Danger Dinosaurs! полностью

For a moment Gardel’s face went blank with surprise. “Oh,” he said. “Oh! Heh heh. Of course. I mean…”

“Brock was just wondering if you are the two lost scientists the newspapers have been saying so much about lately,” Masterson interceded.

Dr. Perry shrugged. “We haven’t seen a newspaper since we left our own time, eight months ago. What have they been saying?”

Masterson shrugged. “Something about your coming back here to map out a large vein of uranium you discovered on a previous expedition.”

Dr. Perry’s eyes met Dr. Dumar’s for an instant. He nodded slowly, then said, “Yes, that’s correct. As far as I know, our reason for being here is no secret. Sometime last year Dr. Dumar and I stumbled onto a fantastically wealthy uranium deposit in the course of our roamings throughout Jurassic times. We reported this to the government, and they sent us back again to map out the area. That’s what we were doing when we lost our way.”

“I see,” Masterson said. “The government planned to do a little mining, then?”

“I imagine so,” Dr. Perry said. “That, too, is no secret. We need all the uranium we can get. Constructive atomic power has a long way to go yet. We can help it get there if we can supply the needed uranium.”

“Where is this huge deposit?” Masterson asked.

Dr. Perry smiled. “That, I’m afraid, is a secret.”

“Oh, really,” Masterson said, his eyebrow shooting up onto his forehead.

“My colleague does not wish to sound like a spy in a melodrama,” Dr. Dumar interrupted. “But the location of the deposit is a secret. Until the government decides what to do with it, at any rate.”

Masterson nodded appreciatively. “Then you have mapped the area?”

“Yes, certainly.”

“Well,” he said, “it’s a lucky thing we stumbled onto you. You might have been lost here forever with all that valuable information on you.”

“Yes,” Dr. Dumar agreed. “I think we were very lucky to have found you. We have been living off the land, eating small reptiles and…”

“Say,” Pete interrupted, “how about some hot soup and sandwiches?”

“That sounds like an excellent suggestion,” Dr. Dumar said, nodding his bald head.

“In fact,” Dr. Perry added, “it’s the best suggestion I’ve heard in the past six months.”

Masterson smiled, immediately assuming the role of the benevolent host. “Eat all you like,” he said, “and after that we’ll get you back to the rendezvous site. Don’t worry.”

“I hate to be a wet blanket,” Chuck said to the doctors, “but I hope you’re not forgetting that we don’t know where the site is, either. I think you’d better have a quick meal. Then we’d better get started. It may take us longer to find than you think.”

“A sensible suggestion,” Dr. Perry said. “Come, Pierre, let’s sample some of that soup.”

The doctors moved over to the fire, and Masterson went with them, still playing the host, talking and laughing easily with them. Chuck wondered at his sudden change of mood and then shrugged the man off as being completely insane. He had undoubtedly forgotten all about the accident that had taken Owen’s life-had forgotten completely that he had indirectly caused the accident. Chuck hadn’t forgotten. He thought about it again and wondered why he referred to it as an accident. He recognized it for what it was, of course. A deliberate sacrifice on Owen’s part-a move to save his brother and Masterson. But if Masterson hadn’t driven the jeep away from the party, if he hadn’t frozen at the wheel in the face of the charging brontosaurs… Chuck shook his head. There was no point in thinking this way. Masterson had deserted the party and he had frozen to the wheel-and Owen was dead. For a desperate moment, Chuck wished that he had a portable Time Slip of his own, a mechanism that would allow him to go back over the hours and relive the whole terrible incident. Had he known beforehand… He wondered. Would he have left Masterson to die? Or would he have followed the same course of action, automatically rushing to Masterson’s rescue, in spite of the impending danger? With Owen’s life at stake, Chuck knew what he would have done. Or did he?

If someone came to you and said, “This morning, on the way to school, you will see a man about to be run down by a truck. If you save this man, someone dear to you will be very seriously hurt. If you let him die, you and your loved one will escape without injury,” what would you do? You would probably leave the man to die. Or would you save him anyway, thinking that the future would take care of itself-that you might be able to prevent the injury to your loved one even if…

The future!

Chuck went pale.

The future. What of the future? A spasm of disbelief worked its way through his body. His mind reeled as the full importance of Owen’s death registered on his numbed senses.

He tried to shove the realization aside, but it persisted, filling his mind with thoughts that started him trembling again.

Owen had died 100 million years before he had been born!