The Lost World

Chapter 1
When I was a young man, in my early twenties, I fell in love
with a girl named Gladys hungerton .gladys was the most
beautiful girl I had ever seen-she had dark hair, large brown
eyes, and delicate ivory skin.
Unfortunately, Gladys was not in love with me; though many
hours together talking and laughing, she regarded me as a
friend and nothing more. Despite this, I made the decision to
propose to Gladys. I knew there was a chance she would
reject my proposal, but I had to try. And so, one cold October
evening, I visited Gladys at her house and asked her to marry
me.
‘oh, Edward,’ said Gladys after a long pause, ‘we have such a
good friend friendship, why can’t we simply remain friend?’
‘because I love you, Gladys!’ I exclaimed. ‘I want to spend
the rest of my life with you!’
Gladys gave me a look of pity. ‘but I don’t love you, Edward,
and I have never loved you.’
‘why can’t you love me, Gladys?’ I cried. ‘is it my
appearance?’ Gladys squeezed my hand gently. ‘no , of
course not,’ she said. ‘is it my character?’ I asked. ‘tell me
what you want me to change!’
Gladys sighed. ‘edward, let me explain to you what kind of
man I want: I want a man who has no fear of death; a man
 who has travelled the world and who has had many exciting
adventure. I want to marry a man who’s brave, heroic and
famous!’
‘all right, ‘if you want a brave and heroic man, I will do some
thing that will make you proud .’
Gladys laughed at my enthusiasm. ‘what are you going to
do?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know,’ I replied. ‘but if I do something great, will you
marry me than?’
‘we’ll see,’ said Gladys with a smile. ‘now, you’re working
the night shift at the paper and you’re running late.’
I said goodnight to Gladys and walked briskly to the offices of
the daily gazette, where I worked as a journalist. When I
arrived, I immediately made my way to the news editor’s
office.
‘good evening, mr mcardle,’ I said, knocking on the door.
‘hello, mr Malone,’ replied mcardle . ‘I must say, I realy
enjoyed your latest article; you’ve done some excellent work
for us.’
‘why, thank you,’ I said.
‘what did you want to see me about?’
‘I’d like you to send me on a mission for the paper.’
‘what sort of mission did you have in mind, mr Malone?’
‘an adventure,’ I replied. ‘a dangerous adventure!’
Mcardle raised an eyebrow. ‘you seen very eager to lose your
life,’ he said.
‘I need to do something heroic,’ I explained,’ my future
depends on it.’
Mcardle looked at me curiously. ‘I’m afraid we only send very
experienced journalists on important missions,’ he said. ‘wait
a minute, I have an idea - would you be interested in
interviewing professor George challenger?’
‘professor challengre?’ I repeated. ‘the famous zoologist?
Didn’t he punch a journalist from the telegraph the other
day?’
Mcardle nodded. ‘two years ago, professor challenger went
on an expedition to south America. When he came back last
year, he told everyone that he’d seen dinosaurs and other
strange beasts. Most people think he’s lying about what he
saw. The journalist from the telegraph called him a liar too –
that’s why he punched him. After the encounter, challenger
stopped doing interviews. Perhaps you can convince him to do
one last interview; I’m sure our readers would be interested
to find out more about his adventure.’ Mcardle handed me a
thick file. ‘here’s some information on the professor; you
might need it.’
I took the file and looked through the notes. ‘do you think he’s
telling the truth?’ I asked.
Mcardle shook his head. ‘I doubt it very much,’ he said.
‘all right,’ I said. ‘I’ll pay professor challenger a visit.’
 I returned to my office and wrote a letter to the professor
asking him to meet me the following Wednesday. Then, I spent
the rest of my shift reading through mcardle’s notes. I had no
idea then that my interview with professor challenger was
about to change my life forever.

Chapter 2
On Wednesday morning, I arrived at my office and found a
letter from professor challenger on my desk. He had agreed to
be interviewed at his house at 10 o’clock. I quickly gathered
my notes and took a cab to the professer’s house in enmore
park. When I arrived, I knocked on the door and professors
butler answered it.
‘do have an appointment?’ he asked.
‘I have a letter,’ I said, as I handed it to him.
