"I am compelled to tell you, sir, that I do not recognize you in thatcapacity."
"Indeed!" Challenger bowed with unwieldy sarcasm. "Perhaps you woulddefine my exact position."
"Yes, sir. You are a man whose veracity
is upon trial, and thiscommittee is here to try it. You walk, sir, with your judges."
"Dear me!" said Challenger, seating himself on the side of one of thecanoes. "In that case you will, of course, go on your way, and I willfollow at my leisure. If I am not the leader you cannot expect me tolead."
Thank heaven that there were two sane men--Lord John Roxton andmyself--to prevent the petulance and folly of our learned Professorsfrom sending us back empty-handed to London. Such arguing and pleadingand explaining before we could get them mollified! Then at lastSummerlee, with his sneer and his pipe, would move forwards, andChallenger would come rolling and grumbling after. By some goodfortune we discovered about this time that both our savants had thevery poorest opinion of Dr. Illingworth of Edinburgh. Thenceforwardthat was our one safety, and every strained situation was relieved byour introducing the name of the Scotch zoologist, when both ourProfessors would form a temporary alliance and friendship in theirdetestation and abuse of this common rival.
Advancing in single file along the bank of the stream, we soon foundthat it narrowed down to a mere brook, and finally that it lost itselfin a great green morass of sponge-like mosses, into which we sank up toour knees. The place was horribly haunted by clouds of mosquitoes andevery form of flying pest, so we were glad to find solid ground againand to make a circuit among the trees, which enabled us to outflankthis pestilent morass, which droned like an organ in the distance, soloud was it with insect life.
On the second day after leaving our canoes we found that the wholecharacter of the country changed. Our road was persistently upwards,and as we ascended the woods became thinner and lost their tropicalluxuriance. The huge trees of the alluvial Amazonian plain gave placeto the Phoenix and coco palms, growing in scattered clumps, with thickbrushwood between. In the damper hollows the Mauritia palms threw outtheir graceful drooping fronds. We traveled entirely by compass, andonce or twice there were differences of opinion between Challenger andthe two Indians, when, to quote the Professor's indignant words, thewhole party agreed to "trust the fallacious instincts of undevelopedsavages rather than the highest product of modern European culture."That we were justified in doing so was shown upon the third day, whenChallenger admitted that he recognized several landmarks of his formerjourney, and in one spot we actually came upon four fire-blackenedstones, which must have marked a camping-place.
The road still ascended, and we crossed a rock-studded slope which tooktwo days to traverse. The vegetation had again changed, and only thevegetable ivory tree remained, with a great profusion of wonderfulorchids, among which I learned to recognize the rare NuttoniaVexillaria and the glorious pink and scarlet blossoms of Cattleya andodontoglossum. Occasional brooks with pebbly bottoms and fern-drapedbanks gurgled down the shallow gorges in the hill, and offered goodcamping-grounds every evening on the banks of some rock-studded pool,where swarms of little blue-backed fish, about the size and shape ofEnglish trout, gave us a delicious supper.
On the ninth day after leaving the canoes, having done, as I reckon,about a hundred and twenty miles, we began to emerge from the trees,which had grown smaller until they were mere shrubs. Their place wastaken by an immense wilderness of bamboo, which grew so thickly that wecould only penetrate it by cutting a pathway with the machetes andbillhooks of the Indians. It took us a long day, traveling from sevenin the morning till eight at night, with only two breaks of one houreach, to get through this obstacle. Anything more monotonous andwearying could not be imagined, for, even at the most open places, Icould not see more than ten or twelve yards, while usually my visionwas limited to the back of Lord John's cotton jacket in front of me,and to the yellow wall within a foot of me on either side. From abovecame one thin knife-edge of sunshine, and fifteen feet over our headsone saw the tops of the reeds swaying against the deep blue sky. I donot know what kind of creatures inhabit such a thicket, but severaltimes we heard the plunging of large, heavy animals quite close to us.From their sounds Lord John judged them to be some form of wild cattle.Just as night fell we cleared the belt of bamboos, and at once formedour camp, exhausted by the interminable day.
Early next morning we were again afoot, and found that the character ofthe country had changed once again. Behind us was the wall of bamboo,as definite as if it marked the course of a river. In front was anopen plain, sloping slightly upwards and dotted with clumps oftree-ferns, the whole curving before us until it ended in a long,whale-backed ridge. This we reached about midday, only to find ashallow valley beyond, rising once again into a gentle incline whichled to a low, rounded sky-line. It was here, while we crossed thefirst of these hills, that an incident occurred which may or may nothave been important.
