“Just what you said it was, Polly, child. A part of the vertebræ of a dinosaurus, I feel sure. It is not a ninety-foot one, by any means, but if we can judge from this section here, it must be at least thirty to thirty-five feet long—long enough to justify a good leap in the dark if you saw one coming at you.”
“How long has it been there, do you suppose?” asked Sue, in an awed tone. It seemed so wonderful to think that the discovery was really authentic. All along, they had half-questioned it, except Ruth and Polly.
“Sue, we don’t know,” returned the Doctor, musingly, as he took a penknife out of his pocket, and scraped at the bone. “We’re trying to find out just such things as that, we old chaps who prowl around the face of the earth, and try to win Mother Nature’s confidence. It may be ten million years ago, some say ten thousand. When we start and figure how long it takes for the Colorado River to eat its way through even an inch deeper in the Grand Canyon, we begin to realize how many years it must have taken for it to cut down all the way from the top.”
“It makes me feel dizzy,” said Ted, emphatically.
“It has made wiser heads than yours feel dizzy, child,” returned the Doctor, gently. “And we are only children that He holds in His hand. When I begin to feel pretty good, and well satisfied with myself, I go away quietly, and read over that chapter in Job that has more geological data in it than anything I know of.”
“I know,” said Polly. “‘Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?’”
“Exactly. Where were we? It takes all the conceit out of me when I consider a bit. Mr. MacDowell, this gulch belongs to you, doesn’t it?”
“I’m sorry to say it does,” said the Chief, fervently. “I just wish that poor old Zed were here to claim his own. He put all his love into this old strip of land for years, and it never opened its heart to him.”
“Purpose in all things,” protested the old Doctor, cheerily. “Maybe he would have buried the cash receipts in a tin can, for all we know. You have a better use for them. I want to send a telegram as soon as we can get to a station. We’ll get some more authority on the remains than my own, and then come to terms. How’s that? In the meantime, let’s go back to dinner, for I am starved.”
In the ride back, the Doctor and Ruth went ahead, for Ruth was fairly bursting with questions she wanted to ask. Polly and Peggie were last of all. Sue had changed places with Ruth, and was in the surrey, letting Ruth ride her pony.