Transcriber’s Notes:
This novel was serialized in the Happy Days story paper from March 17-May 3, 1900 (issues 283-290), and it does not appear to have ever been published in book form.
The cover image was created by the transcriber and placed in the public domain.
The Table of Contents was created by the transcriber and placed in the public domain.
[Additional Transcriber’s Notes] are at the end.
CONTENTS
[Chapter I. A Mysterious Affair.]
[Chapter II. Another Mystery of a Different Sort.]
[Chapter III. About the Strange Head That Came Over the Rocks.]
[Chapter IV. Charley in Close Quarters.]
[Chapter V. The Dream That Came True.]
[Chapter VI. Martin Mudd Hears Something Drop.]
[Chapter VII. Captured by Mudd.]
[Chapter VIII. A New Arrival from the Lake.]
[Chapter IX. What Monster Is Coming Now?]
[Chapter X. Exploring Around the Lake.]
[Chapter XI. The Letter on the Table.]
[Chapter XII. Into the Boiling Pot.]
[Chapter XIII. The Wonderful Cavern.]
[Chapter XIV. Lost Underground.]
[Chapter XV. Mr. Mudd Turns Up Again.]
[Chapter XVI. Martin Mudd Makes a Serious Charge.]
[Chapter XVII. Caught Napping.]
[Chapter XVIII. Old P. D. Looks Down Over the Rocks.]
[Chapter XIX. Dick Improves His Opportunities.]
[Chapter XX. The Sleeping Plesiosaurus.]
[Chapter XXI. Lassoing Old P. D.]
[Chapter XXII. Mudd on Top Again.]
[Chapter XXIII. Is This Strange Story True?]
Dick and Dr. Dan;
Or, THE BOY MONSTER HUNTERS
OF THE BAD LANDS.
By C. LITTLE.
FRANK TOUSEY
24 Union Square
New York, N. Y.
1900
Dick and Dr. Dan.
By C. LITTLE.
CHAPTER I.
A MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR.
“Hello, Dick! Where are you going in such a hurry? You must have had your breakfast and it isn’t dinner time yet.”
Two boys of about eighteen years met unexpectedly in the little park in front of the United States National Museum, Washington, D. C.
Dick Darrell was one and Charley Nicholson the other; both were in the employ of the paleontological department of the museum, their duties being to sort out and arrange the bones of the various prehistoric animals found by the agents of the museum in different parts of the United States.
“I’m not after grub just now, Charley,” replied Dick. “Perhaps you don’t know that I’ve been under the weather for the last day or two, but such is the fact. Wasn’t coming down this morning, but I just received a telegram from old Poynter telling me to come at once if I was able to leave my bed.”
“Hello!” cried Charley. “What’s in the wind now, I wonder? Have you drawn another prize?”
“Can’t tell.”
“Great Scott! I only wish it was my luck.”
“Wait a bit. Perhaps I’m going to get the grand bounce.”
“I hardly think that. Oh, I know! You are going to be sent off on some bone hunting expedition or another. A regular picnic. Something that will last all summer. No such luck ever comes my way.”
“You can’t tell. Stick to your work and try to do it the best you possibly can; that’s the thing that brings promotion every time.”
The boys separated inside the employees’ door of the museum, for Charley’s duties called him to the extreme end of the long building, while Dick was bound for Professor Poynter’s office, on the second floor.
That genial old scientist was at his desk busily writing.
“Good morning, Dick,” he called out. “One minute, my boy, until I finish this letter; then I will talk.”
Dick waited patiently for fully fifteen minutes, after which the professor folded up his letter and motioned to him to draw up a chair.
“Dick,” he said, “we want you for another expedition. You did so well down among the fossil beds of South Carolina that we are disposed to try you again.”
“Thank you, sir,” replied Dick. “I always try to do my best. What is it to be this time?”
“Well, it isn’t bone hunting,” replied the professor, “and you will be surprised when I tell you what it is.”
Professor Poynter paused and began tumbling over the mass of papers upon his desk, leaving Dick to wonder what it all meant.
“I have the letter here somewhere,” he said, “but I don’t seem to find it. Ah, yes! Here it is, and here’s the newspaper cutting attached to it which first called our attention to the matter. It’s from the Cheyenne Herald of a month ago. Listen to this:
“Ike Izard and Doctor Dan are in town again, back from a three weeks’ bone hunting trip in the Bad Lands. Ike seems to be sober—more so than usual—but he reports a most astonishing experience, which is certainly enough to make us wonder how heavy a supply of Cheyenne bug juice he and the doctor had with them on their last trip.
