Summoned from London, journalist Edward Malone, narrator of Arthur Conan Doyle’s prehistoric-adventure novel The Lost World, finds himself reunited with his erstwhile travelling companions at the country home of their leader, the indomitable Professor Challenger, who, confining his guests in a sealed room with the cylinders of oxygen they have brought at his request, informs them that the Earth is passing through an immense miasma of poisonous ether that will likely extirpate all life. And so the isolated inmates begin a grim and terrifying vigil – but will the toxic vapour dissipate before their limited supply of oxygen is exhausted? Presented here with two short stories representing further thrilling episodes in the illustrious career of Conan Doyle’s other great anti-hero, Professor Challenger – ‘The Disintegration Machine’ and ‘When the World Screamed’ – The Poison Belt is a tour de force of speculative fiction that is the equal of any of the author’s best-known works.