"Maybe there's water here. I'll see," he muttered. Stacy began digging industriously with knife and hands.
After a time the knife struck some hard substance. This, upon further digging, proved to be a bottle. The boy pulled his find out quickly.
"There's a piece of paper in it," he exclaimed in surprise. "Guess somebody must have thrown it off a sinking desert schooner."
Stacy drew the paper from the bottle.
"'To the lost on the Desert Maze,'" he read "That's me and the coyote. 'Water ten paces to the east. Grass Peak fifteen miles to the east. Belted Range about eighteen miles west. Cross piece on stick, points due east and west. A Traveler.'"
With a sharp glance at his sleeping companion, Stacy tramped off ten paces. There being no sign of water, the lad began stamping about with his heels. Suddenly the alkali crust gave way beneath him. One leg went through. He felt it plunge into water.
"Y-e-o-w!" howled Stacy.
Tad Butler scrambled to his feet, rubbing his eyes.
"Water! Water! Water! I fell in!" shrieked the fat boy, dancing about joyously. "I've found a key to the Desert Maze, and I've unlocked one blind desert alley with my foot."
The lads drank and drank of the villainous, brown fluid. Then, after having laved their faces and filled the canteens, they set out on their journey. Grass Peak was the hill from which the Professor's pajamas had been unfurled to the idle desert breeze.