"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, h
aving 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 the"Devil'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.