"Veronica!" " This way!" " Ned!" " Over here!" " Ned!" "No, no, don't go!" "Ned?" "wait for me." "You are safe now." "Ned, you ran so fast!" "I couldn't keep up!" "I'd never leave you behind." "Come on." "It's time to get back to the tree house." "That's why I had to talk to you this way." "I finally figured out how to get back, but I'm going to need your help." "Get back from where?" "Veronica, do you know where we are right now?" "Ned, It doesn't matter." "All I know is that I've missed you." "Nothing's been the same since you..." " since you..." " Say it." "Since I died." "I really do miss you." "Veronica, help me!" "Ned?" "At the dawn of the last century" "A band of explorers searched for a prehistoric world" "Driven by ambition" "Secret desires" "A thirst for adventure" "And seeking the ultimate story" "They are befriended by an untamed beauty" "Stranded in a strange and savage land" "Each day is a desperate search for a way out... of the Lost World" "Careful, Challenger, here it comes." "Good morning, Marguerite!" "It's time to greet another magnificent day with..." "Ha!" "Fresh toast!" "Unusual to see on outside its cage during hibernation season, I must say" "I heard that." "This could be one for your science journals, George:" "rare species spotted on a remote plateau." "Observers lives endangered by..." "Coffee!" "There's no coffee!" "There's plenty in the storage shed, Marguerite..." "I brought it back from the Zanga village myself." "Those beans are green, Roxton!" "You haven't roast them yet!" "That's not my job, Marguerite." "I sew for all of us." "Challenger smelts metal ingots to trade with the Zanga." "Veronica tends the gardens and the goat... you smoke the meat and roast the coffee." "And cast the bullets." "And load the cartridges." "Poor you." "The coffee is still your job." "Come along now, Marguerite." "You know full well that since Malone went missing... we've had to adjust the division of labor." "Missing?" "Why can't anybody come out and say what really happened?" "Marguerite, I'm sorry... but you and Veronica did agree to take on more of the food preparation." "Coffee's not food!" "It's... it's a necessity!" "And you're its main consumer." "Which is another reason I wish Malone wasn't dead." "Whatever." "Americans drink more of this stuff than I ever did." "He got me started on it in the first place!" "He's not dead!" " Good morning, Veronica." " Veronica?" "Jungle daylight is no substitute for Zanga's espresso." "I saw him last night." "We all have dreams about Malone, Veronica." "Not the same dreams we had about Summerlee, of course." "Right here!" "I mean, I dream about him too." "But when I woke up, he was just standing there." "Challenger, he was pleading for my help." "Then, where did he go?" "Veronica!" "Professor Challenger!" "It's Assai." "Assai!" "Professor Challenger!" "My people ask for you to come at once." "You are not going anywhere, you have a lot to work... to do on the new test balloon so we can go home." "What's wrong, Assai?" "What's happened?" "That's just it, Professor." "We do not know." "It could be a sign from the heavens or elsewhere." "When she puts it like that, how can I resist." "Watch me." "I could see she's most unhappy." "Because of Malone?" "And she's getting worse." "Past few days she's mostly stayed in her room." "She keeps re-reading Malone's journals." "It's a pity she wouldn't come with us today." "Would have done her good to talk to an old friend like you." "Veronica is strong." "Her sorrows only make her stronger." "Veronica, as difficult as it may be... to believe, I would like to apologize." "You're right." "It is difficult to believe." "I have lost a lot of people in my life too." "Family, friends more than friends." "I do know how you feel." "Is it really that hard to accept... that I could care about something more than gold or diamonds?" "Yes!" "One of your more endearing and annoying traits... is that you never lie to me." "Just as I've never lied to you." "About important things" "I apologize!" "For not saying sooner than I know... that Malone means as much to all of us as he does to you." "Well, now you've said it." " All right, what is it?" " It's called a Ouija board." "It's all the rage in Europe and London." "What does it do?" "Think of it as a telephone for a very long distance calls." "I brought the outsider." "Yesterday it was just a field." "Last night it was touched by a force beyond this world." "Someone made that in just one night?" "Someone." "Or something." "I've read about telephones before." "Do you actually think we can contact Malone through this?" "To be honest I don't know." "Put your hands here by mine." "Have you ever used one of these before?" "Yeah, a few times, in London." "And