"I had grown so interested that I had leaned far across the table.
Daisy, too, bent forward. It was only when the professor paused for a
moment that I noticed how close together our heads were--Daisy's and
mine. I don't think she realized it. She did not move.

"'Now comes the important part of this long discourse,' said the
professor, smiling at our eagerness. "'Ever since the carcass of our
derelict thermosaurus was first noticed, every captain who has seen it
has also reported the presence of one or more gigantic birds in the
neighborhood. These birds, at a great distance, appeared to be
hovering over the carcass, but on the approach of a vessel they
disappeared. Even in mid-ocean they were observed. When I heard about
it I was puzzled. A month later I was satisfied that neither the
ekaf-bird nor the ool-yllik was extinct. Last Monday I knew that I was
right. I found forty-eight distinct impressions of the huge,
seven-toed claw of the ekaf-bird on the beach here at Pine Inlet. You
may imagine my excitement. I succeeded in digging up enough wet sand
around one of these impressions to preserve its form. I managed to get
it into a soap-box, and now it is there in my shop. The tide rose too
rapidly for me to save the other footprints.'

"I shuddered at the possibility of a clumsy misstep on my part
obliterating the impression of an ool-yllik.