“That is past wishing for,” the scientist replied, “all we can hope for is to study the way they must have fought. Perhaps, Perry, if we should find some specimens of the great carnivorous dinosaurs, the Museum may be able to mount them in the attitude of fighting, and thus, ten million years after their death, they will thrill the world of men, when, during all their lifetime, they had no audience to applaud nor any spectators to terrorize.” The following day, and for many days thereafter, Perry prospected with his uncle throughout the Laramie Plains. He stood in the old Bone Cabin Quarry, he saw the thousands of bones that still lie at the base of the Como Bluffs, he followed eagerly and anxiously the various rock waves of the plains. Many and many a fossil he found. Indeed, there was hardly a day that he did not return to camp with news of some discovery, but always the professor found that it was a common specimen, or one of which there were more complete skeletons known. Yet, as Antoine reminded him, each day held new promise. On the very last day but one of the time allotted for their stay, Perry decided to ride out in a different direction. His uncle had said that some time in the future he intended to do some prospecting near the Freeze Out Hills, and Perry, remembering that the Bone Cabin quarry had been found almost by accident, started out early that morning for the longest ride he had undertaken by himself. The day was hot and sultry, but the lad had a curious elation. “I feel it in my bones that I’m going to find something to-day!” he had said to his uncle before leaving. Noon came before he had reached the desired point, but the rock formations began to look familiar, more like those in which he had been working for the past three weeks, and so, though he was far from camp, Perry went riding onward still, knowing he would be late in returning, but buoyed up by the feeling that the fates had something good in store. His senses were keenly awake, the green and pink striped rocks seemed to beckon him on. He felt as though the impossible might happen, as though one of the great dinosaurs might stride out, as in life, from behind some of the fantastically carved buttes on either hand. A jack rabbit, suddenly leaping along a dry ravine, brought his heart in his mouth with a jump. A stumble of his cow-pony changed the current of his thoughts and made him realize that he had not stopped for dinner, nor given his pony any water since breakfast.