The Poison Belt

a curtain of red velvet, was a small apartment which formed the Professor's dressing-room. This in turn opened into a large bedroom. The curtain was still hanging, but the boudoir and dr

fanlight which could be drawn by a cord when some ventilation becam

. "With longer time for preparation I could have brought the whole concentrated force of my intelligence to bear more fully upon the problem, but as it is we must do what we can. The shrubs will be of some small service.

h are only to be found in our country villages, was toiling slowly up the hill. Lower down was a nurse girl wheeling a perambulator and leading a second child by the hand. The blue reeks of smoke from the cottages gave the whole widespread landscape an air of settled order and homely comfort. Nowhere in the blue heaven or on the

feel any ill effects," said I

yed golf?" as

I hav

rly out on a round, it would take the crack of doom to stop

res of learning, to the chemists and the doctors of world-wide repute, imploring their advice. The astronomers too were deluged with inquiries. Nothing could be done. The thing was universal and beyond our human knowledge or control. It was death-painless but inevitable-death for young and old, for weak and strong, for rich and poor, without hope or possibility of escape. Such was the news which, in scattered, distracted messages, the telephone had brought us. The great cities already knew their fate and so far as we could gather were preparing to meet it with dignity and resignation. Yet here were our golfers and laborers like the lambs who gambol under the shadow of the knife. It seemed amazing. And yet how could they know? It had all come upon us in one giant stride. What was there in the morning paper to alarm them? And now it was but three in the afternoon. Even as we looked some ru

had rung once more. Suddenly I heard Cha

cried. "You

strument. It was McArdl

there are terrible goings-on in London. For God's sake, see i

he crisis as universal and inevitable. We have some oxyg

u left in the morning. Now half of the staff are insensible. I am weighed down with heaviness myself. From my window I ca

instant later I heard through the telephone a muffled

!" I cried.

replaced the receiver that I sh

unded buffalo, Challenger dashed past me, a terrible vision, with red-purple face, engorged eyes, and bristling hair. His little wife, insensible to all appearance, was slung over his great shoulder, and he blundered and thundered up the stair, scrambling and tripping, but carrying himself and her through sheer will-force through that mephitic atmosphere to the haven of temporary safety. At the sight of his effort I too rushed up the steps, clambering, falling, clutching at the rail, until I tumbled half senseless upon by face on the upper

y through my arteries. My reason told me that it was but a little respite, and yet, carelessly as we talk of its value, every hour of existence now seemed an inestimable thing. Never have I known such a thrill of sensuous joy as came with that freshet of life. The weight fell away from my lungs, the

death is indeed, as you said, hung with beautiful, shimmering curtains; for, once the choking f

er. We have been together so many years. It wou

arrogant man who had alternately amazed and offended his generation. Here in the shadow of death was the innermost Cha

his voice. "As to you, my good Summerlee, I trust your last doubts have been resolved as to the meaning of the blurring

ng, thin limbs, as if to assure himself that he was still really upon this planet. Challenger walked acro

enated, and I take it that none of us feel any distressing symptoms. We can only determine by actual ex

I had just begun to fancy that I felt the constriction round my temples again when Mrs. C

ore delicate organization gave signs of a vicious atmosphere before it was perceived by the sail

I am b

ill serve we shall be able to compute how long we shall be able to exist. Unfortunately, in r

in his pockets close to the window. "If we have to go, what is th

miled and sh

jump and not waitin' to be pushed in? If it must be so, I'm for

ly. "Surely, George, Lord John

hen we must die let us by all means die, but to deliberately antic

g friend say to it?

should see i

ly of the same o

u say so, I think so

through I am with you. It's dooced interestin', and no mistake about that. I've had my shar

tinuity of life,"

