The Skylark of Space part 2: Corporate Raiders

We started last week reading E.E. "Doc" Smith's classic 1928 space opera, The Skylark of Space.

Richard Seaton, a scientist working at the Rare Metals Laboratory in Washington, DC, has made an amazing discovery: an unknown isotope which, reacting with copper, releases a tremendous amount of energy. He wants to use this X Isotope to build a spaceship, and so teams up with his best friend, millionaire industrialist and engineer Martin Crane.

Another scientist at the lab, Marc C. DuQuesne, wants to use Seaton's discovery for his own purposes, and tries to enlist the aid of World Steel Corporation, a powerful conglomerate where DuQuesne has connections. Brookings, one of Steel's executives, sends a minion to burgle the lab where Crane and Seaton are working and steal a quantity of the X Isotope; but cuts DuQuesne out of the deal.

In a remote corner of West Virginia, a tremendous explosion occurs, obliterating the small town of Bankerville (population 200) and leaving nothing but a hole in the ground a couple miles in diameter. According to the news, scientists are baffled as to what could have caused it. DuQuesne has a pretty good idea, though; he guesses that World Steel had a laboratory up in Bankerville where they were experimenting with their stolen sample of Seaton's X solution, and that the experiment went wrong.

His surmise is confirmed when Brookings of World Steel arranges to meet with him. Steel is now willing to meet DuQuesne's price -- which has doubled since they first turned him down. "The Company expects to pay for its mistakes," Brookings says handing over a contract.

Fortunately, only a small quantity of the stolen formula was in the Bankerville lab at the time of the catastrophe; Brookings has the rest of it. But the bottle he has is far smaller than the one DuQuesne knows Seaton had. The thief had pilfered half of the vial he found in Crane's lab and topped it off with colored water so that the theft would not be immediately discovered; but he had missed the main bottle with the bulk of the solution.

DuQuesne had argued from the beginning that they needed to steal the entire amount and kill Seaton -- and possibly Crane too -- but Brookings is too squeamish to act that drastically. He agrees to another burglary attempt, but not to the murder. Not yet.

Meanwhile, Seaton has been figuring out how X works. It causes a complete conversion of matter into energy expressed as force. It acts as a catalyst and is not consumed by the reaction, which is convenient since he has precious little of the stuff to spare. He's also worked out a couple of what he calls "borderline cases" where the reaction creates either an attractive or a repulsing force -- the grandfather of Star Trek's "tractor beams". Crane realizes that the attractor could be used as an "object compass"; by focusing the attractive beam on the earth, say, they would always be able to find their way home.

Dick has also rigged up a proof-of-concept model which he demonstrates for Martin and for Dorothy, his fiancée, and her father who have dropped by for a visit. He has a quantity of X and a bit of copper fuel in a small tube, attached by a cable to a harness to which is attached the various other pieces of apparatus he needs to control the effect. The X allows him to fly into the air and do a couple simple acrobatic maneuvers; but when he tries showing off a bit more for Dorothy, he accidentally increases the power on the tube and finds himself being dragged around Martin's airstrip. He manages to regain control of his device, but not without the loss of some dignity.

Seaton declares that they're ready to build the real deal: an honest-to-Gernsbeck spaceship powered by X. Dorothy's father is impressed, but wants to know if the boys are going to do anything more practical with Seaton's discovery. Martin assures Mr. Vaneman that he is also has technicians working on commercial applications, power plants capable of producing energy at a minute fraction of the cost of conventional plants. Much later on in the series, we get a brief glimpse of earth transformed by an era of cheap, limitless energy, but only a glimpse; like Seaton, "Doc" Smith was more interested in exploring the cosmos than working out sociological and economic ramifications of his gadgets.

Dorothy is more interested in the spaceship. "What are you going to call it?" Dick really hadn't thought about naming the craft; he's just been calling it "the spaceship." Dorothy decides for him. "There's only one possible name for her: the Skylark."

As the Vanemans leave, Dorothy's father pulls a newspaper out of his pocket and points out an article Dick and Martin might be interested in: the story of the Bankerville explosion.

Seaton immeadiately realizes what caused the blast. "It's X all right.... Some poor devil tried it without my rabbit's foot in his pocket." But where did it come from? As far as Dick knows, he has the only sample of the stuff on earth. He and Crane check back at their lab and discover the theft. But who could have stolen it? Someone at the lab who had witnessed his earlier failed demonstration must have figured out the truth.

"Oh, a lot of people came around at one time or another, but your specifications narrow the field to five men --Scott, Smith, Penfield, DuQuesne, and Roberts. Hmmm, let's see -- if Scott's brain was solid cyclonite, the detonation wouldn't crack his skull; Smith is a pure theoretician; Penfield wouldn't dare quote an authority without asking permission; DuQuesne is ... umm ... that is DuQuesne isn't ... I mean, Du --" 

"Du Quesne, then, is suspect number one." 

"But wait a minute! I didn't say ..." 

"Exactly. That's what makes him suspect number one."

Crane calls a private security firm and hires extra guards to protect his lab. He also has the firm put DuQuesne under surveillance. This is precisely the situation DuQuesne wanted to avoid by hitting Seaton hard and quick. Now that Seaton and Crane are on their guard, DuQuesne's campaign to gain a monopoly of X becomes a cat-and-mouse game. Steel's goons make another attempt to rob Cranes lab, but are thwarted by the security men and Crane's manservant, Shiro. "That Jap, he's chained lightning on greased wheels..." one of the surviving goons says.

Yes, a word or two about that "Jap." Shiro is another of the uncomfortably dated aspects of the novel. We first met him when he answered the door at Crane's estate and was baffled by Seaton's rapid-fire colloquial greeting. But later on, when Crane is talking about setting up a board of directors for their partnership, he suggests that Shiro have a chair on the board. Does this mean that Crane recognizes his business acumen, or that Crane regards him as someone who can be counted on to vote in his boss's interest? Considering Shiro's shaky grasp of the English language -- which, to Smith's credit, is only suggested and not spelled out for laughs -- I regret to say the answer is the latter. Shiro is extremely loyal to Crane, and apparently a competent martial artist as well; but we never see much of him beyond a stereotyped Japanese houseboy.

DuQuesne decides to supervise the next robbery attempt personally. While Seaton and Crane are away from the lab at a testing range, he and a team of thugs land at the Crane airfield in a helicopter resembling Cranes. The security men are caught off-guard, and DuQuesne and his goons kill them and badly wound Shiro. DuQuesne blows open the safe in Crane's lab and steals all the papers and blueprints he can find and the small vial of the X solution. The rest of it, DuQuesne realizes, must be in the deepest, most secure vault in the country. He'll have to content himself with the smaller quantity and the spaceship plans.

When Seaton and Crane return to the lab that evening, after a day testing explosive X-tipped bullets at a firing range, they find Shiro bleeding and left for dead. Fortunately, his wounds were not that serious, but the other guards were not so lucky. Seaton is sure that DuQuesne is behind it, and sets up an object-compass focused on him so that they can track DuQuesne's movements. With the aid of the object-compass, the detective is able to discover how DuQuense leaves his house without being spotted; and more importantly, learns that he is meeting with Brookings of World Steel. The detective shares the bad news with Crane and Seaton:

"I've bucked Steel before. They account for half my business, and for ninety-nine percent of my failures. The same thing goes for all the other agencies in town. The cops have hit them time after time with everything they've got, and simply bounced. So has the F.B.I. All any of us has been able to get is an occasional small fish."

The news is even worse than Seaton realizes. Crane explains that Steel is supplying the heavy forgings and plates for the Skylark. Seaton examines some of the parts they've already received and sure enough, they contain minor flaws.

"Strong enough to stand shipment and fabrication, and maybe a little to spare -- perhaps one G of accelleration while we're in the air. Any real shot of power, though, or any sudden turn, and pop! She collapses like a soap bubble."

Crane has a plan. If they reject the faulty parts, Steel will just try something else. He proposes they continue building the spaceship as is, but secretly build a second ship through different contractors. Crane has contacts in the industry and knows of a small independent steel mill that can handle the job as well as a top flight engineer.

