Dinosaur Hideout (2 page)

He made his way over to a tree stump which he’d dragged into the middle of the cave. Through the opening above him, he could see that the sky was now frosty and bright with early morning light. He plunked himself down on the cold surface of the stump and reached for a plastic ice cream pail that housed his latest rock finds. Quickly, he dumped the contents onto the ground and began searching.

He chose a small rough stone and rubbed sand off one side with his mitts. Darn, that wasn’t what he was looking for! He set it back down again and drew another and another, sifting through the pile on the ground. He was sure there had to be a special rock in his collection. He’d just read a description in one of his books on dinosaurs at home the night before, and something had clicked in his brain. He just had to find it!

Suddenly, he noticed a chunk of limestone near the bottom of the pile. He carefully wiped the oddly shaped stone free of dirt.

“Hey, there’s some fossil prints on this one!” He spoke to Dactyl, but the dog ignored him and continued sniffing in a remote corner.

Could the fossil imprint in this rock be what he thought it was? Daniel brushed off more earth, feeling the excitement rise inside him. Handling it gently, he followed the indentations with his finger. He looked closer, and his eyes widened. Yes, this was definitely different from the others! It had criss-cross markings on it. He set the stone back on the ground carefully, threw off his mitts, then grabbed for his dinosaur book. He thumbed through the pages so fast that he almost ripped them.

All at once he sprang up and waved the rock at Dactyl.

“I knew it,” he said.
“There were dinosaurs living here!
This is part of a receptaculites!”

He held the stone closer towards the light streaming through the opening, turning it over and over, studying it from all angles. The criss-cross grooves looked just like the face of a ripe sunflower, for which the receptaculites were named. Now he had proof for the kids at school, who thought he was out to lunch with all his talk about dinosaurs on his farm. He knew that originally this particular spongelike organism must have come from the north Cambrian Shield. It would have been carried by glaciers and dumped in the south of the province. And this meant there
had
been dinosaur activity in his area – who knew what else was lying in wait for him to discover?

“Wow.” He cupped the stone in his hands and stared down at it. His whole body tingled. He closed his eyes and imagined.

~

T
he bright blue of the sky
was reflected in the shallow clear sea at his feet. As he touched the warm, sunlit water with his fingers, he peered down at the brightly coloured coral polyps and the golden-topped stromatolites formed on the bottom below. Crinoids with their orange fernlike flowers swayed. Just beyond them a huge dark red receptaculites bobbed in the soft current.

Then everything changed. The water became deeper and darker. He could just make out the faint outlines of sharks and rays swimming through the long clumps of seagrass. They made way for a large mosasaur that appeared from out of the depths. Rows of sharp teeth protruded ominously from its huge mouth.

S
uddenly, an unexpected noise snapped Daniel back to the present. Dactyl’s ears perked up, and at the same time Daniel heard the loud crunch of snow outside. A worn pair of boots and a rifle pointed into the doorway. He instinctively jumped to the side as Dactyl barked and rushed towards the entrance. A huge snarling hound met Dactyl head-on.

Startled, Daniel lunged for his dog’s collar to haul him back from the attack. His heart pounded as his mind raced. How could he defend Dactyl and himself? Who was invading his hideout? Why? And what were they going to do with the gun?

“Who’s in there?” demanded a gruff voice.

“I am! Don’t shoot!” Daniel yelled back over the dogs’ snarling. “I’m coming out. Call off your dog.”

“Bear! Here, boy!” Someone yanked the brute out of the opening. “Heel.”

Bear obeyed the stern voice of his master. But in a flash, Dactyl hurtled out after him, nipping at his heels. Daniel darted out and grasped Dactyl’s collar firmly. He came face to face with a monstrous man dressed in a ragged parka. White hair bristled from under a worn toque, and he had a prickly beard. With gnarled fingers he clutched a rifle in one hand, while he gripped his straining dog in the other.

“What are you doing in there?” he demanded, coughing.

“Th-th-this is my special place,” said Daniel, holding onto Dactyl who struggled for another go at the intruding dog. Daniel shuffled his feet uneasily in the snow, still clutching the stone.

“I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” he said in a voice braver than he felt. This man had no right to be questioning him, but he wasn’t going to argue with someone holding a rifle.

“Maybe, maybe not,” he snapped. “You’re Ed Bringham’s son aren’t you?”

Daniel stared, not saying a word.

“I’ve seen you around here,” sputtered the old man, going into a coughing fit.

Daniel stared at the enormous figure hacking into a handkerchief. This must be the old hermit, Pederson, who lived nearby, on the next quarter to the south. Daniel had never seen him up close, but he’d heard stories about him from the kids at school. The guy was weird.
Really
wierd.

Once the old guy quit coughing, Daniel stood firm, but felt his legs quivering. What if the stories were true and Pederson was dangerous? Daniel glared as best he could, and with a slight tremble in his voice, declared, “Well, I have a right to be here. I
am
on my
own
property.”

All at once, Dactyl yanked free of his hold and yipped in circles around Pederson and his immense mutt. Bear growled low in his throat, but stayed at his master’s side.

“Well, see that’s where you stay,” rasped the old man as he wiped his mouth and returned his handkerchief to his pocket.

Daniel dropped his eyes and found himself nervously fingering the rock in his left hand. Shivers ran up and down his spine.

“What’s that?” asked Pederson.

“Just an old rock I found.”

“Let’s have a look.” Pederson held out his arthritic hand.

