Chapter Twelve

While Dad continued home, Daniel waited in the Milners’ yard. As he told Mr. Milner what they’d found, another vehicle appeared bringing their conversation to a halt. Mildred Roost had arrived.

She hobbled over to Daniel and Herb Milner, using her cane to propel her. “Did you really find the stolen Stygimoloch?” Dr. Roost’s eyes looked wild with excitement.

“Yes!” Daniel brought her up to date.

“What was Mr. Pederson’s reaction when you let him know?” Daniel asked

“I didn’t get a chance to tell him.” Dr. Roost sounded exasperated. “He wasn’t there when I went back. He’d already left for Swift Current.”

Mr. Milner had a mild look of interest on his face. Daniel wanted to know more about Pederson’s plans too, but didn’t want to ask in front of Mr. Milner.

“Oh, getting those paleontology supplies we needed,” Daniel said.

“Right,” Dr. Roost agreed. “So what can I do?”

Daniel explained that they were waiting for the forensics team.

“I’d like to take a look too,” she said.

“I can guide you there when I take them,” Daniel offered.

“Fine,” she said. “I’ll just make sure I have my camera in my truck.”

Suddenly, the sound of a speeding vehicle reached the peacefulness of the Milner yard.

“Adrian McDermott, I bet!” Dr. Roost said. “How that man knows things so quickly is beyond me.”

Herb Milner moved up beside Dr. Roost. “He sure has a ‘nose for news,’ as they say.”

“Yes, and we can’t stall him any more about this story now that several people in the community know about the fossil theft,” she commented, as the reporter parked his car beside her truck.

“Especially since he already seemed to be aware of the situation the other day when he showed up at our place,” said Daniel.

Herb Milner stepped forward with a concerned look on his face. “Obviously he has some kind of inside source.”

“Yes, but I wonder who?” Daniel asked.

“We could ask him,” suggested Mildred Roost with a chuckle, as the young man strode towards them with his tape recorder and microphone in hand.

“Good afternoon,” Adrian McDermott said, smiling. “So I hear the dinosaur fossils have been found in an abandoned farmyard. What can you tell me about the location?” he turned to Herb Milner.

Mr. Milner pointed to Daniel. “He’s the young fellow that found them,” he said.

“All right!” The reporter turned his attention to Daniel. “So what can you tell me about how you found the jacketed pieces?”

“Boy, you sure know a lot already,” Daniel said, surprised.

“I have my sources,” said the reporter cheerfully.

“Like what?” Daniel asked curiously.

“Listening to the police band on the Internet,” McDermott answered lightly.

Daniel hadn’t known this was possible, but it certainly explained how McDermott always seemed to know what was going on. After a moment of surprise, Daniel explained how he’d been riding through the pasture and Dactyl had delayed him long enough to make the discovery.

“What condition are they in?” McDermott asked.

“We don’t know yet,” answered Daniel. “The police are still checking out the site.”

“That’s fine then, Daniel,” said McDermott with a little laugh. “I’ll just head over there and take some photographs.”

Herb Milner stepped forward. “I don’t think that’s
a good idea while the police are carrying out their
investigation,” he said. “How about you wait around with the rest of us here?”

“Uh, thanks anyway,” McDermott said, stepping back to his car at a quicker pace than he’d arrived. “But I have other things to do. I’ll maybe come back.”

Dr. Roost and Herb Milner watched as he reversed and then pulled out of the yard.

“Quite the ambitious young man,” declared Herb Milner.

“Yes, he certainly keeps abreast of what’s going on,” said Dr. Roost.

Daniel wished he knew what was going on with the Nelwin brothers, especially Todd. As soon as he could, he’d confront the brothers once and for all to see why they were being so secretive and if it had something to do with their dad being involved with the theft.

He also wanted to get the scoop from Dr. Roost on what was going on with Mr. Pederson. Obviously if he’d gone to town for supplies, he had another way to go back to the past. But now was not the time to quiz Dr. Roost.

Wielding her cane over her head, Dr. Roost said, “I want to be ready. I’m not missing this action. Wish we didn’t have to wait for the forensics crew, though.”

“No problem,” Milner said, pointing to a cloud of dust approaching in the distance. “Here they come.”

A few minutes later, Daniel was leading Dr. Roost and the forensic team across the pasture.

