My friend's fear or hope was not destined to be realized. When Icalled on Wednesday there was a letter with the West Kensingtonpostmark upon it, and my name scrawled across the envelope in ahandwriting which looked like a barbed-wire railing. The contentswere as follows:--

"ENMORE PARK, W.

"SIR,--I have duly received your note, in which you claim toendorse my views, although I am not aware that they are dependentupon endorsement either from you or anyone else. You haveventured to use the word `speculation' with regard to mystatement upon the subject of Darwinism, and I would call yourattention to the fact that such a word in such a connection isoffensive to a degree. The context convinces me, however, thatyou have sinned rather through ignorance and tactlessness thanthrough malice, so I am content to pass the matter by. You quotean isolated sentence from my lecture, and appear to have somedifficulty in understanding it. I should have thought that onlya sub-human intelligence could have failed to grasp the point,but if it really needs amplification I shall consent to see youat the hour named, though visits and visitors of every sort areexceeding distasteful to me. As to your suggestion that I maymodify my opinion, I would have you know that it is not my habit todo so after a deliberate expression of my mature views. You willkindly show the envelope of this letter to my man, Austin, whenyou call, as he has to take every precaution to shield me fromthe intrusive rascals who call themselves `journalists.' "Yours faithfully,"GEORGE EDWARD CHALLENGER."

This was the letter that I read aloud to Tarp Henry, who had comedown early to hear the result of my venture. His only remarkwas, "There's some new stuff, cuticura or something, which isbetter than arnica." Some people have such extraordinary notionsof humor.

It was nearly half-past ten before I had received my message, buta taxicab took me round in good time for my appointment. It wasan imposing porticoed house at which we stopped, and theheavily-curtained windows gave every indication of wealth uponthe part of this formidable Professor. The door was opened by anodd, swarthy, dried-up person of uncertain age, with a dark pilotjacket and brown leather gaiters. I found afterwards that he wasthe chauffeur, who filled the gaps left by a succession offugitive butlers. He looked me up and down with a searchinglight blue eye.

"Expected?" he asked.

"An appointment."

"Got your letter?"

I produced the envelope.

"Right!" He seemed to be a person of few words. Following himdown the passage I was suddenly interrupted by a small woman, whostepped out from what proved to be the dining-room door. She wasa bright, vivacious, dark-eyed lady, more French than English inher type.

"One moment," she said. "You can wait, Austin. Step in here, sir. May I ask if you have met my husband before?"

"No, madam, I have not had the honor."

"Then I apologize to you in advance. I must tell you that he isa perfectly impossible person--absolutely impossible. If youare forewarned you will be the more ready to make allowances."

"It is most considerate of you, madam."

"Get quickly out of the room if he seems inclined to be violent. Don't wait to argue with him. Several people have been injuredthrough doing that. Afterwards there is a public scandal and itreflects upon me and all of us. I suppose it wasn't about SouthAmerica you wanted to see him?"

I could not lie to a lady.

"Dear me! That is his most dangerous subject. You won't believea word he says--I'm sure I don't wonder. But don't tell him so,for it makes him very violent. Pretend to believe him, and youmay get through all right. Remember he believes it himself. Of that you may be assured. A more honest man never lived. Don't wait any longer or he may suspect. If you find himdangerous--really dangerous--ring the bell and hold him off untilI come. Even at his worst I can usually control him."

With these encouraging words the lady handed me over to thetaciturn Austin, who had waited like a bronze statue ofdiscretion during our short interview, and I was conducted to theend of the passage. There was a tap at a door, a bull's bellowfrom within, and I was face to face with the Professor.

He sat in a rotating chair behind a broad table, which wascovered with books, maps, and diagrams. As I entered, his seatspun round to face me. His appearance made me gasp. I wasprepared for something strange, but not for so overpowering apersonality as this. It was his size which took one's breathaway--his size and his imposing presence. His head was enormous,the largest I have ever seen upon a human being. I am sure thathis top-hat, had I ever ventured to don it, would have slippedover me entirely and rested on my shoulders. He had the face andbeard which I associate with an Assyrian bull; the former florid,the latter so black as almost to have a suspicion of blue,spade-shaped and rippling down over his chest. The hair waspeculiar, plastered down in front in a long, curving wisp overhis massive forehead. The eyes were blue-gray under great blacktufts, very clear, very critical, and very masterful. A hugespread of shoulders and a chest like a barrel were the otherparts of him which appeared above the table, save for twoenormous hands covered with long black hair. This and abellowing, roaring, rumbling voice made up my first impressionof the notorious Professor Challenger.

"Well?" said he, with a most insolent stare. "What now?"

I must keep up my deception for at least a little time longer,otherwise here was evidently an end of the interview.

"You were good enough to give me an appointment, sir," said I,humbly, producing his envelope.

He took my letter from his desk and laid it out before him.

"Oh, you are the young person who cannot understand plainEnglish, are you? My general conclusions you are good enoughto approve, as I understand?"

"Entirely, sir--entirely!" I was very emphatic.

"Dear me! That strengthens my position very much, does it not? Your age and appearance make your support doubly valuable. Well, atleast you are better than that herd of swine in Vienna, whosegregarious grunt is, however, not more offensive than the isolatedeffort of the British hog." He glared at me as the presentrepresentative of the beast.

"They seem to have behaved abominably," said I.

"I assure you that I can fight my own battles, and that I have nopossible need of your sympathy. Put me alone, sir, and with myback to the wall. G. E. C. is happiest then. Well, sir, let usdo what we can to curtail this visit, which can hardly beagreeable to you, and is inexpressibly irksome to me. You had,as I have been led to believe, some comments to make upon theproposition which I advanced in my thesis."

