ay
congratulate yourself upon the hunting-field which awaits you. You
will, no doubt, have the opportunity of describing in the Field how you
brought down the rocketing dimorphodon. And good-bye to you also,
Professor Summerlee. If you are still capable of self-improvement, of
which I am frankly unconvinced, you will surely return to London a
wiser man."

So he turned upon his heel, and a minute later from the deck I could
see his short, squat figure bobbing about in the distance as he made
his way back to his train. Well, we are well down Channel now.
There's the last bell for letters, and it's good-bye to the pilot.
We'll be "down, hull-down, on the old trail" from now on. God bless
all we leave behind us, and send us safely back.

CHAPTER VII

"To-morrow we Disappear into the Unknown"

I will not bore those whom this narrative may reach by an account of
our luxurious voyage upon the Booth liner, nor will I tell of our
week's stay at Para (save that I should wish to acknowledge the great
kindness of the Pereira da Pinta Company in helping us to get together
our equipment). I will also allude very briefly to our river journey,
up a wide, slow-moving, clay-tinted stream, in a steamer which was
little smaller than that which had carried us across the Atlantic.
Eventually we found ourselves through the narrows of Obidos and reached
the town of Manaos. Here we were rescued from the limited attractions
of the local inn by Mr. Shortman, the representative of the British and
Brazilian Trading Company. In his hospital Fazenda we spent our time
until the day when we were empowered to open the letter of instructions
given to us by Professor Challenger. Before I reach the surprising
events of that date I would desire to give a clearer sketch of my
comrades in this enterprise, and of the associates whom we had already
gathered together in South America. I speak freely, and I leave the
use of my material to your own discretion, Mr. McArdle, since it is
through your hands that this report must pass before it reaches the
world.

The scientific attainments of Professor Summerlee are too well known
for me to trouble to recapitulate them. He is better equipped for a
rough expedition of this sort than one would imagine at first sight.
His tall, gaunt, stringy figure is insensible to fatigue, and his dry,
half-sarcastic, and often wholly unsympathetic manner is uninfluenced
by