatures may have come in

contact with it.  A much more important problem is the question

as to the existence of the carnivorous monster which has left its

traces in this glade.  We know roughly that this plateau is not

larger than an average English county.  Within this confined

space a certain number of creatures, mostly types which have

passed away in the world below, have lived together for

innumerable years.  Now, it is very clear to me that in so long a

period one would have expected that the carnivorous creatures,

multiplying unchecked, would have exhausted their food supply and

have been compelled to either modify their flesh-eating habits

or die of hunger.  This we see has not been so.  We can only

imagine, therefore, that the balance of Nature is preserved by

some check which limits the numbers of these ferocious creatures. 

One of the many interesting problems, therefore, which await our

solution is to discover what that check may be and how it operates. 

I venture to trust that we may have some future opportunity for

the closer study of the carnivorous dinosaurs."



"And I venture to trust we may not," I observed.



The Professor only raised his great eyebrows, as the schoolmaster

meets the irrelevant observation of the naughty boy.



"Perhaps Professor Summerlee may have an observation to make," he

said, and the two savants ascended together into some rarefied

scientific atmosphere, where the possibilities of a modification

of the birth-rate were weighed against the decline of the food

supply as a check in the struggle for existence.



That morning we mapped out a small portion of the plateau,

avoiding the swamp of the pterodactyls, and keeping to the east

of our brook instead of to the west.  In that direction the

country was still thickly wooded, with so much undergrowth that

our progress was very slow.



I have dwelt up to now upon the terrors of Maple White Land; but

there was another side to the subject, for all that morning we

wandered among lovely flowers--mostly, as I observed, white or

yellow in color, these being, as our professors explained, the

primitive flower-shades.  In many places the ground was

absolutely covered with them, and as we walked ankle-deep on that

wonderful yielding carpet, the scent was almost intoxicating in

its sweetness and intensity.  The homely English bee buzzed

everywhere around us.  Many of the trees under which we passed

had their branches bowed down with fruit, some of which were of

familiar sorts, while other varieties were new.  By observing

which of them were pecked by the birds we avoided all danger of

poison and added a delicious variety to our food reserve.  In the

jungle which we traversed were numerous hard-trodden paths made

by the wild beasts, and in the more marshy places we saw a

profusion of strange footmarks, including many of the iguanodon. 

Once in a grove we observed several of these great creatures

grazing, and Lord John, with his glass, was able to report that

they also were spotted with asphalt, though in a different place

to the one which we had examined in the morning.  What this

phenomenon meant we could not imagine.



We saw many small animals, such as porcupines, a scaly ant-eater,

and a wild pig, piebald in color and with long curved tusks. 

Once, through a break in the trees, we saw a clear shoulder of

green hill some distance away, and across this a large dun-colored

animal was traveling at a considerable pace.  It passed so swiftly

that we were unable to say what it was; but if it were a deer, as

was claimed by Lord John, it must have been as large as those

monstrous Irish elk which are still dug up from time to time in

the bogs of my native land.



Ever since the mysterious visit which had been paid to our camp

we always returned to it with some misgivings.  However, on this

occasion we found everything in order.



That evening we had a grand discussion upon our present situation

and future plans, which I must describe at some length, as it led

to a new departure by which we were enabled to gain a more

complete knowledge of Maple White Land than might have come in

many weeks of exploring.  It was Summerlee who opened the debate. 

All day he had been querulous in manner, and now some remark of

Lord John's as to what we should do on the morrow brought all his

bitterness to a head.



"What we ought to be doing to-day, to-morrow, and all the time,"

said he, "is finding some way out of the trap into which we

have fallen.  You are all turning your brains towards getting into

this country.  I say that we should be scheming how to get out of it."



"I am surprised, sir," boomed Challenger, stroking his majestic

beard, "that any man of science should commit himself to so

ignoble a sentiment.  You are in a land which offers such an

inducement to the ambitious naturalist as none ever has since the

world began, and you suggest leaving it before we have acquired

more than the most superficial knowledge of it or of its contents. 

I expected better things of you, Professor Summerlee."



"You must remember," said Summerlee, sourly, "that I have a large

class in London who are at present at the mercy of an extremely

inefficient locum tenens.  This makes my situation different from

yours, Professor Challenger, since, so far as I know, you have

never been entrusted with any responsible educational work."



"Quite so," said Challenger.  "I have felt it to be a sacrilege

to divert a brain which is capable of the highest original

research to any lesser object.  That is why I have sternly set

my face against any proffered scholastic appointment."



"For example?" asked Summerlee, with a sneer; but Lord John

hastened to change the conversation.



"I must say," said he, "that I think it would be a mighty poor

thing to go back to London before I know a great deal more of

this place than I do at present."



"I could never dare to walk into the back office of my paper and

face old McArdle," said I.  (You will excuse the frankness of this

report, will you not, sir?)  "He'd never forgive me for leaving

such unexhausted copy behind me.  Besides, so far as I can see it

is not worth discussing, since we can't get down, even if we wanted."



"Our young friend makes up for many obvious mental lacunae by

some measure of primitive common sense, remarked Challenger. 

"The interests of his deplorable profession are immaterial to us;

but, as he observes, we cannot get down in any case, so it is a

waste of energy to discuss it."



"It is a waste of energy to do anything else," growled Summerlee

from behind his pipe.  "Let me remind you that we came here upon

a perfectly definite mission, entrusted to us at the meeting of

the Zoological Institute in London.  That mission was to test the

truth of Professor Challenger's statements.  Those statements,

as I am bound to admit, we are now in a position to endorse. 

Our ostensible work is therefore done.  As to the detail which

remains to be worked out upon this plateau, it is so enormous

that only a large expedition, with a very special equipment,

could hope to cope with it.  Should we attempt to do so ourselves,

the only possible result must be that we shall never return with

the important contribution to science which we have already gained. 

Professor Challenger has devised means for getting us on to this

plateau when it appeared to be inaccessible; I think that we should

now call upon him to use the same ingenuity in getting us back to

the world from which we came."



I confess that as Summerlee stated his view it struck me as

altogether reasonable.  Even Challenger was affected by the

consideration that his enemies would never stand confuted if the

confirmation of his statements should never reach those who had

doubted them.



"The problem of the descent is at first sight a formidable one,"

said he, "and yet I cannot doubt that the intellect can solve it. 

I am prepared to agree with our colleague that a protracted stay

in Maple White Land is at present inadvisable, and that the

question of our return will soon have to be faced.  I absolutely

refuse to leave, however, until we have made at least a

superficial examination of this country, and are able to take

back with us something in the nature of a chart."



Professor Summerlee gave a snort of impatience.



"We have spent two long days in exploration," said he, "and we

are no wiser as to the actual geography of the place than when

we started.  It is clear that it is all thickly wooded, and it

would take months to penetrate it and to learn the relations of

one part to another.  If there were some central peak it would

be different, but it all slopes downwards, so far as we can see. 

The farther we go the less likely it is that we will get any

general view."



It was at that moment that I had my inspiration.  My eyes chanced

to light upon the enormous gnarled trunk of the gingko tree which

cast its huge branches over us.  Surely, if its bole exceeded

that of all others, its height must do the same.  If the rim of

the plateau was indeed the highest point, then why should this

mighty tree not prove to be a watchtower which commanded the

whole country?  Now, ever since I ran wild as a lad in Ireland I

have been a bold and skilled tree-climber.  My comrades might be

my masters on the rocks, but I knew that I would be supreme among

those branches.  Could I only get my legs on to the lowest of the

giant off-shoots, then it would be strange indeed if I could not

make my way to the top.  My comrades were delighted at my idea.



"Our young friend," said Challenger, bunching up the red apples

of his cheeks, "is capable of acrobatic exertions which would be

impossible to a man of a more solid, though possibly of a more

commanding, appearance.  I applaud his resolution."



"By George, young fellah, you've put your hand on it!" said Lord

John, clapping me on the back.  "How we never came to think of it

before I can't imagine!  There's not more than an hour of daylight

left, but if you take your notebook you may be able to get some

rough sketch of the place.  If we put these three ammunition

cases under the branch, I will soon hoist you on to it."



He stood on the boxes while I faced the trunk, and was gently

raising me when Challenger sprang forward and gave me such a

thrust with his  huge hand that he fairly shot me into the tree. 

With both arms clasping the branch, I scrambled  hard with my

feet until I had worked, first my body, and then my knees, onto it. 

There were three excellent off-shoots, like huge rungs of a

ladder, above my head, and a tangle of convenient branches

beyond, so that I clambered onwards with such speed that I soon

lost sight of the ground and had nothing but foliage beneath me. 

Now and then I encountered a check, and once I had to shin up a

creeper for eight or ten feet, but I made excellent progress, and

the booming of Challenger's voice seemed to be a great distance

beneath me. The tree was, however, enormous, and, looking

upwards, I could see no thinning of the leaves above my head. 

There was some thick, bush-like clump which seemed to be a

parasite upon a branch up which I was swarming.  I leaned my head

round it in order to see what was beyond, and I nearly fell out

of the tree in my surprise and horror at what I saw.



A face was gazing into mine--at the distance of only a foot or two. 

The creature that owned it had been crouching behind the parasite,

and had looked round it at the same instant that I did.  It was

a human face--or at least it was far more human than any monkey's

that I have ever seen.  It was long, whitish, and blotched with

pimples, the nose flattened, and the lower jaw projecting, with

a bristle of coarse whiskers round the chin.  The eyes, which

were under thick and heavy brows, were bestial and ferocious,

and as it opened its mouth to snarl what sounded like a curse at

me I observed that it had curved, sharp canine teeth.  For an

instant I read hatred and menace in the evil eyes.  Then, as quick

as a flash, came an expression of overpowering fear.  There was

a crash of broken boughs as it dived wildly down into the tangle

of green.  I caught a glimpse of a hairy body like that of a

reddish pig, and then it was gone amid a swirl of leaves and branches.



"What's the matter?" shouted Roxton from below.  "Anything wrong

with you?"



"Did you see it?" I cried, with my arms round the branch and all

my nerves tingling.



"We heard a row, as if your foot had slipped.  What was it?"



I was so shocked at the sudden and strange appearance of this

ape-man that I hesitated whether I should not climb down again

and tell my experience to my companions.  But I was already so

far up the great tree that it seemed a humiliation to return

without having carried out my mission.



After a long pause, therefore, to recover my breath and my

courage, I continued my ascent.  Once I put my weight upon a

rotten branch and swung for a few seconds by my hands, but in the

main it was all easy climbing.  Gradually the leaves thinned

around me, and I was aware, from the wind upon my face, that I

had topped all the trees of the forest.  I was determined,

however, not to look about me before I had reached the very

highest point, so I scrambled on until I had got so far that the

topmost branch was bending beneath my weight.  There I settled

into a convenient fork, and, balancing myself securely, I found

myself looking down at a most wonderful panorama of this strange

country in which we found ourselves.



The sun was just above the western sky-line, and the evening was

a particularly bright and clear one, so that the whole extent of

the plateau was visible beneath me.  It was, as seen from this

height, of an oval contour, with a breadth of about thirty miles

and a width of twenty.  Its general shape was that of a shallow

funnel, all the sides sloping down to a considerable lake in

the center.  This lake may have been ten miles in circumference,

and lay very green and beautiful in the evening light, with a

thick fringe of reeds at its edges, and with its surface broken

by several yellow sandbanks, which gleamed golden in the

mellow sunshine.  A number of long dark objects, which were too

large for alligators and too long for canoes, lay upon the edges

of these patches of sand.  With my glass I could clearly see that

they were alive, but what their nature might be I could not imagine.



From the side of the plateau on which we were, slopes of

woodland, with occasional glades, stretched down for five or six

miles to the central lake.  I could see at my very feet the glade

of the iguanodons, and farther off was a round opening in the

trees which marked the swamp of the pterodactyls.  On the side

facing me, however, the plateau presented a very different aspect. 

There the basalt cliffs of the outside were reproduced upon the

inside, forming an escarpment about two hundred feet high, with

a woody slope beneath it.  Along the base of these red cliffs,

some distance above the ground, I could see a number of dark

holes through the glass, which I conjectured to be the mouths

of caves.  At the opening of one of these something white was

shimmering, but I was unable to make out what it was.  I sat

charting the country until the sun had set and it was so dark

that I could no longer distinguish details.  Then I climbed down

to my companions waiting for me so eagerly at the bottom of the

great tree.  For once I was the hero of the expedition.  Alone I

had thought of it, and alone I had done it; and here was the

chart which would save us a month's blind groping among

unknown dangers.  Each of them shook me solemnly by the hand.



But before they discussed the details of my map I had to tell

them of my encounter with the ape-man among the branches.



"He has been there all the time," said I.



"How do you know that?" asked Lord John.



"Because I have never been without that feeling that something

malevolent was watching us. I mentioned it to you, Professor Challenger."



"Our young friend certainly said something of the kind.  He is

also the one among us who is endowed with that Celtic temperament

which would make him sensitive to such impressions."



"The whole theory of telepathy----" began Summerlee, filling his pipe.



"Is too vast to be now discussed," said Challenger, with decision. 

"Tell me, now," he added, with the air of a bishop addressing a

Sunday-school, "did you happen to observe whether the creature

could cross its thumb over its palm?"



"No, indeed."



"Had it a tail?"



"No."



"Was the foot prehensile?"



"I do not think it could have made off so fast among the branches

if it could not get a grip with its feet."



"In South America there are, if my memory serves me--you will

check the observation, Professor Summerlee--some thirty-six

species of monkeys, but the anthropoid ape is unknown.  It is

clear, however, that he exists in this country, and that he is

not the hairy, gorilla-like variety, which is never seen out of

Africa or the East."  (I was inclined to interpolate, as I looked

at him, that I had seen his first cousin in Kensington.)  "This is

a whiskered and colorless type, the latter characteristic pointing

to the fact that he spends his days in arboreal seclusion. 

The question which we have to face is whether he approaches more

closely to the ape or the man.  In the latter case, he may well

approximate to what the vulgar have called the `missing link.' 

The solution of this problem is our immediate duty."



"It is nothing of the sort," said Summerlee, abruptly.  "Now that,

through the intelligence and activity of Mr. Malone" (I cannot help

quoting the words), "we have got our chart, our one and only

immediate duty is to get ourselves safe and sound out of this

awful place."



"The flesh-pots of civilization," groaned Challenger.



"The ink-pots of civilization, sir.  It is our task to put on

record what we have seen, and to leave the further exploration

to others.  You all agreed as much before Mr. Malone got us the chart."



"Well," said Challenger, "I admit that my mind will be more at

ease when I am assured that the result of our expedition has been

conveyed to our friends.  How we are to get down from this place

I have not as yet an idea.  I have never yet encountered any

problem, however, which my inventive brain was unable to solve,

and I promise you that to-morrow I will turn my attention to the

question of our descent."  And so the matter was allowed to rest.



But that evening, by the light of the fire and of a single candle,

the first map of the lost world was elaborated.  Every detail

which I had roughly noted from my watch-tower was drawn out in

its relative place.  Challenger's pencil hovered over the great

blank which marked the lake.



"What shall we call it?" he asked.



"Why should you not take the chance of perpetuating your own

name?" said Summerlee, with his usual touch of acidity.



"I trust, sir, that my name will have other and more personal

claims upon posterity," said Challenger, severely.  "Any ignoramus

can hand down his worthless memory by imposing it upon a mountain

or a river.  I need no such monument."



Summerlee, with a twisted smile, was about to make some fresh

assault when Lord John hastened to intervene.



"It's up to you, young fellah, to name the lake," said he. 

"You saw it first, and, by George, if you choose to put `Lake

Malone' on it, no one has a better right."



"By all means.  Let our young friend give it a name," said Challenger.



"Then, said I, blushing, I dare say, as I said it, "let it be

named Lake Gladys."



"Don't you think the Central Lake would be more descriptive?"

remarked Summerlee.



"I should prefer Lake Gladys."



Challenger looked at me sympathetically, and shook his great head

in mock disapproval.  "Boys will be boys," said he.  "Lake Gladys

let it be."





                           CHAPTER XII



                "It was Dreadful in the Forest"



I have said--or perhaps I have not said, for my memory plays me

sad tricks these days--that I glowed with pride when three such

men as my comrades thanked me for having saved, or at least

greatly helped, the situation.  As the youngster of the party,

not merely in years, but in experience, character, knowledge, and

all that goes to make a man, I had been overshadowed from the first. 

And now I was coming into my own.  I warmed at the thought. 

Alas! for the pride which goes before a fall!  That little glow

of self-satisfaction, that added measure of self-confidence, were

to lead me on that very night to the most dreadful experience

of my life, ending with a shock which turns my heart sick when I

think of it.



It came about in this way.  I had been unduly excited by the

adventure of the tree, and sleep seemed to be impossible. 

Summerlee was on guard, sitting hunched over our small fire,

a quaint, angular figure, his rifle across his knees and his

pointed, goat-like beard wagging with each weary nod of his head. 

Lord John lay silent, wrapped in the South American poncho which

he wore, while Challenger snored with a roll and rattle which

reverberated through the woods.  The full moon was shining

brightly, and the air was crisply cold.  What a night for a walk! 

And then suddenly came the thought, "Why not?"  Suppose I stole

softly away, suppose I made my way down to the central lake,

suppose I was back at breakfast with some record of the place--

would I not in that case be thought an even more worthy associate? 

Then, if Summerlee carried the day and some means of escape were

found, we should return to London with first-hand knowledge of

 the central mystery of the plateau, to which I alone, of all

men, would have penetrated.  I thought of Gladys, with her "There

are heroisms all round us."  I seemed to hear her voice as she

said it.  I thought also of McArdle.  What a three column article

for the paper!  What a foundation for a career!  A correspondentship

in the next great war might be within my reach.  I clutched at a

gun--my pockets were full of cartridges--and, parting the thorn

bushes at the gate of our zareba, quickly slipped out.  My last

glance showed me the unconscious Summerlee, most futile of

sentinels, still nodding away like a queer mechanical toy in front

of the smouldering fire.



I had not gone a hundred yards before I deeply repented my rashness. 

I may have said somewhere in this chronicle that I am too

imaginative to be a really courageous man, but that I have an

overpowering fear of seeming afraid.  This was the power which

now carried me onwards.  I simply could not slink back with

nothing done.  Even if my comrades should not have missed me, and

should never know of my weakness, there would still remain some

intolerable self-shame in my own soul.  And yet I shuddered at

the position in which I found myself, and would have given all I

possessed at that moment to have been honorably free of the

whole business.



