CHAPTER XVI
A Procession! A Procession!
I should wish to place upon record here our gratitude to all ourfriends upon the Amazon for the very great kindness and hospitalitywhich was shown to us upon our return journey. Very particularly wouldI thank Senhor Penalosa and other officials of the Brazilian Governmentfor the special arrangements by which we were helped upon our way, andSenhor Pereira of Para, to whose forethought we owe the complete outfitfor a decent appearance in the civilized world which we found ready forus at that town. It seemed a poor return for all the courtesy which weencountered that we should deceive our hosts and benefactors, but underthe circumstances we had really no alternative, and I hereby tell themthat they will only waste their time and their money if they attempt tofollow upon our traces. Even the names have been altered in ouraccounts, and I am very sure that no one, from the most careful studyof them, could come within a thousand miles of our unknown land.
The excitement which had been caused through those parts of SouthAmerica 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 theuproar which the mere rumor of our experiences had caused throughEurope. It was not until the Ivernia was within five hundred miles ofSouthampton that the wireless messages from paper after paper andagency after agency, offering huge prices for a short return message asto our actual results, showed us how strained was the attention notonly of the scientific world but of the general public. It was agreedamong us, however, that no definite statement should be given to thePress until we had met the members of the Zoological Institute, sinceas delegates it was our clear duty to give our first report to the bodyfrom which we had received our commission of investigation. Thus,although we found Southampton full of Pressmen, we absolutely refusedto give any information, which had the natural effect of focussingpublic attention upon the meeting which was advertised for the eveningof November 7th. For this gathering, the Zoological Hall which hadbeen the scene of the inception of our task was found to be far toosmall, and it was only in the Queen's Hall in Regent Street thataccommodation could be found. It is now common knowledge the promotersmight have ventured upon the Albert Hall and still found their spacetoo scanty.
It was for the second evening after our arrival that the great meetinghad been fixed. For the first, we had each, no doubt, our own pressingpersonal affairs to absorb us. Of mine I cannot yet speak. It may bethat as it stands further from me I may think of it, and even speak ofit, with less emotion. I have shown the reader in the beginning ofthis 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 leastI have been driven forth to take part in a wondrous adventure, and Icannot but be thankful to the force that drove me.
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 eyesfell upon the issue of my own Journal for the morning of the 8th ofNovember with the full and excellent account of my friend andfellow-reporter Macdona. What can I do better than transcribe hisnarrative--head-lines and all? I admit that the paper was exuberant inthe matter, out of compliment to its own enterprise in sending acorrespondent, but the other great dailies were hardly less full intheir account. Thus, then, friend Mac in his report:
THE NEW WORLD GREAT MEETING AT THE QUEEN'S HALL SCENES OF UPROAR EXTRAORDINARY INCIDENT WHAT WAS IT? NOCTURNAL RIOT IN REGENT STREET (Special)
The much-discussed meeting of the Zoological Institute, convened tohear the report of the Committee of Investigation sent out last year toSouth America to test the assertions made by Professor Challenger as tothe continued existence of prehistoric life upon that Continent, washeld last night in the greater Queen's Hall, and it is safe to say thatit is likely to be a red letter date in the history of Science, for theproceedings were of so remarkable and sensational a character that noone present is ever likely to forget them. (Oh, brother scribeMacdona, what a monstrous opening sentence!) The tickets weretheoretically confined to members and their friends, but the latter isan elastic term, and long before eight o'clock, the hour fixed for thecommencement of the proceedings, all parts of the Great Hall weretightly packed. The general public, however, which most unreasonablyentertained a grievance at having been excluded, stormed the doors at aquarter to eight, after a prolonged melee in which several people wereinjured, including Inspector Scoble of H. Division, whose leg wasunfortunately broken. After this unwarrantable invasion, which notonly filled every passage, but even intruded upon the space set apartfor the Press, it is estimated that nearly five thousand people awaitedthe arrival of the travelers. When they eventually appeared, they tooktheir places in the front of a platform which already contained all theleading scientific men, not only of this country, but of France and ofGermany. Sweden was also represented, in the person of ProfessorSergius, the famous Zoologist of the University of Upsala. Theentrance of the four heroes of the occasion was the signal for aremarkable demonstration of welcome, the whole audience rising andcheering for some minutes. An acute observer might, however, havedetected some signs of dissent amid the applause, and gathered that theproceedings were likely to become more lively than harmonious. It maysafely be prophesied, however, that no one could have foreseen theextraordinary turn which they were actually to take.
