{"id":1192,"date":"2026-06-25T19:24:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T00:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aflorebooks.com\/?post_type=digital-library&p=1192"},"modified":"2026-06-27T16:29:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T21:29:59","slug":"chapter-16","status":"publish","type":"digital-library","link":"https:\/\/aflorebooks.com\/es\/digital-library\/the-lost-world\/chapter-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 16: A Procession! A Procession!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
27\u201340 minutes<\/div>\n\n
6.331 words<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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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 Pe\u00f1aloza and other officials of the Brazilian Government for the special arrangements by which we were helped upon our way, and Senhor Pereira of Par\u00e1, to whose forethought we owe the complete outfit for a decent appearance in the civilised 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 rumour of our experiences had caused through Europe. It was not until the Ivernia<\/em> 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2014headlines 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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New World<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Great Meeting at the Queen\u2019s Hall
Scenes of Uproar
Extraordinary Incident
What was it?
Nocturnal Riot in Regent Street
(Special)<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe 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\u2019s 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.\u201d (Oh, brother scribe Macdona, what a monstrous opening sentence!) \u201cThe tickets were theoretically confined to members and their friends, but the latter is an elastic term, and long before eight o\u2019clock, 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 m\u00eal\u00e9e<\/em> 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 travellers. 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 Uppsala. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf 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\u2019s beard may be more shaggy, Professor Summerlee\u2019s features more ascetic, Lord John Roxton\u2019s 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-humoured contentment pervaded his honest but homely face.\u201d (All right, Mac, wait till I get you alone!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen quiet had been restored and the audience resumed their seats after the ovation which they had given to the travellers, the chairman, the Duke of Durham, addressed the meeting. \u2018He would not,\u2019 he said, \u2018stand 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 rumour that their expedition had been crowned by extraordinary success.\u2019 (Applause.) \u2018Apparently 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\u2014and all of them would rejoice\u2014that 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.\u2019 (Great applause, in which Professor Challenger was observed to join.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProfessor Summerlee\u2019s 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<\/em> 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 endeavours, which cost the lives of their two devoted half-breed servants.\u201d (This amazing reading of the affair was the result of Summerlee\u2019s endeavours to avoid raising any questionable matter at the meeting.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving 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 centred. 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 colour, 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<\/em>, seen once by Mr. Malone at a drinking place by the lake, and drawn in the sketchbook of that adventurous American who had first penetrated this unknown world. He described also the iguanodon and the pterodactyl\u2014two 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 Phorusrhacus<\/em>, 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 civilisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt had been hoped that the proceedings would end there, and that a vote of thanks and congratulation, moved by Professor Sergius, of Uppsala 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 centre of the hall. Dr. Illingworth asked whether an amendment should not be taken before a resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Chairman: \u2018Yes, sir, if there must be an amendment.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Illingworth: \u2018Your Grace, there must be an amendment.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Chairman: \u2018Then let us take it at once.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProfessor Summerlee (springing to his feet): \u2018Might I explain, your Grace, that this man is my personal enemy ever since our controversy in the Quarterly Journal of Science<\/em> as to the true nature of Bathybius<\/em>?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Chairman: \u2018I fear I cannot go into personal matters. Proceed.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. 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 sympathisers 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. 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? (\u2018Yes,\u2019 \u2018No,\u2019 and prolonged interruption, during which Professor Challenger was heard from the Press box to ask for permission 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 travellers 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<\/em>, 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. (\u2018Shame! shame!\u2019) He had no desire to be offensive. (\u2018You are!\u2019 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 Phorusrhacus<\/em>. He could only say that he would like to see that skull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLord John Roxton: \u2018Is this fellow calling me a liar?\u2019 (Uproar.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Chairman: \u2018Order! order! Dr. Illingworth, I must direct you to bring your remarks to a conclusion and to move your amendment.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Illingworth: \u2018Your 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<\/em>, and shall be referred back to a larger, and possibly more reliable Committee of Investigation.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt 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 travellers by noisy shouts of dissent and cries of, \u2018Don\u2019t put it!\u2019 \u2018Withdraw!\u2019 \u2018Turn him out!\u2019 On the other hand, the malcontents\u2014and it cannot be denied that they were fairly numerous\u2014cheered for the amendment, with cries of \u2018Order!\u2019 \u2018Chair!\u2019 and \u2018Fair play!\u2019 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018It will be within the recollection of many present,\u2019 said Professor Challenger, \u2018that 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 tonight 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\u2019s mental level, I will endeavour to do so, in order to allay any reasonable doubt which could possibly exist in the minds of anyone.\u2019 (Laughter and interruption.) \u2018I need not remind this audience that, though Professor Summerlee, as the head of the Committee of Investigation, has been put up to speak tonight, 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.\u2019 (Jeers, laughter, and \u2018Tell us another!\u2019 from the back.) \u2018I 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.\u2019 (Laughter.) \u2018In 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?\u2019 (A voice, \u2018Yes,\u2019 and considerable interruption which ended in several men being put out of the hall.) \u2018The 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\u2019s collections of butterflies and beetles, containing many new species. Was this not evidence?\u2019 (Several voices, \u2018No.\u2019) \u2018Who said no?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Illingworth (rising): \u2018Our point is that such a collection might have been made in other places than a prehistoric plateau.\u2019 (Applause.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProfessor Challenger: \u2018No 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\u2014\u2019 (A voice: \u2018Bosh,\u2019 and uproar.) \u2018I 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\u2014\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Illingworth: \u2018No picture could convince us of anything.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProfessor Challenger: \u2018You would require to see the thing itself?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Illingworth: \u2018Undoubtedly.