Lord John Roxton had been right about the bites.
The morning after our first encounter with the creatures of the plateau, both Summerlee and I were suffering from severe pain and fever. Challenger’s knee was so badly bruised that he could barely walk.
We spent the entire day inside our camp.
Lord John kept busy strengthening our thorn barricade, making the walls higher and thicker. We helped whenever we had enough strength.
All that day, I had the uncomfortable feeling that we were being watched.
I could not say who—or what—was watching us.
Eventually I told Professor Challenger.
He immediately blamed my fever.
“Your brain is excited by the fever, my young friend. That is all.”
But I couldn’t shake the feeling.
Again and again I turned around, expecting to see something.
There was never anything there.
Only the dark wall of thorns and the huge trees towering above us.
Yet the feeling became stronger every hour.
Something was nearby.
Something intelligent.
And something that did not like us.
I began thinking about the Indians’ stories of the Curupuri, the evil spirit said to hide deep in the forest.
For the first time, I could almost believe such a creature might really exist.
That night was our third night in Maple White Land.
The experience we had that evening made us very grateful for Lord John’s hard work on our defenses.
We were sleeping around the remains of our campfire when we were suddenly awakened by the most terrible sound I had ever heard.
It was a series of screams.
They seemed to come from somewhere only a few hundred yards away.
I had never heard anything like them.
They were as sharp and piercing as a train whistle, but much deeper and far more frightening.
They sounded like the screams of something being tortured to death.
We covered our ears.
Cold sweat broke across my body.
The sound seemed to contain every possible form of pain and terror.
Then another sound joined it.
Underneath the horrible screams came a deep, low laugh.
It was almost a growl—a rough, throaty sound of pleasure.
The two sounds together were so unnatural that they seemed like some terrible conversation between a victim and its killer.
The strange duet continued for three or four minutes.
Birds exploded from the trees around us, startled by the noise.
Then, as suddenly as it had begun, everything stopped.
For a long time none of us spoke.
At last Lord John threw more branches onto the fire.
The flames rose, lighting our tense faces and the enormous branches overhead.
“What was that?” I whispered.
“We’ll find out in the morning,” Lord John said.
“It was very close. No more than a few hundred yards away.”
Challenger stared thoughtfully into the darkness.
“We have just heard a scene from the prehistoric past,” he said quietly.
“Imagine the Jurassic age. Perhaps a great predator has caught another creature among the reeds of some ancient swamp.”
His voice became more serious.
“It is fortunate that mankind appeared much later in the history of life. There must have been creatures in those days against which human courage and weapons would have been useless.”
He shook his head.
“What would a primitive man have done against such a monster? Even a modern rifle might give us very poor odds.”
“I’d still put my money on my little Express,” Lord John said, patting his rifle.
“But I’ll admit the beast would have a fair chance.”
Summerlee suddenly raised his hand.
“Quiet!”
We all listened.
At first there was nothing.
Then we heard it.
Pat.
Pat.
Pat.
Something was walking toward us.
The footsteps were slow and heavy, but strangely careful.
The creature moved around the outside of our camp.
Then it stopped near the entrance.
We could hear it breathing.
A low, hissing sound came from the darkness.
The thorn wall was the only thing separating us from it.
We all grabbed our rifles.
Lord John quietly pulled away a small section of the hedge to create a narrow opening.
“By George,” he whispered. “I think I can see it.”
I crouched beside him and looked through the gap.
At first I could see only darkness.
Then I noticed a darker shape within the darkness.
Something was crouching beneath one of the great trees.
It was roughly the height of a horse, but its body seemed enormously thick and powerful.
Its breathing was deep and regular, almost like the exhaust of a large machine.
For an instant I saw two greenish eyes shining in the shadows.
The creature moved slightly.
Leaves rustled beneath it.
“It looks as if it’s about to attack,” I whispered as I cocked my rifle.
“Don’t fire,” Lord John whispered back.
“The sound would carry for miles in this silence.”
He kept watching the creature.
“Save your shot until the last possible moment.”
“If it gets over the hedge, we’re finished,” Summerlee said.
He gave a nervous little laugh.
“No, it won’t get over,” Lord John replied.
“But keep your rifle ready.”
He paused.
“Perhaps I can deal with it without firing.”
Before any of us could stop him, he crouched beside the fire.
He grabbed a burning branch.
Then he slipped through the opening in the hedge.
The creature gave a deep, threatening growl.
Lord John did not hesitate.
He ran straight toward it.
