第22章

"Fifthly and lastly," said he, glancing at the tube."Say, young fellah, don't tell me you've been writin' up your impressions in that paper on your knee.""Just a few notes to pass the time."

"Well, I don't believe anyone but an Irishman would have done that.I expect you'll have to wait till little brother amoeba gets grown up before you'll find a reader.He don't seem to take much stock of things just at present.Well, Herr Professor, what are the prospects?"Challenger was looking out at the great drifts of morning mist which lay over the landscape.Here and there the wooded hills rose like conical islands out of this woolly sea.

"It might be a winding sheet," said Mrs.Challenger, who had entered in her dressing-gown."There's that song of yours, George, `Ring out the old, ring in the new.' It was prophetic.

But you are shivering, my poor dear friends.I have been warm under a coverlet all night, and you cold in your chairs.But I'll soon set you right."The brave little creature hurried away, and presently we heard the sizzling of a kettle.She was back soon with five steaming cups of cocoa upon a tray.

"Drink these," said she."You will feel so much better."And we did.Summerlee asked if he might light his pipe, and we all had cigarettes.It steadied our nerves, I think, but it was a mistake, for it made a dreadful atmosphere in that stuffy room.Challenger had to open the ventilator.

"How long, Challenger?" asked Lord John.

"Possibly three hours," he answered with a shrug.

"I used to be frightened," said his wife."But the nearer I get to it, the easier it seems.Don't you think we ought to pray, George?""You will pray, dear, if you wish," the big man answered, very gently."We all have our own ways of praying.Mine is a complete acquiescence in whatever fate may send me--a cheerful acquiescence.The highest religion and the highest science seem to unite on that.""I cannot truthfully describe my mental attitude as acquiescence and far less cheerful acquiescence," grumbled Summerlee over his pipe."I submit because I have to.I confess that I should have liked another year of life to finish my classification of the chalk fossils.""Your unfinished work is a small thing," said Challenger pompously, "when weighed against the fact that my own MAGNUMOPUS, `The Ladder of Life,' is still in the first stages.My brain, my reading, my experience--in fact, my whole unique equipment--were to be condensed into that epoch-making volume.

And yet, as I say, I acquiesce."

"I expect we've all left some loose ends stickin' out," said Lord John."What are yours, young fellah?""I was working at a book of verses," I answered.

"Well, the world has escaped that, anyhow," said Lord John.

"There's always compensation somewhere if you grope around.""What about you?" I asked.

"Well, it just so happens that I was tidied up and ready.I'd promised Merivale to go to Tibet for a snow leopard in the spring.But it's hard on you, Mrs.Challenger, when you have just built up this pretty home.""Where George is, there is my home.But, oh, what would I not give for one last walk together in the fresh morning air upon those beautiful downs!"Our hearts re-echoed her words.The sun had burst through the gauzy mists which veiled it, and the whole broad Weald was washed in golden light.Sitting in our dark and poisonous atmosphere that glorious, clean, wind-swept countryside seemed a very dream of beauty.Mrs.Challenger held her hand stretched out to it in her longing.We drew up chairs and sat in a semicircle in the window.The atmosphere was already very close.

It seemed to me that the shadows of death were drawing in upon us--the last of our race.It was like an invisible curtain closing down upon every side.

"That cylinder is not lastin' too well," said Lord John with a long gasp for breath.

"The amount contained is variable," said Challenger, "depending upon the pressure and care with which it has been bottled.I am inclined to agree with you, Roxton, that this one is defective.""So we are to be cheated out of the last hour of our lives,"Summerlee remarked bitterly."An excellent final illustration of the sordid age in which we have lived.Well, Challenger, now is your time if you wish to study the subjective phenomena of physical dissolution.""Sit on the stool at my knee and give me your hand," said Challenger to his wife."I think, my friends, that a further delay in this insufferable atmosphere is hardly advisable.You would not desire it, dear, would you?"His wife gave a little groan and sank her face against his leg.

"I've seen the folk bathin' in the Serpentine in winter," said Lord John."When the rest are in, you see one or two shiverin'

on the bank, envyin' the others that have taken the plunge.It's the last that have the worst of it.I'm all for a header and have done with it.""You would open the window and face the ether?""Better be poisoned than stifled."

Summerlee nodded his reluctant acquiescence and held out his thin hand to Challenger.

"We've had our quarrels in our time, but that's all over," said he."We were good friends and had a respect for each other under the surface.Good-by!""Good-by, young fellah!" said Lord John."The window's plastered up.You can't open it."Challenger stooped and raised his wife, pressing her to his breast, while she threw her arms round his neck.

"Give me that field-glass, Malone," said he gravely.

I handed it to him.

"Into the hands of the Power that made us we render ourselves again!" he shouted in his voice of thunder, and at the words he hurled the field-glass through the window.

Full in our flushed faces, before the last tinkle of falling fragments had died away, there came the wholesome breath of the wind, blowing strong and sweet.

I don't know how long we sat in amazed silence.Then as in a dream, I heard Challenger's voice once more.

"We are back in normal conditions," he cried."The world has cleared the poison belt, but we alone of all mankind are saved."