The Fossil Hunter of Sydney Mines

by Jo Ann Yhard

  “I know they’re a bit hard to take sometimes.” Grace vaulted over a fallen log, her feet crunching on dry twigs and leaves as she landed. “But they’re still my best friends.”

  “I know.” He kept pace beside her. “Did you come here much with Jona—I mean, your dad?”

  She nodded, memories immediately crashing in around her at the mention of her dad. “This was my favourite place to come, when it was safe enough and he’d let me. He loved this place the best, so I did too.”

  “You’re so lucky to have had a dad like him. How long did he work at the museum?”

  “You really want me to talk about him?”

  “I told you,” Jeeter said, “I like hearing about your times together. It makes me feel like I was there, too. Roger and I don’t do anything together. All he does is work.”

  “I spend so much time trying not to think about him, sometimes my head feels like it’s going to explode,” Grace sighed. “Mom just cries, so I can’t talk to her. Dr. Solomon, well, he gets paid to talk to me. And Fred and Mai are great, but they don’t understand. They’ve never lost anyone. Not like you.”

  Jeeter coughed. “Grace, I have to tell you—”

  “Shhhh!” she silenced him suddenly. “Did you hear that?”

  Grace looked off to the left. The trees had thinned out quite a bit, and she could see a gravel road with rock piles scattered around it. They must have wandered closer to the edge of the strip mine site than she had planned.

  She was about to motion that they swing right, back into deeper cover, when an electronic squawk filled the air. Startled, Grace checked her walkie-talkie—it was still off. She turned and whispered to Jeeter, “Was that you?”

  “No,” he said in a low voice. “It was someone else.”

  Grace froze. Uneasiness curdled in the pit of her stomach.

  “Who do you think—?” Jeeter began.

  Grace shook her head, holding a finger to her lips. She crouched, pulling him down beside her. They peered through the trees toward the road. Someone was walking along the gravel.

  The man turned his head left and right, like he was searching for something. Was he looking for them? Maybe they hadn’t hidden their bikes well enough. Jeeter put his arm around Grace’s shoulders and pulled her close to him. His strong arm reassured her—until she saw their stalker’s face.

  Stuckless!

  Chapter

  10

  GRACE GASPED, THEN SLAPPED HER HAND OVER HER MOUTH. Stuckless stopped and peered into the trees toward them. Grace held her breath, hoping the gloomy forest hid them from view.

  There was another squawk. “Dad, did you find them?” came a voice through the walkie-talkie.

  “No,” Stuckless replied. “We must have missed them.” He turned abruptly and strode off.

  Grace and Jeeter stayed there, still and silent as the woods, for several minutes.

  “I think it’s safe,” Jeeter finally said, standing up. He grabbed Grace’s hand and pulled her to her feet.

  “That was close,” Grace muttered.

  “Yeah. I hope he doesn’t catch your buddies.”

  “Crap!” Grace cried. “Our walkie-talkies are still off. We’d better find them.” She switched her walkie-talkie back on and bolted off through the trees.

  Almost immediately, the woods got thicker and her steps got slower. Was she even going in the right direction? How do you check your location on a map when you’re surrounded by trees? Suddenly, Fred’s voice crackled over her walkie-talkie.

  “Hello?” he called.

  Grace waited for Mai to answer. She didn’t.

  “Is anyone there?” he continued.

  Fred’s voice sounded weird. And where was Mai? It sounded like he was alone.

  “Mai, is that you?” Fred’s voice rose, sounding panicked.

  Grace was just about to answer when—

  “AAAAHHHH!”

  Fred’s frantic cry was followed by static.

  “Fred?” Grace yelled into the walkie-talkie, her heart pounding in her chest. “Fred! Are you okay?”

  No answer.

  Grace’s hand clenched her walkie-talkie. “Mai, are you with Fred?”

  “No, he was behind me somewhere,” Mai answered, sounding breathless. “Sorry, I was yelling, but you didn’t seem to be able to hear me. I think my transmit button was stuck. I’m going back now to find him.”

  “Come on, Jeeter,” Grace called behind her. “We’ve got to find Fred!”

  Jeeter didn’t answer.