Of the appearance of the four wanderers little need be said, sincetheir photographs have for some time been appearing in all the papers.They bear few traces of the hardships which they are said to haveundergone. Professor Challenger's beard may be more shaggy, ProfessorSummerlee's features more ascetic, Lord John Roxton's figure moregaunt, and all three may be burned to a darker tint than when they leftour shores, but each appeared to be in most excellent health. As toour own representative, the well-known athlete and international Rugbyfootball player, E. D. Malone, he looks trained to a hair, and as hesurveyed the crowd a smile of good-humored contentment pervaded hishonest but homely face. (All right, Mac, wait till I get you alone!)
When quiet had been restored and the audience resumed their seatsafter the ovation which they had given to the travelers, the chairman,the Duke of Durham, addressed the meeting. 'He would not,' he said,'stand for more than a moment between that vast assembly and the treatwhich lay before them. It was not for him to anticipate what ProfessorSummerlee, who was the spokesman of the committee, had to say to them,but it was common rumor that their expedition had been crowned byextraordinary success.' (Applause.) 'Apparently the age of romancewas not dead, and there was common ground upon which the wildestimaginings of the novelist could meet the actual scientificinvestigations of the searcher for truth. He would only add, before hesat down, that he rejoiced--and all of them would rejoice--that thesegentlemen had returned safe and sound from their difficult anddangerous task, for it cannot be denied that any disaster to such anexpedition would have inflicted a well-nigh irreparable loss to thecause of Zoological science.' (Great applause, in which ProfessorChallenger was observed to join.)
Professor Summerlee's rising was the signal for another extraordinaryoutbreak of enthusiasm, which broke out again at intervals throughouthis address. That address will not be given in extenso in thesecolumns, for the reason that a full account of the whole adventures ofthe expedition is being published as a supplement from the pen of ourown special correspondent. Some general indications will thereforesuffice. Having described the genesis of their journey, and paid ahandsome tribute to his friend Professor Challenger, coupled with anapology for the incredulity with which his assertions, now fullyvindicated, had been received, he gave the actual course of theirjourney, carefully withholding such information as would aid the publicin any attempt to locate this remarkable plateau. Having described, ingeneral terms, their course from the main river up to the time thatthey actually reached the base of the cliffs, he enthralled his hearersby his account of the difficulties encountered by the expedition intheir repeated attempts to mount them, and finally described how theysucceeded in their desperate endeavors, which cost the lives of theirtwo devoted half-breed servants. (This amazing reading of the affairwas the result of Summerlee's endeavors to avoid raising anyquestionable matter at the meeting.)
Having conducted his audience in fancy to the summit, and maroonedthem there by reason of the fall of their bridge, the Professorproceeded to describe both the horrors and the attractions of thatremarkable land. Of personal adventures he said little, but laidstress upon the rich harvest reaped by Science in the observations ofthe wonderful beast, bird, insect, and plant life of the plateau.Peculiarly rich in the coleoptera and in the lepidoptera, forty-six newspecies of the one and ninety-four of the other had been secured in thecourse of a few weeks. It was, however, in the larger animals, andespecially in the larger animals supposed to have been long extinct,that the interest of the public was naturally centered. Of these hewas able to give a goodly list, but had little doubt that it would belargely extended when the place had been more thoroughly investigated.He and his companions had seen at least a dozen creatures, most of themat a distance, which corresponded with nothing at present known toScience. These would in time be duly classified and examined. Heinstanced a snake, the cast skin of which, deep purple in color, wasfifty-one feet in length, and mentioned a white creature, supposed tobe mammalian, which gave forth well-marked phosphorescence in thedarkness; also a large black moth, the bite of which was supposed bythe Indians to be highly poisonous. Setting aside these entirely newforms of life, the plateau was very rich in known prehistoric forms,dating back in some cases to early Jurassic times. Among these hementioned the gigantic and grotesque stegosaurus, seen once by Mr.Malone at a drinking-place by the lake, and drawn in the sketch-book ofthat adventurous American who had first penetrated this unknown world.He described also the iguanodon and the pterodactyl--two of the firstof the wonders which they