Free Dinosaur Blackout by Judith Silverthorne Page B

speak to Todd alone. He’d make sure to do that first thing in the morning.
    His head whirled with images of the Nelwins, the absence of Horace and the missing Stygimoloch and the dinosaurs he’d soon be confronting again. He’d have to keep a close eye on Dr. Roost and Mr. Pederson too. He had no intention of letting them slip away without him. If they did manage it, he wouldn’t be far behind them. As soon as he could the next day, he’d go over to Pederson’s and help with the planning.
    Partway through the night, he awoke from a nightmare. He’d been running from tree to tree, trying to escape the giant shadow of a Pteranadon that droned like an airplane overhead. He lay panting and it took him a long time to get back to sleep.

Chapter Eight

    D aniel woke early the next morning and rushed to do his barn chores. He stopped short when he saw Todd heading towards him from the corral and Craig approaching from the barn, carrying pails of separated milk to the house.
    “Morning,” said Craig, setting the pail down with a sigh. “Everything’s done.”
    “Whoa, you must have been up early,” Daniel said.
    “Didn’t go to sleep,” Todd answered, coming up to them. His clothes were all askew and crumpled and his bristly hair was flat in places. Craig’s hair had an unwashed sheen to it and his wrinkled clothes had seen better days.
    “Any word on your dad?” asked Daniel.
    Both boys shook their heads.
    Dad emerged from the tool shop and joined them. “Let’s get some breakfast, then everyone can gather and search for him.”
    Dad herded them all towards the house. Once inside, he began the phone tree calls. In their district, they had set up a system where one person called two others, those two each called two more, and this procedure continued until everyone in the area was notified. Within minutes, Dad had arranged for all the neighbours to meet at the Nelwins in the next half hour. He called Corporal Fraser to confirm the arrangements. He’d just finished as Dr. Roost and Ole Pederson arrived for breakfast. Mom’s waffles were an instant hit, but everyone gobbled them quickly and prepared to join the search party.
    Daniel didn’t have an opportunity to speak with Todd or Ole Pederson or Mildred Roost. Pederson winked at him across the breakfast table and Dr. Roost patted his arm, but otherwise the two kept to themselves. Even when he sidled up to them to see when they were meeting again, Dr. Roost motioned him to silence. He gave up and went to prepare for the search.
    With Daniel on Gypsy, Todd and Craig saddled horses that had been used on the trail rides and they all headed out. At the Nelwins, they were joined by Dad on his atv and Doug Lindstrom and Jed in their Jeep. The Nelwins’ mean dogs had been locked in the barn to keep them from attacking anyone.
    The rest of the neighbours soon arrived in various four-wheel-drive trucks, dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles. Corporal Fraser divided the surrounding area into quadrants, assigning several people to each one with instructions to call on their cell phones or return each hour to report on their progress.
    Although the warm autumn sun beamed down on them, Daniel shivered. Thoughts of what he might find whirled in his mind like chips of ice in a blender. He, Craig and Todd swept out of the yard to search an area to the east, which covered several steeper gullies that were easier for their horses to navigate. As they rode away, they could hear the others calling for Horace.
    For the first half a mile, the three of them walked their horses in silence a few yards apart. They examined small stands of trees and under bushes, keeping an eye out for tracks of any kind. Obvious deer and antelope trails criss-crossed on the hard ground, amid drying tufts of grass and the occasional clump of black-eyed Susans at the edge of the pasture. As they turned towards the centre of the quarter, the vegetation became scrubbier and more hilly. Tracks were harder