Dragons Teeth Crichton 2017 (WWT)

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I am dreadfully ashamed of what occurred next, and can offer no excuse save the effort I had expended in collecting these fossils, their priceless value, and my own fatigue after a summer in the heat and bugs and searing alkali of the Bad Lands. To be confronted by this stupid bigot was too much for me, and my patience abandoned me. Morton described what happened directly: Without preamble or warning, Cope fell upon this man Travis and pounded him into insensibility. It could not have taken more than a minute at most, for Professor Cope was of a pugilistic disposition. Between blows, he would say “How dare you touch my fossils! How dare you!” and at other times he would say scornfully “In the name of religion!” The fight ended when the soldiers pulled Cope off the poor Mormon gentleman, who had said nothing other than what a great many people in the world thought to be utter and indisputable truth. This was certainly still so in 1876. Much earlier in the century, Thomas Jefferson had carefully concealed his own view that fossils represented extinct creatures. In Jefferson’s day, public espousal of belief in extinction was considered heresy. Attitudes had since changed in many places, but not everywhere. It was still controversial to espouse evolution in certain parts of the United States. Soon after the fight ended, the steamboat, the Lizzie B., rounded the bend and whistled her imminent arrival. All eyes were on the boat, except for those of one soldier who glanced back across the plains and shouted, “Look there! Horses!” And from across the plains, two riderless horses approached. “My heart sank,” Cope wrote in his journal, “to imagine what this might mean.” They quickly mounted up and rode out to meet them. As they came closer they saw Cookie, bent over, clutching the saddle, near death. A half dozen Indian arrows pierced his body; blood streamed freely from his wounds. The other horse belonged to Johnson: there was blood on the saddle, and arrows were stuck in the leather. The army soldiers got Cookie off the horse and laid him on the ground. His lips were swollen and crusted dry; they gave him sips from the canteen until he could speak. “What happened?” Cope said. “Indians,” Cookie said. “Damn Indians. Nothing we could—” And he coughed blood, fitfully, writhing with the effort, and died. “We must return at once and search for survivors,” Cope said. “And our bones.” Captain Lawson shook his head. He yanked one arrow from the saddle. “These’re Sioux arrows,” he said. “So?” The captain nodded toward the plains. “There won’t be anything to go back for, Professor. I’m sorry, but if you find your friends at all—which I doubt—they’ll be scalped and mutilated and left to rot on the plains.” “There must be something we can do.” “Bury this ’un and say a prayer for the others is about all,” Captain Lawson said. The next morning, they mournfully loaded their fossils onto the steamboat and headed back down the Missouri. The nearest telegraph station was in Bismarck, Dakota Territory, which was nearly five hundred miles to the east, on the Missouri. When the Lizzie B. stopped there, Cope sent the following
cable to Johnson’s family in Philadelphia: I PROFOUNDLY REGRET TO INFORM YOU OF THE DEATH OF YOUR SON WILLIAM AND THREE OTHER MEN YESTERDAY, AUGUST 27, IN THE BAD LANDS OF THE JUDITH BASIN, MONTANA TERRITORY, AT THE HANDS OF HOSTILE SIOUX INDIANS. MY SINCERE CONDOLENCES. EDWARD DRINKER COPE, U.S. PALEONTOLOGIST.
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Contents Cover Endpaper Title Page
Page 6 and 7:
Introduction As he appears in an ea
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Young Johnson Joins the Field Trip
Page 10 and 11:
Marsh Professor Marsh kept offices
Page 12 and 13:
The name had an extraordinary effec
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Learning Photography Johnson wanted
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Philadelphia Philadelphia was the b
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puffed-up, brave, and determined to
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“Really? Most families wish to me
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wealthy Quaker merchant, left him m
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“I have made inquiries about that
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informed of this by Red Cloud himse
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Going West The Chicago and North We
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The West Beyond Omaha the real West
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town, it was, noted Johnson, “a c
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The Pride De Paree Theater was a tw
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“I’ll be back, though.” “Wh
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“Oh yes, Mr. Johnson,” said the
Page 40 and 41: Cope’s Expedition It was immediat
Page 42 and 43: Established thirty years before, Sa
Page 44 and 45: e rejoining her husband; indeed, sh
Page 46 and 47: His personal style—his long curly
Page 48 and 49: Part II The Lost World
Page 50 and 51: He was awake for each changing of t
Page 52 and 53: Incidents on the Plains In the midd
Page 54 and 55: Sternberg went out and shot an ante
Page 56 and 57: Badlands The Judith River, a tribut
Page 58 and 59: “I said, ‘I bid you welcome and
Page 60 and 61: that the nomadic Indian lives a fre
Page 62 and 63: Bone Country With these preliminary
Page 64 and 65: potential discoveries lying in wait
Page 66 and 67: cooks it,” Isaac grumbled). Rathe
Page 68 and 69: In 1871, Lord Kelvin, the most emin
Page 70 and 71: Bad Water Cope chose his campsites
Page 72 and 73: They rode on. The sun dropped behin
Page 74 and 75: Dinner with Cope and Marsh The sear
Page 76 and 77: “Very true.” “Though you neve
Page 78 and 79: “Sleep with Your Guns Tonight, Bo
Page 80 and 81: Moving Camp In early August, they w
Page 82 and 83: “Just wait and see,” Cookie sai
Page 84 and 85: “Of these rocks?” Johnson asked
Page 86 and 87: Around the Campfire Any discovery l
Page 88 and 89: Leaving the Badlands The morning of
Page 92 and 93: Part III Dragon Teeth
Page 94 and 95: they reach us.” “You boys go ri
Page 96 and 97: Badlands Silence, under a waning mo
Page 98 and 99: Little Wind said nothing. “What a
Page 100 and 101: Deadwood Deadwood presented a bleak
Page 102 and 103: he thought. Then he finished fillin
Page 104 and 105: Laramie and Cheyenne?” “That’
Page 106 and 107: “He moved old Jake when the carri
Page 108 and 109: “So I expect you’ll have to get
Page 110 and 111: The Black Hills Art Gallery “How
Page 112 and 113: But it was also the beginning of tr
Page 114 and 115: His whole manner changed. “Then y
Page 116 and 117: For his part, Black Dick claimed to
Page 118 and 119: “I got to pack,” Johnson said,
Page 120 and 121: No one in town who knew Dick would
Page 122 and 123: already been to Montana City and Cr
Page 124 and 125: “Fossil bones are rock.” “The
Page 126 and 127: Emily’s News “It’s no good,
Page 128 and 129: All around him, the hotel was silen
Page 130 and 131: “I am sure of it,” the judge sa
Page 132 and 133: “Yes. Ling Chow has tool shed, ve
Page 134 and 135: A Shootout Black Dick showed up in
Page 136 and 137: Keep your eyes on him. Never take y
Page 138 and 139: had hired Kang to help him again, s
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Deadwood for the winter, but said t
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“Only a damn fool would think so,
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Johnson and Miss Emily ducked down.
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Red Canyon They reached the town of
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Fort Laramie Fort Laramie was an ar
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“Well, you’ve just come from De
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“How can you say that? Look at hi
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other pursuits of no substance.”
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“Of course.” “Really?” “D
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“I don’t see why not. She says
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At eight the next morning, feeling
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His father embraced him warmly. “
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Postscript Cope Edward Drinker Cope
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Author’s Note “Biography,” ob
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Afterword Michael’s dedication to
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Taft, Robert. Photography and the A
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Also by Michael Crichton Fiction Th
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Copyright This book is a work of fi
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* Editor’s note: Charles H. Stern
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