had encountered. He then thrilled theassembly by some account of the terrible carnivorous dinosaurs, whichhad on more than one occasion pursued members of the party, and whichwere the most formidable of all the creatures which they hadencountered. Thence he passed to the huge and ferocious bird, thephororachus, and to the great elk which still roams upon this upland.It was not, however, until he sketched the mysteries of the centrallake that the full interest and enthusiasm of the audience werearoused. One had to pinch oneself to be sure that one was awake as oneheard this sane and practical Professor in cold measured tonesdescribing the monstrous three-eyed fish-lizards and the hugewater-snakes which inhabit this enchanted sheet of water. Next hetouched upon the Indians, and upon the extraordinary colony ofanthropoid apes, which might be looked upon as an advance upon thepithecanthropus of Java, and as coming therefore nearer than any knownform to that hypothetical creation, the missing link. Finally hedescribed, amongst some merriment, the ingenious but highly dangerousaeronautic invention of Professor Challenger, and wound up a mostmemorable address by an account of the methods by which the committeedid at last find their way back to civilization.
It had been hoped that the proceedings would end there, and that avote of thanks and congratulation, moved by Professor Sergius, ofUpsala University, would be duly seconded and carried; but it was soonevident that the course of events was not destined to flow so smoothly.Symptoms of opposition had been evident from time to time during theevening, and now Dr. James Illingworth, of Edinburgh, rose in thecenter of the hall. Dr. Illingworth asked whether an amendment shouldnot be taken before a resolution.
THE CHAIRMAN: 'Yes, sir, if there must be an amendment.'
DR. ILLINGWORTH: 'Your Grace, there must be an amendment.'
THE CHAIRMAN: 'Then let us take it at once.'
PROFESSOR SUMMERLEE (springing to his feet): 'Might I explain, yourGrace, that this man is my personal enemy ever since our controversy inthe Quarterly Journal of Science as to the true nature of Bathybius?'
THE CHAIRMAN: 'I fear I cannot go into personal matters. Proceed.'
Dr. Illingworth was imperfectly heard in part of his remarks onaccount of the strenuous opposition of the friends of the explorers.Some attempts were also made to pull him down. Being a man of enormousphysique, however, and possessed of a very powerful voice, he dominatedthe tumult and succeeded in finishing his speech. It was clear, fromthe moment of his rising, that he had a number of friends andsympathizers in the hall, though they formed a minority in theaudience. The attitude of the greater part of the public might bedescribed as one of attentive neutrality.
Dr. Illingworth began his remarks by expressing his high appreciationof the scientific work both of Professor Challenger and of ProfessorSummerlee. He much regretted that any personal bias should have beenread into his remarks, which were entirely dictated by his desire forscientific truth. His position, in fact, was substantially the same asthat taken up by Professor Summerlee at the last meeting. At that lastmeeting Professor Challenger had made certain assertions which had beenqueried by his colleague. Now this colleague came forward himself withthe same assertions and expected them to remain unquestioned. Was thisreasonable? ('Yes,' 'No,' and prolonged interruption, during whichProfessor Challenger was heard from the Press box to ask leave from thechairman to put Dr. Illingworth into the street.) A year ago one mansaid certain things. Now four men said other and more startling ones.Was this to constitute a final proof where the matters in question wereof the most revolutionary and incredible character? There had beenrecent examples of travelers arriving from the unknown with certaintales which had been too readily accepted. Was the London ZoologicalInstitute to place itself in this position? He admitted that themembers of the committee were men of character. But human nature wasvery complex. Even Professors might be misled by the desire fornotoriety. 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 theirrivals, and journalists were not averse from sensational coups, evenwhen imagination had to aid fact in the process. Each member of thecommittee had his own motive for making the most of his results.('Shame! shame!') He had no desire to be offensive. ('You are!' andinterruption.) The corroboration of these wondrous tales was really ofthe most slender description. What did it amount to? Somephotographs. {Was it possible that in this age of ingeniousmanipulation photographs could be accepted as evidence?} What more?We have a story of a flight and a descent by ropes which precluded theproduction of larger specimens. It was ingenious, but not convincing.It was understood that Lord John Roxton claimed to have the skull of aphororachus. He could only say that he would like to see that skull.
