“Well, where’s your girl, Dick?” asked Charley, staring around.
“Strange. That horse out there is certainly the one she rode,” replied Dick, and the horrible fear seized him that Martin Mudd might have made way with Clara on the road up to the lake.
They searched in all directions, shouting Miss Eglinton’s name, but all to no purpose.
Then they returned to the hut and began discussing the new monster, as a matter of course.
“In some respects it resembles the Ichthyosaurus,” said Dick, “but still its short legs don’t fill the bill at all in that direction. It is probably entirely unknown to science.”
“And immensely valuable if it could only be taken alive,” said Dr. Dan.
“I wish I had either one of those monsters in a tank in New York or Chicago and could charge ten cents a head to show them,” cried Charley. “I shouldn’t want any better fortune than that.”
“They can never be taken alive,” said Dick, decidedly. “It is the merest nonsense to think of such a thing. This is a wonderful place, though, Doc. If the National Museum will only take possession of this lake there may be money in these discoveries for some of us yet.”
“Do you think they will?” asked Doctor Dan.
“I’m sure of it. The land must belong to the government as it is.”