It was dreadful in the forest.  The trees grew so thickly and

their foliage spread so widely that I could see nothing of the

moon-light save that here and there the high branches made a

tangled filigree against the starry sky.  As the eyes became more

used to the obscurity one learned that there were different

degrees of darkness among the trees--that some were dimly

visible, while between and among them there were coal-black

shadowed patches, like the mouths of caves, from which I shrank

in horror as I passed.  I thought of the despairing yell of the

tortured iguanodon--that dreadful cry which had echoed through

the woods.  I thought, too, of the glimpse I had in the light of

Lord John's torch of that bloated, warty, blood-slavering muzzle. 

Even now I was on its hunting-ground.  At any instant it might

spring upon me from the shadows--this nameless and horrible monster. 

I stopped, and, picking a cartridge from my pocket, I opened the

breech of my gun.  As I touched the lever my heart leaped within me. 

It was the shot-gun, not the rifle, which I had taken!



Again the impulse to return swept over me.  Here, surely, was a

most excellent reason for my failure--one for which no one would

think the less of me.  But again the foolish pride fought against

that very word.  I could not--must not--fail.  After all, my

rifle would probably have been as useless as a shot-gun against

such dangers as I might meet.  If I were to go back to camp to

change my weapon I could hardly expect to enter and to leave

again without being seen.  In that case there would be

explanations, and my attempt would no longer be all my own. 

After a little hesitation, then, I screwed up my courage and

continued upon my way, my useless gun under my arm.



The darkness of the forest had been alarming, but even worse

was the white, still flood of moonlight in the open glade of

the iguanodons.  Hid among the bushes, I looked out at it.  None of

the great brutes were in sight.  Perhaps the tragedy which had

befallen one of them had driven them from their feeding-ground. 

In the misty, silvery night I could see no sign of any living thing. 

Taking courage, therefore, I slipped rapidly across it, and among

the jungle on the farther side I picked up once again the brook

which was my guide.  It was a cheery companion, gurgling and

chuckling as it ran, like the dear old trout-stream in the West

Country where I have fished at night in my boyhood.  So long as

I followed it down I must come to the lake, and so long as I

followed it back I must come to the camp.  Often I had to lose

sight of it on account of the tangled brush-wood, but I was always

within earshot of its tinkle and splash.



As one descended the slope the woods became thinner, and bushes,

with occasional high trees, took the place of the forest. 

I could make good progress, therefore, and I could see without

being seen.  I passed close to the pterodactyl swamp, and as I

did so, with a dry, crisp, leathery rattle of wings, one of

these great creatures--it was twenty feet at least from tip to

tip--rose up from somewhere near me and soared into the air. 

As it passed across the face of the moon the light shone clearly

through the membranous wings, and it looked like a flying

skeleton against the white, tropical radiance.  I crouched low

among the bushes, for I knew from past experience that with a

single cry the creature could bring a hundred of its loathsome

mates about my ears.  It was not until it had settled again that

I dared to steal onwards upon my journey.



The night had been exceedingly still, but as I advanced I became

conscious of a low, rumbling sound, a continuous murmur,

somewhere in front of me.  This grew louder as I proceeded, until

at last it was clearly quite close to me.  When I stood still

the sound was constant, so that it seemed to come from some

stationary cause.  It was like a boiling kettle or the bubbling

of some great pot.  Soon I came upon the source of it, for in the

center of a small clearing I found a lake--or a pool, rather,

for it was not larger than the basin of the Trafalgar Square

fountain--of some black, pitch-like stuff, the surface of which

rose and fell in great blisters of bursting gas.  The air above

it was shimmering with heat, and the ground round was so hot that

I could hardly bear to lay my hand on it.  It was clear that the

great volcanic outburst which had raised this strange plateau so

many years ago had not yet entirely spent its forces.  Blackened rocks

and mounds of lava I had already seen everywhere peeping out from

amid the luxuriant vegetation which draped them, but this asphalt

pool in the jungle was the first sign that we had of actual

existing activity on the slopes of the ancient crater.  I had no

time to examine it further for I had need to hurry if I were to be

back in camp in the morning.



It was a fearsome walk, and one which will be with me so long as

memory holds.  In the great moonlight clearings I slunk along

among the shadows on the margin.  In the jungle I crept forward,

stopping with a beating heart whenever I heard, as I often did,

the crash of breaking branches as some wild beast went past. 

Now and then great shadows loomed up for an instant and were

gone--great, silent shadows which seemed to prowl upon padded feet. 

How often I stopped with the intention of returning, and yet every

time my pride conquered my fear, and sent me on again until my

object should be attained.



At last (my watch showed that it was one in the morning) I saw

the gleam of water amid the openings of the jungle, and ten

minutes later I was among the reeds upon the borders of the

central lake.  I was exceedingly dry, so I lay down and took a

long draught of its waters, which were fresh and cold.  There was

a broad pathway with many tracks upon it at the spot which I had

found, so that it was clearly one of the drinking-places of

the animals.  Close to the water's edge there was a huge isolated

block of lava.  Up this I climbed, and, lying on the top, I had

an excellent view in every direction.



The first thing which I saw filled me with amazement.  When I

described the view from the summit of the great tree, I said that

on the farther cliff I could see a number of dark spots, which

appeared to be the mouths of caves.  Now, as I looked up at the

same cliffs, I saw discs of light in every direction, ruddy,

clearly-defined patches, like the port-holes of a liner in

the darkness.  For a moment I thought it was the lava-glow from

some volcanic action; but this could not be so.  Any volcanic action

would surely be down in the hollow and not high among the rocks. 

What, then, was the alternative?  It was wonderful, and yet it

must surely be.  These ruddy spots must be the reflection of

fires within the caves--fires which could only be lit by the

hand of man.  There were human beings, then, upon the plateau. 

How gloriously my expedition was justified!  Here was news indeed

for us to bear back with us to London!



For a long time I lay and watched these red, quivering blotches

of light.  I suppose they were ten miles off from me, yet even

at that distance one could observe how, from time to time, they

twinkled or were obscured as someone passed before them.  What would

I not have given to be able to crawl up to them, to peep in, and

to take back some word to my comrades as to the appearance and

character of the race who lived in so strange a place!  It was

out of the question for the moment, and yet surely we could not

leave the plateau until we had some definite knowledge upon the point.



Lake Gladys--my own lake--lay like a sheet of quicksilver before

me, with a reflected moon shining brightly in the center of it. 

It was shallow, for in many places I saw low sandbanks protruding

above the water.  Everywhere upon the still surface I could see

signs of life, sometimes mere rings and ripples in the water,

sometimes the gleam of a great silver-sided fish in the air,

sometimes the arched, slate-colored back of some passing monster. 

Once upon a yellow sandbank I saw a creature like a huge swan,

with a clumsy body and a high, flexible neck, shuffling about

upon the margin.  Presently it plunged in, and for some time I

could see the arched neck and darting head undulating over the water. 

Then it dived, and I saw it no more.



My attention was soon drawn away from these distant sights and

brought back to what was going on at my very feet.  Two creatures

like large armadillos had come down to the drinking-place, and

were squatting at the edge of the water, their long, flexible

tongues like red ribbons shooting in and out as they lapped. 

A huge deer, with branching horns, a magnificent creature which

carried itself like a king, came down with its doe and two fawns

and drank beside the armadillos.  No such deer exist anywhere

else upon earth, for the moose or elks which I have seen would

hardly have reached its shoulders.  Presently it gave a warning

snort, and was off with its family among the reeds, while the

armadillos also scuttled for shelter.  A new-comer, a most

monstrous animal, was coming down the path.



For a moment I wondered where I could have seen that ungainly

shape, that arched back with triangular fringes along it, that

strange bird-like head held close to the ground.  Then it came

back, to me.  It was the stegosaurus--the very creature which

Maple White had preserved in his sketch-book, and which had been

the first object which arrested the attention of Challenger!

There he was--perhaps the very specimen which the American artist

had encountered.  The ground shook beneath his tremendous weight,

and his gulpings of water resounded through the still night. 

For five minutes he was so close to my rock that by stretching out

my hand I could have touched the hideous waving hackles upon his back. 

Then he lumbered away and was lost among the boulders.



Looking at my watch, I saw that it was half-past two o'clock, and

high time, therefore, that I started upon my homeward journey. 

There was no difficulty about the direction in which I should

return for all along I had kept the little brook upon my left,

and it opened into the central lake within a stone's-throw of the

boulder upon which I had been lying.  I set off, therefore, in

high spirits, for I felt that I had done good work and was

bringing back a fine budget of news for my companions.  Foremost of

all, of course, were the sight of the fiery caves and the certainty

that some troglodytic race inhabited them.  But besides that I

could speak from experience of the central lake.  I could testify

that it was full of strange creatures, and I had seen several

land forms of primeval life which we had not before encountered. 

I reflected as I walked that few men in the world could have spent

a stranger night or added more to human knowledge in the course of it.



I was plodding up the slope, turning these thoughts over in my

mind, and had reached a point which may have been half-way to

home, when my mind was brought back to my own position by a

strange noise behind me.  It was something between a snore and

a growl, low, deep, and exceedingly menacing.  Some strange

creature was evidently near me, but nothing could be seen, so I

hastened more rapidly upon my way.  I had traversed half a mile

or so when suddenly the sound was repeated, still behind me, but

louder and more menacing than before.  My heart stood still

within me as it flashed across me that the beast, whatever it

was, must surely be after ME.   My skin grew cold and my hair

rose at the thought.  That these monsters should tear each other

to pieces was a part of the strange struggle for existence,

but that they should turn upon modern man, that they should

deliberately track and hunt down the predominant human, was a

staggering and fearsome thought.  I remembered again the

blood-beslobbered face which we had seen in the glare of Lord

John's torch, like some horrible vision from the deepest circle

of Dante's hell.  With my knees shaking beneath me, I stood and

glared with starting eyes down the moonlit path which lay behind me. 

All was quiet as in a dream landscape.  Silver clearings and the

black patches of the bushes--nothing else could I see.  Then from

out of the silence, imminent and threatening, there came once more

that low, throaty croaking, far louder and closer than before. 

There could no longer be a doubt.  Something was on my trail, and

was closing in upon me every minute.



I stood like a man paralyzed, still staring at the ground which I

had traversed.  Then suddenly I saw it.  There was movement among

the bushes at the far end of the clearing which I had just traversed. 

A great dark shadow disengaged itself and hopped out into the clear

moonlight.  I say "hopped" advisedly, for the beast moved like a

kangaroo, springing along in an erect position upon its powerful

hind legs, while its front ones were held bent in front of it. 

It was of enormous size and power, like an erect elephant, but its

movements, in spite of its bulk, were exceedingly alert.  For a

moment, as I saw its shape, I hoped that it was an iguanodon,

which I knew to be harmless, but, ignorant as I was, I soon saw

that this was a very different creature.  Instead of the gentle,

deer-shaped head of the great three-toed leaf-eater, this beast

had a broad, squat, toad-like face like that which had alarmed us

in our camp.  His ferocious cry and the horrible energy of his

pursuit both assured me that this was surely one of the great

flesh-eating dinosaurs, the most terrible beasts which have ever

walked this earth.  As the huge brute loped along it dropped forward

upon its fore-paws and brought its nose to the ground every twenty

yards or so.  It was smelling out my trail.  Sometimes, for an

instant, it was at fault.  Then it would catch it up again and

come bounding swiftly along the path I had taken.



Even now when I think of that nightmare the sweat breaks out upon

my brow.  What could I do?  My useless fowling-piece was in my hand. 

What help could I get from that?  I looked desperately round for

some rock or tree, but I was in a bushy jungle with nothing higher

than a sapling within sight, while I knew that the creature behind

me could tear down an ordinary tree as though it were a reed. 

My only possible chance lay in flight.  I could not move swiftly

over the rough, broken ground, but as I looked round me in despair

I saw a well-marked, hard-beaten path which ran across in front

of me.  We had seen several of the sort, the runs of various wild

beasts, during our expeditions.  Along this I could perhaps hold

my own, for I was a fast runner, and in excellent condition. 

Flinging away my useless gun, I set myself to do such a half-mile

as I have never done before or since.  My limbs ached, my chest

heaved, I felt that my throat would burst for want of air, and yet

with that horror behind me I ran and I ran and ran.  At last I

paused, hardly able to move.  For a moment I thought that I had

thrown him off.  The path lay still behind me.  And then suddenly,

with a crashing and a rending, a thudding of giant feet and a

panting of monster lungs the beast was upon me once more.  He was

at my very heels.  I was lost.



Madman that I was to linger so long before I fled!  Up to then he

had hunted by scent, and his movement was slow.  But he had

actually seen me as I started to run.  From then onwards he had

hunted by sight, for the path showed him where I had gone.  Now, as

he came round the curve, he was springing in great bounds. 

The moonlight shone upon his huge projecting eyes, the row of

enormous teeth in his open mouth, and the gleaming fringe of

claws upon his short, powerful forearms.  With a scream of terror

I turned and rushed wildly down the path.  Behind me the thick,

gasping breathing of the creature sounded louder and louder. 

His heavy footfall was beside me.  Every instant I expected to feel

his grip upon my back.  And then suddenly there came a crash--I was

falling through space, and everything beyond was darkness and rest.



As I emerged from my unconsciousness--which could not, I think,

have lasted more than a few minutes--I was aware of a most

dreadful and penetrating smell.  Putting out my hand in the

darkness I came upon something which felt like a huge lump of

meat, while my other hand closed upon a large bone.  Up above me

there was a circle of starlit sky, which showed me that I was

lying at the bottom of a deep pit.  Slowly I staggered to my feet

and felt myself all over.  I was stiff and sore from head to

foot, but there was no limb which would not move, no joint which

would not bend.  As the circumstances of my fall came back into

my confused brain, I looked up in terror, expecting to see that

dreadful head silhouetted against the paling sky.  There was no

sign of the monster, however, nor could I hear any sound from above. 

I began to walk slowly round, therefore, feeling in every direction

to find out what this strange place could be into which I had been

so opportunely precipitated.



It was, as I have said, a pit, with sharply-sloping walls and a

level bottom about twenty feet across.  This bottom was littered

with great gobbets of flesh, most of which was in the last state

of putridity.  The atmosphere was poisonous and horrible. 

After tripping and stumbling over these lumps of decay, I came

suddenly against something hard, and I found that an upright post

was firmly fixed in the center of the hollow.  It was so high that

I could not reach the top of it with my hand, and it appeared to be

covered with grease.



Suddenly I remembered that I had a tin box of wax-vestas in

my pocket.  Striking one of them, I was able at last to form some

opinion of this place into which I had fallen.  There could be no

question as to its nature.  It was a trap--made by the hand of man. 

The post in the center, some nine feet long, was sharpened

at the upper end, and was black with the stale blood of the

creatures who had been impaled upon it.  The remains scattered

about were fragments of the victims, which had been cut away in

order to clear the stake for the next who might blunder in. 

I remembered that Challenger had declared that man could not exist

upon the plateau, since with his feeble weapons he could not hold

his own against the monsters who roamed over it.  But now it was

clear enough how it could be done.  In their narrow-mouthed caves

the natives, whoever they might be, had refuges into which the

huge saurians could not penetrate, while with their developed

brains they were capable of setting such traps, covered with

branches, across the paths which marked the run of the animals as

would destroy them in spite of all their strength and activity. 

Man was always the master.



The sloping wall of the pit was not difficult for an active man

to climb, but I hesitated long before I trusted myself within

reach of the dreadful creature which had so nearly destroyed me. 

How did I know that he was not lurking in the nearest clump of

bushes, waiting for my reappearance?  I took heart, however, as I

recalled a conversation between Challenger and Summerlee upon the

habits of the great saurians.  Both were agreed that the monsters

were practically brainless, that there was no room for reason in

their tiny cranial cavities, and that if they have disappeared

from the rest of the world it was assuredly on account of their

own stupidity, which made it impossible for them to adapt

themselves to changing conditions.



To lie in wait for me now would mean that the creature had

appreciated what had happened to me, and this in turn would argue

some power connecting cause and effect.  Surely it was more

likely that a brainless creature, acting solely by vague

predatory instinct, would give up the chase when I disappeared,

and, after a pause of astonishment, would wander away in search

of some other prey?  I clambered to the edge of the pit and

looked over.  The stars were fading, the sky was whitening, and

the cold wind of morning blew pleasantly upon my face.  I could

see or hear nothing of my enemy.  Slowly I climbed out and sat for

a while upon the ground, ready to spring back into my refuge if any

danger should appear.  Then, reassured by the absolute stillness

and by the growing light, I took my courage in both hands and

stole back along the path which I had come.  Some distance down

it I picked up my gun, and shortly afterwards struck the brook

which was my guide.  So, with many a frightened backward glance,

I made for home.



And suddenly there came something to remind me of my absent companions. 

In the clear, still morning air there sounded far away the sharp,

hard note of a single rifle-shot.  I paused and listened, but

there was nothing more.  For a moment I was shocked at the thought

that some sudden danger might have befallen them.  But then a

simpler and more natural explanation came to my mind.  It was now

broad daylight.  No doubt my absence had been noticed.  They had

imagined, that I was lost in the woods, and had fired this shot

to guide me home.  It is true that we had made a strict resolution

against firing, but if it seemed to them that I might be in danger

they would not hesitate.  It was for me now to hurry on as fast as

possible, and so to reassure them.



I was weary and spent, so my progress was not so fast as I

wished; but at last I came into regions which I knew.  There was

the swamp of the pterodactyls upon my left; there in front of me

was the glade of the iguanodons.  Now I was in the last belt of

trees which separated me from Fort Challenger.  I raised my voice

in a cheery shout to allay their fears.  No answering greeting

came back to me.  My heart sank at that ominous stillness. 

I quickened my pace into a run.  The zareba rose before me, even

as I had left it, but the gate was open.  I rushed in.  In the cold,

morning light it was a fearful sight which met my eyes.  Our effects

were scattered in wild confusion over the ground; my comrades had

disappeared, and close to the smouldering ashes of our fire the

grass was stained crimson with a hideous pool of blood.



I was so stunned by this sudden shock that for a time I must

have nearly lost my reason.  I have a vague recollection, as

one remembers a bad dream, of rushing about through the woods

all round the empty camp, calling wildly for my companions. 

