tie, which made it perilous
to interrupt him. But this interjection appeared to him so absurd that
he was at a loss how to deal with it. So looks the Shakespearean who
is confronted by a rancid Baconian, or the astronomer who is assailed
by a flat-earth fanatic. He paused for a moment, and then, raising his
voice, repeated slowly the words: "Which were extinct before the
coming of man."

"Question!" boomed the voice once more.

Waldron looked with amazement along the line of professors upon the
platform until his eyes fell upon the figure of Challenger, who leaned
back in his chair with closed eyes and an amused expression, as if he
were smiling in his sleep.

"I see!" said Waldron, with a shrug. "It is my friend Professor
Challenger," and amid laughter he renewed his lecture as if this was a
final explanation and no more need be said.

But the incident was far from being closed. Whatever path the lecturer
took amid the wilds of the past seemed invariably to lead him to some
assertion as to extinct or prehistoric life which instantly brought the
same bulls' bellow from the Professor. The audience began to
anticipate it and to roar with delight when it came. The packed
benches of students joined in, and every time Challenger's beard
opened, before any sound could come forth, there was a yell of
"Question!" from a hundred voices, and an answering counter cry of
"Order!" and "Shame!" from as many more. Waldron, though a hardened
lecturer and a strong man, became rattled. He hesitated, stammered,
repeated himself, got snarled in a long sentence, and finally turned
furiously upon the cause of his troubles.

"This is really intolerable!" he cried, glaring across the platform.
"I must ask you, Professor Challenger, to cease these ignorant and
unmannerly interruptions."

There was a hush over the hall, the students rigid with delight at
seeing the high gods on Olympus quarrelling among themselves.
Challenger levered his bulky figure slowly out of his chair.

"I must in turn ask you, Mr. Waldron," he said, "to cease to make
assertions which are not in strict accordance with scientific fact."

The words unloosed a tempest. "Shame! Shame!" "Give him a hearing!"
"Put him out!" "Shove him off the platform!" "Fair play!" emerged
from a general roar of amusement or execration. The chairman was on
his feet flapping both his hands and bleating excitedly. "Professor
Challenger--personal--views--later," were the