animal life that might serve to keep them from starving, with only the
scantiest of vegetation, their situation was most deplorable.

"And then there's another thing," said Mark, as if he was cataloguing a
list of their troubles.

"What is it?" asked Jack. "I guess we have all the troubles that belong
to us, and more, too."

"Well, what are we going to do when the life-torches give out, and we
can't breathe any more?" asked Mark dubiously.

"Well, I guess it'll be all up with us then, if we don't starve to
death in the meanwhile," answered Jack. "But I'm afraid we will get out
of food before the torches are exhausted. They were freshly filled
before we started out after that tool, and they'll last for two weeks.
So we don't have to worry about that.

"By Jinks! this is all my fault, anyhow, it seems. If I hadn't seen
that item in the Martian paper about the diamonds, we never would have
come here, and if I hadn't left that tool on the ground outside of the
projectile we wouldn't have had to come back after it, and we wouldn't
have become lost. So I guess it's up to me, as the boys say."

"Oh, nonsense!" exclaimed Mark, who, as soon as he heard his chum
blaming his own actions, was ready to shoulder part of the
responsibility himself. "We all wanted to come to the moon," he went
on, "and, as for leaving the tool and forgetting it, I'm as much at
fault as you are. Let's go to sleep, and maybe we'll feel better when
we wake up."