John was shaken. Gazillions of questions were just forming in his head, like a swarm of angry
bees attacking an intruder. Mr. Canterbury must’ve noticed the far-away look in his eyes because
he shook him so hard that his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. The boss explained to him
that after weeks of desperate work, any mention of an easy fortune could easily cause a mutiny or
a strike or something. So John was kind of forced to promise not to tell his colleagues about the
dinosaur bone.
Days later, a storm befell them. Dark clouds loomed over the excavating proximity casting
demonic shadows across the level openings of multiple mineshafts. Mr. Canterbury decided that
the crew had better go in to their respective huts for a good night’s sleep before any of them
became ill with disease. John was not used to going to bed so early, so he invited Tom and Carter
over to play some poker. Now, when there’s poker there’s always alcohol, and when there’s alcohol
there’s always stories to tell. At this point, you’ve probably already guessed what’s going to
happen. John told his buddies the dinosaur bones were in the boss’s hold. Everyone knew about
this hold. Everyone also knew you weren’t supposed to open the hold. Of course, being drunk and
stupid, the miners Tom and Carter decided to go check the bones out.
That night, under the shade of the still sky, Tom and Carter snuck out of the huts and
infiltrated the boss’s office. Still hazy from all the booze, they made quite a racket climbing
through the window, but still the boss was sound asleep. He sure is a deep sleeper, Carter thought.
Meanwhile, Tom was busy untangling himself from the assortment of telephone wires. As they
approached the hold, they saw a faint trace of moonlight seeping through the curtains, opening
the hold, they froze at the sight of the bone like object.
Early next morning, Mr. Canterbury woke with a massive headache. As he crawled out of bed,
he heard yelling from outside. “What is the meaning of this?” Mr. Canterbury asked the crowd
of miners outside his office. “Here comes the liar.” Somebody said. What in the world is going
on? Canterbury thought. He looked for John, and when he saw him, he could see the guilt and
unhappiness in his eyes. Canterbury felt dizzy as the truth finally dawned on him: the dinosaur
bone secret was out! John you traitor! Just then, someone threw something at him. It was a flower
pot, and it shattered upon impact with the wall, making a sharp barrage of clattering noises as the
shrapnel fell to the concrete floor.
Mr. Canterbury was stunned and dazed. As he pulled himself back together, he shouted “Stop!
Stop! What is it that you want?” “We want you to sell the bone so we can go home and get out of
these dreadful working conditions!” the man who replied had been Tom, Canterbury knew him as
one of John’s friends. “Alright, I will sell the bone and we can split the money and we can all go
home. Now, get back to work and I will deliver the bone to the museum.” Mr. Canterbury said as
he regained his dignity and his cool.
Hours later, Canterbury was on the road in his pick-up truck. The road was quite bumpy and
Canterbury was afraid that the bone would break or crack. Of course, Canterbury didn’t care
about the crew. In fact, the money was never intended for them anyway. The promise was just
so he could get out of the mines alive. A few moments later, he had arrived at the museum. The
receptionist was quite curious about how he got ahold of the bone, but when Canterbury said he
only wanted a little money in return, the receptionist asked no more. And so Canterbury sped off
with the money into the sun set.
A day passed, John and Karl were on watch duty. ‘Aw, he isn’t coming back!’ Carter said
during the last shift. Now, everyone agreed that the boss was not coming back indeed. This was
true, as Mr. Darwin Canterbury was never to be seen again.