When he was close enough, he thrust the burning branch directly into its face.
For a split second I saw the monster clearly.
Its head was enormous and ugly, almost like that of a giant toad.
Its skin was covered with rough, wart-like patches.
Its loose mouth was smeared with fresh blood.
Then it recoiled.
There was a tremendous crash in the bushes.
The creature disappeared into the darkness.
Lord John returned to the camp, laughing.
“I thought he wouldn’t like the fire.”
“You could have been killed!” we all shouted.
“There wasn’t much choice,” he replied.
“If that thing had got inside the camp, we’d have been shooting in the dark and might have hit one another.”
“And if we’d fired through the hedge and only wounded it, it would have come straight at us.”
He threw the burning branch back onto the fire.
“Besides, firing a gun would have told everything within miles that we’re here.”
He looked toward the darkness.
“So, what do you gentlemen think it was?”
The two professors exchanged uncertain looks.
“Personally, I can’t identify it,” Summerlee said.
Challenger nodded gravely.
“That is a perfectly reasonable scientific position.”
He paused.
“I myself would not venture beyond saying that we almost certainly encountered some kind of meat-eating dinosaur.”
“I have already suggested that such a creature might exist here.”
Summerlee puffed thoughtfully on his pipe.
“There are many prehistoric animals whose remains have never been discovered. We should not assume we can identify everything we encounter.”
“Exactly,” Challenger agreed.
“For now, a broad classification is all we can hope for. Perhaps tomorrow we’ll find evidence that allows us to identify it.”
He settled down.
“For the moment, we should return to our interrupted sleep.”
“Not without a guard,” Lord John said firmly.
“We can’t take chances here.”
He looked at each of us.
“From now on, we’ll take turns standing watch for two hours at a time.”
“I’ll finish my pipe while I take the first shift,” Summerlee said.
From that night onward, we never slept without a sentry.
The following morning we quickly discovered what had caused the terrible screams.
We returned to the clearing where we had seen the iguanodons.
What we found there was horrifying.
The grass was covered in blood.
Huge pieces of flesh lay scattered everywhere.
At first we thought several animals had been killed.
But after examining the remains, we realized that the entire massacre had involved only one iguanodon.
Something had attacked it and literally torn it apart.
The killer could not have been much larger than the iguanodon.
But it must have been far more vicious.
The two professors immediately began studying the wounds.
They examined the deep tooth marks and enormous claw marks on the pieces of flesh.
“Our conclusion must remain uncertain,” Challenger said, holding a large piece of pale flesh.
“These wounds could have been made by a saber-toothed cat, such as those whose remains have been found in ancient caves.”
“But the creature we saw last night was clearly larger and more reptilian.”
“I would favor an allosaurus.”
“Or perhaps a megalosaurus,” Summerlee suggested.
“Quite so. Either would fit the evidence.”
Challenger looked almost delighted.
“Among the carnivorous dinosaurs we find some of the most terrifying creatures that have ever lived.”
He laughed loudly at his own remark.
Lord John immediately lowered his voice.
“Keep it down.”
He glanced around.
“We don’t know what might be listening.”
He pointed toward the carcass.
“If that fellow comes back for breakfast and finds us here, we’ll have a much more serious problem.”
Then he noticed something on the dead animal.
“What about that mark?”
On the iguanodon’s scaly skin, just above the shoulder, was a strange black patch.
It looked almost like dried asphalt.
None of us knew what it meant.
Summerlee said he thought he had noticed a similar mark on one of the young iguanodons two days earlier.
Challenger remained silent.
He puffed himself up and looked offended.
Lord John finally turned to him.
“Well, Professor? Any ideas?”
Challenger raised his eyebrows.
“If your lordship would kindly allow me to speak, I should be delighted to offer my opinion.”
Lord John frowned.
“What have I done now?”
“I am not accustomed to being questioned in such a manner,” Challenger replied.
“I wasn’t aware that I needed your permission before making a harmless joke.”
Lord John immediately apologized.
Only then did Challenger’s mood improve.
He sat on a fallen tree and began explaining his theory in the grand style he always used when addressing an imaginary audience of thousands.
“As for the black markings, I am inclined to agree with Professor Summerlee.”
“I believe they are asphalt.”
“This plateau is clearly volcanic in origin, and asphalt is associated with underground geological forces.”
“I suspect there are places here where liquid asphalt still exists, and these animals have passed through it.”
“But the much more important question is the predator that killed this iguanodon.”
He leaned forward.
“We know that the plateau is roughly the size of an English county.”
