“A few million years ago,” Jule went on, glad of a chance to air his knowledge, “a sort of Mediterranean sea covered all the Amazon basin. The mouth of the big river was away up to the west there, near the foothills. Then the rains of the long years washed the soil down into the valley, inch by inch, and the rivers pushed it along until the continent east of the mountains was formed.”
“Must have taken a long time to wash this continent down!” yawned Alex.
“I said millions of years, didn’t I?” reproved Jule. “And the continent isn’t finished yet. Do you comprehend that, boys? The continent isn’t finished to-day! Not after millions of years!”
“That’s about the length of time Case and Frank have been gone!” declared Alex, nudging Clay to watch Jule display anger at the irrelevant observation.
“The continent won’t be completed for millions of years,” Jule went on, not at all put out by the alleged witticism. “The Amazon alone is carrying enough sediment to the Atlantic every day to make a cube of earth five hundred feet each way. How long will it take all the rivers running down from the Andes to wash the hills into the sea? Perhaps you can tell me that, Smarty?” he added, tapping Alex on the head with his open palm, whereat Captain Joe rolled up his red eyes, though the boys could not see them in the darkness, and emitted a series of low growls.
“Where will it all end?” asked Clay, musingly.
“When there are no more mountains,” Jule answered, proudly, sure of his ground. “The mountains will be washed into the seas, and the seas will fill up, and then the world will be finished.”
“I wish this night was finished!” Alex broke in. “I wish Case and Frank would come back, cargo or no cargo.”
“I think I’ll go a little way into the forest and see what they are up to,” Clay suggested, and Alex and Jule were on their feet in a moment.
“That’s just what we’ll do,” Jule cried. “We will go look ’em up!”