Danger Dinosaurs! полностью

“I do. I’ve been on many an exciting hunt in my lifetime-but this was the most exciting of all.”

For a moment Chuck didn’t know whom they were addressing. He turned, a puzzled frown on his face. The frown disappeared as he remembered who had financed the expedition. Of course, flow could he have forgotten? Of course. The expedition had been financed by…

“That, ladies and gentlemen,” the newscaster said, “was Mr. Arthur Baron, the millionaire big-game hunter who financed this time slip to the Jurassic. Mr. Baron, of course, needs no introduction. You will all remember the spectacular headlines at the death of J. D. Daniels, the multimillionaire sportsman. Mr. Daniels left his entire fortune to be divided equally between two men who had served him loyally for ten years. One of these men was Arthur Baron.”

Chuck smiled. Of course. Arthur. Of course.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, a few words with the lost scientists, Dr. Dumar and Dr. Perry. Tell me, Dr. Perry, did you ever give up…”

The voices became a hum that swarmed around Chuck. He listened, nodding his head, answering the questions his parents put to him, feeling happy, warm.

Denise’s parents were there, too-her mother a small blonde woman with Denise’s warm brown eyes and pretty face. Her father was a tall, serious man, and he took Chuck’s hand gravely.

“Thank you, son,” he said. “I was mighty worried for a time.”

“What do you think now, Denise?” her mother asked.

“About what, mother?” Denise was smiling happily.

“Well, you insisted on permission to take a time slip. You said you had to decide whether or not you wanted to enter the special course for guides. You…”

“Nothing could change my mind now,” Denise said. “I love it.” She took Chuck’s hand and squeezed it tightly. He looked down at her and grinned.

Of course! he thought. That was why Denise had been along on the slip. The authorities had given her special permission-they said that girl guides could be as effective as men, and would certainly know how to cope better with the female element. In fact, they had encouraged Denise’s presence, arguing that a girl in the guide course would encourage other girls to enter. He wondered why he was seemingly realizing all this for the first time, but he shrugged his doubts aside.

“We will have to go back again,” Dr. Dumar was saying. “This time we’ll pinpoint the deposit exactly, and this time we’ll return with a good map.”

“Yes,” Dr. Perry said. “And this time we’d like to take a good guide with us from the beginning, so that we won’t get lost. A guide like Chuck Spencer.”

Denise squeezed Chuck’s hand again, and he felt somehow proud, somehow more a man than he had a little while ago.

“Thank you, Drs. Dumar and Perry,” the newscaster was saying. “And now folks, the guide who brought the party back to civilization, the guide without whom the entire expedition would have failed-Chuck Spencer!”

There was applause. The crowd cheered. Slowly, his eyes filling with happy tears, Chuck stepped to the microphone.