“For countless generations, various prehistoric animals have lived here together.”
“Now consider the problem.”
“In a closed environment like this, carnivorous animals should eventually consume all their available prey.”
“Once the food became scarce, they would either have to change their diet or die out.”
“But clearly that has not happened.”
“So there must be some natural force keeping the population of these predators under control.”
“That is one of the most interesting questions we have to solve.”
He smiled.
“I very much hope we have an opportunity to study these carnivorous dinosaurs more closely.”
“I hope we don’t,” I said.
Challenger simply raised his eyebrows as if I had interrupted a lecture with a foolish comment.
“Perhaps Professor Summerlee has something to add,” he said.
The two scientists immediately began another long discussion about population and food supply.
That morning we mapped another section of the plateau.
We avoided the pterodactyl swamp and explored the area east of our stream.
The forest was extremely dense, and progress was painfully slow.
Until then I had mostly described the dangers of Maple White Land.
But the place had another side.
It was also incredibly beautiful.
That morning we passed through fields of flowers.
Most were white or yellow.
Summerlee explained that these were probably among the oldest and most primitive flower colors.
In some places they covered the ground completely.
We walked through flowers ankle-deep, and their scent was so strong that it almost made me dizzy.
English bees buzzed around us.
Many trees were heavy with fruit.
Some varieties were familiar, while others were completely new.
We watched the birds carefully.
Whenever we saw birds eating a particular fruit, we knew it was probably safe, so we added some of the fruit to our food supplies.
Animal trails crossed the jungle everywhere.
In the marshy areas, we found countless tracks, including many belonging to iguanodons.
At one point we saw several of the giant creatures feeding in a grove.
Lord John examined them through his field glasses.
“They’ve got the black marks too,” he reported.
“But in a different place.”
None of us could explain what the markings meant.
We also saw smaller animals.
There were porcupines, a scaly anteater, and a strange wild pig with a patchy coat and long curved tusks.
Once, through an opening in the trees, we spotted a distant green hillside.
A large brown animal was running across it.
It disappeared too quickly for us to identify it.
Lord John thought it was a deer.
If he was right, it must have been enormous—almost as large as the giant Irish elk whose remains are sometimes found in the bogs of my homeland.
Ever since the mysterious visitor had entered our camp, we had returned there with some anxiety.
Fortunately, everything was still untouched when we came back that evening.
That night we held a long discussion about our situation.
It became one of the most important conversations we had on the plateau.
Summerlee had been irritable all day.
When Lord John mentioned what we might do the next morning, Summerlee finally lost patience.
“What we should be thinking about,” he said, “is how to get out of this trap.”
“You’re all obsessed with exploring farther into this country.”
“I think we should be planning our escape.”
Challenger stroked his enormous beard.
“I am astonished that a scientist could express such a miserable attitude.”
“You are standing in a country offering more opportunities for scientific discovery than any place on Earth.”
“And you want to leave before we have even begun to understand it?”
“I expected better from you, Professor Summerlee.”
Summerlee gave him a cold look.
“You should remember that I have students waiting for me in London.”
“They are currently being taught by a substitute teacher who is not exactly competent.”
“That is rather different from your situation.”
“As far as I know, Professor Challenger, you have never had the burden of running a serious educational program.”
“Exactly,” Challenger replied.
“I have always believed that a mind capable of original scientific research should not be wasted on ordinary teaching.”
“That is why I have rejected every academic appointment offered to me.”
“For example?” Summerlee asked sarcastically.
Lord John quickly interrupted.
“I’ll say this much. I wouldn’t want to return to London yet.”
“I want to learn a lot more about this place first.”
I spoke up.
“I’d have a hard time walking into the newspaper office and facing Mr. McArdle.”
“He’d never forgive me for coming back without using all this material.”
I smiled.
“Besides, there’s no point arguing about going home.”
“We don’t know how to get down from the plateau.”
Challenger nodded approvingly.
“Our young friend has several obvious intellectual shortcomings, but he does possess a useful amount of common sense.”
“His newspaper concerns are of no importance to us.”
“But he is correct about one thing.”
“We have no way down.”
“So discussing our escape is pointless.”
Summerlee puffed on his pipe.
“Then everything we’re doing is pointless.”
He turned toward us.
“Let me remind you why we came here.”
“We were sent by the Zoological Institute in London to determine whether Professor Challenger’s claims were true.”
“I am forced to admit that we have now confirmed them.”
“Our official mission is therefore complete.”
“As for everything else on this plateau, the task is far too large for four men.”
