Scarcely had he spoken when the ‘grub’ fell, and the instant it touched the ground, there was a terrific report, and several people who could not get away in time lay killed. “So that was their little present, was it!” continued Godfrey, sarcastically. “They intended the thing to explode in here, did they? we shall have to break the necks of the next lot to see if they’re dangerous!” and disgusted Godfrey drew in the short length of rope still dangling and cast it aside. Seeing his friends still looking below in surprise he went on, “That’s a joke they’ll appreciate better than we do, judging from the mess down there. Now, triad, what’s to be done! I told you it was an idiotic scheme we were on with, and where are my grubs? It strikes me they’re going to be big ones, if that thing there is a young one. I brought dishes and incubators and what-not, for grubs, for Rhynchota, and not vertebrata, they’re made for grubs, so don’t blame me if they’re not big enough. If other things are the size of that little grub they wanted to give us, the cocoons will have to be done quick and be big, or we shall have to live a few hundred years to get enough to weave a decent net, for we can only look after one of these beasts at once. What is to be done? Unless Jovian bugs are miraculous, that beast can no more make a cocoon than I can;” and he looked so completely dismayed that his friends could not help laughing. As Godfrey said, what was to be done? They could not understand the people, nor the Jovians them, and after proposing several schemes, and rejecting all as impracticable, they remembered that the Bonians had said all planets except Earth were in communication with each other, and it was known that in the old days the Venusians had told the original inventors of the _Regina_ the same thing; therefore they should be able to ‘wave’ to Mars, so they sent several preliminary messages, asking if communication could be established, without receiving any reply except from Earth, saying that communication was already established; what did they mean? Then they ‘waved’ the same messages to Bona, again to receive the same questioning reply from Earth, to which all their messages went and to no other planet. Pleased that they had not given any particulars of their mission, they merely replied to Earth that they were on Jupiter and testing if their apparatus would carry so far. They then decided to go back and visit Mars, which was between Jupiter and Earth, so closing all up and leaving the people below in wonderment, the _Regina_ rose till outside the belts, when her course was headed for the planet Mars, to which she shot with terrific speed.