f a gigantic negro, the two
of them bearing between them a large square packing-case. It was
evidently of great weight, and was slowly carried forward and placed in
front of the Professor's chair. All sound had hushed in the audience
and everyone was absorbed in the spectacle before them. Professor
Challenger drew off the top of the case, which formed a sliding lid.
Peering down into the box he snapped his fingers several times and was
heard from the Press seat to say, 'Come, then, pretty, pretty!' in a
coaxing voice. An instant later, with a scratching, rattling sound, a
most horrible and loathsome creature appeared from below and perched
itself upon the side of the case. Even the unexpected fall of the Duke
of Durham into the orchestra, which occurred at this moment, could not
distract the petrified attention of the vast audience. The face of the
creature was like the wildest gargoyle that the imagination of a mad
medieval builder could have conceived. It was malicious, horrible,
with two small red eyes as bright as points of burning coal. Its long,
savage mouth, which was held half-open, was full of a double row of
shark-like teeth. Its shoulders were humped, and round them were
draped what appeared to be a faded gray shawl. It was the devil of our
childhood in person. There was a turmoil in the audience--someone
screamed, two ladies in the front row fell senseless from their chairs,
and there was a general movement upon the platform to follow their
chairman into the orchestra. For a moment there was danger of a
general panic. Professor Challenger threw up his hands to still the
commotion, but the movement alarmed the creature beside him. Its
strange shawl suddenly unfurled, spread, and fluttered as a pair of
leathery wings. Its owner grabbed at its legs, but too late to hold
it. It had sprung from the perch and was circling slowly round the
Queen's Hall with a dry, leathery flapping of its ten-foot wings, while
a putrid and insidious odor pervaded the room. The cries of the people
in the galleries, who were alarmed at the near approach of those
glowing eyes and that murderous beak, excited the creature to a frenzy.
Faster and faster it flew, beating against walls and chandeliers in a
blind frenzy of alarm. 'The window! For heaven's sake shut that
window!' roared the Professor from the platform, dancing and wringing
his hands in an agony of apprehension. Alas, his warning was too late!
In a moment