LORD JOHN ROXTON: 'Is this fellow calling me a liar?' (Uproar.)
THE CHAIRMAN: 'Order! order! Dr. Illingworth, I must direct you tobring your remarks to a conclusion and to move your amendment.'
DR. ILLINGWORTH: 'Your Grace, I have more to say, but I bow to yourruling. I move, then, that, while Professor Summerlee be thanked forhis interesting address, the whole matter shall be regarded as'non-proven,' and shall be referred back to a larger, and possibly morereliable Committee of Investigation.'
It is difficult to describe the confusion caused by this amendment. Alarge section of the audience expressed their indignation at such aslur upon the travelers by noisy shouts of dissent and cries of, 'Don'tput it!' 'Withdraw!' 'Turn him out!' On the other hand, themalcontents--and it cannot be denied that they were fairlynumerous--cheered for the amendment, with cries of 'Order!' 'Chair!'and 'Fair play!' A scuffle broke out in the back benches, and blowswere freely exchanged among the medical students who crowded that partof the hall. It was only the moderating influence of the presence oflarge 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 arepeculiarly arresting, and as he raised his hand for order the wholeaudience settled down expectantly to give him a hearing.
'It will be within the recollection of many present,' said ProfessorChallenger, 'that similar foolish and unmannerly scenes marked the lastmeeting at which I have been able to address them. On that occasionProfessor Summerlee was the chief offender, and though he is nowchastened and contrite, the matter could not be entirely forgotten. Ihave heard to-night similar, but even more offensive, sentiments fromthe person who has just sat down, and though it is a conscious effortof self-effacement to come down to that person's mental level, I willendeavor to do so, in order to allay any reasonable doubt which couldpossibly exist in the minds of anyone.' (Laughter and interruption.)'I need not remind this audience that, though Professor Summerlee, asthe head of the Committee of Investigation, has been put up to speakto-night, 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 beascribed. I have safely conducted these three gentlemen to the spotmentioned, and I have, as you have heard, convinced them of theaccuracy of my previous account. We had hoped that we should find uponour return that no one was so dense as to dispute our jointconclusions. Warned, however, by my previous experience, I have notcome without such proofs as may convince a reasonable man. Asexplained by Professor Summerlee, our cameras have been tampered withby the ape-men when they ransacked our camp, and most of our negativesruined.' (Jeers, laughter, and 'Tell us another!' from the back.) 'Ihave mentioned the ape-men, and I cannot forbear from saying that someof the sounds which now meet my ears bring back most vividly to myrecollection my experiences with those interesting creatures.'(Laughter.) 'In spite of the destruction of so many invaluablenegatives, there still remains in our collection a certain number ofcorroborative photographs showing the conditions of life upon theplateau. Did they accuse them of having forged these photographs?' (Avoice, 'Yes,' and considerable interruption which ended in several menbeing put out of the hall.) 'The negatives were open to the inspectionof experts. But what other evidence had they? Under the conditions oftheir escape it was naturally impossible to bring a large amount ofbaggage, but they had rescued Professor Summerlee's collections ofbutterflies and beetles, containing many new species. Was this notevidence?' (Several voices, 'No.') 'Who said no?'
DR. ILLINGWORTH (rising): 'Our point is that such a collection mighthave been made in other places than a prehistoric plateau.' (Applause.)
PROFESSOR CHALLENGER: 'No doubt, sir, we have to bow to yourscientific authority, although I must admit that the name isunfamiliar. Passing, then, both the photographs and the entomologicalcollection, I come to the varied and accurate information which webring with us upon points which have never before been elucidated. Forexample, upon the domestic habits of the pterodactyl--'(A voice:'Bosh,' and uproar)--'I say, that upon the domestic habits of thepterodactyl we can throw a flood of light. I can exhibit to you frommy portfolio a picture of that creature taken from life which wouldconvince you----'
DR. ILLINGWORTH: 'No picture could convince us of anything.'
