The Lost World

CHAPTER XV

”Our Eyes have seen Great Wonders”

I write this from day to day, but I trust that before I come to the endof it, I may be able to say that the light shines, at last, through ourclouds. We are held here with no clear means of making our escape, andbitterly we chafe against it. Yet, I can well imagine that the day maycome when we may be glad that we were kept, against our will, to seesomething more of the wonders of this singular place, and of thecreatures who inhabit it.

The victory of the Indians and the annihilation of the ape-men, markedthe turning point of our fortunes. From then onwards, we were in truthmasters of the plateau, for the natives looked upon us with a mixtureof fear and gratitude, since by our strange powers we had aided them todestroy their hereditary foe. For their own sakes they would, perhaps,be glad to see the departure of such formidable and incalculablepeople, but they have not themselves suggested any way by which we mayreach the plains below. There had been, so far as we could followtheir signs, a tunnel by which the place could be approached, the lowerexit of which we had seen from below. By this, no doubt, both ape-menand Indians had at different epochs reached the top, and Maple Whitewith his companion had taken the same way. Only the year before,however, there had been a terrific earthquake, and the upper end of thetunnel had fallen in and completely disappeared. The Indians now couldonly shake their heads and shrug their shoulders when we expressed bysigns our desire to descend. It may be that they cannot, but it mayalso be that they will not, help us to get away.

At the end of the victorious campaign the surviving ape-folk weredriven across the plateau (their wailings were horrible) andestablished in the neighborhood of the Indian caves, where they would,from now onwards, be a servile race under the eyes of their masters.It was a rude, raw, primeval version of the Jews in Babylon or theIsraelites in Egypt. At night we could hear from amid the trees thelong-drawn cry, as some primitive Ezekiel mourned for fallen greatnessand recalled the departed glories of Ape Town. Hewers of wood anddrawers of water, such were they from now onwards.

We had returned across the plateau with our allies two days after thebattle, and made our camp at the foot of their cliffs. They would havehad us share their caves with them, but Lord John would by no meansconsent to it considering that to do so would put us in their power ifthey were treacherously disposed. We kept our independence, therefore,and had our weapons ready for any emergency, while preserving the mostfriendly relations. We also continually visited their caves, whichwere most remarkable places, though whether made by man or by Nature wehave never been able to determine. They were all on the one stratum,hollowed out of some soft rock which lay between the volcanic basaltforming the ruddy cliffs above them, and the hard granite which formedtheir base.

The openings were about eighty feet above the ground, and were led upto by long stone stairs, so narrow and steep that no large animal couldmount them. Inside they were warm and dry, running in straightpassages of varying length into the side of the hill, with smooth graywalls decorated with many excellent pictures done with charred sticksand representing the various animals of the plateau. If every livingthing were swept from the country the future explorer would find uponthe walls of these caves ample evidence of the strange fauna--thedinosaurs, iguanodons, and fish lizards--which had lived so recentlyupon earth.

Since we had learned that the huge iguanodons were kept as tame herdsby their owners, and were simply walking meat-stores, we had conceivedthat man, even with his primitive weapons, had established hisascendancy upon the plateau. We were soon to discover that it was notso, and that he was still there upon tolerance.

It was on the third day after our forming our camp near the Indiancaves that the tragedy occurred. Challenger and Summerlee had gone offtogether that day to the lake where some of the natives, under theirdirection, were engaged in harpooning specimens of the great lizards.Lord John and I had remained in our camp, while a number of the Indianswere scattered about upon the grassy slope in front of the cavesengaged in different ways. Suddenly there was a shrill cry of alarm,with the word ”Stoa” resounding from a hundred tongues. From everyside men, women, and children were rushing wildly for shelter, swarmingup the staircases and into the caves in a mad stampede.

Looking up, we could see them waving their arms from the rocks aboveand beckoning to us to join them in their refuge. We had both seizedour magazine rifles and ran out to see what the danger could be.Suddenly from the near belt of trees there broke forth a group oftwelve or fifteen Indians, running for their lives, and at their veryheels two of those frightful monsters which had disturbed our camp andpursued me upon my solitary journey. In shape they were like horribletoads, and moved in a succession of springs, but in size they were ofan incredible bulk, larger than the largest elephant. We had neverbefore seen them save at night, and indeed they are nocturnal animalssave when disturbed in their lairs, as these had been. We now stoodamazed at the sight, for their blotched and warty skins were of acurious fish-like iridescence, and the sunlight struck them with anever-varying rainbow bloom as they moved.