Meanwhile, Brookings and DuQuense are regrouping. DuQuesne is working on developing the X isotope using the notes he stole from Crane's lab; but Steel won't be able to properly exploit Seaton's discovery until Seaton and Crane are out of the way. Brookings suggests calling in Perkins, who runs a restaurant in downtown D.C. which serves as the headquarters for Steel's criminal activities. I hear the cannoli there is to die for. Perkins was also in charge of the earlier failed burglary attempts at Crane's lab, but DuQuense admits that the man is good at what he does. "It's on execution he's weak , not planning."

Perkins suggests kidnapping Seaton's girlfriend in a spaceship build from the stolen plans. They can hide her someplace safe -- "say with the Spencer girl" -- and tell Seaton they have her on Mars or something. Seaton will pay anything to get her back; and if he tries following in his own defective spaceship, so much the better. This is our first mention of the Spencer girl; she'll become relevant later. DuQuesne and Brookings like the idea. It is agreed that DuQuesne will carry it out with Perkins's assistance.

NEXT:  Into space! A desperate chase; trapped by a dead star; and the Skylark to the rescue!

The Skylark of Space part 1: Isotope X

I've written before about my Dad's collection of science fiction books which fascinated me as a boy. Along with Robert Heinlein's Space Cadet and The Rolling Stones and Isaac Asimov's Lucky Starr series, one of the first science fiction novels I ever read was The Skylark of Space, by the impressively-named E.E. Smith, PhD.

"Doc" Smith was one of those early giants who have now been largely forgotten, but who established the boundaries of science fiction; which in Smith's case were: there are no boundaries!  He is probably best known for his Lensmen series, about a galaxy-spanning police force granted telepathic powers by mysterious alien patrons and which is part of a secret eons-old war between these aliens and a race of malevolent aliens from another galaxy. Lensman was a major influence on the Green Lantern Corps; and come to think of it, there are echoes of it in Babylon 5 as well.

The Skylark of Space was his first novel, written between 1915 and 1920 while he earning his PhD in chemical engineering and getting his first job as a food engineer designing better donuts. It took him several years to find a publisher, finally selling it to the magazine Amazing Stories in 1928. Skylark was wildly successful and led to three sequels as well as his Lensman series.

The hero, Richard Seaton is a scientist working at the Rare Metals Laboratory in Washington, DC. Like Smith, Seaton had a rugged boyhood growing up in the mountains of Idaho, but his roving intelligence and fascination with science led him to pursue a college degree.

We meet Seaton in the middle of a lab accident. One might almost call it a eucatastrophe, a "good disaster", except instead of being a sudden reversal at the end which brings about the Happy Ending, this is the dramatic random event at the beginning which sets everything in motion. He is analyzing some of the leftover waste ores that have accumulated in the lab over the years, extracting out the more valuable metals, like platinum. There is a small remnant that he cannot identify, a mostly-stable isotope where no mostly-stable isotope should exist. While electrolyzing a solution of the mystery isotope, some of it sloshes out of its beaker and it comes in contact with a piece of copper wire and BAM! The piece of lab equipment he was using goes flying out the window.

This is not normal behavior for a steam bath. It didn't just fly out the window; it kept going in a straight line as far as Seaton could see with a pair of binoculars. After checking all his instruments and going over everything that happened, he comes to the conclusion that his mystery isotope, when excited by the electrical current from the wire, had somehow converted the copper of the wire directly into energy.

The ramifications of this are so boggling. But not nearly as upsetting as the realization that he was supposed to be at his fiancee's house three hours ago.

Dick Seaton is engaged to Dorothy Vaneman, a beautiful and strong-willed redhead from an upper-crust family. Smith had a thing for red-heads; just as Dick Seaton was an idealized version of himself, he based Dorothy on his wife, Jeanne. Dorothy is pretty steamed when Dick shows up sheepishly on her doorstep at 10:30 pm. but he is so penitent and so enthusiastic about his scientific discovery that she can't help but forgive him. Seaton spends most of their date talking about platinum wastes; but they are just engaged and Dorothy doesn't seem to mind. Smith was not terribly comfortable writing romantic scenes, and in Skylark he had a woman named Lee Garby, the wife of a friend, write the love interest.

The next morning, demonstrates his discovery to his buddies at the lab; but inexplicably, nothing happens. His co-workers have a good laugh at his expense, but Seaton is puzzled, until he remembers that the previous evening, another of his co-workers, DuQuesne, had been using a particle accelerator in the lab next to his. Seaton waits until he hears DuQuesne fire up the "whatsitron", and tries his experiment with the wire and the isotope solution again. This time it works, and a fragment of the copper wire again shoots out the window.

Instead of calling his friends back -- they wouldn't believe him anyway -- Seaton leaves work to call on another friend, Martin Crane. He has an idea that he hasn't even shared with Dorothy yet. He wants to use his discovery to power a spaceship; but for that he'll need help.

M. Reynolds Crane is the heir to a large aeronautics firm and a highly competent engineer in his own right. He's sort of like Tony Stark, only without the boozing and womanizing. In fact, being one of the most eligible bachelors in Washington and having been pursued by most of the debutantes and matchmaking mothers on the Easter Seaboard, Martin is decidedly skittish about women. He's only comfortable around Dorothy Vaneman because she's solely interested in Seaton.

Dick met Martin when the two of them competed against each other in an amateur tennis tournament some years back, and they became close friends. Crane plays Oliver to Seaton's Roland; where Dick is enthusiastic and impetuous, Martin is cool-headed and practical. Seaton wants to buy a lab and start working on developing his discovery right away. Crane needs to be convinced that Seaton really has something; but once he is, his first thought is to incorporate; establish a board of directors and get things set up on a sound business footing. "The organization of our company comes first -- suppose I should die before we solve the problem? I suggest something like this..."

There is the small problem that Seaton's mystery isotope is still technically government property. Since the solution is waste material that was going to be thrown away anyway, Seaton suggests just pocketing the bottle and taking it home. "Not good enough," Crane says. "We must have clear title, signed, sealed, and delivered." So instead, Seaton fills out the paperwork to have his bottle sold at the weekly auction where his department gets rid of much of it's surplus. This is still ethically dubious, but legal enough to satisfy Crane. They buy the bottle of Isotope X at the auction that afternoon for ten cents.

Enter Marc C. DuQuesne. We've already heard mention of him as the fellow scientist operating the "whatsitron" in the lab next to Seaton's. He is tall and powerfully-built man, much like Seaton, and is highly-respected in his field. He's called "Blackie" by his friends -- no, make that "colleagues"; DuQuesne does not make friends -- because of his raven-black hair and his dark penetrating eyes. He is also cold-blooded, ruthless and amoral without the slightest atom of sentiment in his being.

DuQuesne is one of the reasons I like the Skylark books better than the Lensman series. The Eddorians of Lensmen may be more evil and their Boskonian minions more despicable, but DuQuesne is a better villain by far. Despite holding moral values in contempt, he possesses a peculiar type of honor. He's honest, brutally so. And he's scrupulous in his science. He toadies to no man. He got where he is through sheer unalloyed competence. DuQuesne was without question the most popular character in the series, and by the final book he had largely taken over the spotlight as Smith had him joining forces with Seaton against a greater cosmic threat. But that is far, far in the future.

DuQuesne was present at Seaton's failed demonstration that morning, but thought little of it, until he hears about Crane's visit to the lab and the auction. DuQuesne knows Crane by reputation and realizes that if he is backing Seaton, then there must be something to Seaton's crazy story. He puts things together quite rapidly. Like Seaton, he realizes that this discovery has vast potential; and like Seaton, he knows that he will need help to exploit it.

He contacts a fellow named Brookings, who is the head of the Washington branch of a vast multi-national corporation called World Steel. How DuQuesne is able to speak with a powerful executive of a major conglomerate, Smith does not precisely spell out; but apparently DuQuesne has helped World Steel in various ... ahem ... matters.

"Say it, Brookings. 'Deals' is right."

All right, deals. DuQuesne lays it out for him. Seaton has discovered a source of virtually limitless power at an extremely low cost, and World Steel can control it. "It should be easy -- one simple murder and an equally simple burglary -- and it won't mean wholesale murder, like that tungsten job." DuQuesne's idea is for Brookings's people to kill Seaton and steal the X solution. Brookings will provide the capital to develop the stuff under DuQuesne's direction.

Brookings is hesitant. World Steel Corp. has committed murder before, but Brookings prefers to call them "accidents". DuQuesne sneers at his squeamishness.