As soon as they arrived at the falling-down shack, Corporal Fraser gave the forensic officers directions. A few minutes later, Daniel and Dr. Roost stood chatting with him. They mentioned Adrian McDermott’s visit.

“I think its time to question Mr. McDermott about his information gathering methods. I’m not sure if he’s a help or a hindrance, but we might need to set down some guidelines for him,” he said, then headed back to where the squad of officers squatted near the opening to the root cellar, taking photographs and making notes.

Daniel led Dr. Roost some distance away from hearing of the crew. “Mr. Pederson’s going to go back again, isn’t he?” Daniel asked.

“I’m afraid so.” She poked her cane at some old boards in the tall grass. “I tried earlier to convince him otherwise, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“When?”

She grimaced. “He wouldn’t tell me.”

“I knew he’d brought something more back from the past with him,” said Daniel.

“I’m sure he’ll be too tired to go before morning, especially if he’s got to go all the way to Swift Current to get supplies,” she consoled him. “He told me he wasn’t going there until tomorrow, but when I went back to tell him you’d found the Stygimoloch skeleton, he’d already left.”

Daniel sighed. At least they had a little more time before they had to take up their guard duty on Mr. Pederson. “Too bad he doesn’t know the bones are safe, otherwise I’m sure he wouldn’t want to travel back in time again.”

“You might be right.” Mildred Roost didn’t look entirely convinced.

“After all,” said Daniel, “losing them was the reason we went in the first place.”

“True,” agreed Dr. Roost.

Daniel knew Mr. Pederson wouldn’t have returned from Swift Current yet, but Daniel would go to his place as soon as he thought his friend might be home. He didn’t want Pederson going back into that kind of danger, especially not with the added concern of the grey blanket that hung heavily in the skies and the falling debris in the atmosphere.

If what Ole Pederson said was true, Daniel knew that the dinosaurs they’d visited didn’t have much time to live. Besides the trapped heat that warmed the planet too much for life to survive, the vast ash cloud they’d witnessed would block the sunlight for years and prevent photosynthesis, which was the way plants made food. This would mean the gradual extinction of land and aquatic plants, which in turn meant there would be no food for any of the living things in the Cretaceous Period that depended on them – including the dinosaurs.

There were also other dangers. Carbon dioxide was naturally present in the earth’s atmosphere, and was needed to help plants grow. But too much would kill them. Sulphur gases and other atmospheric elements, including iridium, and carbon monoxide produced by volcanic activity, would be devastating to most life forms. Daniel didn’t like the thought of Mr. Pederson going to the past and possibly inhaling some of those deadly chemicals.

When Dad arrived with some tools for making the removal of the boards easier, Daniel jumped at the chance to help. Together he and Dad pounded out rusted nails and pulled rotting boards out of the way for the police team, heaving them onto a pile a few metres away. Soon the entry to the root cellar was easily accessible.

The police team signalled for Daniel and Dr. Roost to come down and check the contents. The jacketed pieces were scratched and dirty on the outside, but as far as they could tell, the large fossils inside were intact, saved by the thickness of the plaster coating over the layers of tissue paper and burlap underneath. The smaller pieces hadn’t fared as well. Many were broken and dumped into a mound all jumbled together.

Dr. Roost let out a low sigh almost like a moan. “Realigning these will take many painstaking hours of work.”

“At least we still have them,” said Daniel.

“It will certainly keep Ole busy all winter,” she said.

“Speaking of which,” Daniel lowered his voice, “do you think he’s back yet?”

She looked at her watch. “It’s a bit early yet. Give it another half hour or so.” She poked her cane into the ground. “Well, there’s nothing more for me to do here. Guess I might as well pop over to Ole’s and wait for him so I can give him the news.”

“Great!” said Daniel, finally able to smile.

“Are you staying?”

“Yes, I want to watch them hoist the fossils to safety.”

“Where are they transporting them?”

“They’ll store them in our garage for now – it can be locked – and Dactyl will keep guard in the yard. We’ll hear him bark,” explained Daniel. “Then they’ll see what Mr. Pederson wants to do with them. I know he wanted them to go to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum eventually, but I don’t know if they were to go to the field station at Eastend or the Regina headquarters.”

“Sounds like things are well in hand. See you later, young man!” Dr. Roost gave him a tap with her cane.

