Chuck looked at his watch again, noticing that his arm was trembling. “One fifty-four,” he said.
“We must do something,” Dr. Dumar offered. “We have only six minutes, haven’t we?”
“Yes. Si-six minutes.”
“I’ll shoot them,” Arthur said. “I’ve done enough hunting in my life. I should be able to get them both without much trouble.”
Chuck shook his head. “Back-yard hunting isn’t going to help with these monsters.”
“Back yard?” Arthur looked surprised. “I’ve hunted in Africa, Chuck. I’ve killed rhinos and I can’t see much difference here.”
“Rhinos? Africa? You’ve…”
“What time is it?” Dr. Perry asked again.
“One fifty-five.”
“Let me shoot them,” Arthur said.
“No. We can’t kill them inside the square. That’ll mean lugging them back to our own time. We can’t do that. It’s…”
“Never mind the law. So we can’t bring back anything from the past. So what?” Pete’s face flushed with anger.
“Let me try something else first,” Chuck said. “If that doesn’t work, we’ll kill them on the spot. If we can.”
“What do you want to try?”
“I’ll try to get them out of the square. As soon as they’re out, you folks run down there and get into it. Arthur, you can pick them off from the square. Then I’ll get back and…”
“Suppose…”
“There isn’t much time. I’m starting. Get down there as soon as they’re out.”
“Chuck…” Denise started, but he didn’t wait for more. He sprinted across the clearing, coming closer to the huge, plated animals. He looked at his watch again. 1:57.
“Hoo-rah!” He shouted. “Hoorah! Hey, hey, hey!”
He began waving his arms wildly. The stegosaurs lifted their heads, stared at him stupidly. Without hesitation, Chuck unholstered his .45, released the safety and triggered off three fast shots.
The monsters lumbered to their feet.
“Come on!” Chuck bellowed. “Come on, you slow-witted idiots. Come on and get me!”
The beasts moved forward slowly, ponderously, still inside the square. Chuck fired again and again. Five shots. Two bullets left. And it was 1:58.
“Come on! Come on!”
And then they came. They came in a wild rush, a pair of Juggernauts that rumbled over the ground. Chuck began to run away from the stegosaurs, away from the white square of the relay area. From the corner of his eye he saw the party start across the clearing. He saw Arthur’s rifle leave his shoulder, saw that the expedition was already within the square.
The beasts were close behind him, infuriated, tearing up the earth, ready to trample him to nothingness.
The first shot rang out. He heard a dull sound behind him, followed by an animal roar. He turned his head briefly. One of the dinosaurs was down, rolling over onto its side.
The other charged ahead furiously, anxious to get at its slippery quarry.
That was when Chuck tripped.
He fell to his knees, rolling over instantly. The beast was no more than five feet away. Chuck took a last look at his watch, brought up his .45 and fired two shots. The hammer clicked on an empty clip. There was no time to reload. A prayer began to form on his lips.
The second shot from Arthur thundered out in serious earnestness.
It caught the stegosaur at the back of his neck, and his head pitched forward. His snout hit the ground, plowing up earth a few feet from Chuck’s face. The huge hulk seemed to shiver behind the head, quivering under the impact of the sudden stop. Before the beast rolled over, Chuck was on his feet and sprinting for the relay area.
“Hurry!” Arthur called.
He heard Denise moaning softly. “Chuck, Chuck, Chuck…”
His watch hands hovered between 1:59 and 2:00 p.m. A few seconds, just a few seconds.
“Chuck! Come on, boy!”
The ground seemed to slip by under his feet in a hazy blur. The white square was still so far away, so very far. And then the faces began to blur and the air began to shimmer around the square.
He ran and then dived, his arms outstretched. He hit the ground with a shock that sent the breath out of him.
Even as his mind told him that he had fallen short of the square, he felt a pair of powerful brown hands on his wrists, and he was being dragged violently across the ground, his skin scraping against the loose rocks and rough plants.
He tried to turn for a last look at the Jurassic. There was nothing to see any more. The land had been replaced by a flickering succession of colors and half-formed objects. He was safe within the square, and they were on their way home.
It seemed as if it had all never happened.
Here were his parents, his mother wet-eyed, his father proudly expanding his chest.
It had been just a routine return, until the authorities learned that Dr. Dumar and Dr. Perry had been found. The newspapers had been informed, then, and the TV newscasters.
The field was swarming with reporters now, flooded with TV trucks and commentators, microphones extended, cameras popping flash bulbs, excited crowds shoving at the knot of returning hunters.
“Tell me, Mr. Baron,” they asked, “are you glad you financed the expedition?”
“I certainly am.”
“You realize, of course, the importance of having found the missing scientists?”