CHAPTER XII

Dinosaur Detective

"tony, get our axes!" Frank commanded as the dock burst into flame. To the others he cried, "Follow me!"

As Tony dashed back to camp, Frank kicked off his loafers and plunged into the water. With his jackknife, he slashed the lines holding the boats.

"Chet, take our motorboat! Ted, pilot yours!"

Joe, meanwhile, was frantically attaching the canoes by towlines to the crafts. "Okay! Take off!"

Chet and Ted revved up their motors and sped into the middle of the river. The Hardys, seared by the heat from the fiery dock, beached Tony's boat at a safe distance, then hastily scrambled ashore.

Tony was already hacking at the dock timbers. "There's an axe and a hatchet for you fellows!" he called.

Half the wooden structure was a crackling mass 101

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of flames. Shielding their faces as best they could, the three boys quickly cut away the remaining supports. Then Frank levered up the planking with his axe.

"Okay! Into the water!" he gasped.

Straining every muscle the trio ripped up the flimsy structure and hurled it into the water. It sank with a hissing cloud of steam. Panting and streaked with perspiration, the boys watched as the Fames died out.

"Wow!" Tony muttered. "If that fire had spread to the brush, our whole camp would have gone up in smoke!"

Once the danger of an explosion was past, Chet and Ted returned with the boats and canoes. These were moored to the blackened stumps of the dock pilings. Then all of the boys trudged back to camp.

"Good thing you were awake, Frank," Ted remarked wryly.

"We should have kept up our night watches," Joe added. "Tony, I think you and Chet need more protection after we three leave the island."

"At least," Frank concurred, "report what happened right away."

"I'll do it now," Tony replied.

Warming up his radio, Tony tuned to the agency's special frequency and spoke into the microphone: "Kooniak calling Juneau! . . . Can you read me?"

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Fortunately, the station kept an operator on duty around the clock. After hearing Tony's report of the fire-bomb attack, he consulted his superiors by telephone, and then called back. "We'll send out two men first thing in the morning!"

Much relieved, the five boys drank some hot cocoa which Chet had brewed. Ted volunteered to stand the first watch during the remaining hours of darkness. Then the others crawled into their sleeping bags. The rest of the night passed quietly.

Shortly before ten o'clock the next morning a boat arrived at the island, bringing the two agents from Juneau. They came ashore, carrying a small but powerful two-way radio set, which they turned over to the Hardys.

"The chief thought this might come in handy on your trip up the Kooniak," one of the men explained. "If you get a lead on the gang, he'd like you to report to Juneau at once."

"Thanks. We'll do that," Frank promised.

Half an hour later the Hardy brothers and Ted set off, paddling to the western shore of the river. Here they unloaded the two canoes and made the portage around the falls.

"Whew! That's a full day's work before we even get started!" Joe remarked, wiping the perspiration from his brow.

Ted chuckled. "These Alaskan rivers are beautiful, but you'll find they're no picnic!"

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After a brief lunch the boys embarked on the next leg of their journey. Frank volunteered to paddle the trailing canoe which carried the gasoline cans.

Ted approved. "We'll ride better that way, with one man behind. And there'll be no danger of losing the fuel tins in an upset."

Ted himself, as the most experienced woodsman of the trio, took the bow position in the lead canoe. They shoved off, and soon found themselves paddling against a swift current. They were also traveling "uphill," since the Kooniak flowed down from the Alaskan coastal range.

"Boy, looks as though we're in for a real workout!" Joe called back to his brother. Frank grinned in response.

"Don't worry, you two are in good shape," Ted commented. "This would be rough for a tenderfoot."

At points along the riverbanks the heavy timber thinned out into lush meadowlands. These were carpeted with wild flowers in every color of the rainbow. Frank and Joe were amazed at the dazzling display.

"It's like a giant garden!" Joe said admiringly.

Ted pointed out many of the species by name .-alpine forget-me-nots, fireweed with its tall reddish spires, yellow Arctic poppies, bluebells, creeping dogwood, and purple irises.

Steering close to shore, he reached out and

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plucked several flowers from a mass of yellow blooms that grew down to the water's edge. "Monkey flowers," he told Joe."

"They do look like little faces," Joe said with a chuckle.

After paddling for several hours, they reached an area where the banks of the Kooniak rose in rocky walls. The beetling cliffs formed a canyon for the swift-flowing icy waters.

"Hey, look!" Joe cried suddenly, pointing up at one of the cliff faces. "There's a white streak in the rock! I'll bet it's part of a dinosaur!"

When Joe suggested investigating the streak, Ted and Frank agreed to moor the canoe and accompany him.

"It'll be a tough climb, though," Ted warned.

"We can make it!" Joe urged enthusiastically.

Mooring their canoes to a clump of rock, the boys climbed out and began scaling the cliff. Footholds were few. After skinning their arms and legs on the rugged outcroppings, they finally reached the whitish streak.

"I'm sure it's a bone!" Joe exclaimed.

All three examined it closely.

"Could be," Ted agreed. "But how do we get it out?"

"By the Indian method," Frank suggested. "Chip it loose with a sharp stone."

Arming themselves with chunks of flint, the boys followed Frank's suggestion. For a while they

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seemed to make little impression on the rock face. But gradually more of the white object became revealed.

"I was right!" Joe exclaimed. "It's definitely a bone!"

"Looks like some kind of an elbow or knee joint," Ted commented. "If dinosaurs had such things!"

"Wait'll I get back and tell Mr. Turner about this find!" Joe said jubilantly.

Frank broke into a chuckle. "I bet they'll give you a medal!" he joked. "It'll be engraved to Joe Hardy-finder of a dinosaur's funny bone!"

Both Joe and Ted joined in the laughter. However, as the boys started down toward the canoes, their smiles faded. The steep cliff, which had been so difficult to climb, seemed almost impossible to descend.

Suddenly Joe gasped as he lost his footing. With a yell, he slid downward, making frantic attempts to slow his descent.