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She waited until the pipeline stopped its gentle shudders, and then she set her feet in motion again. She’d taken perhaps a dozen shuffling steps when splashing brought her up short. Something was in the water. Animals didn’t usually prowl at midday. Had a two-legged varmint showed up out here? 

She gripped the bone in both hands and searched the river, first behind and then in front, her flesh prickling. “Who’s out there?” she barked in her deepest, sharpest tone. 

A young fellow wearing a brown felt bowler and a brown pinstriped suit, its pant legs water-soaked, stepped from behind a cluster of boulders. He stuck his hands straight up, the way criminals surrendered to law enforcement. “Just me. I don’t mean you any harm. May I talk to you?” 

Leo Day 

The girl, leggy as a young colt and scowling as fiercely as a lioness protecting its young, held the bone like a club. Leo didn’t want to give her a reason to swing. If the bone shattered, he’d never know if it was what he suspected—a leg bone from a young allosaurus. 

With his hands still in the air, he took a hesitant forward step, his wet trouser legs riding up on his shins. “My name’s Leo. What’s yours?” 

Her fine eyebrows tipped together, more in puzzlement now than fear. “What’re you doing out here?” Her brown eyes skimmed his length. “You’re not dressed for a hike, so don’t try to tell me you got lost hiking.” 

He hid a smile. She was dressed like a ragamuffin—wearing a man’s baggy shirt tucked into patched britches, the pant legs tucked into boots that had seen better days—but her chocolate-colored eyes glinted with intelligence. As well as distrust. “I was on the train. I saw you waving, so I jumped off.” 

Now her eyebrows shot up and her mouth went slack. “Why?”

“So I could talk to you.” 

She angled her head, her grip on the bone relaxing a bit. “Why?” 

He wriggled his fingers, wincing. “May I put my arms down? I promise I won’t make any sudden moves. But my hands are starting to tingle. Reduced blood supply, you know.” 

After a moment’s pause, she gave a brusque nod. 

Blowing out a breath of relief, Leo lowered his arms and flicked his wrists several times. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Her tone still held apprehension, but she brought the bone down and rested it against her shoulder. “Why did you want to talk to me?” 

Did he detect a hint of longing in her voice? He slid his hands into his jacket pockets, partly to present a nonthreatening pose but mostly to keep from reaching for the precious piece of history she held. “I’m a paleontology student from the university in Denver. When I saw the bone you were waving, I was curious about it. I hoped for a better look. Would you mind letting me examine it?” 

Her shoulders slumped. She turned aside, giving him a view of her profile. Was her chin quivering? Such an odd reaction to his query. Unless she had some kind of attachment to the bone and didn’t want to part with it. Maybe he should explain the deeper reason he wanted to see it. She might be sympathetic to his cause. He cleared his throat, readying his request, and she abruptly faced him.

“Here.” She braced one hand on her knee and leaned forward, offering the bone. 

The pipeline was roughly three feet in diameter. On the river side of the steep rise, the bottom of the pipe was as high as the top of his head—a good six feet above the ground. He had to stand on tiptoe to grasp the knobby end. Despite his eagerness, he took it gingerly lest he accidentally pull her from the pipe. 

While he turned the bone this way and that, she sat and straddled the pipe. He sensed her gaze resting heavily on him. What might she be thinking as she observed his scrutiny of the old bone? Was she secretly laughing at him? He’d suffered ridicule more times than he could count over his interest in things from long ago. Nobody cared about old dried-out bones, his schoolmates taunted. Father didn’t ridicule, but his disapproval was palpable. Leo had grown accustomed to people’s negative reactions, but that didn’t mean he’d welcome more of the same. 

He risked a glance at her and found her face reflecting curiosity rather than disdain. His lips formed a small smile of their own volition, and he couldn’t resist sharing, “This is a fine specimen. I’m fairly certain it’s the scapula of an allosaurus. See the bulge here on this end?” He tapped the knob-like protrusion. “This is where the humerus, like our upper arm bone, connected. Of course, the soft tissue is long gone. No surprise, considering how many thousands of years ago this creature walked the earth.” Thousands, not millions, as some of his college professors taught. How he hoped to one day prove his theory.