  Grace looked slowly over her shoulder. “Jeeter?”

  She was alone.

  Where did he go? Grace wondered. He’d been right behind her.

  Grace hesitated, worried. Should she look for him? Maybe he was in trouble, too. But what about Fred? She stared off into the woods, willing Jeeter to appear. Everything was falling apart.

  “Grace!” Mai shouted so loudly that the walkie-talkie shrieked. “I found him! He’s not moving!”

  Grace didn’t have to think; she was already running. Branches smacked her face and scratched her arms as she raced through the dense forest. It felt like the trees were trying to drag her backward, and she struggled with all her might to stay out of their clutches.

  After a few minutes of running, she figured she must be getting close. Suddenly, she was flying through the air.

  “Ouch!” she cried.

  She opened her eyes to see that she was flat on her back, her arms and legs stretched out like a starfish. What had happened? Grace tilted her head back, her eyes following the path of her outstretched arm. Her pack was tangled up in the branches of a tree. Her arm was caught in the strap and she couldn’t move it. Great!

  Reaching over her head with her free arm, she grabbed one of the dangling straps and jerked it hard. There was a ripping sound, but it didn’t come loose. That’s when she heard it—a voice. And it was close.

  “I don’t see them, Hank. Double back and start over.”

  Grace could see a tall man through the trees. He was dressed in blue. Oh no, one of the security goons from the strip mine! Or was it Stuckless again? She lay on the ground, helpless. She was a sitting duck!

  Every second seemed like an eternity. Grace held her breath, her heartbeat pounding in her ears. A branch moved nearby. She closed her eyes. This is it! I’m done for! she thought.

  But then, the second she was sure she’d be discovered, the guard’s footsteps crunched on the gravel, heading away from her. Grace let out her breath, but had no time to relax. She tried again to tug the strap free. Her knife! Lightning fast, she grabbed the knife from her pocket and slashed through the twisted strap. She jumped to her feet and took off through the trees. Within minutes, she found Mai in a clearing and rushed to her side.

  “Mai, it’s okay,” she said. “I’m here.” She reached out and grabbed Mai’s shoulders. One of their caving ropes was twisted in Mai’s hands. “What are you doing?”

  “He f-f-fell into that sinkhole!” Mai sobbed, gesturing with the rope toward a gaping hole a few metres from them. “It’s all my fault! I teased him—said he’d fall—that he’d g-gush blood.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Grace said gently, taking the rope from Mai’s shaking hands and securing it around a tree with a sturdy knot. “You know Fred,” she gulped, forcing a grin, “he’s got a head like a rock. He’ll be okay.”

  Wrapping the rope around her hand and holding it tight for balance, Grace leaned out over the hole and looked down. Her breath caught in her throat.

  Fred wasn’t moving!

  Chapter

  11

  NO, NO, NO! THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!

  Using the rope, Grace eased down into the pit, rappelling against the wall. Mai followed, holding the rope while Grace spotted her. As soon as Mai’s feet touched the ground, she and Grace rushed over to Fred. His eyes were closed, but his chest was moving up and down—and there was no gushing blood.

  Mai leaned over him and gently
sprinkled water from her bottle onto his white face.

  His eyes slowly fluttered open. “What happened?”

  “You don’t remember?” Grace said. “You fell. Lucky for you this wasn’t one of those crazy deep sinkholes.”

  “Huh! Well it sure feels like it was,” he moaned, staring upward. “Looks like the Grand Canyon from down here!”

  “I think you just got the wind knocked out of you…and a scratch,” Mai said.

  Fred struggled to a sitting position. He wiggled around and pulled his pack from underneath him. “Hey Mai, it looks like my choco stash broke my fall! Nice and cushy soft.”

  “Geez, Fred, are you ever serious?” Grace shook her head.

  Fred stared up at them with a lopsided grin, his unruly black curls falling over one eye. “Hungry?” he asked, holding up a squished chocolate cake.

  Mai knelt down beside him. “Hungry? All you think about is food! You’re lucky you didn’t break your leg, you klutzy nincompoop,” she chastised him as she pulled out her first-aid kit. “It’s because of you I’ve had to refill my kit a dozen times.” She proceeded to clean his cut like a pro.

