"Thinking," interjected Ned.
"What'd you suppose I was doing! Ain't I always thinking when I'm not asleep?"
"Go on, go on," urged Ned unsympathetically.
"All at once something slipped. I went right through the ground. At first I thought I was a pond of ice water, it felt so cold. Next thing I knew I was burning up."
"But your clothes? What did you have them off for?" urged the Professor.
"I took them off when I thought I was burning up. Say, fellows, that was the hottest ice water I ever took a bath in my life."
The boys could barely resist their inclination to laugh.
"Why don't you laugh if you want to? Never mind me. I don't count," growled Chunky.
Parry explained that these boiling springs were not infrequent on the desert. They were found, generally, further north, he said. This one must have worked its way up through the alkali until only a thin crust covered it, and this crust the boy had had the misfortune to step on and break through.
"You wouldn't think there were so many pitfalls under this baked desert, would you?" questioned Ned.