We had little time to watch them, however, for in an instant they hadovertaken the fugitives and were making a dire slaughter among them.Their method was to fall forward with their full weight upon each inturn, leaving him crushed and mangled, to bound on after the others.The wretched Indians screamed with terror, but were helpless, run asthey would, before the relentless purpose and horrible activity ofthese monstrous creatures. One after another they went down, and therewere not half-a-dozen surviving by the time my companion and I couldcome to their help. But our aid was of little avail and only involvedus in the same peril. At the range of a couple of hundred yards weemptied our magazines, firing bullet after bullet into the beasts, butwith no more effect than if we were pelting them with pellets of paper.Their slow reptilian natures cared nothing for wounds, and the springsof their lives, with no special brain center but scattered throughouttheir spinal cords, could not be tapped by any modern weapons. Themost that we could do was to check their progress by distracting theirattention with the flash and roar of our guns, and so to give both thenatives and ourselves time to reach the steps which led to safety. Butwhere the conical explosive bullets of the twentieth century were of noavail, the poisoned arrows of the natives, dipped in the juice ofstrophanthus and steeped afterwards in decayed carrion, could succeed.Such arrows were of little avail to the hunter who attacked the beast,because their action in that torpid circulation was slow, and beforeits powers failed it could certainly overtake and slay its assailant.But now, as the two monsters hounded us to the very foot of the stairs,a drift of darts came whistling from every chink in the cliff abovethem. In a minute they were feathered with them, and yet with no signof pain they clawed and slobbered with impotent rage at the steps whichwould lead them to their victims, mounting clumsily up for a few yardsand then sliding down again to the ground. But at last the poisonworked. One of them gave a deep rumbling groan and dropped his hugesquat head on to the earth. The other bounded round in an eccentriccircle with shrill, wailing cries, and then lying down writhed in agonyfor some minutes before it also stiffened and lay still. With yells oftriumph the Indians came flocking down from their caves and danced afrenzied dance of victory round the dead bodies, in mad joy that twomore of the most dangerous of all their enemies had been slain. Thatnight they cut up and removed the bodies, not to eat--for the poisonwas still active--but lest they should breed a pestilence. The greatreptilian hearts, however, each as large as a cushion, still lay there,beating slowly and steadily, with a gentle rise and fall, in horribleindependent life. It was only upon the third day that the ganglia randown and the dreadful things were still.

Some day, when I have a better desk than a meat-tin and more helpfultools than a worn stub of pencil and a last, tattered note-book, I willwrite some fuller account of the Accala Indians--of our life amongstthem, and of the glimpses which we had of the strange conditions ofwondrous Maple White Land. Memory, at least, will never fail me, forso long as the breath of life is in me, every hour and every action ofthat period will stand out as hard and clear as do the first strangehappenings of our childhood. No new impressions could efface thosewhich are so deeply cut. When the time comes I will describe thatwondrous moonlit night upon the great lake when a youngichthyosaurus--a strange creature, half seal, half fish, to look at,with bone-covered eyes on each side of his snout, and a third eye fixedupon the top of his head--was entangled in an Indian net, and nearlyupset our canoe before we towed it ashore; the same night that a greenwater-snake shot out from the rushes and carried off in its coils thesteersman of Challenger's canoe. I will tell, too, of the greatnocturnal white thing--to this day we do not know whether it was beastor reptile--which lived in a vile swamp to the east of the lake, andflitted about with a faint phosphorescent glimmer in the darkness. TheIndians were so terrified at it that they would not go near the place,and, though we twice made expeditions and saw it each time, we couldnot make our way through the deep marsh in which it lived. I can onlysay that it seemed to be larger than a cow and had the strangest muskyodor. I will tell also of the huge bird which chased Challenger to theshelter of the rocks one day--a great running bird, far taller than anostrich, with a vulture-like neck and cruel head which made it awalking death. As Challenger climbed to safety one dart of that savagecurving beak shore off the heel of his boot as if it had been cut witha chisel. This time at least modern weapons prevailed and the greatcreature, twelve feet from head to foot--phororachus its name,according to our panting but exultant Professor--went down before LordRoxton's rifle in a flurry of waving feathers and kicking limbs, withtwo remorseless yellow eyes glaring up from the midst of it. May Ilive to see that flattened vicious skull in its own niche amid thetrophies of the Albany. Finally, I will assuredly give some account ofthe toxodon, the giant ten-foot guinea pig, with projecting chiselteeth, which we killed as it drank in the gray of the morning by theside of the lake.

