parcels of tobacco I just
glanced at the label on the tin and saw the letter T followed by the
right number of other letters, and, taking it for granted that it was
the tobacco tin, placed the tobacco in it. The only other tin left to
pack was the one I supposed to be labelled 'Tapioca,' and no doubt,
without troubling to look at the label at all, I put the tapioca into
it; but, of course, it must really have been the tin labelled
'Tobacco.'"

Thus the matter was satisfactorily cleared up. John, having found his
beloved weed and recovered from the effects of our patent Martian air,
was now quite himself again, seeming very contrite, and apologising
repeatedly for his rude conduct.

"That's enough, John," I said, as I laid my hand on his arm; "it is
quite clear that what you did was mainly the result of the peculiar air
you had been breathing, so I cannot blame you much. If I had not taken
so many intervals in the purer air, I might perhaps have been equally
affected; as it was, my temper was none of the sweetest."

M'Allister had also quite recovered by this time, and bore no ill-will
towards John; indeed, I doubt whether he had any very clear recollection
of what had occurred.

So that ended the matter; and this little explosion having cleared the
air, we all settled down to our old amicable relationship. We, however,
took the precaution of reducing the amount of nitrous-oxide gas in our
mixture of air, with a view to preventing any similar untoward results
in future.

CHAPTER IX

A NARROW ESCAPE FROM DESTRUCTION--I GIVE SOME PARTICULARS ABOUT MARS AND
MARTIAN DISCOVERY

Things now went on quietly and, in fact, rather monotonously for several
days; and then we met with another rather startling experience.

We were all sitting together in our living-room on the 9th of September,
whiling away the time in a game of whist, and, as it was the final
rubber and we were running very close together, we were quite absorbed
in the play; although, of course, it was a dummy game.

Suddenly we heard a most tremendous crash, apparently from the
right-hand side of the air-chamber, the vessel giving a violent lurch
sideways, then shivering and trembling from end to end. The crash was
immediately followed by a sharp rattling on the top and side of the
_Areonal_, just as though a fusillade of good-sized bullets had been
fired at us.

"My word! whatever's that?--one of the cylinders must have exploded,"
cried M'Alli