The Poison Belt

This short story - less than 100 pages - forms the second of Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger series. We have the same cast of characters - Challenger, of course, Professor Summerlee, Lord John Roxton and Malone, the journalist who is our narrator. They are joined in this case by Challenger's wife.

There is very little to the plot, so spoilers abound I suspect, but most of this is pretty obvious from the outset. There a confused reports of large scale rioting and unrest in far away parts of the world, and according to Challenger the earth is passing through a poison belt of deadly ether. Challenger invites his companions to his house, bringing with them canisters of oxygen - yet they fail for foresee the obvious use of these.

So as they watch from windows where the local population collapse and die, they eventually use up their oxygen supply and preparing them selves for a final journey open the door. It is obvious from the outset that the worlds population don't die, but I won't spoil the fairly obvious ending.

I will say that this didn't come close to the highs of The Lost World, and the three stars awarded are probably ‘only just'.