"Speak up, then, and I'll be pleased to accommodate you, if the knowledge is in my power to bestow. This flood bids fair to bring our experiments to an end for the time being, even if the professor's weakness hadn't made it necessary that we get to some place where he can receive the right kind of care, to build up his strength. What's bothering you now, my boy?"
"How about the wild man?" asked Bobolink.
"Oh! he was here when we came, and we made friends with him," the other replied, promptly. "You see, some of us have been up here for a month. We had some new stuff shipped in those big cases; but it'll all be rusted now by this water. The poor fellow is harmless, for all he looks so fierce. Why, at the smell of coffee the tears trickled down his dirty cheeks like rain; it seemed to be just one last link that bound his flitting memory to something in the far-away past. We gave him an old saucepan to cook it in, and showed him how. Ever since he's visited us often, and we supplied him with food, because it seemed as though he was the one who had first right to this island."
"I hope the poor old chap has the good sense to climb that hill, and get away from the rising water," remarked Jack, with some feeling. "Have you any idea who he can be, or where he came from?"
"We made up our minds that he had been out of his head a long time, and perhaps had escaped from some institution. He mentioned the name of John Pennington once, and we think it must have been his. The professor intended to make inquiries, later on, and if possible have him returned to his home, wherever it might be."
"Did he have a big yellow dog tied up at his shack?" asked Nuthin, eagerly, as though he wished to settle that point, because the animal in question had once belonged to the Cypher family.
"Yes," answered Mr. Jameson, "but it got away from him one night, by breaking the rope, and he's been making a great fuss about it ever since. But from the ugly looks of the beast, I'd sooner put a bullet in him than try to make friends."
"Well, that about finishes the list of questions we've been nearly dying to ask somebody," remarked Bobolink, "and seems like everything's been explained. What we want to know now, and there isn't a livin' soul c'n tell the answer to that, I reckon, is, how high is this old lake goin' to get before she commences to fall again? And how in Sam Hill are we expectin' to ride those motor-boats over that pile of rocks and mud, that lies in the outlet? Anybody know the answer? I'd like to hear it."
But they shook their heads. Nobody could say, although all sorts of guesses ran the rounds, for the scouts were good hands at that sort of thing.
The water was still rising, and apparently just as fast as ever. Already it had encroached upon the main part of the island; and Mr. Jameson declared that he was sure it must be all around the shed where they kept their machinery, that had been brought secretly to this isolated spot, where they hoped to complete the greatest marvel in the way of sensations ever known to curious crowds at watering places.