“It must be so,” agreed the young inventor.
“Shure, sor, it’s thrue,” averred Barney.
“Why didn’t you wake us up and tell us about it?”
“On me worrud, sor, I niver had a thought that it wud cum back again, sor, an’ I med out to wait until mornin’ rather than disthurb yez sleep, sor.”
“Well,” said Frank, turning to Nicodemus, “it is hardly likely that we could have accomplished anything anyway in that brief time.”
“That is true,” agreed the captain. “We will wait for another evacuation of the lake basin.”
All that day the little party watched the lake. That night all sat up until late to see if the lake would go out again.
But it did not. The next day brought no change, and thus several days passed.
Still the same smooth expanse of water smiled upon them every morning.
There seemed no reason for believing that it ever would or could change its basin.