It _called_ itself Tea, but I'm--bound--to--
admit--"
He was nodding again. Utterly perplexed, Tamsin leant back and
regarded him.
"Can you walk, if you lean on my arm?"
"Walk? Oh! yes, I can walk. Why not?"
But it seemed that he was mistaken; for, in attempting to start, he
groped about for a bit and then sat down suddenly. Tamsin helped him
to his feet.
The reader has long ago guessed the cause of the catastrophe. It was
dynamite--conspirators' dynamite, and therefore ill-prepared.
Now dynamite, when it explodes, acts, we are told, with "local
partiality"; and of this term we may remark--
That it is given as an explanation by men of science,
Without being a "scientific" explanation;
But is, in fact, a "metaphysical" explanation,
And therefore no explanation at all of
The astonishing fact that dynamite hits one thing and does not
hit another.
In the case of Mr. Fogo, his top-hat had vanished, but the brim still
clung to his head, like a halo. His spectacles and one boot had
gone; the other boot was unlaced. His coat was split up the back,
and his collar had broken away, but his tie was barely disarranged.
He has since declared that he left the schooner with two-and-sixpence
in his trowser pocket, and came ashore with two-and-a-penny; but this
was in an account delivered to a scientific audience, and is thought
to have been a joke.
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