Page:The Poison Belt - Conan Doyle, 1913.djvu/34

 Rh  talking about. There is some queer illness down yonder, that's beyond all doubt, and to-day there's a cable just come in from Singapore that the lighthouses are out of action in the Straits of Sudan, and two ships on the beach in consequence. Anyhow, it's good enough for you to interview Challenger upon. If you get anything definite, let us have a column by Monday."

I was coming out from the news editor's room, turning over my new mission in my mind, when I heard my name called from the waiting-room below. It was a telegraph-boy with a wire which had been forwarded from my lodgings at Streatham. The message was from the very man we had been discussing, and ran thus:—

"Malone, 17, Hill Street, Streatham.—Bring oxygen.—."

"Bring oxygen!" The Professor, as I remembered him, had an elephantine