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"My society will give you a thousand dollars," I said, "if you pilot me inside the Hudson table-land and show me either a mammoth or a dingue!" He looked me calmly in the eye. "Mister," he said, slowly, "have you got a million for to squander on me?" "No," I said, suspiciously. "Because," he went on, "it wouldn't be enough. Home an' mother suits me now." He picked up his book and rose.
Thrown on the vapory curtain, in silhouette, a man and a woman passed under the lovely trees, arms about each other's necks; near them the shadows of five mules grazed peacefully; a dingue gambolled close by. "It is a mirage!" I muttered, but my voice made no sound.
"It is too good to be true," sighed Dorothy, clasping her white hands under her chin and gazing at the dingue in rapture. "Yes," said I, solemnly, "you and I, my child, are face to face with the fabled dingue Dingus solitarius! Let us continue to gaze at it, reverently, prayerfully, humbly " Dorothy yawned probably with excitement.
I roofed this with hemlock, then laboriously whittled out and adjusted a swinging shutter for the entrance, setting it on springy twigs. "The dingue, you know, was supposed to live in the water," she said, kneeling beside me over our trap. I took her little hand and thanked her for the information.
He replied that it was neither a mammoth nor a dingue, and added a strong request for privacy, which I was obliged to grant, as I could not torture another word out of him. I slept little that night; the exciting proximity of the unknown land was too much for me.
After a long silence I picked up his book again and pointed at the picture of the mammoth. "What color is it?" I asked. "Kinder red an' brown," he answered, promptly. "It's woolly, too." Astounded, I pointed to the dingue. "One-toed," he said, quickly; "makes a noise like a bell when scutterin' about." Intensely excited, I laid my hand on his arm.
Digue, dingue, donne L'heure sonne Digue, dingue, di.... C'est midi. When the song was finished I went into my bedroom and made myself into a belle dame for lunch. My aunt had followed me. "But, my dear," said she, "you are mad to think I am going to eat with all these workmen. Certainly in all Paris there is no one but yourself who would do such a thing." "No, no, Aunt; it is all right."
Now here's a gum-twister," and he painfully spelled out m-o-n-o-d-a-c-t-y-l, breathing hard all the while. "Monodactyl," I said, "means a single-toed creature." He turned the page with alacrity. "Is that the beast he's talkin' about?" he asked. The illustration he pointed out was a wood-cut representing Darwin's reconstruction of the dingue from the fossil bones in the British Museum.
We were still mutely adoring the dingue when Professor Smawl burst into the tent at a hand-gallop, bawling hoarsely for her kodak and note-book. Dorothy seized her triumphantly by the arm and pointed at the dingue, which appeared to be frightened to death. "What!" cried Professor Smawl, scornfully; "that a dingue? Rubbish!" "Madam," I said, firmly, "it is a dingue! It's a monodactyl! See!
"I've seen them things, too," he remarked. Again I patiently pointed out his error, and suggested that he referred to the elephant. "Elephant be blowed!" he replied, scornfully. "I guess I know what I seen. An' I seen that there thing you call a dingue, too." Not wishing to prolong a futile discussion, I remained silent. After a moment he wheeled around, removing his pipe from his hard mouth.
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