“Of incalculable value to science. Should you be fortunate enough to make such a discovery you are authorized to spare no expense to pen the creature into some cove, if such a thing is possible, but we prefer you should not kill it. Of course if you see it you will telegraph me at the first possible moment and I will come right out. Every effort should be made to take it alive, in order that we may study its habits. You can go to the cashier and draw what money you think you may need. You will go first to Node Ranch, where I have instructed Doctor Dan to meet you; Izard himself is off on another expedition and you will not see him. That’s all, except that you will need an assistant. I leave it to you to make your choice.”
“Will Charley Nicholson suit, sir?” asked Dick, eagerly.
“He is rather young,” replied the professor, “but still I know you are great friends, so I will not object. That’s all, Dick. Leave me now, for I have a mountain of work ahead of me. It won’t be necessary for you to call again.”
Dick left the office, wild with enthusiasm. As for Charley, there was no restraining him when he heard the good news.
And, indeed, the boys were admirably adapted to the work, Dick being without parents or family ties of any kind. Charley’s mother had long since been dead, while his father was a sea captain, who showed little or no interest in the welfare of his son.
Thus these two boys were practically without ties and it might be supposed that Dick could easily have named an earlier hour for his departure than the next morning, and so he might and certainly would have done so if it had not happened that he had an engagement to attend a social gathering that evening at the house of one of his friends.
Having drawn his money, Dick bought tickets for himself and Charley for Fort Fetterman, Wyoming, where it would be necessary to go off on a branch road to Node Ranch.
The boys spent the afternoon in buying the necessary things for the trip and in packing up.
At ten o’clock Dick left a certain house on B street, N. W., where he had passed the evening, and started for his own room, which was located on H street, a few squares away. As he was passing down B street, deeply engrossed in thought about the strange mission with which he had been charged, he saw two young girls come running down the stoop of a house a little way ahead of him.
Evidently they lived close by, for they wore no wraps and the April air was damp and chilly.