"Bah!" DuQuesne snorted. "Who do you think you're kidding? Do you think I told you enough so that you can sidetrack me out of the deal? Get that idea out of your head -- fast. There are only two men in the world who can handle it -- R.B. Seaton and M.C. DuQuesne. Take you pick. Put anybody else on it -- anybody else -- and he'll blow himself and his whole neighborhood out beyond the orbit of Mars." 

"You're very modest, DuQuesne." 

"Modesty gets a man praise, but I prefer cash."

DuQuesne barks out his demands like a character from a gangster movie -- and despite Brookings's pretensions of respectability, World Steel Corp. really is a company run by gangsters -- but Brookings refuses to be pressured. He thanks DuQuesne for the advice and bids him good-day. He then assigns one of his minions to steal the X solution and arranges for one of Steel's labs to analyze it.

Meanwhile, Seaton throws himself into the task of figuring out the properties of his X isotope and how to utilize it. He has holed up in a private lab on the Crane estate and not seen the light of day for a week. Dorothy hasn't seen him since the night of the lab accident and is becoming worried. Crane visits Dorothy and explains what is going on; but he admits that Dick is overworking himself. "He has to take it easy or break down, but nothing I can say has had any effect."

She shows up that evening at the lab and gives Dick an ultimatum.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking this last week, especially today. I love you as you are. I can either do that or give you up. I can't even imagine giving you up, because I know I'd cold-bloodedly strangle with her own hair any woman who ever cocked an eye at you ... Come on, Dick, no more work tonight.. I'm taking you and Martin home for dinner." Then, as his eyes strayed involuntarily back toward the computer, she said, more forcefully, "I -- said -- no -- more-- work -- tonight. Do you want to fight about it?"

Dick concedes, and Dorothy drags him back to her place, where she plies him with good food. As he's relaxing after dinner, she asks if he minds if she practices her violin; she hasn't had time to practice that day. After a week of barely eating or sleeping, the combination of a heavy meal and soothing music is enough to knock Dick out.

He awakens the following afternoon, feeling thoroughly embarrassed. He promises not to ignore Dorothy again and to take time off to rest. He even admits to Crane that having a good night's sleep has helped him get a fresh look at one of the problems he was having with his theories. Seaton never does completely shake his workaholic habits -- In one of the later books he encounters aliens who do their scientific research strictly by a rigid schedule and it drives him crazy -- but Dorothy does provide a mitigating influence that keeps him from burning out.

NEXT:  What happened to Bankerville, WV? Testing aplications for X; building the spaceship; and DuQuesne declares war.

The Lost World part 4: "Our Eyes Have Seen Great Wonders"

Concluding our look at The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Edward E. Malone, reporter for the London Gazette, is a young man seeking to prove himself. That was why he volunteered to interview Professor George E. Challenger, the most dangerous scientist in England, and then to accompany the expedition organized by the London Zoological Institute to investigate Challenger's claims of a remote plateau in the Amazon where prehistoric creatures have survived to the present day.

He has had his share of adventures since arriving on the plateau, but he now faces perhaps his most terrifying. He has returned to the Fort Challenger, the expedition's camp, after an impulsive excursion into the dinosaur-infested forest of the plateau to find that the camp has been ransacked and his companions gone. He is now completely alone.

Malone spends much of the day recording the previous night's adventure so he can toss it down to Zambo, the party's faithful black servant who waits vigilantly at their original camp at the base of the cliffs. Zambo has thought of an idea to save the party, which is stranded on top of the plateau. He tells Malone that one of their Indian guides has returned, and suggests that they send him back to civilization for more rope. This does not seem to have occurred to any of the Men of Intellect leading the expedition; apparently their brains are too highly-developed. Malone agrees and tosses him some money to pay for the errand; but this does not help with his immediate problem.

He spends an uncomfortable night in their deserted camp. It is the safest place he can think of to stay. When he is startled awake the next day, however, it is not by an invader, but by Lord John Roxton.

"Quick, young fellah! Quick!" he cried. "Every moment counts. Get the rifles, both of them. I have the other two. Now, all the cartridges you can gather. Fill up your pockets. Now, some food. Half a dozen tins will do. That's all right! Don't wait to talk or think. Get a move on, or we are done!"

It isn't until the two of them have found a new safe haven that Lord John explains what happened. The previous morning, just around sunrise, the camp had been attacked by savage ape-like creatures who descended from the large ginko tree whose branches overhung their walls. "Ape-men -- that's what they are -- Missin' Links, and I wish they had stayed missin'."

Lord John shot one of the creatures, accounting for the blood in the camp, but the rest quickly overpowered the party. They might have been killed right there but for a singular coincidence. The leader of the ape-men bore a remarkable resemblance to Professor Challenger.

Here I have to credit Arthur Conan Doyle's artistry. He's been setting up this joke from the very beginning. All through the book so far, the narration has emphasized Challenger's striking appearance -- his broad shoulders, his barrel chest, his hairy torso and beard, even his bestial temper -- but he is always compared to a bull. Nowhere in the book does Malone ever make the obvious comparison; nowhere does he ever say that Challenger, the great evolutionary biologist, looks like a gorilla. No, that would have anticipated the joke.

"This old ape-man -- he was their chief -- was a sort of red Challenger, with every one of our friend's beauty points, only just a trifle more so. He had the short body, the big shoulders, the round chest, no neck, a great ruddy frill of a beard, the tufted eyebrows, the 'What do you want, damn you!' look about the eyes, and the whole catalogue."

Lord John goes on to describe being taken to the village of the ape-men. Although Challenger is treated handsomely as a guest -- the ape-chief seems to regard him as a long-lost brother -- Roxton and Professor Summerlee are held captive, along with a group of Indians from elsewhere on the plateau. They also learn the horrifying secret behind the bamboo grove where they found the skeleton earlier. The village lies near the edge of the plateau, and for entertainment, the ape-men force their prisoners to jump off the edge to be impaled on the bamboo stalks. Roxton and Summerlee witness this done to a couple of the Indians, and they know their turn will come soon.

With Challenger's help, Lord John was able to escape and now that he has armed himself and has Malone to back him up is ready to mount a rescue.

They arrive just in time: the ape-men are just about to chuck Summerlee over the edge of the cliff, despite Challenger's vociferous pleas. Lord John puts a rifle bullet into the chief and he and Malone begin picking off the savage ape-men. Seeing their chance, Challenger and Summerlee make a run for it to join their companions.

"Admirable!" Challenger exclaims when they have all gotten to safety. "Not only we as individuals, but European science collectively, owe you a debt of gratitude for what you have done."

The Indians whom the ape-men had taken captive have accompanied their escape. "We've got to see them safe," Summerlee says. Malone can guess where they come from: the caves he spotted on the far side of the Lake Gladys.

During their brief rest, Challenger expresses some concern to Malone about a few of the comments Lord John made, "which seemed to imply that there was some -- some resemblance..." Malone assures him that the account he's writing of the expedition shall stick strictly to the truth, which seems to calm him somewhat.

"I leave the matter to your discretion." Then, after a long pause, he added: "The king of the ape-men was really a creature of great distinction -- a most remarkably handsome and intelligent personality. Did it not strike you?" 

"A most remarkable creature," said I.

But their new camp is no safer from the pursuing ape-men and soon they must move again. They head toward the Central Lake. Arriving at its shore, they encounter a group of long canoes which are crossing from the other side. One of the captive Indians is the son of their chief who has sent a war party to rescue him.

The young prince speaks with the war party, and although Malone cannot understand the native language, from their gestures he can guess what the prince is saying: he wants the war party to continue its raid and with the aid of the four strangers they will be able to defeat their enemies, the ape-men, for good.
Lord John is all for aiding the Indians. "I have a score to settle with these monkey-folk." Malone and Challenger both agree to help. Summerlee observes that they seem to be drifting from the purpose of their expedition, but agrees to come along.

The battle is a bloody, brutal one. The ape-men are strong and armed with heavy clubs and nearly drive back the human attackers; but the expedition's rifles make the difference and turn the tide. Once the humans gain the upper hand, the battle becomes a massacre. Even Lord John, who was a soldier in his first profession -- or perhaps because he was a soldier -- has enough of the bloodshed. "It's over," he says once the fight has ended and turned into a slaughter. "I think we can leave the tidying up to them. Perhaps the less we see of it the better we shall sleep."

