The Lost World
when we became aware of a strange low gabbling and whistling sound,
which filled the air with a constant clamor and appeared to come from
some spot immediately before us. Lord John held up his hand as a
signal for us to stop, and he made his way swiftly, stooping and
running, to the line of rocks. We saw him peep over them and give a
gesture of amazement. Then he stood staring as if forgetting us, so
utterly entranced was he by what he saw. Finally he waved us to come
on, holding up his hand as a signal for caution. His whole bearing
made me feel that something wonderful but dangerous lay before us.
Creeping to his side, we looked over the rocks. The place into which
we gazed was a pit, and may, in the early days, have been one of the
smaller volcanic blow-holes of the plateau. It was bowl-shaped and at
the bottom, some hundreds of yards from where we lay, were pools of
green-scummed, stagnant water, fringed with bullrushes. It was a weird
place in itself, but its occupants made it seem like a scene from the
Seven Circles of Dante. The place was a rookery of pterodactyls.
There were hundreds of them congregated within view. All the bottom
area round the water-edge was alive with their young ones, and with
hideous mothers brooding upon their leathery, yellowish eggs. From
this crawling flapping mass of obscene reptilian life came the shocking
clamor which filled the air and the mephitic, horrible, musty odor
which turned us sick. But above, perched each upon its own stone,
tall, gray, and withered, more like dead and dried specimens than
actual living creatures, sat the horrible males, absolutely motionless
save for the rolling of their red eyes or an occasional snap of their
rat-trap beaks as a dragon-fly went past them. Their huge, membranous
wings were closed by folding their fore-arms, so that they sat like
gigantic old women, wrapped in hideous web-colored shawls, and with
their ferocious heads protruding above them. Large and small, not less
than a thousand of these filthy creatures lay in the hollow before us.
Our professors would gladly have stayed there all day, so entranced
were they by this opportunity of studying the life of a prehistoric
age. They pointed out the fish and dead birds lying about among the
rocks as proving the nature of the food of these creatures, and I heard
them congratulating each other on having cleared up the point why the
bones of this flying dragon are found in such great numbers in certain
well-defined areas, as in the Cambridge Green-sand, since it was now
seen that, like penguins, they lived in gregarious fashion.
Finally, however, Challenger, bent upon proving some point which
Summerlee had contested, thrust his head over the rock and nearly
brought destruction upon us all. In an instant the nearest male gave a
shrill, whistling cry, and flapped its twenty-foot span of leathery
wings as it soared up into the air. The females and young ones huddled
together beside the water, while the whole circle of sentinels rose one
after the other and sailed off into the sky. It was a wonderful sight
to see at least a hundred creatures of such enormous size and hideous
appearance all swooping like swallows with swift, shearing wing-strokes
above us; but soon we realized that it was not one on which we could
afford to linger. At first the great brutes flew round in a huge ring,
as if to make sure what the exact extent of the danger might be. Then,
the flight grew lower and the circle narrower, until they were whizzing
round and round us, the dry, rustling flap of their huge slate-colored
wings filling the air with a volume of sound that made me think of
Hendon aerodrome upon a race day.
"Make for the wood and keep together," cried Lord John, clubbing his
rifle. "The brutes mean mischief."
The moment we attempted to retreat the circle closed in upon us, until
the tips of the wings of those nearest to us nearly touched our faces.
We beat at them with the stocks of our guns, but there was nothing
solid or vulnerable to strike. Then suddenly out of the whizzing,
slate-colored circle a long neck shot out, and a fierce beak made a
thrust at us. Another and another followed. Summerlee gave a cry and
put his hand to his face, from which the blood was streaming. I felt a
prod at the back of my neck, and turned dizzy with the shock.
Challenger fell, and as I stooped to pick him up I was again struck
from behind and dropped on the top of him. At the same instant I heard
the crash of Lord John's elephant-gun, and, looking up, saw one of the
creatures with a broken wing struggling upon the ground, spitting and
gurgling at us with a wide-opened beak and blood-shot, goggled eyes,
like some devil in a medieval picture. Its comrades had flown higher
at the sudden sound, and were circling above our heads.
"Now," cried Lord John, "now for our lives!"
We staggered through the brushwood, and even as we reached the trees
the harpies were on us again. Summerlee was knocked down, but we tore
him up and rushed among the trunks. Once there we were safe, for those
huge wings had no space for their sweep beneath the branches. As we
limped homewards, sadly mauled and discomfited, we saw them for a long
time flying at a great height against the deep blue sky above our
heads, soaring round and round, no bigger than wood-pigeons, with their
eyes no doubt still following our progress. At last, however, as we
reached the thicker woods they gave up the chase, and we saw them no
more.
"A most interesting and convincing experience," said Challenger, as we
halted beside the brook and he bathed a swollen knee. "We are
exceptionally well informed, Summerlee, as to the habits of the enraged
pterodactyl."
