Затерянный мир / The Lost World - стр. 32
We noticed a considerable change both in the temperature and in the vegetation and got rid of some of those horrible insects.
That night a great experience awaited us, and one which for ever set at rest any doubt. What occurred was this. Lord John had shot an ajouti – which is a small, pig-like animal – and we were cooking it on our fire. The night was moonless, but there were some stars, and one could see for a little distance across the plain. Well, suddenly out of the darkness, out of the night, there appeared something with a sound like an aeroplane. The whole group of us were covered for a second by leathery wings, and I saw a long, snake-like neck, a fierce, red, greedy eye, and a great beak, filled, to my amazement, with little, gleaming teeth. The next second it was gone… and so was our dinner. For a moment the monster wings covered the stars, and then it vanished behind the cliff. We all sat in amazed silence round the fire. It was Summerlee who was the first to speak.
“Professor Challenger,” said he, in a solemn voice, “I owe you an apology. Sir, I hope that you will forget what is past.”
The two men for the first time shook hands. We have gained so much by this clear vision of our first pterodactyl! It was worth a stolen supper to bring two such men together.
But if prehistoric life existed on the plateau it was not in abundance, for we didn’t see any other prehistoric animals during the next three days. We continued to walk around the cliffs. However, in no place did we find any point where they could be ascended.
On the sixth day we completed our first circuit of the cliffs, and found ourselves back at the first camp, beside the isolated rock.
What were we to do now? Our stores of provisions, supplemented by our guns, were holding out well, but the day must come when they would need replenishment. In a couple of months the rains might be expected, and we should be washed out of our camp. No wonder that we looked gloomily at each other that night.
But it was a very different Challenger who greeted us in the morning… a Challenger with contentment and self-congratulation shining from his whole person.
“Eureka!” he cried, his teeth shining through his beard. “Gentlemen, you may congratulate me and we may congratulate each other. The problem is solved.”
And he pointed to the spire-like pinnacle upon our right.
We know that it could be climbed. But a horrible gap lay between it and the plateau.
“We can never get across,” I gasped.
“We can at least all reach the summit,” said he. “When we are up I may be able to show you that the resources of an inventive mind are not yet exhausted.”