The Poison Belt

of detail which time may blur. But even as I do so, I am overwhelmed by the wonder of the fact that it should be our little group of t

ecords of history as a great peak among the humble foothills which surround it. The event itself will always be marvellous, but the circumstances that we four were together at the time of this extraordinary episode came about in a most natural and, indeed, inevita

office of my paper and asked for three days' leave of absence from Mr. McArdle, who still presided over our news department. T

antage these days. I was thinking there was a story that you

"Of course if I am needed, there is an end of the matter. But t

n't see tha

After all, it was my own fault, for I should have known by th

much cheerfulness as I could assume at so short

terview that deevil of a

Professor Chal

the collar of his coat and the slack of his breeches. You'll have read of it, likely, in the police report. Our bo

Rotherfield that I was asking for leave of absence. The fact is, that it is the anniversary of our main adventure on

you will be able to get his opeenions out of him. In any other man I would say it w

m?" I asked. "What

er on 'Scientific Possibee

N

n and picked a co

finger. "I'd be glad to hear it again, for I am not s

ich I read to the news

FIC POSS

fixed stars. He dismisses the matter as of no significance. To a wider intelligence it may well seem of very great possible importance-so great as to involve the ultimate welfare of every man, woman, and child upon this planet. I can hardly hope, by the use of scientific language, to convey any se

e feathers of a sucking-dove and set up a riot in a Quakers' meeting. No wonder he has made London

imagine that they would consider these conditions to be permanent and assured. But we, with our superior knowledge, know that many things might happen to surprise the corks. They might possibly float up against a ship, or a sleeping whale, or become enta

il of insignificant satellites, we float under the same daily conditions towards some unknown end, some squalid catastrophe which will overwhelm us at the ultimate confines of space, where we are swept over an etheric Niagara or dashed upon some unthinkable Labrador. I see no r

McArdle. "It just booms like an organ. Let's

s the third possibility? That it may be a change in the conducting medium, in that infinitely fine ether which extends from star to star and pervades the whole universe. Deep in that ocean we are floating upon a slow current. Might that current not drift us into belts of ether which are novel and have properties of which we have never conceived? There is a change somewhere. This cosmic disturbance of the spectrum proves it. It may be a good change. It may be an evil one. It may be a neutral one. We do not know. Shallow observers may treat the matter as one which can be disregarded, but one who like myself is possessed of the deeper intelligence of the true philosopher will understand that

faith

EDWARD C

ARS, ROT

lly, fitting a cigarette into the long glass tube which he

office, and he picked from his desk two of those many-coloured spectral bands which bear a general resemblance to the hat-ribbons of some young and ambitious cricket club. He pointed out to me that there w

t, because they vary according to what it may be that produces the light. It is these lines that have been blurred instead of clear this last week, and all the astronomers have been quarreling over the reason.

s about

is some queer illness down yonder, that's beyond all doubt, and to-day there's a cable just come in from Singapore that the lighthouses are out of action in the Straits of Su

name called from the waiting-room below. It was a telegraph-boy with a wire which had been forwarded f

eet, Streatham.-Brin

different to the gravity of all around him? I turned the words over, but could make nothing even remotely jocose out of them. Then surely it was a concise order-though a very strange one. He was the last man in the world whose deliberate command I should care to disobey. Possibly some chemical experiment w

ome trouble, they hoisted into a waiting motor-car. An elderly man was at their heels scolding and directing in a creaky, sardonic voice. He tu

that you have had one of these pr

ibite

d is as impossible as ever. The need for oxygen could not have been so urgent that he must desert the usual means o

st that he probabl

er. But it is superfluous now for you to purcha

that I should bring oxygen too. It will

mmerlee, I ordered an additional tube, which was placed with the

tion with the men who had carried down the oxygen, his little white goat's beard jerking with indignation. One of the fellows called him, I remember, "a silly old bleached c

ere incidents at the time. It is only now, as I look back, that

driving in London had very much declined. Once we brushed the very edge of a great crowd which was watching a fight at the corner of the Mall. The people, who were much excited, raised cries of anger at the clumsy driving, and one fellow sprang upon the step and waved a stick above