Challenger has no such qualms. "We have been privileged," he boasts, "to be present at one of the typical decisive battles of history -- the battles which have determined the fate of the world." In his view, the fight between the Indians and the ape-men for dominance over the plateau is a recapitulation of the evolutionary struggle between Early Man and his more primitive cousins. "Those were the real conquests," he says.

Malone is less enthusiastic. The ape-men who survive the battle are rounded up by the Indians and herded at spear-point over the edge of the cliff, just as the ape-men had killed so many of their own captives. The males of Ape-Town are exterminated; only a small remnant of females and children survive to be driven back across the plateau, slaves to the new masters of the plateau. It is genocide.

It was a raw, primeval version of the Jews in Babylon or the Israelites in Egypt. At night we could hear from amid the trees the long-drawn cry, as some primitive Ezekiel mourned for fallen greatness and recalled the departed glories of Ape Town. Hewers of wood and drawers of water, such were they from now onwards.

Challenger might regard the fate of the ape-men as evolutionary destiny, but Malone can still feel pity for them.

The Challenger expedition is welcomed by the Accala tribe, as the cave-dwelling Indians call themselves. From the Indians they learn that there was indeed a tunnel leading to lower on the side of the plateau -- the route the American Maple White had taken, and presumably the way the ape-men and later the Indians also reached the top -- but that it had been blocked by an earthquake about a year previously.

But although the Accala people show them every other hospitality, they will not help the expedition leave the plateau. They have become victims of their own success. The Indians regard the four strangers as supermen and bearers of good fortune for the tribe.

Over the next few weeks, Malone touches on a number of incidents in their life amongst the Accala. They learn that the Indians herd the gentle iguanodons as livestock, marking them with asphalt instead of branding them. On once occasion the community is attacked by a couple of the large carnivorous dinosaurs which had attacked Fort Challenger. Oddly enough, and no doubt to Lord John's chagrin, their rifles prove little use against the monsters and the Indians's poison arrows more effective at bringing them down.

Malone briefly mentions encounters with other creatures of the plateau, including a strange, white nocturnal creature in a nearby swamp of which the party could only catch a glimpse, and fresh water plesiosaurus in the great Central Lake.

On another occasion, Malone sees Lord John striding along inside a sort of portable cage made of bent canes. "Visitin' my friends, the pterodactyls," he explains. Challenger has asked him to catch one of the "devil chicks" as Lord John calls them. And he has other reasons for visiting the nests of which he is more guarded. "Don't you think other people besides Professors can want to know things? ...I'm studyin' the pretty dears. That's enough for you."

Meanwhile, Professor Challenger has been putting his brain to finding a way down off the plateau. He has found a bubbling mud geyser emitting a flammable gas which he determines is nearly pure hydrogen. He has made a balloon out of an iguanodon's entrails which he fills with the gas using a primitive bamboo pipeline. Summerlee thinks the idea is ludicrous and so Challenger arranges a demonstration of his device. The balloon works too well and nearly carries Challenger off over the treetops. They wind up losing the balloon, but overall Challenger regards the experiment as a success.

The evening of the adventure with the balloon, the chief's son, whom they had rescued from the ape-men and who has been sympathetic to their attempts to escape, comes to them secretly and gives Malone a piece of bark with a map of the caves in which the Accala live. Some of the caves are uninhabited, used mostly for storage, and of those there is one which goes deeper into the cliff than the others.

The party investigates the cave and finds that it does indeed penetrate all the way through to the side of the plateau. The opening was hidden from below, so they hadn't noticed it when they made their initial circumnavigation of the plateau's base. It's still pretty high up, but low enough that they can reach the bottom of the cliff with their ropes. The party gathers up as much of their supplies as they can in secret, so that the Accala won't hinder their departure; including one particular piece of baggage Challenger insists on bringing which gives them no end of trouble.

And by one of those happy coincidence which make Victorian fiction so much more convenient, they make their way back to their original base camp at the foot of the plateau just as the rescue party Zambo sent for arrives, allowing a speedy journey back down the river and home to England.

Malone jumps ahead to the Expedition's triumphant return to England. He turns the narrative over to a fellow reporter in describing Professor Summerlee's presentation to the London Zoological Institute. Summerlee gives a brief account of their adventures, (passing lightly over the treachery of Gomez) and descriptions of some of the species, some thought extinct and others unknown to science, which they discovered; concluding with a humorous account of Challenger's experiment in ballooning.

But when he has finished his presentation, there is yet another interruption. Another scientist named Illingworth, a detested rival of both Challenger and Summerlee, (in fact, early stages of the expedition, their mutual dislike of Illingworth was their only point of agreement), rises to take issue with the committee's findings.

Illingworth asks if the testimony of the four explorers is any more reliable than Challenger's was a year ago. Summerlee's collection of new beetles does not impress him; they could of been gathered anywhere in the Amazon and do not by themselves prove the existence of the dinosaurs. The explanation that the party had to leave the bulk of their evidence behind in their flight from the Accura village, Illingworth pooh-poohs; and that Summerlee has no photographic evidence because the ape-men opened up all their film canisters and exposed the film, meets with his utter scorn.

Challenger does not lose his temper. He has been expecting -- nay, hoping for this reaction. He asks Illingworth if a live specimen would convince him. "Beyond a doubt," Illingworth laughs.

This is when Malone and Zambo bring a large packing crate onto the stage -- the same piece of bulky baggage Malone alluded to earlier. Opening the crate reveals the baby "Devil's Chick" Lord John had captured -- Challenger's ultimate joke on his critics. Alas, the creature is startled by the noise of the crowd and flies out an open window before Challenger can grab it. The creature is last sighted heading southeast over the Atlantic, trying to fly home.

But overall, Challenger has been vindicated, and Malone has returned from his adventure a hero. He goes back to his beloved Gladys to spread his accomplishments like trophies at her feet. And here Sir Arthur Conan Doyle gives us one final punch line. During Malone's absence, Gladys has gotten married. "You didn't get my letter at Para, then? ... I am so sorry about it. But it couldn't have been so very deep, could it, if you could go off to the other end of the world and leave me here alone. You're not crabby, are you?"

Malone takes the bad news like a man, although he does ask Gladys's new husband what adventurous deed he did to win her affection. The man is puzzled. "What is your profession?" Malone presses.

"I am a solicitor's clerk."

Women.

Malone returns to Lord John Roxton's place, where Lord John is hosting dinner for his friends. Lord John has a surprise of his own. Remember the blue clay in the pterodactyl's rookery? "Well, now, in the whole world I've only had to do with one place that was a volcanic vent of blue clay. That was the great DeBeers Diamond Mine of Kimberley -- what?" When he went on Challenger's little errand to capture a baby pterodactyl, Lord John also took the opportunity to collect some samples.

He had them appraised at about 200 thousand pounds; enough, split between the friends, for Challenger to found the private museum he's always wanted and for Summerlee to retire from teaching and devote his time to research. Lord John is all for giving Maple White Land another crack, this time with a better equipped expedition. He assumes that Malone intends to use his share to get married.

"Not just yet," said I, with a rueful smile. "I think, if you will have me, that I would rather go with you."

The Lost World part 3: "For Once I was a Hero"

Continuing our look at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World

Edward Malone and his companions in the Challenger Expedition have reached Maple White Land, the mysterious plateau in the Amazon jungle where antediluvian creatures have survived to the present day. Yes, I like that word. Antediluvian. But thanks to the treachery of the vengeful half-breed Gomez, they group are now stranded on top of the plateau with no way to get down.

The native guides who had accompanied the expedition thus far have had enough of the Curupuri-infested forest and are ready to go back home, but Zambo, the party's faithful black servant, is willing to remain. So they have him chuck what provisions he can across the gulf separating the stone pinnacle by which they accessed Maple White Land and the plateau; keep a couple months worth of food and supplies for himself; and send the rest back with the Indians in payment for their service.

Malone also tosses a packet containing his journal to date across to Zambo for the Indians to take down the river so it can be mailed back to London. This narrative device which Doyle uses is an effective one. Usually, a first-person narration carries with it the unspoken assumption that the writer survives to write the story down, which tends to mitigate the suspense. But here, Malone writes only one chapter at a time, and neither he nor the reader are sure what the next installment will bring. He can utilize foreshadowing -- and he does, quite well -- but only up to the end of the chapter. For now, Zambo is their only link with civilization.