“It seems that they started out from Node Ranch and went into the Bad Lands as far as Walker’s Creek, pretty well covering the central eastern section of Converse county; one morning, after climbing a high mountain—Ike declares they went up at least 5,000 feet—they came suddenly upon a lake a mile or more wide and five miles long, which is not down on the maps, and so Ike took the liberty of naming it for himself, Izard Lake.
“Here they went into camp and spent several days, as the shores of the lake were well strewn with fossil bones of the sort they were out after.
“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,
Ike Izard.
P. S.—You can bet your bottom dollar it’s no lye. Ike.
Accompanying the letter was the affidavit duly signed before a notary public.
There was also one from Doctor Dan, who Professor Poynter explained was an Indian guide, who usually accompanied Ike Izard on his expeditions after fossil bones.
“There,” said Professor Poynter. “There’s the story, Dick. It is extremely unlikely that it is true, but still it may be, and we have determined to send you out to the Bad Lands of Wyoming to investigate. When will you be ready to start?”
“To-morrow morning,” replied Dick, promptly, “but let me ask one question, have the fossil remains of the P. Dolichodeirus been found in that part of the Bad Lands?”
“Many times, my boy.”
“Then it is possible that one or two specimens may have survived?”
“Just possible, but no more. As you are well aware, this creature belongs to an entirely different period of the earth’s history from the one in which we are at present living. On the other hand, it is a fact that the lakes of eastern Wyoming are the remains of an old prehistoric sea which once covered all this section. The Great Salt Lake is another remnant of it and there are others still. The chances of the story being true, however, are exceedingly remote.”
“It would be an immense discovery if it was, sir.”
“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.
Dick watched them as they turned the corner and they would have passed out of his mind in a moment if he had not been startled all at once by a piercing scream.
“Help! Help!” came the cry ringing out upon the night.
Dick darted around the corner like a shot. He was certain that the cry had proceeded from the two girls and he was right.
There they stood backed against the iron railing of the corner house, with two young toughs, both very drunk, standing before them, laughing.
“You can’t pass us that way, ladies,” Dick heard one of the pair say. “We want to know your names and where you are going—that’s what.”
[“Hands off those ladies!”] cried Dick, running up.
[Right in front of them,] not ten feet away, a huge shiny head, long and flat, with an enormous mouth filled with horrible teeth and two great, glittering eyes set on the sides, projected over the rocks. “The monster!” shouted Dick, and instantly the head darted forward, followed by a long, sinewy neck.
Inset 1: [Mr. Martin Mudd.]
Inset 2: “[Hands off those Ladies.]”
“Mind your own business,” snarled one of the “lushers,” aiming a blow at Dick. “What is it to you?”
“This!” cried Dick, striking out from the shoulder and landing his fist between the fellow’s eyes, tumbling him back against the electric light pole.
The fellow gave a yell, reeled and fell over in the gutter, while the other one jumped in and caught Dick by the throat.
“I’ll kill you for this!” he hissed, whipping out a long knife and flourishing it around the neighborhood of Dick’s heart, as he backed him up against the post.
CHAPTER II.
ANOTHER MYSTERY OF A DIFFERENT SORT.
Dick was in a dangerous fix.
The fellow who had caught hold of him was very drunk and had a grip like a vise.
The two girls screamed, while Dick tried to grab the knife which the “lusher” kept flourishing, swearing horribly at Dick all the while.
How it would have ended if help had not come promptly it is impossible to say, but, as it happened, just at this critical moment a man came dashing around the corner.
He was a tall and very thin person, shabbily dressed in an old ulster and a battered plug hat.
He seemed to take in the situation at a glance and pounced upon the “lusher” without ceremony, wrenching away the knife and flinging it into the street, pounding the fellow about the head and face with such vigor that he promptly took to his heels and made off, followed by his friend.
“There!” exclaimed the man in the ulster. “There! That’s the way to do it! Ladies, your most obedient! Let me see, have I not the pleasure of addressing Miss Clara Eglinton? Ah, yes. I thought so. Miss E., your humble servant. Yours, too, Miss What’s-your-name, and yours, my dear sir. My name is Mudd. [Martin Mudd]. I am always ready and willing to come to the assistance of any one in distress.”
