“Vos dot vot I thought, eh?” excitedly exclaimed the Dutch lad. “Veil, I proff him to you! I shown you britty queek alretty vot I done dot directions in. I vos a hustler ven I started out, und don’d you forget him!”
“All right,” grinned Ephraim. “If yeou can cut Frank aout with Miss Abigail darned if I don’t deliver them beans!”
Then the Vermonter and the Irish lad chuckled and nudged each other, anticipating no end of sport, for they knew Hans was in earnest and would make an attempt to win the attention of the spinster.
Embudo is down on the railroad time tables, and that is about as near as it comes to being on earth.
When the party reached the station platform they looked around for the town. To their astonishment all they could see was the little red station house and a lonely water tank. On both sides were towering cliffs of lava, that looked as if they had been scorched and melted by the fiercest of heats, and the boys found it difficult to believe that the sickly creek in sight was the Rio Grande River. The little stream made a great fuss as it dashed over a bed that was paved with blocks of black basalt, as if seeking to call attention to itself and its importance.
“Well!” exclaimed Harry, astonished; “jay I be miggered—I mean may I be jiggered!”
“Golly sakes to goodness!” gasped Toots. “Where am we, chilluns?”
Bruce Browning groaned.
“Sold again!” he muttered, in despair. “Why, this is the next stop to the infernal regions!”
“Where’s the town?” asked Diamond.