No answer came back from the silent shadows.  The horrible

thought that I might never see them again, that I might find

myself abandoned all alone in that dreadful place, with no

possible way of descending into the world below, that I might

live and die in that nightmare country, drove me to desperation. 

I could have torn my hair and beaten my head in my despair. 

Only now did I realize how I had learned to lean upon my

companions, upon the serene self-confidence of Challenger,

and upon the masterful, humorous coolness of Lord John Roxton. 

Without them I was like a child in the dark, helpless and powerless. 

I did not know which way to turn or what I should do first.



After a period, during which I sat in bewilderment, I set myself

to try and discover what sudden misfortune could have befallen

my companions.  The whole disordered appearance of the camp

showed that there had been some sort of attack, and the rifle-

shot no doubt marked the time when it had occurred.  That there

should have been only one shot showed that it had been all over

in an instant.  The rifles still lay upon the ground, and one

of them--Lord John's--had the empty cartridge in the breech. 

The blankets of Challenger and of Summerlee beside the fire

suggested that they had been asleep at the time.  The cases of

ammunition and of food were scattered about in a wild litter,

together with our unfortunate cameras and plate-carriers, but

none of them were missing.  On the other hand, all the exposed

provisions--and I remembered that there were a considerable

quantity of them--were gone.  They were animals, then, and not

natives, who had made the inroad, for surely the latter would

have left nothing behind.



But if animals, or some single terrible animal, then what had

become of my comrades?  A ferocious beast would surely have

destroyed them and left their remains.  It is true that there was

that one hideous pool of blood, which told of violence.  Such a

monster as had pursued me during the night could have carried

away a victim as easily as a cat would a mouse.  In that case the

others would have followed in pursuit.  But then they would

assuredly have taken their rifles with them.  The more I tried to

think it out with my confused and weary brain the less could I

find any plausible explanation.  I searched round in the forest,

but could see no tracks which could help me to a conclusion. 

Once I lost myself, and it was only by good luck, and after an

hour of wandering, that I found the camp once more.



Suddenly a thought came to me and brought some little comfort to

my heart.  I was not absolutely alone in the world.  Down at the

bottom of the cliff, and within call of me, was waiting the

faithful Zambo.  I went to the edge of the plateau and looked over. 

Sure enough, he was squatting among his blankets beside his fire

in his little camp.  But, to my amazement, a second man was seated

in front of him.  For an instant my heart leaped for joy, as I

thought that one of my comrades had made his way safely down. 

But a second glance dispelled the hope.  The rising sun shone

red upon the man's skin.  He was an Indian.  I shouted loudly

and waved my handkerchief.  Presently Zambo looked up, waved his

hand, and turned to ascend the pinnacle.  In a short time he was

standing close to me and listening with deep distress to the story

which I told him.



"Devil got them for sure, Massa Malone," said he.  "You got

into the devil's country, sah, and he take you all to himself. 

You take advice, Massa Malone, and come down quick, else he get

you as well."



"How can I come down, Zambo?"



"You get creepers from trees, Massa Malone.  Throw them over here. 

I make fast to this stump, and so you have bridge."



"We have thought of that.  There are no creepers here which could

bear us."



"Send for ropes, Massa Malone."



"Who can I send, and where?"



"Send to Indian villages, sah.  Plenty hide rope in Indian village. 

Indian down below; send him."



"Who is he?



"One of our Indians.  Other ones beat him and take away his pay. 

He come back to us.  Ready now to take letter, bring rope,--anything."



To take a letter!  Why not?  Perhaps he might bring help; but

in any case he would ensure that our lives were not spent for

nothing, and that news of all that we had won for Science

should reach our friends at home.  I had two completed letters

already waiting.  I would spend the day in writing a third, which

would bring my experiences absolutely up to date.  The Indian could

bear this back to the world.  I ordered Zambo, therefore, to come

again in the evening, and I spent my miserable and lonely day in

recording my own adventures of the night before.  I also drew up

a note, to be given to any white merchant or captain of a

steam-boat whom the Indian could find, imploring them to see that

ropes were sent to us, since our lives must depend upon it. 

These documents I threw to Zambo in the evening, and also my

purse, which contained three English sovereigns.  These were to

be given to the Indian, and he was promised twice as much if he

returned with the ropes.



So now you will understand, my dear Mr. McArdle, how this

communication reaches you, and you will also know the truth, in

case you never hear again from your unfortunate correspondent. 

To-night I am too weary and too depressed to make my plans. 

To-morrow I must think out some way by which I shall keep in

touch with this camp, and yet search round for any traces of my

unhappy friends.





                           CHAPTER XIII



               "A Sight which I shall Never Forget"



Just as the sun was setting upon that melancholy night I saw the

lonely figure of the Indian upon the vast plain beneath me, and I

watched him, our one faint hope of salvation, until he disappeared

in the rising mists of evening which lay, rose-tinted from the

setting sun, between the far-off river and me.



It was quite dark when I at last turned back to our stricken

camp, and my last vision as I went was the red gleam of Zambo's

fire, the one point of light in the wide world below, as was

his faithful presence in my own shadowed soul.  And yet I felt

happier than I had done since this crushing blow had fallen upon

me, for it was good to think that the world should know what we

had done, so that at the worst our names should not perish with

our bodies, but should go down to posterity associated with the

result of our labors.



It was an awesome thing to sleep in that ill-fated camp; and yet

it was even more unnerving to do so in the jungle.  One or the

other it must be.  Prudence, on the one hand, warned me that I

should remain on guard, but exhausted Nature, on the other,

declared that I should do nothing of the kind.  I climbed up on

to a limb of the great gingko tree, but there was no secure perch

on its rounded surface, and I should certainly have fallen off

and broken my neck the moment I began to doze.  I got down,

therefore, and pondered over what I should do.  Finally, I closed

the door of the zareba, lit three separate fires in a triangle,

and having eaten a hearty supper dropped off into a profound sleep,

from which I had a strange and most welcome awakening.  In the

early morning, just as day was breaking, a hand was laid upon

my arm, and starting up, with all my nerves in a tingle and my

hand feeling for a rifle, I gave a cry of joy as in the cold gray

light I saw Lord John Roxton kneeling beside me.



It was he--and yet it was not he.  I had left him calm in his

bearing, correct in his person, prim in his dress.  Now he was

pale and wild-eyed, gasping as he breathed like one who has run

far and fast.  His gaunt face was scratched and bloody, his

clothes were hanging in rags, and his hat was gone.  I stared in

amazement, but he gave me no chance for questions.  He was

grabbing at our stores all the time he spoke.



"Quick, young fellah!  Quick!" he cried.  "Every moment counts. 

Get the rifles, both of them.  I have the other two.  Now, all the

cartridges you can gather.  Fill up your pockets.  Now, some food. 

Half a dozen tins will do.  That's all right!  Don't wait to talk

or think.  Get a move on, or we are done!"



Still half-awake, and unable to imagine what it all might mean, I

found myself hurrying madly after him through the wood, a rifle

under each arm and a pile of various stores in my hands.  He dodged

in and out through the thickest of the scrub until he came to a

dense clump of brush-wood.  Into this he rushed, regardless of

thorns, and threw himself into the heart of it, pulling me down

by his side.



"There!" he panted.  "I think we are safe here.  They'll make for

the camp as sure as fate.  It will be their first idea.  But this

should puzzle 'em."



"What is it all?" I asked, when I had got my breath.  "Where are

the professors?  And who is it that is after us?"



"The ape-men," he cried.  "My God, what brutes!  Don't raise your

voice, for they have long ears--sharp eyes, too, but no power of

scent, so far as I could judge, so I don't think they can sniff

us out.  Where have you been, young fellah?  You were well out of it."



In a few sentences I whispered what I had done.



"Pretty bad," said he, when he had heard of the dinosaur and the pit. 

"It isn't quite the place for a rest cure.  What?  But I had no idea

what its possibilities were until those devils got hold of us. 

The man-eatin' Papuans had me once, but they are Chesterfields

compared to this crowd."



"How did it happen?" I asked.



"It was in the early mornin'.  Our learned friends were just stirrin'. 

Hadn't even begun to argue yet.  Suddenly it rained apes.  They came

down as thick as apples out of a tree.  They had been assemblin'

in the dark, I suppose, until that great tree over our heads was

heavy with them.  I shot one of them through the belly, but before

we knew where we were they had us spread-eagled on our backs.  I call

them apes, but they carried sticks and stones in their hands and

jabbered talk to each other, and ended up by tyin' our hands with

creepers, so they are ahead of any beast that I have seen in

my wanderin's.  Ape-men--that's what they are--Missin' Links, and

I wish they had stayed missin'.  They carried off their wounded

comrade--he was bleedin' like a pig--and then they sat around us,

and if ever I saw frozen murder it was in their faces.  They were

big fellows, as big as a man and a deal stronger.  Curious glassy

gray eyes they have, under red tufts, and they just sat and gloated

and gloated.  Challenger is no chicken, but even he was cowed. 

He managed to struggle to his feet, and yelled out at them to have

done with it and get it over.  I think he had gone a bit off his

head at the suddenness of it, for he raged and cursed at them

like a lunatic.  If they had been a row of his favorite Pressmen

he could not have slanged them worse."



"Well, what did they do?"  I was enthralled by the strange story

which my companion was whispering into my ear, while all the time

his keen eyes were shooting in every direction and his hand

grasping his cocked rifle.



"I thought it was the end of us, but instead of that it started

them on a new line.  They all jabbered and chattered together. 

Then one of them stood out beside Challenger.  You'll smile,

young fellah, but 'pon my word they might have been kinsmen. 

I couldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. 

This old ape-man--he was their chief--was a sort of red Challenger,

with every one of our friend's beauty points, only just a trifle

more so.  He had the short body, the big shoulders, the round chest,

no neck, a great ruddy frill of a beard, the tufted eyebrows,

the `What do you want, damn you!' look about the eyes, and the

whole catalogue.  When the ape-man stood by Challenger and put his

paw on his shoulder, the thing was complete.  Summerlee was a bit

hysterical, and he laughed till he cried.  The ape-men laughed too--

or at least they put up the devil of a cacklin'--and they set to

work to drag us off through the forest.  They wouldn't touch the

guns and things--thought them dangerous, I expect--but they carried

away all our loose food.  Summerlee and I got some rough handlin'

on the way--there's my skin and my clothes to prove it--for they

took us a bee-line through the brambles, and their own hides are

like leather.  But Challenger was all right.  Four of them carried

him shoulder high, and he went like a Roman emperor.  What's that?"



It was a strange clicking noise in the distance not unlike castanets.



"There they go!" said my companion, slipping cartridges into the

second double barrelled "Express."  "Load them all up, young

fellah my lad, for we're not going to be taken alive, and don't

you think it!  That's the row they make when they are excited. 

By George! they'll have something to excite them if they put us up. 

The `Last Stand of the Grays' won't be in it.   `With their

rifles grasped in their stiffened hands, mid a ring of the dead

and dyin',' as some fathead sings.  Can you hear them now?"



"Very far away."



"That little lot will do no good, but I expect their search

parties are all over the wood.  Well, I was telling you my tale

of woe.  They got us soon to this town of theirs--about a

thousand huts of branches and leaves in a great grove of trees

near the edge of the cliff.  It's three or four miles from here. 

The filthy beasts fingered me all over, and I feel as if I should

never be clean again.  They tied us up--the fellow who handled me

could tie like a bosun--and there we lay with our toes up,

beneath a tree, while a great brute stood guard over us with a

club in his hand.  When I say `we' I mean Summerlee and myself. 

Old Challenger was up a tree, eatin' pines and havin' the time of

his life.  I'm bound to say that he managed to get some fruit to

us, and with his own hands he loosened our bonds.  If you'd seen

him sitting up in that tree hob-nobbin' with his twin

brother--and singin' in that rollin' bass of his, `Ring out, wild

bells,' cause music of any kind seemed to put 'em in a good

humor, you'd have smiled; but we weren't in much mood for

laughin', as you can guess.  They were inclined, within limits,

to let him do what he liked, but they drew the line pretty

sharply at us.  It was a mighty consolation to us all to know

that you were runnin' loose and had the archives in your keepin'.



"Well, now, young fellah, I'll tell you what will surprise you. 

You say you saw signs of men, and fires, traps, and the like. 

Well, we have seen the natives themselves.  Poor devils they

were, down-faced little chaps, and had enough to make them so. 

It seems that the humans hold one side of this plateau--over

yonder, where you saw the caves--and the ape-men hold this side,

and there is bloody war between them all the time.  That's the

situation, so far as I could follow it.  Well, yesterday the

ape-men got hold of a dozen of the humans and brought them in

as prisoners.  You never heard such a jabberin' and shriekin' in

your life.  The men were little red fellows, and had been bitten

and clawed so that they could hardly walk.  The ape-men put two

of them to death there and then--fairly pulled the arm off one of

them--it was perfectly beastly.  Plucky little chaps they are,

and hardly gave a squeak.  But it turned us absolutely sick. 

Summerlee fainted, and even Challenger had as much as he could stand. 

I think they have cleared, don't you?"



We listened intently, but nothing save the calling of the birds broke

the deep peace of the forest.  Lord Roxton went on with his story.



"I Think you have had the escape of your life, young fellah my lad. 

It was catchin' those Indians that put you clean out of their heads,

else they would have been back to the camp for you as sure as fate

and gathered you in.  Of course, as you said, they have been watchin'

us from the beginnin' out of that tree, and they knew perfectly well

that we were one short.  However, they could think only of this new

haul; so it was I, and not a bunch of apes, that dropped in on you

in the morning.  Well, we had a horrid business afterwards.  My God!

what a nightmare the whole thing is!  You remember the great bristle

of sharp canes down below where we found the skeleton of the American? 

Well, that is just under ape-town, and that's the jumpin'-off place

of their prisoners.  I expect there's heaps of skeletons there, if

we looked for 'em.  They have a sort of clear parade-ground on

the top, and they make a proper ceremony about it.  One by one the

poor devils have to jump, and the game is to see whether they are

merely dashed to pieces or whether they get skewered on the canes. 

They took us out to see it, and the whole tribe lined up on the edge. 

Four of the Indians jumped, and the canes went through 'em like

knittin' needles through a pat of butter.  No wonder we found that

poor Yankee's skeleton with the canes growin' between his ribs. 

It was horrible--but it was doocedly interestin' too.  We were all

fascinated to see them take the dive, even when we thought it would

be our turn next on the spring-board.



"Well, it wasn't.  They kept six of the Indians up for to-day--

that's how I understood it--but I fancy we were to be the

star performers in the show.  Challenger might get off, but

Summerlee and I were in the bill.  Their language is more than

half signs, and it was not hard to follow them.  So I thought it

was time we made a break for it.  I had been plottin' it out a

bit, and had one or two things clear in my mind.  It was all on

me, for Summerlee was useless and Challenger not much better. 

The only time they got together they got slangin' because they

couldn't agree upon the scientific classification of these

red-headed devils that had got hold of us.  One said it was the

dryopithecus of Java, the other said it was pithecanthropus. 

Madness, I call it--Loonies, both.  But, as I say, I had thought

out one or two points that were helpful.  One was that these

brutes could not run as fast as a man in the open.  They have

short, bandy legs, you see, and heavy bodies.  Even Challenger

could give a few yards in a hundred to the best of them, and you

or I would be a perfect Shrubb.  Another point was that they knew

nothin' about guns.  I don't believe they ever understood how the

fellow I shot came by his hurt.  If we could get at our guns

there was no sayin' what we could do.



"So I broke away early this mornin', gave my guard a kick in the

tummy that laid him out, and sprinted for the camp.  There I got

you and the guns, and here we are."



"But the professors!" I cried, in consternation.



"Well, we must just go back and fetch 'em.  I couldn't bring 'em

with me.  Challenger was up the tree, and Summerlee was not fit

for the effort.  The only chance was to get the guns and try

a rescue.  Of course they may scupper them at once in revenge. 

I don't think they would touch Challenger, but I wouldn't answer

for Summerlee.  But they would have had him in any case.  Of that

I am certain.  So I haven't made matters any worse by boltin'. 

But we are honor bound to go back and have them out or see it

through with them.  So you can make up your soul, young fellah my

lad, for it will be one way or the other before evenin'."



I have tried to imitate here Lord Roxton's jerky talk, his short,

strong sentences, the half-humorous, half-reckless tone that ran

through it all.  But he was a born leader.  As danger thickened

his jaunty manner would increase, his speech become more racy,

his cold eyes glitter into ardent life, and his Don Quixote

moustache bristle with joyous excitement.  His love of danger,

his intense appreciation of the drama of an adventure--all the

more intense for being held tightly in--his consistent view that

every peril in life is a form of sport, a fierce game betwixt you

and Fate, with Death as a forfeit, made him a wonderful companion

at such hours.  If it were not for our fears as to the fate of

our companions, it would have been a positive joy to throw myself

with such a man into such an affair.  We were rising from our

brushwood hiding-place when suddenly I felt his grip upon my arm.



"By George!" he whispered, "here they come!"



From where we lay we could look down a brown aisle, arched with

green, formed by the trunks and branches.  Along this a party of

the ape-men were passing.  They went in single file, with bent legs

and rounded backs, their hands occasionally touching the ground,

their heads turning to left and right as they trotted along. 

Their crouching gait took away from their height, but I should

put them at five feet or so, with long arms and enormous chests. 

Many of them carried sticks, and at the distance they looked like

a line of very hairy and deformed human beings.  For a moment I

caught this clear glimpse of them.  Then they were lost among

the bushes.



"Not this time," said Lord John, who had caught up his rifle. 

"Our best chance is to lie quiet until they have given up the search. 

Then we shall see whether we can't get back to their town and hit

'em where it hurts most.  Give 'em an hour and we'll march."



We filled in the time by opening one of our food tins and making

sure of our breakfast.  Lord Roxton had had nothing but some

fruit since the morning before and ate like a starving man. 

Then, at last, our pockets bulging with cartridges and a rifle in

each hand, we started off upon our mission of rescue.  Before leaving

it we carefully marked our little hiding-place among the brush-wood

and its bearing to Fort Challenger, that we might find it again if

we needed it.  We slunk through the bushes in silence until we came

to the very edge of the cliff, close to the old camp.  There we

halted, and Lord John gave me some idea of his plans.



"So long as we are among the thick trees these swine are our

masters, said he.  They can see us and we cannot see them.  But in

the open it is different.  There we can move faster than they. 