The butler nodded and showed me in. I followed him to the
end of a passage; he tapped lightly on a door and I heard the
professor’s shout from inside. The butler pushed open the
door and there was professor challenger, sitting behind a
large table covered with books, map and diagrams. His
appearance made me gasp: he had a red face and a black
beard, and his blue-grey eyes were framed by thick black
eyebrows. He was a large man with broad shoulders and a
wide chest, and his enormous hand were covered in long
black hairs.
‘well?’ he said. ‘what is it?’
 I cleared my throat nervously ‘good morning, professor
challenger, I’m Edward Malone from the daily gazette.’
Challenger nodded. ‘yes, yes … sit down.’
I did as I was told. ‘thank you for agreeing to see me today,’ I
said.
Challenger put on his spectacles. ‘I presume you want to talk
about my trip to south America?’
I nodded.
‘first, let me say this: the only reason I agreed to do this
interview is because I like your newspaper. If you dear call
me a liar, I’ll punch you like did other fellows – am I making
my self clear?’
I nodded ‘yes, sir.’
I removed a notepad and a pencil from my pocket, and began
my interview with professor challenger. ‘why did you travel to
south America?’ I asked.
‘I went to south America to study the animals of the amazon.
After many months of research, I made my way back down the
river, and spent a night at a small indian village inhabited by
cucama Indians. I had visited that village before, and had
given the Indians some medicine, so they knew me well. The
following morning, the chief woke me up and took me to a hut
to help a man who was very ill. Unfortunately, by the time I
arrived, the man was already dead. I was surprised to see that
the man was white, not Indians. He was dressed in rag and,
 according to the Indians, had arrived at the village in a
terrible state of exhaustion.
‘the man’s knapsack was lying on the bed and I opened it and
looked inside. There was a name written on the tab: maple
white, lake avenue, Detroit, Michigan. The knapsack
contained pictures of a river, chalk, paint, paintbrush, a bone,
a gun and few cartridges. The bag also contained this …’
professor challenger removed a sketchbook from his desk
drawer and placed it on the table.
‘open it,’ he said.
I opened the sketchbook: on the first page was a picture of a
fat man in a green jacket – the name ‘jimmy colver’ was
written underneath it. The book contained drawing of Indians,
turtles and other animals, as well as a drawing of a series of
red cliffs. on the last page of the book was a sketch of the most
extraordinary animal I had ever seen: it had the head of a
bird, the body of a lizard and a spiked tail.
‘well, what do you think of that?’ asked challenger.
‘I’m not quite sure,’ I said. ‘it looks like a dinosaur …’
The professor leaned back in his chair. ‘it is a dinosaur.’
‘but what makes you think this maple white fellow actually
saw a dinosaur?’ I asked. ‘perhaps he imagined it?’
Challenger sighed. ‘then what do you make of this?’ he took a
bone out of a leather bag and handed it to me. ‘this bone was
in maple white’s knapsack. Can you identify it?’
 I examined the bone carefully. ‘is it a human collarbone?’ I
asked.
‘the human collar bone is curved; this is straight,’ said
challenger impatiently.
‘perhaps it belong to an elephant?’ I said.
Challenger shook his head. ‘this bone belong to a dinosaur.’
‘I’m afraid ‘I’m going to need more proof, professor,’ I said.
‘all right,’ said challenger, ‘then I’ll continue with my story.
Once I’d seen maple white’s dinosaur sketch, I decided to
explore the area further. I asked two of Indians to guide me
to the red cliffs that maple white had drawn in his book. They
where reluctant at first; the Indians believe that evil sprit
called curupuri hunts the cliffs, but I persuaded them to help
me. After a long and difficult journey up the river and through
the forest, we finally arrived at the red cliffs.’
Challenger removed a photograph from his desk drawer and
placed it on the desk. The photograph was badly damaged,
but I could still see the outline of the red cliffs.
‘unfortunately, our boat overturned on the return journey, and
my camera and film were ruined so I don’t have much proof
of what I saw,’ he explained. ‘I only have a couple of
damaged photos, but everyone thinks they’re fake.’
Challenger showed me another photo, this one of a strange
bird in an enormous tree. ‘What is that?’ ‘a bird?’
The professor shook his head. ‘no’ it isn’t a bird. I shoot it so
that I would have much proof of experiences.’