Professor Challenger, who with the two local Indians was in the van ofthe party, stopped suddenly and pointed excitedly to the right. As hedid so we saw, at the distance of a mile or so, something whichappeared to be a huge gray bird flap slowly up from the ground and skimsmoothly off, flying very low and straight, until it was lost among thetree-ferns.
"Did you see it?" cried Challenger, in exultation. "Summerlee, did yousee it?"
His colleague was staring at the spot where the creature haddisappeared.
"What do you claim that it was?" he asked.
"To the best of my belief, a pterodactyl."
Summerlee burst into derisive laughter "A pter-fiddlestick!" said he."It was a stork, if ever I saw one."
Challenger was too furious to speak. He simply swung his pack upon hisback and continued upon his march. Lord John came abreast of me,however, and his face was more grave than was his wont. He had hisZeiss glasses in his hand.
"I focused it before it got over the trees," said he. "I won'tundertake to say what it was, but I'll risk my reputation as asportsman that it wasn't any bird that ever I clapped eyes on in mylife."
So there the matter stands. Are we really just at the edge of theunknown, encountering the outlying pickets of this lost world of whichour leader speaks? I give you the incident as it occurred and you willknow as much as I do. It stands alone, for we saw nothing more whichcould be called remarkable.
And now, my readers, if ever I have any, I have brought you up thebroad river, and through the screen of rushes, and down the greentunnel, and up the long slope of palm trees, and through the bamboobrake, and across the plain of tree-ferns. At last our destination layin full sight of us. When we had crossed the second ridge we sawbefore us an irregular, palm-studded plain, and then the line of highred cliffs which I have seen in the picture. There it lies, even as Iwrite, and there can be no question that it is the same. At thenearest point it is about seven miles from our present camp, and itcurves away, stretching as far as I can see. Challenger struts aboutlike a prize peacock, and Summerlee is silent, but still sceptical.Another day should bring some of our doubts to an end. Meanwhile, asJose, whose arm was pierced by a broken bamboo, insists upon returning,I send this letter back in his charge, and only hope that it mayeventually come to hand. I will write again as the occasion serves. Ihave enclosed with this a rough chart of our journey, which may havethe effect of making the account rather easier to understand.
CHAPTER IX
"Who could have Foreseen it?"
A dreadful thing has happened to us. Who could have foreseen it? Icannot foresee any end to our troubles. It may be that we arecondemned to spend our whole lives in this strange, inaccessible place.I am still so confused that I can hardly think clearly of the facts ofthe present or of the chances of the future. To my astounded sensesthe one seems most terrible and the other as black as night.
No men have ever found themselves in a worse position; nor is there anyuse in disclosing to you our exact geographical situation and askingour friends for a relief party. Even if they could send one, our fatewill in all human probability be decided long before it could arrive inSouth America.
We are, in truth, as far from any human aid as if we were in the moon.If we are to win through, it is only our own qualities which can saveus. I have as companions three remarkable men, men of greatbrain-power and of unshaken courage. There lies our one and only hope.It is only when I look upon the untroubled faces of my comrades that Isee some glimmer through the darkness. Outwardly I trust that I appearas unconcerned as they. Inwardly I am filled with apprehension.
Let me give you, with as much detail as I can, the sequence of eventswhich have led us to this catastrophe.
When I finished my last letter I stated that we were within seven milesfrom an enormous line of ruddy cliffs, which encircled, beyond alldoubt, the plateau of which Professor Challenger spoke. Their height,as we approached them, seemed to me in some places to be greater thanhe had stated--running up in parts to at least a thousand feet--andthey were curiously striated, in a manner which is, I believe,characteristic of basaltic upheavals. Something of the sort is to beseen in Salisbury Crags at Edinburgh. The summit showed every sign ofa luxuriant vegetation, with bushes near the edge, and farther backmany high trees. There was no indication of any life that we could see.
That night we pitched our camp immediately under the cliff--a most wildand desolate spot. The crags above us were not merely perpendicular,but curved outwards at the top, so that ascent was out of the question.Close to us was the high thin pinnacle of rock which I believe Imentioned earlier in this narrative. It is like a broad red churchspire, the top of it being level with the plateau, but a great chasmgaping between. On the summit of it there grew one high tree. Bothpinnacle and cliff were comparatively low--some five or six hundredfeet, I should think.
"It was on that," said Professor Challenger, pointing to this tree,"that the pterodactyl was perched. I climbed half-way up the rockbefore I shot him. I am inclined to think that a good mountaineer likemyself could ascend the rock to the top, though he would, of course, beno nearer to the plateau when he had done so."