The car on its lowest speed had ground its way up a steep, curving ascent.  At the corner a notice-board peered over a well-clipped hedge.  As Austin said, it was not difficult to read, for the words were few and arresting:—­

|---------------------------------------|
|               Warning.                |
|                ----                   |
|  Visitors, Pressmen, and Mendicants   |
|        are not encouraged.            |
|                                       |
|                  G. E. Challenger.    |
|_______________________________________|

“No, it’s not what you might call ’earty,” said Austin, shaking his head and glancing up at the deplorable placard.  “It wouldn’t look well in a Christmas card.  I beg your pardon, sir, for I haven’t spoke as much as this for many a long year, but to-day my feelings seem to ’ave got the better of me.  ’E can sack me till ’e’s blue in the face, but I ain’t going, and that’s flat.  I’m ’is man and ’e’s my master, and so it will be, I expect, to the end of the chapter.”

We had passed between the white posts of a gate and up a curving drive, lined with rhododendron bushes.  Beyond stood a low brick house, picked out with white woodwork, very comfortable and pretty.  Mrs. Challenger, a small, dainty, smiling figure, stood in the open doorway to welcome us.

“Well, my dear,” said Challenger, bustling out of the car, “here are our visitors.  It is something new for us to have visitors, is it not?  No love lost between us and our neighbors, is there?  If they could get rat poison into our baker’s cart, I expect it would be there.”

“It’s dreadful—­dreadful!” cried the lady, between laughter and tears.  “George is always quarreling with everyone.  We haven’t a friend on the countryside.”

“It enables me to concentrate my attention upon my incomparable wife,” said Challenger, passing his short, thick arm round her waist.  Picture a gorilla and a gazelle, and you have the pair of them.  “Come, come, these gentlemen are tired from the journey, and luncheon should be ready.  Has Sarah returned?”

The lady shook her head ruefully, and the Professor laughed loudly and stroked his beard in his masterful fashion.

“Austin,” he cried, “when you have put up the car you will kindly help your mistress to lay the lunch.  Now, gentlemen, will you please step into my study, for there are one or two very urgent things which I am anxious to say to you.”

Chapter II

THE TIDE OF DEATH

As we crossed the hall the telephone-bell rang, and we were the involuntary auditors of Professor Challenger’s end of the ensuing dialogue.  I say “we,” but no one within a hundred yards could have failed to hear the booming of that monstrous voice, which reverberated through the house.  His answers lingered in my mind.