The Lost World
"Yes, sir. You are a man whose veracity is upon trial, and this
committee is here to try it. You walk, sir, with your judges."
"Dear me!" said Challenger, seating himself on the side of one of the
canoes. "In that case you will, of course, go on your way, and I will
follow at my leisure. If I am not the leader you cannot expect me to
lead."
Thank heaven that there were two sane men--Lord John Roxton and
myself--to prevent the petulance and folly of our learned Professors
from sending us back empty-handed to London. Such arguing and pleading
and explaining before we could get them mollified! Then at last
Summerlee, with his sneer and his pipe, would move forwards, and
Challenger would come rolling and grumbling after. By some good
fortune we discovered about this time that both our savants had the
very poorest opinion of Dr. Illingworth of Edinburgh. Thenceforward
that was our one safety, and every strained situation was relieved by
our introducing the name of the Scotch zoologist, when both our
Professors would form a temporary alliance and friendship in their
detestation and abuse of this common rival.
Advancing in single file along the bank of the stream, we soon found
that it narrowed down to a mere brook, and finally that it lost itself
in a great green morass of sponge-like mosses, into which we sank up to
our knees. The place was horribly haunted by clouds of mosquitoes and
every form of flying pest, so we were glad to find solid ground again
and to make a circuit among the trees, which enabled us to outflank
this pestilent morass, which droned like an organ in the distance, so
loud was it with insect life.
On the second day after leaving our canoes we found that the whole
character of the country changed. Our road was persistently upwards,
and as we ascended the woods became thinner and lost their tropical
luxuriance. The huge trees of the alluvial Amazonian plain gave place
to the Phoenix and coco palms, growing in scattered clumps, with thick
brushwood between. In the damper hollows the Mauritia palms threw out
their graceful drooping fronds. We traveled entirely by compass, and
once or twice there were differences of opinion between Challenger and
the two Indians, when, to quote the Professor's indignant words, the
whole party agreed to "trust the fallacious instincts of undeveloped
savages rather than the highest product of modern European culture."
That we were justified in doing so was shown upon the third day, when
Challenger admitted that he recognized several landmarks of his former
journey, and in one spot we actually came upon four fire-blackened
stones, which must have marked a camping-place.
The road still ascended, and we crossed a rock-studded slope which took
two days to traverse. The vegetation had again changed, and only the
vegetable ivory tree remained, with a great profusion of wonderful
orchids, among which I learned to recognize the rare Nuttonia
Vexillaria and the glorious pink and scarlet blossoms of Cattleya and
odontoglossum. Occasional brooks with pebbly bottoms and fern-draped
banks gurgled down the shallow gorges in the hill, and offered good
camping-grounds every evening on the banks of some rock-studded pool,
where swarms of little blue-backed fish, about the size and shape of
English trout, gave us a delicious supper.
On the ninth day after leaving the canoes, having done, as I reckon,
about a hundred and twenty miles, we began to emerge from the trees,
which had grown smaller until they were mere shrubs. Their place was
taken by an immense wilderness of bamboo, which grew so thickly that we
could only penetrate it by cutting a pathway with the machetes and
billhooks of the Indians. It took us a long day, traveling from seven
in the morning till eight at night, with only two breaks of one hour
each, to get through this obstacle. Anything more monotonous and
wearying could not be imagined, for, even at the most open places, I
could not see more than ten or twelve yards, while usually my vision
was limited to the back of Lord John's cotton jacket in front of me,
and to the yellow wall within a foot of me on either side. From above
came one thin knife-edge of sunshine, and fifteen feet over our heads
one saw the tops of the reeds swaying against the deep blue sky. I do
not know what kind of creatures inhabit such a thicket, but several
times we heard the plunging of large, heavy animals quite close to us.
From their sounds Lord John judged them to be some form of wild cattle.
Just as night fell we cleared the belt of bamboos, and at once formed
our camp, exhausted by the interminable day.
Early next morning we were again afoot, and found that the character of
the country had changed once again. Behind us was the wall of bamboo,
as definite as if it marked the course of a river. In front was an
open plain, sloping slightly upwards and dotted with clumps of
tree-ferns, the whole curving before us until it ended in a long,
whale-backed ridge. This we reached about midday, only to find a
shallow valley beyond, rising once again into a gentle incline which
led to a low, rounded sky-line. It was here, while we crossed the
first of these hills, that an incident occurred which may or may not
have been important.
Professor Challenger, who with the two local Indians was in the van of
the party, stopped suddenly and pointed excitedly to the right. As he
did so we saw, at the distance of a mile or so, something which
appeared to be a huge gray bird flap slowly up from the ground and skim
smoothly off, flying very low and straight, until it was lost among the
tree-ferns.
"Did you see it?" cried Challenger, in exultation. "Summerlee, did you
see it?"
His colleague was staring at the spot where the creature had
disappeared.
"What do you claim that it was?" he asked.