Daniel watched the tractors, flatbed and other equipment arrive, along with several other men in trucks, including Herb Milner, and someone on a horse. Although they struggled at first to lever the fossils to haul them out, once they had a system in place, the whole operation went fairly quickly. Seeing them in daylight, they found the plaster of Paris jackets were in worse shape than they’d hoped. As Daniel had expected, some were cracked and badly banged up, because the thieves had rolled them into the root cellar without worrying about how they landed.

“Someone sure didn’t know what they were doing,” said Dad. “Or how valuable these pieces were.”

“They didn’t care about destroying other possible finds at the quarry, either,” said Daniel saddened by the destruction. “I still don’t understand why anyone would do it.”

“They wanted to hurt us in some way, I suppose,” Dad said. “Though why, I wouldn’t know.”

When they were almost finished loading the pieces, Daniel happened to catch a flash of bright light from across the pasture. He pulled out his binoculars and watched carefully. When it happened again, he pinpointed the place and studied it. At last, he saw other movement and realized it was someone with a telephoto lens on a camera, reflecting in the sun. Whoever it was crept closer on foot, attempting to hide behind bits of scrubby sagebrush and small bushes.

Daniel sidled over to Corporal Fraser, handed him the binoculars and indicated with a slow nod for him to look at the glinting in the distance. Corporal Fraser moved behind a protruding chunk of debris and studied the area.

“Adrian McDermott,” guessed Daniel.

“Yes, I do believe it is,” answered Corporal Fraser. “Now, how do you suppose he knew where to find us? Most people only know of the two ways of getting in here. I definitely need to pay that man a visit sometime soon and find out what he knows from his ‘sources.’”

Daniel took the binoculars back from Corporal Fraser, who went back to finish supervising the task of gathering the smaller pieces. When they were ready to leave, Daniel at first rode slowly behind the caravan of Jeeps, atvs, tractors and flatbed led by Corporal Fraser. But Gypsy seemed ready for another good run, so he galloped across the hills. Partway across the pasture, he doubled back to the site of the old falling-down shack.

He surprised Adrian McDermott, who was taking photographs of the site. McDermott tried to run and hide when he heard Daniel coming, but he was no match for Gypsy’s speed. Besides, he had nowhere to hide where Daniel couldn’t find him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Daniel demanded, drawing up beside him.

“Getting my story on the missing Stygimoloch,” Adrian McDermott said.

“How did you get here?” asked Daniel, knowing he hadn’t come by either of the two usual routes.

“I’m good at my job and I do my research.” The reporter turned smug.

Daniel suddenly remembered Adrian McDermott telling someone he was doing a project on old abandoned places. He must have found another way in.

“And just how do you know so much about what’s going on here?” Daniel circled Gypsy around the reporter.

“I told you, I have my sources.” The reporter relaxed a little.

“What sources? No outsiders know about the Stygimoloch,” Daniel insisted, brushing closer to McDermott. “Let’s hear about them.”

“Yes, let’s,” said the voice of Corporal Fraser, suddenly stepping out from the pile of weathered boards.

Daniel let out a little yelp. He hadn’t heard Corporal Fraser’s return. He must have looped back around on a borrowed horse. McDermott tensed, his eyes became wary. He gave a quick glance around, looking for a way to escape.

“I don’t have to tell you anything!” he retorted.

“I think your knowledge has nothing to do with protecting the sources for your story,” said Corporal Fraser, moving closer to McDermott. “I insist you join me right now for a little chat.”

McDermott seemed to wither. He sighed and returned his camera to the bag. “Fine,” he said.

“Daniel, how about you head for home and I’ll drop by in a while,” suggested the Corporal.

Daniel nodded, giving McDermott one last piercing look. Corporal Fraser would get the truth from the reporter. Daniel turned Gypsy around and headed for home. Maybe the Nelwin brothers were there by now.

He was just in time to see the flatbed backed securely into the garage. Everyone congratulated themselves on a job well done and disappeared from the yard in a short time. Daniel cooled Gypsy down and stabled her with fresh water and her evening feed. Then he did his barn chores.

He kept looking through the open barn doors, hoping to see the Nelwins arrive, but they never did. His desire to ask Todd what he might know about his father’s possible involvement in the theft was not going to be satisfied that night. Dad came to help him finish the chores and together they returned to the house for supper.

