The Lost World

Ned speaks with his editor, a Scottish man named McArdle. Ned asks McArdle to assign him to an adventure. McArdle proposes that Ned expose Professor George Edward Challenger as a fraud. Two years prior, Challenger visited South America on an expedition. He returned with dubious stories about peculiar animals that still existed on the Southern continent, although they were long thought to be extinct.

Ned speaks with Tarp Henry, another writer who is also a bacteriologist. Henry tells Ned that Challenger claimed to have discovered “queer animals.” He gives Ned a transcript of an article entitled “Weissmann versus Darwin,” in which Challenger’s claims gained him the scorn of many academics. Ned writes Challenger a letter, asking to discuss his claims.

Challenger responds to Ned’s query with a condescending letter but agrees to meet. Ned goes to Challenger’s house and meets Challenger’s wife. She warns Ned to leave the house immediately if Challenger seems violent in any way.

Challenger impresses Ned. He is massive, confident, and speaks in a booming voice with total certainty when Ned asks him about the “Weissmann versus Darwin” paper. Challenger accuses him of being an impostor; he knows that Ned is a journalist, not merely a citizen with an interest in nature, as Ned claimed in his letter. He threatens to throw Ned out. They wrestle and fall down the steps before Ned escapes outside. A passing policeman asks them if they need help. Ned demurs and takes responsibility for the quarrel. Challenger invites him back inside.

Inside, Mrs. Challenger scolds her husband. As punishment, he puts her on the “stool of penance” (25), a tall chair from which she cannot get down without help.

As Challenger and Ned smoke cigars, Ned promises not to write what he is told without permission. Challenger tells him about his South American expedition. He stayed in a village with the “Cucama Indians,” where they asked him to treat a sick white man. The man’s knapsack had drawings, and there was a sketchbook in the breast of his jacket. He was an artist and a poet.

When Ned looks at the sketchbook, he sees a drawing of an odd landscape, and an animal with the head of a bird, a lizard’s body, and the wattles of a rooster. A man stands in front of the animal for perspective; the animal is impossibly large as it dwarfs the man. Challenger says the animal was drawn in real life. He shows Ned a monograph about the possible physical appearance of the stegosaurus during the Jurassic age—written by a friend named Ray Lankester. The monograph contains a sketch of a stegosaurus. Lankester’s notes regarding the scale of the creature align with the creature’s size and the man from the artist’s sketch. Challenger takes this as proof that the artist in South America drew the creature after seeing it.

Challenger gives Ned a bone. It is as thick as his thumb and six inches long. He then shows Ned a photo of the landscape from the sketchbook. In the photo, a large bird is sitting in a tree. Challenger claims that the bird is actually a pterodactyl, and that he took the bone from its wing after shooting it. However, he saw no other signs of life during his expedition. He invites Ned to an exhibition at the Zoological Institute’s Hall and reminds him not to talk about what he has been shown.

Ned reports to McArdle. He tells him that he believes Challenger is telling the truth, and that he accepted his condition about not writing Challenger’s story until Challenger permits it.

That evening, Ned has lunch with Tarp Henry. Tarp believes that Challenger drew the pictures in the sketchbook and that Challenger is a fraud. He does not believe the bone is legitimate, either. Ned invites Tarp to the meeting that night. At the event, Challenger addresses the outraged crowd. He insists that he is telling the truth and asks if they will send someone with him to prove his facts.

Lord John Roxton—a famous hunter and explorer recently returned from an expedition to Uganda—Professor Summerlee, and Ned agree to go with him. After the meeting, Roxton invites Ned to eat and talk with him.