Since the party is trapped for the immediate future, they scout around for a camp site. They encounter their first new species of creature; not a dinosaur, but a giant blood tick which Malone discovers feasting on his leg. Professor Challenger names it Ixodes Maloni in tribute to his discovery, but Malone fails to appreciate the scientific honor.

Under Lord John Roxton's direction, they build a barricade of thorny brush around a camp site which they name "Fort Challenger." Having set up a base camp, they set out exploring.

They find footprints resembling those of a giant three-toed bird. Challenger recognizes them as similar to fossil footprints found in Sussex.

"Wealden!" cried Challenger, in an ecstasy. "I've see them in the Wealden clay. It is a creature walking erect upon three-toed feet, and occasionally putting one of its five-fingered forepaws upon the ground. Not a bird, my dear Roxton, not a bird... No, a reptile. A dinosaur."

As expected, the trail leads them to a group of iguanodons, grazing in a peaceful glade. "If ever we get out of this alive, I must have a head with me," Roxton says. "Lord, how some of that Somaliland-Uganda crowd would turn a beautiful pea-green if they saw it!"

Further exploration leads them to a marshy pit which a gaggle of pterodactyls are using as a nesting place. They are a noisy and frightful bunch of harpies, and Malone does not share the scientific interest of Challenger and Summerlee. When the creatures spot Challenger, the entire flock rises up and attacks, and the party barely escape with their lives. Challenger, who came off relatively uninjured, is quite pleased by the scientific data they gathered. Lord John is more interested in the clay in the pit where the pterodactyl's nested, but does not say why.

During their explorations, Malone has a feeling that they are being watched, but Challenger dismisses his premonition. Nevertheless, Roxton keeps reminding the party that they are invaders in foreign territory and there may well be natives on this plateau who won't appreciate their encroachment. Lord John's warnings come home when they return to Fort Challenger and find that their camp has been ransacked; several crates have been smashed open and some of the tins of food battered to extract the contents.

The following night, they are awoken by the sound of a hideous shriek in the forest; the sound of some battle for survival between two prehistoric creatures. Challenger imagines the tableau of what must have happened and muses solemnly.

"It was surely well for man that he came late to the order of creation. There were powers abroad in earlier days which no courage and no mechanism of his could have met. What could his sling, his throwing stick or his arrow avail him against such forces as have been loose to-night? Even with a modern rifle it would be all odds on the monster."

Lord John isn't sure he agrees entirely, having a great confidence in his own rifle, but concedes that the dinos would have "a good sporting chance." And this conversation, I think, captures a part of what makes dinosaur stories like The Lost World so compelling. We like to see puny man pitting his intellect against the terrifying behemoths of an extinct era.

Within minutes, one of those behemoths, possibly the one responsible for the killing they had heard, approaches their encampment. Lord John warns his companions not to shoot; he is still concerned about their firearms attracting more attention. When the beast lunges at the thorny hedge the party has built around their camp, Roxton snatches a flaming branch from the campfire and waves it in the brute's face, driving it off.
The learned professors hesitate to identify the creature; they did not get a good enough glimpse of it to give a firm classification, and Summerlee admits that not all the creatures that lived in prehistoric times have come down to us in the fossil record and so they could hardly expect to identify every creature they meet. But from the beast's bloody maw, they can safely say that it is a carnivore, and the following morning, looking at the dead iguanodon they find near the camp, they hypothesize the it was likely an Allosaurus, or perhaps a Megalosaurus -- "one of the larger carnivorous dinosaurs."

The party continues its explorations, but Summerlee is becoming impatient. They have very little to show for their few days of scouting. Shouldn't they be devoting their energies into finding a way home?

"Let me remind you that we came here upon a perfectly definite mission, entrusted to us at the meeting of the Zoologiacl Institute in London. That mission was to test the truth of Professor Challenger's statements. Those statements, as I am bound to admit, we are now in a position to endorse."

For that reason, he insists, their primary goal now should be to return home so that they may transmit their findings, and leave a more thorough exploration of the plateau to a larger and better-equipped expedition. "Professor Challenger has devised means for getting us on to this plateau when it appeared to be inaccessible; I think that we should now call upon him to use the same ingenuity in getting us back to the world from which we came."

Challenger can hardly argue with Summerlee's reasoning, especially as it is couched in deference to Challenger's intellect, but he's reluctant to leave his Lost World just yet. Lord John would also like to know a bit more about the place before leaving, and Malone says that his editor would "never forgive me for leaving such unexhausted copy behind me." Challenger flat out refuses to even think about the problem until they have at least performed a rough survey of the plateau.

Malone comes up with an idea to do just that. He spots a tall ginko tree nearby and proposes that he climb it to get a better view of the land and draw a rough map of the plateau. His companions approve of the idea, and soon he is scrambling up the tree with his notebook in his pocket.

Partway up the tree, as Malone makes his way through the foliage, he encounters a rude shock: a face peering into his own, about a foot away, with brutish, simian features. It snarls at him and then flees. Malone was correct; something had been watching them from the trees.

Although shaken, Malone presses on and reaches the top of the ginko, from which he has a splendid view of the entire plateau. It is bowl-shaped, as the professors surmised, with a large central lake occupying what was undoubtedly once a volcanic crater. (And no, the volcano does not eventually erupt; Chekov's Geology notwithstanding, The Lost World is one of those rare instances in fiction where a long-dormant volcano remains dormant.) He sees the glade where they encountered the iguanodon herd and the pit of the pterodactyls. Beyond the lake, Mallone sees a distant cliff face along the inside lip of the plateau's edge. There are a row of black dots in it which he guesses might be caves.

Returning to his companions, Malone makes his report. Challenger wants to know more about the ape-man in the branches: "Tell me, now... did you happen to observe whether the creature could cross its thumb over its palm?" He is all for pursuing the mystery of the ape-man, but Summerlee reminds him that they need to return home.

"The flesh-pots of civilization," Challenger groans.

"The ink-pots of civilization, sir," Summerlee corrects him.

But all of his friends are pleased with Malones map, (which appears in most editions of the novel). Lord John suggests that since Malone was the first to sight the lake, that he should have the honor of naming it.

"Then," said I, blushing, I dare say, as I said it, "let it be named Lake Gladys." 

"Don't you think the Central Lake would be more descriptive?" remarked Summerlee. 

"I should prefer Lake Gladys.' 

Challenger looked at me sympathetically and shook his great head in mock disapproval. "Boys will be boys," said he. "Lake Gladys let it be."

It is only fair to observe, however, that in the published map the lake bears Summerlee's more prosaic suggestion.

That evening, Malone is pretty flushed with his accomplishment. Up to this point he's been, in his view anyway, the least useful member of the expedition. The professors are far more intelligent than he, and Lord John far braver and more experienced in jungle survival. Malone's role in the expedition has hitherto been as its Boswell. But now, having won his comrades' approval and admiration, he's feeling pumped and he's itching to do more. That night, while he's on watch and his companions are asleep, he decides to do a little exploring on his own.

He barely gets a hundred yards from the camp when he realizes that this was a mistake, but he presses on. Further into the forest he realizes that when he grabbed one of the guns on his way out, he grabbed the shotgun and not a rifle, so that the rifle cartridges he filled his pockets with will do him absolutely no good. Not a mistake Lord John would have made. But if he returns back now without accomplishing anything he'll look and feel a total fool. John Carter in A Princess of Mars said that he did brave things because the prudent alternative never seemed to occur to him; Malone admits that he does brave things because he's deathly afraid of being thought a coward.

So he keeps going until he reaches the shores of Lake Gladys. He sees several unfamiliar creatures including a colossal type of elk and a live stegosaurus; perhaps the same one Maple White drew. Looking across the lake he sees the caves he spotted earlier, but now instead of black dots in the cliff face, he sees light coming from the openings. He doubts this can be the glow of volcanic activity; it can only come from fires lit by inhabitants.

On his way back to the camp, Malone hears the noises of something large following him. He hopes that it is a gentle Iguanodon, but as it hops into the open he sees that it is a toad-faced horror like the one which attacked their camp on the earlier occasion. Malone's shotgun with the wrong cartridges is useless. He runs, and the beast chases him until Malone finds the ground disappear underneath his feet.

