Page:Amazing Stories Volume 02 Number 06.pdf/80
Explorers from various parts of the world have a habit of startling us with their tales of almost unbelievable things which they find in their wanderings over our planet. Is it possible some prehistoric beasts may still be roaming somewhere on this planet, where conditions are just right? Science hesitates to answer this, because you can never know. It is not at all impossible—that is, if conditions are just right. Most of the prehistoric animals probably roamed on earth when it was very much hotter than it is today, when there were dense water vapors still lying in thick fogs over the earth. If such condations were duplicated anywhere, it is possible that there might be a survival from the past. Our new author has used this rather interesting plot, and we know you will find his story of much interest. |
am seldom interested in moving picture shows, but this particular film had promised to be of interest, for as Assistant Curator of the State Museum of Natural History, I had helped assemble into substantial replicas, scattered remnants of just such creatures as were moving lifelike before me on the screen.
For a time I was completely lost in the picture, marvelling at the manner in which the eye could be deceived by the camera. It seemed incredible that the weight of the largest of these pseudo-beasts wallowing in the mud scarcely exceeded five pounds, when the smallest of the live Dinosaurs doubtless weighed as many tons.
I was rudely aroused from my revery by a violent nudge from the man occupying the seat next to me. I remembered that this fellow had addressed a remark to me as I entered the theatre and seeing that he was a stranger I had not responded. He had then followed me down the aisle, passing many empty seats and had taken the seat next to me. "Can you imagine," he said, leaning over and whispering in my ear, "that a man could be bitten by one of those things and live to tell of it?”
"I am sure that I cannot," I answered in a tone that should have discouraged further conversation, but the man was persistent.
"I was bitten by one," was his startling assertion, "and stand ready to prove it."
I have been told that the sort of liquor one usual. ly gets these days might produce a phantasmagoria that would conjure Dinosaurs and any number of other impossible things, but certainly not the evidence of the bite of one. As this man hadn't the tell-tale odor of liquor on his breath, I decided that he must be crazy, and, having a particular aversion for crazy people, I quit the show before it was ended. My seat-mate, however, was not to be disposed of so easily. While standing at the curb, waiting for a car that would take me back to the Museum; he appeared, carrying a cheap-looking case of the telescope variety. This, he plunked to the walk and to my annoyance, again addressed me.
"Well, Professor Jameson," he said, "guess you didn't recognize me in there?"
He appeared normal enough here under the bright lights; his clothing was clean and the quizzical smile in his wide blue eyes was disarming. And there was something vaguely familiar in his seamed, weather-beaten face. Still, though he knew my name, I was sure that he was a total stranger. I had read that it is always better to humor the mentally unsound.
"Not entirely," I responded, evasively, "you will excuse me, please, for I see my car approaching."
"I am Ronald Jarvis," he said picking up his telescope and following me to the car track, "do you forget that it was I who went with Professor Schlecting on an exploring expedition for the Museum twenty years ago?"
And it was indeed Jarvis. the right-hand man of the former Curator-in-Chief of the museum, who had gone into northern Quebec twenty years before, in search of a tribe of white Indians who were said to exist somewhere in that great country and whose Manitou or God was the fabled "Feu Perpetuel," or everlasting fire, reports of which persisted at that time. The entire party was supposed to have perished, for till this minute no tidings had been received of the expedition. My car was standing before me and the Conductor was impatiently demanding that I get on or get off, as I had a foot on the lower step. I grabbed the case from the hand of Jarvis and jumped to the platform and he, to regain the case, was forced to follow me. The car started with a jerk.
"I can't see why you did that, Prof. Jameson," protested Jarvis, indignantly, "I must find a lodging house for the night."
"You may lodge with me," I replied. "Professor Münster is still at the Museum and will want to hear from you at the earliest possible moment."
"But I am not due to report till tomorrow. I wrote him from Cochrane that I would be here on the Twelfth."
"He knows then that you are coming? I was hoping to spring a pleasant surprise on him. Here we are," I said, as the car slowed at the Museum crossing, and still holding the telescope, I hopped off, followed by Jarvis. Jarvis balked again at the entrance to.the museum.
"I am dog-tired, Prof. Jameson," he said. "I have been on the move almost continually for three months. Let us postpone this till tomorrow." But I would not listen to such a thing. I knew that the Chief must have received the letter from Jarvis in the last mail, just after I had left the museum, and that he would be on tenter-hooks till he got at least a preliminary report about the last expedition.
Prof. Münster sat at his desk. Before him was stretched a great map of Canada, which he had evidently been studying in anticipation of the visit from Jarvis.
"Jarvis!" he exclaimed, when he saw us, "God bless my soul, but I'm glad you came this evening, otherwise I am sure I would not have slept a wink all night."
As I explained the circumstance that had put me in touch with our former attaché, Jarvis sank wearily into a chair across the desk from the Curator, who