[00:01.07]Chapter 10.
[00:02.24]Show us your proof.
[00:04.95]I shan't bore you with our long journey, by canoe and steamship and ocean liner back to London.
[00:12.97]Instead, I'll skip to the amazing night of the meeting.
[00:18.90]Two weeks after we arrived home, Challenger spoke once more at the Zoological Institute.
[00:28.01]At first, it was just like before.
[00:31.57]As Challenger appeared, there were the same jeering howls from the students, and the same scornful comments from the professors.
[00:39.94]Summerly, Lord John and I sat listening in silence.
[00:45.78]Fools, said Summerly.
[00:49.54]If they would only open their minds.
[00:55.90]But I was secretly very worried.
[00:59.80]Why should anyone believe Challenger when we had no evidence?
[01:04.96]His specimens had been smashed to bits on the rocks.
[01:09.74]Only one box had survived, and that was on the table beside him.
[01:16.49]I still had no idea what was in it.
[01:19.81]He'd guarded it jealously on the long journey back to England, and wouldn't let any of us near it.
[01:29.32]Challenger glared at the audience.
[01:32.31]They all quietened down when he began to speak.
[01:36.63]And soon you could have heard a pin drop as he thrilled them with tales of our adventures, of dinosaurs and apeman and cave people.
[01:48.42]Someone shouted, "Show us your proof!"
[01:51.89]I frowned.
[01:53.64]This is where the trouble starts, I thought.
[02:00.67]Unfortunately, our cameras were wrecked by apemen, and almost all my specimens were destroyed in our descent from the plateau, the professor had to admit.
[02:18.20]That was lucky, came a jeering voice from the back.
[02:24.97]Challenger clenched his fists.
[02:28.12]He stamped to the front of the stage.
[02:32.21]Would he lose his temper?
[02:35.54]Would he leap down into the audience, fists flying?
[02:42.41]But somehow, he carried on.
[02:47.59]He told them about the pterodactyls, his particular favorite.
[02:53.87]He was almost poetic when he described them.
[02:58.51]Again the audience was spellbound.
[03:02.26]I have seen these fabulous creatures with my own eyes, he boomed.
[03:09.06]Tosh!
[03:10.81]One student dared to shout out.
[03:15.05]Are you calling me a liar?" growled Challenger, his fists clenching again.
[03:22.90]Then the student shouted, "I won't believe it until I've seen one of these pterodactyls for myself."
[03:32.68]Suddenly, Challenger's mood changed.
[03:37.14]His fists unclenched.
[03:40.03]He even began to smile into his beard.
[03:43.73]He turned to that mysterious box on the table.
[03:49.29]What has he got up his sleeve?" I wondered.
[03:54.82]Very slowly, he opened the lid.
[04:00.43]Come on, my pretty," coaxed Challenger, gazing inside.
[04:07.31]A scaly head shot out of the box.
[04:12.97]It had two fierce red eyes, a beak, and rows of sharp teeth.
[04:21.32]It was a young pterodactyl.
[04:27.98]I brought it back as an egg," Challenger explained.
[04:34.34]It hatched out in my flat here in London.
[04:40.54]But no one was listening.
[04:43.99]There were shouts of horror.
[04:47.13]Some people ran for the exits.
[04:52.85]Do you believe me now?" Challenger roared triumphantly at the panicking crowd.
[05:01.05]Do you believe me now?"
[05:06.32]The creature flapped its huge leathery wings.
[05:13.58]Challenger made a grab for its legs, but too late.
[05:20.19]With a great swoosh, it rose above our heads and swooped around the hall.
[05:27.62]People ducked, some dived under seats.
[05:33.61]The window!
[05:35.65]Close the window!" bellowed Challenger.
[05:42.10]Lord John rushed to do it, but even he couldn't fight his way through the struggling mob.
[05:51.41]The young pterodactyl sailed out of the open window, free at last.
[05:59.74]We all rushed outside, Summerly, Lord John, Challenger, and I.
[06:07.61]The last we saw of the pterodactyl, it was flapping away over London, like a monstrous bat.
[06:19.31]Would it find its way by instinct back to its lost world home?
[06:26.71]I shall always believe that it did.