Summerlee was wiping the blood from a cut in his forehead, while I was
tying up a nasty stab in the muscle of the neck. Lord John had the
shoulder of his coat torn away, but the creature's teeth had only
grazed the flesh.
"It is worth noting," Challenger continued, "that our young friend has
received an undoubted stab, while Lord John's coat could only have been
torn by a bite. In my own case, I was beaten about the head by their
wings, so we have had a remarkable exhibition of their various methods
of offence."
"It has been touch and go for our lives," said Lord John, gravely, "and
I could not think of a more rotten sort of death than to be outed by
such filthy vermin. I was sorry to fire my rifle, but, by Jove! there
was no great choice."
"We should not be here if you hadn't," said I, with conviction.
"It may do no harm," said he. "Among these woods there must be many
loud cracks from splitting or falling trees which would be just like
the sound of a gun. But now, if you are of my opinion, we have had
thrills enough for one day, and had best get back to the surgical box
at the camp for some carbolic. Who knows what venom these beasts may
have in their hideous jaws?"
But surely no men ever had just such a day since the world began. Some
fresh surprise was ever in store for us. When, following the course of
our brook, we at last reached our glade and saw the thorny barricade of
our camp, we thought that our adventures were at an end. But we had
something more to think of before we could rest. The gate of Fort
Challenger had been untouched, the walls were unbroken, and yet it had
been visited by some strange and powerful creature in our absence. No
foot-mark showed a trace of its nature, and only the overhanging branch
of the enormous ginko tree suggested how it might have come and gone;
but of its malevolent strength there was ample evidence in the
condition of our stores. They were strewn at random all over the
ground, and one tin of meat had been crushed into pieces so as to
extract the contents. A case of cartridges had been shattered into
matchwood, and one of the brass shells lay shredded into pieces beside
it. Again the feeling of vague horror came upon our souls, and we
gazed round with frightened eyes at the dark shadows which lay around
us, in all of which some fearsome shape might be lurking. How good it
was when we were hailed by the voice of Zambo, and, going to the edge
of the plateau, saw him sitting grinning at us upon the top of the
opposite pinnacle.
"All well, Massa Challenger, all well!" he cried. "Me stay here. No
fear. You always find me when you want."
His honest black face, and the immense view before us, which carried us
half-way back to the affluent of the Amazon, helped us to remember that
we really were upon this earth in the twentieth century, and had not by
some magic been conveyed to some raw planet in its earliest and wildest
state. How difficult it was to realize that the violet line upon the
far horizon was well advanced to that great river upon which huge
steamers ran, and folk talked of the small affairs of life, while we,
marooned among the creatures of a bygone age, could but gaze towards it
and yearn for all that it meant!
One other memory remains with me of this wonderful day, and with it I
will close this letter. The two professors, their tempers aggravated
no doubt by their injuries, had fallen out as to whether our assailants
were of the genus pterodactylus or dimorphodon, and high words had
ensued. To avoid their wrangling I moved some little way apart, and
was seated smoking upon the trunk of a fallen tree, when Lord John
strolled over in my direction.
"I say, Malone," said he, "do you remember that place where those
beasts were?"
"Very clearly."
"A sort of volcanic pit, was it not?"
"Exactly," said I.
"Did you notice the soil?"
"Rocks."
"But round the water--where the reeds were?"
"It was a bluish soil. It looked like clay."
"Exactly. A volcanic tube full of blue clay."
"What of that?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing, nothing," said he, and strolled back to where the voices
of the contending men of science rose in a prolonged duet, the high,
strident note of Summerlee rising and falling to the sonorous bass of
Challenger. I should have thought no more of Lord John's remark were
it not that once again that night I heard him mutter to himself: "Blue
clay--clay in a volcanic tube!" They were the last words I heard before
I dropped into an exhausted sleep.
CHAPTER XI
"For once I was the Hero"
Lord John Roxton was right when he thought that some specially toxic
quality might lie in the bite of the horrible creatures which had
attacked us. On the morning after our first adventure upon the
plateau, both Summerlee and I were in great pain and fever, while
Challenger's knee was so bruised that he could hardly limp. We kept to
our camp all day, therefore, Lord John busying himself, with such help
as we could give him, in raising the height and thickness of the thorny
walls which were our only defense. I remember that during the whole
long day I was haunted by the feeling that we were closely observed,
though by whom or whence I could give no guess.
So strong was the impression that I told Professor Challenger of it,
who put it down to the cerebral excitement caused by my fever. Again
and again I glanced round swiftly, with the conviction that I was about
to see something, but only to meet the dark tangle of our hedge or the
solemn and cavernous gloom of the great trees which arched above our
heads. And yet the feeling grew ever stronger in my own mind that
something observant and something malevolent was at our very elbow. I
thought of the Indian superstition of the Curupuri--the dreadful,
lurking spirit of the woods--and I could have imagined that his
terrible presence haunted those who had invaded his most remote and
sacred retreat.