All this I shall some day write at fuller length, and amidst these morestirring days I would tenderly sketch in these lovely summer evenings,when with the deep blue sky above us we lay in good comradeship amongthe long grasses by the wood and marveled at the strange fowl thatswept over us and the quaint new creatures which crept from theirburrows to watch us, while above us the boughs of the bushes were heavywith luscious fruit, and below us strange and lovely flowers peeped atus from among the herbage; or those long moonlit nights when we lay outupon the shimmering surface of the great lake and watched with wonderand awe the huge circles rippling out from the sudden splash of somefantastic monster; or the greenish gleam, far down in the deep water,of some strange creature upon the confines of darkness. These are thescenes which my mind and my pen will dwell upon in every detail at somefuture day.

But, you will ask, why these experiences and why this delay, when youand your comrades should have been occupied day and night in thedevising of some means by which you could return to the outer world?My answer is, that there was not one of us who was not working for thisend, but that our work had been in vain. One fact we had very speedilydiscovered: The Indians would do nothing to help us. In every otherway they were our friends--one might almost say our devoted slaves--butwhen it was suggested that they should help us to make and carry aplank which would bridge the chasm, or when we wished to get from themthongs of leather or liana to weave ropes which might help us, we weremet by a good-humored, but an invincible, refusal. They would smile,twinkle their eyes, shake their heads, and there was the end of it.Even the old chief met us with the same obstinate denial, and it wasonly Maretas, the youngster whom we had saved, who looked wistfully atus and told us by his gestures that he was grieved for our thwartedwishes. Ever since their crowning triumph with the ape-men they lookedupon us as supermen, who bore victory in the tubes of strange weapons,and they believed that so long as we remained with them good fortunewould be theirs. A little red-skinned wife and a cave of our own werefreely offered to each of us if we would but forget our own people anddwell forever upon the plateau. So far all had been kindly, howeverfar apart our desires might be; but we felt well assured that ouractual plans of a descent must be kept secret, for we had reason tofear that at the last they might try to hold us by force.

In spite of the danger from dinosaurs (which is not great save atnight, for, as I may have said before, they are mostly nocturnal intheir habits) I have twice in the last three weeks been over to our oldcamp in order to see our negro who still kept watch and ward below thecliff. My eyes strained eagerly across the great plain in the hope ofseeing afar off the help for which we had prayed. But the longcactus-strewn levels still stretched away, empty and bare, to thedistant line of the cane-brake.

”They will soon come now, Massa Malone. Before another week passIndian come back and bring rope and fetch you down.” Such was thecheery cry of our excellent Zambo.

I had one strange experience as I came from this second visit which hadinvolved my being away for a night from my companions. I was returningalong the well-remembered route, and had reached a spot within a mileor so of the marsh of the pterodactyls, when I saw an extraordinaryobject approaching me. It was a man who walked inside a framework madeof bent canes so that he was enclosed on all sides in a bell-shapedcage. As I drew nearer I was more amazed still to see that it was LordJohn Roxton. When he saw me he slipped from under his curiousprotection and came towards me laughing, and yet, as I thought, withsome confusion in his manner.

”Well, young fellah,” said he, ”who would have thought of meetin' youup here?”

”What in the world are you doing?” I asked.

”Visitin' my friends, the pterodactyls,” said he.

”But why?”

”Interestin' beasts, don't you think? But unsociable! Nasty rude wayswith strangers, as you may remember. So I rigged this framework whichkeeps them from bein' too pressin' in their attentions.”

”But what do you want in the swamp?”

He looked at me with a very questioning eye, and I read hesitation inhis face.

”Don't you think other people besides Professors can want to knowthings?” he said at last. ”I'm studyin' the pretty dears. That'senough for you.”

”No offense,” said I.

His good-humor returned and he laughed.

”No offense, young fellah. I'm goin' to get a young devil chick forChallenger. That's one of my jobs. No, I don't want your company.I'm safe in this cage, and you are not. So long, and I'll be back incamp by night-fall.”

He turned away and I left him wandering on through the wood with hisextraordinary cage around him.

