The Poison Belt / Arthur Conan Doyle

The Poison Belt - a novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, a British writer and medical doctor. He created the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are considered milestones in the field of crime fiction.

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'. During their journey there, they see people's behaviour become excitable and erratic. 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.