"What do you suppose has happened to the Chrysothele-Byzantium herb that Dr. Todd sent us for?" demanded Jack Darrow. "Seems to me that will be badly frost-bitten by the time we find it; won't it?"
"I fear so, indeed," admitted Professor Henderson.
"Lawsy-massy!" gasped Wash. "Do yo' mean ter tell me dat we ain't gwine ter fin' dat chrysomela bypunktater plant after all? What fo' did we come away off here on dis floatin' islan' if we ain't gwine ter git dat specimen of botanical horrorforbilicalness? I done hoped I could tell ma friends w'en I returned dat we done was successful, an' cure some ob dem ob craziness in de haid by applyin' some ob de bypunktater. If we don't find it, den dey all say we been follerin' a chimera-infantum—in odder words, dat we needs some ob de bypunktater our own selfs!"
"You mean," said Jack, seriously, "that they will think we are crazy if we do not bring home what we were sent for?"
"Dat's wot I done said," grumbled the colored man.
"No, you didn't say it; but you meant it, most likely," admitted Jack. "And I reckon you are right. It does seem as though we have come a long way for nothing."
"And no likelihood of our ever getting back!" added Mark, despondently.
But this was out of the professor's hearing. The party was already on their way again, and the traveling was much easier now. Andy and Roebach led the way, followed by the professor and the boys, Wash, with his rooster in a fur bag, following on behind. They covered the twenty miles to the hilltop which overlooked Aleukan without making more than one short stop. By that time both the earth and her largest satellite, the moon, were shining brightly upon this little planet on which our friends had become marooned.
"Hurrah!" cried Jack. "We are somewhere at last! Do you suppose those supplies got over from Coldfoot before that last eruption?" "If the train did not arrive before that time," said Mark, "make up your mind that it never will arrive. Probably there is no Coldfoot on this planet."
"There are some natives on hand, at least," said the professor, with satisfaction.