“If that’s the case he must come up every little while,” said Dick.
“I don’t know,” answered Doctor Dan. “We stayed round here two days after we saw the thing, but it never showed itself again. I’ve got a theory about that, but I don’t suppose you young men care to hear my views.”
“Indeed we do,” cried Dick. “Out with it, doctor.”
“Why,” replied the Indian, “my idea is that this lake connects with another, which is hidden underground, and that the Plesiosaurus makes its home down there and so gets all the air it needs without coming to the surface at all.”
“And a very plausible theory it is,” said Dick. “I was thinking——”
Right here Dick was interrupted by a wild cry from Charley.
“Look there! Look there!” he shouted, pointing to the rocks right in front of them, which concealed the entrance to another cove.
Dick and Dr. Dan grasped their rifles and started back in terror.
[Right in front of them,] not ten feet away, a huge, shiny head, long and flat, with an enormous mouth filled with horrible teeth and two great, glittering eyes set on the sides, projected over the rocks.
“The monster!” shouted Dick, and instantly the head darted forward, followed by a long, sinewy neck as big round as a man’s body.