"'Well,' he said, 'nothing to report, Dick, my boy?' "'Nothing, professor.' "He wiped his shining face with his handkerchief and stared at the water. "'My calculations lead me to believe,' he said, 'that our prize may be due any day now. This theory I base upon the result of the report from the last sea-captain I saw. I cannot understand why some of these captains did not take the carcass in tow. They all say that they tried, but that the body sank before they could come within half a mile. The truth is, probably, that they did not stir a foot from their course to examine the thing.' "'Have you ever cruised about for it?' I ventured. "'For two years,' he said, grimly. 'It's no use; it's accident when a ship falls in with it. One captain reports it a thousand miles from where the last skipper spoke it, and always in the Gulf Stream. They think it is a different specimen every time, and the papers are teeming with sea-serpent fol-de-rol.' "'Are you sure,' I asked, 'that it will swing into the coast on this Gulf Stream loop?' "'I think I may say that it is certain to do so. I experimented with a dead right-whale. You may have heard of its coming ashore here last summer.' "'I think I did,' said I, with a faint smile. The thing had poisoned the air for miles around. "'But,' I continued, 'suppose it comes in the night?' "He laughed. "'There I am lucky. Every night this month, and every day, too, the current of the loop runs inland so far that even a porpoise would strand for at least twelve hours. Longer than that I have not experimented with, but I know that the shore trend of the loop runs across a long spur of the submerged volcanic mountain, and that anything heavier than a porpoise would scrape the bottom and be carried so slowly that at least twelve hours must elapse before the carcass could float again into deep water. There are chances of its stranding indefinitely, too, but I don't care to take those chances. That is why I have stationed you here, Dick.' "He glanced again at the water, smiling to himself. "'There is another question I want to ask,' I said, 'if you don't mind.' "'Of course not!' he said, warmly. "'What are you digging for?' "'Why, simply for exercise. The doctor told me I was killing myself with my sedentary habits, so I decided to dig. I don't know a better exercise. Do you?' "'I suppose not,' I murmured, rather red in the face. I wondered whether he'd mention fossils. "'Did Daisy tell you why we are making our papier-mache thermosaurus?' he asked. "I shook my head. "'We constructed that from measurements I took from the fossil remains of the thermosaurus in the Metropolitan Museum. Professor Bruce Stoddard made the drawings. We set it up here, all ready to receive the skin of the carcass that I am expecting.' "We had started towards home, walking slowly across the darkening dunes, shoulder to shoulder. The sand was deep, and walking was not easy.