"Gladys here I am again, a world away from you, writing another chapter in a book no one may ever read." "How can I begin to describe this place?" "It is dark and dangerous... and beautiful and terrifying." "Sometimes I wonder if we've stumbled into paradise... only to find that God has given up on man." "Flesh transformed into light... the soul reborn as a star." "As the fire consumes the spirit is released." "Sin is purified in the flame." "As our savior Jesucoatl died... a victim of betrayal... of unbelievers... so all the traitors must die." "Please I have done nothing wrong." "Some may call this cleansing cruel, unjust." "Is it unjust to protect ourselves from disease... from the contagion he carries?" "He who believeth shall not be condemned." "Will we let him infect us with this plague of lies this plague of heresy?" "But I do believe, I swear!" "I believe!" "Oh my son... if this be true... what a gift we have to give you." "Soon you will not need to believe... you will know." "Go forth my disciples... let your spirit light up the world." "Salvation!" "Salvation!" "Salvation!" " Salvation!" "Salvation!" "..." " No!" "Please, No." "Salvation!" "Salvation!" "..." "Salvation!" "At the dawn of the century... a band of adventures set out to prove the impossible... the existence of a prehistoric world..." "The Visionary..." "The Heiress..." "The Hunter..." "The Scientist... and the Reporter..." "All chasing the story of a lifetime..." "Stranded in a savage land..." "Befriended by an untamed beauty." "Together they fight to survive." "In this amazing world of lost civilizations... and terrifying creatures." "Always searching for a way home." "A way out of... the Lost World." "Mary, Mary quite contrary... how does your garden grow?" "With silver bells... and cockle shells... and pretty maids all in a row." "Looks like we're almost done, we can go home early." "Trailing a medical cornucopia behind us." "Well we're not carting this monstrosity through twenty miles of jungle." "And why not?" "An orchid, as far as I'm concerned, it has no value whatsoever." "That sir, is because you have no soul." "Ah!" "Ah!" "[scream]" "What's wrong?" "[scream]" "Take her." "Summerlee, she's not breathing." "Quick Challenger set her down." "I think we are late." "Roll her over." "What is he doing?" "He's trying to save her life." " Well done Summerlee." " You did it." "Are you alright?" "Let go of my daughter." " Oh!" "You don't understand." " Step away." "Attacking children, what savage Gods do you serve." "You're wrong, we didn't." "The child was drowning;" "we saved her." "As you can see your worship I didn't lie." "These three are not merely heathens." "Heathens!" "They're clearly witches as well." "Take them!" "Go, run!" "Quick!" ", catch her find any others like her." "So that's when I decided to write it as a serial." "You know each chapter self contained." "Got a name for it yet?" "How about the seventh circle of hell." "I thought I'd call it The Lost World." "Not lost enough, I'm afraid." "Quiet!" "Maybe it went the other way." "This way." "I'm open to suggestions." "Give me a hand." "Let's hope he finds dinner somewhere else." "He could be out there for awhile Malone." "What the hell is this place?" "Who cares as long as we're in here and it's out there." "Looks like some sort of tomb." "It's no Westminster Abbey." "I've never seen anything like this." "Xiechun-Ne..." "King and master ruler of all sleeps here... his journey among men at an end." "If you say so." "Where did she get all that?" "Coming?" "I demand to know what this is all about." "Demand!" "You demand of me?" "Hear that Pintario... the witch threatens me." "I sir, am no witch." "That's true your worship." "It was the other one that breathed life into the dead." "That's absurd... my saving that girl had nothing to do with witchcraft." "Indeed?" "Best not." " It was elementary medical knowledge." " Summerlee." "Only God can raise the dead." "God and anyone with a basic knowledge of human anatomy." "Pintario take note." "The charge is no longer witchcraft... now it is heresy." "What do you mean, the charge?" "Tolmac holy inquisitor... teacher of the Christecs accuses the witch of the gravest of all crimes... heretical depravity." " I told you I am not a witch." " Summerlee, do shut up!" "The council will review the charge." "The heretic will be found guilty." "And then?" "Then he will burn." "Anything?" "We'll camp here for the night." "Alvar, you're in charge of the fire." "Jante, Lonzo you're with me." "Darak, she'll get away." "How?" "If we can't travel in the dark she's certainly can't." "Women were created to be lesser men." "We should have found her by now..." "Tolmac said." "I'm aware of Tolmac's teachings about women." "Do you want to use what's left of the light to bicker over religion... or to find dinner?" "Dinner!" "Spoken like a true soldier... and Lonzo, we will find her." "A woman couldn't have done this." "Perhaps she's a demon." "She looked like a demon to you?" "Let's go." "The great council in their wisdom... wish to have a confession... before the heretic is condemned." "I'm sorry I can't oblige." "Then it seems we will have to conduct an interrogation." "That must be inconvenient for you." "And for your friend." "He is an old man... his heart may not be strong