did it work?" "Let's just see if it works now." "What do we do?" "Put your fingers here as lightly as you can." "We wish to contact Edward T. Malone." "Are you out there, Ned?" "Malone, we know you've been trying to contact Veronica." "Here's your big chance." "Are you here with us?" "You did that." "No, you were touching it too." "Why don't you ask him a question?" "Malone?" "Where are you?" " See, I told you." " Whoa!" "H" "E" "L" " P" " Help" "M help me, help me" "That's what he said to me last night!" "Do you actually think it could be him?" "Well, if he said it before, maybe it could be." "I don't know." "Maybe we should ask him another question." "I don't think we have to." "G" "O" "T" "Go, go to!" "Where Where" "Where - the go to where..." "P" " A" " T" " H" "Go to where the path is!" "Who's there?" "Marguerite!" "If it's like a telephone, How do you hang it up?" "It looks like there's two of them too, why?" "Look out I have a pan" "Marguerite, what have you done?" "I don't know!" "AH!" "Oh, no!" "Okay, okay." "Does this always happen in London?" "I wish!" "I would have made a fort" "What?" "what it is?" "who is that?" "Right." "Let's see Challenger explain this one." "It's an agroglyph." "Of course it is, George, What else would it be?" "It's a name given to a unique explicable... patterns or markings in a field of vegetation." "Variations include... crop encirclement, here the vegetation has been flattened, or pyroglyphs, where the vegetation... appears to have been burned with remarkable precision." "So you've seen one of these before?" "Never." "Although they are quite common in the vicinity of Avery, back in England." "And have been for generations." "Well, that's where my family's estate is." "It's surrounded by fields of standing stones, dating back to the Druids." "But I've never seen or heard of one of these pyroglyphs." "Farmers don't like to talk about them." "They believe they are connected to some supernatural power." "The circles of stones, circles in fields supposedly marking power spots, where lines of unexplained force intersect." "There is no sign of kerosene or any other fire accelerant being used." "So no one knows how this type of thing gets made." "Our shaman refuses to set foot in this field." "He says he knows too well why it's been visited upon us." "Our shaman says that Saros is returning." "This is his sign." "Saros?" "He's a legend among my people, a fierce warlord who dismembered those who opposed him... and drank their blood." "His last name wouldn't be Krux by any chance, would it?" "Saros lived and died hundreds of years ago, consumed by flames... cursing those who rose against him... swearing to return from the realm beyond death... to take vengeance on the living." "Realm beyond death." "Tell me." "In the Zanga tradition, is it possible to return from this realm?" "Our shaman says the proof is all around us... painted by the hand of Saros himself." "Is that so." "If this is paint from beyond the grave," "I want to analyze the pigment." "Good heavens!" "Redecorating, are we?" "I made Veronica a Ouija board." "Marguerite." "That is a tool for charlatans!" "Maybe back in England." "The board is controlled by its users." "There's not a whit of evidence to prove that it could possibly work." "I'll be in my lab if I'm needed." "Are you okay?" "Assai..." "So, what really happened?" "The spirits were restless." "Oh, so the spirits were restless." "All right." "You keep your secrets." "As long as nobody got hurt by whatever little... game you two were amusing yourself with." "Do you really think we made this mess for our own amusement?" "There's no telling what you're capable of," "Marguerite, without your coffee." "I mean, if you could have this much fun with a Ouija board, think of what you could do with a full-blown séance!" "What is a séance?" "Scales, drives tubes, pentrometre, Ph tests, I got them all." "science picnic basket by any other name." "Sure you don't want us to call you a taxi?" "Ah, No, no." "Just try to leave the walls standing this time." "Come on, Roxton!" "Good bye." "All right, they're gone." "Now tell me why... we couldn't tell them what we saw on the mirror." "Because we are going to have a séance," "And the first rule of a séance is no non believers allowed." "It causes the vibrations of the etheric planes or... something like that." "Veronica, What did you see in the mirror?" "You know, George, a few days ago you were convinced Malone's presence was moving journals around to help us out." "Then an hour ago you were laughing at..." "Marguerite's Ouija board." "I mean, what do you believe?" "Roxton, I'm a scientist." "I don't let what I believe get in the way of what I observe." "Maybe so." "But just for a