PROFESSOR CHALLENGER: 'You would require to see the thing itself?'
DR. ILLINGWORTH: 'Undoubtedly.'
PROFESSOR CHALLENGER: 'And you would accept that?'
DR. ILLINGWORTH (laughing): 'Beyond a doubt.'
It was at this point that the sensation of the evening arose--asensation so dramatic that it can never have been paralleled in thehistory of scientific gatherings. Professor Challenger raised his handin 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 re-appeared in company of a gigantic negro, the twoof them bearing between them a large square packing-case. It wasevidently of great weight, and was slowly carried forward and placed infront of the Professor's chair. All sound had hushed in the audienceand everyone was absorbed in the spectacle before them. ProfessorChallenger drew off the top of the case, which formed a sliding lid.Peering down into the box he snapped his fingers several times and washeard from the Press seat to say, 'Come, then, pretty, pretty!' in acoaxing voice. An instant later, with a scratching, rattling sound, amost horrible and loathsome creature appeared from below and percheditself upon the side of the case. Even the unexpected fall of the Dukeof Durham into the orchestra, which occurred at this moment, could notdistract the petrified attention of the vast audience. The face of thecreature was like the wildest gargoyle that the imagination of a madmedieval 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 ofshark-like teeth. Its shoulders were humped, and round them weredraped what appeared to be a faded gray shawl. It was the devil of ourchildhood in person. There was a turmoil in the audience--someonescreamed, two ladies in the front row fell senseless from their chairs,and there was a general movement upon the platform to follow theirchairman into the orchestra. For a moment there was danger of ageneral panic. Professor Challenger threw up his hands to still thecommotion, but the movement alarmed the creature beside him. Itsstrange shawl suddenly unfurled, spread, and fluttered as a pair ofleathery wings. Its owner grabbed at its legs, but too late to holdit. It had sprung from the perch and was circling slowly round theQueen's Hall with a dry, leathery flapping of its ten-foot wings, whilea putrid and insidious odor pervaded the room. The cries of the peoplein the galleries, who were alarmed at the near approach of thoseglowing eyes and that murderous beak, excited the creature to a frenzy.Faster and faster it flew, beating against walls and chandeliers in ablind frenzy of alarm. 'The window! For heaven's sake shut thatwindow!' roared the Professor from the platform, dancing and wringinghis hands in an agony of apprehension. Alas, his warning was too late!In a moment the creature, beating and bumping along the wall like ahuge moth within a gas-shade, came upon the opening, squeezed itshideous bulk through it, and was gone. Professor Challenger fell backinto his chair with his face buried in his hands, while the audiencegave one long, deep sigh of relief as they realized that the incidentwas over.
Then--oh! how shall one describe what took place then--when the fullexuberance of the majority and the full reaction of the minority unitedto make one great wave of enthusiasm, which rolled from the back of thehall, gathering volume as it came, swept over the orchestra, submergedthe platform, and carried the four heroes away upon its crest? (Goodfor you, Mac!) If the audience had done less than justice, surely itmade ample amends. Every one was on his feet. Every one was moving,shouting, gesticulating. A dense crowd of cheering men were round thefour travelers. 'Up with them! up with them!' cried a hundred voices.In a moment four figures shot up above the crowd. In vain they stroveto break loose. They were held in their lofty places of honor. Itwould have been hard to let them down if it had been wished, so densewas the crowd around them. 'Regent Street! Regent Street!' soundedthe voices. There was a swirl in the packed multitude, and a slowcurrent, bearing the four upon their shoulders, made for the door. Outin the street the scene was extraordinary. An assemblage of not lessthan a hundred thousand people was waiting. The close-packed throngextended from the other side of the Langham Hotel to Oxford Circus. Aroar of acclamation greeted the four adventurers as they appeared, highabove the heads of the people, under the vivid electric lamps outsidethe hall. 'A procession! A procession!' was the cry. In a densephalanx, blocking the streets from side to side, the crowd set forth,taking the route of Regent Street, Pall Mall, St. James's Street, andPiccadilly. The whole central traffic of London was held up, and manycollisions were reported between the demonstrators upon the one sideand the police and taxi-cabmen upon the other. Finally, it was notuntil after midnight that the four travelers were released at theentrance to Lord John Roxton's chambers in the Albany, and that theexuberant crowd, having sung 'They are Jolly Good Fellows' in chorus,concluded their program with 'God Save the King.' So ended one of themost remarkable evenings that London has seen for a considerable time.
