"'Why, papa!' said Daisy. 'Do you intend to starve him?' "We all laughed. "The professor tucked his drawings into a capacious pocket, pulled his sea-boots up to his hips, seized a spade, and left, nodding to us as though he were thinking of something else. "We went to the door and watched him across the salt meadows until the distant sand-dune hid him. "'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.