“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.