So far my friend Macdona; and it may be taken as a fairly accurate, ifflorid, account of the proceedings. As to the main incident, it was abewildering surprise to the audience, but not, I need hardly say, tous. The reader will remember how I met Lord John Roxton upon the veryoccasion when, in his protective crinoline, he had gone to bring theDevil's chick as he called it, for Professor Challenger. I havehinted also at the trouble which the Professor's baggage gave us whenwe left the plateau, and had I described our voyage I might have said agood deal of the worry we had to coax with putrid fish the appetite ofour filthy companion. If I have not said much about it before, it was,of course, that the Professor's earnest desire was that no possiblerumor of the unanswerable argument which we carried should be allowedto leak out until the moment came when his enemies were to be confuted.
One word as to the fate of the London pterodactyl. Nothing can be saidto be certain upon this point. There is the evidence of two frightenedwomen that it perched upon the roof of the Queen's Hall and remainedthere like a diabolical statue for some hours. The next day it cameout 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 courtmartialed. Private Miles' account, that hedropped his rifle and took to his heels down the Mall because onlooking up he had suddenly seen the devil between him and the moon, wasnot accepted by the Court, and yet it may have a direct bearing uponthe point at issue. The only other evidence which I can adduce is fromthe log of the SS. Friesland, a Dutch-American liner, which assertsthat at nine next morning, Start Point being at the time ten miles upontheir starboard quarter, they were passed by something between a flyinggoat and a monstrous bat, which was heading at a prodigious pace southand west. If its homing instinct led it upon the right line, there canbe no doubt that somewhere out in the wastes of the Atlantic the lastEuropean pterodactyl found its end.
And Gladys--oh, my Gladys!--Gladys of the mystic lake, now to bere-named the Central, for never shall she have immortality through me.Did I not always see some hard fiber in her nature? Did I not, even atthe time when I was proud to obey her behest, feel that it was surely apoor love which could drive a lover to his death or the danger of it?Did I not, in my truest thoughts, always recurring and alwaysdismissed, see past the beauty of the face, and, peering into the soul,discern the twin shadows of selfishness and of fickleness glooming atthe back of it? Did she love the heroic and the spectacular for itsown noble sake, or was it for the glory which might, without effort orsacrifice, be reflected upon herself? Or are these thoughts the vainwisdom which comes after the event? It was the shock of my life. Fora moment it had turned me to a cynic. But already, as I write, a weekhas passed, and we have had our momentous interview with Lord JohnRoxton and--well, perhaps things might be worse.
Let me tell it in a few words. No letter or telegram had come to me atSouthampton, and I reached the little villa at Streatham about teno'clock that night in a fever of alarm. Was she dead or alive? Wherewere all my nightly dreams of the open arms, the smiling face, thewords of praise for her man who had risked his life to humor her whim?Already I was down from the high peaks and standing flat-footed uponearth. Yet some good reasons given might still lift me to the cloudsonce more. I rushed down the garden path, hammered at the door, heardthe voice of Gladys within, pushed past the staring maid, and strodeinto the sitting-room. She was seated in a low settee under the shadedstandard lamp by the piano. In three steps I was across the room andhad both her hands in mine.
Gladys! I cried, Gladys!
She looked up with amazement in her face. She was altered in somesubtle way. The expression of her eyes, the hard upward stare, the setof the lips, was new to me. She drew back her hands.
What do you mean? she said.
Gladys! I cried. What is the matter? You are my Gladys, are younot--little Gladys Hungerton?
No, said she, I am Gladys Potts. Let me introduce you to myhusband.
How absurd life is! I found myself mechanically bowing and shakinghands with a little ginger-haired man who was coiled up in the deeparm-chair which had once been sacred to my own use. We bobbed andgrinned in front of each other.
Father lets us stay here. We are getting our house ready, saidGladys.
Oh, yes, said I.