Earlier Challenger had stated that puny humans could not possibly vie against the gigantic beasts of the Jurassic Era. He forgot to consider man's intellect. Malone has stumbled into a pit trap, dug by some human hunters with a sharpened nine-foot spike at the bottom to impale colossal prey. The sides of the pit are not terribly steep and he has no difficulty climbing out again, although he does spend some time fretting about whether the beast which chased him has wandered off or if it's cunning enough to lie in wait for him.

Having escaped from the pit and recovered the shotgun, Malone hears a gunshot from the direction of Fort Challenger. At first he fears the worst; then he realizes that his friends have probably discovered his absence and assumed he was lost. He hurries back to the camp as quickly as he can. Dawn has come by now and the early morning light filters through the leaves as he arrives.

His first reaction was correct. The camp is in a shambles; a large area of blood lies on the ground, and his friends are gone.

NEXT:  When Ape-Men Attack! Separated at Birth? The Rescue of the Professors, the Battle for the Plateau and the Triumphant Return! "Our Eyes Have Seen Great Wonders"

The Lost World part 2: "To-morrow We Disappear Into the Unknown"

Continuing our look at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World.

Edward D. Malone, an eager young reporter for the London Daily Gazette, seeks adventure, in order to win the respect and the love of his girlfriend Gladys. This quest has led him to interview Professor George E. Challenger, a bellicose zoologist with a colossal ego and a temper to match, as apt to break skulls as he is to measure their cephalic indices. Challenger has recently returned from a trip to the Amazon where he claims to have discovered a plateau in the jungle where creatures of the prehistoric past have survived to the modern day.

At a meeting of London's Zoological Institute, Challengers faces down his critics, who call him a fraud, and challenges the Institute to mount a new expedition to test his claims. A call goes out for volunteers, and Malone answers. This is his chance.

Malone is not the only volunteer from the audience. A tall, ginger-haired man identifying himself as Lord John Roxton also accepts the Call to Adventure. Lord Roxton is a well-known hunter and sportsman who has traveled extensively in South America and will make a fine addition to the expedition.

After the meeting breaks up, Roxton invites Malone to come to his place for a chat. "We are to be companions -- what?" He asks Malone for help with a little problem. A friend of his named Ballinger, who lives in a suite upstairs from his own, is suffering from the DTs after a massive drinking binge. The friend is holed up in his rooms with a pistol and threatens to shoot anyone who comes in. Needless to say, the service staff is declining to intervene. Roxton reckons that if the two of them rush the guy together, they might be able to subdue and restrain him before he can plug anybody.

All things considered, Malone would rather not charge a drunken maniac with a gun; but then neither does he want to look a coward. So he steels his nerve. "Talking won't make it any better," he says rising from his seat. "Come on."

Roxton laughs and pats him on the back.

"I saw after Jack Ballinger myself this mornin'. He blew a hole in the skirt of my kimono, bless his shaky old hand, but I got a jacket on him, and he's to be all right in a week. I say young fellah, I hope you don't mind -- what? You see, between you an' me close-tiled, I look on this South American business as a mighty serious thing, and if I have a pal with me I want a man I can bank on. So I sized you down, and I'm bound to say that you came well out of it."

The two men sit down and chat a bit. Malone tells him about his earlier interview with Challenger, and Roxton tells him he believes the Professor's story to be quite plausible. He has traveled through the Amazon basin himself and has an appreciation for how truly unknown most of it is. Roxton shows off his collection of rifles and talks bit about his own experiences in South America. He has a deep, intense love for South America and never tires of expressing its wonders.

"Now here's a useful tool -- .470, telescopic sight, double ejector, point-blank up to three fifty. That's the rifle I used against the Peruvian slave-drivers three years ago. I was the flail of the Lord up in those parts, I may tell you, though you won't find it in any Blue-book. There are times, young fellah, when every one of us must make a stand for human right and justice, or you never feel clean again."

Although Malone never says so -- it never seems to occur to him -- the reader can't help but note that Roxton is exactly the kind of man Gladys would swoon over. Luckily, Roxton and Gladys never meet.

Malone reports back to McArdle, his editor, who is so pleased with the expedition that he calls the Gazette's publisher to get authorization for the paper's backing. And about this point Malone addresses the reader and explains that this has all been preface, and that the remainder of their adventures shall be told through dispatches, sent back to England as opportunity presents itself. The story originally appeared in magazine serial form, making this narrative device particularly effective.

A couple days later Malone, Roxton, and Professor Summerlee who is the Zoological Institute's official representative, embark on a steamer for South America. Challenger meets them at the dock and gives them a sealed envelope containing the plateau's exact location. He instructs them not to open the envelope until they reach the town of Manaos and not until the time and date written on the envelope.

He then bids the three farewell. "You have done something to mitigate my feelings for the loathsome profession to which you unhappily belong," he tells Malone; and compliments Lord Roxton on the splendid hunting field which awaits him. As for Summerlee, he says "If you are still capable of self-improvement, of which I am frankly unconvinced, you will surely return to London a wiser man."

The voyage to South America and up the lower reaches of the Amazon occurs with little incident. Here Malone describes his fellow travelers in more detail. Professor Summerlee is a thin, gaunt man with an acidic wit of which we received a taste in his verbal fencing with Challenger at the Zoological meeting. Although Roxton worried that the man might need baby-sitting, Summerlee has field experience, having served on scientific expeditions to New Guinea. Lord Roxton, we have already met; but when the party arrives in Brazil, we learn that he has quite a reputation among the natives for having broken a network of slavers who provided forced labor for the rubber plantations of the upper tributaries. Roxton also speaks the blend of Portugese and native dialects commonly spoken in the region.

The party also hires additional servants for the party: three Mojo Indians, a couple of Spanish half-breeds and a large black named Zambo, whom Malone describes as "a black Hercules, as willing as a horse, and about as intelligent." That Malone evidently regards this as a compliment speaks volumes about Victorian attitudes towards race.

Eventually the party reaches Manaos, and on July 15th they gather in their hotel veranda to open the envelope with Challenger's instructions. The hour of Noon approaches. Despite Summerlee's grumbles, Roxton insists on waiting until the specified hour. "We must play the game accordin' to rules," he says placing his watch upon the table. On the hour, Roxton takes his penknife and opens the envelope.

The paper inside is blank.

At this moment, Challenger himself barges in. He gruffly apologizes, at least as far as he is able, for arriving at the last minute. He always intended to guide the expedition there personally, and arranged the drama with the envelope so that he wouldn't be forced to share a steamship with the rest of the group, whose company he finds odious. Here we have a rare point of agreement between him and Summerlee.

They continue up the tributaries of the Amazon, now with Challenger as guide; first by steamboat until the river becomes unavigatbale; then by canoe through the denser canopied forest. The sound of Indian drums follow them through much of this part of the journey. "Yes, sir, war drums," says Gomez, one of the half-breed porters. "They watch us every mile of the way; kill us if they can." Malone finds this unnerving, and in his imagination he hears the drumbeats repeating "We will kill you if we can. We will kill you if we can."

They leave the drumbeats behind, however, as they enter Curupuri territory. The "Currupuri" is some sort of spirit of the woods, feared by the Indians. Now the party has left their canoes behind and continue on foot. One day they catch a glimpse of a large winged creature flying over the treetops in the distance.

"Did you see it!' Challenger cries. It is a pterodactyl, he says. Summerlee disagrees. "It was a stork if ever I saw one," he insists. But even Summerlee becomes more subdued when soon afterwards they cross another ridge and sight the great plateau which Challenger has named Maple White Land.

The plateau ranges from five hundred to a thousand feet in height, and its sides are too sheer to climb. Challenger believes that Maple White, the American who first found the plateau, must of discovered some way up, because of the stegosaurus he drew in his sketchbook. The party agrees to circumnavigate the plateau and see if they can find any means of ascent.

They find the remnants of one of Maple White's campsites, which is encouraging. Then they find a less encouraging site: a human skeleton in a bamboo grove which seems to have a tall bamboo stalk growing through it's shattered ribcage. From the skeleton's effects, Challenger identifies it as James Clover, a companion of Maple White's. Roxton guesses that the man fell off the top of the plateau and became impaled on the bamboo. But how did he come to fall?

