ng night would tell. But it sounded a
lot like one of Dworken's taller tales. I had never been able to
disprove any one of them, but I found it a _little_ hard to believe that
so many improbable things had ever happened to one man. However, I like
being entertained, if it doesn't cost me too much, so finally I said,

"I suppose you are going to tell me you ventured out into the interior
of Mars, carrying a six weeks' supply of water and oxygen on your back,
and visited the Xo theaters on the spot?"

"How did you know? Dat is just what I did," solemnly affirmed my
companion. He snorted again, and looked at his glass. It was empty, but
he tilted it into his face again in an eloquent gesture. No words were
needed: I punched the symbols for _shchikh_ into the drinkboard on my
side of the table. Then, after hesitating, I punched the "two in"
signal. I must remember, though, that this was my second and last.

His eighth _shchikh_ seemed to instill some animation into Dworken. "I
know you feel skepticality--I mean skepticism--after my exploits. You
will see tomorrow night dat I speak true."

"Amazing!" I said. "Especially as I just happen to remember that three
different expeditions from Earth tried to penetrate more than a hundred
kilometers from Behastin, but either they couldn't carry the water and
oxygen that far, or they resorted to breathing Mars air, and never came
back. And they were Earthmen, not Venusians who are accustomed to two
atmospheres of carbon dioxide."

"My vriend, you must not reason: it was so, it always will be so. The
brinciple of induction is long exbloded. I did indeed breathe Mars air.
Vait! I tell you how."

He took another long swig of _shchikh_. "Vat your Eart'men did not
realize was dat dey cannot acclimate themselves as do we Venusians. You
know de character of our planet made adaptability a condition of
survival. It is true dat our atmosphere is heavy, but on top of our
so-high mountains de air is t'in. We must live everywhere, de space is
so few. I first adapted myself on Eart' to live. I was dere a whole
year, you vill recollect. Den I go further. Your engineers construct air
tanks dat make like de air of mountains, t'in. So, I learn to live in
dose tanks. Each day I haf spent one, two, three hours in dem. I get so
I can breathe air at one-third the pressure of your already t'in
atmosphere. And at one-sixt' the tension of oxygen. No, my vriend, you
could not do this. Your lungs burst. B