Daniel was just about to head for bed later that night, when he finally heard Dr. Roost arrive back in their yard. He scurried over to her parked truck and knocked on her camper door. She stepped out, greeting Daniel with discouragement in her eyes.

“Ole still hasn’t returned,” she said. “I checked a few of the spots in case he took a sudden desire to go into the past tonight, but I’m sure he hasn’t gone yet. Something must have held him up in town. I didn’t want to wait for him all night, so I left him a note pinned to his door,” explained Dr. Roost. “I told him the fossils had been found.”

“I guess there’s nothing more we can do,” Daniel said. “He surely won’t want to go when it’s dark.”

“I’ll take first watch in the morning,” said Dr. Roost. “That way you can get your chores done.”

“Okay,” Daniel agreed, although he hated to miss a moment of keeping watch over Ole Pederson.

Daniel said good night and sauntered back to the house, staring up at the night sky and the constellations. He easily picked out the Big Dipper and Orion’s Belt. How much had the stars changed over sixty-five million years, he wondered? Had the Cretaceous dinosaurs lived under the same formations? He supposed the constellations must have appeared to have changed position each time a major natural geographical disaster shifted the Earth’s axis – at least that’s what the scientists seemed to believe.

Later, Daniel readied his backpack for the next day’s jaunt to watch over Ole Pederson. He checked his notebook to make sure the leaf was secure, then tucked it into his backpack in the closet, before setting his alarm for four a.m. He didn’t trust Ole Pederson not to leave by daybreak. The old man always rose early and Daniel didn’t know if Dr. Roost would get there fast enough.

When he finished packing his camera, binoculars and a dinosaur book to study, he snuck downstairs. There he readied his jacket and shoes by the back door, making sure he could easily grab some bottles of water from the fridge when he left. Back in his room, he didn’t even get into his pyjamas, not wanting to disturb anyone when he got up. Before he crawled into bed, he checked again to make sure the recently picked prehistoric leaf was secure in his notebook.

Sometime during the night, the wind picked up and rain brushed against the windows. There was still a slow drizzle blown about by a strong wind when Daniel rose. Luckily his rain gear was stored in the porch and he had little trouble finding his poncho and rubber boots. He tucked his sneakers into his backpack for later. He’d let Dr. Roost take over the watch when he left to do chores.

The sky was dark and dreary as Daniel headed over the rolling hills to Mr. Pederson’s shack. He ordered Dactyl to stay home and the dog seemed contented to obey, curling back up in his sleeping spot on some soft straw in the barn just inside the partially open door. Using a flashlight, Daniel stumbled over the uneven ground until the sky lightened to a softer grey and the rain diminished to a few drops now and then.

From several hills away, Daniel could make out the speck of Mr. Pederson’s roofline a little farther down the valley. He pulled out the binoculars. Mr. Pederson’s truck was parked close to the shack. Daniel relaxed. Mr. Pederson was home.

Then he noticed movement and gasped. The old paleontologist was carrying some object from the back of his truck and placing it on something oblong that lay on the ground. Daniel began to run. He lost sight of Pederson when he dipped down into a valley. Panting by the time he made the next rise, he studied the action below.

“No!” he yelled when he saw what Pederson was doing. He was still too far away to stop him and there was no way the old man could hear him over the fury of the wind.

Pederson continued to haul items from his truck, but he was placing them on an inflated rubber dinghy! What looked like ropes and tackle, then a fair-sized canister of something, a spraying machine, a backpack, camera equipment, and other things that Daniel couldn’t quite make out, were stacked evenly at both ends. When the oars were added, Daniel knew Pederson was going to try to land in the river. But what if he didn’t hit the right spot? The dinghy could be overturned, or he could land on the shore. Worse, one of the meat-eating dinosaurs could be having an early morning drink and Mr. Pederson would be a goner. Daniel didn’t even want to think about the creatures lurking in the water.

Daniel pounded across the next hill and raced towards Pederson. But the paleontologist still couldn’t hear or see him. He was intent on donning some kind of overalls and a full-face mask hooked to a small oxygen tank strapped on his back. Frantically, Daniel charged across the top of the last hill and down towards Pederson, waving his arms and yelling. He dug a whistle out of his pocket and began blowing as hard as he could.

Pederson saw him then, but didn’t stop. Instead, he hopped into the dinghy, sat down, and grabbed the oars. Then he picked up something on the seat beside him. A split second later, he was gone.