“I’m sure I’m ever so much obliged, sir,” replied Dick. “My name is Darrell. Dick Darrell, I——”
What was the matter with Martin Mudd?
The instant Dick announced his name he started back theatrically, stared, raised his hat to the two girls, and, wheeling about, turned the corner and disappeared.
“Is he crazy? He must be!” exclaimed Dick.
“No, I don’t think so,” replied the girl addressed as Clara Eglinton, a beautiful blonde of about Dick’s own age. “He is very eccentric, though. He sometimes has business with my father. Oh, Mr. Darrell, I want to thank you ever and ever so much for your brave act. Those insulting fellows! It was just dreadful! I don’t know what Susie and I would have done if you had not come.”
“I’m sure I’m most happy to have been of service to you,” replied Dick, raising his hat. “May I offer to see you to your home?”
“Why, it is right here in the next house,” replied the girl. “Good night, Mr. Darrell. We must go in.”
Evidently Miss Eglinton did not care to pursue the acquaintance.
Dick tipped his hat again and the two girls ran up the stoop of a handsome house and vanished in an instant, leaving Dick to continue his walk.
“A pretty girl!” he murmured. “A very pretty girl. I only wish I was going to stay in Washington. I might find a chance to get better acquainted, but I suppose she will forget all about me before I return.”
He walked on, wholly oblivious to the fact that Mr. Martin Mudd, with rubbers on his feet, was stealing after him, staring forward with gleaming eyes.
What prompted Dick to turn suddenly and look behind him just before he reached the next corner?
Surely there must have been some good angel watching over the boy, for there was the man close behind him with the very knife the “lusher” had dropped clutched in his hand.
“Now I’ve got you, Dick Darrell!” he hissed, and he made a desperate lunge at the boy, who dodged the stroke just in time.
Martin Mudd did not attempt to repeat it. With a sharp cry he turned and ran like a deer.
Dick shouted after him and followed back along the block, but the man turned the corner first and when Dick got around he had disappeared.
And that was the end of the adventure.
Deeply puzzled over the mysterious affair which he could only attribute to insanity on the part of the man with the muddy name, Dick went home and was soon in bed, where he lay tossing wide awake until morning.
It was the tone in which Martin Mudd had spoken his name and the start he had given when Dick first introduced himself that bothered the boy.
“He certainly seemed to know me,” Dick said to himself a hundred times. “What can it all mean?”
He gave up thinking about it when morning came and hurried to the B. & O. station, where he met Charley all ready for the journey.
The run to Chicago was made in good time and without adventure.
There was no stop here, except to change cars, and the next thing the boys knew they were in Omaha, where they took the Union Pacific to Cheyenne and then ran up to Fort Fetterman, changed cars again and in due time were set down on a barren, alkali plain, where there was a station, a windmill, a water tank and a dozen houses—they had reached Node Ranch at last.
The boys went at once to the Palace Hotel, which proved to be a dirty old roost of the worst kind.
“Heavens!” exclaimed Charley; “if we had to stay here long I should give up the ghost.”
Dick felt about the same way, but as it happened they did not have to stay at the Palace at all, for they had scarcely located themselves in their room and Dick was just getting ready to go out and look for Doctor Dan, when all at once there was a knock on the door and when Charley opened it there stood a tall Indian dressed in an ordinary business suit, with nothing to distinguish him from a white man except his features and his long black hair.
“I want to see Dick Darrell,” he said, without a trace of accent. “Are you the young man?”
“No; this is Dick Darrell,” replied Charley, pointing to his friend. “Come in.”
The Indian entered the room with solemn tread and an expression of imperturbable gravity upon his swarthy face.
“I suppose this is Doctor Dan!” exclaimed Dick, extending his hand. “I’m glad to see you, I’m sure.”
“That’s how,” replied the Indian, “I was ordered to meet you here by Professor Poynter.”
“That’s right.”
“I’m ordered to take you up into the Bad Lands to Izard Lake,” continued Doctor Dan, slowly. “The horses are all ready, likewise the pack mules, of which there are two. Provision I have laid in enough to last a month. I have three rifles and two guns. I have blankets and two tents and cooking utensils. If there is anything more you wish I will procure it if it is to be had in Node Ranch.”
The deliberateness with which he spoke was almost ludicrous. It was all the boys could do to suppress their smiles.
“Why, I should say you had got everything we could possibly need,” said Dick. “You speak as good English as I do, doctor. Are you a half-breed?”