If Lord John's behavior at this time was strange, that of Challengerwas more so. I may say that he seemed to possess an extraordinaryfascination for the Indian women, and that he always carried a largespreading palm branch with which he beat them off as if they wereflies, when their attentions became too pressing. To see him walkinglike a comic opera Sultan, with this badge of authority in his hand,his black beard bristling in front of him, his toes pointing at eachstep, and a train of wide-eyed Indian girls behind him, clad in theirslender drapery of bark cloth, is one of the most grotesque of all thepictures which I will carry back with me. As to Summerlee, he wasabsorbed in the insect and bird life of the plateau, and spent hiswhole time (save that considerable portion which was devoted to abusingChallenger for not getting us out of our difficulties) in cleaning andmounting his specimens.

Challenger had been in the habit of walking off by himself everymorning and returning from time to time with looks of portentoussolemnity, as one who bears the full weight of a great enterprise uponhis shoulders. One day, palm branch in hand, and his crowd of adoringdevotees behind him, he led us down to his hidden work-shop and took usinto the secret of his plans.

The place was a small clearing in the center of a palm grove. In thiswas one of those boiling mud geysers which I have already described.Around its edge were scattered a number of leathern thongs cut fromiguanodon hide, and a large collapsed membrane which proved to be thedried and scraped stomach of one of the great fish lizards from thelake. This huge sack had been sewn up at one end and only a smallorifice left at the other. Into this opening several bamboo canes hadbeen inserted and the other ends of these canes were in contact withconical clay funnels which collected the gas bubbling up through themud of the geyser. Soon the flaccid organ began to slowly expand andshow such a tendency to upward movements that Challenger fastened thecords which held it to the trunks of the surrounding trees. In half anhour a good-sized gas-bag had been formed, and the jerking andstraining upon the thongs showed that it was capable of considerablelift. Challenger, like a glad father in the presence of hisfirst-born, stood smiling and stroking his beard, in silent,self-satisfied content as he gazed at the creation of his brain. Itwas Summerlee who first broke the silence.

”You don't mean us to go up in that thing, Challenger?” said he, in anacid voice.

”I mean, my dear Summerlee, to give you such a demonstration of itspowers that after seeing it you will, I am sure, have no hesitation intrusting yourself to it.”

”You can put it right out of your head now, at once,” said Summerleewith decision, ”nothing on earth would induce me to commit such afolly. Lord John, I trust that you will not countenance such madness?”

”Dooced ingenious, I call it,” said our peer. ”I'd like to see how itworks.”

”So you shall,” said Challenger. ”For some days I have exerted mywhole brain force upon the problem of how we shall descend from thesecliffs. We have satisfied ourselves that we cannot climb down and thatthere is no tunnel. We are also unable to construct any kind of bridgewhich may take us back to the pinnacle from which we came. How thenshall I find a means to convey us? Some little time ago I had remarkedto our young friend here that free hydrogen was evolved from thegeyser. The idea of a balloon naturally followed. I was, I willadmit, somewhat baffled by the difficulty of discovering an envelope tocontain the gas, but the contemplation of the immense entrails of thesereptiles supplied me with a solution to the problem. Behold theresult!”

He put one hand in the front of his ragged jacket and pointed proudlywith the other.

By this time the gas-bag had swollen to a goodly rotundity and wasjerking strongly upon its lashings.

”Midsummer madness!” snorted Summerlee.

Lord John was delighted with the whole idea. ”Clever old dear, ain'the?” he whispered to me, and then louder to Challenger. ”What about acar?”

”The car will be my next care. I have already planned how it is to bemade and attached. Meanwhile I will simply show you how capable myapparatus is of supporting the weight of each of us.”

”All of us, surely?”

”No, it is part of my plan that each in turn shall descend as in aparachute, and the balloon be drawn back by means which I shall have nodifficulty in perfecting. If it will support the weight of one and lethim gently down, it will have done all that is required of it. I willnow show you its capacity in that direction.”

He brought out a lump of basalt of a considerable size, constructed inthe middle so that a cord could be easily attached to it. This cordwas the one which we had brought with us on to the plateau after we hadused it for climbing the pinnacle. It was over a hundred feet long,and though it was thin it was very strong. He had prepared a sort ofcollar of leather with many straps depending from it. This collar wasplaced over the dome of the balloon, and the hanging thongs weregathered together below, so that the pressure of any weight would bediffused over a considerable surface. Then the lump of basalt wasfastened to the thongs, and the rope was allowed to hang from the endof it, being passed three times round the Professor's arm.

”I will now,” said Challenger, with a smile of pleased anticipation,”demonstrate the carrying power of my balloon.” As he said so he cutwith a knife the various lashings that held it.