enough to survive... some of our more vigorous methods." "Methods, you mean torture." "Indict him and the council will let you live." "You can spare your friend hours of agonizing pain." "In my world we have other ways of finding the truth." "You are in my world now." "Any just world... would allow the accused to speak freely in his own defense." "Silence!" "Why?" "Is your faith so fragile that my words can shake it?" "How dare you!" "The holy inquisitor's faith was strong enough to survive a dozen public hearings." "Pintario!" "A public trial... now that's just what's required to get at the truth." "Or is the truth what you're afraid of?" "Since you are so eager... to defend the heretic... you will not mind to sharing his fate at the stake..." "He burns... you burn." "How pious you look... reverent... almost holy." "You think I'm a fool, that I wouldn't see through you." "I only wanted to proclaim your glory." "What you want is my priesthood." "This trial is an opportunity for your intellect to shine before all." "It is an opportunity for me to fail before all... but I won't." "And if you ever challenge me again..." "I will scatter your ashes to the winds." "The views better from over here." "It's pretty nice from where I'm standing, thanks." "I wasn't talking about the water." "Neither was I." "So do you want to tell me what happened back there?" "What do you mean?" "Well I knew you were fluent in what was it sixty or seventy languages." "I just can't figure out how this can be one of them." "Let's just say there's something universal about graves, tombstone." "Here lies sweet Mary Jane." "Dead and gone all that's left is her name." "Better than nothing." "Is it?" "If we don't make it back." "We will." "But if we don't, that collection of bones in there was once a King." "And if we hadn't of stumbled in, he wouldn't even be a memory now." "If the ruler of all can be forgotten, do you really think anyone will remember the likes of us?" "I'd wager I'd be passed caring." "It doesn't bother you that all anyone may ever know... is what Ned Malone writes in some ridiculous book." "No!" "I've already done what I'll be remembered for." "That's right..." "Lord John world famous hunter... his reputation spans the globe." "Now we both know that's not what I mean." "Anyway what does it matter?" "It matters to me." "Marguerite..." "I'll never forget you that's for sure." "A lot of good that will do me when you're digested... by some prehistoric nightmare." "Hmm a simple thank you would have been nice." "The witch's tracks have disappeared." "No animal disappears, it hides." "Fascinating, the Christecs seem to have blended two contradictory cultures." "They've merged Catholic saints with Aztec Gods." "That statue I was telling you about... quite clearly a creative hybrid of Mary and Coatlicue." "Both mothers of Gods, both virgin births as well." "Maybe the two religions aren't so different after all." "Well they certainly share a fondness for burning dissenters." "Yes," "I wonder what they were after those lost conquistadors." "Must have been something grand... something to fire the imagination." "An El Dorado perhaps or fountain of youth." "Leave it to the great Challenger, thrown to the lions and he marvels at the animals pedigrees... instead of trying to find a way out of the den." "Perhaps my life isn't of enough practical value to you either." "It's alright Arthur I'm frightened too." "But the truth is... there is no way out of here... not at the moment anyway." "We'll get one chance to talk our way out of this." "I promise you I'll make the most of it." "Well, if I had to put my faith in anyone winning an argument... it would be George Challenger." "Fresh, she's close." "You may give them what ever benediction he'll may request ...we must be mercifully." "You're not suggesting that he give us last rites." "You prefer to appear before the Gods marked by sin?" "Very well, return them to their quarters." "No...no... we are grateful for a place to reflect." "And repent." "Amen." "The man is possessed... we haven't eaten or slept." "He's the commander." "Not for long." "What are you talking about?" "He only pretends to follow the teachings..." " If Tolmac knew." " Tolmac must never know." "Alvar what Darak does is heresy." "And what you do is treason." "There she is." "She's mine." "Wait Lonzo, wait!" "I'm going to enjoy this." "Let's see how a witch dies." "There!" "Lonzo." "I'm not saying he isn't a hell of a horse but nobody's ever won all three races." "If anyone has a shot at the Triple Crown it's Sir Barton." "What the hell do you think you're doing?" "Calm down, I didn't edit much." "I just wanted to see how wrong you were getting it." "And the verdict?" "A little sensational." "You went through my things." " Put it down Marguerite." " Just a second." "Do as he says." "Ah at last, me." "The mysterious Miss Krux... dangerous, possibly deadly." "You have no idea Malone just how dangerous I can be." "You are never to use my name in any of this." "Understood?" "Put it down." "Well perhaps I haven't made myself clear." " No." " Malone!" "." "You had no right." " Stop it." " If you ever..." " touch my things again." "I'll..." " No you won't." "Well, my, my, my." "Who would have thought the angelic Mr. Malone had demons to hide." "It's time." "You