I made good speed along the shore, and I was not long in dressing,
but when I entered the dining-room she was there, demure, smiling,
exquisite in her cool, white frock. "The sea-shell is yours," said I. "I hope I can find one with a pearl
in it." The professor hurried in before she could reply. He greeted me very
cordially, but there was an abstracted air about him, and he called me
Dick until I recognised that remonstrance was useless. He was not long
over his coffee and rolls. "McPeek and Frisby will return with the last load, including your
trunk, by early afternoon," he said, rising and picking up his bundle
of drawings. "I haven't time to explain to you what we are doing,
Dick, but Daisy will take you about and instruct you. She will give
you the rifle standing in my room--it's a good Winchester. I have
sent for an 'Express' for you, big enough to knock over any elephant
in India.--Daisy, take him through the sheds and tell him everything. Luncheon is at noon.--Do you usually take luncheon, Dick?" "When I am permitted," I smiled. "Well," said the professor doubtfully, "you mustn't come back here
for it. Freda can take you what you want. Is your hand unsteady after
eating?" "Why, papa!" said Daisy. "Do you intend to starve him?" We all laughed. The professor tucked his drawings into a capacious pocket, pulled his
sea boots up to his hips, seized a spade, and left, nodding to us as
though he were thinking of something else. We went to the door and watched him across the salt meadows until a
distant sand dune hid him. "Come," said Daisy Holroyd, "I am going to take you to the shop." She put on a broad-brimmed straw hat, a distractingly pretty
combination of filmy cool stuffs, and led the way to the long low
structure that I had noticed the evening before. The interior was lighted by the numberless little portholes, and I
could see everything plainly. I acknowledge I was nonplussed by what I
did see. In the centre of the shed, which must have been at least a hundred feet
long, stood what I thought at first was the skeleton of an enormous
whale. After a moment's silent contemplation of the thing I saw that
it could not be a whale, for the frames of two gigantic bat-like wings
rose from each shoulder. Also I noticed that the animal possessed
legs--four of them--with most unpleasant-looking webbed claws fully
eight feet long. The bony framework of the head, too, resembled
something between a crocodile and a monstrous snapping turtle. The walls of the shanty were hung with drawings and blue prints. A
man dressed in white linen was tinkering with the vertebræ of the
lizardlike tail. "Where on earth did such a reptile come from?" I asked at length. "Oh, it's not real!" said Daisy scornfully; "it's papier-maché." "I see," said I--"a stage prop." "A what?" asked Daisy, in hurt astonishment. "Why, a--a sort of Siegfried dragon--a what's-his-name--er, Pfafner, or
Peffer, or----"

"If my father heard you say such things he would dislike you," said
Daisy. She looked grieved, and moved toward the door. I apologized--for
what, I knew not--and we became reconciled. She ran into her father's
room and brought me the rifle, a very good Winchester. She also gave me
a cartridge belt, full. "Now," she smiled, "I shall take you to your observatory, and when we
arrive you are to begin your duty at once." "And that duty?" I ventured, shouldering the rifle. "That duty is, to watch the ocean. I shall then explain the whole
affair--but you mustn't look at me while I speak; you must watch the
sea." "This," said I, "is hardship. I had rather go without the luncheon." I do not think she was offended at my speech; still she frowned for
almost three seconds. We passed through acres of sweet bay and spear grass, sometimes
skirting thickets of twisted cedars, sometimes walking in the full
glare of the morning sun, sinking into shifting sand where sun-scorched
shells crackled under our feet, and sun-browned seaweed glistened,
bronzed and iridescent. Then, as we climbed a little hill, the sea wind
freshened in our faces, and lo! the ocean lay below us, far-stretching
as the eye could reach, glittering, magnificent. Daisy sat down flat on the sand. It takes a clever girl to do that and
retain the respectful deference due her from men. It takes a graceful
girl to accomplish it triumphantly when a man is looking. "You must sit beside me," she said--as though it would prove irksome to
me. "Now," she continued, "you must watch the water while I am talking." I nodded. "Why don't you do it, then?" she asked. I succeeded in wrenching my head toward the ocean, although I felt sure
it would swing gradually round again in spite of me. "To begin with," said Daisy Holroyd, "there's a thing in that ocean
that would astonish you if you saw it. Turn your head!" "I am," I said meekly. "Did you hear what I said?" "Yes--er--a thing in the ocean that's going to astonish me." Visions of
mermaids rose before me. "The thing," said Daisy, "is a Thermosaurus!" I nodded vaguely, as though anticipating a delightful introduction to
a nautical friend. "You don't seem astonished," she said reproachfully. "Why should I be?" I asked. "Please turn your eyes toward the water. Suppose a Thermosaurus should
look out of the waves!" "Well," said I, "in that case the pleasure would be mutual." She frowned, and bit her upper lip. "Do you know what a Thermosaurus is?" she asked. "If I am to guess," said I, "I guess it's a jellyfish." "It's that big, ugly, horrible creature that I showed you in the shed!" cried Daisy impatiently. "Eh!" I stammered. "Not papier-maché either," she continued excitedly; "it's a real one." This was pleasant news. I glanced instinctively at my rifle and then at
the ocean. "Well," said I at last, "it strikes me that you and I resemble a pair
of Andromedas waiting to be swallowed. This rifle won't stop a beast,
a live beast, like that Nibelungen dragon of yours." "Yes, it will," she said; "it's not an ordinary rifle." Then, for the first time, I noticed, just below the magazine, a
cylindrical attachment that was strange to me. "Now, if you will watch the sea very carefully, and will promise not to
look at me," said Daisy, "I will try to explain." She did not wait for me to promise, but went on eagerly, a sparkle of
excitement in her blue eyes:

"You know, of all the fossil remains of the great bat-like and
lizard-like creatures that inhabited the earth ages and ages ago,
the bones of the gigantic saurians are the most interesting. I think
they used to splash about the water and fly over the land during the
Carboniferous period; anyway, it doesn't matter. Of course, you have
seen pictures of reconstructed creatures such as the Ichthyosaurus, the
Plesiosaurus, the Anthracosaurus, and the Thermosaurus?" I nodded, trying to keep my eyes from hers. "And you know that the remains of the Thermosaurus were first
discovered and reconstructed by papa?" "Yes," said I. There was no use in saying no. "I am glad you do.