moment, forget science, forget logic." "Give me your best gut instinct, a seat of the pants wildest guess." "Now what do you think made that pyroglyph?" " My best guess." " Yes." "The pyroglyph is a series of... hitherto undocumented phenomena... that a series of chemical analyses might explain." "Sometimes, Challenger, you're not fun at all." "Raptors!" "More than one!" "Stampede!" "It's almost as if something frightened them!" "Yeah." "But what in the hell can frighten a raptor?" "There, that's exactly who we saw on the mirror." "Marguerite." "Did you also see this?" "Yes." "You cannot do this!" "This is a sign of Saros!" "Saros?" "That's who we saw?" "Who's Saros?" "A bloodthirsty warlord who was... burned alive when the Zanga rose up against him." "But we didn't try to reach Saros!" "We called for Malone!" " And Malone heard us." " He did?" "Well, you said it yourself there were two spirits in the room!" "Unseen spirits!" "Well, he was here." "We saw him in the mirror." "And someone drove him away before he could harm us." "Malone." "But this time we're going to get Malone back without Saros." "Veronica, no!" "It is too dangerous!" "Would Malone wish you to endanger the lives of all the Zanga?" "Listen, we can't do anything until midnight anyway." "That's the witching hour." "Would either of you like a cup of coffee?" "The roasting pan..." "No, right, okay." "Well, I'll make tea." "Well." "Now we know what sends raptors into a stampede." "What do you say, Challenger?" "A ball of lightning or some kind of electrical whirlwind?" "That's not important." "Look at the pattern it's making!" "That's identical to the first one." "Which means this is not a natural process." "Whatever that ball of light is, it's under intelligent control!" "Challenger, this is the one time I don't think we find answers in your test tubes." "We found a second pyroglyph." "Yeah quite incredible." "We saw it being burned into a field." " You saw who made it?" " No, not a person," "More like a sphere of light." "I was only joking about holding a séance, Marguerite!" "It's no joke, Roxton." "Veronica and I, when we used the Ouija board, we both saw this dead Zanga warlord." "Saros," "That's the same pattern was saw in the pyroglyphs." "How's that for a scientific observation." " We'll proceed with the séance." " Finally, a voice of reason!" "I wouldn't put reason and séance in the same category." "Sometimes, with extraordinary phenomena, it requires investigation by extraordinary means." "Professor Challenger, It is too dangerous." "Not if Marguerite knows exactly what she's doing." "Don't I always?" "We've gone some time before midnight, and that's the witching hour." "I've got things to square away in my lab." "You know, everything is upside-down." "You were the only one who though Malone was truly dead." "Challenger's the last person to believe in séances!" "The truth is, I don't know what happened to Malone, and neither does Challenger." "Which means we're the only two with open minds around here." "I think it's fair to say I have an open mind." "It's your heart that's open, John." "You've been holding out hope that if we keep looking, somewhere we might find Malone." "It's not because you truly believe it." "You don't want to take that hope away from Veronica." "Perhaps you are right." "But don't you believe that there's... something more to life than the here and now?" "Sometimes when I think about what my life has given me, in the here and now," "I wonder what more I could possibly ask for." "Challenger says it's time." "Challenger, I don't think this is the time for a group portrait." "Right you are." "Oh, Marguerite, light the candles ?" "Challenger, how does a scientist know so much about séances?" "I spent several months in Chicago... with a good friend of mine, Harry Houdini." "Harry know it all Houdini?" "Two-bit meddling magician?" "I attended a dozen séances with Harry, and worked with him to debunk the fraudulent mediums... and mystics who prey upon gullible people." "I take it you're acquainted with him as well." "Let's just say that when Houdini was in England, my séances survived his best efforts." "And leave it at that." "What you actually took money from grieving... people who thought you could talk to the dead?" "I call it giving people what they want." "Let's not forget that this séance is Challenger's idea." "It's Roxton's actually." "And it's not a bad idea." "What?" "Are we all ready?" "first join hands." "Okay, close your eyes." "Okay." "Clear your minds." "I call Edward T. Malone." "Ned, can you hear me?" "Are you there?" "Did you feel that?" "It's like the temperature dropped 20 degrees." "That means it's working." "I really think something is going to happen!" "Malone!" "If