really believe Summerlee is a witch?" "The holy inquisitor believes it." "For God sakes man look at him... he's as conventional as they come." "He hasn't got the imagination to be a heretic." "Really, Challenger." "It's the council you need to convince... but I'll pray for your souls." "How very comforting." "I don't care what your inquisitor proclaims." "Summerlee." "You may speak for me at the trial Challenger but here; no I will not be quiet." "Pintario listen to me... how can your faith claim that my saving that child was an act against God?" "This is not the place." "But surely in your heart you must know... that the real evil would be knowing how to save her... and choosing not to." "Your trial is about to begin." "As for the question... whether outsiders should be subject to our laws." "I answer this it is not our law... that the heretic has broken... it is, God's law." "Summerlee saved that child's life but... he did not raise her from the dead." "You yourself said she stopped breathing." "Not breathing doesn't mean not alive." " Of course it does." " No." "There are other signs, electrical impulses in the brain, until they are extinguished life is still possible." "You can see them these electrical whatever in the child." "No electrical impulses they can't be seen." " Yet you're sure they're there." " Yes." "Then it's a question of faith." "Science has shown us that they exist." "Yet you can't see them, you can't feel them." "But you believe in them as we believe in the Gods that we cannot see or feel." "They are an underlying principle of life..." "I do not need to be able to see the air... in order to know that I am breathing." "Yes, I say the same things about the Gods." "You and I we're not so different we both explain... life and death by placing our faith... in a higher power." "Your science is nothing more than a new religion new heresy... you are condemned by your own words." "What would have happened if I hadn't been there?" "What would you have done?" " Nothing." " Like hell." "I wasn't gonna hurt her." "You weren't exactly teaching her to tango." "I lost it ok; just let it go." "Once, it can never happen again." "Understand, Malone?" "She pushed me." "She pushes everybody." "Don't tell me you trust her." "I certainly trust her to act in her own interest." "If she doesn't watch our backs we can't watch hers." "How long do you think that will last?" "What happens when it's in her best interest to sell us down the river?" "She won't." "How the hell do you know that?" "Sometimes you roll the dice on people." "That's what we did, all of us, when we signed on this journey" "You take what you get... there are too many ways to die out here." "And the one thing we can't do is kill each other... we're all we have." "Ease up on Malone." "I'm not in the mood." "I mean it Marguerite." "Don't make me your personal crusade." "I'm not sure you're up to the challenge." "What is wrong with you?" "Oh apart from being stranded a thousand miles from a decent maid." "We're all stranded." "That's us one big happy family." "You know ever since we left the tomb." "Let's see Summerlee can be the doting grandfather..." "Challenger's... no, I think you're the daddy... then there's little baby Veronica and me I'm the wicked stepsister." "I don't really give a damn why you are who you are... but here now you're going to behave." "Or what you're going to shoot me?" "That's what the great white hunter does, isn't it?" "You're going to kill me like you did your brother?" "Roxton I'm sorry." "Damn." "Easy now don't make us hurt you." "I'll take this one." "She's been leading us somewhere Jante probably home." "There are others like her?" "Find them." "So this going to have its own chapter too?" "You don't like me much, do you?" "To be honest Malone I never really gave you a thought." "Oh that's why you were going through my journals?" "Well I was bored the public library is a hell of a trek." "The six of us living on top of each other... no privacy." "We share our food, water, sleeping quarters." "But what's up here that's one thing I don't have to share." "What a shame; if you were half the man you wrote yourself to be." "Don't push me." "But it's so easy." "Conceiting, selfish... arrogant." "Marguerite!" "Witch!" " Rhymes with..." " Dark hair." " You're hurting me." " Not like the other witch." "Other witch... blonde... too much attitude?" "And the old ones they'll all be purified;" "Tolmac will see to that." "Save your bullets." "How did you find us?" "Are you kidding you two made enough noise to raise the whole jungle." "Somebody wanna tell me what this is all about?" "Witchcraft." "Every time I let go of this book... it will fall... it requires no faith on my part nor on yours." "And no amount of prayer will stop it from falling." "Now whether or not I choose to believe in the laws of gravity... they still keep my feet on the ground." "Hear him, he defies nature." "I explain nature... with science." "Why should it be more pious to believe that the Gods created a world we can't understand?" "Because God works in mysterious ways." "His mysteries are his mysteries." "Wouldn't you like medicines that could cure the sick... machines that could fly... light that could burn without flame." "All this from science." "All this and more... all