“You will ask my pardon for stopping me in this manner, Frank Merriwell! You did it because I was the first to discover the lake! You were jealous! You did not wish me to reach it first! I know you! You want to be the leader in everything.”
“If you were not half crazy now, you would not utter such words, Jack.”
“Oh, I know you—I know!”
Then Diamond’s tone and manner suddenly changed and he began to beg:
“Please let me up, Merry—please do! Oh, merciful heaven! I am perishing for a swallow of water! And it is so near! There is water enough for ten thousand men! And such beautiful trees, where the shadows are so cool—where this accursed sun can’t pour down on one’s head! Please let me up, Frank! I’ll do anything for you if you’ll only let me go to that lake!”
“Jack, dear old fellow, I am telling you the truth when I say there is no lake. There could be no lake here in this burning desert. It is an impossibility. If there were such a lake, the ones I asked about the water-holes would have told me.”
“They did not know. I have seen it, and I know it is there.”
Frank allowed his friend to sit up.
“Look, Jack,” he said; “where is your lake?”
Jack looked away to the south, the east, the north, and then toward the west, where lay the mountains.