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProfessor Challenger: \u2018And you would accept that?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Illingworth (laughing): \u2018Beyond a doubt.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was at this point that the sensation of the evening arose\u2014a 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 reappeared 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\u2019s 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, \u2018Come, then, pretty, pretty!\u2019 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 grey shawl. It was the devil of our childhood in person. There was a turmoil in the audience\u2014someone 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\u2019s Hall with a dry, leathery flapping of its ten-foot wings, while a putrid and insidious odour 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. \u2018The window! For heaven\u2019s sake shut that window!\u2019 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 realised that the incident was over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen\u2014oh! how shall one describe what took place then\u2014when 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?\u201d (Good for you, Mac!) \u201cIf the audience had done less than justice, surely it made ample amends. Everyone was on his feet. Everyone was moving, shouting, gesticulating. A dense crowd of cheering men were round the four travellers. \u2018Up with them! up with them!\u2019 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 honour. It would have been hard to let them down if it had been wished, so dense was the crowd around them. \u2018Regent Street! Regent Street!\u2019 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. \u2018A procession! A procession!\u2019 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\u2019s 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 taxicab-men upon the other. Finally, it was not until after midnight that the four travellers were released at the entrance to Lord John Roxton\u2019s chambers in the Albany, and that the exuberant crowd, having sung \u2018They are Jolly Good Fellows\u2019 in chorus, concluded their programme with \u2018God Save the King.\u2019 So ended one of the most remarkable evenings that London has seen for a considerable time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cDevil\u2019s chick\u201d as he called it, for Professor Challenger. I have hinted also at the trouble which the Professor\u2019s 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\u2019s earnest desire was that no possible rumour of the unanswerable argument which we carried should be allowed to leak out until the moment came when his enemies were to be confuted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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 court martialled. Private Miles\u2019 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Gladys\u2014oh, my Gladys!\u2014Gladys of the mystic lake, now to be renamed the Central, for never shall she have immortality through me. Did I not always see some hard fibre in her nature? Did I not, even at the time when I was proud to obey her command, 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\u2014well, perhaps things might be worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019clock 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 humour 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGladys!\u201d I cried, \u201cGladys!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGladys!\u201d I cried. \u201cWhat is the matter? You are my Gladys, are you not\u2014little Gladys Hungerton?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo,\u201d said she, \u201cI am Gladys Potts. Let me introduce you to my husband.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 armchair which had once been sacred to my own use. We bobbed and grinned in front of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFather lets us stay here. We are getting our house ready,\u201d said Gladys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, yes,\u201d said I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t get my letter at Par\u00e1, then?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, I got no letter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, what a pity! It would have made all clear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is quite clear,\u201d said I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve told William all about you,\u201d said she. \u201cWe have no secrets. I am so sorry about it. But it couldn\u2019t 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\u2019re not crabby, are you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, no, not at all. I think I\u2019ll go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHave some refreshment,\u201d said the little man, and he added, in a confidential way, \u201cIt\u2019s always like this, ain\u2019t it? And must be unless you had polygamy, only the other way round; you understand.\u201d He laughed like an idiot, while I made for the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWill you answer a question?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, within reason,\u201d said he.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow 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?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He stared at me with a hopeless expression upon his vacuous, good-natured, scrubby little face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t you think all this is a little too personal?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, just one question,\u201d I cried. \u201cWhat are you? What is your profession?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am a solicitor\u2019s clerk,\u201d said he. \u201cSecond man at Johnson and Merivale\u2019s, 41 Chancery Lane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoodnight!\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One more little scene, and I have done. Last night we all supped at Lord John Roxton\u2019s 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 grey goat\u2019s-beard, his worn face protruded in eager debate as he queried all Challenger\u2019s 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 humour down in the depths of them. Such is the last picture of them that I have carried away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was after supper, in his own sanctum\u2014the room of the pink radiance and the innumerable trophies\u2014that 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s one thing,\u201d said he, \u201cthat 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\u2019s facts, not hopes, with us now. You may remember that day we found the pterodactyl rookery in the swamp\u2014what? Well, somethin\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Professors nodded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, now, in the whole world I\u2019ve 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\u2014what? 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPerhaps 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 colour and consistency are clean off. Therefore, I brought them back, and on the first day at home I took one round to Spink\u2019s, and asked him to have it roughly cut and valued.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He took a pillbox from his pocket, and spilled out of it a beautiful glittering diamond, one of the finest stones that I have ever seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s the result,\u201d said he. \u201cHe prices the lot at a minimum of two hundred thousand pounds. Of course it is fair shares between us. I won\u2019t hear of anythin\u2019 else. Well, Challenger, what will you do with your fifty thousand?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you really persist in your generous view,\u201d said the Professor, \u201cI should found a private museum, which has long been one of my dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd you, Summerlee?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would retire from teaching, and so find time for my final classification of the chalk fossils.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll use my own,\u201d said Lord John Roxton, \u201cin 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\u2019 married.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot just yet,\u201d said I, with a rueful smile. \u201cI think, if you will have me, that I would rather go with you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord Roxton said nothing, but a brown hand was stretched out to me across the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The End<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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