“You’d say that, Perry, of course, in any case. Just the same I rather think you mean it. Now, what I want to say is this: Since you really so seem to have an interest in these dragon-forms of old times, and as I suppose you’ve inherited it, to a certain extent, it seems to me that I ought to give you a chance to find out if that’s the sort of thing you want to take up for your life-work.
“So far, I haven’t made any special plans for your future, Perry, because I haven’t known just how your desires would run. I wanted to see which way the cat would jump, first. Do you really think that you would like to give your whole time to paleontology, or do you want to keep it as a hobby? Answer carefully, now, because quite a stretch of your life may hang on the reply.”
Perry thought for a minute or two, then answered slowly:
“I think I’d rather try to find the monsters that no one has ever seen. I’d like to dig up secrets in all the queer corners of the world. I’d rather find a new kind of creature, such as no one had even dreamt of before, than be a multi-millionaire!”
“Very good,” his father answered, “if that’s your feeling, my boy, you shall have your chance and you shall have it in the best way possible. I suppose you know that your Uncle George is going to take out an expedition for the American Museum of Natural History in New York, this year?”
“No, Father, I didn’t know it,” Perry replied. “Out West?”
“I think not,” his father answered. “If I remember rightly, when he was here a month or two ago, he said something about going to Egypt.”
“And I could go?”
“That depends on a number of things,” the old merchant answered, guardedly. “Still, there’s a possibility that I might persuade him to take you along. You see, Perry, if I were to pay for your part of the expenses out of my pocket, the New York Museum wouldn’t lose anything and perhaps you might do something to help.”
“But that would cost a heap, Father.”