So we must stick to the open all we can.  The edge of the plateau

has fewer large trees than further inland.  So that's our line

of advance.  Go slowly, keep your eyes open and your rifle ready. 

Above all, never let them get you prisoner while there is a

cartridge left--that's my last word to you, young fellah."



When we reached the edge of the cliff I looked over and saw our

good old black Zambo sitting smoking on a rock below us.  I would

have given a great deal to have hailed him and told him how we

were placed, but it was too dangerous, lest we should be heard. 

The woods seemed to be full of the ape-men; again and again we

heard their curious clicking chatter.  At such times we plunged

into the nearest clump of bushes and lay still until the sound

had passed away.  Our advance, therefore, was very slow, and two

hours at least must have passed before I saw by Lord John's

cautious movements that we must be close to our destination. 

He motioned to me to lie still, and he crawled forward himself. 

In a minute he was back again, his face quivering with eagerness.



"Come!" said he.  "Come quick! I hope to the Lord we are not too

late already!



I found myself shaking with nervous excitement as I scrambled

forward and lay down beside him, looking out through the bushes

at a clearing which stretched before us.



It was a sight which I shall never forget until my dying day--so

weird, so impossible, that I do not know how I am to make you

realize it, or how in a few years I shall bring myself to believe

in it if I live to sit once more on a lounge in the Savage Club

and look out on the drab solidity of the Embankment.  I know that

it will seem then to be some wild nightmare, some delirium of fever. 

Yet I will set it down now, while it is still fresh in my memory,

and one at least, the man who lay in the damp grasses by my side,

will know if I have lied.



A wide, open space lay before us--some hundreds of yards

across--all green turf and low bracken growing to the very edge

of the cliff.  Round this clearing there was a semi-circle of

trees with curious huts built of foliage piled one above the

other among the branches.  A rookery, with every nest a little

house, would best convey the idea.  The openings of these huts

and the branches of the trees were thronged with a dense mob of

ape-people, whom from their size I took to be the females and

infants of the tribe.  They formed the background of the picture,

and were all looking out with eager interest at the same scene

which fascinated and bewildered us.



In the open, and near the edge of the cliff, there had assembled

a crowd of some hundred of these shaggy, red-haired creatures,

many of them of immense size, and all of them horrible to look upon. 

There was a certain discipline among them, for none of them

attempted to break the line which had been formed.  In front

there stood a small group of Indians--little, clean-limbed, red

fellows, whose skins glowed like polished bronze in the strong sunlight. 

A tall, thin white man was standing beside them, his head bowed,

his arms folded, his whole attitude expressive of his horror

and dejection.  There was no mistaking the angular form of

Professor Summerlee.



In front of and around this dejected group of prisoners were several

ape-men, who watched them closely and made all escape impossible. 

Then, right out from all the others and close to the edge of the

cliff, were two figures, so strange, and under other circumstances

so ludicrous, that they absorbed my attention.  The one was our

comrade, Professor Challenger.  The remains of his coat still hung

in strips from his shoulders, but his shirt had been all torn out,

and his great beard merged itself in the black tangle which

covered his mighty chest.  He had lost his hat, and his hair,

which had grown long in our wanderings, was flying in wild disorder. 

A single day seemed to have changed him from the highest product

of modern civilization to the most desperate savage in South America. 

Beside him stood his master, the king of the ape-men.  In all things

he was, as Lord John had said, the very image of our Professor,

save that his coloring was red instead of black.  The same short,

broad figure, the same heavy shoulders, the same forward hang of

the arms, the same bristling beard merging itself in the hairy chest. 

Only above the eyebrows, where the sloping forehead and low, curved

skull of the ape-man were in sharp contrast to the broad brow and

magnificent cranium of the European, could one see any marked difference. 

At every other point the king was an absurd parody of the Professor.



All this, which takes me so long to describe, impressed itself

upon me in a few seconds.  Then we had very different things to

think of, for an active drama was in progress.  Two of the

ape-men had seized one of the Indians out of the group and

dragged him forward to the edge of the cliff.  The king raised

his hand as a signal.  They caught the man by his leg and arm, and

swung him three times backwards and forwards with tremendous violence. 

Then, with a frightful heave they shot the poor wretch over

the precipice.  With such force did they throw him that he curved

high in the air before beginning to drop.  As he vanished from sight,

the whole assembly, except the guards, rushed forward to the edge

of the precipice, and there was a long pause of absolute silence,

broken by a mad yell of delight.  They sprang about, tossing their

long, hairy arms in the air and howling with exultation.  Then they

fell back from the edge, formed themselves again into line, and

waited for the next victim.



This time it was Summerlee.  Two of his guards caught him by the

wrists and pulled him brutally to the front.  His thin figure and

long limbs struggled and fluttered like a chicken being dragged

from a coop.  Challenger had turned to the king and waved his

hands frantically before him.  He was begging, pleading,

imploring for his comrade's life.  The ape-man pushed him roughly

aside and shook his head.  It was the last conscious movement he

was to make upon earth.  Lord John's rifle cracked, and the king

sank down, a tangled red sprawling thing, upon the ground.



"Shoot into the thick of them!  Shoot! sonny, shoot!" cried

my companion.



There are strange red depths in the soul of the most commonplace man. 

I am tenderhearted by nature, and have found my eyes moist many a

time over the scream of a wounded hare.  Yet the blood lust was on

me now.  I found myself on my feet emptying one magazine, then the

other, clicking open the breech to re-load, snapping it to again,

while cheering and yelling with pure ferocity and joy of slaughter

as I did so.  With our four guns the two of us made a horrible havoc. 

Both the guards who held Summerlee were down, and he was staggering

about like a drunken man in his amazement, unable to realize that

he was a free man.  The dense mob of ape-men ran about in

bewilderment, marveling whence this storm of death was coming or

what it might mean.  They waved, gesticulated, screamed, and tripped

up over those who had fallen.  Then, with a sudden impulse, they all

rushed in a howling crowd to the trees for shelter, leaving the

ground behind them spotted with their stricken comrades.  The prisoners

were left for the moment standing alone in the middle of the clearing.



Challenger's quick brain had grasped the situation.  He seized

the bewildered Summerlee by the arm, and they both ran towards us. 

Two of their guards bounded after them and fell to two bullets

from Lord John.  We ran forward into the open to meet our friends,

and pressed a loaded rifle into the hands of each.  But Summerlee

was at the end of his strength.  He could hardly totter. 

Already the ape-men were recovering from their panic.  They were

coming through the brushwood and threatening to cut us off. 

Challenger and I ran Summerlee along, one at each of his

elbows, while Lord John covered our retreat, firing again and

again as savage heads snarled at us out of the bushes.  For a

mile or more the chattering brutes were at our very heels. 

Then the pursuit slackened, for they learned our power and would

no longer face that unerring rifle.  When we had at last reached

the camp, we looked back and found ourselves alone.



So it seemed to us; and yet we were mistaken.  We had hardly

closed the thornbush door of our zareba, clasped each other's

hands, and thrown ourselves panting upon the ground beside our

spring, when we heard a patter of feet and then a gentle,

plaintive crying from outside our entrance.  Lord Roxton rushed

forward, rifle in hand, and threw it open.  There, prostrate upon

their faces, lay the little red figures of the four surviving

Indians, trembling with fear of us and yet imploring our protection. 

With an expressive sweep of his hands one of them pointed to the

woods around them, and indicated that they were full of danger. 

Then, darting forward, he threw his arms round Lord John's legs,

and rested his face upon them.



"By George!" cried our peer, pulling at his moustache in great

perplexity, "I say--what the deuce are we to do with these people? 

Get up, little chappie, and take your face off my boots."



Summerlee was sitting up and stuffing some tobacco into his old briar.



"We've got to see them safe," said he.  "You've pulled us all out

of the jaws of death.  My word! it was a good bit of work!"



"Admirable!" cried Challenger.  "Admirable!  Not only we as

individuals, but European science collectively, owe you a deep

debt of gratitude for what you have done.  I do not hesitate to

say that the disappearance of Professor Summerlee and myself

would have left an appreciable gap in modern zoological history. 

Our young friend here and you have done most excellently well."



He beamed at us with the old paternal smile, but European science

would have been somewhat amazed could they have seen their chosen

child, the hope of the future, with his tangled, unkempt head,

his bare chest, and his tattered clothes.  He had one of the

meat-tins between his knees, and sat with a large piece of cold

Australian mutton between his fingers.  The Indian looked up at

him, and then, with a little yelp, cringed to the ground and

clung to Lord John's leg.



"Don't you be scared, my bonnie boy," said Lord John, patting the

matted head in front of him.  "He can't stick your appearance,

Challenger; and, by George! I don't wonder.  All right, little

chap, he's only a human, just the same as the rest of us."



"Really, sir!" cried the Professor.



"Well, it's lucky for you, Challenger, that you ARE a little out

of the ordinary.  If you hadn't been so like the king----"



"Upon my word, Lord John, you allow yourself great latitude."



"Well, it's a fact."



"I beg, sir, that you will change the subject.  Your remarks are

irrelevant and unintelligible.  The question before us is what are

we to do with these Indians?  The obvious thing is to escort them

home, if we knew where their home was."



"There is no difficulty about that," said I.  "They live in

the caves on the other side of the central lake."



"Our young friend here knows where they live.  I gather that it

is some distance."



"A good twenty miles," said I.



Summerlee gave a groan.



"I, for one, could never get there.  Surely I hear those brutes

still howling upon our track."



As he spoke, from the dark recesses of the woods we heard far

away the jabbering cry of the ape-men.  The Indians once more set

up a feeble wail of fear.



"We must move, and move quick!" said Lord John.  "You help

Summerlee, young fellah.  These Indians will carry stores. 

Now, then, come along before they can see us."



In less than half-an-hour we had reached our brushwood retreat

and concealed ourselves.  All day we heard the excited calling of

the ape-men in the direction of our old camp, but none of them

came our way, and the tired fugitives, red and white, had a long,

deep sleep.  I was dozing myself in the evening when someone

plucked my sleeve, and I found Challenger kneeling beside me.



"You keep a diary of these events, and you expect eventually to

publish it, Mr. Malone," said he, with solemnity.



"I am only here as a Press reporter," I answered.



"Exactly.  You may have heard some rather fatuous remarks of

Lord John Roxton's which seemed to imply that there was some--

some resemblance----"



"Yes, I heard them."



"I need not say that any publicity given to such an idea--any

levity in your narrative of what occurred--would be exceedingly

offensive to me."



"I will keep well within the truth."



"Lord John's observations are frequently exceedingly fanciful,

and he is capable of attributing the most absurd reasons to the

respect which is always shown by the most undeveloped races to

dignity and character.  You follow my meaning?"



"Entirely."



"I leave the matter to your discretion."  Then, after a long

pause, he added:  "The king of the ape-men was really a

creature of great distinction--a most remarkably handsome and

intelligent personality.  Did it not strike you?"



"A most remarkable creature," said I.



And the Professor, much eased in his mind, settled down to his

slumber once more.





                           CHAPTER XIV



                "Those Were the Real Conquests"



We had imagined that our pursuers, the ape-men, knew nothing of our

brush-wood hiding-place, but we were soon to find out our mistake. 

There was no sound in the woods--not a leaf moved upon the trees,

and all was peace around us--but we should have been warned by our

first experience how cunningly and how patiently these creatures

can watch and wait until their chance comes.  Whatever fate may be

mine through life, I am very sure that I shall never be nearer death

than I was that morning.  But I will tell you the thing in its due order.



We all awoke exhausted after the terrific emotions and scanty

food of yesterday.  Summerlee was still so weak that it was an

effort for him to stand; but the old man was full of a sort of

surly courage which would never admit defeat.  A council was

held, and it was agreed that we should wait quietly for an hour

or two where we were, have our much-needed breakfast, and then

make our way across the plateau and round the central lake to the

caves where my observations had shown that the Indians lived. 

We relied upon the fact that we could count upon the good word

of those whom we had rescued to ensure a warm welcome from

their fellows.  Then, with our mission accomplished and possessing

a fuller knowledge of the secrets of Maple White Land, we should

turn our whole thoughts to the vital problem of our escape and return. 

Even Challenger was ready to admit that we should then have done

all for which we had come, and that our first duty from that time

onwards was to carry back to civilization the amazing discoveries

we had made.



We were able now to take a more leisurely view of the Indians

whom we had rescued.  They were small men, wiry, active, and

well-built, with lank black hair tied up in a bunch behind their

heads with a leathern thong, and leathern also were their

loin-clothes.  Their faces were hairless, well formed, and

good-humored.  The lobes of their ears, hanging ragged and

bloody, showed that they had been pierced for some ornaments

which their captors had torn out.  Their speech, though

unintelligible to us, was fluent among themselves, and as they

pointed to each other and uttered the word "Accala" many times

over, we gathered that this was the name of the nation. 

Occasionally, with faces which were convulsed with fear and

hatred, they shook their clenched hands at the woods round and

cried:  "Doda!  Doda!" which was surely their term for their enemies.



What do you make of them, Challenger?" asked Lord John.  "One thing

is very clear to me, and that is that the little chap with the front

of his head shaved is a chief among them."



It was indeed evident that this man stood apart from the others,

and that they never ventured to address him without every sign of

deep respect.  He seemed to be the youngest of them all, and yet,

so proud and high was his spirit that, upon Challenger laying his

great hand upon his head, he started like a spurred horse and,

with a quick flash of his dark eyes, moved further away from

the Professor.  Then, placing his hand upon his breast and

holding himself with great dignity, he uttered the word "Maretas"

several times.  The Professor, unabashed, seized the nearest Indian

by the shoulder and proceeded to lecture upon him as if he were a

potted specimen in a class-room.



"The type of these people," said he in his sonorous fashion,

"whether judged by cranial capacity, facial angle, or any other

test, cannot be regarded as a low one; on the contrary, we must

place it as considerably higher in the scale than many South

American tribes which I can mention.  On no possible supposition

can we explain the evolution of such a race in this place. 

For that matter, so great a gap separates these ape-men from the

primitive animals which have survived upon this plateau, that it

is inadmissible to think that they could have developed where we

find them."



"Then where the dooce did they drop from?" asked Lord John.



"A question which will, no doubt, be eagerly discussed in every

scientific society in Europe and America," the Professor answered. 

"My own reading of the situation for what it is worth--" he inflated

his chest enormously and looked insolently around him at the words--

"is that evolution has advanced under the peculiar conditions of

this country up to the vertebrate stage, the old types surviving

and living on in company with the newer ones.  Thus we find such

modern creatures as the tapir--an animal with quite a respectable

length of pedigree--the great deer, and the ant-eater in the

companionship of reptilian forms of jurassic type.  So much is clear. 

And now come the ape-men and the Indian.  What is the scientific

mind to think of their presence?  I can only account for it by an

invasion from outside.  It is probable that there existed an

anthropoid ape in South America, who in past ages found his way

to this place, and that he developed into the creatures we have

seen, some of which"--here he looked hard at me--"were of an

appearance and shape which, if it had been accompanied by

corresponding intelligence, would, I do not hesitate to say,

have reflected credit upon any living race.  As to the Indians

I cannot doubt that they are more recent immigrants from below. 

Under the stress of famine or of conquest they have made their

way up here.  Faced by ferocious creatures which they had never

before seen, they took refuge in the caves which our young friend

has described, but they have no doubt had a bitter fight to hold

their own against wild beasts, and especially against the ape-men

who would regard them as intruders, and wage a merciless war upon

them with a cunning which the larger beasts would lack.  Hence the

fact that their numbers appear to be limited.  Well, gentlemen,

have I read you the riddle aright, or is there any point which

you would query?"



Professor Summerlee for once was too depressed to argue, though

he shook his head violently as a token of general disagreement. 

Lord John merely scratched his scanty locks with the remark that

he couldn't put up a fight as he wasn't in the same weight or class. 

For my own part I performed my usual role of bringing things down

to a strictly prosaic and practical level by the remark that one

of the Indians was missing.



"He has gone to fetch some water," said Lord Roxton.  "We fitted

him up with an empty beef tin and he is off."



"To the old camp?" I asked.



"No, to the brook.  It's among the trees there.  It can't be more

than a couple of hundred yards.  But the beggar is certainly

taking his time."



"I'll go and look after him," said I.  I picked up my rifle and

strolled in the direction of the brook, leaving my friends to lay

out the scanty breakfast.  It may seem to you rash that even for

so short a distance I should quit the shelter of our friendly

thicket, but you will remember that we were many miles from

Ape-town, that so far as we knew the creatures had not discovered

our retreat, and that in any case with a rifle in my hands I had

no fear of them.  I had not yet learned their cunning or their strength.



I could hear the murmur of our brook somewhere ahead of me, but

there was a tangle of trees and brushwood between me and it. 

I was making my way through this at a point which was just out of

sight of my companions, when, under one of the trees, I noticed

something red huddled among the bushes.  As I approached it, I

was shocked to see that it was the dead body of the missing Indian. 

He lay upon his side, his limbs drawn up, and his head screwed

round at a most unnatural angle, so that he seemed to be looking

straight over his own shoulder.  I gave a cry to warn my friends

that something was amiss, and running forwards I stooped over

the body.  Surely my guardian angel was very near me then, for

some instinct of fear, or it may have been some faint rustle

of leaves, made me glance upwards.  Out of the thick green

foliage which hung low over my head, two long muscular arms

covered with reddish hair were slowly descending.  Another instant

and the great stealthy hands would have been round my throat. 

I sprang backwards, but quick as I was, those hands were

quicker still.  Through my sudden spring they missed a fatal

grip, but one of them caught the back of my neck and the other

one my face.  I threw my hands up to protect my throat, and the

next moment the huge paw had slid down my face and closed over them. 

I was lifted lightly from the ground, and I felt an intolerable

pressure forcing my head back and back until the strain upon the

cervical spine was more than I could bear.  My senses swam, but

I still tore at the hand and forced it out from my chin. 

Looking up I saw a frightful face with cold inexorable

light blue eyes looking down into mine.  There was something

hypnotic in those terrible eyes.  I could struggle no longer. 

As the creature felt me grow limp in his grasp, two white canines

gleamed for a moment at each side of the vile mouth, and the grip

tightened still more upon my chin, forcing it always upwards and back. 

A thin, oval-tinted mist formed before my eyes and little silvery

bells tinkled in my ears.  Dully and far off I heard the crack of

a rifle and was feebly aware of the shock as I was dropped to the

earth, where I lay without sense or motion.



