Billie did cast an appealing look in his direction; he just kept on pushing ahead, and turning from time to time to take note of the country they were passing through, for his map was not very lucid, and wise Donald wanted to make sure he was right.
Indeed, hardly ten minutes later Billie was heard to give an exclamation of delight and rapture.
“There she is, fellows, and as fine a spring as you’d want to see in a ’coon’s age!” he went on to call out, in his explosive way. “And say, if somebody hasn’t gone and planted palms around it, too, just for all the world like the oasis you read about in stories of Africa. And just you watch me lower that same basin, when I get started. We’ve got to keep the ponies back, though, so they won’t muddy things up before we get our fill. See, they’ve scented water; you can tell it by the way they act.”
Both Adrian and Donald smiled, for they had noticed this same thing some little time before. The acute sense of smell on the part of the animals had allowed them to know about the presence of water long before their masters were aware of it.
“Hold on, take your time, Billie,” warned Donald; and somehow the other thought he said this in the queerest possible way.
“Oh! I see how it is, you just don’t feel like making a rush, and think we all ought to be on a
level footing,” Billie observed, with as near an attempt at irony as he could attain. “H’m makes me think of that story they used to tell about the parson and his little flock on the coast.”
“What was that, Billie?” asked Donald.
“Why, you see, he had for his people mostly wreckers; and one day when he was preaching so fine, some one brought word that there was a wreck floated in down the coast. Of course every man in the congregation started to run, leaving the preacher stuck up there in his high pulpit. So he calls out, and tells them how wicked it was to think of such things on a Sunday; and all the while he talks he’s a heading toward the door, calming the men, and holding of ’em spellbound like. But when the parson gets right up to the door he alters his tune immediate, for what does he shout out but: ‘Now boys, as every one has an even chance, let’s hurry down and see if we can save any poor sailorman from that terrible wreck!’ And away he goes at the head of the string, lickety-split for the beach. And p’raps that’s what our friend Donald here’s got in mind.”
Both the others laughed at Billie’s story; but Donald did not seem inclined to either admit or deny the truth of the other’s accusation. Still Adrian could see that strange look on his face, and noted that Donald had taken up his station