"Mr. Ichthyosaurus, you and your fellow animals will answer to your special technical names at roll-call, by a growl. You, sir, are an extinct reptile. Did you ever hear an extinct reptile growl?"
"No, sir."
"You other animals, stop that unseemly snicker. Where have you lived, sir, all your life to know so little?"
"The very headquarters of fossil life. Well, sir, if you have any imagination at all, growl as nearly as you can in the hypothetical voice of that extinct reptile called an Ichthyosaurus."
A low growl, ending in a suppressed chuckle.
"Order there, in the zoölogical museum! Mr. Hippotherium!" and another growl followed in a different key.
"How," said Randolph, when the roll had been gone through, "the countersign is: 'Here comes the unsuspecting stranger!' Do you understand?"
The painful general growl that answered him was cut short by a smothered laugh.
"Attention! When you hear the countersign and see the tent flap lifted you are to growl all together, with your deepest and heaviest roar."