  Fred seemed to be enjoying himself. By the goofy look on his face, it was obvious he loved the attention from Nurse Mai.

  “There,” Mai finally sighed. “You’re as good as new. Well, as good as you get, anyway.”

  Fred grabbed Grace and Mai’s outstretched hands and they slowly pulled him to his feet. He shook out one arm then the other and repeated the action with both legs, looking like a demented scarecrow covered in twigs and leaves. “Everything’s working a-okay,” he said. “Let’s get outta here.”

  “Sure, but we have to be careful. There’s security everywhere!” warned Grace.

  First Mai and then Fred slowly climbed back up the rope. Grace stood alone in the cavern, scanning the ground around her. Had her dad been here that day? she wondered. She took out her map and looked at the section she had folded to the front. This might be the PA3 sinkhole, the one her dad had been talking about.

  PA stood for Point Aconi. The numbers were for each of the sinkholes her dad had found. PA3 was the third sinkhole at Point Aconi. Her dad had used the same type of coding for sites as they used to code the fossils at the fossil museum.

  “Grace, come on,” Mai called down from above.

  “Just give me a sec!” Grace shouted back. She swept the beam of her flashlight around the cavern. Grace had been in the PA1 and PA2 sinkholes before with her dad. But back then they couldn’t get farther than the PA2 because the tunnel leading away from it had been blocked by a cave-in.

  Grace swung her beam to the left. A large pile of collapsed rubble obstructed the tunnel in one direction. That must be the way back to the PA2, she thought. It was probably the same pile of rock she and her dad had seen from the other side. All the sinkholes in this area seemed to run along this same tunnel. She continued in a circle until her light shone down the empty darkness of an unobstructed path in the opposite direction.

  Suddenly Grace felt a gentle pull on the rope she’d tied around her waist. “C’mon, we gotta go!” Mai’s voice sounded panicked.

  “I’m just looking around,” Grace responded.

  “The guards could be coming!” Fred called.

  “Okay!” Grace was about to turn and climb back out of the sinkhole when her light flashed on something against the wall a few metres down the tunnel. Could it be?

  “Grace!” Fred yelled. “What are you doing? We’re pulling you up!”

  Grace dropped her flashlight and lunged toward the object. Her hands grabbed it just as she felt the sharp tug of the rope. “Got it!” she said. She clutched her newfound treasure to her chest and let herself get dragged back through the opening and pulled into the air.

  Within minutes, she was back up on solid ground. Fred and Mai were both huffing and puffing from pulling her up, but apparently they still had enough air in their lungs to argue with each other.

  “Fred, are you crazy? You could have a concussion. We’re not staying!” Mai said, hands on her hips. “Right, Grace?”

  Grace didn’t answer. She plopped down on the ground and rested her treasure on her lap. She could hardly believe what she had found. She felt dizzy as she flipped up the front flap of her dad’s field bag.

  “Grace, we’re going home, aren’t we?” Mai said loudly. “Hey, what did you find?” She knelt beside her.

  “It’s my dad’s bag—the one he always took with him fossil-hunting.” Her voice cracked as she ran her hands gently over the worn leather.

  “You mean he was here?” Mai gasped.

  Grace nodded, opening his map and examining the notations. She searched the rest of the bag, pulling out his battered old rock hammer and some other tools. There was a fossil tucked in a side pouch.

  “What does this mean?” Fred asked.

  “That he was here that day, the day he disappeared,” Grace said.

  “But you knew that already,” Mai said.

  “Yeah…”

  “It doesn’t mean he didn’t go back to the museum, does it?” Fred asked.

  “No,” Grace admitted. “But what happened to stop him from taking it? He’d never leave it behind!” She carefully repacked the bag and slung it over her shoulder. “If we found this, we might find something else.”

  “We can come back on Saturday,” Mai said reassuringly.

  Grace stood up. “I’m grounded on Saturday. We should go back down there now.”

  “I can’t believe it!” Mai exclaimed, looking shocked. “Fred’s hurt. Don’t you care?”

  Of course she cared. How could Mai say that?

