"I must say I don't care to linger around here myself," muttered Andy.
"We must not lose our courage," said the professor. "Never before have I been in a position to study seismic disturbances so closely. I only regret I have not with me here the instruments I brought in the Snowbird. And we must somehow learn the location of that volcano which is in eruption."
"It's all right to learn the location of it," whispered Mark to Jack. "But if we learn that we'll be pretty sure to fly in the opposite direction—what do you think?"
"Believe me," said Jack, "I've got enough. The old professor is all right, but he doesn't think about danger when his interest in any natural phenomena is aroused."
The roaring of the geyser was a most unpleasant sound and the upheaval of the stones was more than unpleasant—it threatened danger to them. The vicinity of the oil-boring had been exceptionally free from small stones; but in half an hour one might have picked up a two-horse cartload weighing from ten to twenty pounds each.
Washington had run in and saved Buttsy in his cage, and they had all retired now to the little plateau from the verge of which Washington had made his famous leap to the backs of the two Indians. Phineas Roebach had released the dogs from the shed where they had been confined. There were twenty of the animals—three or four teams—fierce and intractable brutes as a usual thing, unless under the sharp control of their Indian drivers. But now they came whining and crouching to the feet of the human beings grouped together on the plateau.
The evening was growing clear; but the geyser continued to roar like the exhaust of some mighty engine and to throw off filth and evil-smelling gas. Professor Henderson stood there, wrapped in his furs, and penciled notes in his book with a grave enjoyment of the scene that made his companions wonder.
But Andy Sudds read signs other than those of which the professor made notes. Jack saw the old hunter watching the sledge dogs with a puzzled frown wrinkling his brow.
"What's the matter with you, Andy?" queried the youth.
"Them dogs," declaimed the hunter.