“We would need a properly equipped expedition.”
“If we stay here trying to explore everything, the most likely result is that we will die before we can return with the discoveries we have already made.”
He looked directly at Challenger.
“You found a way to get us onto this plateau when everyone believed it was inaccessible.”
“Now I think you should use that same ingenuity to get us back down.”
I had to admit that Summerlee’s argument made sense.
Even Challenger seemed troubled by it.
If we died here, his enemies in England would never have to accept that he had been right.
“The problem of getting down is certainly difficult,” Challenger admitted.
“But I agree that staying here for a long period would be unwise.”
“Sooner or later we must return.”
He raised a finger.
“However, I refuse to leave before making at least a basic survey of the plateau.”
“We must take back some sort of map.”
Summerlee sighed.
“We’ve already spent two full days exploring.”
“And we still know almost nothing about the geography.”
“Everything is covered by forest.”
“It could take months to understand how one region connects with another.”
“If there were a high central mountain, we could climb it and see the whole country.”
“But everything appears to slope downward.”
“The farther we travel, the less we can see.”
That was when an idea suddenly came to me.
I looked up at the enormous gingko tree growing beside us.
Its trunk was thicker than any other tree on the plateau.
Surely that meant it was also taller.
If the edge of the plateau was really the highest point, then the top of this tree might give us the view we needed.
I had been climbing trees since I was a boy in Ireland.
My companions might be far better climbers on rocks, but among trees I knew I was the best.
If I could reach the lowest major branch, I was confident I could climb all the way to the top.
I explained my idea.
Everyone approved.
Challenger’s cheeks puffed up with approval.
“Our young friend possesses a remarkable talent for acrobatics,” he said.
“Such physical work would be difficult for a man of my own substantial build.”
“I applaud his determination.”
Lord John slapped me on the back.
“By George, Malone! You’ve got it!”
“How did none of us think of this before?”
“There isn’t much daylight left.”
“Take your notebook.”
“You might be able to make a rough map from up there.”
He pointed to three ammunition boxes.
“I’ll use these to get you onto the first branch.”
He climbed onto the boxes and helped lift me toward the trunk.
Then Challenger suddenly stepped forward.
With one enormous push of his hand, he sent me flying into the tree.
I grabbed the branch with both arms.
After several hard efforts, I pulled my body up and got my knees onto it.
Above me were several thick branches that formed a natural ladder.
I climbed higher.
Soon the ground disappeared beneath the leaves.
The tree was enormous.
At one point I had to climb a hanging vine for several yards.
The higher I went, the farther away Challenger’s voice sounded below.
But the tree kept rising.
There seemed to be no end to it.
Eventually I reached a thick mass of branches that looked like a parasitic plant growing around one of them.
I pushed my head around it to see what lay beyond.
And nearly fell from the tree.
A face was staring directly into mine.
It was only a few feet away.
The creature had been hiding behind the plant.
We had looked at each other at exactly the same moment.
It had a human-like face.
At least, it was much more human than the face of any monkey I had ever seen.
The face was long and pale, covered with blotches.
Its nose was flat.
Its lower jaw stuck forward.
Coarse whiskers grew around its chin.
Heavy brows hung over fierce, animal-like eyes.
It opened its mouth and snarled at me.
I saw sharp canine teeth.
For an instant, its eyes showed pure hatred.
Then something changed.
The creature suddenly looked terrified.
With a violent crash, it disappeared through the branches.
I caught a glimpse of a reddish, hairy body that reminded me of a wild pig.
Then leaves closed around it.
“What’s happened?” Lord John shouted from below.
“Are you all right?”
“Did you see it?” I cried.
I was still clinging tightly to the branch.
“We heard a terrible noise.”
“Did you slip?”
I was shaken to the core.
I had just seen an ape-man.
For a moment I considered climbing down and telling the others immediately.
But I had already come so far.
Going back without completing my mission felt like admitting defeat.
I rested until my breathing returned to normal.
Then I continued climbing.
Once I put my weight on a rotten branch and it broke beneath me.
For several seconds I hung by my hands.
But most of the climb was easy.
The leaves gradually became thinner.
Wind struck my face.
I realized I had climbed higher than the surrounding forest.
Still, I refused to stop and look around.
I wanted to reach the very top first.
At last I climbed onto the highest branches.
The branch bent beneath my weight.
I found a secure fork and settled into it.
Then I looked out.
The view was astonishing.
The sun was sinking toward the western horizon.
The evening was unusually clear.
