Pick and I went down the hill. “I’ve found something,” he said.
I asked, “The baby T. rex?”
This astonished him. “How would you know that?”
“Because that’s why you’re here. At least, that’s what you told Jeanette the first time we met you.”
He pondered that, then said, “There’s a problem. Maybe a big problem.”
I waited but he just stood there, staring at me. Finally, I asked, “OK, Pick. What’s the problem?”
“Is Blackie Butte on the BLM or your ranch?”
“I believe part of the north side of Blackie is on BLM,” I said.
“But the fence goes around it,” Pick said.
I tried to remember something Bill Coulter had told me once about that fence. “The BLM built the fence,” I said, the memory coming back. “I think they went around it because it was easier that way.”
“How much of the north side do you think is on the BLM?”
“Most of it, I think, but I’m really not sure. You’ll have to ask Jeanette. Believe me, she knows exactly where her property line is.”
“We found something interesting on the south side of Blackie.”
“Then you’ll most definitely need to talk to her,” I said, adding, “Maybe I ought to go take a look at what you’ve found.”
He considered that, then said, “OK, but not now. I need to get in the shade for a while.” This comment allowed me to bring up the Green Planet guys. “Where are they?” he asked.
“At camp, nearly but not quite dead of heat exhaustion when I saw them last.”
“How did they get here?”
“By boat across the lake.”
“What did they have with them?”
“Backpacks and two liter-sized bottles of water apiece.”
“In this heat? Are they idiots?”
“Why, yes, Pick. I believe they are.”
“I’d better go see them,” he said and stalked off.
When he got to the end of the hill, he hesitated and just stood there, looking. I called Ray down from the Trike. “Go show Pick how to get to camp,” I told him.
“Done,” Ray said and was on his way.
This left me and Tanya alone, which was fine by me. I clambered up to the Trike and helped her plaster the femur we’d uncovered. We worked quietly for an hour and then I said, “Pick told me what he found on Blackie Butte.”
“Yes? It’s very exciting, don’t you think? We never expected there to be so many.”
Her response was confusing. So many what? Baby T. rexes? We worked a little longer. When I came across a metatarsal—a foot bone—Tanya said we should wrap it in paper towels and aluminum foil. This we did and then I asked, “What do you think of the stuff on Blackie Butte?”
“Well,” she said, “it’s amazing. But I think it will be hard for us to get everything out during the summer. Pick told you that we need more people, yes?”
“Yes,” I lied. “But not how many.”
“Well, not so many. Maybe just a few. And maybe some machinery. You know, like that thing you used the other day?”
“The tractor? Yes, I can see how it might be useful to move dirt.”
“As long as one is careful. These bones are very fragile. And, of course, there are the possibility of eggs.”
“Pick didn’t mention anything about eggs.”
She didn’t look surprised. She said, “Maybe it is because the eggs are not the most important thing. It is the story, all of it put together, of how these creatures lived. And, in this case, how they died, too. I imagine Pick is having to deal with that as well.”
I kept probing. “Has there ever been anything like this found?”
My question amused her in a quiet way. “No, Mike, this is a wonder. How could you imagine otherwise?”
“I’m not a paleontologist,” I reminded her, as if she needed reminding.
She reached out and took my hand. This was startling but also very nice. “Mike, you are a very funny and nice man. I like you.”
“I like you, too,” I said which, of course, was true.
“You should see me when I am not so stinky as now. Maybe someday you and I will talk after I’ve taken a bath.”
I provided her with what I thought was as insightful a thing I’d said all day if not all year. “Tanya, there are many rules for this land. Leave the gates the way you found them and so forth. Another one is there is nothing sexier than an intelligent, dirty girl. I like you just the way you are.”
Tanya laughed and squeezed my hand before letting it go. “I think we will dance when we are in town,” she said and I felt, well, thrilled.