Further along, they find markings on the cliff face, evidently left by Maple White, which leads them to a cave, high up on the side of the cliff. This is evidently the route by which Maple White reached the top of the plateau, but going up the passageway, they find that a cave-in has blocked the way. Exiting the cave, a large rock falls from above, narrowly missing them. Gomez and the other half-breed claim that it fell from the edge of the plateau.

So far they have not seen any definitive proof of prehistoric life, until one evening when pterodactyl swoops down and steals the wild pig they were roasting for dinner. Summerlee is forced to concede that he was wrong and makes a quite handsome apology; which Challenger accepts with uncharacteristic grace. Summerlee does not stop making sarcastic comments when Challenger's pomposity warrants it, but from this point on the two men become -- if not exactly friends, then at least no longer enemies.

Finally, they complete their circumnavigation and return to where they started, near a tall pinnacle of rock right next to the plateau. Here, Challenger gets an idea. Although the plateau is impossible to climb, the spire is less precipitous. Challenger was only able to climb part-way up the spire during his first visit because he didn't have any climbing gear with him. This time, he does. The spire of rock has a tall beech tree growing on its summit, taller than the distance between the rock and the top of the plateau. All they have to do is climb to the top and have Malone chop the tree down and they have a bridge.

The plan works splendidly; but Roxton cautions Challenger before allowing the latter-day Columbus to set foot in his New World. "We all have our professions, and soldierin' is mine. We are, accordin' to my ideas, invadin' a new country, which may or may not be chock-full of enemies of sorts." He has the party assemble all their rifles so that someone can be covering them as they cross over one-by-one; and a good amount of provisions in case they might need to remain some time.

No sooner have the four explorers set foot in Maple White Land, however, then they their first catastrophe. They hear a crashing sound behind them, and see that the tree which they had used as a bridge has fallen away. Gomez, the half-breed whom they had left on the pinnacle laughs and shouts at them.

"Lord Roxton! ... Lord John Roxton! ... We nearly killed you with a stone at the cave," he cried; "but this is better. It is slower and more terrible. Your bones will whiten up there, and none will know where you lie or come to cover them. As you lie dying, think of Lopez, whom you shot five years ago on the Putomayo River. I am his brother, and, come what will I will die happy now, for his memory has been avenged."

And die he does. Taking the time to taunt them gives Roxton the opportunity to ready his own rifle and shoot the fleeing traitor. Zambo kills the other half-breed, but without the tree-bridge is unable to cross over to the plateau or to help the expedition back.

The Challenger Expedition is trapped.

NEXT: The Glade of the Iguanadons; the Pterodactyl Rookery; the Siege of Fort Challenger and more! "For Once I Was the Hero"

The Lost World part 1: "There are Heroisms All Around Us"

Strictly speaking, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not invent the idea of modern-day explorers finding a remote region where dinosaurs still exist. That honor probably goes to Jules Verne's A Journey to the Center of the Earth. But Doyle's adventure novel The Lost World did much to establish the "Land Out of Time" as a sub-genre of speculative fiction.

We begin the story by meeting our narrator, Edward Malone: a likable, energetic young reporter for the London Gazette. He is in love with a girl named Gladys, who, sadly for Malone, regards him solely as a Good Friend. She thinks he's a nice guy and all, but deep in her heart she pines for the rugged, adventurous types like Henry Morton Stanley or Richard Francis Burton who explored the deepest reaches of Darkest Africa.

Desperate to prove himself, Malone goes to his editor, McArdle, and begs for a dangerous assignment; "the more difficult it was, the better it would suit me."

McArdle has nothing like that for him. "I'm afraid the day for this sort of thing is past. ...The big blank spaces in the map are all being filled in, and there's no room for romance anywhere." But he does have an idea. "What about exposing a fraud -- a modern Munchhausen -- and making him rideeculous?" (The spelling is Doyle's; McArdle is Very Scottish; if Kipling had rendered is speech the dialect would have been nigh unreadable)

He gives Malone the task of interviewing Professor Challenger "Professor Challenger, the famous zoologist! Wasn't he the man who broke the skull of Blundell, of the Telegraph?" McArdle smiles grimly. "Didn't you say it was adventures you were after?" This Challenger had returned from a trip up the Amazon with outlandish stories of incredible creatures he had discovered. "Had some damaged photographs, said to be fakes. Got so touchy that he assaults anyone who asks questions, and heaves reporters downstairs." As far as McArdle's concerned, the man is "a homicidal megalomaniac with a turn for science" but promises Malone that the paper will compensate him for any injuries he sufferers.

Malone manages to snag an appointment with Challenger by pretending to be an admirer. Arriving at Challenger's home in Kennsington, Malone is met by the Professor's wife, who warns him of her husband's temper. "You won't believe a word he says -- I'm sure I don't wonder. But don't tell him so, for it makes him very violent. ... Remember he believes it himself."

I was prepared for something strange, but not for so overpowering a personality as this. It was his size which took one's breath away -- his size and his imposing presence. His head was enormous, the largest I have ever seen upon a human being. I am sure that his top-hat, had I ever ventured to don it, would have slipped over me entirely and rested on my shoulders. He had the face and beard which I associate with an Assyrian bull; the former florid, the latter so black as almost to have a suspicion of blue, spade-shaped and rippling down over his chest. The hair was peculiar, plastered down in front in a long, curving wisp over his massive forehead. The eyes were blue-grey under great black tufts, very clear, very critical, and very masterful. A huge spread of shoulders and a chest like a barrel were the other parts of him which appeared above the table, save for two enormous hands covered with long black hair. This and a bellowing roaring, rumbling voice made up my first impression of the notorious Professor Challenger.

The interview goes badly. Malone has many fine and admirable qualities, but dishonesty is not one of them. Challenger immediately identifies him as a fraud, and worse than that, as a journalist. He threatens to physically throw Malone out of the house, and when Malone protests, the Professor grabs him and the two go rolling down the hallway, out the door and down the steps onto the street.

A policeman happens by and breaks up the fight. This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened at the Challenger address, and he asks Malone if he wishes to press charges. Having a moment to catch his breath and consider, Malone declines. "I was to blame myself. I intruded upon him. He gave me fair warning."

This impresses Challenger, and he tells Malone to follow him back into the house.

Mrs. Challenger meets them and berates her husband for assaulting the reporter. In our first glimpse of her, she seemed rather timid and apprehensive, but she has the guts to stand up to him if necessary. Mrs. Challenger is neither a timid doormat, nor a nagging scold. She has incredible admiration for her husband and regards him, as he does himself, as a towering genius -- indeed, it is difficult imagining Challenger marrying anybody who did not, or for anyone who did not to put up with him -- but she believes that his constant bouts of temper and bullying prevent others from recognizing that genius.

There follows a truly bizarre scene. "Stool of penance," Challenger growls. He physically picks up his wife and sets her atop a high pedestal in the room and does not help her down again until she says "please". Malone -- and the reader -- is shocked by this display of spousal abuse, and Challenger comments that doubtless the incident will appear in the morning papers for the amusement of the multitudes. "He's a foul feeder, is Mr. Malone," he tells his wife, "like all his kind." But then he takes a more tender tone.

He placed a huge hand on each of her shoulders. "All that you say is perfectly true. I should be a better man if I did what you advise, but I shouldn't be quite George Edward Challenger. There are plenty of better men, my dear, but only one G.E.C. So make the best of him." He suddenly gave her a resounding kiss, which embarrassed me even more than his violence had done.

This is all we see of Mrs. Challenger in this story. She and Gladys are the only women in the book, and of the two she is the more interesting character. We see more of the relationship between her and her husband, and in a better light, in The Poison Belt, which is set mostly in the Challenger home as the Professor and his close companions await an apocalyptic doom from space. There we see more of the deep affection they feel for each other.

Since by declining to press charges against Challenger, Malone has demonstrated moral sensibility higher than usual for a "porcus ex grege diaboli -- a swine from the devil's herd" as he calls the Mainstream Media, Challenger deigns to give Malone the story he wants -- but extracts a promise from him not to publish the story without Challenger's consent. Malone doesn't like that stipulation, but agrees.