I awoke to find myself on my back upon the grass in our lair

within the thicket.  Someone had brought the water from the

brook, and Lord John was sprinkling my head with it, while

Challenger and Summerlee were propping me up, with concern in

their faces.  For a moment I had a glimpse of the human spirits

behind their scientific masks.  It was really shock, rather than

any injury, which had prostrated me, and in half-an-hour, in

spite of aching head and stiff neck, I was sitting up and ready

for anything.



"But you've had the escape of your life, young fellah my lad,"

said Lord Roxton.  "When I heard your cry and ran forward, and

saw your head twisted half-off and your stohwassers kickin' in

the air, I thought we were one short.  I missed the beast in my

flurry, but he dropped you all right and was off like a streak. 

By George!  I wish I had fifty men with rifles.  I'd clear out the

whole infernal gang of them and leave this country a bit cleaner

than we found it."



It was clear now that the ape-men had in some way marked us down,

and that we were watched on every side.  We had not so much to

fear from them during the day, but they would be very likely to

rush us by night; so the sooner we got away from their

neighborhood the better.  On three sides of us was absolute

forest, and there we might find ourselves in an ambush.  But on

the fourth side--that which sloped down in the direction of the

lake--there was only low scrub, with scattered trees and

occasional open glades.  It was, in fact, the route which I had

myself taken in my solitary journey, and it led us straight for

the Indian caves.  This then must for every reason be our road.



One great regret we had, and that was to leave our old camp

behind us, not only for the sake of the stores which remained

there, but even more because we were losing touch with Zambo, our

link with the outside world.  However, we had a fair supply of

cartridges and all our guns, so, for a time at least, we could

look after ourselves, and we hoped soon to have a chance of

returning and restoring our communications with our negro. 

He had faithfully promised to stay where he was, and we had not a

doubt that he would be as good as his word.



It was in the early afternoon that we started upon our journey. 

The young chief walked at our head as our guide, but refused

indignantly to carry any burden.  Behind him came the two

surviving Indians with our scanty possessions upon their backs. 

We four white men walked in the rear with rifles loaded and ready. 

As we started there broke from the thick silent woods behind us

a sudden great ululation of the ape-men, which may have been a

cheer of triumph at our departure or a jeer of contempt at

our flight.  Looking back we saw only the dense screen of trees,

but that long-drawn yell told us how many of our enemies lurked

among them.  We saw no sign of pursuit, however, and soon we had

got into more open country and beyond their power.



As I tramped along, the rearmost of the four, I could not help

smiling at the appearance of my three companions in front.  Was this

the luxurious Lord John Roxton who had sat that evening in the

Albany amidst his Persian rugs and his pictures in the pink

radiance of the tinted lights?  And was this the imposing

Professor who had swelled behind the great desk in his massive

study at Enmore Park?  And, finally, could this be the austere and

prim figure which had risen before the meeting at the Zoological

Institute?  No three tramps that one could have met in a Surrey

lane could have looked more hopeless and bedraggled.  We had, it

is true, been only a week or so upon the top of the plateau, but

all our spare clothing was in our camp below, and the one week

had been a severe one upon us all, though least to me who had not

to endure the handling of the ape-men.  My three friends had all

lost their hats, and had now bound handkerchiefs round their heads,

their clothes hung in ribbons about them, and their unshaven grimy

faces were hardly to be recognized.  Both Summerlee and Challenger

were limping heavily, while I still dragged my feet from weakness

after the shock of the morning, and my neck was as stiff as a board

from the murderous grip that held it.  We were indeed a sorry crew,

and I did not wonder to see our Indian companions glance back at us

occasionally with horror and amazement on their faces.



In the late afternoon we reached the margin of the lake, and as

we emerged from the bush and saw the sheet of water stretching

before us our native friends set up a shrill cry of joy and

pointed eagerly in front of them.  It was indeed a wonderful

sight which lay before us.  Sweeping over the glassy surface was

a great flotilla of canoes coming straight for the shore upon

which we stood.  They were some miles out when we first saw them,

but they shot forward with great swiftness, and were soon so near

that the rowers could distinguish our persons.  Instantly a

thunderous shout of delight burst from them, and we saw them rise

from their seats, waving their paddles and spears madly in the air. 

Then bending to their work once more, they flew across the

intervening water, beached their boats upon the sloping sand,

and rushed up to us, prostrating themselves with loud cries of

greeting before the young chief.  Finally one of them, an elderly

man, with a necklace and bracelet of great lustrous glass beads

and the skin of some beautiful mottled amber-colored animal slung

over his shoulders, ran forward and embraced most tenderly the

youth whom we had saved.  He then looked at us and asked some

questions, after which he stepped up with much dignity and

embraced us also each in turn.  Then, at his order, the whole

tribe lay down upon the ground before us in homage.  Personally I

felt shy and uncomfortable at this obsequious adoration, and I

read the same feeling in the faces of Roxton and Summerlee, but

Challenger expanded like a flower in the sun.



"They may be undeveloped types," said he, stroking his beard

and looking round at them, "but their deportment in the

presence of their superiors might be a lesson to some of our

more advanced Europeans.  Strange how correct are the instincts

of the natural man!"



It was clear that the natives had come out upon the war-path, for

every man carried his spear--a long bamboo tipped with bone--his

bow and arrows, and some sort of club or stone battle-axe slung

at his side.  Their dark, angry glances at the woods from which

we had come, and the frequent repetition of the word "Doda," made

it clear enough that this was a rescue party who had set forth to

save or revenge the old chief's son, for such we gathered that

the youth must be.  A council was now held by the whole tribe

squatting in a circle, whilst we sat near on a slab of basalt and

watched their proceedings.  Two or three warriors spoke, and

finally our young friend made a spirited harangue with such

eloquent features and gestures that we could understand it all as

clearly as if we had known his language.



"What is the use of returning?" he said.  "Sooner or later the

thing must be done.  Your comrades have been murdered.  What if

I have returned safe?  These others have been done to death. 

There is no safety for any of us.  We are assembled now and ready."

Then he pointed to us.  "These strange men are our friends. 

They are great fighters, and they hate the ape-men even as we do. 

They command," here he pointed up to heaven, "the thunder and

the lightning.  When shall we have such a chance again?  Let us go

forward, and either die now or live for the future in safety. 

How else shall we go back unashamed to our women?"



The little red warriors hung upon the words of the speaker, and

when he had finished they burst into a roar of applause, waving

their rude weapons in the air.  The old chief stepped forward to

us, and asked us some questions, pointing at the same time to

the woods.  Lord John made a sign to him that he should wait for

an answer and then he turned to us.



"Well, it's up to you to say what you will do," said he; "for my

part I have a score to settle with these monkey-folk, and if it

ends by wiping them off the face of the earth I don't see that

the earth need fret about it.  I'm goin' with our little red pals

and I mean to see them through the scrap.  What do you say,

young fellah?"



"Of course I will come."



"And you, Challenger?"



"I will assuredly co-operate."



"And you, Summerlee?"



"We seem to be drifting very far from the object of this

expedition, Lord John.  I assure you that I little thought when I

left my professional chair in London that it was for the purpose

of heading a raid of savages upon a colony of anthropoid apes."



"To such base uses do we come," said Lord John, smiling.  "But we

are up against it, so what's the decision?"



"It seems a most questionable step," said Summerlee,

argumentative to the last, "but if you are all going, I hardly

see how I can remain behind."



"Then it is settled," said Lord John, and turning to the chief he

nodded and slapped his rifle.



The old fellow clasped our hands, each in turn, while his men

cheered louder than ever.  It was too late to advance that night,

so the Indians settled down into a rude bivouac.  On all sides

their fires began to glimmer and smoke.  Some of them who had

disappeared into the jungle came back presently driving a young

iguanodon before them.  Like the others, it had a daub of asphalt

upon its shoulder, and it was only when we saw one of the natives

step forward with the air of an owner and give his consent to the

beast's slaughter that we understood at last that these great

creatures were as much private property as a herd of cattle, and

that these symbols which had so perplexed us were nothing more

than the marks of the owner.  Helpless, torpid, and vegetarian,

with great limbs but a minute brain, they could be rounded up and

driven by a child.  In a few minutes the huge beast had been cut

up and slabs of him were hanging over a dozen camp fires,

together with great scaly ganoid fish which had been speared in

the lake.



Summerlee had lain down and slept upon the sand, but we others

roamed round the edge of the water, seeking to learn something

more of this strange country.  Twice we found pits of blue clay,

such as we had already seen in the swamp of the pterodactyls. 

These were old volcanic vents, and for some reason excited the

greatest interest in Lord John.  What attracted Challenger, on

the other hand, was a bubbling, gurgling mud geyser, where some

strange gas formed great bursting bubbles upon the surface. 

He thrust a hollow reed into it and cried out with delight like a

schoolboy then he was able, on touching it with a lighted match,

to cause a sharp explosion and a blue flame at the far end of

the tube.  Still more pleased was he when, inverting a leathern

pouch over the end of the reed, and so filling it with the gas,

he was able to send it soaring up into the air.



"An inflammable gas, and one markedly lighter than the atmosphere. 

I should say beyond doubt that it contained a considerable

proportion of free hydrogen.  The resources of G. E. C. are not

yet exhausted, my young friend.  I may yet show you how a great

mind molds all Nature to its use." He swelled with some secret

purpose, but would say no more.



There was nothing which we could see upon the shore which seemed to

me so wonderful as the great sheet of water before us.  Our numbers

and our noise had frightened all living creatures away, and save for

a few pterodactyls, which soared round high above our heads while

they waited for the carrion, all was still around the camp.  But it

was different out upon the rose-tinted waters of the central lake. 

It boiled and heaved with strange life.  Great slate-colored backs

and high serrated dorsal fins shot up with a fringe of silver, and

then rolled down into the depths again.  The sand-banks far out

were spotted with uncouth crawling forms, huge turtles, strange

saurians, and one great flat creature like a writhing, palpitating

mat of black greasy leather, which flopped its way slowly to the lake. 

Here and there high serpent heads projected out of the water, cutting

swiftly through it with a little collar of foam in front, and a

long swirling wake behind, rising and falling in graceful,

swan-like undulations as they went.  It was not until one of

these creatures wriggled on to a sand-bank within a few hundred

yards of us, and exposed a barrel-shaped body and huge flippers

behind the long serpent neck, that Challenger, and Summerlee, who

had joined us, broke out into their duet of wonder and admiration.



"Plesiosaurus!  A fresh-water plesiosaurus!" cried Summerlee. 

"That I should have lived to see such a sight!  We are blessed,

my dear Challenger, above all zoologists since the world began!"



It was not until the night had fallen, and the fires of our

savage allies glowed red in the shadows, that our two men of

science could be dragged away from the fascinations of that

primeval lake.  Even in the darkness as we lay upon the strand,

we heard from time to time the snort and plunge of the huge

creatures who lived therein.



At earliest dawn our camp was astir and an hour later we had

started upon our memorable expedition.  Often in my dreams have I

thought that I might live to be a war correspondent.  In what

wildest one could I have conceived the nature of the campaign

which it should be my lot to report!  Here then is my first

despatch from a field of battle:



Our numbers had been reinforced during the night by a fresh batch

of natives from the caves, and we may have been four or five

hundred strong when we made our advance.  A fringe of scouts was

thrown out in front, and behind them the whole force in a solid

column made their way up the long slope of the bush country until

we were near the edge of the forest.  Here they spread out into

a long straggling line of spearmen and bowmen.  Roxton and

Summerlee took their position upon the right flank, while

Challenger and I were on the left.  It was a host of the stone

age that we were accompanying to battle--we with the last word of

the gunsmith's art from St. James' Street and the Strand.



We had not long to wait for our enemy.  A wild shrill clamor

rose from the edge of the wood and suddenly a body of ape-men

rushed out with clubs and stones, and made for the center of the

Indian line.  It was a valiant move but a foolish one, for the

great bandy-legged creatures were slow of foot, while their

opponents were as active as cats.  It was horrible to see the

fierce brutes with foaming mouths and glaring eyes, rushing and

grasping, but forever missing their elusive enemies, while arrow

after arrow buried itself in their hides.  One great fellow ran

past me roaring with pain, with a dozen darts sticking from his

chest and ribs.  In mercy I put a bullet through his skull, and

he fell sprawling among the aloes.  But this was the only shot

fired, for the attack had been on the center of the line, and the

Indians there had needed no help of ours in repulsing it.  Of all

the ape-men who had rushed out into the open, I do not think that

one got back to cover.



But the matter was more deadly when we came among the trees.  For an

hour or more after we entered the wood, there was a desperate

struggle in which for a time we hardly held our own.  Springing out

from among the scrub the ape-men with huge clubs broke in upon the

Indians and often felled three or four of them before they could

be speared.  Their frightful blows shattered everything upon which

they fell.  One of them knocked Summerlee's rifle to matchwood

and the next would have crushed his skull had an Indian not

stabbed the beast to the heart.  Other ape-men in the trees above

us hurled down stones and logs of wood, occasionally dropping

bodily on to our ranks and fighting furiously until they were felled. 

Once our allies broke under the pressure, and had it not been for

the execution done by our rifles they would certainly have taken

to their heels.  But they were gallantly rallied by their old

chief and came on with such a rush that the ape-men began in turn

to give way.  Summerlee was weaponless, but I was emptying my

magazine as quick as I could fire, and on the further flank we

heard the continuous cracking of our companion's rifles.



Then in a moment came the panic and the collapse.  Screaming and

howling, the great creatures rushed away in all directions

through the brushwood, while our allies yelled in their savage

delight, following swiftly after their flying enemies.  All the

feuds of countless generations, all the hatreds and cruelties of

their narrow history, all the memories of ill-usage and

persecution were to be purged that day.  At last man was to be

supreme and the man-beast to find forever his allotted place. 

Fly as they would the fugitives were too slow to escape from the

active savages, and from every side in the tangled woods we heard

the exultant yells, the twanging of bows, and the crash and thud

as ape-men were brought down from their hiding-places in the trees.



I was following the others, when I found that Lord John and

Challenger had come across to join us.



"It's over," said Lord John.  "I think we can leave the tidying up

to them.  Perhaps the less we see of it the better we shall sleep."



Challenger's eyes were shining with the lust of slaughter.



"We have been privileged," he cried, strutting about like a

gamecock, "to be present at one of the typical decisive battles

of history--the battles which have determined the fate of

the world.  What, my friends, is the conquest of one nation

by another?  It is meaningless.  Each produces the same result. 

But those fierce fights, when in the dawn of the ages the

cave-dwellers held their own against the tiger folk, or the

elephants first found that they had a master, those were the real

conquests--the victories that count.  By this strange turn of

fate we have seen and helped to decide even such a contest. 

Now upon this plateau the future must ever be for man."



It needed a robust faith in the end to justify such tragic means. 

As we advanced together through the woods we found the ape-men

lying thick, transfixed with spears or arrows.  Here and there a

little group of shattered Indians marked where one of the

anthropoids had turned to bay, and sold his life dearly.  Always in

front of us we heard the yelling and roaring which showed the

direction of the pursuit.  The ape-men had been driven back to

their city, they had made a last stand there, once again they had

been broken, and now we were in time to see the final fearful

scene of all.  Some eighty or a hundred males, the last

survivors, had been driven across that same little clearing which

led to the edge of the cliff, the scene of our own exploit two

days before.  As we arrived the Indians, a semicircle of

spearmen, had closed in on them, and in a minute it was over,

Thirty or forty died where they stood.  The others, screaming and

clawing, were thrust over the precipice, and went hurtling down,

as their prisoners had of old, on to the sharp bamboos six

hundred feet below.  It was as Challenger had said, and the reign

of man was assured forever in Maple White Land.  The males were

exterminated, Ape Town was destroyed, the females and young were

driven away to live in bondage, and the long rivalry of untold

centuries had reached its bloody end.



For us the victory brought much advantage.  Once again we were

able to visit our camp and get at our stores.  Once more also we

were able to communicate with Zambo, who had been terrified by

the spectacle from afar of an avalanche of apes falling from the

edge of the cliff.



"Come away, Massas, come away!" he cried, his eyes starting from

his head.  "The debbil get you sure if you stay up there."



"It is the voice of sanity!" said Summerlee with conviction. 

"We have had adventures enough and they are neither suitable to

our character or our position.  I hold you to your word, Challenger. 

From now  onwards you devote your energies to getting us out of

this horrible country and back once more to civilization."





                            CHAPTER XV



                "Our Eyes have seen Great Wonders"



I write this from day to day, but I trust that before I come to

the end of it, I may be able to say that the light shines, at

last, through our clouds.  We are held here with no clear means

of making our escape, and bitterly we chafe against it. Yet, I

can well imagine that the day may come when we may be glad that

we were kept, against our will, to see something more of the

wonders of this singular place, and of the creatures who inhabit it.



The victory of the Indians and the annihilation of the ape-men,

marked the turning point of our fortunes.  From then onwards, we

were in truth masters of the plateau, for the natives looked upon us

with a mixture of fear and gratitude, since by our strange powers

we had aided them to destroy their hereditary foe.  For their own

sakes they would, perhaps, be glad to see the departure of such

formidable and incalculable people, but they have not themselves

suggested any way by which we may reach the plains below. 

There had been, so far as we could follow their signs, a

tunnel by which the place could be approached, the lower exit of

which we had seen from below.  By this, no doubt, both ape-men

and Indians had at different epochs reached the top, and Maple

White with his companion had taken the same way.  Only the year

before, however, there had been a terrific earthquake, and the

upper end of the tunnel had fallen in and completely disappeared. 

The Indians now could only shake their heads and shrug their

shoulders when we expressed by signs our desire to descend. 

It may be that they cannot, but it may also be that they will

not, help us to get away.



At the end of the victorious campaign the surviving ape-folk were

driven across the plateau (their wailings were horrible) and

established in the neighborhood of the Indian caves, where they

would, from now onwards, be a servile race under the eyes of

their masters.  It was a rude, raw, primeval version of the Jews

in Babylon or the Israelites in Egypt.  At night we could hear

from amid the trees the long-drawn cry, as some primitive Ezekiel

mourned for fallen greatness and recalled the departed glories of

Ape Town.  Hewers of wood and drawers of water, such were they

from now onwards.



