The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-05-11

l before it. As emerged from the hall was conscious for a moment of a rush of laughing students down the pavement and of an arm yielding a heavy umbrella, which rose and fell in I the midst of them. Then, amid mix ture of groans and cheers, Professor Chal1enger's electric brougham slid from the curb, and I found myself walking under the silvery lights of
 Regent street, full of thoughts of Gladys and of wonder as to my fu- ture.
 Suddenly there was a touch at my elbow. turned and found myself looking into the humorous, masterful
 eyes of the tall, thin man who had
 volunteered to be my companion on 1 this strange quest
 s.Mr. Malone I understand ? said he. tfWe are to be companions-what? My rooms are just over the road in the
 Albany. Perhaps you would have the
 kindness to spare me half an hour, for there are one or two things that I bad | ly want to say to you.''
 l Lord John Roxton and I turned down YIgO street together and through the dfngy portals of the famous aristocrat- ic rookery. At the end of long drab passage my new acquaintance pushed
 open q door and turned on an electric switch. A number of lamps shining through tinted shades bathed the whole great room before us in ruddy radi-
 ance. Standing in the doorway and
 glancing round me, I had a general im- pression of extraordinary comfort and elegance combined with an atnos- phere of masculine virility Every
 where there were mingled the luxury Of the wealthy man of taste and the careless unttdiness of the bachelor One by one he took out a succession Of beautiful rifles, opening and shut ting them with a snap and clang and then batting them as he put them
 back into the rack as tenderly as a
 mother would fondIe her children
 This is a B1and's .577 axIte express, '' l said he ttI got that big fellow with 1t 7 He glanced up at a stuffed white rhinoceros- Ten more yards and he
 would have added me to his collection 1 '-on that conicaI bullet his one chance hangs.
 l 'z1s the " eak oness advantage fair.
 Hope you know your Gordon, for 1 he's the poet of the horse and the gun and the man that handles both, Now, herss useful tool-.4To, telescopick sight, doufael ejecbor. point blank up to t1tree-f7fty. That's the rifle used against Peruvian slave drivers three Sears ago. was the haf1 of the Lord up fn those parts, may tell you, though you won't find 1t in any blue book There are times, young feIlah,
 whom every one of us must make stand for hnman light and justice or l you never feel clean again. That's why I made little war on my own. De clared 1t myself, waged it myself, end ed t myself. Each of those hicks is
 for slave unmrderer7-a good row of then--whafT That big one is for Pc dro Lnpez, the king Of them all, that I
 killed in backwater of the Putomayo river. Now, here's something that
 would do for you-'s He took out
 beaut4ful brown and silver rffe Well ruhbesed at the stoclx. sharply sighted
 i've cartridges to the clip. You can
 tszSk your Mfe to that" He handed it l to me and closed the door of his oak eabzraek.
 By the way he continued, coming back to his chair. what de you know of this Professor ChaAIengerP' l HI never saw him til today
 ~tyKGz1, neither did | It's funny we 1 should beth sail under sealed orders 1 REsm man we don't know He seem ed an uDpish old bird. His brothers of sezence don't seem too fond Of him. eafher How came you to take an in- tesest 9n fhe a9Eafr~
 told a1zna shortly my experiences of fhe morning. and hs listened tntent1y. Then he drew out a map of South
 Axneeiea and laid 1t on the table T believe every single word hs said to EOH was fhe truth 7 said he earnest 1y. eand, mind yea, have something to go 0n when speak like that, South
 AuaRHfea is place I love. and think, ff you take it right through from Da- E6ah to Fuego. it the grandeSt richest,
 most wonderful bit of earth upon this
 planet.
 That night, wearied as I was after the wonderful happenings of the day, I sat late with A4eAFdIe, the news edi- tor, explaining to him the whole sftua-
 Een, whfch he thought important enough to bring next morning before
 the notice of Sir George Beaumont, the chief. It was agreed that I should
 write home full accounts of my ad- ventures in the shape of successive
 letters te McAFdle and that these
 should either be edited for the Gazette I as they arrived or held back to be pub 1 lished later, according te the wishes of Professor Challenger, since we f could not yet know what conditions he
 might attach to those directions which
 should guide us te the unknown land.
 In response to a telephone inquiry we
 received nothing more definite than
 fulfninatien against the press, ending
 up with the remark that if we would
 notify our boat he would hand us any ! directions which he might think 1t
 proper to give us at the moment of
 starting. A second question from us failed te elicit any answer at all save
 plaintive bleat from his wife to the effect that her husband was ia a very ] violent temper already and that she
 hoped we would do nothing to make it
 worse. A third attempt later in the ] f4.au rar.osznlrod a tarritic. 1.1.ns sI, and q