The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poison Belt, by Arthur Conan Doyle

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Title: The Poison Belt

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

Release Date: May 15, 2008 [EBook #126]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POISON BELT ***

THE POISON BELT

BY

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

Being an account of another adventure of
Prof. George E. Challenger, Lord John Roxton,
Prof. Summerlee, and Mr. E. D. Malone,
the discoverers of "The Lost World"

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter

I THE BLURRING OF LINES
II THE TIDE OF DEATH
III SUBMERGED
IV A DIARY OF THE DYING
V THE DEAD WORLD
VI THE GREAT AWAKENING

Chapter I

THE BLURRING OF LINES

It is imperative that now at once, while these stupendous events are
still clear in my mind, I should set them down with that exactness of
detail which time may blur. But even as I do so, I am overwhelmed by the
wonder of the fact that it should be our little group of the "Lost
World"--Professor Challenger, Professor Summerlee, Lord John Roxton, and
myself--who have passed through this amazing experience.

When, some years ago, I chronicled in the Daily Gazette our epoch-making
journey in South America, I little thought that it should ever fall to my
lot to tell an even stranger personal experience, one which is unique in
all human annals and must stand out in the records of history as a great
peak among the humble foothills which surround it. The event itself will
always be marvellous, but the circumstances that we four were together at
the time of this extraordinary episode came about in a most natural and,
indeed, inevitable fashion. I will explain the events which led up to it
as shortly and as clearly as I can, though I am well aware that the
fuller the detail upon such a subject the more welcome it will be to the
reader, for the public curiosity has been and still is insatiable.

It was upon Friday, the twenty-seventh of August--a date forever
memorable in the history of the world--that I went down to the office of
my paper and asked for three days' leave of absence from Mr. McArdle, who
still presided over our