Daniel hesitated, and then reluctantly handed over the rock. As Pederson took it, Daniel was sure he saw a sparkle of interest in the old man’s eyes.

“A receptaculites. Lived here ’bout fourteen billion years ago.”

“I knew it,” Daniel blurted out. “I bet there were duckbills around here, too. Maybe even a whole Edmontosaurus with –” Abruptly, he quit talking, realizing he’d said too much.

The old man’s face lit up for a few moments, and he seemed about to say something. But then his expression changed to a frozen glare. Daniel shuffled uneasily. Dactyl wiggled at his side, but stayed put. Pederson began coughing again, then spat on the ground and wiped his mouth with his hand.

“Where did you find it?” he demanded.

“Ah.... Well. Just around. You know. Out walking.” Daniel avoided looking into Pederson’s piercing eyes.

“Better not have been on my property.”

Daniel stood defiantly. “No. I found it just a little ways over there.” He pointed towards some hills to his left beyond his hideout.

Pederson’s eyes widened. “You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“So, how do you know what a receptaculites is? Suppose you learned that in school?” Pederson leaned in closer.

Daniel stood his ground. “No. Saw it in a book.” He could hear the rasping in the old man’s throat. “How do
you
know what it is?

“Saw it in a book.”

They eyed one another for a few moments. Then Daniel extended his arm and opened his hand, glaring at Pederson. As the old man placed the fossil in his palm, his expression went blank and steely. Daniel stiffened, took a sharp breath, and slipped the rock into his pocket. Dactyl went rigid beside him, ready to charge.

All at once, Pederson doubled over with a fierce coughing fit, horrifying Daniel. He took a step towards the old man, about to touch his arm, but Pederson shrugged him off. Bear growled and Dactyl gave a sharp bark, but Daniel held his dog firm.

As his coughing subsided, Pederson loomed over Daniel and with a harsh look said, “See you keep away from my place – or you’ll wish you had.”

“Hey, no problem.” Daniel backed away with his hands raised palms outward in front of his chest. As he stood watching Pederson stride away, he muttered, “Why would I want to go near your dumb place, anyway?”

He struggled to restrain Dactyl, who was barking wildly at the receding figures. When they vanished from view over a hill, he breathed a sigh of relief, and then kicked at some lumps of snow. Brushing off a log outside his hideout, he sat down. Dactyl padded over and put his head in his lap.

“Are you okay, boy?” he asked, examining the dog for injuries. “You look a little sore, but I think you’re all right.”

Daniel stroked Dactyl’s head and thought about the encounter. He wasn’t going to be taken by surprise again. Quickly, he rose and scrambled back into his cave. He shoved his hands into his mitts, then dragged out some twine, tin cans, and a number of old bones. He strung them up a few feet away from the entrance. Anyone approaching his hideout would trip on the string and the rattling would alert him. He hoped.

Suddenly, he noticed the sun higher above the horizon. It was getting late. He’d have to run to get home in time to do the chores and catch the school bus. Hastily, he tied the end of the rope to a bush. Then he gave a yell for Dactyl to follow as he scaled the side of the embankment. He could feel the cold winter air catch in the back of his throat as he hurried along. He’d better get back before his father missed him or he’d be in for big trouble! Lately Dad had been so stressed out about finances that anything might set him off.

Daniel would only have time to do the minimum feeding and watering of the stock, and that wasn’t going to make Dad happy. He’d have to leave the rest for after school. Maybe he could do some extra cleaning then, so Dad wouldn’t explode totally when he found how little had been done. He’d better turn his pace up a notch. He still had over half a kilometre to go!

Chapter Two

J
ust as Daniel reached the barnyard,
he realized that he hadn’t even had a chance to consider the importance of finding the receptaculites. The encounter with the weird old man and his dog had completely distracted him. But everything would have to wait for now. There were hungry cattle to be fed. And he’d better not be late for the school bus on top of everything else.

He opened one of the heavy barn doors just enough to squeeze himself through, and stepped into the huge old timber barn. Although the temperature was cool inside, it was many degrees warmer than being outdoors in the wind. The sweet smell of hay mixed with grain dust and manure filled his nostrils as he headed across the packed dirt floor towards the feed room.

Overhead in the hayloft, he could hear the little thumps of kittens’ feet as they jumped off the straw bales onto the floor and came down to greet him. Marble, the orange calico mother cat, twined herself around his legs, until he stopped to give her a quick pet. The cows’ movements made small rustling sounds in the straw bedding at their feet, as they chewed their cud and swished their tails at the odd docile fly that lingered from the autumn.

Grabbing a bucket off the hook, he began scooping grain into it as fast as he could. He quickly lugged pail after pail of oats to the two largest wooden-railed stalls, and dumped them into the feed troughs. That should keep the dozen cows and calves for the day. The animals pressed forward, jostling to be first at the trough as he approached. The kittens mewed and hissed as they darted across the barn, playfully chasing one another.

Daniel was distracted as he turned on the indoor water tap full blast and grabbed the hose. Water slopped onto his pants as he overfilled the water pail, but he ignored the freezing jolts on his legs. He had to hurry. The animals were counting on him. Dad already had enough to do with the outside chores and the milking. Dad didn’t really have to keep on milking, but he was stubborn and wouldn’t change his habits. Most of their neighbours just went to the grocery store and bought their milk and cream. Daniel could hear the tractor chugging outside as Dad hauled the stone boat full of manure to the pile behind the bins.