"To the best of my belief, a pterodactyl."
Summerlee burst into derisive laughter "A pter-fiddlestick!" said he.
"It was a stork, if ever I saw one."
Challenger was too furious to speak. He simply swung his pack upon his
back and continued upon his march. Lord John came abreast of me,
however, and his face was more grave than was his wont. He had his
Zeiss glasses in his hand.
"I focused it before it got over the trees," said he. "I won't
undertake to say what it was, but I'll risk my reputation as a
sportsman that it wasn't any bird that ever I clapped eyes on in my
life."
So there the matter stands. Are we really just at the edge of the
unknown, encountering the outlying pickets of this lost world of which
our leader speaks? I give you the incident as it occurred and you will
know as much as I do. It stands alone, for we saw nothing more which
could be called remarkable.
And now, my readers, if ever I have any, I have brought you up the
broad river, and through the screen of rushes, and down the green
tunnel, and up the long slope of palm trees, and through the bamboo
brake, and across the plain of tree-ferns. At last our destination lay
in full sight of us. When we had crossed the second ridge we saw
before us an irregular, palm-studded plain, and then the line of high
red cliffs which I have seen in the picture. There it lies, even as I
write, and there can be no question that it is the same. At the
nearest point it is about seven miles from our present camp, and it
curves away, stretching as far as I can see. Challenger struts about
like a prize peacock, and Summerlee is silent, but still sceptical.
Another day should bring some of our doubts to an end. Meanwhile, as
Jose, whose arm was pierced by a broken bamboo, insists upon returning,
I send this letter back in his charge, and only hope that it may
eventually come to hand. I will write again as the occasion serves. I
have enclosed with this a rough chart of our journey, which may have
the effect of making the account rather easier to understand.
CHAPTER IX
"Who could have Foreseen it?"
A dreadful thing has happened to us. Who could have foreseen it? I
cannot foresee any end to our troubles. It may be that we are
condemned to spend our whole lives in this strange, inaccessible place.
I am still so confused that I can hardly think clearly of the facts of
the present or of the chances of the future. To my astounded senses
the one seems most terrible and the other as black as night.
No men have ever found themselves in a worse position; nor is there any
use in disclosing to you our exact geographical situation and asking
our friends for a relief party. Even if they could send one, our fate
will in all human probability be decided long before it could arrive in
South America.
We are, in truth, as far from any human aid as if we were in the moon.
If we are to win through, it is only our own qualities which can save
us. I have as companions three remarkable men, men of great
brain-power and of unshaken courage. There lies our one and only hope.
It is only when I look upon the untroubled faces of my comrades that I
see some glimmer through the darkness. Outwardly I trust that I appear
as unconcerned as they. Inwardly I am filled with apprehension.
Let me give you, with as much detail as I can, the sequence of events
which have led us to this catastrophe.
When I finished my last letter I stated that we were within seven miles
from an enormous line of ruddy cliffs, which encircled, beyond all
doubt, the plateau of which Professor Challenger spoke. Their height,
as we approached them, seemed to me in some places to be greater than
he had stated--running up in parts to at least a thousand feet--and
they were curiously striated, in a manner which is, I believe,
characteristic of basaltic upheavals. Something of the sort is to be
seen in Salisbury Crags at Edinburgh. The summit showed every sign of
a luxuriant vegetation, with bushes near the edge, and farther back
many high trees. There was no indication of any life that we could see.
That night we pitched our camp immediately under the cliff--a most wild
and desolate spot. The crags above us were not merely perpendicular,
but curved outwards at the top, so that ascent was out of the question.
Close to us was the high thin pinnacle of rock which I believe I
mentioned earlier in this narrative. It is like a broad red church
spire, the top of it being level with the plateau, but a great chasm
gaping between. On the summit of it there grew one high tree. Both
pinnacle and cliff were comparatively low--some five or six hundred
feet, I should think.
"It was on that," said Professor Challenger, pointing to this tree,
"that the pterodactyl was perched. I climbed half-way up the rock
before I shot him. I am inclined to think that a good mountaineer like
myself could ascend the rock to the top, though he would, of course, be
no nearer to the plateau when he had done so."
As Challenger spoke of his pterodactyl I glanced at Professor
Summerlee, and for the first time I seemed to see some signs of a
dawning credulity and repentance. There was no sneer upon his thin
lips, but, on the contrary, a gray, drawn look of excitement and
amazement. Challenger saw it, too, and reveled in the first taste of
victory.
"Of course," said he, with his clumsy and ponderous sarcasm,
"Professor Summerlee will understand that when I speak of a pterodactyl
I mean a stork--only it is the kind of stork which has no feathers, a
leathery skin, membranous wings, and teeth in its jaws." He grinned
and blinked and bowed until his colleague turned and walked away.
In the morning, after a frugal breakfast of coffee and manioc--we had
to be economical of our stores--we held a council of war as to the best
method of ascending to the plateau above us.