1st September 1891
Our first day at the dig has the entire excavation party trembling with excitement. There was much debate over using dynamite to expose the hidden chambers beneath the ruins of Kur’hukayia, but I am overjoyed to discover that our risk was rewarded. Haynes remains characteristically belligerent about the whole affair, claiming that any number of magnificent relics may have been destroyed, but there is a quiet awe simmering under that crusty old surface of his. I know it. He is as starstruck as I at the unearthing of our first skull, peculiar though the specimen is. He is studying it as I write, and I expect him to burst into my tent at any moment with that practiced scowl of his, declaring that it is a mere aberration and that we have, yet again, wasted his most precious time, but he will wait with us nonetheless. I have known the man for close to twenty-five years, and I recognized that look in his eye when we presented it to him. The oxymoronic marriage of disbelief and delight. His denial never wins, of course. He knows exactly what we have unearthed.