Some two years earlier, Challenger had been on an expedition to the Amazon Basin, "to verify some conclusions of Wallace and Bates, which could only be done by observing their reported facts under the same conditions in which they themselves had noted them." In a native village, he had encountered a dying American named Maple White. Although Challenger was unable to speak with the man before he perished, the man's sketchbook contained drawings of a large plateau rising out of the jungle, and of a grotesque, gigantic lizard with bony ridges on its back and large spikes on its tail. Challenger recognized the creature as matching scientific reconstructions of a stegosaurus.

He traced the artist's path back through the jungle and found the plateau. Challenger was unable to scale its sheer sides, but he took photographs of it. He also spotted, and shot, a pterodactyl.

Unfortunately, the specimen, and most of the photographs, were lost in an accident descending some rapids in the river on the way home. What evidence that remained was so damaged that when he returned to England he was ridiculed as a hoaxer.

Malone, however, finds the evidence as Challenger presents it quite convincing. "You are a Columbus of science who as discovered a lost world. I'm awfully sorry if I seemed to doubt you." Pleased by the young man's praise, Challenger invites Malone to attend a lecture that night at the Zoological Institute's Hall. A noted naturalist will be speaking on "The Record of the Ages", and Challenger has been invited to be present on the platform in order to move a vote of thanks for the guest. He hints that he may "throw out a few remarks" which might be of interest to the general public.

McArdle is disappointed when Malone comes back with no story for publication and not even the prospect of a juicy lawsuit against the pugilistic professor; but he encourages Malone to attend the lecture. "We may get a scoop yet, if we're lucky."

The topic of the evening's lecture is nothing less than the origin of the planet and the development of Life on Earth, as far as can be determined by the science of the day. The speaker is informative and entertaining, with a dry wit which he demonstrates by demolishing an anti-Darwisit heckler in the audience. He is less prepared, however to deal with interruptions from the stage by one of his colleagues. "Question!" Professor Challenger booms every time the speaker alludes to prehistoric creatures being extinct.

The speaker concludes his lecture and Challenger takes the podium.

"I have been selected to move a vote of thanks to Mr. Waldron for the very picturesque and imaginative address to which we have just listened. ... Popular lectures are easiest to listen to but Mr. Waldron ... will excuse me when I say that they are necessarily both superficial and misleading, since they have to be graded to the comprehension of an ignorant audience."

And in case he hasn't insulted both the guest and the audience enough, he condescending continues on to explain that popular lecturers are by nature parasitic, since they merely regurgitate known science for the masses and do not actually discover anything new. That is why, Challenger says, he felt justified, and indeed obliged, to correct the good Mr. Waldron on a couple statements of fact.

This leads to some heated back-and-forth between Challenger and the audience, culminating with this audacious... well, I have to say it, challenge:

"I will not detain you," he said. "It is not worth it. Truth is truth, and the noise of a number of foolish young men -- and I fear I must add, of their equally foolish seniors -- cannot affect the matter. I claim that I have opened a new field of science. You dispute it." (Cheers.) "Then I put you to the test. Will you accredit one or more of your number to go out as your representative and test my statement in your name?"

A professor of comparative anatomy named Summerlee rises to accept the challenge. Challenger then asks if any younger volunteers will accompany Summerlee to aid in the expedition and corroborate Summerlee's findings.

It is thus that the great crisis of a man's life springs out at him. Could I have imagined when I entered that hall that I was about to pledge myself to a wilder adventure than had ever come to me in my dreams? But Gladys -- was it not the very opportunity of which she spoke?

"Sit down, Malone! Don't make a public ass of yourself," a friend who accompanied him to the lecture whispers. But it's too late. The die is cast.

"I will go, Mr. Chairman," I kept repeating over and over again.

NEXT: Meet Lord John Roxton; The trip up the Amazon; a last-minute surprise; and the Plateau at last! Pack your bags; we're off to the Amazon!

The Lost World - Introduction

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his Sherlock Holmes stories, but he wrote many other books as well. His own favorite was The White Company, a medieval adventure set during the Hundred Years' War. He also wrote science fiction and horror tales such as "The Horror of the Heights" and "The Terror of Blue John Gap", which anticipate the Cosmic Horror stories of H.P. Lovecraft.

Probably the best-known of his non-Sherlockian works, The Lost World, was written in 1912 and had a lasting influence on adventure fiction. I think it's safe to say that every tale involving dinosaurs in the modern age, from Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Land that Time Forgot to Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park owes something to Doyle. If the book did nothing more than present the idea of a remote plateau in the jungle where prehistoric creatures have survived to the present day, it would be a significant landmark in speculative fiction; but The Lost World did more than that; it introduced the world to the belligerent and bombastic George Edward Challenger.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had a special fondness for Professor Challenger. Like Holmes, Challenger was based on a former teacher of Doyle's; in his case a professor of physiology named William Rutherford whose striking, broad-shouldered and bushy-bearded appearance and outgoing manner, Doyle ramped up to eleven. If Huxley was called "Darwin's Bulldog", then George Edward Challenger, (or "GEC" as he likes to call himself), is certainly a charging Rhinoceros.

Doyle had himself photographed dressed up as Challenger to accompany the publication of The Lost World, and I suspect that even more than Holmes, Challenger was a wish-fulfillment character for Doyle. Professor Challenger gave him outlet to rail at all the things that annoyed him. If Sherlock Holmes is pure intellect, then Professor Challenger is pure Id -- combined of course with a massive intellect.

Challenger was the central character in two novels, a novella and a couple short stories. The first, The Lost World (1912), is an exciting adventure story about a trip to the Amazon basin to explore a remote plateau where prehistoric creatures still survive. We'll be discussing this book further in coming weeks.

Doyle followed up The Lost World with The Poison Belt (1913), a novella with a completely different atmosphere, if that's the word I want. The action travels no farther than Challenger's country home outside London with an excursion into the city, and most of the plot involves discussions about the nature of life and death.

Challenger has discovered that the planet Earth will be passing through a region of space, a "current in the ether", that is inimical to life. He invites his companions from the previous adventure to his home where, fortified with bottles of oxygen, he hopes to survive the passage -- at least as long as the oxygen holds out.
He and his companions do survive, and in a creepy, post-apocalyptic section, they drive back into town to witness what has become of civilization. In what one critic has called an ironic inversion of Darwin's "Survival of the Fittest", the only survivor they find is an invalid old lady with an oxygen bottle of her own.

After several chapters of unrelieved gloom comes the happy revelation that the teeming millions of humanity have not all died; that the Poison Belt the Earth has passed through has merely put them to sleep for a day. Humankind has gotten a taste of mortality and a glimpse of it's small place in the cosmos.

It was several years later, in 1926, that Doyle wrote The Land of Mist, the last Challenger novel. By this time, Doyle had become an ardent Spiritualist and the tragic death toll of the Great War lay heavy on his mind. In this book he has Challenger investigating Spiritualism. At first he is skeptical debunker, but through the course of the book he becomes convinced of the reality of the Afterlife, encountering the spirit of a one-time assistant whose death he had always secretly blamed himself for. I find it significant that Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote a similar story in which Sherlock Holmes becomes convinced of Spiritualism.

Professor Challenger appeared twice more in a couple short stories. In "When the World Screamed" (1928) he develops a theory that the Earth is a living creature and that it's crust is only it's tough skin. He sets about to drill a hole through the crust; partially to prove his theory, partially to play a practical joke on the London Press Corps, but mostly, it seems, because his ego is so big that he wanted the planet itself to take notice of him.

Doyle's last Professor Challenger tale, "The Disintegration Machine" (1929), is a more conventional science fiction story. Challenger's friend, the reporter Edward Malone, asks him to come along on an interview of a scientist who has created a device capable of disintegrating and re-assembling matter. The inventor is a repellent chap who plans to sell his invention, with its horrific military applications, to the highest bidder. He also uses the device to play a cruel, but funny prank on the Professor. Challenger takes these affronts with an uncharacteristic calm and the inventor, like most Mad Scientists, comes to a bad end.

The Challenger stories are on the whole entertaining and sadly overlooked, playing with many different aspects of science fiction: cosmic horror and post-apocalypse; the supernatural; and the dangers of technology; but to my mind and probably the mind of most people who have read them, the first Challenger story remains the best.

NEXT:  Journalist Edward Malone tackles the most dangerous assignment of his career: interviewing a homicidal evolutionary biologist with the most outrageous scientific claims. Pack your bags for our expedition to The Lost World: "There are Heroisms All Round Us".