Part 24 (2/2)
Such arroere of little avail to the hunter who attacked the beast, because their action in that torpid circulation was slow, and before its powers failed it could certainly overtake and slay its assailant
But now, as the two monsters hounded us to the very foot of the stairs, a drift of darts ca from every chink in the cliff above them In a n of pain they clawed and sobred with ie at the steps which would lead the cluround But at last the poison worked One of thee squat head on to the earth The other bounded round in an eccentric circle with shrill, wailing cries, and then lying dorithed in agony for some minutes before it also stiffened and lay still With yells of triu down from their caves and danced a frenzied dance of victory round the dead bodies, in erous of all their eneht they cut up and removed the bodies, not to eat--for the poison was still active--but lest they should breed a pestilence The great reptilian hearts, however, each as large as a cushi+on, still lay there, beating slowly and steadily, with a gentle rise and fall, in horrible independent life It was only upon the third day that the ganglia ran down and the dreadful things were still
Some day, when I have a better desk than a meat-tin and more helpful tools than a worn stub of pencil and a last, tattered note-book, I rite sost thee conditions of wondrous Maple White Land Me as the breath of life is in me, every hour and every action of that period will stand out as hard and clear as do the first strange happenings of our childhood No new impressions could efface those which are so deeply cut When the tiht upon the great lake when a young ichthyosaurus--a strange creature, half seal, half fish, to look at, with bone-covered eyes on each side of his snout, and a third eye fixed upon the top of his head--was entangled in an Indian net, and nearly upset our canoe before ed it ashore; the sareen water-snake shot out from the rushes and carried off in its coils the steersreat nocturnal white thing--to this day we do not knohether it was beast or reptile--which lived in a vile swamp to the east of the lake, and flitted about with a faint phosphorescent glimmer in the darkness The Indians were so terrified at it that they would not go near the place, and, though ice made expeditions and saw it each tih the deep marsh in which it lived I can only say that it seeest e bird which chased Challenger to the shelter of the rocks one day--a great running bird, far taller than an ostrich, with a vulture-like neck and cruel head which er cli beak shore off the heel of his boot as if it had been cut with a chisel This tireat creature, twelve feet fro but exultant Professor--went down before Lord Roxton's rifle in a flurry of waving feathers and kicking li up from the midst of it May I live to see that flattened vicious skull in its own niche aive so, with projecting chisel teeth, which we killed as it drank in the gray of theby the side of the lake
All this I shall so days I would tenderly sketch in these lovely sus, ith the deep blue sky above us we lay in good corasses by the wood and e fowl that swept over us and the quaint new creatures which crept frohs of the bushes were heavy with luscious fruit, and below us strange and lovely flowers peeped at us frohts e lay out upon the shi+reat lake and watched onder and awe the huge circles rippling out froreenish gleae creature upon the confines of darkness These are the scenes which my mind and my pen will dwell upon in every detail at some future day
But, you will ask, why these experiences and why this delay, when you and your co of some means by which you could return to the outer world?
My answer is, that there was not one of us as not working for this end, but that our work had been in vain One fact we had very speedily discovered: The Indians would do nothing to help us In every other way they were our friends--one ested that they should help us to e the chass of leather or liana to weave ropes which ood-humored, but an invincible, refusal They would smile, twinkle their eyes, shake their heads, and there was the end of it
Even the old chief met us with the saster e had saved, who looked wistfully at us and told us by his gestures that he was grieved for our thwarted wishes Ever since their crowning triumph with the ape-men they looked upon us as supere weapons, and they believed that so long as we reood fortune would be theirs A little red-skinned wife and a cave of our oere freely offered to each of us if ould but forget our own people and dwell forever upon the plateau So far all had been kindly, however far apart our desires ht be; but we felt well assured that our actual plans of a descent must be kept secret, for we had reason to fear that at the last they er froht, for, as I may have said before, they are mostly nocturnal in their habits) I have twice in the last three weeks been over to our old caro who still kept watch and ward below the cliff My eyes strained eagerly across the great plain in the hope of seeing afar off the help for which we had prayed But the long cactus-strewn levels still stretched away, empty and bare, to the distant line of the cane-brake
”They will soon come now, Massa Malone Before another week pass Indian co rope and fetch you down” Such was the cheery cry of our excellent Zae experience as I ca away for a night fro the well-remembered route, and had reached a spot within a mile or so of the marsh of the pterodactyls, when I saw an extraordinary object approaching me It was a man alked inside a framework made of bent canes so that he was enclosed on all sides in a bell-shaped cage As I drew nearer I was more amazed still to see that it was Lord John Roxton When he saw me he slipped fro, and yet, as I thought, with so fellah,” said he, ”ould have thought of ?” I asked
”Visitin' my friends, the pterodactyls,” said he
”But why?”
”Interestin' beasts, don't you think? But unsociable! Nasty rude ith strangers, as you ed this framehich keeps them from bein' too pressin' in their attentions”
”But what do you want in the swa eye, and I read hesitation in his face
”Don't you think other people besides Professors can want to know things?” he said at last ”I'h for you”
”No offense,” said I
His good-hu fellah I'er That's one of my jobs No, I don't want your co, and I'll be back in caht-fall”
He turned away and I left hie around hie, that of Challenger was more so I may say that he seemed to possess an extraordinary fascination for the Indian wo palm branch hich he beat them off as if they were flies, when their attentions beca like a coe of authority in his hand, his black beard bristling in front of hi at each step, and a train of wide-eyed Indian girls behind him, clad in their slender drapery of bark cloth, is one of the rotesque of all the pictures which I will carry back with me As to Summerlee, he was absorbed in the insect and bird life of the plateau, and spent his whole time (save that considerable portion which was devoted to abusing Challenger for not getting us out of our difficulties) in cleaning and er had been in the habit of walking off by hi from time to time with looks of portentous solereat enterprise upon his shoulders One day, pal devotees behind him, he led us down to his hidden work-shop and took us into the secret of his plans
The place was a srove In this was one of those boiling eysers which I have already described
Around its edge were scattered a nue collapsed membrane which proved to be the dried and scraped stoe sack had been sewn up at one end and only a s several bamboo canes had been inserted and the other ends of these canes were in contact with conical clay funnels which collected the gas bubbling up through the an to slowly expand and show such a tendency to upward er fastened the cords which held it to the trunks of the surrounding trees In half an hour a good-sized gas-bag had been fors showed that it was capable of considerable lift Challenger, like a glad father in the presence of his first-born, stood s his beard, in silent, self-satisfied content as he gazed at the creation of his brain It was Summerlee who first broke the silence
”You don't er?” said he, in an acid voice
”I ive you such a de it you will, I a yourself to it”
”You can put it right out of your head now, at once,” said Su on earth would induce me to commit such a folly Lord John, I trust that you will not countenance such madness?”