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person he was dealing with.
    The young man might be dressed shabbily, but something about the way he held himself, the way he moved, the way the brown eyes studied him tipped Henry off. This young man was sure of what he was doing and who he was–and not easily intimidated.
    “I see it didn’t take long,” Henry said, his eyes flicking towards the wall of fossils.
    The other man’s face registered puzzlement for a fraction of a second and then he said, “No, I got up here as soon as I received your message.” He smiled again. “I’m the staff paleontologist you asked John Day’s to send out, remember? You are Chief Ranger Henry Shore, aren’t you?”
    Now Henry smiled. “Yes, I am.” He’d been afraid the man was a hiker or a tourist who’d merely happened upon the site. “No offense, but you look awfully young to be a PhD paleontologist.”
    “No offense taken. I’m older than you think. I graduated college early. Don’t worry, I am a full-fledged paleontologist, with a secondary degree in seismology. That’s why they sent me. Been on staff at John Day’s now, oh, for about two years, but I’ve been on paleontological digs all over the world with the top people in the field.”
    “Oh, one of those child prodigies?” He still looked like a kid to Henry.
    “No, not exactly.” The scientist seemed embarrassed at the remark and Henry changed the subject.
    “Well, it didn’t take you long to get here, did it? What did you do, fly?” John Day Fossil Beds National Monument was over three-hundred miles away.
    “In fact, yes. As soon as I got your message I had a friend, who has a pilot’s license, fly me up as soon as it became light. I couldn’t wait to see what you’d discovered. And, from what I can see already, I believe it’s an astounding find.” The brown eyes were shining with an obsessive glow. The eyes of a true zealot.
    “How’d you locate the exact place, though?”
    “Simple, Chief Ranger. I asked for you at park headquarters earlier. You weren’t in yet, so I moseyed on over to the Crater Lake Lodge to get some coffee and wait for you. I happened to come across this man in the lobby who was going on about these bones he’d seen yesterday up on the volcano’s rim after the earthquake. He gave me detailed directions. So, here I am.”
    He’s resourceful, too, Henry thought. “Was he a middle-aged guy with a beard? About this tall?” Henry’s hand went shoulder high.
    “Yep.”
    Henry wasn’t too happy knowing the guy was blabbing to everyone about the fossils. “I wonder who else knows about it? And what they know.”
    “I wouldn’t worry, Ranger Shore. I don’t think the man who sent me up here has a clue to what these bones really are. He was just making conversation and I was lucky enough to overhear. He thought they were bear bones or bones of some other large park animal. And I didn’t enlighten him. The fewer people who know about this, for now, the better.”
    Henry was further impressed. The man knew his business.
    “So, Chief Ranger, how did you figure out these were dinosaur bones?” The young man prodded his glasses higher up on his narrow nose. Sunlight glinted off the lenses. He still looked so young Henry had a hard time taking him seriously. It was like talking to a friendly, but precocious kid.
    “Dinosaurs have always been one of my great passions.” Henry shrugged. “When I was younger, I yearned to be a paleontologist, too. But life sent me on another road.”
    “So I see.”
    Henry slid his eyes towards the once-buried treasure. “What’s going to happen now?”
    The paleontologist coughed, bringing up his hand to muffle it. Dirt clung to his fingers from digging around in the mud. “We notify the proper authorities and, eventually, I’ll call in some colleagues of mine to set up a monitored dig. Then we’ll begin unearthing and cataloging the specimens; send them back to John Day for further study.” He locked gaze with Henry and appeared