“No, indeed, the fires are long extinct,” declared the professor, “this valley was formed at a remote period when no doubt hot water geysers and fires spouted through the earth’s crust. But that will never occur again. In fact——”
“Look! Look there!” shouted Walt, suddenly pointing off to one side of the valley.
“By Jee-hos-o-phat—smoke!” yelled Pete, fairly startled out of his usual composure.
“A volcano!” cried Walt “Hadn’t we better be getting away from here?”
“This is most extraordinary,” exclaimed the man of science, “there is every evidence here that the internal fires have been long extinct and yet, as if to confound us, smoke comes pouring from that fissure yonder.”
“Wall, my vote is that we git right out of hyar quick,” declared Pete, “volcanoes and Peter de Peyster never did agree.”
But the professor, filled with scientific ardor, was already spurring his bony animal across the scarred and arid plain toward the smoke.
The others, watching him, saw him approach the fissure carefully and dismount. The next instant he uttered a yell that startled them all.
“Hez ther fireworks started?” asked Coyote anxiously.
The professor was waving his bony arms around like one of those wooden figures that you see on barns. He was evidently in a state of great excitement.