Part 40 (1/2)

”'Yes, siree! I always pick out the purtiest spots--kinder filled chuck full of woods and brooks and things; then I h'ist my paste-pot onto a rock, and I slather that rock with gum, and whoop she goes!'

”'Whoop what goes?'

”'The bill. I paste her onto the rock, with one swipe of the brush for the edges and a back-handed swipe for the finish--except when a bill is folded in two halves.'

”'And what do you do then?' I asked, disgusted.

”'Swipe twice,' said Frisby, with enthusiasm.

”'And you don't think it injures the landscape?'

”'Injures it!' he exclaimed, convinced that I was attempting to joke.

”I looked wearily out to sea. He also looked at the water and sighed sentimentally.

”'Floatin' buoys with bills onto 'em is a idea of mine,' he observed.

'That d.a.m.n ocean is monotonous, ain't it?'

”I don't know what I might have done to Frisby--the rifle was so convenient--if his mean yellow dog had not waddled up at this juncture.

”'Hi, Davy, sic 'em!' said Frisby, expectorating upon a clam-sh.e.l.l and hurling it seaward. The cur watched the flight of the sh.e.l.l apathetically, then squatted in the sand and looked at his master.

”'Kinder lost his spirit,' said Frisby, 'ain't he? I once stuck a bill onto Davy, an' it come off, an' the paste sorter sickened him. He was h.e.l.l on rats--once!'

”After a moment or two Frisby took himself off, whistling cheerfully to Davy, who followed him when he was ready. The rifle burned in my fingers.

”It was nearly six o'clock when the professor appeared, spade on shoulder, boots smeared with mud.

”'Well,' he said, 'nothing to report, d.i.c.k, my boy?'

”'Nothing, professor.'

”He wiped his s.h.i.+ning 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 carca.s.s 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 s.h.i.+p 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 ash.o.r.e 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.