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A teacher will read it to you, and the page will keep up. You will be asked things — take your time answering. Headphones are better, but everything is written on screen too.

The Lost World · Arthur Conan Doyle

Chapter 6 Malone’s Night Adventure

Novel pages 37–43 · Egyptian Baccalaureate, 2nd Year

The story so far · after Chapter 5, Trapped in the Lost World

They built Fort Challenger and found iguanodons — and Summerlee said “You were right.” Then the plateau showed its other face: a plant-eater torn apart by something carnivorous, and a pterodactyl rookery whose inhabitants nearly killed them. Something strong and clever raided the camp without breaking the thorn wall, and a footprint turned up that was human but broader and heavier. From a high tree Malone saw a lake, a line of caves — and a thin line of smoke.

The most important chapter in the book for your exam

In Chapter 1, Gladys told Malone what real courage was and he ignored it. Here he works it out for himself — and the sentence he uses is almost hers. Both JRE questions in this chapter are about it, and so are Q6 and JRE Q1 of the final paper. But he does not get there in a straight line: he goes backwards first, and two of the questions are about the going-backwards part.

Chapter 6 · Malone’s Night Adventure

My companions were pleased with what I had seen from the tree. That evening, by the light of our fire, I drew a rough map of the plateau. We marked the cliff where we had entered, the forest, the pterodactyl swamp, and the large lake in the center. “The man who first saw the lake should name it,” Lord John said. I thought of Gladys and the reason I had first wanted adventure. “Lake Gladys,” I said. Summerlee gave me a dry look, but Challenger nodded. “Lake Gladys it is.”

After several hours I reached the lake. Its surface reflected the moon. For a few minutes I forgot the danger and simply watched. Then a heavy shape moved near the water. An enormous stegosaurus stepped into the open. I recognized it immediately from Maple White’s drawing. Plates rose along its back, and spikes extended from its tail. It lowered its head to drink, completely unaware of me. I wanted to shout with excitement, but I remained still. This was living proof of a world that should have disappeared millions of years ago.

Then the stegosaurus suddenly lifted its head. It had heard something. So had I. A deep movement came from the bushes behind me. I turned and saw two shining eyes. The creature that stepped into the moonlight was built for killing. It stood on powerful back legs with a long tail for balance. Its huge head was filled with teeth. Whether it was an allosaurus or another great hunter, I did not care. It had seen me.

I ran. Branches struck my face as I pushed through the forest. Behind me I heard heavy feet crashing closer. I fired once over my shoulder. The shot did not stop it. The ground suddenly vanished. I fell several meters into a deep pit and landed painfully on soft earth. For a moment I could not breathe. I expected the dinosaur to fall after me, but it stopped at the edge. Its head appeared against the sky. It snapped its jaws and roared, unable to reach me. Eventually it moved away.

I examined the pit. Its sides were too straight to be natural. Sharp stakes had once been placed at the bottom, though many were broken or rotten. This was a trap made by intelligent hands. The smoke I had seen from the tree had not been an accident. People really did live on the plateau. It took me a long time to climb out using roots and cracks in the wall. By dawn I was exhausted, covered in mud, and far from camp.

When I finally returned to Fort Challenger, something was wrong. The camp was silent. Challenger, Summerlee, and Lord John had disappeared. There were signs of struggle. Equipment had been thrown aside. Some food was missing. On the ground I found broken branches and several broad footprints. I called until my throat hurt. No one answered. For the first time since we reached the plateau, I felt completely alone.

I spent the day searching nearby paths, but found no clear trail. At sunset I returned to camp and prepared for a lonely night. I had almost fallen asleep when a hand touched my arm. I reached for my rifle - then stopped. Lord John Roxton knelt beside me. He looked terrible. His clothes were torn, his face scratched, and he was breathing hard. “Quickly, Malone,” he whispered. “Take the rifles, cartridges, and some food. We cannot stay here.”

I followed him into thick bushes where he had chosen a hiding place. “Where are the professors?” I asked. “Captured.” “By whom?” Lord John’s face became hard. “Ape-men.” He told me what had happened. Before dawn, while the others were waking, large creatures dropped from the branches above the camp. They were covered with reddish hair, but they walked upright. They carried clubs and stones, communicated with one another, and used strong vines to tie their prisoners. Lord John had fired at them, but they attacked too quickly. The three men were overwhelmed. “They are stronger than ordinary men,” he said. “And they are clever. Not human as we are, but not simply animals either.”

The ape-men had carried Challenger, Summerlee, and Lord John through the forest. Their leader was a powerful older creature. Then Lord John gave a tired smile. “You will not believe this part. The chief looks like Challenger. Same broad shoulders, same beard, same angry expression. Even Summerlee laughed when he saw them together.” The strange similarity may have saved Challenger. The ape-men treated him differently, almost as if they considered him important. Summerlee and Lord John were handled far more roughly.

