strength could not carry a trunk
which would serve our purpose. The rope, of course, is far too short
that we could descend by it. No, our position is hopeless--hopeless!

CHAPTER X

"The most Wonderful Things have Happened"

The most wonderful things have happened and are continually happening
to us. All the paper that I possess consists of five old note-books
and a lot of scraps, and I have only the one stylographic pencil; but
so long as I can move my hand I will continue to set down our
experiences and impressions, for, since we are the only men of the
whole human race to see such things, it is of enormous importance that
I should record them whilst they are fresh in my memory and before that
fate which seems to be constantly impending does actually overtake us.
Whether Zambo can at last take these letters to the river, or whether I
shall myself in some miraculous way carry them back with me, or,
finally, whether some daring explorer, coming upon our tracks with the
advantage, perhaps, of a perfected monoplane, should find this bundle
of manuscript, in any case I can see that what I am writing is destined
to immortality as a classic of true adventure.

On the morning after our being trapped upon the plateau by the
villainous Gomez we began a new stage in our experiences. The first
incident in it was not such as to give me a very favorable opinion of
the place to which we had wandered. As I roused myself from a short
nap after day had dawned, my eyes fell upon a most singular appearance
upon my own leg. My trouser had slipped up, exposing a few inches of
my skin above my sock. On this there rested a large, purplish grape.
Astonished at the sight, I leaned forward to pick it off, when, to my
horror, it burst between my finger and thumb, squirting blood in every
direction. My cry of disgust had brought the two professors to my side.

"Most interesting," said Summerlee, bending over my shin. "An enormous
blood-tick, as yet, I believe, unclassified."

"The first-fruits of our labors," said Challenger in his booming,
pedantic fashion. "We cannot do less than call it Ixodes Maloni. The
very small inconvenience of being bitten, my young friend, cannot, I am
sure, weigh with you as against the glorious privilege of having your
name inscribed in the deathless roll of zoology. Unhappily you have
crushed this fine specimen at the moment of satiation."

"Filthy ve