Without paying the least attention to Dick the monster came up out of the water entirely and went waddling along the shore on four little stumpy legs, dragging behind it a thick, scaly tail fully thirty feet in length and taking his course toward the hut. Martin Mudd looked back and saw it coming. The hut door flew open and Bill Struthers and the man Tony came rushing out. “Gee whiz! What’s that? Have I got ’em again?” Tony yelled and he made a bee line for the horses. “Not without me. I don’t stay here none now,” shouted Struthers, following him. “Hold on. Hold on, you fools. Get your guns and shoot the critter. Don’t go off and leave me so,” Martin Mudd called out at the top of his lungs. But his companions paid no attention to him. Cutting the hobbles, they flung themselves on their horses and went dashing up the lake shore. Mudd paused for a moment, looked back and hesitated. At the same instant the lake monster treated him to another taste of that tremendous hissing roar, alongside of which the bellow of the Plesiosaurus was sweet music. It was too much for Mr. Mudd. He went bounding toward the remaining horses, which stood half paralyzed with fear. In a moment he was astride one of them and dashing away after the others, while the monster, without altering its course, kept steadily on toward the hut. “Great Scott! What’s going to become of Clara Eglinton?” thought Dick. “Is she tied up in there a prisoner all alone?” 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.