During the confusion, Lord John managed to escape. He had returned to find me and collect weapons. “Can we rescue them?” I asked. “We must try. But there is more. The ape-men have other prisoners - humans from another part of the plateau. I saw several of them being dragged towards the ape settlement.” He checked his rifle. “If we move carefully, we may reach them before it is too late.”

Malone’s idea of courage · five stages, and it is not a line

Evidence for both JRE questions here — and for Q6 and JRE Q1 of the Novel Summative Assessment, which ask how his motivation changes across the whole novel.

Ch 6 · second half — Understood, and said in his own words

“Courage was not wandering into danger to prove something about yourself. Real courage was going back into danger because other people needed you.”

— Malone, choosing to go back

The same idea as Gladys’s, reached alone, hours after failing at it. And the journey he chooses is the more dangerous of the two, because this time he knows what is in the forest. “Lead the way,” he says.

Do not write “he gradually became braver”. Stage 4 is a step backwards, and it happens in the same chapter as stage 5. The novel’s point is that the lesson had to be earned twice and failed once — which is why the final version is his own sentence rather than Gladys’s.

The lines to keep from this chapter

“Courage was not wandering into danger to prove something about yourself. Real courage was going back into danger because other people needed you.” — the novel’s own thesis, in Malone’s words. Learn it.

“Lake Gladys.” and “I wanted to prove that I could contribute more than notes and maps.” and “the more foolish my decision seemed, but pride kept me moving.” — questions 8, 1 and 5. All three are the regression.

“This was a trap made by intelligent hands.” — the best piece of reasoning in the novel, done alone, in a hole, at night. And “For the first time since we reached the plateau, I felt completely alone.”

“Not human as we are, but not simply animals either.” — Roxton on the ape-men. And “Whether it was an allosaurus or another great hunter, I did not care.” — classification stops mattering when it is looking at you.

In the exam · A character arc is rarely a straight line

It looks like this: “How does X develop his character?” · “Has X become more mature?” · “How does X’s motivation change from the beginning of the novel to the end?”

Always: look for the step backwards, because it is almost always there and it is almost always the thing that earns the marks. “He gradually became braver” is what everyone writes, and it is not what this novel does: Malone loses the lesson in the first half of this chapter and finds it in the second. An answer that names a relapse — and quotes it — shows you have read the character rather than the summary.

1 · Chapter Summative — eight questions

Question 7 is the third time the book has asked “brave, reckless, or both?” about Malone. Compare your answer with the ones you gave in Chapters 1 and 3.

1. Explain — Explain why Malone decides to leave Fort Challenger alone at night.

Two reasons, and he gives them both. The stated one is useful: he wants to examine the signs of human life near the far side of the lake. The real one is personal: “I wanted to prove that I could contribute more than notes and maps.” He had just been praised for what he saw from the tree and had a lake named after Gladys at his suggestion, and instead of being satisfied he “became restless”. The expedition did not need the trip; he did.

“I should have been satisfied with the day’s work. Instead, I became restless.”

2. Explain — How does the deep pit give Malone evidence that humans live on the plateau?

He reads three physical facts and each adds something. The sides are “too straight to be natural”, so the pit was dug rather than formed. Sharp stakes had been placed at the bottom, so it was dug deliberately to kill. And many of the stakes are “broken or rotten”, so it was dug long ago — meaning whoever made it has been on the plateau for a long time, not passing through. That is why he calls it “a trap made by intelligent hands”, and it confirms the smoke he had seen from the tree.

“This was a trap made by intelligent hands.”

3. Explain — Explain what Malone learns from Lord John about the disappearance of Challenger and Summerlee.

That they were taken before dawn by ape-men who dropped from the branches above the camp — creatures covered in reddish hair that walk upright, carry clubs and stones, communicate with each other and tie prisoners with vines. Lord John fired but was overwhelmed with the others, and escaped later during the confusion. He also learns two things beyond the capture: the ape-men’s chief closely resembles Challenger, who is consequently being treated as though he were important, and the ape-men are holding other prisoners — humans from another part of the plateau.

“They are stronger than ordinary men… And they are clever. Not human as we are, but not simply animals either.”

4. Analyze — How does Malone’s solo adventure develop his character?

It develops him by failing. He goes out to prove himself and proves the opposite: he is hunted, he survives only because he happens to fall into someone else’s trap, and he returns to find that being alone — the thing he chose — is now the worst thing that has happened to him: “For the first time since we reached the plateau, I felt completely alone.” The value of the night is what it lets him see afterwards, when Roxton offers him a second journey into the same forest and he recognises the difference between the two. He also does one genuinely impressive thing in the pit: he reasons from evidence rather than fear.

