'Come,' said Daisy Holroyd, 'I am going to take you to the shop.'

"She put on a broad-brimmed straw hat, a distractingly pretty
combination of filmy cool stuffs, and led the way to the long, low
structure that I had noticed the evening before.

"The interior was lighted by the numberless little port-holes, and I
could see everything plainly. I acknowledge I was nonplussed by what I
did see.

"In the centre of the shed, which must have been at least a hundred
feet long, stood what I thought at first was the skeleton of an
enormous whale. After a moment's silent contemplation of the thing I
saw that it could not be a whale, for the frames of two gigantic,
batlike wings rose from each shoulder. Also I noticed that the animal
possessed legs--four of them--with most unpleasant-looking webbed
claws fully eight feet long. The bony framework of the head, too,
resembled something between a crocodile and a monstrous
snapping-turtle. The walls of the shanty were hung with drawings and
blue prints. A man dressed in white linen was tinkering with the
vertebrae of the lizard-like tail.

"'Where on earth did such a reptile come from?' I asked at length.

"'Oh, it's not real!' said Daisy, scornfully; 'it's papier-mache.'

"'I see,' said I; 'a stage prop.'

"'A what?' asked Daisy, in hurt astonishment.

"'Why, a--a sort of Siegfried dragon--a what's-his-name--er, Pfafner,
or Peffer, or--'

"'If my father heard you say such things he would dislike you,' said
Daisy. She looked grieved, and moved towards the door. I
apologized--for what, I knew not--and we became reconciled. She ran
into her father's room and brought me the rifle, a very good
Winchester. She also gave me a cartridge-belt, full.

"'Now,' she smiled, 'I shall take you to your observatory, and when we
arrive you are to begin your duty at once.'

"'And that duty?' I ventured, shouldering the rifle.

"'That duty is to watch the ocean. I shall then explain the whole
affair--but you mustn't look at me while I speak; you must watch the
sea.'

"'This,' said I, 'is hardship. I had rather go without the luncheon.'

"I do not think she was offended at my speech; still she frowned for
almost three seconds.

"We passed through acres of sweet bay and spear grass, sometimes
skirting thickets of twisted cedars, sometimes walking in the full
glare of the morning sun, sinking into shifting sand where
sun-scorched shells crackled under our feet, and sun-browned sea-weed
g