“No, sir, I am not,” replied Doctor Dan, in the same slow way. “I am a full blooded Sioux, but I was adopted by a rancher when I was a little boy and I was educated at Carlisle College, Pennsylvania, an institution for the education of Indian youths, of which you have doubtless heard.”
Poor Dick was almost overpowered. As for Charley, he had to go out in the passage and explode or he would have laughed in Doctor Dan’s face.
“Well, I’m sure I’m much obliged to you for doing everything up in such good shape,” said Dick. “When do we start?”
“Right away after dinner if you follow my advice,” was the reply. “We have got a long road before us. It will take us three days to reach the foot of the mountain. If you are anxious to get to work, as I take it you are, there is no time to lose.”
“I certainly am,” said Dick, “so we will go at once. Charley and I will be ready say at one o’clock.”
“At one o’clock,” repeated Doctor Dan, solemnly. “That is an engagement. I will keep it. Good day.”
“What about the monster?” asked Dick. “You saw it, I believe.”
“I did. It is there,” replied Doctor Dan.
“Can you describe it?”
Doctor Dan entered into a most accurate description of the Plesiosaurus. It seemed hard to imagine that he was lying and Dick’s hope was greatly aroused.
“It will be the making of us, Charley,” he remarked, as they went in to dinner a little later, after Doctor Dan had left the hotel.
“Gentlemen, did you register?” called the clerk from behind the desk.
“No,” replied Dick, turning back.
“Then please do. It’s the law and we have to trouble you.”
Dick took up the pen and was about to sign his name to the register when he suddenly gave a quick start.
“What’s the matter?” asked Charley.
“Look!” exclaimed Dick, pointing to the name written on the line above where he was about to write his own.
The name, written in a bold, firm hand, was Martin Mudd.
CHAPTER III.
ABOUT THE STRANGE HEAD THAT CAME OVER THE ROCKS.
“Strange!” whispered Charley, as Dick signed the register. “There could hardly be two with such a name.”
Dick had told Charley all about his adventure, of course.
“I don’t see how it can be the same man,” he said, “but we’ll soon find out. Do you know that gentleman?” he asked the clerk, pointing to the name.
“Yes, I know him,” was the reply. “He came in by the westbound train this morning. He used to live here. Why do you ask?”
“Because I met him in Washington only a few days ago. Is he in the hotel now?”
“No,” replied the clerk. “He bought a horse and went off up into the mountains. He’s a mining prospector. If you should happen to meet him I advise you strongly to give him the cold shoulder. He’s a bad lot.”
“Is he crazy?” asked Dick.
“Not he!” exclaimed the clerk. “He’s a big liar, though, and a thief from way back, but he’s well educated and can talk almost as well as Doctor Dan.”
“What about Doctor Dan?” asked Charley. “Is he all right?”
“Yes, you can bank on him every time, even if he is an Indian. Queer feller, isn’t he? They say he’s got a lot of education, but an Injun’s an Injun wherever you strike him, that’s sure.”
Having delivered himself of this sentiment the clerk wrote the room number after the boys’ names and Dick and Charley went in to dinner, which was much better than they expected to find.
At one o’clock precisely the start was made, Doctor Dan appearing on the scene with the horses and mules.
All the rest of the afternoon the ride continued.
Their way led over a barren plain overgrown with sage brush and strewn with the white alkali of the country.
High mountains rose in the far distance. Doctor Dan informed the boys that they skirted the edge of the Bad Lands.
When night came on a halt was made and Doctor Dan put up the tents in the most expert manner, hobbling the horses and cooking a splendid supper of antelope steak and a sort of cornbread, which he rolled out on a flat stone and cooked in round balls among the hot ashes.
After supper the boys rolled themselves up in their blankets and slept comfortably until morning, Doctor Dan going on guard.
He informed the boys that he was accustomed to going three or four days at a stretch without sleep and that they would not be called upon to mount guard at night until they reached the lake and probably not then unless they found some special cause for alarm.
The second day’s journey resembled the first too closely to need description. When they went into camp that night they could see beyond them a stretch of country which appeared to be one mass of great sand hills which rose in every direction.
Doctor Dan informed them that this was the beginning of the Bad Lands.
“Those sand hills run away over into South Dakota for more than a hundred miles,” he declared. “It’s a terrible country. Not a drop of water anywhere. There is nothing like it in the whole world.”
