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
find it developed in all of you to the same point which it has
reached in me, for I suppose that the strength of our different
mental processes bears some proportion to each other.
But no doubt it is appreciable even in our young friend here.
After the little outburst of high spirits which so alarmed my
domestic I sat down and reasoned with myself. I put it to myself
that I had never before felt impelled to bite any of my
household. The impulse had then been an abnormal one. In an
instant I perceived the truth. My pulse upon examination was ten
beats above the usual, and my reflexes were increased. I called
upon my higher and saner self, the real G. E. C., seated serene