Never was our expedition in more imminent danger of completeannihilation. The inflated membrane shot up with frightful velocityinto the air. In an instant Challenger was pulled off his feet anddragged after it. I had just time to throw my arms round his ascendingwaist when I was myself whipped up into the air. Lord John had me witha rat-trap grip round the legs, but I felt that he also was coming offthe ground. For a moment I had a vision of four adventurers floatinglike a string of sausages over the land that they had explored. But,happily, there were limits to the strain which the rope would stand,though none apparently to the lifting powers of this infernal machine.There was a sharp crack, and we were in a heap upon the ground withcoils of rope all over us. When we were able to stagger to our feet wesaw far off in the deep blue sky one dark spot where the lump of basaltwas speeding upon its way.

”Splendid!” cried the undaunted Challenger, rubbing his injured arm.”A most thorough and satisfactory demonstration! I could not haveanticipated such a success. Within a week, gentlemen, I promise that asecond balloon will be prepared, and that you can count upon taking insafety and comfort the first stage of our homeward journey.” So far Ihave written each of the foregoing events as it occurred. Now I amrounding off my narrative from the old camp, where Zambo has waited solong, with all our difficulties and dangers left like a dream behind usupon the summit of those vast ruddy crags which tower above our heads.We have descended in safety, though in a most unexpected fashion, andall is well with us. In six weeks or two months we shall be in London,and it is possible that this letter may not reach you much earlier thanwe do ourselves. Already our hearts yearn and our spirits fly towardsthe great mother city which holds so much that is dear to us.

It was on the very evening of our perilous adventure with Challenger'shome-made balloon that the change came in our fortunes. I have saidthat the one person from whom we had had some sign of sympathy in ourattempts to get away was the young chief whom we had rescued. He alonehad no desire to hold us against our will in a strange land. He hadtold us as much by his expressive language of signs. That evening,after dusk, he came down to our little camp, handed me (for some reasonhe had always shown his attentions to me, perhaps because I was the onewho was nearest his age) a small roll of the bark of a tree, and thenpointing solemnly up at the row of caves above him, he had put hisfinger to his lips as a sign of secrecy and had stolen back again tohis people.

I took the slip of bark to the firelight and we examined it together.It was about a foot square, and on the inner side there was a singulararrangement of lines, which I here reproduce:

They were neatly done in charcoal upon the white surface, and looked tome at first sight like some sort of rough musical score.

”Whatever it is, I can swear that it is of importance to us,” said I.”I could read that on his face as he gave it.”

”Unless we have come upon a primitive practical joker,” Summerleesuggested, ”which I should think would be one of the most elementarydevelopments of man.”

”It is clearly some sort of script,” said Challenger.

”Looks like a guinea puzzle competition,” remarked Lord John, craninghis neck to have a look at it. Then suddenly he stretched out his handand seized the puzzle.

”By George!” he cried, ”I believe I've got it. The boy guessed rightthe very first time. See here! How many marks are on that paper?Eighteen. Well, if you come to think of it there are eighteen caveopenings on the hill-side above us.”

”He pointed up to the caves when he gave it to me,” said I.

”Well, that settles it. This is a chart of the caves. What! Eighteenof them all in a row, some short, some deep, some branching, same as wesaw them. It's a map, and here's a cross on it. What's the cross for?It is placed to mark one that is much deeper than the others.”

”One that goes through,” I cried.

”I believe our young friend has read the riddle,” said Challenger. ”Ifthe cave does not go through I do not understand why this person, whohas every reason to mean us well, should have drawn our attention toit. But if it does go through and comes out at the corresponding pointon the other side, we should not have more than a hundred feet todescend.”

”A hundred feet!” grumbled Summerlee.

”Well, our rope is still more than a hundred feet long,” I cried.”Surely we could get down.”

”How about the Indians in the cave?” Summerlee objected.

”There are no Indians in any of the caves above our heads,” said I.”They are all used as barns and store-houses. Why should we not go upnow at once and spy out the land?”

There is a dry bituminous wood upon the plateau--a species ofaraucaria, according to our botanist--which is always used by theIndians for torches. Each of us picked up a faggot of this, and wemade our way up weed-covered steps to the particular cave which wasmarked in the drawing. It was, as I had said, empty, save for a greatnumber of enormous bats, which flapped round our heads as we advancedinto it. As we had no desire to draw the attention of the Indians toour proceedings, we stumbled along in the dark until we had gone roundseveral curves and penetrated a considerable distance into the cavern.Then, at last, we lit our torches. It was a beautiful dry tunnel withsmooth gray walls covered with native symbols, a curved roof whicharched over our heads, and white glistening sand beneath our feet. Wehurried eagerly along it until, with a deep groan of bitterdisappointment, we were brought to a halt. A sheer wall of rock hadappeared before us, with no chink through which a mouse could haveslipped. There was no escape for us there.

