"You can go out and hide in the bushes while I'm telling the story,"
returned Chunky. "This is a nice ladylike story. It's about a
fellow---a clerk who was out with a party of surveyors, running a
line across the desert. The water holes had gone dry and they were
choking for water when the clerk saved them and---"
"Ring the bell! Ring the bell!" shouted Ned Rector.
"Yes, you have told us that story twice to my positive knowledge,"
spoke up the professor.
"Of course he has," agreed Walter. "The clerk found water for them
and they were saved," added Tad, laughing immoderately.
"Did he?" demanded Chunky eyeing them soulfully.
"Yes, of course he did. You ought to remember the story. You have
told it often enough."
"How did he save them?"
"He had a fountain pen, of course, silly! Have you forgotten your own
story?" scoffed Tad.
"He didn't have anything of the sort. This was another clerk. This
one had a watch."
Stacy glanced around expectantly. Not a face was smiling. All were
as solemn as owls.
"He had a watch," nodded Rector.
"He had a watch," added Tad.
"I wonder if the watch was running?" piped Walter.
"No, it was stagnant," retorted Stacy.
"Young gentlemen, for the sake of bringing a long-winded discussion to
a close, I will offer myself as---as what you call a 'mark.' What had
the watch to do with their thirst?" asked the professor gazing sternly
at Stacy.
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