a danger to
the human race? Was ever such a cock-and-bull story in this life?"
He sat like an old white raven, croaking and shaking with sardonic
laughter.
A wave of anger passed through me as I listened to Summerlee. It was
disgraceful that he should speak thus of the leader who had been the
source of all our fame and given us such an experience as no men have
ever enjoyed. I had opened my mouth to utter some hot retort, when
Lord John got before me.
"You had a scrap once before with old man Challenger," said he sternly,
"and you were down and out inside ten seconds. It seems to me,
Professor Summerlee, he's beyond your class, and the best you can do
with him is to walk wide and leave him alone."
"Besides," said I, "he has been a good friend to every one of us.
Whatever his faults may be, he is as straight as a line, and I don't
believe he ever speaks evil of his comrades behind their backs."
"Well said, young fellah-my-lad," said Lord John Roxton. Then, with a
kindly smile, he slapped Professor Summerlee upon his shoulder.
"Come, Herr Professor, we're not going to quarrel at this time of day.
We've seen too much together. But keep off the grass when you get
near Challenger, for this young fellah and I have a bit of a weakness for
the old dear."
But Summerlee was in no humour for compromise. His face was
screwed up in rigid disapproval, and thick curls of angry smoke rolled
up from his pipe.
"As to you, Lord John Roxton," he creaked, "your opinion upon a
matter of science is of as much value in my eyes as my views upon a
new type of shot-gun would be in yours. I have my own judgment, sir,
and I use it in my own way. Because it has misled me once, is that any
reason why I should accept without criticism anything, however
far-fetched, which this man may care to put forward? Are we to have a
Pope of science, with infallible decrees laid down EX CATHEDRA,
and accepted without question by the poor humble public? I tell you, sir,
that I have a brain of my own and that I should feel myself to be a snob
and a slave if I did not use it. If it pleases you to believe this rigmarole
about ether and Fraunhofer's lines upon the spectrum, do so by all
means, but do not ask one who is older and wiser than yourself to share
in your folly. Is it not evident that if the ether were affected to the
degree which he maintains, and if it were obnoxious to human health,
the result of it would already be apparent upon ourselves?" Here he
laughed with uproarious triumph over his own argument. "Yes, sir, we
should already be very far from our normal selves, and instead of
sitting quietly discussing scientific problems in a railway train we
should be showing actual symptoms of the poison which was working
within us. Where do we see any signs of this poisonous cosmic
disturbance? Answer me that, sir! Answer me that! Come, come, no
evasion! I pin you to an answer!"
I felt more and more angry. There was something very irritating and
aggressive in Summerlee's demeanour.
"I think that if you knew more about the facts you might be less
positive in your opinion," said I.
Summerlee took his pipe from his mouth and fixed me with a stony
stare.
"Pray what do you mean, sir, by that somewhat impertinent
observation?"
"I mean that when I was leaving the office the news editor told me that
a telegram had come in confirming the general illness of the Sumatra
natives, and adding that the lights had not been lit in the Straits of
Sunda."
"Really, there should be some limits to human folly!" cried Summerlee
in a positive fury. "Is it possible that you do not realize that ether, if for
a moment we adopt Challenger's preposterous supposition, is a
universal substance which is the same here as at the other side of the
world? Do you for an instant suppose that there is an English ether and
a Sumatran ether? Perhaps you imagine that the ether of Kent is in
some way superior to the ether of Surrey, through which this train is
now bearing us. There really are no bounds to the credulity and
ignorance of the average layman. Is it conceivable that the ether in
Sumatra should be so deadly as to cause total insensibility at the very
time when the ether here has had no appreciable effect upon us
whatever? Personally, I can truly say that I never felt stronger in body
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