was. I held my breath and watched, wondering if, maybe, after all, I should have yelled at Hiram to get back. But it was too late. If the mastodon made a single lunge, that would be the end of Hiram.
The mastodon put out its trunk, sort of leaning forward on its toes, and Hiram stopped dead still. The mastodon sniffed at Hiram, running the tip of its trunk up and down his body, from his head down to his feet. It made a gentle snuffling sound as it smelled him. Then Hiram put out his hand and stroked the inquisitive trunk, rubbing back and forth and making scratching motions. That great silly beast made a sort of moaning sound as if it liked the scratching, so Hiram took another step and then another one until he was standing underneath Stiffy’s head, which bent forward. Hiram ran his hands up and down the trunk and reached one hand high to scratch underneath the ridiculously small lower lip of his mighty friend. Stiffy groaned with pleasure. That damn mastodon was as crazy as Hiram could ever hope to be.
I heaved a sigh of relief, hoping that it was not premature. It didn’t seem to be. Stiffy kept on standing there and Hiram kept on scratching him. Bowser, with some disgust, turned around and trotted back to sit beside me.
“Hiram,” I said, as quietly as I could. “Hiram, listen to me.”
“You don’t need to worry, Mr. Steele,” said Hiram.
“Stiffy is my friend.”
I’d heard that ever since I’d returned to Willow Bend and renewed my acquaintance with Hiram.
Everything was Hiram’s friend; he had no enemies.
“You better be sure of that,” I said. “He’s a wild animal and he is awful big.”
“He’s talking to me,” said Hiram. “We talk with each other. I know that we are friends.”
“Then tell him to get out of here. Tell him to keep his distance, to stay off this ridge. First thing you know, he’ll be butting at our home and tipping it over.
Tell him that if that ever happens, I’ll take a two-by-four to him.”
“I’ll take him down to the valley,” said Hiram, “and tell him that he has to stay there. I’ll tell him that I’ll come and visit him.”
“You do that,” I said, “and then get back here as fast as you can. There’ll be things for you to do.”
He put out his hands and pushed on Stiffy’s shoulder and Stiffy set himself in motion, shuffling around, taking mincing steps, heading down the slope, Hiram walking beside him.
“Asa,” Rila called from the door, “what is going on?”
“Stiffy wandered up here,” I said, “and Hiram’s taking him back where he belongs.”
“But Stiffy is a mastodon.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “He’s also Hiram’s friend.”
“You better get in here and shave,” she said. “And, for goodness sakes, comb your hair. We have company.”
I looked down the ridge. Five figures were walking in line, one behind the other. Ben was leading. He wore boots, khaki pants, and a hunting coat, and carried a rifle. The others were dressed in business suits and either were carrying briefcases or had portfolios tucked beneath their arms. One of them was Courtney. The other three, I figured, must be the Safari people. It struck me as hilarious — these staid business types carrying their badges of office through this howling wilderness.
“Asa,” said Rila sharply.
“It’s too late,” 1 said. “They’ll be on us in a moment. This is the new frontier. They’ll have to take me as I am.”
I ran a palm across my chin and the whiskers rasped. I had a fairly heavy and untidy growth.
Ben came up to us and said good morning. The others ranged themselves in line expectantly. Courtney stepped forward and said, “Rila, you know these gentlemen.”
“Yes, of course,” said Rila. “But none of you have met my partner, Asa Steele. You’ll pardon his appearance. There was some mastodon trouble this morning and…”
The military-looking old gentleman at the end of the line said, “You’ll excuse me, madam, but am I seeing right? It appears to me there’s a man and mastodon going down the ridge together. The man has hold of the mastodon’s trunk, as if he were leading it.”
“That’s only Hiram,” Rila said. “He has a way with animals. He claims to talk with them.”
“So Hiram’s already at it,” said Ben. “It didn’t take him long.”
“He’s had a few days here,” I said. “That is all he needs.”
“Never saw anything like it,” said the old military gent. “Can’t believe my eyes. Quite impossible.”.
“Asa,” said Rila, “our disbelieving friend is Major Hennessey. Major, my partner, Asa Steele.”
“Pleased, I’m sure,” said Hennessey. “I must say, you have quite a setup here.”
“We like it,” I said. “Later on, we’ll take you on a tour, if you have the time.”
“Unbelievable,” said Hennessey. “Absolutely unbelievable.”
“Mr. Stuart,” said Rila. “Mr. Stuart is chief counsel of Safari, Inc., and Mr. Boyle. If I remember correctly, Mr. Boyle, you are general manager …”
“In charge of travel arrangements,” said Boyle. “I’m looking forward to safaris after dinosaurs. It should be quite challenging.”
In more ways than you are thinking, I told myself.
Just by the sight of him, I didn’t like the little punk.
“Since we all know one another,” said Stuart, “why not get down to business. I would like it if we could stay out here. It’s very stimulating.”
Hennessey thumped his chest. “Smell that air,” he said. “Absolutely clean. No pollution here. I’ve not breathed air like this for years.”
“Please find chairs,” said Rila. “I’ll bring out some coffee.”
“You need not bother, really,” said Boyle. “We have had our breakfast. Mr. Page gave us coffee, also, just before we left.”
“I want some,” said Rila tartly, “and I suppose Asa does as well. I’d hoped that you would join us.”
“Why, of course,” said the major. “We would be most happy to. And thank you very much.”
They found chairs around the table and set their briefcases down beside them, all except Stuart, who put his on the table and began taking papers out of it.
“You’ll have to keep a close watch on Hiram,” Ben said to me. “Maybe a mastodon’s all right, but there are other animals …”
“I’ve talked with him about it,” I said. “I’ll talk to him again.”
Rila brought out a tray with cups and I went into the house to bring out the coffee. Sitting on the work-table was a sliced coffee cake and I brought that out as well.
By the time I got back, everyone was seated around the table and seemed about ready to get down to talking. The table was full so I took a chair and sat off to one side.
The major said to me, “So this is Mastodonia.
Pleasant, I must say. Would you tell me how you managed to pick such a delightful place?”
“Hunch, mostly,” I said. “From what we guessed about this time. Not us, of course, but the geologists.
This is the Sangamon, the intergiacial period that lies between the Illinoisian and the Wisconsin glacial periods. We picked it because we felt it would be the most familiar of the various periods that we might have chosen and because the climate should be ideal.
We can’t be sure of that yet since we haven’t been here long enough.”
“Amazing,” said the major.
“Mr. McCallahan,” Stuart said, “are you ready to begin?”
“Certainly,” said Courtney. “What do you have in mind?”
“You understand,” said Stuart, “what we want. We’d like to arrange the rights for our safaris to be introduced into the Cretaceous.”
“Not the rights,” said Courtney. “We won’t give you rights. We keep those for ourselves. For a consideration, we’ll grant you a limited license.”
“What the hell do you mean, Courtney? Limited?”
“I’ve been thinking in terms of a year,” said Courtney. “Renewable, of course.”
“But such an arrangement would not be worth our while. We’d have to commit a lot of capital. We’d have to