We had returned across the plateau with our allies two days after

the battle, and made our camp at the foot of their cliffs.  They would

have had us share their caves with them, but Lord John would by

no means consent to it considering that to do so would put us in

their power if they were treacherously disposed.  We kept our

independence, therefore, and had our weapons ready for any

emergency, while preserving the most friendly relations.  We also

continually visited their caves, which were most remarkable

places, though whether made by man or by Nature we have never

been able to determine.  They were all on the one stratum,

hollowed out of some soft rock which lay between the volcanic

basalt forming the ruddy cliffs above them, and the hard granite

which formed their base.



The openings were about eighty feet above the ground, and were

led up to by long stone stairs, so narrow and steep that no large

animal could mount them.  Inside they were warm and dry, running

in straight passages of varying length into the side of the hill,

with smooth gray walls decorated with many excellent pictures

done with charred sticks and representing the various animals of

the plateau.  If every living thing were swept from the country

the future explorer would find upon the walls of these caves

ample evidence of the strange fauna--the dinosaurs, iguanodons,

and fish lizards--which had lived so recently upon earth.



Since we had learned that the huge iguanodons were kept as tame

herds by their owners, and were simply walking meat-stores, we had

conceived that man, even with his primitive weapons, had established

his ascendancy upon the plateau.  We were soon to discover that it

was not so, and that he was still there upon tolerance.



It was on the third day after our forming our camp near the

Indian caves that the tragedy occurred.  Challenger and Summerlee

had gone off together that day to the lake where some of the

natives, under their direction, were engaged in harpooning

specimens of the great lizards.  Lord John and I had remained in

our camp, while a number of the Indians were scattered about upon

the grassy slope in front of the caves engaged in different ways. 

Suddenly there was a shrill cry of alarm, with the word "Stoa"

resounding from a hundred tongues.  From every side men, women,

and children were rushing wildly for shelter, swarming up the

staircases and into the caves in a mad stampede.



Looking up, we could see them waving their arms from the rocks

above and beckoning to us to join them in their refuge.  We had

both seized our magazine rifles and ran out to see what the

danger could be.  Suddenly from the near belt of trees there

broke forth a group of twelve or fifteen Indians, running for

their lives, and at their very heels two of those frightful

monsters which had disturbed our camp and pursued me upon my

solitary journey.  In shape they were like horrible toads, and

moved in a succession of springs, but in size they were of an

incredible bulk, larger than the largest elephant.  We had never

before seen them save at night,  and indeed they are nocturnal

animals save when disturbed in their lairs, as these had been. 

We now stood amazed at the sight, for their blotched and warty

skins were of a curious fish-like iridescence, and the sunlight

struck them with an ever-varying rainbow bloom as they moved.



We had little time to watch them, however, for in an instant they

had overtaken the fugitives and were making a dire slaughter

among them.  Their method was to fall forward with their full

weight upon each in turn, leaving him crushed and mangled, to

bound on after the others.  The wretched Indians screamed with

terror, but were helpless, run as they would, before the

relentless purpose and horrible activity of these monstrous creatures. 

One after another they went down, and there were not half-a-dozen

surviving by the time my companion and I could come to their help. 

But our aid was of little avail and only involved us in the same peril. 

At the range of a couple of hundred yards we emptied our magazines,

firing bullet after bullet into the beasts, but with no more effect

than if we were pelting them with pellets of paper.  Their slow

reptilian natures cared nothing for wounds, and the springs of

their lives, with no special brain center but scattered throughout

their spinal cords, could not be tapped by any modern weapons. 

The most that we could do was to check their progress by

distracting their attention with the flash and roar of our guns,

and so to give both the natives and ourselves time to reach the

steps which led to safety.  But where the conical explosive

bullets of the twentieth century were of no avail, the poisoned

arrows of the natives, dipped in the juice of strophanthus and

steeped afterwards in decayed carrion, could succeed.  Such arrows

were of little avail to the hunter who attacked the beast, because

their action in that torpid circulation was slow, and before its

powers failed it could certainly overtake and slay its assailant. 

But now, as the two monsters hounded us to the very foot of the

stairs, a drift of darts came whistling from every chink in the

cliff above them.  In a minute they were feathered with them,

and yet with no sign of pain they clawed and slobbered with

impotent rage at the steps which would lead them to their victims,

mounting clumsily up for a few yards and then sliding down again

to the ground.  But at last the poison worked.  One of them gave

a deep rumbling groan and dropped his huge squat head on to the earth. 

The other bounded round in an eccentric circle with shrill, wailing

cries, and then lying down writhed in agony for some minutes before

it also stiffened and lay still.  With yells of triumph the Indians

came flocking down from their caves and danced a frenzied dance

of victory round the dead bodies, in mad joy that two more of the

most dangerous of all their enemies had been slain.  That night

they cut up and removed the bodies, not to eat--for the poison

was still active--but lest they should breed a pestilence. 

The great reptilian hearts, however, each as large as a cushion,

still lay there, beating slowly and steadily, with a gentle rise

and fall, in horrible independent life.  It was only upon the third

day that the ganglia ran down and the dreadful things were still.



Some day, when I have a better desk than a meat-tin and more

helpful tools than a worn stub of pencil and a last, tattered

note-book, I will write some fuller account of the Accala

Indians--of our life amongst them, and of the glimpses which we

had of the strange conditions of wondrous Maple White Land. 

Memory, at least, will never fail me, for so long as the breath

of life is in me, every hour and every action of that period will

stand out as hard and clear as do the first strange happenings of

our childhood.  No new impressions could efface those which are

so deeply cut.  When the time comes I will describe that wondrous

moonlit night upon the great lake when a young ichthyosaurus--a

strange creature, half seal, half fish, to look at, with

bone-covered eyes on each side of his snout, and a third eye

fixed upon the top of his head--was entangled in an Indian net,

and nearly upset our canoe before we towed it ashore; the same

night that a green water-snake shot out from the rushes and

carried off in its coils the steersman of Challenger's canoe. 

I will tell, too, of the great nocturnal white thing--to this day

we do not know whether it was beast or reptile--which lived in a

vile swamp to the east of the lake, and flitted about with a

faint phosphorescent glimmer in the darkness.  The Indians were

so terrified at it that they would not go near the place, and,

though we twice made expeditions and saw it each time, we could

not make our way through the deep marsh in which it lived.  I can

only say that it seemed to be larger than a cow and had the

strangest musky odor.  I will tell also of the huge bird which

chased Challenger to the shelter of the rocks one day--a great

running bird, far taller than an ostrich, with a vulture-like

neck and cruel head which made it a walking death.  As Challenger

climbed to safety one dart of that savage curving beak shore off the

heel of his boot as if it had been cut with a chisel.  This time

at least modern weapons prevailed and the great creature, twelve

feet from head to foot--phororachus its name, according to our

panting but exultant Professor--went down before Lord Roxton's

rifle in a flurry of waving feathers and kicking limbs, with two

remorseless yellow eyes glaring up from the midst of it.  May I

live to see that flattened vicious skull in its own niche amid

the trophies of the Albany.  Finally, I will assuredly give some

account of the toxodon, the giant ten-foot guinea pig, with

projecting chisel teeth, which we killed as it drank in the gray

of the morning by the side of the lake.



All this I shall some day write at fuller length, and amidst

these more stirring days I would tenderly sketch in these lovely

summer evenings, when with the deep blue sky above us we lay in

good comradeship among the long grasses by the wood and marveled

at the strange fowl that swept over us and the quaint new

creatures which crept from their burrows to watch us, while above

us the boughs of the bushes were heavy with luscious fruit, and

below us strange and lovely flowers peeped at us from among the

herbage; or those long moonlit nights when we lay out upon the

shimmering surface of the great lake and watched with wonder and

awe the huge circles rippling out from the sudden splash of some

fantastic monster; or the greenish gleam, far down in the deep

water, of some strange creature upon the confines of darkness. 

These are the scenes which my mind and my pen will dwell upon in

every detail at some future day.



But, you will ask, why these experiences and why this delay, when

you and your comrades should have been occupied day and night in the

devising of some means by which you could return to the outer world? 

My answer is, that there was not one of us who was not working for

this end, but that our work had been in vain.  One fact we had

very speedily discovered:  The Indians would do nothing to help us. 

In every other way they were our friends--one might almost say our

devoted slaves--but when it was suggested that they should help us

to make and carry a plank which would bridge the chasm, or when we

wished to get from them thongs of leather or liana to weave ropes

which might help us, we were met by a good-humored, but an

invincible, refusal.  They would smile, twinkle their eyes, shake

their heads, and there was the end of it.  Even the old chief met

us with the same obstinate denial, and it was only Maretas, the

youngster whom we had saved, who looked wistfully at us and told

us by his gestures that he was grieved for our thwarted wishes. 

Ever since their crowning triumph with the ape-men they looked

upon us as supermen, who bore victory in the tubes of strange

weapons, and they believed that so long as we remained with them

good fortune would be theirs.  A little red-skinned wife and a

cave of our own were freely offered to each of us if we would but

forget our own people and dwell forever upon the plateau.  So far

all had been kindly, however far apart our desires might be; but

we felt well assured that our actual plans of a descent must be

kept secret, for we had reason to fear that at the last they might

try to hold us by force.



In spite of the danger from dinosaurs (which is not great save at

night, for, as I may have said before, they are mostly nocturnal

in their habits) I have twice in the last three weeks been over

to our old camp in order to see our negro who still kept watch

and ward below the cliff.  My eyes strained eagerly across the

great plain in the hope of seeing afar off the help for which we

had prayed.  But the long cactus-strewn levels still stretched

away, empty and bare, to the distant line of the cane-brake.



"They will soon come now, Massa Malone.  Before another week pass

Indian come back and bring rope and fetch you down."  Such was the

cheery cry of our excellent Zambo.



I had one strange experience as I came from this second visit

which had involved my being away for a night from my companions. 

I was returning along the well-remembered route, and had reached

a spot within a mile or so of the marsh of the pterodactyls, when

I saw an extraordinary object approaching me.  It was a man who

walked inside a framework made of bent canes so that he was

enclosed on all sides in a bell-shaped cage.  As I drew nearer I

was more amazed still to see that it was Lord John Roxton.  When he

saw me he slipped from under his curious protection and came towards

me laughing, and yet, as I thought, with some confusion in his manner.



"Well, young fellah," said he, "who would have thought of meetin'

you up here?"



"What in the world are you doing?" I asked.



"Visitin' my friends, the pterodactyls," said  he.



"But why?"



"Interestin' beasts, don't you think?  But unsociable! 

Nasty rude ways with strangers, as you may remember.  So I

rigged this framework which keeps them from bein' too pressin'

in their attentions."



"But what do you want in the swamp?"



He looked at me with a very questioning eye, and I read

hesitation in his face.



"Don't you think other people besides Professors can want to

know things?" he said at last.  "I'm studyin' the pretty dears. 

That's enough for you."



"No offense," said I.



His good-humor returned and he laughed.



"No offense, young fellah.  I'm goin' to get a young devil

chick for Challenger.  That's one of my jobs.  No, I don't want

your company.  I'm safe in this cage, and you are not.  So long,

and I'll be back in camp by night-fall."



He turned away and I left him wandering on through the wood with

his extraordinary cage around him.



If Lord John's behavior at this time was strange, that of

Challenger was more so.  I may say that he seemed to possess an

extraordinary fascination for the Indian women, and that he

always carried a large spreading palm branch with which he beat

them off as if they were flies, when their attentions became

too pressing.  To see him walking like a comic opera Sultan, with

this badge of authority in his hand, his black beard bristling

in front of him, his toes pointing at each step, and a train of

wide-eyed Indian girls behind him, clad in their slender drapery

of bark cloth, is one of the most grotesque of all the pictures

which I will carry back with me.  As to Summerlee, he was

absorbed in the insect and bird life of the plateau, and spent

his whole time (save that considerable portion which was devoted

to abusing Challenger for not getting us out of our difficulties)

in cleaning and mounting his specimens.



Challenger had been in the habit of walking off by himself every

morning and returning from time to time with looks of portentous

solemnity, as one who bears the full weight of a great enterprise

upon his shoulders.  One day, palm branch in hand, and his crowd

of adoring devotees behind him, he led us down to his hidden

work-shop and took us into the secret of his plans.



The place was a small clearing in the center of a palm grove. 

In this was one of those boiling mud geysers which I have

already described.  Around its edge were scattered a number of

leathern thongs cut from iguanodon hide, and a large collapsed

membrane which proved to be the dried and scraped stomach of one

of the great fish lizards from the lake.  This huge sack had been

sewn up at one end and only a small orifice left at the other. 

Into this opening several bamboo canes had been inserted and the

other ends of these canes were in contact with conical clay

funnels which collected the gas bubbling up through the mud of

the geyser.  Soon the flaccid organ began to slowly expand and

show such a tendency to upward movements that Challenger fastened

the cords which held it to the trunks of the surrounding trees. 

In half an hour a good-sized gas-bag had been formed, and the

jerking and straining upon the thongs showed that it was capable

of considerable lift.  Challenger, like a glad father in the

presence of his first-born, stood smiling and stroking his beard,

in silent, self-satisfied content as he gazed at the creation of

his brain.  It was Summerlee who first broke the silence.



"You don't mean us to go up in that thing, Challenger?" said he,

in an acid voice.



"I mean, my dear Summerlee, to give you such a demonstration of

its powers that after seeing it you will, I am sure, have no

hesitation in trusting yourself to it."



"You can put it right out of your head now, at once," said

Summerlee with decision, "nothing on earth would induce me to

commit such a folly.  Lord John, I trust that you will not

countenance such madness?"



"Dooced ingenious, I call it," said our peer.  "I'd like to see

how it works."



"So you shall," said Challenger.  "For some days I have exerted

my whole brain force upon the problem of how we shall descend

from these cliffs.  We have satisfied ourselves that we cannot

climb down and that there is no tunnel.  We are also unable to

construct any kind of bridge which may take us back to the

pinnacle from which we came.  How then shall I find a means to

convey us?  Some little time ago I had remarked to our young

friend here that free hydrogen was evolved from the geyser. 

The idea of a balloon naturally followed.  I was, I will admit,

somewhat baffled by the difficulty of discovering an envelope to

contain the gas, but the contemplation of the immense entrails of

these reptiles supplied me with a solution to the problem. 

Behold the result!"



He put one hand in the front of his ragged jacket and pointed

proudly with the other.



By this time the gas-bag had swollen to a goodly rotundity and

was jerking strongly upon its lashings.



"Midsummer madness!" snorted Summerlee.



Lord John was delighted with the whole idea.  "Clever old dear,

ain't he?" he whispered to me, and then louder to Challenger. 

"What about a car?"



"The car will be my next care.  I have already planned how it is

to be made and attached.  Meanwhile I will simply show you how

capable my apparatus is of supporting the weight of each of us."



"All of us, surely?"



"No, it is part of my plan that each in turn shall descend as in

a parachute, and the balloon be drawn back by means which I shall

have no difficulty in perfecting.  If it will support the weight

of one and let him gently down, it will have done all that is

required of it.  I will now show you its capacity in that direction."



He brought out a lump of basalt of a considerable size,

constructed in the middle so that a cord could be easily attached

to it.  This cord was the one which we had brought with us on to

the plateau after we had used it for climbing the pinnacle. 

It was over a hundred feet long, and though it was thin it was

very strong.  He had prepared a sort of collar of leather with many

straps depending from it.  This collar was placed over the dome

of the balloon, and the hanging thongs were gathered together

below, so that the pressure of any weight would be diffused over

a considerable surface.  Then the lump of basalt was fastened to

the thongs, and the rope was allowed to hang from the end of it,

being passed three times round the Professor's arm.



"I will now," said Challenger, with a smile of pleased

anticipation, "demonstrate the carrying power of my balloon." As

he said so he cut with a knife the various lashings that held it.



Never was our expedition in more imminent danger of complete

annihilation.  The inflated membrane shot up with frightful

velocity into the air.  In an instant Challenger was pulled off

his feet and dragged after it.  I had just time to throw my arms

round his ascending waist when I was myself whipped up into the air. 

Lord John had me with a rat-trap grip round the legs, but I felt

that he also was coming off the ground.  For a moment I had a

vision of four adventurers floating like a string of sausages

over the land that they had explored.  But, happily, there were

limits to the strain which the rope would stand, though none

apparently to the lifting powers of this infernal machine.  There was

a sharp crack, and we were in a heap upon the ground with coils of

rope all over us.  When we were able to stagger to our feet we saw

far off in the deep blue sky one dark spot where the lump of

basalt was speeding upon its way.



"Splendid!" cried the undaunted Challenger, rubbing his injured arm. 

"A most thorough and satisfactory demonstration!  I could not have

anticipated such a success.  Within a week, gentlemen, I promise

that a second balloon will be prepared, and that you can count upon

taking in safety and comfort the first stage of our homeward journey." 

So far I have written each of the foregoing events as it occurred. 

Now I am rounding off my narrative from the old camp, where Zambo

has waited so long, with all our difficulties and dangers left like

a dream behind us upon the summit of those vast ruddy crags which

tower above our heads. We have descended in safety, though in a

most unexpected fashion, and all is well with us.  In six weeks

or two months we shall be in London, and it is possible that this

letter may not reach you much earlier than we do ourselves. 

Already our hearts yearn and our spirits fly towards the great

mother city which holds so much that is dear to us.



It was on the very evening of our perilous adventure with

Challenger's home-made balloon that the change came in our fortunes. 

I have said that the one person from whom we had had some sign of

sympathy in our attempts to get away was the young chief whom we

had rescued.  He alone had no desire to hold us against our will

in a strange land.  He had told us as much by his expressive

language of signs.  That evening, after dusk, he came down to our

little camp, handed me (for some reason he had always shown his

attentions to me, perhaps because I was the one who was nearest

his age) a small roll of the bark of a tree, and then pointing

solemnly up at the row of caves above him, he had put his finger

to his lips as a sign of secrecy and had stolen back again to

his people.



I took the slip of bark to the firelight and we examined it together. 

It was about a foot square, and on the inner side there was a

singular arrangement of lines, which I here reproduce:





They were neatly done in charcoal upon the white surface, and

looked to me at first sight like some sort of rough musical score.



"Whatever it is, I can swear that it is of importance to us,"

said I.  "I could read that on his face as he gave it."



"Unless we have come upon a primitive practical joker," Summerlee

suggested, "which I should think would be one of the most

elementary developments of man."



"It is clearly some sort of script," said Challenger.