from the ingenuity of man." "And you say these laws that science has discovered... they are forever true?" "Once set in motion an object will stay in motion until acted upon by an outside force." "So it is possible to interfere with these laws." "No, only the object... the laws themselves cannot be changed." "This girl's death was set in motion... her breathing had stopped her soul was on its way to heaven... until you interfered." "It's not the same." "No?" "She is the object her soul called back to the Gods." "Either you are witches defying the natural order of life... or I'll have no choice but to send this child back to the Gods." "I should have taken a different approach I played right into his hands." "You couldn't have known you're not devious enough." "Let's hope the council will see through him... it's in their hands now." "No, it's in mine." "What are you talking about?" "I'll confess to being a witch and I'll tell them I forced you to defend me." "You will do no such thing!" "This isn't about science and religion Challenger." "It's about who has the power to give life... and to take it away." "My life cannot continue at the cost of the child's." "Summerlee." "Strange isn't it?" "Back home you made your reputation by tearing down my work... decrying me at every turn..." "And now you're willing to risk your own life to defend mine." "It's not hard at all." "Back in London you made a habit of being persistently wrong headed." "Whatever happens Challenger," "I'm glad to have had you on my side." "Why are you doing this?" "Can't have you bleed to death on the way home." "Don't want to ruin the fun of killing me once we get there." "You never believed we were witches did you?" "Heathens maybe, witches no." "Then how can you let them kill us?" "The price of unity... the death of a few outsiders... a handful of dissenters." "Tolmac's teachings give my men something to fight for." "What about you?" "I already have something to fight for... my daughter." "She didn't seem like a lesser man to me." "She held her own until the current caught her." "She's a fine girl... make a good tracker." "What would Tolmac say?" "Tolmac knows better than to mess with my family..." "High Priest's can be replaced." "So can commanders of armies." "He wouldn't dare, let's go." "Not that I'm not a great admirer of... decisive action but what's the plan once we get to the village." "We wing it." "Translation he has no idea." "Eyes ahead keep moving." "Any time now." "I guess I owe you one." "Great answer a question." "Always the reporter." "Those markings the ones in the tomb." "why do they frighten you so much?" "Don't be ridiculous." "Is it what they say a threat, a curse?" "It was a prayer... to the God of the underworld to remember his name in the rolls of the dead." "But how could you read that." "I don't know!" "The words just form in my mind like... chalk appearing on a blackboard." "Lines, markings, scribbles." "Yet you read them as easily as I would decipher the latest Sherlock Holmes." "All those years at Oxford; maybe I was paying attention after all." "You really don't know do you?" "Shouldn't we be getting a move on?" "You have no idea how you were able to read a language... thousands of years old." "That's what terrifies you." "I guess we all have our demons." "Consider yourself repaid." "Fair enough for now." "What the hell are you doing back there stopping from tea?" "Roxton." "that stuff about your brother, that was out of line even for me." "Forget it!" "there's other things to worry about." "Here before you... is the agent of Satan." "The one who stole the soul... of this poor girl... this child... this innocent a victim of this man's evil." " I am the witch." " No he's not, I am the witch." "This man is clearly out of his head on the one you want." "Come on Tolmac," " you know who your real enemy is." " Yes I do." "the heretics have confessed to their sins." "They tried to seduce us with promises of wonder... unnatural devices... raising that dead." "But I would not be seduced." "Mine eyes are the eyes that see... mine are the ears that hear... mine is the voice of salvation." "Burn them!" "Burn them all!" "She has done nothing." "She is the symbol of your heresy her soul must be purified." "On wings of flame... the fire of Salvation." "Shooting a priest that's your idea of winging it." "A group of outsiders have just saved you daughter's life... again." "Will you still let them die?" "It was the will of the Gods." "The Gods have spoken rejoice... for Jesucoatl ..." "God of rebirth... who has brought life where there was death." "All hail Pintario holy inquisitor... high priest of the Christecs." "Some believe what separates men from animals is our ability to reason." "The others say it's language or romantic love or opposable thumbs." "Living here in this lost world I've come to believe it's more than our biology." "What truly makes us human is our unending search ... our abiding desire for immortality." "From a flower to adorn a garden... to a theory that will rock the world." "Some seek in death what they failed to achieve in life... building elaborate tombs as if to cage their own souls." "Even as I write this I wonder... will anybody ever read these words." "Perhaps not, but if you do than all I ask is for you ... to remember me."