There was a brutal directness about his methods which madeevasion difficult. I must still make play and wait for abetter opening. It had seemed simple enough at a distance. Oh, my Irish wits, could they not help me now, when I neededhelp so sorely? He transfixed me with two sharp, steely eyes. "Come, come!" he rumbled.

"I am, of course, a mere student," said I, with a fatuous smile,"hardly more, I might say, than an earnest inquirer. At the sametime, it seemed to me that you were a little severe uponWeissmann in this matter. Has not the general evidence sincethat date tended to--well, to strengthen his position?"

"What evidence?" He spoke with a menacing calm.

"Well, of course, I am aware that there is not any what you mightcall DEFINITE evidence. I alluded merely to the trend of modernthought and the general scientific point of view, if I might soexpress it."

He leaned forward with great earnestness.

"I suppose you are aware," said he, checking off points upon hisfingers, "that the cranial index is a constant factor?"

"Naturally," said I.

"And that telegony is still sub judice?"

"Undoubtedly."

"And that the germ plasm is different from the parthenogenetic egg?"

"Why, surely!" I cried, and gloried in my own audacity.

"But what does that prove?" he asked, in a gentle, persuasive voice.

"Ah, what indeed?" I murmured. "What does it prove?"

"Shall I tell you?" he cooed.

"Pray do."

"It proves," he roared, with a sudden blast of fury, "thatyou are the damnedest imposter in London--a vile, crawlingjournalist, who has no more science than he has decency inhis composition!"

He had sprung to his feet with a mad rage in his eyes. Even atthat moment of tension I found time for amazement at thediscovery that he was quite a short man, his head not higher thanmy shoulder--a stunted Hercules whose tremendous vitality had allrun to depth, breadth, and brain.

"Gibberish!" he cried, leaning forward, with his fingers on thetable and his face projecting. "That's what I have been talkingto you, sir--scientific gibberish! Did you think you could matchcunning with me--you with your walnut of a brain? You think youare omnipotent, you infernal scribblers, don't you? That yourpraise can make a man and your blame can break him? We must allbow to you, and try to get a favorable word, must we? This manshall have a leg up, and this man shall have a dressing down! Creeping vermin, I know you! You've got out of your station. Time was when your ears were clipped. You've lost your sense ofproportion. Swollen gas-bags! I'll keep you in your proper place. Yes, sir, you haven't got over G. E. C. There's one man who isstill your master. He warned you off, but if you WILL come, bythe Lord you do it at your own risk. Forfeit, my good Mr. Malone,I claim forfeit! You have played a rather dangerous game, and itstrikes me that you have lost it."

"Look here, sir," said I, backing to the door and opening it;"you can be as abusive as you like. But there is a limit. You shall not assault me."

"Shall I not?" He was slowly advancing in a peculiarly menacingway, but he stopped now and put his big hands into theside-pockets of a rather boyish short jacket which he wore. "I have thrown several of you out of the house. You will be thefourth or fifth. Three pound fifteen each--that is how it averaged. Expensive, but very necessary. Now, sir, why should you notfollow your brethren? I rather think you must." He resumed hisunpleasant and stealthy advance, pointing his toes as he walked,like a dancing master.

I could have bolted for the hall door, but it would have beentoo ignominious. Besides, a little glow of righteous anger wasspringing up within me. I had been hopelessly in the wrongbefore, but this man's menaces were putting me in the right.

"I'll trouble you to keep your hands off, sir. I'll not stand it."

"Dear me!" His black moustache lifted and a white fang twinkledin a sneer. "You won't stand it, eh?"

"Don't be such a fool, Professor!" I cried. "What can you hope for? I'm fifteen stone, as hard as nails, and play center three-quarterevery Saturday for the London Irish. I'm not the man----"

It was at that moment that he rushed me. It was lucky that I hadopened the door, or we should have gone through it. We did aCatharine-wheel together down the passage. Somehow we gatheredup a chair upon our way, and bounded on with it towards the street. My mouth was full of his beard, our arms were locked, our bodiesintertwined, and that infernal chair radiated its legs all round us. The watchful Austin had thrown open the hall door. We went witha back somersault down the front steps. I have seen the two Macsattempt something of the kind at the halls, but it appears to takesome practise to do it without hurting oneself. The chair wentto matchwood at the bottom, and we rolled apart into the gutter. He sprang to his feet, waving his fists and wheezing like an asthmatic.

"Had enough?" he panted.

"You infernal bully!" I cried, as I gathered myself together.

Then and there we should have tried the thing out, for he waseffervescing with fight, but fortunately I was rescued from anodious situation. A policeman was beside us, his notebook inhis hand.

"What's all this? You ought to be ashamed" said the policeman. It was the most rational remark which I had heard in Enmore Park. "Well," he insisted, turning to me, "what is it, then?"

"This man attacked me," said I.

"Did you attack him?" asked the policeman.

The Professor breathed hard and said nothing.

"It's not the first time, either," said the policeman, severely,shaking his head. "You were in trouble last month for the same thing. You've blackened this young man's eye. Do you give him in charge, sir?"

I relented.

"No," said I, "I do not."

"What's that?" said the policeman.

"I was to blame myself. I intruded upon him. He gave me fair warning."

The policeman snapped up his notebook.

"Don't let us have any more such goings-on," said he. "Now, then! Move on, there, move on!" This to a butcher's boy, a maid, andone or two loafers who had collected. He clumped heavily downthe street, driving this little flock before him. The Professorlooked at me, and there was something humorous at the back of his eyes.

"Come in!" said he. "I've not done with you yet."

The speech had a sinister sound, but I followed him none the lessinto the house. The man-servant, Austin, like a wooden image,closed the door behind us.