<div class="floatright">(http://images.askmen.com/celebs/interview_300/332_michael-fassbender-interview_flash.jpg)</div>On the twenty-first of the month the worst yet of the news came. Despite his father’s connections in Parliament, the Royal Society had refused to grant any funding toward the Amazonian expedition. For a while Allenby mulled dropping Dr. Middleton’s name to the Society, but time was running short and, unknown to Allenby, it hadn’t funded Middleton’s venture, either. The Society didn’t fund wild-goose chases. It simply didn’t believe anything like what Allenby proposed could possibly exist, let alone offer any sort of scientific breakthroughs from Allenby.<br/><br/>Lord Allenby introduced himself as Ian to Dr. Margaret Middleton on the twenty-third. His office was a modest one, and obviously recently and temporarily rented. It was staffed by a single clerk who acted almost like a concierge to Allenby. What he did well was control access to Allenby himself. Allenby, for prudent reasons, was avoiding the press. As a result, the press’ hostility towards him itself generated much of the publicity Allenby was seeking. Publicity meant donations, and donations meant funding. Even more publicity was generated when the embarking of a Russian princess in La Havre made the French press. When the ferry steamed into Portsmouth on the twenty-fifth, the press was waiting for the exotic Princess Galitsin, the first of many instances where her name would be butchered and misprinted in English newspapers.<br/><br/>Allenby met each of Middleton and Galitzine individually: Middleton on the twenty-third, and Princess Galizine prior to a more public event on the twenty-sixth to which Middleton was a sponsored guest. Privately, he said much the same thing to both women. He made no mention of the declination of the Royal Society to fund the expedition. He did however have numerous maps of an apparently unmapped region of the Amazon jungle. The expedition would embark on the White Star Line’s<em>Majestic</em>on the thirtieth, bound for Lisbon, Casablanca, Cape Verde, and Rio de Janeiro. The voyage was scheduled to arrive in Rio de Janeiro nine days later. A river steamer chartered from Rio de Janeiro would take them up the Amazon and into the jungle. Allenby had just recently returned from a previous expedition into the jungle in which he befriended the native peoples, and learned of the plateau. The natives called it Tecumpultec: Cursed Cauldron. The entire travel time to the plateau was estimated optimistically at six weeks from date of departure from Portsmouth.<br/><br/>The press conference at Remington House on the twenty-sixth turned into a debacle of the first order. Allenby announced that a new scientific expedition that would definitively prove the existence of dinosaurs was to be undertaken. Since his return from the Amazon Allenby had offered evidence that what he was saying was true, but the press didn’t believe of word of it. He had managed to capture a single creature, flying and at extreme range, in several photographs. However the authenticity of the photographs was questioned, as they appeared to have been doctored during the developing process. This was explained away by the crude equipment that was available in the jungle. The fact that the original films were lost in the Amazon only made suspicions worse. The maps that he had presented had been drawn from his own memory, and were thus useless in any serious posterity work. The press had turned hostile, and now at yet another press conference the entire exposition of evidence was declared a fraud.<br/><br/>Allenby had used the announcement of a new scientific expedition as an attempt to change his tactics. It was a disaster. The presentation of two women of unproven scientific standing led by man with no scientific background at all was a complete farce at best, and scandalous at worst. The press latched on to the Princess’ Russianness, and simply presumed her morals loose, and her scientific methods looser. Dr. Middleton was more of a traveling companion than a real scientist, and was off on some euphemistic search for her husband and butterflies. They accused Allenby himself for organizing the entire expedition around impressing an eligible daughter of the Exchequer.<br/><br/>Privately Allenby noted, with bitterness, that the woman in question had not donated a single penny to the expedition. He downplayed her role in the entire idea, though he did admit some romantic interest in her. He also steadfastly maintained his proclamation that his photographs, while of admittedly poor quality, were in fact genuine, and that his maps were accurate as they related to time and distance. Finally, he appealed to the two scientists own attacked position. Here was an opportunity to prove that women could undertake great scientific expeditions and present their findings to the world. This was something that the world of science had not yet afforded the fairer sex. There was something very genuine in his pleas and his passion for the challenge they were about to face. He was convinced that living dinosaurs existed, and he was going to prove it to the world, or die trying.