Summerlee. Challenger star

(here he glared a Summerlee) "that it is while we are ourselves material that we are most fitted to watch and form a judgment upon material phenomena. Therefore it is only by keeping alive for these few extra hours that we can hope to carry on with us to some fu

the same opinion

t poor devil of a chauffeur of yours down in the yard has mad

olute madness,"

and would scatter our gas all over the house, even if we ever go

at the monstrous and grotesque idea crossed my mind-the illusion may have been heightened by the heavy stuffiness of t

ith a great black bruise upon his forehead where it had struck the step or mud-guard in falling. He still held in his hand the nozzle of the hose with which he had been washing down his machine. A couple of small plane tr

him. Through the window we could dimly discern that a young man was seated inside. The door was swinging open and his hand was grasping the handle, as if he had attempted to leap forth at the last instant. In the middle distance lay the golf links, dotted as they had been in the morning with the dark figures of the golfers, lying motionless upon the grass of the course or among the heather which skirted it. On one particular green there were eight bodies stretched where a foursome with its caddies had held to their game to the last. No bird flew in the blue vault of heaven, no man or beast moved upon the vast countryside which lay before us. The evening sun shone its peaceful radiance across it, but there broode

opped with lights in their hands. The fact of combustion is in itself enough to show that the proportion of oxygen in the atmosphere is normal and that it is the ether which is at fault. Ah, there you see another blaze on

g excitedly from his chair. "What's

e any distance. But now we were to see the terrific end of its career. A train of coal trucks stood motionless upon the line. We held our breath as the express roared along the same track. The crash was horrible. Engine and c

Challenger at last, clinging wit

carbon which they have now become," said Challenger, stroking her hand soothingly. "It was a train of the

ntil the furnaces die down or until they run full tilt upon some beach. The sailing ships too-how they will back and fill with their cargoes of dead sailors, while their

If ever geologists should by any chance live upon earth again they will h

t it seems to me the earth will be 'To let, empty,' after this. When

nder laws which in their inception are beyond and above us, i

enger, you can

ng things which I do not mean. The observation is tr

dogmatist, and you mean to d

aginative obstructionist and neve

er accuse you of lacking ima

up our last gasp of oxygen in abusing each other. What can it matt

upon the border line of present, which separates the infinite past from the infinite future. From this sure post it makes its sallies even to the beginning and to the end of all things. As to death, the scientific mind dies at i

mbled an ungr

eservations, I

eal scientific mind should be capable of thinking out a point of abstract knowledge in the interval between its owner falling from

g out of the window. "I've read some leadin' articles about you g

rds are dead, but the plant flourishes. From this vegetable life in pond and in marsh will come, in time, the tiny crawling microscopic slugs which are the pioneers of that great army of life in which for the instant we five h

sked. "Will that not

ay be established and life accommodate itself to a new condition. The mere fact that with a comparatively small hyperoxygenation of our b

urst into flames. We could see the high

ed Lord John, more impresse

r?" I remarked. "The world is dead.

us up if this ho

d Challenger, "and asked my

But my head begins to throb aga

d Challenger. He bent ov

se on eight o'clock. We shall get through the night comfortably. I should expect the end a

fanlight over the door. Then as the air became perceptibly bet

nion, I had intended that my kitchen should justify itself. However, we must do what we can. I am sure that you will agree with me that it would be folly to consume our air too rapidly by lighting an

utes adorned the central table with a snow-white cloth, laid the napkins upon it, and set forth the simple meal with all the elegan

the explanation of humble facts. "We have gone through a great crisis. That means molecular disturbance. That in turn means the

folk have great feasts a

pon an excellent illustration. Let m

ate a hippo that must have weighed as much as a tribe. There are some of them down New Guinea way that eat the late-lamented himse

who are gone. There are my father and mother at Bedford. I know that they are dead, and yet in

losed eyes in the old high-backed chair near the window, her glasses and her book beside her. Why should I mourn her? She has passed and I

art of ourselves. Neither does a one-legged man yearn sentimentally over his missing member. The physical body has rather been a source of p

" Summerlee grumbled. "But, anyh

nger, "a universal death must in its natur

sick. But I've seen ten thousand on their backs in the Soudan, and it gave me no such feelin', for when you are makin' history the life of any man is to

us," said the lady wistfully. "

sterous old husband to you, dear, but you'll just bear in mind that G. E. C. is as

ut her arms round his bull neck. We three walked to the

hern horizon was one long vivid scarlet streak, waxing and waning in vivid pulses of li

is ab

o join us. "You can see the curved back of the downs against the glow. Th

appreciate it? And then, suddenly, the old instinct of recording came over me. If these men of science could be so true to their life's work to the very end, why should not I, in my humble way, be as constant? No human eye might ever rest upon what I had done. But the long night had to be passed somehow, and for me at least, sleep seemed to be out of the question. My notes would help to