There it stood on the sand, close to the river bank. Charley ran ahead and picked it up. “Here’s where I crossed. It’s only knee deep--all stones in the channel. We have got to get over, but what will Clara do?” “In a case like this if it is only knee deep I guess I can manage it,” said Clara. “I’m not afraid of getting my feet wet, Charley, when you are wet to the skin from head to foot.” “Wait,” said Doctor Dan; “let me go over first and see.” He pulled off his shoes and stockings, rolled up his trousers and waded across, but Charley plunged right in and crossed, for he could not have been wetter than he already was. “I can carry you across, miss, if you will let me,” called Doctor Dan, as he started back. “Don’t be afraid of me. I won’t hurt you even if I am an Indian and your father is my enemy.” “Go, Clara. It will please him,” whispered Dick. “Certainly I will let you,” replied Clara, and Doctor Dan stooped down, gathered the girl’s skirts together about her ankles, then lifted her up and carried her across the stream as easily as though she had been a baby. Dick hastily followed and they had no sooner joined Charley on the other side than he picked up the lantern and hurried forward away from the river so fast that they could hardly keep up with him. “We are right there now!” he called out. “Come on! Come on!” To their surprise a few moments later they emerged from the cavern and found themselves standing under the stars. “Hello!” cried Doctor Dan; “this beats me. I had no idea of anything like this.” It was a most peculiar spot. Before them lay a broad pool of water, perhaps a hundred yards across, beyond which was a low ridge of rocks, and over this they could look off upon the Bad Lands for miles and miles. “There you are!” cried Charley, pointing down into the pool. “He lies just as I left him--old P. D. asleep!” Sure enough, at the bottom of the pool, with its head tucked in under its huge body, lay a specimen of the strange prehistoric monster which Dick and Charley had come up into the Bad Lands to find. CHAPTER XXI. LASSOING OLD P. D. “Is it asleep or is it dead?” asked Clara, after they had watched the Plesiosaurus for several moments in silence. “Asleep,” said Charley, decidedly. “It moved twice while I was watching it. Now, Dick, this is only part of my discovery. I----” “Yes, and I can tell you the rest,” said Dick, pointing over toward the rocky ridge beyond the pool. “We are not the first ones who have been here.” “Indeed we are not,” replied Charley. “You see?” There was a rude hut near the ridge and lying on the ground outside were two huge coils of rope, one almost as big round as a steamer’s hawser.