Chapter 5 Five, nonsense

By the time I left Professor Challenger, I was a somewhat demoralized journalist.I'm sure this man's story is true, and if I could get permission to publish it, it would make for an excellent article in the Daily News.There was a taxi waiting for customers at the end of the road, and I hopped in and drove towards the office.McArdle sat in his seat as usual. "Well," cried he, seeing me come in, "what did you bring back, I thought, boy, you fought. He couldn't have hit you, could he?" "We had a little disagreement at first." "What kind of person! How will you do it in the future?"

"Then he calmed down and we had a talk. But I got nothing out of him—nothing to publish." "I don't think so. He's got your eye blacked out and it's published. Mr. Malone, we can't allow such terror to rule over us. I'll have an article on him tomorrow, just give me the material." The Professor—what about that title? I want him to understand that we don't want liars." "I would not do that, sir." "why not?" "Because he's not a liar at all." "What?!" cried McArdle. "You don't think you really believed his tales of mammoths, mastodons, and sea serpents?"

"Well, I don't know that. But I do believe he's got something new." "Then for heaven's sake, man, write it!" "I am willing to write, but when he talks about everything I know, there is a condition that I am not allowed to write it." I told him a few words about the professor's narrative. "That's the way it is." McArdle looked at me. "Well, Mr. Malone," he said at last. "About tonight's scientific report meeting, I don't think any newspaper plans to report it, because Wo Zhun has reported it many times, and no one knows that Challenger is going to speak. Anyway, you go, so you can just Get us a full report and we'll publish it in the paper tomorrow."

I was very busy this year, and I dined early at the club with Tarph Henry, and told my adventures.He listened with an incredulous smile, and when he heard the professor convince me, he shrugged and laughed. "My dear old friend, in real life things don't happen that way. People don't discover something and then lose the evidence. Leave that to the novelists!" "But what about the American poet?" "There is no such person at all." "I saw his sketchbook." "Challenger's sketchbook." "You think he drew that animal?"

"Of course he. Who else?" "Well then, what about the pictures?" "There's nothing in the picture. You said, you saw a bird." "A pterosaur." "That's what he said. He put a pterosaur in your head." "Well, then, where's the bone?" "If you're smart and know your trade, you can fake a bone as easily as a photograph." I started to feel uncomfortable.Perhaps, in the final analysis, I was a fool who believed him.Then I suddenly had a delightful thought. "Are you going to the meeting?" I asked.

Tarph Henry thought for a while. "Your Challenger is not a famous man," he said. "You can at least hear him talk about his own situation." "Well, maybe you have a point. I'll do it." When we got to the conference hall, we found that there were more people than we had expected.The cars came one after the other, professors with white beards got out of the cars, and young people crowded at the door.This shows that the audience is well-known and scientifically savvy.It was obvious as soon as we sat down in our seats.The mood of the audience is high, but a little mischievous.Pop songs were sung enthusiastically, a rare prelude to a science conference.

When old Dr. Meldra appeared on the podium wearing that familiar hat, many people shouted, "Where did you get that hat?", causing him to take off his hat in a hurry Come down and hide under the chair.While Professor Wadley, who was rheumatic, limped into his seat, there were inquiries from all sides in the hall what was the matter of his poor toe, which was giving him such a hard time.But the loudest shouting came when my new acquaintance, Professor Challenger, entered. Challenger smiled, and slowly sat down on the front row of the podium, heaved a sigh of relief, stroked his beard, and looked at the hall full of people in front of him, shouting has not stopped, Chairman Ronald Professor Murray and the speaker Mr. Zhun Wo walked in, and the meeting began.

I am sure Professor Murray will forgive me if I say that he is guilty of the inaudible error of most Englishmen.I really don't understand why someone has something to say but doesn't learn how to be heard clearly. Professor Murray made many thoughtful remarks, audible only by his white tie and the drinking bottle on his desk.Then he sat down, and Mr. Wo Zhun, a well-known popular speaker, stood up and began to speak.He's a stern, skinny man with an unpleasant voice and a domineering manner, but he has the strength of knowing how to take other people's thoughts and put them in a way that's appealing to the average listener. Expressed in both learned and interesting ways.

