“Wandered where?” asked Percy and I together.
“Into the geyser region.”
“What’s that?”
“What! Haven’t you heard of the geysers of the Yellowstone that were discovered a year or two ago?”
“No.”
“Well, then, go to sleep, my unsophisticated infants,” said Captain Jack, with a patronising air, as he lay down again; “and if I’m not mistaken you shall see to-morrow some of the most wonderful sights that are to be found in all the wide world.”
CHAPTER IX
SQUEAKY SCORES ONE
JACK was right, both in his conclusion that our crooked course had carried us into the geyser basin and in his promise that we should see marvellous things. Next morning began a week during which Percy and I went about with our eyes so wide open with astonishment that I wonder we ever managed to get them shut again.
Immediately after breakfast we walked to the edge of the pine-wood and looked out over the little valley which lay below us. It was an impressive and rather an awe-inspiring sight, even by daylight. The valley was almost entirely covered by the white deposit I have mentioned; whichever way one looked, up stream or down, he would see jets and clouds of steam rising in the sharp morning air; while the throbbing, rumbling, hissing noises going on all around gave one an uncomfortable feeling that a great unknown power, which might break out at any moment and from any point, was lying in wait somewhere below the surface.