In the poison stream
Im Poison Stream (also The End of the World ; in the original: The Poison Belt ) is a 1913 novel by the British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle . At the center of the story is an approaching poison cloud that heralds the end of humanity.
This second episode of the Challenger Stories is one of the earlier science fiction novels in English, but at the same time takes up elements of the adventure novel . The popular German alternative title is Das Ende der Welt .
Action at a glance
The plot begins three years after the events of The Forgotten World : Professor Challenger calls his friends Professor Summerlee, Lord John Roxton and Reporter Malone to a meeting in his villa. That he insists on bringing oxygen bottles is apt to mislead the gentlemen.
In his apartment, Challenger then reveals that he was able to deduce from astronomical observations and reports of accidents all over the world that the earth is drifting through a region of space that contains agents dangerous to mankind: a poisonous stream.
After the gentlemen have sealed Challengers' house, they begin to consider what can be done to avert the disaster. But when the poison cloud approaches, Challenger and his friends flee to a basement, while his loyal servants wait at the door and collapse in the poison cloud.
Eventually it turns out that the effect of the poison cloud was only temporary and people wake up refreshed.