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

It is imperative that now at once, while these stupendous events arestill clear in my mind, I should set them down with that exactness ofdetail which time may blur. But even as I do so, I am overwhelmed by thewonder of the fact that it should be our little group of the "LostWorld"—Professor Challenger, Professor Summerlee, Lord John Roxton, andmyself—who have passed through this amazing experience.

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

It was upon Friday, the twenty-seventh of August—a date forevermemorable in the history of the world—that I went down to the office ofmy paper and asked for three days' leave of absence from Mr. McArdle, whostill presided over our news department. The good old Scotchman shookhis head, scratched his dwindling fringe of ruddy fluff, and finally puthis reluctance into words.

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