“The armored dinosaurs had developed stronger armor, while another group had devised a novel and most extraordinary protection, a huge buckler over the head and tremendous horns over the eyes and on top of the nose. There were the Horned Dinosaurs, with their huge heads. One of these, Triceratops, he of the three-horned face, had a neck with an enormous bony frill like the spiked collar that some bulldogs wear, as well as his threatening horns. He was a powerful beast, Perry, this Triceratops, and must have been able to hold his own against the terrible carnivorous dinosaurs that threatened every moment of their lives.”
“Were they as big?”
“Yes, bigger and far more menacing. Tyrannosaurus, the Tyrant Saurian, was perhaps the fiercest creature that ever drew breath upon the earth. He reached a length of forty-seven feet and stood twenty feet high, standing upon his huge hind legs. His head was more than four feet long and his deep jaws bore a grim array of tearing six-inch teeth. The hind legs, though larger than those of elephants, had feet like those of birds, with sharp ripping claws, and the forefeet were clawed like the talons of an eagle.”
“Not much chance if a thing like that got after you,” the boy ejaculated.
“It would be a mistake, though, Perry,” his uncle warned him, “to imagine even the Tyrannosaurus as swift or active. An animal larger than an elephant, with a tiny reptile brain, smaller than a man’s clenched fist, could never have leapt or sprung upon a foe, but must have advanced with a heavy lumbering run. There came the value, my boy, of the great massive defense of Triceratops, the three-horned, for while that heavy head with the neck collar of plates would have been of little value against a small, swift enemy, it might easily impale the ponderous Tyrannosaurus as he ran fiercely though clumsily onward to the fight. They were slow and deadly fighters, Perry, those giant reptiles of old, and probably, every meeting meant the death of one or both, and was ended with the first or second grapple.”
“I wish we could see one of those fights between two scrappy monster Saurians, anyway,” the boy said wistfully.
“That is past wishing for,” the scientist replied, “all we can hope for is to study the way they must have fought. Perhaps, Perry, if we should find some specimens of the great carnivorous dinosaurs, the Museum may be able to mount them in the attitude of fighting, and thus, ten million years after their death, they will thrill the world of men, when, during all their lifetime, they had no audience to applaud nor any spectators to terrorize.”
The following day, and for many days thereafter, Perry prospected with his uncle throughout the Laramie Plains. He stood in the old Bone Cabin Quarry, he saw the thousands of bones that still lie at the base of the Como Bluffs, he followed eagerly and anxiously the various rock waves of the plains. Many and many a fossil he found. Indeed, there was hardly a day that he did not return to camp with news of some discovery, but always the professor found that it was a common specimen, or one of which there were more complete skeletons known. Yet, as Antoine reminded him, each day held new promise.
On the very last day but one of the time allotted for their stay, Perry decided to ride out in a different direction. His uncle had said that some time in the future he intended to do some prospecting near the Freeze Out Hills, and Perry, remembering that the Bone Cabin quarry had been found almost by accident, started out early that morning for the longest ride he had undertaken by himself. The day was hot and sultry, but the lad had a curious elation.
“I feel it in my bones that I’m going to find something to-day!” he had said to his uncle before leaving.