Dick and Charley were all anxiety to see it and within a very short time after they started out next morning their wish was gratified, for they found themselves in the midst of the sand hills steadily advancing toward an isolated peak, which Doctor Dan informed them was their destination.
It was a fearful country surely. As far as the eye could reach the sand hills rose all around them, with not a tree nor a blade of grass visible anywhere.
Later in the day they began to ascend and at last came out upon a broad table land, a mere desert of yellow sand, broken by great rifts called barrancas in every direction. It required an artist to work around these breaks, but Doctor Dan seemed to be perfectly acquainted with the trail, although he declared that he had never visited this part of the Bad Lands, excepting on his previous trip.
The mountain was now steadily drawing nearer, and by four o’clock they reached its base without having seen the slightest sign of life of any kind since they entered the Bad Lands.
“Now, then, where does the lake lie?” asked Dick, looking up at the towering cliffs of reddish, disintegrated stone which rose above them.
“It’s in that direction, about a thousand feet up,” replied Doctor Dan, pointing.
“Can we ride up?”
“Oh, yes. There’s an easy trail. It’s almost like a road, but it winds about a good deal.”
“Then we go right on and camp there?”
“Just as you say, sir.”
“I say yes, by all means, providing it is a good place for our camp.”
“It is quite as good as it is here. Better, in fact, for the lake lies in a sort of natural basin and if we should happen to get a snowstorm, which we may, we would be protected.”
“We will go right on, then,” said Charley. “Hadn’t we better, Dick?”
“Decidedly,” replied Dick. “We can get our permanent camp all fixed up before dark.”
The ascent then began. As they passed up the mountainside with no trees to obstruct their view, the boys were amazed at the wonderful panorama displayed.
It was as if they were looking down upon a sea of sand, and it was easy to imagine it the bed of some old, vanished ocean, as scientists tell us the Bad Lands actually are.
For half an hour the horses toiled up the steep slope, first to the right, then to the left, but always rising until at last they came suddenly out upon a level plain, entirely surrounded by towering cliffs, except for the narrow break through which they entered.
“The crater of an old volcano!” cried Dick. “That’s what this place is sure.”
“So I have been informed,” replied Doctor Dan, with his usual gravity.
“Where’s the lake?” asked Charley.
“Just around that bend in the cliffs,” was the reply. “This sink is double, as you may say. The wall runs pretty near through the middle of it. One half is dry and the lake fills the other half. We shall see it in a minute now.”
They rode on and soon turned the corner of the dividing cliff.
A broad stretch of water now lay before them. The lake was many times longer than the dry half of the old crater.
Its surface was perfectly placid and the water seemed to give out a strange, sulphurous odor. The shores were broken by projecting points of rocks, which cut up the lake into many small coves.
“Now, where’s your Plesiosaurus?” exclaimed Charley. “Let him show himself. He’s got an audience that will appreciate him, you bet.”
“It was right over there abreast that little island that I first saw him,” said Doctor Dan, gravely. “His body reached almost to that point of rocks on the opposite shore. I hope you don’t think it is all a fake, boys, but I suppose you will never believe it until you see for yourselves.”
“That’s what we are here for,” replied Dick, “and it is no reflection on you, doctor, if we find it hard work to believe what we have not seen, but where do we make our camp?”
Doctor Dan pointed out the spot where he and Ike Izard had camped and there, sure enough, the boys found traces of a fire and other things which seemed to prove his story true.
The horses were now hobbled and the tents pitched.
Dr. Dan cooked supper in his usual fine style and everything was arranged for the night.
When the supper was over, as it was not yet dark, Dick proposed a walk, and all three, shouldering their rifles, for there was no telling what might happen, started along the lake shore, winding in and out around the projecting cliffs until they had gone at least a mile.
It was now getting toward dusk and Dick, in spite of his hopes, began to abandon all idea of seeing anything of the monster of the lake that day.
“I suppose we might wait around here for days and not see him,” he said. “Wonder how long a Plesiosaurus can stay down under the water, anyhow?”
“Is it known?” asked Doctor Dan.
“Certainly not, since only their bones have been found,” replied Charley, “but it must be an air breathing animal or it couldn’t have swum round with its head above the water the way you saw it.”
“If that’s the case he must come up every little while,” said Dick.
“I don’t know,” answered Doctor Dan. “We stayed round here two days after we saw the thing, but it never showed itself again. I’ve got a theory about that, but I don’t suppose you young men care to hear my views.”
“Indeed we do,” cried Dick. “Out with it, doctor.”
