 CHAPTER XI. FOR ONCE I WAS THE HERO. Lord John Roxton was right when he thought that some especially 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 Summerly 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 defence. I remember that during the whole long day I was haunted by the feeling that we were closely observed, though by whom and 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 a conviction that I was about to see something, but only to meet the dark tangle of our hedge or the Solomon 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 curapuri, 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 all 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 centred 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 loosed 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. Summerly 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 and co-eight, 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-volume 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 summerly, 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 sally-port 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 brood'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 nothing else to be done. If he had got among us we should have shot each other in trying 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 nothing of given 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 summarily, 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 tonight 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, remark summarily, 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. Tomorrow 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, to our spells in the future, for each of us. Then I'll just finish my pipe and starting the first one, said Professor summarily, 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 Greensward, 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 those 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 summerly. Exactly. Any one of the larger coniferous 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 Rockston curtly. We don't know who or what may be near us. If this fella comes back for his breakfast and catches us here, we won't have so much to laugh at. By the way, what is this marked 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 summerly 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 Summerly, that the stains are from asphalt. As this plateau is, and 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 common 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 Somerly 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 swelled 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 yellowing 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 perfusion of strange foot marks, 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 anteater, 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, dung-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 that might have come in many weeks of exploring. It was summerly who opened the debate. All day he had been quereless 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, boom-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 Summerly. You must remember, said Summerly sourly, that I have a large class in London who are at present at the mercy of an extremely inefficient locum tenants. 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, as Summerly 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 ol' McCartle, 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 Summerly 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 Summerly 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 Summerly 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 should 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 downward, 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 ginkgo tree which cast its huge branches over us. Surely, if its bowl 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 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 offshoots, 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 cheek, 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 fellow, 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, on to it. There were three excellent offshoots, 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 monkeys 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, which 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 Rockston 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 skyline, 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. On 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 summerly, 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 us on 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 Summerly. 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 guerrilla-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 Summerly 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, Grown 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 tomorrow 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 watchtower 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 Summerly 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. Summerly with a twisted smile was about to make some fresh assault when Lord John hastened to intervene. It's up to you, young fella, 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 daresay, as I said it, let it be named Lake Gladys. Don't you think the central lake would be more descriptive? remarked Summerly. 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. Finally 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 challengers snored with a rollin' 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 summerly 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 around us. I seemed to hear her voice as she said it. I thought also of MacGardle. What a three-column article for the paper! What a foundation for a career! A correspondent ship 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 Sariba, quickly slipped out. My last glance showed me the unconscious summerly, most futile of sentinels, still nodding away like a queer mechanical toy in front of the smoldering 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 honourably 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 moonlight 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 breach of my gun. As I touched the lever my heart leaped within me. It was the shotgun, 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 shotgun 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 Aquanidons. Right 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 brushwood, 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 it 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 best. 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 draft 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. Next 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 a 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 portholes 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 men. 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 have 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 centre of it. It was shallow, for in many places I saw low sandbanks protruding above the water. Everywhere upon the still service I could see signs of life. Sometimes mere rings and ripples in the water. Sometimes the gleam of a great silversighted fish in the air. Sometimes the arched, slate-coloured 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 newcomer, a most monstrous animal, was coming down the path. For a moment I wondered where I could have seen that ungainly shape, that arch 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 sketchbook, 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 at the central lake. I could testify that it was full of strange creatures, and I had seen several landforms 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 plotting up the slope, turning these thoughts over in my mind, and had reached a point which might 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-beast-lobbered 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 staring 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, deershaped 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 beast which have ever walked this earth. As the huge brute lopped along it dropped forward upon its forepaws 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 fouling-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 sabble 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 an excellent condition. Moving 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 a 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 so opportunity 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 Sarians 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 hard, however, as I recalled a conversation between Challenger and Summerly upon the habits of the great Sarians. 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 had 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 and 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 smoldering 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 Rockston. 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 breach. The blankets of Challenger and of Summerly 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 was 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 in-road, 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 have 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 in 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, sir. He take you all to his self. You take advice, Massa Malone. Come down quick, as 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?' Then to Indian villages saw plenty hide rope in Indian village. Indian down below. Send him. Who is he? One of our Indians. Other ones beat him, 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 steamboat 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. Tonight I am too weary and too depressed to make my plans. Tomorrow 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 name should not perish with our bodies, but should go down to posterity associated with the result of our labours. 