The Poison Belt is a science fiction novella by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about Professor Challenger. Challenger sends telegrams asking his three companions from The Lost World—Edward Malone, Lord John Roxton, and Professor Summerlee—to join him at his home outside London, and instructs each of them to 'bring oxygen'. On arrival they are ushered into a sealed room, along with Challenger and his wife. In the course of his researches into various phenomena, Challenger has predicted that the Earth is moving into a belt of poisonous ether which, based on its effect on the people of Sumatra earlier in the day, he expects to stifle humanity. Challenger seals them in the room with cylinders of oxygen, which he (correctly) believes will counter the effect of the ether. The five wait out the Earth's passage through the poison belt as they watch the world outside die and machines run amok... Artist Bio Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a Scottish writer and physician, most noted for creating the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, a milestones in the field of crime fiction.