THE DINOSAUR TAKEN FROM THE ROCK 47 



stories to one another, then again falling silent, 

 watching the leaping flames. 



All round about were hills, the rocky sides of which 

 were seamed and jagged. It was a forbidding land 

 and one in which no man would choose to live. 

 Save for the voices of the men around the fire, the 

 occasional shouting of the "wrangler'' as he cared 

 for the horses, and the frequent yelping of the 

 coyotes in the distance, the whole region was 

 silent. 



Yet ages before, this same region had been filled 

 with strange sounds made by the voices of mighty 

 animals. For this was the place where once had 

 been the lake in which the great Dinosaur lost his 

 life in a fight with another of his kind. And all the 

 rocks in the hills and ground had once been the mud 

 that lay at the bottom of that lake and in which the 

 Dinosaur and many other creatures had been en- 

 tombed. 



Knowing that these rocks were full of the history 

 of past ages, these three men had come out to search 

 among them in the hope of finding the bones of some 

 creature which would add a new chapter to that 



