“Of course I will come.”

“And you, Challenger?”

“I will assuredly co-operate.”

“And you, Summerlee?”

“We seem to be drifting very far from the object of this expedition, Lord John.  I assure you that I little thought when I left my professional chair in London that it was for the purpose of heading a raid of savages upon a colony of anthropoid apes.”

“To such base uses do we come,” said Lord John, smiling.  “But we are up against it, so what’s the decision?”

“It seems a most questionable step,” said Summerlee, argumentative to the last, “but if you are all going, I hardly see how I can remain behind.”

“Then it is settled,” said Lord John, and turning to the chief he nodded and slapped his rifle.

The old fellow clasped our hands, each in turn, while his men cheered louder than ever.  It was too late to advance that night, so the Indians settled down into a rude bivouac.  On all sides their fires began to glimmer and smoke.  Some of them who had disappeared into the jungle came back presently driving a young iguanodon before them.  Like the others, it had a daub of asphalt upon its shoulder, and it was only when we saw one of the natives step forward with the air of an owner and give his consent to the beast’s slaughter that we understood at last that these great creatures were as much private property as a herd of cattle, and that these symbols which had so perplexed us were nothing more than the marks of the owner.  Helpless, torpid, and vegetarian, with great limbs but a minute brain, they could be rounded up and driven by a child.  In a few minutes the huge beast had been cut up and slabs of him were hanging over a dozen camp fires, together with great scaly ganoid fish which had been speared in the lake.

Summerlee had lain down and slept upon the sand, but we others roamed round the edge of the water, seeking to learn something more of this strange country.  Twice we found pits of blue clay, such as we had already seen in the swamp of the pterodactyls.  These were old volcanic vents, and for some reason excited the greatest interest in Lord John.  What attracted Challenger, on the other hand, was a bubbling, gurgling mud geyser, where some strange gas formed great bursting bubbles upon the surface.  He thrust a hollow reed into it and cried out with delight like a schoolboy then he was able, on touching it with a lighted match, to cause a sharp explosion and a blue flame at the far end of the tube.  Still more pleased was he when, inverting a leathern pouch over the end of the reed, and so filling it with the gas, he was able to send it soaring up into the air.

“An inflammable gas, and one markedly lighter than the atmosphere.  I should say beyond doubt that it contained a considerable proportion of free hydrogen.  The resources of G. E. C. are not yet exhausted, my young friend.  I may yet show you how a great mind molds all Nature to its use.”  He swelled with some secret purpose, but would say no more.