“Only a few hours earlier I had been proud of my solo journey. Now it seemed childish.”

5. Analyze — Analyze how pride influences Malone’s decision to continue traveling alone even when he begins to feel unsafe.

Pride is not what starts the journey — restlessness and a wish to prove himself do that — but it is what prevents him ending it. He states this precisely: “The farther I traveled, the more foolish my decision seemed, but pride kept me moving.” That sentence matters because it shows he was not ignorant of the danger; he judged it correctly and continued anyway, because turning back would have meant admitting to himself that the trip was vanity. Pride, in this chapter, is not confidence — it is the inability to change your mind in front of yourself. Compare Chapter 2, where refusing to press charges also cost him something but was done for the opposite reason.

“the more foolish my decision seemed, but pride kept me moving.”

6. Analyze — Analyze the significance of Lord John’s return and the news that Challenger and Summerlee have been captured.

Structurally it turns the chapter round: up to that point Malone has been the subject of his own adventure, and from that point he is one of two rescuers. Roxton’s return is itself the model for the lesson Malone is about to state, because Roxton had already escaped and chose to come back for someone. The news does the same work from the other side: it replaces a private goal (prove myself) with an external need (three men are tied up). It also raises the stakes of the whole novel, since the ape-men hold human prisoners too, so the rescue is no longer only about the expedition.

“During the confusion, Lord John managed to escape. He had returned to find me and collect weapons.”

7. Evaluate — Evaluate Malone’s decision to explore alone. Was it brave, reckless, or a mixture of both?

A mixture, and heavily weighted towards reckless — and this is the third time the book has asked a question in this shape about him, so compare it with the earlier two. Brave: he walked into an unmapped forest at night knowing what lived there, and he kept his head at the lake, staying still rather than shouting. Reckless: he told nobody, so no one could look for him; he left the camp a man short in a place they already knew was being watched; and he himself says the decision seemed foolish while he was making it. Judgement: bravery you do not need is recklessness, and the proof is in the chapter — the camp was raided the same night he was not in it.

“Whether it was an allosaurus or another great hunter, I did not care. It had seen me.”

8. Evaluate — Evaluate Malone’s decision to name the lake after Gladys. What does it suggest about his motivation at this stage?

It looks like a compliment and is really a symptom. In Chapter 3 he deliberately refused to tell Gladys he was going for her sake, because he remembered that “a brave act done only to win approval was not true courage” — that was his high point. Naming the lake shows the old motive has come back: he is still keeping score for an audience in London. The evidence that this is the right reading is what he does next, in the very next paragraph — he becomes restless and goes out alone “to prove” himself. Summerlee’s “dry look” suggests the novel knows it too. It is a fair, human thing to do, and it is the moment his motivation slips.

“I thought of Gladys and the reason I had first wanted adventure. ‘Lake Gladys,’ I said.”

Novel · Chapter 6 · JRE question 1

Spend about 6 minutes

2.1

Justify your answer with clear reasoning about how his idea of courage has changed, referring to his actions or thoughts before AND after the night journey.

Has Malone become more mature by the end of this chapter?

[4]

The mark weights shown are teaching weights, worked out from the textbook’s own task types and its Justify–Reason–Evidence structure. They show you how a full answer is built and what an examiner is looking for. They are not a published ministry mark scheme.

The spine · everything up to Chapter 6

The final assessment asks for evidence from at least three different chapters. This is where you collect it — nothing beyond Chapter 6 is shown, so nothing is spoiled.

Evidence versus belief

Feeds: Novel Summative Q10 — trace this from Challenger’s first claims to the living pterodactyl in London.

Ch 1Challenger has photographs, sketches and “a few pieces of evidence” — and refuses to say where they came from. McArdle: “Most people think he is either mistaken or lying. Find out which.” The novel opens on a claim nobody can check.

Ch 2The novel’s clearest statement of how evidence works: “One item alone might have been explained away. Together they were much harder to dismiss.” Three independent things — a dead man’s drawing, a damaged photograph, a piece of bone — pointing the same way. And Challenger’s answer to belief: “I do not believe. I know.”

Ch 3Summerlee states the scientific standard in one line: “provide proof that can be tested.” Challenger’s answer is not more argument but an invitation to come and look — which is what finally moves the claim from untestable to testable. “There is nothing amusing about evidence.”

Ch 4One event, three reports. Challenger: “A pterodactyl!” Summerlee: “A large bird.” Roxton: “I cannot tell you what it was, but I can tell you I have never seen a bird shaped like that.” The non-scientist gives the only scientific answer — he reports exactly what he saw and no more. And Summerlee on the cliffs: “That proves the cliffs exist. Nothing more.”

