Chapter 1 – Dr. Ransom, a philologist, is wandering streets, looking for a place to stay when a woman sees him, and calls to him – mistaking him for her son, Harry. After a conversation, and in half pity for the woman, half desire to find a place to stay, Ransom goes to retrieve Harry from his place of work, a farm called “The Rise”. After sneaking into the back yard, Ransom finds two men holding the boy in the Professor's house – he calls out and they approach him. The men are Mr. Devine, who was a school mate of Ransom, and Professor Weston, and physicist. The men claim to be putting Harry in the washhouse because he's become hysterical, Harry claims that they are forcing him into Weston's laboratory. Because of Ransom's relationship to Devine, the arrangements are made for Ransom to take a rest, then to take Harry home, and finally return to the house to sleep. Devine seems overly accepting, Weston is not happy about Ransom, and Ransom is very suspicious and uneasy about all of it – but is too tired to care.