“Why,” replied the Indian, “my idea is that this lake connects with another, which is hidden underground, and that the Plesiosaurus makes its home down there and so gets all the air it needs without coming to the surface at all.”
“And a very plausible theory it is,” said Dick. “I was thinking——”
Right here Dick was interrupted by a wild cry from Charley.
“Look there! Look there!” he shouted, pointing to the rocks right in front of them, which concealed the entrance to another cove.
Dick and Dr. Dan grasped their rifles and started back in terror.
[Right in front of them,] not ten feet away, a huge, shiny head, long and flat, with an enormous mouth filled with horrible teeth and two great, glittering eyes set on the sides, projected over the rocks.
“The monster!” shouted Dick, and instantly the head darted forward, followed by a long, sinewy neck as big round as a man’s body.
The horrid jaws opened and closed with a vicious snap and a frightful bellow rang out among the rocks.
CHAPTER IV.
CHARLEY IN CLOSE QUARTERS.
“Fire!” shouted Charley, and he instantly flung up his rifle and let fly at the huge, snake-like head, which was withdrawn instantly.
The bellowing was heard on the other side of the rocks for a moment and then all was still.
“What in thunder did you do that for?” Dick burst out. “Don’t you know the orders? On no account were we to kill the creature. By thunder, if you have killed it I am disgraced forever. I wouldn’t have had it happen so for a thousand dollars. How could you be such a fool?”
Poor Charley stood abashed.
It was a terrible thing to him to be so called down by Dick, but he had allowed his excitement to make him play the fool and he knew it.
“Dick, excuse me, please,” was all he said, and then he turned and walked away.
Dick was too angry for the moment to follow him or call him back. He had more to say about it and he spat it right out before Doctor Dan.
“Softly, softly, sir,” replied the half-breed. “Don’t be too hard on Mr. Charley. He was excited and acted before he had time to think; besides, I don’t think he hit the head or the neck either. Come, we’ll see.”
Doctor Dan started to go around the rocks. Dick began to feel a little ashamed of his violence.
“Come, Charley,” he shouted. “Come on, old man. Maybe you didn’t hit the Plesiosaurus after all.”
But Charley continued to walk in the direction of the camp and never even looked back at Dick.
He was a very sensitive fellow and easily offended. Dick knew this and felt a good deal troubled.
He wanted to follow Charley up and make it all right with him, but then, on the other hand, he did not like to leave Doctor Dan to face the danger of meeting the Plesiosaurus alone.
“Come on! Come on!” he shouted again. “Don’t be grumpy, Charley. I’m going to see what mischief has been done.”
But as Charley paid no attention to his shout he gave it up for the moment and hurried around the rocks into another cove, where Dr. Dan stood looking off on the lake.
“I don’t see anything of the monster, Mr. Darrell,” he said. “It must have pulled down into the water again.”
“Don’t bother to call me Mr. Darrell. Call me Dick. Here’s where it must have been. The water is very deep right up against the shore, isn’t it? Of course this is the place.”
Here the space between the rocks and the water was not more than three feet in width.
It would have been an easy matter for the monster to have thrown his head and neck over the rocks, which were not more than a dozen feet high above the water, but there was no trace of the Plesiosaurus to be seen now.
“Do you suppose he hit him, Doc?” asked Dick, anxiously.
“No, I don’t,” was the reply. “We should see blood here somewhere if he had, and there is none.”
“Anyhow, the shot must have sent the monster down under the water again. It’s too bad, too bad.”
“Well, I don’t know,” said Dr. Dan. “It seems to me that it’s about all right. You couldn’t have done anything anyway. You’ve seen the thing with your own eyes now, Dick. You can’t accuse me of lying any more.”
“I never did,” replied Dick. “It was hard to believe that one of these strange creatures had survived, for they belong to the animal creation of one of the most distant prehistoric periods, but seeing is believing, so no more need be said about it. Question now is what’s to be done?”
“Your orders are to take the monster alive if possible?”
“Yes, and to telegraph Professor Poynter at once if I caught a sight of it.”
“That’s impossible. We can’t pull up stakes and go back to Node Ranch without accomplishing more than we have already. It would be ridiculous.”
“It seems so to me. I didn’t give it any thought at the time I received my instructions, but I see it now.”
“Probably Professor Poynter gave it no thought, either. What you want to do is to hold on here a week or so and try and find out what the habits of this creature are. When we know more about it we can come to some conclusion as to what we ought to do, which is more than we can now.”
