Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) THIRTY STRANGE STORIES _By_ H. G. WELLS, _Author of “The Invisible Man” “The War of the Worlds”_ [Illustration] HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON 1898 Copyright, 1897, by EDWARD ARNOLD. _All rights reserved._ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS PAGE THE STRANGE ORCHID 1 ÆPYORNIS ISLAND 15 THE PLATTNER STORY 34 THE ARGONAUTS OF THE AIR 66 THE STORY OF THE LATE MR. ELVESHAM 86 THE STOLEN BACILLUS 114 THE RED ROOM 125 A MOTH (GENUS UNKNOWN) 140 IN THE ABYSS 157 UNDER THE KNIFE 183 THE RECONCILIATION 205 A SLIP UNDER THE MICROSCOPE 216 IN THE AVU OBSERVATORY 247 THE TRIUMPHS OF A TAXIDERMIST 259 A DEAL IN OSTRICHES 266 THE RAJAH’S TREASURE 274 THE STORY OF DAVIDSON’S EYES 291 THE CONE 307 THE PURPLE PILEUS 326 A CATASTROPHE 345 LE MARI TERRIBLE 359 THE APPLE 366 THE SAD STORY OF A DRAMATIC CRITIC 379 THE JILTING OF JANE 393 THE LOST INHERITANCE 405 POLLOCK AND THE PORROH MAN 416 THE SEA RAIDERS 442 IN THE MODERN VEIN 459 THE LORD OF THE DYNAMOS 476 THE TREASURE IN THE FOREST 491 THIRTY STRANGE STORIES THE STRANGE ORCHID