CHAPTER XI
STACY GETS INTO HOT WATER
Tom was followed by the entire Overland party, Lieutenant Wingate sprinting along beside him. As they neared the spot where Stacy had last been seen, frightful howls were heard above the hiss of steam from numerous small geysers close at hand.
“Where is he? Oh, where is he?” cried Nora.
“He has fallen in, of course,” answered Emma.
“Of course he has. Stacy! Oh, Stacy! Where are you?” shouted Hippy.
“He isn’t very badly off or he couldn’t make a noise like that,” averred Tom. “I reckon—” Tom suddenly felt the thin volcanic crust crumble beneath his own feet. He leaped back, but none too soon, for the crust on which he had been running but a moment before had caved in, leaving a narrow, dark opening. The others of the party stopped instantly, and stood gazing in awe at the dark opening.
Hippy ran around the hole, treading on tiptoes, and a few seconds later he was peering into another dark opening, about three feet in diameter, from which a faint cloud of vapor was rising.
“Chunky!” he shouted. “Are you down there?”
“Oh, wow!” wailed the fat boy. “Get me out. I’m boiled alive! Hurry! I’ll be dead in a minute more.”