Page 78 of 15 Summers Later

“Oh, you poor thing. You must be starving. Here you go. Here’s a treat.”

She tossed down a large treat for the dog and almost instantly heard lips smacking together as he ate it hungrily.

“What is it?” Ava called.

“It’s the other dog. He’s stuck down some kind of pit. It looks like an old mine shaft, maybe? I’m guessing he was sniffing around the edge and must have lost his footing. Or maybe the side collapsed or something.”

“Oh, that’s so sad. How long do you think he’s been down there?” She moved closer, though still keeping her distance from the other dog.

“My guess is at least a day or two. See how the grass is tramped down around the opening? I think that was done by his friend here, keeping watch.”

Ava’s features seemed to soften at that. Madi wondered if she, too, could relate to the trapped dog, feeling as if she had no way out.

“What do we do now? Maybe we should go get Cullen. He and members of his team might know of a way we could get him out.”

“It will be full dark by the time we drive back up to the dinosaur camp and then make our way back here. I don’t think we’ll be able to find him again in the dark.”

“We can’t leave him here.”

“No. We can’t,” Madi said, feeling closer to her sister than she had in a long time. They shared a purpose now. “I’ve got a towrope in the side-by-side. I can attach it to a tree and belay into the hole.”

“No! No way! What if you get stuck down there, too?”

“Then, you can drive back to Cullen and he can come find me and help me out.”

Ava looked horrified at the prospect. “You just said we won’t find the dog in the dark. How are we supposed to findyou?”

“I have a whistle.” She pulled it out from the chain around her neck. She never traveled into the backcountry without one now. She had spent enough time being lost in the wilderness. She wasn’t keen to ever go through that again. A whistle could be heard over longer distances than shouts, and a person could blow a whistle even after losing her voice calling for help.

“You wait here. I’m going to go back and get the towrope.”

Ava’s eyes went wide. “No! I’m not staying here by myself. I’ll come with you.”

“One of us needs to stay here or we won’t be able to find our way back. I can stay here if you want to go back to get the rope.”

Ava gazed at her, then took a few steps, turned and threw up into the undergrowth.

“Are you okay?”

“Swell,” Ava snapped. She wiped her mouth with the corner of her shirt, swished water from the bottle she had brought along and spat it out.

“It will be much faster if I go. Here, take the whistle. You can use my flashlight. I’ll use my phone for light if I need it.”

“You want me to stay here with the...the dogs?”

“The border collie is trapped and can’t hurt you. And the corgi wants to help her friend. Here. You can give her some of these treats. You can toss a few down to the other dog but not too much. I don’t know if he has water down there.”

After handing over the rest of the treats, she hurried back the way they had come, crossing the space in half the time as before, ever aware of the fading sunlight that cast long shadows through the trees.

She went to the cargo area of the side-by-side. After unhooking the dog crate, she was rooting through the back for the towrope and the headlamp she kept there, as well as extra rope and leather gloves, when she glimpsed the flash of movement coming up the trail and heard the thrum of an engine.

As a woman currently standing alone in the backcountry, with no one else in sight, Madi couldn’t help the instinctive spurt of adrenaline and wariness.

She closed her good hand around the heavy winch, in case she needed a weapon she could swing at someone who might decide to take advantage of the situation.

Her fear instantly eased when she recognized the man driving a side-by-side newer than her own and she relaxed her grip on the winch.

“Oh, am I glad to see you!” she exclaimed to Luke. It was all she could do not to rush to his vehicle and hug him.

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