"Looks like a guinea puzzle competition," remarked Lord John,

craning his neck to have a look at it.  Then suddenly he

stretched out his hand and seized the puzzle.



"By George!" he cried, "I believe I've got it.  The boy guessed

right the very first time.  See here!  How many marks are on that

paper?  Eighteen.  Well, if you come to think of it there are

eighteen cave openings on the hill-side above us."



"He pointed up to the caves when he gave it to me," said I.



"Well, that settles it.  This is a chart of the caves.  What! 

Eighteen of them all in a row, some short, some deep, some

branching, same as we saw them.  It's a map, and here's a cross

on it. What's the cross for?  It is placed to mark one that is

much deeper than the others."



"One that goes through," I cried.



"I believe our young friend has read the riddle," said Challenger. 

"If the cave does not go through I do not understand why this

person, who has every reason to mean us well, should have drawn

our attention to it.  But if it does go through and comes out at

the corresponding point on the other side, we should not have more

than a hundred feet to descend."



"A hundred feet!" grumbled Summerlee. 



"Well, our rope is still more than a hundred feet long," I cried. 

"Surely we could get down."



"How about the Indians in the cave?" Summerlee objected.



"There are no Indians in any of the caves above our heads," said I. 

"They are all used as barns and store-houses.  Why should we not

go up now at once and spy out the land?"



There is a dry bituminous wood upon the plateau--a species of

araucaria, according to our botanist--which is always used by the

Indians for torches.  Each of us picked up a faggot of this, and

we made our way up weed-covered steps to the particular cave

which was marked in the drawing.  It was, as I had said, empty,

save for a great number of enormous bats, which flapped round our

heads as we advanced into it.  As we had no desire to draw the

attention of the Indians to our proceedings, we stumbled along in

the dark until we had gone round several curves and penetrated a

considerable distance into the cavern.  Then, at last, we lit

our torches.  It was a beautiful dry tunnel with smooth gray walls

covered with native symbols, a curved roof which arched over our

heads, and white glistening sand beneath our feet.  We hurried

eagerly along it until, with a deep groan of bitter

disappointment, we were brought to a halt.  A sheer wall of rock

had appeared before us, with no chink through which a mouse could

have slipped.  There was no escape for us there.



We stood with bitter hearts staring at this unexpected obstacle. 

It was not the result of any convulsion, as in the case of the

ascending tunnel.  The end wall was exactly like the side ones. 

It was, and had always been, a cul-de-sac.



"Never mind, my friends," said the indomitable Challenger. 

"You have still my firm promise of a balloon."



Summerlee groaned.



"Can we be in the wrong cave?" I suggested. 



"No use, young fellah," said Lord John, with his finger on the chart. 

"Seventeen from the right and second from the left.  This is the

cave sure enough."



I looked at the mark to which his finger pointed, and I gave a

sudden cry of joy.



"I believe I have it!  Follow me!  Follow me!"



I hurried back along the way we had come, my torch in my hand. 

"Here," said I, pointing to some matches upon the ground, "is

where we lit up."



"Exactly."



"Well, it is marked as a forked cave, and in the darkness we

passed the fork before the torches were lit.  On the right side

as we go out we should find the longer arm."



It was as I had said.  We had not gone thirty yards before a

great black opening loomed in the wall.  We turned into it to

find that we were in a much larger passage than before.  Along it

we hurried in breathless impatience for many hundreds of yards. 

Then, suddenly, in the black darkness of the arch in front of us

we saw a gleam of dark red light.  We stared in amazement. 

A sheet of steady flame seemed to cross the passage and to bar

our way.  We hastened towards it.  No sound, no heat, no movement

came from it, but still the great luminous curtain glowed before us,

silvering all the cave and turning the sand to powdered jewels,

until as we drew closer it discovered a circular edge.



"The moon, by George!" cried Lord John.  "We are through, boys!

We are through!"



It was indeed the full moon which shone straight down the

aperture which opened upon the cliffs.  It was a small rift, not

larger than a window, but it was enough for all our purposes. 

As we craned our necks through it we could see that the descent was

not a very difficult one, and that the level ground was no very

great way below us.  It was no wonder that from below we had not

observed the place, as the cliffs curved overhead and an ascent

at the spot would have seemed so impossible as to discourage

close inspection.  We satisfied ourselves that with the help of

our rope we could find our way down, and then returned, rejoicing,

to our camp to make our preparations for the next evening.



What we did we had to do quickly and secretly, since even at this

last hour the Indians might hold us back.  Our stores we would

leave behind us, save only our guns and cartridges.  But Challenger

had some unwieldy stuff which he ardently desired to take with him,

and one particular package, of which I may not speak, which gave

us more labor than any.  Slowly the day passed, but when the

darkness fell we were ready for our departure.  With much labor

we got our things up the steps, and then, looking back, took one

last long survey of that strange land, soon I fear to be vulgarized,

the prey of hunter and prospector, but to each of us a dreamland

of glamour and romance, a land where we had dared much, suffered

much, and learned much--OUR land, as we shall ever fondly call it. 

Along upon our left the neighboring caves each threw out its ruddy

cheery firelight into the gloom.  From the slope below us rose the

voices of the Indians as they laughed and sang.  Beyond was the

long sweep of the woods, and in the center, shimmering vaguely

through the gloom, was the great lake, the mother of strange monsters. 

Even as we looked a high whickering cry, the call of some weird

animal, rang clear out of the darkness.  It was the very voice of

Maple White Land bidding us good-bye.  We turned and plunged into

the cave which led to home.



Two hours later, we, our packages, and all we owned, were at the

foot of the cliff.  Save for Challenger's luggage we had never

a difficulty.  Leaving it all where we descended, we started at

once for Zambo's camp.  In the early morning we approached it,

but only to find, to our amazement, not one fire but a dozen upon

the plain.  The rescue party had arrived.  There were twenty

Indians from the river, with stakes, ropes, and all that could be

useful for bridging the chasm.  At least we shall have no

difficulty now in carrying our packages, when to-morrow we begin

to make our way back to the Amazon.



And so, in humble and thankful mood, I close this account. 

Our eyes have seen great wonders and our souls are chastened

by what we have endured.  Each is in his own way a better and

deeper man.  It may be that when we reach Para we shall stop

to refit.  If we do, this letter will be a mail ahead.  If not,

it will reach London on the very day that I do.  In either case,

my dear Mr. McArdle, I hope very soon to shake you by the hand.





                           CHAPTER XVI



                  "A Procession!  A Procession!"



I should wish to place upon record here our gratitude to all our

friends upon the Amazon for the very great kindness and

hospitality which was shown to us upon our return journey. 

Very particularly would I thank Senhor Penalosa and other officials

of the Brazilian Government for the special arrangements by which

we were helped upon our way, and Senhor Pereira of Para, to whose

forethought we owe the complete outfit for a decent appearance in

the civilized world which we found ready for us at that town. 

It seemed a poor return for all the courtesy which we encountered

that we should deceive our hosts and benefactors, but under the

circumstances we had really no alternative, and I hereby tell

them that they will only waste their time and their money if they

attempt to follow upon our traces.  Even the names have been

altered in our accounts, and I am very sure that no one, from the

most careful study of them, could come within a thousand miles of

our unknown land.



The excitement which had been caused through those parts of South

America which we had to traverse was imagined by us to be purely

local, and I can assure our friends in England that we had no

notion of the uproar which the mere rumor of our experiences had

caused through Europe.  It was not until the Ivernia was within

five hundred miles of Southampton that the wireless messages from

paper after paper and agency after agency, offering huge prices

for a short return message as to our actual results, showed us

how strained was the attention not only of the scientific world

but of the general public.  It was agreed among us, however, that

no definite statement should be given to the Press until we had

met the members of the Zoological Institute, since as delegates it

was our clear duty to give our first report to the body from which

we had received our commission of investigation.  Thus, although

we found Southampton full of Pressmen, we absolutely refused to

give any information, which had the natural effect of focussing

public attention upon the meeting which was advertised for the

evening of November 7th.  For this gathering, the Zoological Hall

which had been the scene of the inception of our task was found

to be far too small, and it was only in the Queen's Hall in Regent

Street that accommodation could be found.  It is now common

knowledge the promoters might have ventured upon the Albert Hall

and still found their space too scanty.



It was for the second evening after our arrival that the great

meeting had been fixed.  For the first, we had each, no doubt,

our own pressing personal affairs to absorb us.  Of mine I cannot

yet speak.  It may be that as it stands further from me I may

think of it, and even speak of it, with less emotion.  I have

shown the reader in the beginning of this narrative where lay the

springs of my action.  It is but right, perhaps, that I should

carry on the tale and show also the results.  And yet the day may

come when I would not have it otherwise.  At least I have been

driven forth to take part in a wondrous adventure, and I cannot

but be thankful to the force that drove me.



And now I turn to the last supreme eventful moment of our adventure. 

As I was racking my brain as to how I should best describe it, my

eyes fell upon the issue of my own Journal for the morning of the

8th of November with the full and excellent account of my friend

and fellow-reporter Macdona.  What can I do better than transcribe

his narrative--head-lines and all?  I admit that the paper was

exuberant in the matter, out of compliment to its own enterprise

in sending a correspondent, but the other great dailies were hardly

less full in their account.  Thus, then, friend Mac in his report:





                           THE NEW WORLD

                 GREAT MEETING AT THE QUEEN'S HALL

                          SCENES OF UPROAR

                       EXTRAORDINARY INCIDENT

                            WHAT WAS IT?

                 NOCTURNAL RIOT IN REGENT STREET

                             (Special)





"The much-discussed meeting of the Zoological Institute, convened

to hear the report of the Committee of Investigation sent out

last year to South America to test the assertions made by

Professor Challenger as to the continued existence of prehistoric

life upon that Continent, was held last night in the greater

Queen's Hall, and it is safe to say that it is likely to be a red

letter date in the history of Science, for the proceedings were

of so remarkable and sensational a character that no one present

is ever likely to forget them."  (Oh, brother scribe Macdona, what

a monstrous opening sentence!)  "The tickets were theoretically

confined to members and their friends, but the latter is an

elastic term, and long before eight o'clock, the hour fixed for

the commencement of the proceedings, all parts of the Great Hall

were tightly packed.  The general public, however, which most

unreasonably entertained a grievance at having been excluded,

stormed the doors at a quarter to eight, after a prolonged melee

in which several people were injured, including Inspector Scoble

of H. Division, whose leg was unfortunately broken.  After this

unwarrantable invasion, which not only filled every passage, but

even intruded upon the space set apart for the Press, it is

estimated that nearly five thousand people awaited the arrival of

the travelers.  When they eventually appeared, they took their

places in the front of a platform which already contained all the

leading scientific men, not only of this country, but of France

and of Germany.  Sweden was also represented, in the person of

Professor Sergius, the famous Zoologist of the University of Upsala.

The entrance of the four heroes of the occasion was the signal

for a remarkable demonstration of welcome, the whole audience

rising and cheering for some minutes.  An acute observer might,

however, have detected some signs of dissent amid the applause,

and gathered that the proceedings were likely to become more

lively than harmonious.  It may safely be prophesied, however,

that no one could have foreseen the extraordinary turn which they

were actually to take.



"Of the appearance of the four wanderers little need be said,

since their photographs have for some time been appearing in all

the papers.  They bear few traces of the hardships which they are

said to have undergone.  Professor Challenger's beard may be more

shaggy, Professor Summerlee's features more ascetic, Lord John

Roxton's figure more gaunt, and all three may be burned to a

darker tint than when they left our shores, but each appeared to

be in most excellent health.  As to our own representative, the

well-known athlete and international Rugby football player, E. D.

Malone, he looks trained to a hair, and as he surveyed the crowd

a smile of good-humored contentment pervaded his honest but

homely face."  (All right, Mac, wait till I get you alone!)



"When quiet had been restored and the audience resumed their

seats after the ovation which they had given to the travelers,

the chairman, the Duke of Durham, addressed the meeting.  `He

would not,' he said, `stand for more than a moment between that

vast assembly and the treat which lay before them.  It was not

for him to anticipate what Professor Summerlee, who was the

spokesman of the committee, had to say to them, but it was common

rumor that their expedition had been crowned by extraordinary

success.'  (Applause.)  `Apparently the age of romance was not

dead, and there was common ground upon which the wildest

imaginings of the novelist could meet the actual scientific

investigations of the searcher for truth.  He would only add,

before he sat down, that he rejoiced--and all of them would

rejoice--that these gentlemen had returned safe and sound from

their difficult and dangerous task, for it cannot be denied that

any disaster to such an expedition would have inflicted a

well-nigh irreparable loss to the cause of Zoological science.' 

(Great applause, in which Professor Challenger was observed to join.)



"Professor Summerlee's rising was the signal for another

extraordinary outbreak of enthusiasm, which broke out again at

intervals throughout his address.  That address will not be given

in extenso in these columns, for the reason that a full account

of the whole adventures of the expedition is being published as

a supplement from the pen of our own special correspondent. 

Some general indications will therefore suffice. Having described

the genesis of their journey, and paid a handsome tribute to his

friend Professor Challenger, coupled with an apology for the

incredulity with which his assertions, now fully vindicated, had

been received, he gave the actual course of their journey,

carefully withholding such information as would aid the public in

any attempt to locate this remarkable plateau.  Having described,

in general terms, their course from the main river up to the time

that they actually reached the base of the cliffs, he enthralled

his hearers by his account of the difficulties encountered by the

expedition in their repeated attempts to mount them, and finally

described how they succeeded in their desperate endeavors,

which cost the lives of their two devoted half-breed servants." 

(This amazing reading of the affair was the result of Summerlee's

endeavors to avoid raising any questionable matter at the meeting.)



"Having conducted his audience in fancy to the summit, and

marooned them there by reason of the fall of their bridge, the

Professor proceeded to describe both the horrors and the

attractions of that remarkable land.  Of personal adventures he

said little, but laid stress upon the rich harvest reaped by

Science in the observations of the wonderful beast, bird, insect,

and plant life of the plateau.  Peculiarly rich in the coleoptera

and in the lepidoptera, forty-six new species of the one and

ninety-four of the other had been secured in the course of a

few weeks.  It was, however, in the larger animals, and especially

in the larger animals supposed to have been long extinct, that the

interest of the public was naturally centered.  Of these he was

able to give a goodly list, but had little doubt that it would be

largely extended when the place had been more thoroughly investigated. 

He and his companions had seen at least a dozen creatures, most of

them at a distance, which corresponded with nothing at present

known to Science.  These would in time be duly classified

and examined.  He instanced a snake, the cast skin of which,

deep purple in color, was fifty-one feet in length, and

mentioned a white creature, supposed to be mammalian, which gave

forth well-marked phosphorescence in the darkness; also a large

black moth, the bite of which was supposed by the Indians to be

highly poisonous.  Setting aside these entirely new forms of

life, the plateau was very rich in known prehistoric forms,

dating back in some cases to early Jurassic times.  Among these

he mentioned the gigantic and grotesque stegosaurus, seen once by

Mr. Malone at a drinking-place by the lake, and drawn in the

sketch-book of that adventurous American who had first penetrated

this unknown world.  He described also the iguanodon and the

pterodactyl--two of the first of the wonders which they

had encountered.  He then thrilled the assembly by some account

of the terrible carnivorous dinosaurs, which had on more than one

occasion pursued members of the party, and which were the most

formidable of all the creatures which they had encountered. 

Thence he passed to the huge and ferocious bird, the phororachus,

and to the great elk which still roams upon this upland.  It was

not, however, until he sketched the mysteries of the central lake

that the full interest and enthusiasm of the audience were aroused. 

One had to pinch oneself to be sure that one was awake as one

heard this sane and practical Professor in cold measured

tones describing the monstrous three-eyed fish-lizards and the

huge water-snakes which inhabit this enchanted sheet of water. 

Next he touched upon the Indians, and upon the extraordinary

colony of anthropoid apes, which might be looked upon as an

advance upon the pithecanthropus of Java, and as coming therefore

nearer than any known form to that hypothetical creation, the

missing link.  Finally he described, amongst some merriment, the

ingenious but highly dangerous aeronautic invention of Professor

Challenger, and wound up a most memorable address by an account

of the methods by which the committee did at last find their way

back to civilization.



"It had been hoped that the proceedings would end there, and that

a vote of thanks and congratulation, moved by Professor Sergius,

of Upsala University, would be duly seconded and carried; but it

was soon evident that the course of events was not destined to

flow so smoothly.  Symptoms of opposition had been evident from

time to time during the evening, and now Dr. James Illingworth, of

Edinburgh, rose in the center of the hall.  Dr. Illingworth asked

whether an amendment should not be taken before a resolution.



"THE CHAIRMAN:  `Yes, sir, if there must be an amendment.'



"DR. ILLINGWORTH:  `Your Grace, there must be an amendment.'



"THE CHAIRMAN:  `Then let us take it at once.'



"PROFESSOR SUMMERLEE (springing to his feet):  `Might I explain,

your Grace, that this man is my personal enemy ever since our

controversy in the Quarterly Journal of Science as to the true

nature of Bathybius?'



"THE CHAIRMAN:  `I fear I cannot go into personal matters.  Proceed.'



"Dr. Illingworth was imperfectly heard in part of his remarks on

account of the strenuous opposition of the friends of the explorers. 

Some attempts were also made to pull him down.  Being a man of

enormous physique, however, and possessed of a very powerful

voice, he dominated the tumult and succeeded in finishing

his speech.  It was clear, from the moment of his rising, that

he had a number of friends and sympathizers in the hall, though

they formed a minority in the audience.  The attitude of the

greater part of the public might be described as one of

attentive neutrality.



"Dr. Illingworth began his remarks by expressing his high

appreciation of the scientific work both of Professor Challenger

and of Professor Summerlee.  He much regretted that any personal

bias should have been read into his remarks, which were entirely

dictated by his desire for scientific truth.  His position, in

fact, was substantially the same as that taken up by Professor

Summerlee at the last meeting.  At that last meeting Professor

Challenger had made certain assertions which had been queried by

his colleague.  Now this colleague came forward himself with the

same assertions and expected them to remain unquestioned.  Was this

reasonable?  (`Yes,' `No,' and prolonged interruption, during

which Professor Challenger was heard from the Press box to ask

leave from the chairman to put Dr. Illingworth into the street.) 

