“On the morning of the third day Ike was suddenly awakened by a strange bellowing, which seemed to come from off on the water. He shook up the doctor and they both ran out and were nearly paralyzed (question is if they weren’t entirely paralyzed the night before) at seeing a huge monster swimming toward them over the lake, bellowing like a mad bull.
“Ike describes it as having a huge oval body, rounded like a turtle, about twenty feet long, from which rose an immensely long neck—Ike declares it was half as long again as the body, ending in a comparatively small head, like a snake’s head in shape, but with an enormous mouth full of monstrous teeth.
“Ike says that the monster swam very gracefully, being provided with fins, which acted as paddles, two on each side. He and the doctor each took a shot at it, but in consequence of their semi-paralyzed condition the shots did nothing more than to so scare the creature that it took a header into the lake and was seen no more.
“This is the biggest yarn Ike has given us yet, but he promises to think up a bigger one for the next trip into the Bad Lands. Send it along, Isaac. We shall always be glad to print any story that you may have to tell.”
“There!” exclaimed Professor Poynter. “What do you think of that, Dick?”
“Why, it seems to me, sir, that somebody has worked up the description of the Plesiosaurus Dolichodeirus and made a good yarn about it. Of course you don’t believe the story can be true?”
“Such was my first idea, of course,” replied the professor, “but I make it an invariable rule to investigate all these newspaper stories. Nine-tenths of them, of course, turn out to be fakes, but as it happens in this case that this fellow Izard is in our employ and we know him to be a most faithful man and entirely a sober person, I felt all the more interest in the matter, so I at once wrote him and received this reply.”
Here the professor unfolded the letter and read as follows:
Cheyenne, Wyo., March 10.
Dear Sir:—That story about the monster is true i swar it is as I hope for hiven i didn’t rite it to you bekos i tought you wood think me line but its true jest the same and if you don’t believe me ask Doc Dan who will tell you that we seen it up to the lake say jest fer satisfaction i am goin’ to take my oath before a notary publick the thing was there i never seen nothing like it in all my life you couldn’t ketch it and there would be no use trying don’t believe a yoke of steers could drag the carcass down to Node Ranch even if you could get the steers up the mountain which you couldn’t. Mebbe it would pay you to send a feller out to get a snap shot at it. Yrs trooly,