A MUD BATH.
The ground was rough and rocky but they made good time. Bursting
through a screen of trees from beyond which came the professor's
piteous cries, they received a shock.
The man of science was in the center of a large, round hole full of
black mud that bubbled and boiled and steamed as if it were alive. All
that was visible of the professor was the upper part of his body.
Seriously alarmed, the boys shouted to him to keep up his courage, and
that they would get him out.
"How did you get in?" asked Zeb, cupping his hands.
"I fell in," rejoined the poor professor. "The ground gave way under
my feet. Hurry and get me out, it's terribly hot."
They looked about them desperately for some means of extricating him
from his predicament. But just at the moment none was offered, and
with every struggle the professor was sinking deeper in the black,
evil-smelling pool of mud.
"Gracious, what are we to do?" cried Jack in despair.
"He's too far out to reach him," said Zeb, equally at a loss.
"But we must do something," chimed in Tom.
Suddenly Zeb had an inspiration. A tree grew on the banks of the mud
volcano, the sudden caving in of which, under the professor's weight,
had precipitated him into it.
"If I could get out on that branch," said Zeb, "I might be able to
bend it enough to bring my feet over him and then work back toward the
edge of the mudhole."
"It's worth trying--anything is worthy trying," agreed Jack.
Zeb took off his coat and then shinned up the tree. Then, hanging by
his hands he began working out along the branch. As he went it bent
till it hung right over the mudhole. Before long his feet dangled
above the professor's head.
"Now then, professor," panted Zeb, "take hold on my feet and work
along toward the edge of the hole with me."
The professor seized Zeb's boots with the grasp of a drowning man. The
branch cracked ominously.
"Easy thar, professor," warned Zeb earnestly. "Don't pull more'n you
can help or we'll both be in the soup."
The professor lightened his grip and slowly, hand over hand, Zeb began
the slow journey back along the branch. It was a feat only possible to
a man whose muscles were of iron. And before it was over even Zeb was
almost overcome. Perspiration streamed from his forehead and soaked
his shirt as he dropped from the branch, having accomplished the
journey and pulled the professor to the bank.
[Illustration: The professor seized Zeb's boots with the grasp of a
drowning man.--_Page_ 240.]
"That's what I call toeing a man out of trouble," punned Dick, in
the general relief that followed.
"Good thing it warn't no further," puffed Zeb, mopping his forehead.
"My arms feels as if they'd been stretched on one of them racks you
read about in the history books."
"How did it happen, professor?" asked Jack, as they scraped the mud
off the scientist.
"It's hard to say," was the response. "I was walking along, intent on
my collecting, when I came to a barren patch of ground that was
crusted over with stuff that looked like salt. I stepped out on it to
investigate and suddenly in I went. Faugh! how it smells."
"Yes, it isn't exactly perfumed," said Jack. "But how did such a place
come there?"
"It's one of those mud-springs of hot water that are found in several
places throughout the West," said the scientist. "It must have been
quiescent for some time and then the thin skin of alkaline earth
formed over it. In Europe, or if we had that spring near a large
city, it would be possible to make a fortune with it."
"In what way?" asked Dick.
"As a curative bath," replied the professor. "Every year people spend
fortunes to go to Europe and take just such baths."
"Reckon I'd go without washin' then," commented Zeb.
"I'd just as soon bathe in rotten eggs," said Dick.
"Well," said Jack, "I guess we've got off about all the mud we can for
the present. We'd better be getting back. It's mighty fortunate that
we came in time."
"Yes, I was slipping into the stuff all the time," said the professor.
"If I'd been alone on the island I might have never been seen again,"
he added in quite a matter-of-fact tone. "It's too bad I lost that bag
of fossils, though. I had some fine specimens."
"Goodness, no wonder you sank down!" exclaimed Jack. "Why didn't you
let go of them?"
The scientist was mildly surprised.
"Why, how could I," he asked, "until it became a question of life or
death? It's too bad I had to lose them," and he shook his head
mournfully at the thought.
The journey was soon resumed, the Wondership rising buoyantly out of
the dismal canyon. They were not sorry to get back to the upper air
for the gloom of the deep gulch had affected their spirits. But so
much time had been consumed in getting the professor out of his
predicament that it was not long before twilight set in and they still
had caught no glimpse of anything resembling the island they were in
search of.
They decided to come to earth and make camp for the night and resume
the search in the morning. They made a hearty supper off the venison
which remained, and turned in, without setting any watch, as there was
no necessity for it out there with not a soul about for scores of
miles.
It was about midnight when Jack was awakened by a wild yell from Tom.
"Ow! Ouch! Leggo my toe!" the younger of the Boy Inventors was
shouting.