turtles, as big as a house."

"How did they get there?"

"Got mired while they were feeding,
perhaps; or the water drained off and left
them high and dry."

"But where did the water go to?"

The general chuckled at this juncture,
and lit another cigar. "She knows more
questions than you do the answers to them,"
quoth he. "But I wouldn't mind hearing
where the water went to, myself. I should
like to see some of it back again."

"Ask the earthquakes, and the sun.
There's a hundred and thirty degrees of
heat in some of these valleys,--abysses,
rather, three or four hundred feet below sea-
level. The earth is very thin-skinned in
this region, too, and whatever water wasn't
evaporated from above would be likely to
come to grief underneath."

"But, professor," said the musical voice,
"I thought there was a law that water
always seeks its own level. So how can
there be empty places below sea-level?"