you are among us, knock once." "One very exuberant knock!" "This is so wrong!" "Perhaps you could ask him if we are at risk here." "Ned, one knock for yes, two for no." "Are any of us in danger for trying to contact you like this?" "Let's not get too carried away, Neddie boy." "That's two knocks, right?" "We're not in any danger." "Try channel him through you, Ask him to speak through you?" "OK." "Speak through me, spirit." "Let all of us hear what you have to say." "Do not open a path for me here." "Saros will try to take it." "Follow what I have written." "Do not try to open a path for me here!" "Malone?" "Upon your flesh shall I feast, and in your blood shall I bathe." " It's Saros!" " And in your..." "I shall live." "your vile hearts your sons" "You let her go." "Is over this" "Is it over?" "We've broken the circle, That's supposed to be enough." "Saros still has her." "Marguerite!" "Marguerite!" " That's him!" " Marguerite!" "NO!" "I never meant for this to happen." "I was trying to send you a message to tell you where I was!" "How to help bring me back." "But it's so hard to try to get any of you to see me or hear me." "I didn't know... that by trying to open a path for me, you'd endanger yourselves." "I won't let you risk your lives." "You mean too much to me." "So you've got to let me go." "Bye, Veronica," "I'm going to miss you." "I'm going to miss you all." "What happened?" "Malone coldn't have done this." "Saros, the butcher!" "How's Marguerite?" "Shaken but not hurt." "I feel like I've been kicked by a mule!" " A supernatural one at that." " Yeah, Thank goodness." "Everyone's all right?" "You took a picture of what happened?" "A photograph of something." "Challenger, you are nothing short of brilliant." "So they say." "What have we got here?" "Look at this!" "Absolutely uncanny." "They're both there, Malone and Saros!" "Don't you understand what happened?" "Yes I do." "We opened a path for Malone and someone else took it." "Veronica!" "Promise me you'll stop all attempts to reach Malone!" "Assai!" "I can't promise that!" "None of us can." "If I cannot stop you, then there's nothing that can stop Saros." "I have to warn my people." "Looking for something in particular?" "I can't stop thinking about what Malone said when he spoke through you." "Do not open a path here, but follow what I've written." "But written where?" "It's going to take weeks to read them all." "I have read them all, Marguerite." "If Malone'd had written anything about Saros or séances," "I'd know about it." "Challenger wants to hold a second séance tonight." "Maybe it'll be easier for Malone to talk to us the second time around." "Marguerite!" "Veronica, did you really need to draw that." " I didn't!" " So what is it doing here?" "But why would Saros place his pattern in Veronica's sketch pad?" "What if we're wrong?" "What if Saros didn't do this." "Malone?" "He did say, follow what he's written." "Written!" "So Saros didn't create the pyroglyphs!" "Malone did." "If the pyroglyphs are Malone's writings, he's obviously trying to tell us something." "But what?" "OH!" "Malone, that had better be you." "Marguerite, don't interrupt the phenomenon." "It's a triangle!" "Three knives pointing, triangulation." "Co-ordinates for a specific location!" "Somewhere there is a third pyroglyph." "It'll take days to search all the fields between here and the Zanga village." "Not necessarily." "George, you make me nervous when you get that look in your eye." "Another 50 feet, and I'll be able to see over into the next valley!" "Careful Marguerite, keep the ropes nice and taut." "So we follow the Summerlee River, to the Zanga village." "There's the first one." "Thinking positively, it looks like..." "Challenger's new rubber... formula might have solved the embrittlement problem." "Huh?" "In a month or so, the new balloon would have... more carrying capacity and greater range." "Who knows, it might even get us passed those updrafts at the plateau's edge." "Passed the updrafts and home." "Why, Marguerite, I... thought a chance out of this place would cheer you up." "Me, yes." "I don't know how Veronica's going to take it." "What?" "What?" "Oh, nothing, just for a moment... there it actually sounded like you were worried about Veronica." "No!" "Just worried about our division of labour if she... decides to spend the next month moping in her bedroom, that's all." "My thoughts exactly." "We came along the Malone Rift... there's the second one!" "Maybe around to the south there's the Krux Mountain." "Ah the falls and... here it is!" "Challenger, look out!" "Don't shoot the balloon!" "Challenger!" "Come on!" "Come on!" "Help!" "Down!" "You actually enjoyed that, didn't you?" "Well, I lived through it, and that