From that height, I could see almost the entire plateau.
It was roughly oval.
I estimated it to be about thirty miles across and twenty miles wide.
The land sloped downward toward a large lake in the center.
The lake might have been ten miles around.
It looked green and beautiful in the evening light.
Tall reeds surrounded the edges.
Several yellow sandbanks broke the surface and glowed in the setting sun.
But there were strange dark shapes lying beside those sandbanks.
They were too large to be alligators and too long to be canoes.
I raised my field glasses.
The shapes were alive.
But I had no idea what they were.
The forested slopes on our side of the plateau stretched for several miles toward the lake.
I could see the iguanodon clearing below me.
Farther away was the circular opening that marked the pterodactyl swamp.
But the opposite side of the plateau looked very different.
There, the same basalt cliffs that formed the outer wall also appeared on the inside.
They formed an inner escarpment about two hundred feet high.
A wooded slope rose beneath them.
Through my field glasses I could see dark openings in the cliffs.
They appeared to be caves.
At the entrance of one cave, something white seemed to be moving or shining.
I could not tell what it was.
I spent the remaining daylight drawing everything I could see.
I worked until the sun disappeared.
Only then did I begin climbing down.
My companions were waiting eagerly below.
For once, I was the hero of the expedition.
The idea had been mine.
I had climbed the tree alone.
And I had brought back a map that might save us weeks of wandering through dangerous country.
Each of them shook my hand.
But before they could study the map, I told them what I had seen.
“There was a creature up there,” I said.
“An ape-like creature.”
“It has been watching us.”
Lord John looked at me.
“How do you know?”
“Because I’ve felt it for days.”
“I told Professor Challenger that I thought something was watching us.”
Challenger nodded.
“Our young friend did mention such a feeling.”
“He also has the Celtic temperament, which may make him unusually sensitive to things of this kind.”
“The whole subject of telepathy—” Summerlee began.
“Is far too complicated for tonight,” Challenger interrupted.
He turned to me.
“Tell me exactly what you observed.”
“Did it have an opposable thumb?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did it have a tail?”
“No.”
“Could its feet grip branches?”
“I believe so.”
“It moved through the tree very quickly.”
Challenger stroked his beard.
“South America has many species of monkeys, but true anthropoid apes are not known here.”
“Yet we have clearly encountered one.”
“And it is not the ordinary gorilla-like type found in Africa or Asia.”
He paused.
“This creature was pale and heavily whiskered.”
“Such coloring suggests that it spends most of its time in trees and away from sunlight.”
“The important question is whether it is closer to an ape or to a human.”
“If it is somewhere between the two, we may have found what people commonly call the missing link.”
“That should be our immediate priority.”
“No, it shouldn’t,” Summerlee said sharply.
“Thanks to Mr. Malone, we now have a map.”
“Our immediate priority is getting ourselves out of this place alive.”
“The flesh-pots of civilization,” Challenger muttered.
“The ink-pots of civilization,” Summerlee corrected.
“We have a duty to record what we’ve seen and leave the rest to a properly equipped expedition.”
“You all agreed with me before Malone produced this map.”
Challenger sighed.
“I admit that I would feel much better once I knew our discoveries had safely reached England.”
He looked toward the cliffs.
“As for getting down, I have no solution yet.”
“But I have never met a problem that my mind could not eventually solve.”
“Tomorrow I shall devote myself to the problem of our descent.”
And with that, the argument ended.
That evening, by firelight and candlelight, we completed the first map of the lost world.
Every detail I had recorded from the treetop was placed as accurately as possible.
Then Challenger’s pencil stopped over the large blank space representing the central lake.
“What shall we call it?” he asked.
Summerlee smiled.
“Why not name it after yourself?”
“I hope my name will be remembered for more important reasons,” Challenger replied coldly.
“Anyone can put his name on a mountain or a river.”
“I require no such monument.”
Summerlee was preparing another sarcastic reply when Lord John interrupted.
“The lake should be named by Malone.”
He turned to me.
“You saw it first.”
“If you want to call it Lake Malone, you’ve certainly earned the right.”
“Agreed,” Challenger said.
“Let our young friend choose the name.”
I hesitated.
Then I said:
“Then I’ll call it Lake Gladys.”
Summerlee raised an eyebrow.
“Wouldn’t Central Lake be more practical?”
“I’m going with Lake Gladys.”
Challenger gave me a sympathetic look.
Then he shook his huge head.
“Boys will be boys.”
He smiled.
“Lake Gladys it is.”