"Will some one please muzzle the fat boy?" begged Ned.
"You can go out and hide in the bushes while I'm telling the story," returned Chunky. "This is a nice ladylike story. It's about a fellow—-a clerk who was out with a party of surveyors, running a line across the desert. The water holes had gone dry and they were choking for water when the clerk saved them and—-"
"Ring the bell! Ring the bell!" shouted Ned Rector.
"Yes, you have told us that story twice to my positive knowledge," spoke up the professor.
"Of course he has," agreed Walter. "The clerk found water for them and they were saved," added Tad, laughing immoderately.
"Did he?" demanded Chunky eyeing them soulfully.
"Yes, of course he did. You ought to remember the story. You have told it often enough."
"How did he save them?"
"He had a fountain pen, of course, silly! Have you forgotten your own story?" scoffed Tad.
"He didn't have anything of the sort. This was another clerk. This one had a watch."