Ch 5The claim is proved to the four of them — iguanodons watched for minutes in daylight, a rookery of hundreds — and Summerlee says so. But it is proved to nobody else: they have no photographs anyone would accept, no specimen, and no way down. And the theme survives the proof, because Summerlee immediately applies it to the next claim: “Let us not create a theory before we have evidence.”

Ch 6Malone reasons from a hole in the ground. The pit’s “sides were too straight to be natural” and sharp stakes had once been set at the bottom — “a trap made by intelligent hands”. He does not guess; he reads a structure and concludes people, which confirms the smoke he saw from the tree. The best piece of deduction any of them does.

What courage actually is

Feeds: Novel Summative JRE Q1 — can Malone be described as a hero by the end?

Ch 1Two definitions collide in one conversation. Malone’s: do something brave so Gladys will have me. Gladys’s: “He acts because courage is part of his character.” The whole novel is the distance between those two.

Ch 2Malone’s first act that matches Gladys’s definition, and nobody is watching Gladys. Bleeding on the steps with a witness and a policeman, he tells the truth against his own interest: “It was partly my fault. I will not press charges.” He does it because it is right, not to impress anyone — which is exactly what she said courage was.

Ch 3Now he applies her standard to himself, unprompted: “I wanted to say that I was doing it for her, but I remembered her earlier words. A brave act done only to win approval was not true courage.” In Chapter 1 the standard was set for him. Here he enforces it on himself, and gives up the credit.

Ch 4Courage becomes ordinary and physical: four men crossing a chasm on a felled tree, Challenger first, Roxton last “with a balance and calm that I could hardly believe”. Nobody is watching, nobody is being impressed, and it still has to be done.

Ch 5Courage is now routine and unglamorous: two fires and turns on watch, safe paths chosen, nobody walking carelessly into thick cover. And a stranger kind — “The scientists collected every fact they could, even when the facts had teeth.”

Ch 6The thread resolves, and Malone states it himself: “Courage was not wandering into danger to prove something about yourself. Real courage was going back into danger because other people needed you.” That is Gladys’s definition from Chapter 1, reached by living it rather than being told it — and he reaches it hours after regressing, having named a lake after her and walked into the dark out of pride.

London against the unknown

Feeds: Novel Summative Q9 — how the contrast develops the novel’s ideas about courage, discovery and identity.

Ch 1“London suddenly seemed too safe.” Safety is the problem, not the goal — which is the reversal the whole book is built on.

Ch 2The reversal begins: “As I stepped into the London street, the ordinary traffic seemed suddenly unreal.” The known world starts to look like the strange one.

Ch 3London is left behind for good, and Challenger measures the distance in stages: “we are going into a country that very few outsiders have seen. Later we will go beyond even that.” Two frontiers, not one.

Ch 4The frontier is crossed and then sealed behind them: “We had reached the lost world. And now we could not leave it.” The two worlds are no longer connected by anything but a rope and one loyal man.

Ch 5The lost world turns out to have two faces at once, and the chapter alternates them: iguanodons feeding peacefully, then one of them torn apart; a scientific treasure of pterodactyls, then a sky full of wings; a lake shining in the sun, then a thin line of smoke beside the caves.

Ch 6The plateau has a society. A pit dug and staked, a settlement, a chief, and prisoners taken from “another part of the plateau” — the lost world is not only older than the outside world, it is populated and at war with itself.

Whether the expedition needs everyone

Feeds: Novel Summative JRE Q3 — is teamwork the main reason the expedition succeeds?

Ch 3The team is assembled, and the novel makes a point of how unlike each other they are: “We were different in age, character, and purpose. Yet we now shared one question.” Challenger has the knowledge, Summerlee the doubt, Roxton the practical skill and the Amazon, Malone the record — and Zambo and the river men the means to get there at all.

Ch 4The team is tested for the first time and holds — Roxton defuses the scientists’ arguing, Challenger finds the route up, and it is Zambo, who is not on the plateau at all, who keeps them supplied. The expedition’s survival already depends on someone the party barely counted as a member.

Ch 5The division of labour becomes explicit: Challenger and Summerlee collect, Roxton keeps everyone alive, Malone records, Zambo holds the only line to the world. Each is doing something none of the others would have done, and the party survives on all four at once.

Ch 6The team is broken apart and its value shown by absence: alone, Malone nearly dies twice in one night; three men together are still overwhelmed. And the thing that restores it is a choice — Roxton, already free, walks back into it. “Lead the way,” Malone says.

Key Terms used in this chapter

From the novel’s own glossary on page 76. Only the words this chapter used are shown.

plateau — a high area of fairly level land, often surrounded by steep sides

pterodactyl — a flying reptile that lived in prehistoric times

stegosaurus — a plant-eating dinosaur with large plates along its back

Keep reading — this lesson marks itself done automatically.