Dinosaur Lake Read Online Free PDF

seen him take down a rampaging drunk with one swift move; had seen him diffuse tense or dangerous situations many a time with a calming word or two. Henry respected the man.
    “Okay, spill your guts, ranger. But make it quick. I’ve got something very important to attend to and I haven’t had enough coffee yet. I’m about to go into serious caffeine withdrawal.”
    George lowered his voice, “Thought you’d like to know I’ve been finding a lot of dead animals lately on Wizard Island.”
    Henry shrugged. “What’s so unusual about that, other than the fact the animals swam all the way out to the island and ended up dying there?” Death was a part of nature. Animals grew old and died, or attacked each other and died. Weakened animals froze in the bitter winters and were uncovered, rotting, after the snows melted. Dead. That was nature.
    Henry started inching closer to the coffee pot like a man dying of thirst might move towards water. George stuck to him. “The way they died.”
    “I have to have a cup of coffee, George,” Henry said, opening the door. It was early enough, right before the morning shift, that the room was pretty nearly empty anyway. He couldn’t understand why George had wanted privacy if he was only talking about dead animals. Henry had assumed it was a personal matter. “What do you mean? How did they die?” He located his cup and reached out for the coffee pot.
    “The carcasses, or what was left of them, were mauled and eaten by something that must have the biggest teeth we’ll ever see.”
    “A bear?”
    “No, the attacker was much larger than a bear. In fact, one of the carcasses was a bear.”
    “Oh.” Henry’s eyebrows lifted and he let his lips smile gently. “Interesting. I guess now you’re gonna try to convince me it was one of your aliens…or some monster that’s taken up residence in the lake?” George’s words had reminded Henry of what the red-headed woman had said the day before.
    “Monster in the lake? What are you talking about?”
    “Ah, up on the rim yesterday, before the earthquake, some crazy woman told me a friend of hers saw something in the lake last summer. A big water creature of some sort. Have you heard any weird stories like that from any of the other rangers or visitors? Has anyone reported any strange animal sightings in or around the lake?”
    “No,” George frowned, “but that might explain the tracks.”
    “What tracks?” Henry raised his cup of coffee to his lips with a contented sigh. The first few cups every morning were sheer ambrosia.
    “The tracks around the carcasses, the ones leading back into the water. They were enormous.” George looked at him, apprehension in his gaze.
    Henry laughed. “Come on, George, lighten up. It was probably some overgrown cougar or an exceptionally big-footed bear that dragged its kills out to the island for feeding privacy. Bears around here do get quite large. You should know that. You’ve been here pretty much forever.”
    George’s eyes, flint hard, glittered. “Then I should recognize bear or cougar tracks when I see them. And I’m telling you, they weren’t either. They weren’t like anything I’ve ever seen. Ever. Not to mention–why would any predator drag its kill all the way out to that forsaken island to eat it? Swim all that way? Why? Animals don’t care where they feed. Maybe we should start looking for something larger something…different. Could be there is something in the lake.”
    Oh, great, Henry mused, eating another glazed donut and watching his friend, George has finally gone ’round the bend. Must be all that solitude.
    George lived alone deep in the park in a cabin that was practically inaccessible. He liked it that way. He’d never been married, though he’d had a long string of lady friends. He’d worked odd jobs in the park since he’d been sixteen and had become a park ranger at twenty-one. He knew the park well and was familiar with every animal that crawled