“Hot springs?” Mr. Hampton sounded frankly incredulous.
“Wait’ll you see for yourself,” said Long Jim, tolerantly. “I wouldn’t believe it, neither, when I first saw it. I thought it was fog, too. But bein’ as how heavy fog in the Winter were strange, I went to investigate. An’ I found paradise.”
Then, under Mr. Hampton’s skillful questioning, Long Jim told his story. He declared he had lived in this region now these two years, and that since first arriving he had seen nobody except themselves. Drawn by the seeming fog to investigate, he had come upon an almost tropical valley through which ran not only one but several rivers of water forever at the boiling point. These rivers, moreover, he said, were fed by hundreds of hot springs, which bubbled out of the ground in all directions. It was the steam from these which, condensing as it rose above the valley and struck the cold Winter air, had formed the fog which first attracted his attention.
“Once I were in South America,” said Long Jim. “Down clost to the Equator. Well, I’m tellin’ you, it were that hot all last Summer right in that valley. As for right now, ye’ll find it mighty pleasant an’ warm, an’ when snow falls it’s only rain by the time it passes through the heat hangin’ over that valley all the time.”
“Hurray,” cried Frank, exuberantly. “Let’s go. No snow fellows. Get that? I’ve had all the snow I need for one season, anyway, and I guess I can get along without any more for some time to come.”
Mr. Hampton smiled, but, disregarding Frank’s jubilation, proceeded with his questioning. And Long Jim, delighted with an audience to which he could talk all he pleased, after having been without companions for several years, continued unfolding new wonders.
This valley, he declared, was about 200 miles long and 40 miles wide. They were now near its upper end, to which point Long Jim had made his way by slow travel and exploration during the two years since his arrival at the southern end.
Game?
At the question, Long Jim grew even more eloquent.
He declared that, due to the heat generated by the hot springs and the boiling rivers, the fertility of the soil was amazing. The vegetation, in fact, achieved a jungle growth. Wild rose bushes grew tall as trees, with stems as thick as a man’s forearm and so dense that it was impossible to force a way through them. Willows grew to the size of big trees, with branches so thick it was possible to walk along them.