The Poison Belt

er's end of the ensuing dialogue. I say "we," but no one within a hundred yards could have failed to hear

rised.... There is every indication of it.... Within a day or so at the furthest.... Well, I can't help that, can I?... Very unpleasant, no doubt, but I rather fancy it will affect more important people

e airy apartment which formed his study. On the great ma

ould save my correspondents' money if I were to adopt a telegraphic a

t the desk and bellowed in a paroxysm of laughter, his

speptic goat, wagged his head in sardonic disagreement. Finally Challenger, still rumbling and exploding, began to

e vast stretch of the weald to where the gentle curves of the South Downs formed an undulating horizon. In a cleft of the hills a haze of smoke marked the position of Lewes. Immediately at our feet there lay a rolling plain of heather, with the long, vivid green stretches of the Crowborough golf

ittle methodical pile upon his desk. His broad, rugged face, or as much of it as was visible over the ma

indeed an interesting reunion, and it takes place under extraordinary-I may say unpreced

is manners during the years that have passed. I am sorry to state that I have had to seriously complain of his conduct in

ah meant no real harm. After all, he's an International, so if he takes half an

, it was you that took half an hour with some long-winded st

e," said Summerlee. "I declare to you, Challenger, that I neve

e word to-day about f

l whistle, and Summerl

"It is indeed deplorable. As I sat t

doin' a music-hall turn of imitations all the

himself up in

cetious, Lord John," said

and none of us knows what he did himself. Let's put it all together from the first. We got into a first-cl

rumbled our host, his ey

at there was no possible

arguments the great and famous Professor Summerlee proceeded to demolish the humble individual who had ventured to express an opinion upon a matter of scient

pen his hands as he spoke with his

surrounding the earth was so toxic in one quarter that it produced dangerous symptoms, i

ment from Challenger. He laughed until everyt

r known within our experience to show signs of any emotion. As I sat alone at my breakfast-Mrs. Challenger is in the habit of keeping her room of a morning-it suddenly entered my head that it would be entertaining and instructive to see whether I could find any limits to this woman's inperturbability. I devised a simple but effective experiment. Having upset a small vase of flowers which stood in the centre of the cloth, I rang the bell and slipped under the table. She entered and, seeing the room empty, imagined that I had withdrawn to the study. As I had expected, she approached and leaned over the table to replace the vase. I had a vision of a cotton stocking

hook his he

trouble some of these days if yo

some observation t

Challenger, and take three months i

oung friend, is it possible that wisdom may come f

s enough to you who know what occurred, but it was not so very clear when everyth

n!" I

past my own hysterical tears, past the outrageous conduct of Professor Summerlee, to the queer happenings in London, the ro

again. "It is poison.

on belt of ether, and is now flying deeper into it at the rate of some millions of miles a minute. Our

amazed silence. No comment

mpelled to bite any of my household. The impulse had then been an abnormal one. In an instant I perceived the truth. My pulse upon examination was ten beats above the usual, and my reflexes were increased. I called upon my higher and saner self, the real G. E. C., seated serene and impregnable behind all mere molecular disturbance. I summoned him, I say, to watch the foolish mental tricks which the poison would play. I found that I was indeed the master. I could recognize and control a disordered mind. It was a remar

ly have caused him to follow in the steps of the housekeeper. On the contrary, I touched him on the shoulder and ordered the car to be at the door in time to meet your train. At the present instant I am most for

or that buffalo,

the footb

t I am not a ready convert to any new theory, especially when it happens to be so unusual and fantastic as this one. However, as I cast my mind back over the events of t

humouredly upon the shoulder. "We prog

ee humbly, "what is your opini

f upon his desk, his short, stumpy legs swinging in front of him. "We are assisti

out at the summer beauty of the country-side, the long slopes of heather, th

in silence for Challenger to continue. His overpowering presence and appearance lent such force to the solemnity of his words that for a moment all the crudities and absurdities of the man vanished, and he loomed before us as something majestic and beyond the range of

his grapes to be cleaner. It may be that he needs space to breed some fresh bacillus less noxious than the last. He dips it into the poison and they are gone. Our Gardener is, in my opinion,

t was broken by the high t

grim smile. "They are beginning to realize that their continued

remember that none of us spoke in his absence.

