THE SIGNAL FAILS
"Stop! Don't drink that! It may be poison!" yelled Jack.
"Pull him back!" shouted Mark, and together they advanced on the old hunter. They tried to drag him away from the black pool, but Andy shook them off.
"Let—me—alone!" he gasped, as he bent over the uninviting liquid and drank deeply. "It's water, I tell you—good water—and I'm almost—dead—from—thirst!"
"Water? Is that water?" cried Jack.
"Well, it's the nearest thing to it that I've tasted since I've been lost on the moon," spoke Andy, as he slowly arose. "My, but that was good!" he added fervently.
"But—water?" gasped Mark. "How can there be water here?"
"Taste and see," invited the old hunter.
They hesitated a moment, and then followed his example. The liquid—water it evidently had once been—had a peculiar taste, but it was not bad. By some curious chemical action, which they never understood, the liquid had been prevented from evaporating, nor was it frozen or petrified as was everything else on the moon.
What gave the liquid its peculiar black color they could not learn. Sufficient for them that it was capable of quenching their thirst, and they all drank deeply and refilled their bottles.