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 of 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 onto a limb of the great Ginko 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 and a tingle in my hand feeling for a rifle, I gave a cry of joy as in the cold gray light I saw Lord John Rockston 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 fella, 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. No way 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 brushwood. 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 them. What is it all, I asked when I had got my breath. There 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 fella? You were well out of it. And a few sentences I whispered what I had done. Was he bad, said he when he had heard of the dinosaur and the pit? It isn't quite the place for a rescuer, what? But I had no idea what its possibilities were until those devils got hold of us. The man-eaten papuans had me once, but they are chester fields compared to this crowd. How did it happen, I asked. It was in the early morning. Our learned friends were just stirring. I 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 assembling 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 called them apes, but they carried sticks and stones in their hands and jabbered talk to each other, and ended up by tying our hands with creepers, so they are ahead of any beast that I have seen in my wanderings. Ape men, that's what they are, missin' lynx, 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 a frozen murder it was in their faces. They were big fellows, as big as a man, and a deal stronger. That's 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 pest men he could not have slang 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. People smile, young fellow, but upon 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 friends' 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. Summerly was a bit hysterical and he laughed till he cried. The ape man laughed too, or at least they put up the devil of a cackling, and they set to work to drag us off through the forest. They wouldn't touch the guns and things, thought them dangerous, I checked, but they carried away all our loose food. Summerly and I got some rough handling on the way. There's my skin and my clothes to prove it, for they took us a beeline 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. Where they go, said my companion, slipping cartridges into the second double-barreled express. Load them all up, young fellow 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 graze won't be in it, with their rifles grasped in their stiffened hands, mid a ring of the dead and dying, 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, and a great grove of trees near the edge of the cliff. It's three or four miles from here. The filthy beast 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 boson, 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 summerly and myself. Old Challenger was up a tree, eating pines and having 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 hobnob him with his twin brother and singing in that rolling bass of his, ring out wild bells, cause music of any kind seemed to put him in a good humor, you'd have smiled. But we weren't in much mood for laughing, 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 fella, 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. More 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 a yonder where you saw the caves, and the eight 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 eight men got hold of a dozen of the humans and brought them in as prisoners. You never heard such a jabberin' and shrinkin' in your life. The men were little red-fellows, and had been bitten and clawed so that they could hardly walk. The eight 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. Hardly gave a squeak. But it turned us absolutely sick. Summerly fainted, and even Challenger had as much as he could stand. I think they have cleared, don't you? We listened intently, but nothing saved the calling of the birds broke the deep peace of the forest. Lord Rockston went on with his story. I think you have had the escape of your life, young fella malade. 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 had 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 hall, 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 them. They have a sort of clear parade-ground on the top, 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. It 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 them like knit needles through a pad of butter. No wonder we found that poor Yankee skeleton where the canes grow in between his ribs. It was horrible. But it was ducidly interesting, too. We were all fascinated to see them take the dive, even when we thought it would be our turn next on the springboard. Well, it wasn't. They kept six of the Indians up for a 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 Somali 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, had one or two things clear in my mind. It was all on me, for Somali 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 it got hold of us. One said it was the dryopithecus of Java. The other said it was Pythocanthropus. Manus, 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 and a hundred to the best of them, and you or I would be a perfect shrub. Another point was that they knew nothing about guns. I don't believe they ever understood how the fellow I shot came by us hurt. If we could get at our guns there was no say in what we could do. So I broke away early this morning, 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 them. I couldn't bring them with me. Challenger was up the tree. Summerly 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 Summerly. But they would have had him in any case. Of that I am certain. So I haven't made matters any worse by Bolton. But we are honour bound to go back and have them out or see it through with them. So you can make up your soul, young fellow my lad, for it will be one way or the other before evening. I have tried to imitate here Lord Rockston'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 mustache 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 which wakes you in 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 eight 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 trod it along. Their crouching gate 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 them where it hurts most. Give them 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 Rockston 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 brushwood, and it's 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 fella. 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 clumps 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 out 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. Around 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 who 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 ejection. There was no mistaking the angular form of Professor Summerly. 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 saved 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 men 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 summerly. Two of his guards caught him by the wrist 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, sunny, 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 bloodlust was on me now. I found myself on my feet emptying one magazine, then the other, clicking open the breach to reload, 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 summerly were down and he was staggering about like a drunken man and in his amazement, unable to realize that he was a free man. The dense mob of eight men ran about in bewilderment, marveling whence the 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. Challenge's quick brain had grasped the situation. He seized the bewildered summerly 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 summerly was at the end of his strength. He could hardly totter. Already the eight men were recovering from their panic. They were coming through the brushwood and threatening to cut us off. Challenger and I ran summerly 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 Rockston 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 mustache in great perplexity, "'I say, what the deuce are we to do with these people? "'Get up, little chappy, take your face off my boots.'" Summerly was setting up and stuffing some tobacco into his old briar. "'We've got to see them safe,' said he. "'You 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 Summerly 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 bunny 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 your self-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 what 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. "'Summerly gave a groan.' "'I, for one, couldn't ever 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 eight men. "'The Indians once more set up a feeble wail of fear. "'We must move, and move quick,' said Lord John. "'You help summerly, young fella. "'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 exciting calling of the eight 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 Rockston's, "'which seemed to imply that there was some resemblance.' "'Yes, I heard them. "'I did not say that any publicity given to such an idea, "'and elevity 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 already shown by the most undeveloped races "'to dignity and character. "'You follow my meaning?' "'Entirely. "'I'll leave the matter to your discretion.' "'That after a long pause,' he added, "'the king of the eight 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.'" End of chapter.