n give us an advantage. Folk seem to have learned that I am the first authority upon the question. No doubt it comes from my letter in the Times. That was the mayor of a provincial tow

g by the window. His thin, bony han

the folk enjoying themselves upon the golf-links and the laborers yonder cutting the corn. You tell us that they and we may be upon the very brink of destruction-that this sunlit day may be that day of doom which the human race has so long awaited. So far as we know, you found this tremendous judgment upon what? Upon some abnormal lines in a spectrum-upon rumours from Sumatra-up

ong spirit which lay behind all the acidities and angularities

you know well; but when it comes to makin' a week-end visit and finding you've run full butt into the Day of Judgment

edingly distinct. It may have been a new phase of the poisoning, but the delirious promptings had all passed away and were succeeded by an exceedingly languid and, at the same time, perceptive state of mind. I was a spectator. It did not seem to be an

news when you lef

come in from Singapore to the effect that the sickness seemed to be univ

see no good end to be served. From the accounts the poisonous effect begins with mental excitement; the rioting in Paris this morning is said to have been very violent, and the Welsh colliers are in a state of uproar. So far as the evidence to hand can be trusted, this stimulative stage, which varies much in rac

suggested

n, since ether is a universal medium. Up to now it has been capricious in the places which it has attacked, but the difference is only a matter of a few hours, and it is like an advancing tide which covers one strip of sand and then another, running hither and thither in irregular streams, until at last it has submerged it all. There are laws at work in connection with the action and distribution of daturon which would have been of deep interest had the time at our

tic upheaval at Toulon. Sudden illness attended by coma attacked population this morning. Peste

the following, fro

full to overflowing. The dead outnumber the living. It is inconceivabl

llers upon the plains and upon the seashore seem, so far as my limited information goes, to have felt the effects more rapidly than those inland or on the heights. Even a little elevation makes a considerable difference, and perhaps if there be a su

Roxton wip

n' with that stack of telegrams under your hand. I've seen d

estination, your heart might well sink within you. The isolation, the uncertainty, would oppress you. But if your voyage were made in a goodly ship, which bore within it all your relations and your friends, you would feel that, however uncertain your destination might still remain, you would at least have one common and simultaneous experience which would h

ummerlee, who had for once nodded his assen

her excellent abilities. My Scharzberger of '96 must also be rescued, so far as our earnest and united efforts can do it, from what would be a deplorable waste of a great vintage." He levered his great bulk

present was our own. We passed it in goodly comradeship and gentle merriment. Our minds were, as I have said, singularly lucid. Even I struck sparks at times. As to Challenger, he was wonderful! Never have I so realized the elemental greatness of the man, the sweep and power of his understanding. Summerlee drew him on with his chorus of subacid criticism, while Lord John and I laughed at the contest and the lady, her hand upon his sleeve, controlled the bellowings of the philosopher. Life, death, fate, the destiny of man-these were t

" said h

s,

l service." A smile stole ove

ne my du

e end of the worl

. What ti

, Austin. Be

good

lenger lit a cigarette, and, drawing his chair

d he. "I have explained it also to our

be painful

dentist's. Every time you have h

s a pleasan

. In all my probings of the actual, I have always found wisdom and kindness at the core; and if ever the frightened mortal needs tenderness, it is surely as he makes the passage perilous from life to life. No, Summerlee, I will have none of your materialism, for I, at least, am too great

like, same as if they were livin' on just the same as they used to. I don't know," he added, looking round the table in a shamefaced way, "that I wouldn't feel more homely myself if I was put away with

to die like a reasonable civilized man. I don't know that I am more afraid of death than the rest of you, for I am an oldish man, and, come what may, I can't have very much lo

thus to see the evolution of this mighty tragedy before we are actually invol

oxy

y. The

quality between a brick-bat and a gas than there is between oxygen and ether. They are different planes of

expected it, but it is undoubtedly a fact. Hence I am strongly of opinion that a gas like oxygen, which increases the vitality and the resisting power of the body, would be e

it suckin' at those tubes like so many bab

ngements-it is to my wife that you chiefly owe it-that her boudoir shall

don't suppose you can keep ou

uch trouble. It is to keep in the oxygen. I trust that if we can ensure an atmosphere hyper-oxygenated to a certain point, we may

g will t

which we may look out upon a blasted world. Our own fate is delayed to that extent, and we will have the very singular experience, we five, of being, in all probability, the absolute rear guard of