  “We’ve always done whatever you wanted,” Mai continued. “Fred goes into tunnels even though he always ends up getting hurt. We sneak out, lie to our parents…and that’s okay because we’re your friends. But this—”

  “I—” Grace started.

  “Fred could’ve died.” Mai was shaking as she pointed down into the sinkhole. “We shouldn’t even be here.”

  “Mai—”

  Suddenly there was a rustling in the trees. “Oh no, the security goons!” Fred cried. “Hide!”

  Chapter

  12

  THERE WAS NOWHERE TO HIDE. GRACE FELT LIKE SCREAMING AS she stood frozen, hypnotized by the moving leaves. It was like a scene from a movie, like she was waiting for the monster to burst out and attack any second.

  But it wasn’t a monster that stepped into the clearing.

  “Grace! Where were you? How come you ran off?” Jeeter said testily as he emerged from the foliage.

  “What do you mean, where was I?” Grace shot back. “You’re the one who disappeared.”

  “I thought you were behind me.” Jeeter looked at Fred. His eyebrows shot up as he took in Fred’s mud pie face and dead-leaf accessories. “Looks like I missed some action.”

  “You!” Fred exclaimed suddenly. “It was you.”

  Grace and Mai gaped at Fred. “What are you talking about?” Mai said.

  Fred pointed an accusing finger at Jeeter. “You pushed me into that sinkhole!”

  “Me?” Jeeter said. “He thinks I pushed him? I wasn’t even here!”

  “I thought you couldn’t remember what happened?” Mai said, staring at Fred in horror.

  “It just came back to me,” Fred replied.

  “You saw Jeeter push you?” Grace asked.

  “I didn’t exactly see him,” muttered Fred. He was examining the ground as if there was something very interesting there.

  “What do you mean, not exactly?” asked Mai.

  “Well, someone had to push me. It’s not like I just fell in for no reason.” Fred scowled in accusation at Jeeter.

  “Where were you anyway, Jeeter?” Grace asked.

  “I followed Stuckless…but then I lost him,” Jeeter responded. “Maybe he pushed you,” he said sarcastically to Fred. “Or more likely you tripped!”

  Grace sighed. It was crazy to think that Je
eter would try to hurt Fred, wasn’t it? Besides, Fred was the biggest klutz in the universe. He probably tripped over his dumb baggy jeans, like always. What a mess.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Jeeter continued. “That Stuckless guy and his buddies could find us any second. Are we even on public property?”

  “Probably not,” Grace admitted. “I really don’t know how much land the strip mine company is leasing now.” She looked out over the terrain. “Maybe all of it…”

  “Well, if we’re trespassing, we’d better get outta here,” Jeeter said.

  Grace clutched her dad’s field bag to her chest. “Maybe you’re right.”

  Suddenly a new voice crackled in the air. “Hello? Grace? Is anybody there?”

  Now what? Grace wondered. “Jessica? It’s Grace. What’s up?”

  “I gotta bail. The coach called my mom about me missing swim practice. She just called me on my cell phone and I’m totally busted. Favour’s over. But don’t worry—I was checking out the window. That Stuckless guy hasn’t been around all day, so you’re in the clear. Later!” With a final crackle, she was gone.

  “C’mon.” Jeeter motioned to them. “I know the way back.”

  Everyone followed Jeeter as he raced through the woods. They went as fast as they could until they arrived back at their bikes. Jeeter carefully circled around first to make sure the coast was clear.

  “Okay,” Grace panted, “let’s get out of here. If my mom finds out I’ve been up here, I’m dead.” She glanced nervously over her shoulder, expecting Stuckless to burst through the trees at any minute. “If we take the highway to North Sydney, we can hook onto Shore Road. It’s a longer route, but no one will think we went that way.”

  “But it’s already seven o’clock,” Mai cautioned. “It’ll be dark in a couple of hours. That’s barely enough time if we go our normal route. If we go to North Sydney, it’ll take twice as long to get home. Plus, that means we have to drive by, you know…”

  “Of course I know!” Grace snapped. “I wouldn’t go that way unless I had to!”

  “Why are you yelling at me? It’s not my fault we’re out here.” Mai’s feet fumbled on the pedals of her bike. Then she took off, her pack flapping loosely on the back.