The Stolen Bones by Carolyn Keene

stepped out of his hiding place as we crossed the hollow. I had almost forgotten about him. We gave him a brief rundown of our adventure. After we assured him that we were okay, he explained that everything had been quiet at the dig site. Finally, we trudged the last mile back to camp.
    George reached for the tent zipper, yawning. “Hold on,” I said. “We don’t need any more surprises tonight.”
    I stood to the side of the tent and slowly opened the zipper. I peered around the edge and didn’t see anything dangerous. Still, we pulled our sleeping bags outside and shook them out before crawling inside. I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow.
    •   •   •
    By the time we dragged ourselves out of our tent in the morning, we could smell the bacon and sausagesizzling. I started forward, ravenous after our exhausting night.
    Bess grabbed my arm. “Nancy, at least brush your hair, please.”
    “Oh. All right.” I quickly ran a brush through my tangles and pulled my hair into a ponytail. After two nights camping, miles of hiking, and no shower, I figured nothing much would help my appearance. George just smashed a hat onto her head.
    Bess had some kind of gel that was supposed to clean your hair as you brushed it. “Try it,” she said.
    I grinned. “Sorry. I can’t hear you over my stomach growling!”
    “Hurry up,” George said. “Tom and Kyle are already getting food, and I’ll bet they can eat a lot.”
    Kyle was back? I wondered who was guarding the fossil, but first things first. George and I practically pounced on Felix.
    “Smells great!” George said. “I’ll take my first and second helpings right now.”
    Felix beamed at her and scooped a slab of omelet from an enormous cast-iron pan. “Western omelet, with onions and green peppers. There’s toast on the grill, and coffee in the pot.”
    I pulled a chair close to Kyle. After I had a few bites of food in my stomach, I turned toward him and whispered, “Everything all right last night?”
    He nodded. He had dark circles under his drooping eyelids. “You were the most exciting thing that happened. Steffi relieved me at dawn and sent me back here for breakfast. If anything had happened since then, we would have heard about it.” He pulled his jacket open enough to show something that looked like a radio.
    “Is that a walkie-talkie?”
    “Yep. The range is good enough to reach the dig. Steffi has the other one.”
    I hadn’t even noticed that she wasn’t at breakfast. I guess hunger interferes with my observational skills. I glanced around and counted heads. Everyone else was accounted for.
    Kyle took a last swig of coffee and stood up. “All right, people, this is our last full day. Let’s get going so we can haul out that first jacket before it gets too hot.”
    We finished breakfast and loaded our backpacks with water. George whispered, “I’m going to stay behind. I’ll go back up that hill where I can get Internet reception.” She pulled out her handheld computer. “I’ll need everyone’s full name, though.”
    “I printed out the e-mail where Kyle listed the people coming on the dig.” I rummaged through the car and found it. “Here you go.”
    George took it and walked off with a wave. Bessand I started for the dig. “My feet hurt,” Bess groaned. I nodded. My legs ached too, but after a few minutes of walking, the stiffness left them.
    Kyle walked quickly, but his step had lost its bounce. Grayson alternately yawned and blew his nose. Abby’s violet eyes had lost their sparkle, and the dark circles under them suggested she had not been sleeping well.
    Russell looked awake, but caught up in his own thoughts. Out of everyone, Tom looked the most cheerful. He caught my eye and smiled.
    We straggled into the dig site. Kyle stopped and looked around. “Steffi?” He took a few steps forward, frowning. “Where is she?”
    A muffled grunting and scuffling came from the crack in the cliff where Kyle had been