"I don't care what I get, as long as they are fossil bones!" cried Mr.
Wright. "But I shall yet find a Brontotherium here--of that I am
certain. Careful now, men!"
"Say, he's really found something!" cried Dick.
But alas for the hopes of the professor! When the object was taken out
it proved to be only part of the skeleton of a long dead buffalo, the
bones being so encrusted with clay or mud as to appear much larger than
they really were.
"Well, too bad," sighed the professor. "But better luck next time.
Come again, boys."
And so the digging went on as fast as could be done, for each shovel of
earth and each dislodged stone was carefully examined by the scientist
or one of his scientific companions for any trace of the bones of an
extinct monster.
Under the urging of Del Pinzo, the Greasers, all of whom had been
engaged by him, worked hard--harder than they would have done had Del
Pinzo not been there to spur them on. Professor Wright admitted this,
and said it was why he was willing to pay the half-breed to oversee the
laborers.
And of all who labored none was more active than a certain young
Greaser, in ragged garments and with a most dirty face, who seemed to
be in all parts of the excavating camp at once. He leaped down into
holes, he climbed mounds and delved there a while; he labored with pick
and shovel. He was all over at all times, it seemed.
So active was he that he attracted the attention of Del Pinzo, who,
strolling over to the youth remarked, in Mexican Spanish:
"I don't seem to remember you. Where are you from?"
To which, in native dialect, he was answered:
"I come in my brother's place. San Feliece he is much sick this day.
I take his place."
Del Pinzo thought back rapidly. One of his workers of this name was
missing, and, well--all Greasers looked alike. He turned, and the
youth, with a quiet chuckle, resumed his activities.
But, as the youth labored, his eyes seemed to follow Del Pinzo more
than they kept to the matters immediately in hand. Though he struck
hard with his pick, and took out heaping shovelfuls, this youth ever
had his eyes on the half-breed, watching and watching as Del Pinzo
strolled about the camp grounds.
It was the third day of this young Greaser's appearance in the fossil
excavations, and coming close to the end of the week, which period of
grace had been allowed Mr. Merkel by the court. Unless the deeds were
soon produced the sheep would scatter over the Spur Creek lands and
this would mean the beginning of the end for the cattle men.
Suddenly the comparative quiet of the fossil camp was broken by loud
yells, and there seemed much excitement in a place where Professor
Wright had been examining earth and rocks as the debris was deposited
from an excavation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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