Dinosaur Lake by Kathryn Meyer Griffith Read Free Book Online

hands.
    Justin collected his duffel bag with an audible groan and, after Henry aimed him in the right direction, started on the path towards the lake. The bag was overstuffed with whatever the boy had in it, probably clothes, snacks and books, and looked larger and heavier than the young man it was being dragged behind. He stumbled around a corner and disappeared, the duffel bag bouncing along in the dust.
    Henry returned to headquarters.
    That afternoon he attended to business. The Ranger’s Station was so busy, he was almost relieved when Ann called from the newspaper and told him she couldn’t make it back before dark. Zeke had a couple of timely stories for her to write and they were short-handed again. The assistant editor was out for the day. She couldn’t make supper at the lodge by six, either.
    “I’ll grab something to eat on my way home,” she told him. “You have a good time with your new friend and you can show me the bones tomorrow. Zeke promised I could have tomorrow morning off. He really wants those photos.”
    Henry’s day passed slowly, and just before six he made a quick circuit of Rim Village and the campgrounds. One group of campers had parked far away from the others and had left trash out in the open. Bears had come in the night and had made a mess of everything, scaring the campers pretty badly. Henry issued the offenders a fifty dollar ticket for breaking camp rules. He suspected they’d follow instructions better next time.
    ***
    The paleontologist was waiting at a corner table next to the blazing fireplace, hovering over a cup of coffee with a drained look on his face. Something was wrong.
    “My wife, Ann, won’t be joining us. She’s been detained at work,” Henry remarked as he sat down.
    “Sorry to hear that. I wanted to meet her.”
    “Oh, you will soon enough, I imagine. She’s as excited over the fossils as I am.” A subtle hand gesture and Molly, the evening waitress, went off to fetch Henry a cup of coffee. All the waitresses knew him well enough to keep the coffee coming.
    “Looks like you’ve had quite a day, young man.”
    “You might say that. I’ve been prowling around since dawn.” The kid lifted bloodshot eyes to meet his. “I’ve been all over the land around the caldera and am so exhausted I can barely stand up. It’s a lot of ground to cover. That lake’s bigger than it looks.”
    “Yes, it is. Take it from someone who’s been over every inch of it.” The coffee came and with it two menus. Henry dropped his eyes to the food list. Steak and mashed potatoes sounded good. Without raising his eyes, he asked, “Find anything interesting?”
    A pause. “I did.”
    Henry glanced up and caught the wary look on the scientist’s face.
    “I was doing some routine surveying along the lake and, out of curiosity, believing there’s a direct connection between the lava beneath the caldera and the earthquakes, I took some water temperatures.” He fell silent.
    Henry waited for him to continue as the waitress bustled over with his coffee and her order tablet.
    After they’d ordered (Henry the steak and Justin two cheeseburgers with onion rings) Justin said, “I read the data on your lake here. Did you know that the overall temperature of the water has gone up?”
    Henry blinked. “You don’t say?” So, George had been right about that.
    “I took a reading. A couple of them. The temperature of the water is over sixty degrees Fahrenheit. I think it’s rising steadily. And–”
    “And?”
    “I think there’s still major volcanic activity going on deep under the caldera, which would explain the temperature rise and other prevalent conditions. The cause could be moving rivers of freed molten lava under pressure. A potentially dangerous situation.”
    “Then there could be another earthquake?” Henry supplied, unhappily. “Worse than the last two?”
    “Eventually. That’s highly possible.”
    “Oh, boy.” Henry took a sip of his coffee, his eyes