You didn't get my letter at Para, then?
No, I got no letter.
Oh, what a pity! It would have made all clear.
It is quite clear, said I.
I've told William all about you, said she. We have no secrets. Iam so sorry about it. But it couldn't have been so very deep, couldit, if you could go off to the other end of the world and leave me herealone. You're not crabby, are you?
No, no, not at all. I think I'll go.
Have some refreshment, said the little man, and he added, in aconfidential way, It's always like this, ain't it? And must be unlessyou had polygamy, only the other way round; you understand. He laughedlike an idiot, while I made for the door.
I was through it, when a sudden fantastic impulse came upon me, and Iwent back to my successful rival, who looked nervously at the electricpush.
Will you answer a question? I asked.
Well, within reason, said he.
How did you do it? Have you searched for hidden treasure, ordiscovered a pole, or done time on a pirate, or flown the Channel, orwhat? Where is the glamour of romance? How did you get it?
He stared at me with a hopeless expression upon his vacuous,good-natured, scrubby little face.
Don't you think all this is a little too personal? he said.
Well, just one question, I cried. What are you? What is yourprofession?
I am a solicitor's clerk, said he. Second man at Johnson andMerivale's, 41 Chancery Lane.
Good-night! said I, and vanished, like all disconsolate andbroken-hearted heroes, into the darkness, with grief and rage andlaughter all simmering within me like a boiling pot.
One more little scene, and I have done. Last night we all supped atLord John Roxton's rooms, and sitting together afterwards we smoked ingood comradeship and talked our adventures over. It was strange underthese altered surroundings to see the old, well-known faces andfigures. There was Challenger, with his smile of condescension, hisdrooping eyelids, his intolerant eyes, his aggressive beard, his hugechest, swelling and puffing as he laid down the law to Summerlee. AndSummerlee, too, there he was with his short briar between his thinmoustache and his gray goat's-beard, his worn face protruded in eagerdebate as he queried all Challenger's propositions. Finally, there wasour host, with his rugged, eagle face, and his cold, blue, glacier eyeswith always a shimmer of devilment and of humor down in the depths ofthem. Such is the last picture of them that I have carried away.
It was after supper, in his own sanctum--the room of the pink radianceand the innumerable trophies--that Lord John Roxton had something tosay to us. From a cupboard he had brought an old cigar-box, and thishe laid before him on the table.
There's one thing, said he, that maybe I should have spoken aboutbefore 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's facts, nothopes, with us now. You may remember that day we found the pterodactylrookery in the swamp--what? Well, somethin' in the lie of the landtook my notice. Perhaps it has escaped you, so I will tell you. Itwas a volcanic vent full of blue clay. The Professors nodded.
Well, now, in the whole world I've only had to do with one place thatwas a volcanic vent of blue clay. That was the great De Beers DiamondMine of Kimberley--what? So you see I got diamonds into my head. Irigged up a contraption to hold off those stinking beasts, and I spenta happy day there with a spud. This is what I got.
He opened his cigar-box, and tilting it over he poured about twenty orthirty rough stones, varying from the size of beans to that ofchestnuts, on the table.
Perhaps 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 stonesmay be of any size and yet of little value where color and consistencyare clean off. Therefore, I brought them back, and on the first day athome I took one round to Spink's, and asked him to have it roughly cutand valued.
He took a pill-box from his pocket, and spilled out of it a beautifulglittering diamond, one of the finest stones that I have ever seen.
There's the result, said he. He prices the lot at a minimum of twohundred thousand pounds. Of course it is fair shares between us. Iwon't hear of anythin' else. Well, Challenger, what will you do withyour fifty thousand?
If you really persist in your generous view, said the Professor, Ishould found a private museum, which has long been one of my dreams.
And you, Summerlee?
I would retire from teaching, and so find time for my finalclassification of the chalk fossils.
I'll use my own, said Lord John Roxton, in fitting a well-formedexpedition and having another look at the dear old plateau. As to you,young fellah, you, of course, will spend yours in gettin' married.
Not just yet, said I, with a rueful smile. I think, if you willhave me, that I would rather go with you.
Lord Roxton said nothing, but a brown hand was stretched out to meacross the table.