Uninvited visitors started to arrive. The first one was Cade Morgan and his buddy, Toby, who was obviously not scouting locations in South Dakota any more. They motored in on four-wheelers to the Trike site, got off, and looked up at us as we looked down on them. “Hello,” Cade finally called out. “What are you doing?”
“Digging for gold,” I called back. “Are you here to jump our claim?”
Cade thought that was pretty funny and laughed out loud. Toby didn’t laugh. He only stared up at us, then started climbing. Cade stopped laughing long enough to follow. Towering over us, his big shadow almost heavy on my back, Toby asked in his light accent, “What is it?”
Tanya was supervising our work. “It is a Triceratops,” she answered, then said something to him in Russian.
Toby glared at her, but didn’t reply. Cade had worn himself out climbing but finally caught his breath long enough to inquire about the Triceratops and Tanya took a moment, actually several minutes, to patiently explain what the big animal was or had been, long ago.
Amelia added, “Ray and I have learned so much out here already. This is the most fun I’ve ever had in my life!”
“How about you, Ray?” Cade asked him.
Ray put down the brush he’d been wielding and sat back. “It’s been OK but I need to get back to the ranch.”
Amelia sat back, too. “You’d leave me alone out here?”
“You wouldn’t be alone.
You’d have everybody, especially Pick.”
“What are you trying to say?” Amelia demanded.
“You’re in love with Pick.”
Amelia put down her trowel. “You take that back, Ray Coulter!”
“I will not!”
“Where is Pick?” Toby suddenly demanded in an angry voice. This stopped the lover’s quarrel and was also a surprise to me. I didn’t even know he knew our dino hunter.
Tanya answered in Russian and Toby glared at her again. Cade said, “I don’t think I caught that.”
“He is out there,” Tanya said.
“Where?” Toby insisted.
Tanya waved her hand. “Out there. He hunts dinosaurs. That’s what he does. This is one he has already found.”
“Has he found anything else?” Cade asked.
“He always finds dinosaurs,” Tanya answered. “Wherever he goes.”
I stood up. “I didn’t know you were into dinosaurs, Cade.”
Cade pointed at the four-wheelers. “I’m not. Those are my new toys. Just thought this would be a good place to try them out.”
“Did you ask Jeanette if you could cross the Square C?”
“Sure did.”
“How is she?”
“She looked fine to me. You missing her?”
“Shut up, Cade.”
“Listen to him,” Cade said, grinning. He cut an eye toward Toby. “Did you know Mike used to be a private dick in Los Angeles? Now, he’s a dick, only in Montana.”
“Mister Morgan,” Ray said, “I wish you wouldn’t use that kind of language in front of Amelia. Or Tanya.”
Cade nodded. “You’re right, Ray. I’m sorry.”
I glanced at Amelia and she was looking at Ray. She had a little smile on. Toby said, “Los Angeles is too hot and crowded for me.”
“How about Moscow?” I asked.
Toby didn’t answer. He just frowned. I was pretty sure I had him pegged. Certainly, Tanya thought so, even though she hadn’t been able to squeeze a Russian word out of him. There are only a couple of reasons why a man would try to hide that he was Russian, neither of them good. One was that he was ashamed of his heritage but Toby didn’t look the type who got ashamed about much. The other was that he was dirty, meaning he was either illegally in the country or in the country being illegal, if you get my drift.
Cade said, “We need to see Pick. Would you please tell him, Tanya?”
Tanya didn’t answer and I said, “We need to get back to work.”
“Be our guest,” Cade answered, looking put out. Toby just looked like Toby, which meant he looked dangerous.
They climbed back down the hill. Toby lit up a cigarette, then they both climbed aboard their four-wheelers and puttered off.
The next of our uninvited guests were, to my astonishment, the two Green Planet environmentalist brothers, Brian and Philip. They stumbled around the hill and collapsed at the base of it. I was busy pedestaling a tibia at the time but heard a thump and looked down and saw them, sitting next to their packs. They looked sunburnt and generally unhappy. Laura was supervising that day. “Hello,” she called down before I told her who they were.
“Can you help us?” Brian asked. “We’re out of water.”