adds to the enjoyment of every experience." "Now we found the third pyroglyph here, and that's describing a triangle with this point as its center." "Then that must be where Malone wants us to go." "It's a rocky outcrop in dense jungle." "So you're going to have to move quickly in order to cut a trail for us before midnight." "I'll have to cut the trail?" "You and Marguerite." "I have to go back to the tree house and get Veronica, and a few items we might need." "What do you know that we don't know all of a sudden?" "Now that we know where Malone wants us to go," "I realize we are not just dealing with opening a line of communication to the other realm." "We have to create a physical connection." " Will that be safe?" " No, not at all." "I suspect we've already opened a path for Saros... to gain a foothold in our world." "The longer that path is open, the easier it will be for him to return, with or without our assistance." " So then we have to close the path." " As quickly as possible." "Then how will Malone get back?" "To be honest I'm not sure he can." "Okay, I've got it," "We've found the third pyroglyph, so now we know exactly where Malone wants us to go." "I knew Malone was trying to tell us something." "But what does the photo plate have to do with it?" "It's for the séance Marguerite is going to conduct." "It carries a physical imprint of Saros, which gives him a psychometric link to our world." "But... by destroying the plate at the proper time, in the proper place, that link can be broken." "Malone's image is on that!" "Won't his link be broken too?" "Not if you choose something from your personal belongings that has great meaning to both you and Malone." "You are going to be his link to our world." "You are his only chance." "The X marks the spot." "That's where Malone wants us to go?" "a cave?" " After you." " If you insist." "I do." "Malone's handkerchief." "Good." "He left it on the riverbank the day we first..." "Umm... we went swimming and... he was being so funny!" "We were splashing around like..." "I just know it's a day that I'll always remember." "We all know that you and Malone were, are very close." "Maybe we could be something more, I don't really know." "But I'd like the chance to find out." "What's so special about this cave?" "How are we going to know when we reach the right spot?" "I think this is the right spot." "Yeah." "These are standing stones, dating back to the Druids." "They are much older than that!" "How do you know that?" "I just do." "It's... like I've seen this place before or somewhere like it." "You have been to Avery?" "Yeah, I used to live near there as a child for a year or two." "That must be what I remember it." "Playing on the fairy rings and standing stones." "Why would Malone lead us so deep into the jungle?" "I suspect he is direction us to an extremely strong... intersection of earth energy lines." "Perhaps the most powerful on the entire plateau." "Just what we need." "More power for Saros." "And a more power for a path for Malone." "Are you ready?" "Ask Marguerite." "She looks like she know what she's doing." "Marguerite, you've already created a link with Malone." "So call him again, just as you did in the tree house." "Won't that bring Saros?" "If Challenger's right, Saros is almost halfway here." "I call Edward T. Malone!" "Oh, you're making this look easy, Malone." "What's going on, Challenger?" "The path between our world and... the other realm is now completely opened." "Over there, through the light." "Is that Malone?" "Saros." "I don't think he likes being shot at." "He's still part of the other world," " I can't let him get the plate!" " Now Challenger, Destroy it!" "That risks severing the link to Malone is back with us." "Do what you've got to, but do it fast!" " Call Malone." " Pay attention, Malone!" "Over there!" "Come back to us, Malone!" "Come back!" "Concentrate!" "Be concentrate!" "Malone, get back here!" "This instant!" "Focus on Malone." "Ned!" "I'm going to try to weaken the link with Saros." "Hello?" "No!" "Challenger, now!" "I'm back!" "Ned?" "Malone!" "Malone!" "Glad to see you back, Neddie boy!" "It's a real mystery." "I don't know how I did this." "So much of what I experienced seems like a dream or a nightmare." "I just can't remember the details." "The important thing is that you are back here with us." "Where you belong." "Looking better than ever, I must say." "Thank you, and thank you all for not giving up on me." "Oh not us." "I knew you wouldn't leave me...us!" "All of us." "I bet you're starved!" "You know what I would love?" " What?" " What?" "Is there any coffee?" "Of course there is!" "Around here it's a necessity." "Thank you." " Challenger?" " Not with the claret." "Thank you." "*"