We stood with bitter hearts staring at this unexpected obstacle. Itwas not the result of any convulsion, as in the case of the ascendingtunnel. The end wall was exactly like the side ones. It was, and hadalways been, a cul-de-sac.

”Never mind, my friends,” said the indomitable Challenger. ”You havestill my firm promise of a balloon.”

Summerlee groaned.

”Can we be in the wrong cave?” I suggested.

”No use, young fellah,” said Lord John, with his finger on the chart.”Seventeen from the right and second from the left. This is the cavesure enough.”

I looked at the mark to which his finger pointed, and I gave a suddencry of joy.

”I believe I have it! Follow me! Follow me!”

I hurried back along the way we had come, my torch in my hand. ”Here,”said I, pointing to some matches upon the ground, ”is where we lit up.”

”Exactly.”

”Well, it is marked as a forked cave, and in the darkness we passed thefork before the torches were lit. On the right side as we go out weshould find the longer arm.”

It was as I had said. We had not gone thirty yards before a greatblack opening loomed in the wall. We turned into it to find that wewere in a much larger passage than before. Along it we hurried inbreathless impatience for many hundreds of yards. Then, suddenly, inthe black darkness of the arch in front of us we saw a gleam of darkred light. We stared in amazement. A sheet of steady flame seemed tocross the passage and to bar our way. We hastened towards it. Nosound, no heat, no movement came from it, but still the great luminouscurtain glowed before us, silvering all the cave and turning the sandto powdered jewels, until as we drew closer it discovered a circularedge.

”The moon, by George!” cried Lord John. ”We are through, boys! We arethrough!”

It was indeed the full moon which shone straight down the aperturewhich opened upon the cliffs. It was a small rift, not larger than awindow, but it was enough for all our purposes. As we craned our necksthrough it we could see that the descent was not a very difficult one,and that the level ground was no very great way below us. It was nowonder that from below we had not observed the place, as the cliffscurved overhead and an ascent at the spot would have seemed soimpossible as to discourage close inspection. We satisfied ourselvesthat with the help of our rope we could find our way down, and thenreturned, rejoicing, to our camp to make our preparations for the nextevening.

What we did we had to do quickly and secretly, since even at this lasthour the Indians might hold us back. Our stores we would leave behindus, save only our guns and cartridges. But Challenger had someunwieldy stuff which he ardently desired to take with him, and oneparticular package, of which I may not speak, which gave us more laborthan any. Slowly the day passed, but when the darkness fell we wereready for our departure. With much labor we got our things up thesteps, and then, looking back, took one last long survey of thatstrange land, soon I fear to be vulgarized, the prey of hunter andprospector, but to each of us a dreamland of glamour and romance, aland where we had dared much, suffered much, and learned much--OURland, as we shall ever fondly call it. Along upon our left theneighboring caves each threw out its ruddy cheery firelight into thegloom. From the slope below us rose the voices of the Indians as theylaughed and sang. Beyond was the long sweep of the woods, and in thecenter, shimmering vaguely through the gloom, was the great lake, themother of strange monsters. Even as we looked a high whickering cry,the call of some weird animal, rang clear out of the darkness. It wasthe very voice of Maple White Land bidding us good-bye. We turned andplunged into the cave which led to home.

Two hours later, we, our packages, and all we owned, were at the footof the cliff. Save for Challenger's luggage we had never a difficulty.Leaving it all where we descended, we started at once for Zambo's camp.In the early morning we approached it, but only to find, to ouramazement, not one fire but a dozen upon the plain. The rescue partyhad arrived. There were twenty Indians from the river, with stakes,ropes, and all that could be useful for bridging the chasm. At leastwe shall have no difficulty now in carrying our packages, whento-morrow we begin to make our way back to the Amazon.

And so, in humble and thankful mood, I close this account. Our eyeshave seen great wonders and our souls are chastened by what we haveendured. Each is in his own way a better and deeper man. It may bethat when we reach Para we shall stop to refit. If we do, this letterwill be a mail ahead. If not, it will reach London on the very daythat I do. In either case, my dear Mr. McArdle, I hope very soon toshake you by the hand.