He unfolds before us the history of all things according to scientific explanation.He told us about the Earth, a huge burning mass.Then he used pictures to illustrate the solidification and cooling of the earth, the wrinkling movement that formed the mountain peaks, and the steam turning into water.When it came to the origin of life itself, he was vague, but he gave the great ladder of evolution of animal life, beginning with the lower molluscs and small marine animals, and going all the way through the reptiles and fishes. , until finally we reach the stage of the first child-bearing animal, the ancestor of all mammals, and therefore of every listener.He showed us a picture of the dry sea, the sandbars, the life on it, the saltwater lakes everywhere, the scary lizard-like animals, "these animals," he said, "unfortunately long before man appeared, extinct on this planet."

"Nonsense!" a voice yelled from the podium. Mr. Wozhun has a very sharp temper, and it would be dangerous to interrupt him, but this interruption seemed so ridiculous that he didn't know how to answer it.He paused for a moment, then, raising his voice, slowly repeated his words, "They died out long before man came." "Nonsense!" cried again. Wo Zhun looked at the row of professors on the podium one by one in surprise, until his eyes fell on Challenger, who was sitting against the back of the chair with his eyes closed and a smile on his face. "Understood!" Wo Zhun said, "it's my friend Professor Challenger." This seemed to be the final explanation, and he resumed his speech amidst laughter.

