CHAPTER IX.
WHAT MONSTER IS COMING NOW?
No such thought as fear, no idea of holding back, ever entered Dick Darrell’s head.
He scrambled down off the rocks and ran at full speed over the grass, giving that moving nightmare a wide berth and by a semi-circular course making for the hut.
The monster moved very slowly, seeming to have but slight powers of locomotion on land, although Dick never doubted that in the water it would show itself lively enough.
“If it was to rise up on that tail and fall on the hut it would crush it to splinters,” thought Dick, “but I don’t believe it has any such idea.”
He had almost reached the hut now. There was no back door, as he had expected to see, so he started to run around in front.
He had almost gained the door when, to his astonishment, he suddenly heard his name shouted from off on the lake.
“Dick! Dick!”
Dick turned and faced the monster, and, looking over and beyond him, saw Charley paddling the rubber canoe for all he was worth.
“Hello, Dick! What in thunder are you doing there?” yelled Charley. “Look on the shore! Don’t you see?”
Bang! Bang!
At the same instant two rifle shots rang out in quick succession and Dick saw Doctor Dan running along the shore toward the monster.
He fired again as Dick caught sight of him. The bullet struck the monster’s tail, but glanced off as though it had come against an iron wall.
The shots, however, had their effect, for the report of the gun seemed to startle the huge creature.
It stopped, turned its head and looked back, and, with another roar, waddled to the water and slipped in with a tremendous splash, the commotion nearly swamping the rubber canoe, which Charley drove up on the beach heedless of any ill effect the sharp stones might have on the bottom.
An instant later and it was all over.
The monster had disappeared and Dick, Doctor Dan and Charley Nicholson stood together on the shore.
We pass over the explanations which naturally followed.
Charley was fairly wild with joy at the meeting.
“I gave you up for dead, sure,” he said, “but Doctor Dan wouldn’t have it. It was he who insisted upon getting the canoe out and coming to look for you. What sort of a creature was it, Dick? I thought I must have gone mad when I first saw it crawling up on the shore.”
But Dick was in no mood to talk science then.
He hastily explained about Clara and they hurried toward the hut, fully expecting to find her a prisoner inside.
To their astonishment the hut proved to be unoccupied.
There could be no mistake about it, either, for the interior consisted of but a single room.
There were several bunks against the wall and on a table in the middle of the room was a whisky bottle and three glasses, but there was absolutely nothing to show that Clara had ever been there.
“Well, where’s your girl, Dick?” asked Charley, staring around.
“Strange. That horse out there is certainly the one she rode,” replied Dick, and the horrible fear seized him that Martin Mudd might have made way with Clara on the road up to the lake.
They searched in all directions, shouting Miss Eglinton’s name, but all to no purpose.
Then they returned to the hut and began discussing the new monster, as a matter of course.
“In some respects it resembles the Ichthyosaurus,” said Dick, “but still its short legs don’t fill the bill at all in that direction. It is probably entirely unknown to science.”
“And immensely valuable if it could only be taken alive,” said Dr. Dan.
“I wish I had either one of those monsters in a tank in New York or Chicago and could charge ten cents a head to show them,” cried Charley. “I shouldn’t want any better fortune than that.”
“They can never be taken alive,” said Dick, decidedly. “It is the merest nonsense to think of such a thing. This is a wonderful place, though, Doc. If the National Museum will only take possession of this lake there may be money in these discoveries for some of us yet.”
“Do you think they will?” asked Doctor Dan.
“I’m sure of it. The land must belong to the government as it is.”
“It undoubtedly does,” replied the guide. “Well, there may be something in it for Ike Izard and myself, after all. Now, then, what are we going to do?”
“I don’t leave here till I know what has become of Miss Eglinton,” said Dick, decidedly.
“Let me see,” said Dr. Dan. “I know that name. She must be the daughter of Colonel Eglinton, who owns a big gold mine back here in the mountains over toward the Black Hills.”
“No doubt of it, from what I heard that fellow Mudd say,” replied Dick. “But let’s think what we had better do.”
Doctor Dan gave one of his short laughs. “If you want to find her I can tell you how,” he said.
“Tell it, then, for gracious sake!” cried Charley.
“Mount that horse, turn his head toward the canyon and give him free rein. I’ll bet you what you like he’ll take you straight to the place where they halted. If you knew these mustangs of ours as well as I do you would say the same thing.”
“It’s a splendid idea and we’ll try it right now!” cried Dick. “Shall we pack the canoe on behind the saddle?”
“I think we had better. It may hold three but it will never hold four in case we find the girl. I can work my way back to camp through the canyons all right, don’t you be afraid of that.”
Doctor Dan then caught the horse, which Dick mounted, after the canoe had been folded up and placed behind the saddle.
He then started, Charley and Doctor Dan following behind.
Dick threw the bridle down on the horse’s neck and the sure-footed little mustang walked straight toward the entrance of the canyon, but instead of turning into it, kept on under the cliffs.
“Hello! It seems they didn’t come the way you thought they did after all!” exclaimed Doctor Dan; “probably there is another canyon just beyond here and——”
“Gee! There it comes again!” broke out Charley, pointing off on the lake.
The water had begun a furious commotion close to the shore.
Dick stopped the horse and all remained staring at it for a minute or more, but as yet nothing appeared.