"Well, my dear boys, I dare say it seems all a matter of jest and
sport to you; yet, after our riding in the centre of a tornado
for uncounted miles, coming forth with hardly a scratch or a
bruise to show for it all, who dare say such things may not be,
even yet?"

"But,--those strange creatures are gone; the last one perished
thousands upon thousands of years ago, uncle Phaeton."

"So it is said, and so follows the almost universal belief. Yet
I have seen, felt, cooked, tasted, and ate to its last morsel a
steak from a mammoth. True, the creature was dead; had been
preserved for ages, no doubt, within the glacier which finally
cast it forth to human view; yet who would have credited such a
discovery, only fifty years ago? He who dared to even hint at
such a thing would have been derided and laughed at, pronounced
either fool or lunatic. And so,--if we should happen to discover
one or all of those supposedly extinct creatures here in this
terra incognita, I would be overjoyed rather than astounded."

Bruno looked grave at this conclusion, but Waldo was not so
readily impressed, and, with shrugging shoulders, he made answer:

"Well, uncle, I'm not quite so ambitious as all that comes to.
May I give you my idea of it all?"



CHAPTER VIII.
A DUEL TO THE DEATH.