But any reference to the past always made him speak of extinction or prehistoric life, which immediately provoked the same bull roar from the professor.When this happened, the audience began to shout with joy.Several rows of college students sitting on stools joined in, and every time Challenger's beard snapped, a hundred or so yelled "Nonsense!" and an equal number yelled "Order," "Shame on you!" ".Wo Zhun, though a strong man and a calm orator, finally lost his temper.He hesitated, stammered, repeated his speech back and forth, and became exasperated at the cause of his difficulties. "This is unbearable!" he cried, his eyes sweeping over the podium. "Professor Challenger, I want you to stop interrupting me." The undergraduates were delighted to see the professors quarreling themselves.Professor Challenger leaned forward slowly. "Mr. Wojun," he said, "I want you to stop making statements that don't strictly correspond to scientific facts." This sentence was followed by shouts: "Shame! Shame!" "Kill him out!" "Kick him off the podium!" The chairman stood up, waving his arms, and excited him to speak. "Professor Challenger - personal - opinion - later," were the only words we could hear.The interrupter bowed, smiled, smoothed his beard, and sat leaning back.Wo Zhun continued his speech, looking from time to time at his opponent, who seemed to be asleep with the same bright and happy smile on his face. The speech was finally over, and Wo Zhun sat down.After the Chairman said a few words that no one could hear, Professor Challenger stood up and came to the edge of the podium. "Ladies and gentlemen," he began, "I have been singled out to move to thank Mr. Boring, for the very graphic, very imaginative speech we have just heard, and there are a few points in which I disagree, when this When the points come up, it is my duty to point out. Mr. Wojon's purpose, is to provide a simple and interesting account of what he believes to be the history of our planet. A popular speech is the easiest to listen to. But Mr. Wojn (here he Smiling at the speaker), please forgive me, I think this kind of speech must be both superficial and misleading (sarcastic exclamation), popular speech is parasitic by its nature." Mr. Wo Zhun typed a Angry protest gesture.Challenger went on to say: "The smallest new fact obtained in the laboratory is far better than any popular lecture that will not bring useful results later." At this time, Mr. Wozhun whispered to the chairman for a while, and the latter half He stood up and said something seriously that only the water bottle could hear.Challenger said: "But stop there! (Long and loud cheers.) "Let me turn to broader interests.Where do I, as a researcher, disagree with the speaker?It is in the survival of certain types of animals on earth.I do not speak on this subject as an amateur, and, I may add, not as a popular orator, but as a scientist whose conscience dictates that he correspond closely to reality.Hi, Mr. Wozhun is very wrong to think that because he himself has never seen a so-called prehistoric animal, these animals don't exist.As he said, they were indeed our ancestors—but they were, if I may use the expression—ancestors who existed at the same time as us.Animals thought to belong to the Jurassic period still exist today. (Shouting: "Prove it!" "How do you know?" "Bullshit!") "How do I know, you ask me?"I know because I've seen some of them. (Applause, noisy, there is a voice, "Lie!") "I lied? ’ (general uproar) ‘Who do I hear that I’m lying?How about asking this person who said I lied to stand up and let me meet? (A voice, "Here he is, sir!" A small, non-provoking man with glasses struggled desperately and was lifted above his head by a group of college students.) "How dare you call me a liar?" " "No, sir, no!" cried the little man, disappearing.) "If I were among you—" (The chorus of "Come, dears, come!" The meeting was interrupted for a while.) "Every great discoverer Always encounter the same mistrust. ” (Prolonged cheering, the meeting is completely interrupted.) All this, taken from my hastily taken notes at the time, provides a glimpse of the utter confusion in the hall.The huge audience roared like a boiling samovar.The professor took a step forward and raised his hands.There was something enormously attractive about the man, and the shouting gradually died down.He seemed to have something positive to say.They stopped shouting and listened. "I won't delay you," said he, "it's not worth it. Truth is truth, and the voice of some fool does not affect things themselves. You don't believe me when I claim that I have opened a new field of science." (Applause .) "Then are you willing to find one or a few of you as your representatives to verify my statement in your name?" Mr Somerley, an experienced professor of comparative anatomy, stood up in the audience, a tall, thin man.He said he wished to ask Professor Challenger whether the result he mentioned had been obtained during his trip to the Amazon River two years ago. Professor Challenger said so. Mr. Summerley asked Professor Challenger if he would give the longitude and latitude of the country where the prehistoric animals lived. Professor Challenger replied that he would exercise a moderate amount of caution, telling a committee chosen from among the audience.Would Mr Somerley be willing to sit on the committee and test his story for himself? Mr Somerley said he would. (loud cheers) Professor Challenger said: "I promise, then, that I will put into your hands the material which will enable you to find your way. However, since Mr. Sommerley is going to check my account, I hope that one or more persons Follow him, check his credentials, and must say that there is a difficulty, a danger. Mr Somerley needs a young colleague. May I enlist volunteers?" Isn't this the opportunity Gladys said?Gladys will want me to go.I stand up. "I'll go, Mr. Chairman," I said. Talph Henry, who was with me, whispered, "Sit down, Malone. Don't make yourself a public handsome." At the same moment, I saw another tall, thin man with black hair, Stand up on the seat in the front row. "I would like to go, Mr. Chairman," he repeated over and over again. "Name! Name!" cried the audience. "My name is Edward Don Malone, and I am a reporter for the Daily News." "What's your name, sir?" the chairman asked the tall, lanky man. "I am Lord John Ruxton. I have been to the Amazon, and I know its banks." "Lord John Ruxton's reputation as a sportsman and traveler is indeed world-renowned," said the chairman, "and it is only natural that a member of the press should be present on such an expedition." "Then, I move," Challenger said, "that these two gentlemen be chosen as representatives of this meeting to accompany Professor Sommerli on the journey to investigate and report the truth of my statement." In this way, amidst shouts and cheers, our fate was decided.In no time I was walking under the silver lights of Ligent Street, thinking about Gladys and my future. Suddenly my arm was touched, and I turned to see the tall, lanky man who had volunteered to join me on the strange expedition. "Mr. Malone, I think so," he said. "We're partnered, aren't we? I live in Albany, just across the street. Maybe you'll give me half an hour, because there's one or two things something I want to tell you."