“You are a fool!” angrily exclaimed Ibrahim.
“Thank you; we are brothers,” retorted Max.
Ibrahim laughed, and acknowledged that Max had the best of it.
“Seriously, though, there was a river and the water must empty itself somewhere.”
“Of course.”
“Well, where does it go to?”
“To the place where it empties itself,” answered Max.
“Confound you, Max! be serious. Who knows but that we are on the verge of a great discovery?”
“Yes; and that we may be heralded all over the world as the mighty explorers who found the river Ibrahim, which had its rise in an atom of sand, and flowed into the lake of nothing.”
Then, pausing, he suddenly slapped Ibrahim on the shoulder.