Chapter 5

The steaks we had that night, and they were fine; and the

following morning we tasted the broth. It seemed odd to be

eating a creature that should, by all the laws of paleontology,

have been extinct for several million years. It gave one a

feeling of newness that was almost embarrassing, although it

didn't seem to embarrass our appetites. Olson ate until I

thought he would burst.

The girl ate with us that night at the little officers' mess just

back of the torpedo compartment. The narrow table was unfolded;

the four stools were set out; and for the first time in days we

sat down to eat, and for the first time in weeks we had something

to eat other than the monotony of the short rations of an

impoverished U-boat. Nobs sat between the girl and me and was

fed with morsels of the Plesiosaurus steak, at the risk of

forever contaminating his manners. He looked at me sheepishly

all the time, for he knew that no well-bred dog should eat at

table; but the poor fellow was so wasted from improper food that

I couldn't enjoy my own meal had he been denied an immediate share

in it; and anyway Lys wanted to feed him. So there you are.

Lys was coldly polite to me and sweetly gracious to Bradley

and Olson. She wasn't of the gushing type, I knew; so I didn't

expect much from her and was duly grateful for the few morsels of

attention she threw upon the floor to me. We had a pleasant

meal, with only one unfortunate occurrence--when Olson suggested

that possibly the creature we were eating was the same one that

ate the German. It was some time before we could persuade the

girl to continue her meal, but at last Bradley prevailed upon

her, pointing out that we had come upstream nearly forty miles

since the boche had been seized, and that during that time we

had seen literally thousands of these denizens of the river,

indicating that the chances were very remote that this was the

same Plesiosaur. "And anyway," he concluded, "it was only a

scheme of Mr. Olson's to get all the steaks for himself."

We discussed the future and ventured opinions as to what lay before

us; but we could only theorize at best, for none of us knew. If the