tream.'

"She opened her sunshade and held it over her. I noticed that she
deigned to give me the benefit of about one-eighth of it.

"'Your duty with that rifle is this: if we are fortunate enough to see
the body of the thermosaurus come floating by, you are to take good
aim and fire--fire rapidly every bullet in the magazine; then reload
and fire again, and reload and fire as long as you have any cartridges
left.'

"'A self-feeding Maxim is what I should have,' I said, with gentle
sarcasm. 'Well, and suppose I make a sieve of this big lizard?'

"'Do you see these rings in the sand?' she asked.

"Sure enough, somebody had driven heavy piles deep into the sand all
around us, and to the tops of these piles were attached steel rings,
half buried under the spear-grass. We sat almost exactly in the centre
of a circle of these rings.

"'The reason is this,' said Daisy; 'every bullet in your cartridges is
steel-tipped and armor-piercing. To the base of each bullet is
attached a thin wire of pallium. Pallium is that new metal, a thread
of which, drawn out into finest wire, will hold a ton of iron
suspended. Every bullet is fitted with minute coils of miles of this
wire. When the bullet leaves the rifle it spins out this wire as a
shot from a life-saver's mortar spins out and carries the life-line to
a wrecked ship. The end of each coil of wire is attached to that
cylinder under the magazine of your rifle. As soon as the shell is
automatically ejected this wire flies out also. A bit of scarlet tape
is fixed to the end, so that it will be easy to pick up. There is also
a snap-clasp on the end, and this clasp fits those rings that you see
in the sand. Now, when you begin firing, it is my duty to run and pick
up the wire ends and attach them to the rings. Then, you see, we have
the body of the thermosaurus full of bullets, every bullet anchored to
the shore by tiny wires, each of which could easily hold a ton's
strain.'

"I looked at her in amazement.

"'Then,' she added, calmly, 'we have captured the thermosaurus.'

"'Your father,' said I, at length, 'must have spent years of labor
over this preparation.'

"'It is the work of a lifetime,' she said, simply.

"My face, I suppose, showed my misgivings.

"'It must not fail,' she added.

"'But--but we are nowhere near the Gulf Stream,' I ventured.

"Her face brightened, and she frankly held the sunshade over us both.

"'Ah, you don't know,' she said, 'what else papa