His keen face, with those unforgettable eyes, so fierce and yet so humorous, flushed with pleasure at the sight of us. His ruddy hair was shot with grey,

ullo, young fella!" he sh

the porter's trolly behind us. "So you've got them too!" he c

is letter in the

t wa

ense!" said Sum

of this oxygen business,

had all got into a first-class smoker, and he had already lit the short and ch

e the engine-house and I'll tell you the size of the engine. But he is a born charlatan-you've heard me tell him so to his face-a born charlatan, with a kind of dramatic trick of jumping into the limelight. Things are quiet, so friend

raven, croaking and shaki

ak thus of the leader who had been the source of all our fame and given us such an experience as no

re down and out inside ten seconds. It seems to me, Professor Summerlee, he's beyon

Whatever his faults may be, he is as straight as a line, and I don

his shoulder. "Come, Herr Professor, we're not going to quarrel at this time of day. We've seen too much together. But

s face was screwed up in rigid disapproval, and t

question by the poor humble public? I tell you, sir, that I have a brain of my own and that I should feel myself to be a snob and a slave if I did not use it. If it pleases you to believe this rigmarole about ether and Fraunhofer's lines upon the spectrum, do so by all means, but do not ask one who is older and wiser than yourself to share in your folly. Is it not evident that if the ether were affected to the degree which he maintains, and if it were obnoxious to human health, the res

was something very irritating and

out the facts you might be less p

from his mouth and fix

sir, by that somewhat

telegram had come in confirming the general illness of the Sumatra nativ

o you for an instant suppose that there is an English ether and a Sumatran ether? Perhaps you imagine that the ether of Kent is in some way superior to the ether of Surrey, through which this train is now bearing us. There really are no bounds to the credulity and ignorance of the average

ly the fallacy of the next. But it does not take much common sense to see that, as we seem to know so little about ether, it might be aff

pigs may fly-but they don't. It is not worth arguing with you. Challenger has filled you with his non

s do not seem to have improved since I last had th

a bitter smile. "It comes as a bit of a shock, does it not, when someone mak

nd rigid, "if you were a younger man you would no

chin, with its little wag

life when I was afraid to speak my mind to an ignorant coxcomb-yes, sir, an ignoran

dful and deplorable. Like a wave, the memory of the past swept over me, the good comradeship, the happy, adventurous days-all that we had suffered and worked for and won. That it should have come to

said I. "Only-only

's amiss with you," said Lord John. "I

olic. The man has been drinking. By the way, Lord John, I called you a coxcomb just now, which was perhaps unduly severe. But the word reminds me of a small accomplishment, trivial but amusing, which I used to possess. You know me as th

who was still greatly offen

d just laid an egg was also considered r

no-certa

suddenly changed into boisterous laughter, which must have become quite hysterical as I sat opposite this grave Professor and saw him-or rather heard him-in the character of the uproarious rooster or the puppy whose tail had been trodden

h seemed to me to have neither beginning nor end. Professor Summerlee had just begun to chirrup like a canary, and Lord John to

escending encouragement with which he regarded everybody around him. If he had changed in anything since the days of old, it was that his points had become accentuated. The huge head and broad sweep of forehead, with its pla

, whom I had seen in the character of butler upon the occasion of my first eventful visit to the Professor. Our journey led us up a winding hill through beautiful country. I sat in front with the chauffeur, but behind me my three comrades seemed to me to be all talking together. Lord John was still struggling with

r notice,

me!" s

y. Everyone said queer, unexpec

times," said Aus

sked, for want of som

go," sa

have ended there, but pre

'im?" He jerked his head toward his ma

se," I sugg

g you because you're 'is friend, and you ought to know. If I was to take 'im at 'is word-but there, I wouldn't have the 'eart

no one stay

an, the master-so clever that 'e's clean balmy sometimes. I've seen 'im

did

bent ov

eeper," said he in

t h

saw 'er with my own eyes starti

grac

t ''Ome, Sweet 'Ome' for the master, and 'e was never in fitter company. That's what they say. But I've served 'im ten years, and I'm fond of 'im, and, mind you, 'e's a great man, when all's said an

At the corner a notice-board peered over a well-clipped hedge. As Austin

-------------

RNIN

--

Pressmen, an

ot enco

CHALLE

-------------

ard. I beg your pardon, sir, for I haven't spoke as much as this for many a long year, but to-day my feelings seem to 'ave got the better of me. 'E can sac

bushes. Beyond stood a low brick house, picked out with white woodwork, very comfortable and p

omething new for us to have visitors, is it not? No love lost between us and our neighbors

aughter and tears. "George is always quarreling wit

hort, thick arm round her waist. Picture a gorilla and a gazelle, and you have the pair of them. "Com

the Professor laughed loudly and strok

istress to lay the lunch. Now, gentlemen, will you please step into my study,