Wandering William indicated a tumble down sign post a few paces off.
To it was nailed board with sun faded lettering on it.
"Read it," commanded Wandering William.
"'To the lost in the desert inferno,'" read Peggy, "'water is twenty paces to the west.'"
"If it hadn't been for the white soul of the man who put that up there," commented the "professor," "we might have perished miserably. Heaven bless him, wherever he is."
"Amen," murmured Peggy.
They filled the buckets, and staggering under their weight, Wandering William led the way back to the aeroplane. Roy was awake and thirsty. He drank greedily of the turbid stuff they offered him.
"And now," said the professor, "let's get to work on that radiator."
But try as they would, they could not stop the leak. Indeed, so much water was wasted in their experiments that several more trips to the pool were necessary.
"Looks like we have run into the worst streak of hard luck I ever heard of," sighed Wandering William despairingly, after the failure of the twentieth trial to get the cooling system to hold water. "We've just got to plug that leak somehow, or—"
He didn't finish the sentence. There was no need for him to do that.