"You said, Summerlee, that there was no possible truth in his contention."

"Dear me!" said Challenger, puffing out his chest and stroking
his beard.  "No possible truth!  I seem to have heard the words
before.  And may I ask with what arguments the great and famous
Professor Summerlee proceeded to demolish the humble individual
who had ventured to express an opinion upon a matter of
scientific possibility?  Perhaps before he exterminates that
unfortunate nonentity he will condescend to give some reasons
for the adverse views which he has formed."

He bowed and shrugged and spread open his hands as he spoke with
his elaborate and elephantine sarcasm.

"The reason was simple enough," said the dogged Summerlee.  "I
contended that if the ether surrounding the earth was so toxic
in one quarter that it produced dangerous symptoms, it was
hardly likely that we three in the railway carriage should be
entirely unaffected."

The explanation only brought uproarious merriment from
Challenger.  He laughed until everything in the room seemed to
rattle and quiver.

"Our worthy Summerlee is, not for the first time, somewhat out
of touch with the facts of the situation," said he at last,
mopping his heated brow.  "Now, gentlemen, I cannot make my point
better than by detailing to you what I have myself done this
morning.  You will the more easily condone any mental abberation
upon your own part when you realize that even I have had moments
when my balance has been disturbed.  We have had for some years
in this household a housekeeper--one Sarah, with whose second
name I have never attempted to burden my memory.  She is a woman
of a severe and forbidding aspect, prim and demure in her
bearing, very impassive in her nature, and never known within
our experience to show signs of any emotion.  As I sat alone at
my breakfast--Mrs. Challenger is in the habit of keeping her
room of a morning--it suddenly entered my head that it would be
entertaining and instructive to see whether I could find any
limits to this woman's inperturbability.  I devised a simple but
effective experiment.  Having upset a small vase of flowers which
stood in the centre of the cloth, I rang the bell and slipped
under the table.  She entered and, seeing the room empty,
imagined that I had withdrawn to the study.  As I had expected,
she approached and leaned over the table to replace the vase.  I
had a vision of a cotton stocking and an elastic-sided boot.
Protruding my head, I sank my teeth into the calf of her leg.
The experiment was successful beyond belief.  For some moments
she stood paralyzed, staring down at my head.  Then with a shriek
she tore herself free and rushed from the room.  I pursued her
with some thoughts of an explanation, but she flew down the
drive, and some minutes afterwards I was able to pick her out
with my field-glasses traveling very rapidly in a south-westerly
direction.  I tell you the anecdote for what it is worth.  I drop
it into your brains and await its germination.  Is it
illuminative?  Has it conveyed anything to your minds?  What do
_you_ think of it, Lord John?"

Lord John shook his head gravely.

"You'll be gettin' into serious trouble some of these days if
you don't put a brake on," said he.

"Perhaps you have some observation to make, Summerlee?"

"You should drop all work instantly, Challenger, and take three
months in a German watering-place," said he.

"Profound!  Profound!" cried Challenger.  "Now, my young friend,
is it possible that wisdom may come from you where your seniors
have so signally failed?"

And it did.  I say it with all modesty, but it did.  Of course, it
all seems obvious enough to you who know what occurred, but it
was not so very clear when everything was new.  But it came on me
suddenly with the full force of absolute conviction.

"Poison!" I cried.

Then, even as I said the word, my mind flashed back over the
whole morning's experiences, past Lord John with his buffalo,
past my own hysterical tears, past the outrageous conduct of
Professor Summerlee, to the queer happenings in London, the row
in the park, the driving of the chauffeur, the quarrel at the
oxygen warehouse.  Everything fitted suddenly into its place.

"Of course," I cried again.  "It is poison.  We are all poisoned."

"Exactly," said Challenger, rubbing his hands, "we are all
poisoned.  Our planet has swum into the poison belt of ether, and
is now flying deeper into it at the rate of some millions of
miles a minute.  Our young friend has expressed the cause of all
our troubles and perplexities in a single word, `poison.'"

We looked at each other in amazed silence.  No comment seemed to
meet the situation.

"There is a mental inhibition by which such symptoms can be
checked and controlled," said Challenger.  "I cannot expect to