“No, sir, I thought they were something else.”
“What?” said Jack, with a certain amount of eagerness.
“They struck me as being those great lizard things which they find turned into fossils out Swanage and Portland way. I dare say you’ve seen specimens of them in the British Museum.”
“No,” said Jack, colouring a little, “I have never taken any interest in such things.”
“No?” said the captain wonderingly. “Ah, well, perhaps you will. Now it struck me that these things were—were— Do either of you gentlemen remember the name of them?”
“Plesiosaurus. Lizard-like,” said Sir John.
“That’s it, sir,” cried the captain, glancing at the speaker, and then looking again at Jack. “And I tell you how it struck me, and how I accounted for their being so seldom seen.”
“Yes!” said Jack, who had laid down his knife and fork, and was leaning forward listening attentively. “How did you judge that?”
“From its large eyes.”
“What had that to do with it?”