"Why don't you do it, then?" she asked.
I succeeded in wrenching my head toward the ocean, although I felt sure
it would swing gradually round again in spite of me.
"To begin with," said Daisy Holroyd, "there's a thing in that ocean
that would astonish you if you saw it. Turn your head!"
"I am," I said meekly.
"Did you hear what I said?"
"Yes--er--a thing in the ocean that's going to astonish me." Visions of
mermaids rose before me.
"The thing," said Daisy, "is a Thermosaurus!"
I nodded vaguely, as though anticipating a delightful introduction to
a nautical friend.
"You don't seem astonished," she said reproachfully.
"Why should I be?" I asked.
"Please turn your eyes toward the water. Suppose a Thermosaurus should
look out of the waves!"
"Well," said I, "in that case the pleasure would be mutual."
She frowned, and bit her upper lip.
"Do you know what a Thermosaurus is?" she asked.
"If I am to guess," said I, "I guess it's a jellyfish."
"It's that big, ugly, horrible creature that I showed you in the shed!"
cried Daisy impatiently.
"Eh!" I stammered.
"Not papier-maché either," she continued excitedly; "it's a real one."
This was pleasant news. I glanced instinctively at my rifle and then at
the ocean.
"Well," said I at last, "it strikes me that you and I resemble a pair
of Andromedas waiting to be swallowed. This rifle won't stop a beast,
a live beast, like that Nibelungen dragon of yours."
"Yes, it will," she said; "it's not an ordinary rifle."
Then, for the first time, I noticed, just below the magazine, a
cylindrical attachment that was strange to me.
"Now, if you will watch the sea very carefully, and will promise not to
look at me," said Daisy, "I will try to explain."
She did not wait for me to promise, but went on eagerly, a sparkle of
excitement in her blue eyes:
"You know, of all the fossil remains of the great bat-like and
lizard-like creatures that inhabited the earth ages and ages ago,
the bones of the gigantic saurians are the most interesting. I think
they used to splash about the water and fly over the land during the
Carboniferous period; anyway, it doesn't matter. Of course, you have
seen pictures of reconstructed creatures such as the Ichthyosaurus, the
Plesiosaurus, the Anthracosaurus, and the Thermosaurus?"