第10章

"My sentiment to a tick," said he."Now, Challenger, it's up to you to tell us where we are.We ain't nervous folk, as you know well; but when it comes to makin' a week-end visit and finding you've run full butt into the Day of Judgment, it wants a bit of explainin'.What's the danger, and how much of it is there, and what are we goin' to do to meet it?"He stood, tall and strong, in the sunshine at the window, with his brown hand upon the shoulder of Summerlee.I was lying back in an armchair, an extinguished cigarette between my lips, in that sort of half-dazed state in which impressions become exceedingly distinct.It may have been a new phase of the poisoning, but the delirious promptings had all passed away and were succeeded by an exceedingly languid and, at the same time, perceptive state of mind.I was a spectator.It did not seem to be any personal concern of mine.But here were three strong men at a great crisis, and it was fascinating to observe them.

Challenger bent his heavy brows and stroked his beard before he answered.One could see that he was very carefully weighing his words.

"What was the last news when you left London?" he asked.

"I was at the Gazette office about ten," said I."There was a Reuter just come in from Singapore to the effect that the sickness seemed to be universal in Sumatra and that the lighthouses had not been lit in consequence.""Events have been moving somewhat rapidly since then," said Challenger, picking up his pile of telegrams."I am in close touch both with the authorities and with the press, so that news is converging upon me from all parts.There is, in fact, a general and very insistent demand that I should come to London;but I see no good end to be served.From the accounts the poisonous effect begins with mental excitement; the rioting in Paris this morning is said to have been very violent, and the Welsh colliers are in a state of uproar.So far as the evidence to hand can be trusted, this stimulative stage, which varies much in races and in individuals, is succeeded by a certain exaltation and mental lucidity--I seem to discern some signs of it in our young friend here--which, after an appreciable interval, turns to coma, deepening rapidly into death.I fancy, so far as my toxicology carries me, that there are some vegetable nerve poisons----""Datura," suggested Summerlee.

"Excellent!" cried Challenger."It would make for scientific precision if we named our toxic agent.Let it be daturon.To you, my dear Summerlee, belongs the honour--posthumous, alas, but none the less unique--of having given a name to the universal destroyer, the Great Gardener's disinfectant.The symptoms of daturon, then, may be taken to be such as I indicate.That it will involve the whole world and that no life can possibly remain behind seems to me to be certain, since ether is a universal medium.Up to now it has been capricious in the places which it has attacked, but the difference is only a matter of a few hours, and it is like an advancing tide which covers one strip of sand and then another, running hither and thither in irregular streams, until at last it has submerged it all.There are laws at work in connection with the action and distribution of daturon which would have been of deep interest had the time at our disposal permitted us to study them.So far as I can trace them"--here he glanced over his telegrams--"the less developed races have been the first to respond to its influence.

There are deplorable accounts from Africa, and the Australian aborigines appear to have been already exterminated.The Northern races have as yet shown greater resisting power than the Southern.This, you see, is dated from Marseilles at nine-forty-five this morning.I give it to you verbatim:--"`All night delirious excitement throughout Provence.Tumult of vine growers at Nimes.Socialistic upheaval at Toulon.Sudden illness attended by coma attacked population this morning.

PESTE FOUDROYANTE.Great numbers of dead in the streets.

Paralysis of business and universal chaos.'

"An hour later came the following, from the same source:--"`We are threatened with utter extermination.Cathedrals and churches full to overflowing.The dead outnumber the living.It is inconceivable and horrible.Decease seems to be painless, but swift and inevitable.'

"There is a similar telegram from Paris, where the development is not yet as acute.India and Persia appear to be utterly wiped out.The Slavonic population of Austria is down, while the Teutonic has hardly been affected.Speaking generally, the dwellers upon the plains and upon the seashore seem, so far as my limited information goes, to have felt the effects more rapidly than those inland or on the heights.Even a little elevation makes a considerable difference, and perhaps if there be a survivor of the human race, he will again be found upon the summit of some Ararat.Even our own little hill may presently prove to be a temporary island amid a sea of disaster.But at the present rate of advance a few short hours will submerge us all."Lord John Roxton wiped his brow.

"What beats me," said he, "is how you could sit there laughin'