A year ago one man said certain things.  Now four men said other

and more startling ones.  Was this to constitute a final proof

where the matters in question were of the most revolutionary and

incredible character?  There had been recent examples of travelers

arriving from the unknown with certain tales which had been too

readily accepted.  Was the London Zoological Institute to place

itself in this position?  He admitted that the members of the

committee were men of character.  But human nature was very complex. 

Even Professors might be misled by the desire for notoriety. 

Like moths, we all love best to flutter in the light. 

Heavy-game shots liked to be in a position to cap the tales of

their rivals, and journalists were not averse from sensational

coups, even when imagination had to aid fact in the process. 

Each member of the committee had his own motive for making the

most of his results.  (`Shame! shame!')  He had no desire to be

offensive.  (`You are!' and interruption.)  The corroboration of

these wondrous tales was really of the most slender description. 

What did it amount to?  Some photographs. {Was it possible that in

this age of ingenious manipulation photographs could be accepted

as evidence?}  What more?  We have a story of a flight and a descent

by ropes which precluded the production of larger specimens.  It was

ingenious, but not convincing.  It was understood that Lord John

Roxton claimed to have the skull of a phororachus.  He could

only say that he would like to see that skull.



"LORD JOHN ROXTON:  `Is this fellow calling me a liar?' (Uproar.)



"THE CHAIRMAN:  `Order! order!  Dr. Illingworth, I must direct you

to bring your remarks to a conclusion and to move your amendment.'



"DR. ILLINGWORTH:  `Your Grace, I have more to say, but I bow to

your ruling.  I move, then, that, while Professor Summerlee be

thanked for his interesting address, the whole matter shall be

regarded as `non-proven,' and shall be referred back to a larger,

and possibly more reliable Committee of Investigation.'



"It is difficult to describe the confusion caused by this amendment. 

A large section of the audience expressed their indignation at such

a slur upon the travelers by noisy shouts of dissent and cries of,

`Don't put it!'  `Withdraw!'  `Turn him out!'  On the other hand,

the malcontents--and it cannot be denied that they were fairly

numerous--cheered for the amendment, with cries of `Order!' 

`Chair!' and `Fair play!'  A scuffle broke out in the back benches,

and blows were freely exchanged among the medical students who

crowded that part of the hall.  It was only the moderating

influence of the presence of large numbers of ladies which

prevented an absolute riot.  Suddenly, however, there was a

pause, a hush, and then complete silence.  Professor Challenger

was on his feet.  His appearance and manner are peculiarly

arresting, and as he raised his hand for order the whole

audience settled down expectantly to give him a hearing.



"`It will be within the recollection of many present,' said

Professor Challenger, `that similar foolish and unmannerly scenes

marked the last meeting at which I have been able to address them. 

On that occasion Professor Summerlee was the chief offender, and

though he is now chastened and contrite, the matter could not be

entirely forgotten.  I have heard to-night similar, but even more

offensive, sentiments from the person who has just sat down, and

though it is a conscious effort of self-effacement to come down

to that person's mental level, I will endeavor to do so, in order

to allay any reasonable doubt which could possibly exist in the

minds of anyone.'  (Laughter and interruption.)  `I need not remind

this audience that, though Professor Summerlee, as the head of the

Committee of Investigation, has been put up to speak to-night,

still it is I who am the real prime mover in this business, and

that it is mainly to me that any successful result must be ascribed. 

I have safely conducted these three gentlemen to the spot mentioned,

and I have, as you have heard, convinced them of the accuracy of

my previous account.  We had hoped that we should find upon our

return that no one was so dense as to dispute our joint conclusions. 

Warned, however, by my previous experience, I have not come without

such proofs as may convince a reasonable man.  As explained by

Professor Summerlee, our cameras have been tampered with by the ape-

men when they ransacked our camp, and most of our negatives ruined.' 

(Jeers, laughter, and `Tell us another!' from the back.)  `I have

mentioned the ape-men, and I cannot forbear from saying that some

of the sounds which now meet my ears bring back most vividly to

my recollection my experiences with those interesting creatures.'

(Laughter.)  `In spite of the destruction of so many invaluable

negatives, there still remains in our collection a certain number

of corroborative photographs showing the conditions of life upon

the plateau.  Did they accuse them of having forged these photographs?' 

(A voice, `Yes,' and considerable interruption which ended in

several men being put out of the hall.)  `The negatives were open

to the inspection of experts.  But what other evidence had they? 

Under the conditions of their escape it was naturally impossible

to bring a large amount of baggage, but they had rescued Professor

Summerlee's collections of butterflies and beetles, containing

many new species.  Was this not evidence?'  (Several voices, `No.') 

`Who said no?'



"DR. ILLINGWORTH (rising):  `Our point is that such a collection

might have been made in other places than a prehistoric plateau.'

(Applause.)



"PROFESSOR CHALLENGER:  `No doubt, sir, we have to bow to your

scientific authority, although I must admit that the name

is unfamiliar.  Passing, then, both the photographs and the

entomological collection, I come to the varied and accurate

information which we bring with us upon points which have never

before been elucidated.  For example, upon the domestic habits of

the pterodactyl--`(A voice:  `Bosh,' and uproar)--`I say, that

upon the domestic habits of the pterodactyl we can throw a flood

of light.  I can exhibit to you from my portfolio a picture of

that creature taken from life which would convince you----'



"DR. ILLINGWORTH:  `No picture could convince us of anything.'

 

"PROFESSOR CHALLENGER:  `You would require to see the thing itself?'



"DR. ILLINGWORTH:  `Undoubtedly.'



"PROFESSOR CHALLENGER:  `And you would accept that?'



"DR. ILLINGWORTH (laughing):  `Beyond a doubt.'



"It was at this point that the sensation of the evening arose--a

sensation so dramatic that it can never have been paralleled in

the history of scientific gatherings.  Professor Challenger

raised his hand in the air as a signal, and at once our

colleague, Mr. E. D. Malone, was observed to rise and to make his

way to the back of the platform.  An instant later he re-appeared

in company of a gigantic negro, the two of them bearing between

them a large square packing-case.  It was evidently of great

weight, and was slowly carried forward and placed in front of

the Professor's chair.  All sound had hushed in the audience

and everyone was absorbed in the spectacle before them. 

Professor Challenger drew off the top of the case, which formed

a sliding lid.  Peering down into the box he snapped his fingers

several times and was heard from the Press seat to say, `Come,

then, pretty, pretty!' in a coaxing voice.  An instant later,

with a scratching, rattling sound, a most horrible and loathsome

creature appeared from below and perched itself upon the side of

the case.  Even the unexpected fall of the Duke of Durham into

the orchestra, which occurred at this moment, could not distract

the petrified attention of the vast audience.  The face of the

creature was like the wildest gargoyle that the imagination of a

mad medieval builder could have conceived.  It was malicious,

horrible, with two small red eyes as bright as points of

burning coal.  Its long, savage mouth, which was held half-open,

was full of a double row of shark-like teeth.  Its shoulders were

humped, and round them were draped what appeared to be a faded

gray shawl.  It was the devil of our childhood in person.  There was

a turmoil in the audience--someone screamed, two ladies in the

front row fell senseless from their chairs, and there was a

general movement upon the platform to follow their chairman into

the orchestra.  For a moment there was danger of a general panic. 

Professor Challenger threw up his hands to still the commotion,

but the movement alarmed the creature beside him.  Its strange

shawl suddenly unfurled, spread, and fluttered as a pair of

leathery wings.  Its owner grabbed at its legs, but too late to

hold it.  It had sprung from the perch and was circling slowly

round the Queen's Hall with a dry, leathery flapping of its

ten-foot wings, while a putrid and insidious odor pervaded

the room.  The cries of the people in the galleries, who were

alarmed at the near approach of those glowing eyes and that

murderous beak, excited the creature to a frenzy.  Faster and

faster it flew, beating against walls and chandeliers in a blind

frenzy of alarm.  `The window!  For heaven's sake shut that window!'

roared the Professor from the platform, dancing and wringing his

hands in an agony of apprehension.  Alas, his warning was too late! 

In a moment the creature, beating and bumping along the wall like a

huge moth within a gas-shade, came upon the opening, squeezed its

hideous bulk through it, and was gone.  Professor Challenger fell

back into his chair with his face buried in his hands, while the

audience gave one long, deep sigh of relief as they realized that

the incident was over.



"Then--oh! how shall one describe what took place then--when the

full exuberance of the majority and the full reaction of the

minority united to make one great wave of enthusiasm, which

rolled from the back of the hall, gathering volume as it came,

swept over the orchestra, submerged the platform, and carried the

four heroes away upon its crest?"  (Good for you, Mac!)  "If the

audience had done less than justice, surely it made ample amends. 

Every one was on his feet.  Every one was moving, shouting,

gesticulating.  A dense crowd of cheering men were round the four

travelers.  `Up with them! up with them!' cried a hundred voices. 

In a moment four figures shot up above the crowd.  In vain they

strove to break loose.  They were held in their lofty places

of honor.  It would have been hard to let them down if it had

been wished, so dense  was the crowd around them.  `Regent Street!  

Regent Street!' sounded the voices.  There was a swirl in the

packed multitude, and a slow current, bearing the four upon their

shoulders, made for the door.  Out in the street the scene was

extraordinary.  An assemblage of not less than a hundred thousand

people was waiting.  The close-packed throng extended from the

other side of the Langham Hotel to Oxford Circus.  A roar of

acclamation greeted the four adventurers as they appeared, high

above the heads of the people, under the vivid electric lamps

outside the hall.  `A procession!  A procession!' was the cry. 

In a dense phalanx, blocking the streets from side to side, the

crowd set forth, taking the route of Regent Street, Pall Mall,

St. James's Street, and Piccadilly.  The whole central traffic

of London was held up, and many collisions were reported between

the demonstrators upon the one side and the police and taxi-cabmen

upon the other.  Finally, it was not until after midnight that

the four travelers were released at the entrance to Lord John

Roxton's chambers in the Albany, and that the exuberant crowd,

having sung `They are Jolly Good Fellows' in chorus, concluded

their program with `God Save the King.' So ended one of the most

remarkable evenings that London has seen for a considerable time."



So far my friend Macdona; and it may be taken as a fairly

accurate, if florid, account of the proceedings.  As to the main

incident, it was a bewildering surprise to the audience, but not,

I need hardly say, to us.  The reader will remember how I met

Lord John Roxton upon the very occasion when, in his protective

crinoline, he had gone to bring the "Devil's chick" as he called

it, for Professor Challenger.  I have hinted also at the trouble

which the Professor's baggage gave us when we left the plateau,

and had I described our voyage I might have said a good deal of

the worry we had to coax with putrid fish the appetite of our

filthy companion.  If I have not said much about it before, it

was, of course, that the Professor's earnest desire was that no

possible rumor of the unanswerable argument which we carried

should be allowed to leak out until the moment came when his

enemies were to be confuted.



One word as to the fate of the London pterodactyl.  Nothing can

be said to be certain upon this point.  There is the evidence of

two frightened women that it perched upon the roof of the Queen's

Hall and remained there like a diabolical statue for some hours. 

The next day it came out in the evening papers that Private

Miles, of the Coldstream Guards, on duty outside Marlborough

House, had deserted his post without leave, and was therefore

courtmartialed.  Private Miles' account, that he dropped his

rifle and took to his heels down the Mall because on looking up

he had suddenly seen the devil between him and the moon, was not

accepted by the Court, and yet it may have a direct bearing upon

the point at issue.  The only other evidence which I can adduce

is from the log of the SS. Friesland, a Dutch-American liner,

which asserts that at nine next morning, Start Point being at the

time ten miles upon their starboard quarter, they were passed by

something between a flying goat and a monstrous bat, which was

heading at a prodigious pace south and west.  If its homing

instinct led it upon the right line, there can be no doubt that

somewhere out in the wastes of the Atlantic the last European

pterodactyl found its end.



And Gladys--oh, my Gladys!--Gladys of the mystic lake, now to be

re-named the Central, for never shall she have immortality

through me.  Did I not always see some hard fiber in her nature? 

Did I not, even at the time when I was proud to obey her behest,

feel that it was surely a poor love which could drive a lover to

his death or the danger of it?  Did I not, in my truest thoughts,

always recurring and always dismissed, see past the beauty of the

face, and, peering into the soul, discern the twin shadows of

selfishness and of fickleness glooming at the back of it?  Did she

love the heroic and the spectacular for its own noble sake, or

was it for the glory which might, without effort or sacrifice, be

reflected upon herself?  Or are these thoughts the vain wisdom

which comes after the event?  It was the shock of my life.  For a

moment it had turned me to a cynic.  But already, as I write, a

week has passed, and we have had our momentous interview with

Lord John Roxton and--well, perhaps things might be worse.



Let me tell it in a few words.  No letter or telegram had come to

me at Southampton, and I reached the little villa at Streatham

about ten o'clock that night in a fever of alarm.  Was she dead

or alive?  Where were all my nightly dreams of the open arms, the

smiling face, the words of praise for her man who had risked his

life to humor her whim?  Already I was down from the high peaks

and standing flat-footed upon earth.  Yet some good reasons given

might still lift me to the clouds once more.  I rushed down the

garden path, hammered at the door, heard the voice of Gladys

within, pushed past the staring maid, and strode into the

sitting-room.  She was seated in a low settee under the shaded

standard lamp by the piano.  In three steps I was across the room

and had both her hands in mine.



"Gladys!" I cried, "Gladys!"



She looked up with amazement in her face.  She was altered in some

subtle way.  The expression of her eyes, the hard upward stare,

the set of the lips, was new to me.  She drew back her hands.



"What do you mean?" she said.



"Gladys!" I cried.  "What is the matter?  You are my Gladys, are

you not--little Gladys Hungerton?"



"No," said she, "I am Gladys Potts.  Let me introduce you to

my husband."



How absurd life is!  I found myself mechanically bowing and

shaking hands with a little ginger-haired man who was coiled up

in the deep arm-chair which had once been sacred to my own use. 

We bobbed and grinned in front of each other.



"Father lets us stay here.  We are getting our house ready,"

said Gladys.



"Oh, yes," said I.



"You didn't get my letter at Para, then?"



"No, I got no letter."



"Oh, what a pity!  It would have made all clear."



"It is quite clear," said I.



"I've told William all about you," said she.  "We have no secrets. 

I am so sorry about it.  But it couldn't have been so very deep,

could it, if you could go off to the other end of the world and

leave me here alone.  You're not crabby, are you?"



"No, no, not at all.  I think I'll go."



"Have some refreshment," said the little man, and he added, in a

confidential way, "It's always like this, ain't it?  And must be

unless you had polygamy, only the other way round; you understand." 

He laughed like an idiot, while I made for the door.



I was through it, when a sudden fantastic impulse came upon me,

and I went back to my successful rival, who looked nervously at

the electric push.



"Will you answer a question?" I asked.



"Well, within reason," said he.



"How did you do it?  Have you searched for hidden treasure, or

discovered a pole, or done time on a pirate, or flown the

Channel, or what?  Where is the glamour of romance?  How did you

get it?"



He stared at me with a hopeless expression upon his vacuous,

good-natured, scrubby little face.



"Don't you think all this is a little too personal?" he said.



"Well, just one question," I cried.  "What are you?  What is

your profession?"



"I am a solicitor's clerk," said he.  "Second man at Johnson and

Merivale's, 41 Chancery Lane."



"Good-night!" said I, and vanished, like all disconsolate and

broken-hearted heroes, into the darkness, with grief and rage

and laughter all simmering within me like a boiling pot.



One more little scene, and I have done.  Last night we all supped

at Lord John Roxton's rooms, and sitting together afterwards we

smoked in good comradeship and talked our adventures over.  It was

strange under these altered surroundings to see the old, well-known

faces and figures.  There was Challenger, with his smile of

condescension, his drooping eyelids, his intolerant eyes, his

aggressive beard, his huge chest, swelling and puffing as he laid

down the law to Summerlee.  And Summerlee, too, there he was with

his short briar between his thin moustache and his gray goat's-

beard, his worn face protruded in eager debate as he queried all

Challenger's propositions.  Finally, there was our host, with his

rugged, eagle face, and his cold, blue, glacier eyes with always

a shimmer of devilment and of humor down in the depths of them. 

Such is the last picture of them that I have carried away.



It was after supper, in his own sanctum--the room of the pink

radiance and the innumerable trophies--that Lord John Roxton had

something to say to us.  From a cupboard he had brought an old

cigar-box, and this he laid before him on the table.



"There's one thing," said he, "that maybe I should have spoken

about before this, but I wanted to know a little more clearly

where I was.  No use to raise hopes and let them down again. 

But it's facts, not hopes, with us now.  You may remember that day

we found the pterodactyl rookery in the swamp--what?  Well, somethin'

in the lie of the land took my notice.  Perhaps it has escaped you,

so I will tell you.  It was a volcanic vent full of blue clay." 

The Professors nodded.



"Well, now, in the whole world I've only had to do with one place

that was a volcanic vent of blue clay.  That was the great De

Beers Diamond Mine of Kimberley--what?  So you see I got diamonds

into my head.  I rigged up a contraption to hold off those

stinking beasts, and I spent a happy day there with a spud. 

This is what I got."



He opened his cigar-box, and tilting it over he poured about

twenty or thirty rough stones, varying from the size of beans to

that of chestnuts, on the table.



"Perhaps you think I should have told you then.  Well, so I

should, only I know there are a lot of traps for the unwary, and

that stones may be of any size and yet of little value where

color and consistency are clean off.  Therefore, I brought them

back, and on the first day at home I took one round to Spink's,

and asked him to have it roughly cut and valued."



He took a pill-box from his pocket, and spilled out of it a

beautiful glittering diamond, one of the finest stones that I

have ever seen.



"There's the result," said he.  "He prices the lot at a minimum

of two hundred thousand pounds.  Of course it is fair shares

between us.  I won't hear of anythin' else.  Well, Challenger,

what will you do with your fifty thousand?"



"If you really persist in your generous view," said the

Professor, "I should found a private museum, which has long been

one of my dreams."



"And you, Summerlee?"



"I would retire from teaching, and so find time for my final

classification of the chalk fossils."



"I'll use my own," said Lord John Roxton, "in fitting a

well-formed expedition and having another look at the dear

old plateau.  As to you, young fellah, you, of course, will

spend yours in gettin' married."



"Not just yet," said I, with a rueful smile.  "I think, if you

will have me, that I would rather go with you."



Lord Roxton said nothing, but a brown hand was stretched out to

me across the table.





The End of Project Gutenberg etext of "The Lost World"





