was needed to keep these wonderful creatures on earth,
it is possible for scientists to almost completely and perfectly
restore them, in some medium like papier-mache.

"We shall be the envy of all our colleagues!" declared Professor
Wright, as the work progressed from day to day, the boy ranchers
becoming eager helpers. Professor Wright and Professor Blair labored
with their men, and as hard.

There was one exception to this--Silas Thorp. He of the sour face and
hangdog manner, it was discovered, had acted with Del Pinzo in stealing
cattle, intending to sell them for their own profit, after they had
"borrowed" the animals from Diamond X ranch, letting the two professors
think the steers had legitimately been "hired."

Silas made his escape during the fight, but Del Pinzo and most of his
men were captured. Not all of the professors' employees were
confederates of the Greasers, Del Pinzo and Silas Thorp. Some were as
ignorant as the scientists themselves that anything wrong was going on.
These men were soon freed, and helped in the work of excavating the
Triceratops.

There really were some cattle rustlers engaged in operations around
Diamond Z ranch when Nort and Dick happened to come on their visit.
This fact was discovered later when some of the cattlemen organized a
posse, and after a fight, in which several on both sides were slain,
arrested a notorious gang.

It was Del Pinzo who had tried to rope Dick that night, hoping, it was
surmised, that in the confusion, he might be able to steal some steers.

But the mission of the professor, that same night, was perfectly
legitimate. He had heard that some rival scientists were "on his
trail," and he rode off alone to see if this might be true. He found
nothing, however, but his suspicions were ever on the alert. As a
matter of fact he learned, later, that his rivals had never been near
him. But he took all precautions, some needless, as it afterward
developed.

That some of the Double Z outfit, and perhaps even the owner of that
ranch, Hank Fisher himself, were involved in cattle rustling, was
suspected, but not proved--at least for some time.

With the discovery that the professors were really scientists, and not
cattle rustlers, all suspicion of them vanished. They had come west to
hunt for the fossil relics and bones of the Triceratops. The reason
they headed for Diamond X ranch was because, some time previous,
another scientist, connected with the