“You are right,” said Dick, “and that’s what we will do; but I must get back to the camp. It isn’t going to pay us to quarrel. I shall have to apologize to Charley for the calling down I gave him.”
“And I’ll keep on around the lake,” replied Doctor Dan. “You and Charley can follow me up after you settle your quarrel.”
They separated then and Dick hurried back to the camp, feeling very sorry for his explosion and full of anxiety to make matters right with his friend.
But when he reached the camp Charley was nowhere visible. Dick looked into the tent, and, not finding him there, set up a shout, a private cry of their own, which ought to have been answered by a different shout. It was just a little signal between the boys agreed upon before they started for the Bad Lands.
Much to Dick’s relief, the answer came promptly from around the point of rocks beyond the camp.
“Hello, Charley, are you there?” shouted Dick.
“Yes. Come around here, Dick.”
Dick started on the run; as soon as he turned the point of rocks he saw, to his surprise, that Charley had pulled off his clothes and was swimming around in the lake.
Evidently he had got over his “mad,” for he called out:
“Hey, Dick, this is bully. The water is just splendid. Come on and have a swim.”
“Come out of there! Come out at once!” cried Dick. “Good heavens, suppose the Plesiosaurus catches you! Charley, you must be crazy to do such a thing.”
“Oh, it’s all right,” replied Charley, turning on his back and kicking up the water. “I was just dying for a bath and I made up my mind I’d have one anyhow. When I get mad I always want to get in the water and cool down. That’s me. Come on and try it, Dick.”
Dick was strongly tempted. He stood looking at Charley for a moment and then, throwing aside his coat, began to take off his boots.
“I’m sorry I spoke so rough to you, Charley,” he called out. “I won’t do it again.”
“Oh, that’s all right. I ought not to have fired, of course, but you see I was excited and—oh, thunder! What’s this?”
The water all around Charley suddenly began boiling like a pot.
“Quick! Quick! Strike in for the shore!” yelled Dick.
At the same instant the Plesiosaurus rose to the surface of the lake right behind Charley.
First the huge snake-like head was lifted up high in the air, the sinuous neck, which seemed to be at least ten feet long, turning and twisting horribly.
Then the enormous body came into view, long, rounding and black and extending back twenty feet or more from the base of the neck.
[“Oh, Dick! Help!”] yelled Charley, swimming with all his might for the shore.
At the same instant the strange creature craned its neck forward and made a quick dart for the boy.
Dick flung up his rifle and fired straight at the monster’s head.
[“OH, DICK! HELP!”] YELLED CHARLEY, SWIMMING WITH ALL HIS MIGHT FOR THE SHORE. AT THE SAME INSTANT THE STRANGE CREATURE CRANED ITS NECK FORWARD AND MADE A QUICK DART FOR THE BOY. DICK FLUNG UP HIS RIFLE AND FIRED STRAIGHT AT THE MONSTER’S HEAD.
Inset: [Dick captured by the Monster.]
CHAPTER V.
THE DREAM THAT CAME TRUE.
It was a frightful moment for Dick, and worse, of course, for poor Charley, who barely escaped being caught in the awful jaws of the Plesiosaurus.
Dick’s shot saved his friend, however.
Not that the monster was hit—Dick knew that he had made a miss—but the report of the rifle seemed to startle it, and, with that same awful bellow, it arched its neck like a swan and sank beneath the lake, to be seen no more.
Charley came crawling up out of the water half dead with terror.
It was some time before Dick recovered himself.
Charley dressed and they stood side by side discussing the situation and watching the lake.
“We are even now, Charley,” said Dick. “We have both broken orders and fired at the Plesiosaurus. I suppose if we are going to keep on seeing the creature we shall get used to him in time, but, upon my word, he’s the strangest looking citizen I ever laid my eyes on, that’s one sure thing.”
“A regular nightmare,” said Charley. “Come, let’s look up Doctor Dan. He must have heard the firing and is no doubt wondering what it means.”
The guide came running up before they were out of the cove.
“So you have been firing at him again!” he exclaimed. “You are bound to kill him it seems.”
“I’m the one this time,” said Dick, and he told the story.
“Well, well! That settles the question!” exclaimed Dr. Dan. “The monster is real—it is very much alive—it is ready any time to make a meal of one of us. We want to look out.”
“I move we make the circuit of the lake,” said Charley.