out for your group,” he told Ned. “We heard
there’d been some trouble around here.”
“Well, thanks,” Ned replied. “But like I
said. Nancy’s my girlfriend.”
Nancy watched Piker nervously shift his
weight. At last he nodded and said, “Well,
okay. Let’s get back to work, Richard.” With
that, the two men headed off.
“That’s quite a welcoming committee,”
Nancy said.
Before she could say anything else, Ned
swept her into his arms. “Hello there,” he said
as he lifted her chin with two fingers. The kiss
that followed left her breathless. “How’s that
for a welcome?”
“Mmm, much better.” Nancy sighed and
took in his handsome, square-jawed face and
sparkling brown eyes.
Ned led Nancy to one of the logs near the
fire pit, and the two of them sat down.
“Who were those guys, anyway?” she asked.
“Park maintenance men,” Ned replied.
“They’re building a walkway near here. It goes
to an old cabin near Princess Geyser. What
made them think you were a thief?”
“Well,” Nancy said, “I was peeking inside a
tent, wondering if it was yours, when they
grabbed me. I guess I did look a little suspi-
cious.”
“Even so,” Ned growled, “they had no right
to treat you badly.” He took her hand. “Listen,
Nan, I’m really sorry I couldn’t meet you at
the hotel. The fact is, we have a major crisis.
You know, we’ve tagged hundreds of marmots
so we can track them. Well, part of my job is to
make sure the receiver is picking up their
signals and sending them to the computer so
they’re recorded properly.”
Nancy nodded.
“This morning,” he said slowly, “the com-
puter printout showed no trace of almost fifty
whistling marmots. At first, I thought we had a
problem with the receiver or with the comput-
er, but everything checked out okay. We went
out to check the marmot colonies a few hours
ago, and it was obvious that some were miss-
ing. There’s only one logical explanation. Some-
one is stealing them!”
“That’s terrible,” Nancy said. “Do you have
any idea when it could have happened?”
“We observe the marmots twice a day at four
feeding stations,” he explained, pacing now.
“So it had to have happened after the second
observation yesterday-probably during the
night.”
Nancy shook her head. “It’s hard to believe
that people would kill such cute little animals
for their fur,” she said disgustedly.
Ned stopped pacing. “It’s not the fur they
want,” he replied. “They want the marmots
for pets.”
“That’s no excuse for taking them out of
their natural habitat,” Nancy said. “Have you
reported this to the park service?”
“Sure,” Ned replied. “But without more
evidence the park service can’t launch a full-
scale investigation. They just don’t have the
financial resources to act on our suspicions.”
“That’s awful,” Nancy said.
“My sentiments exactly,” Ned agreed. “Of
course, the park service did assign a really
good ranger named Jack Billings to our proj-
ect. But his job is to help us, not track down
poachers.”
“Just what is it you’re doing in this project?”
Nancy asked, stretching her legs out. “I know
you’re studying marmots. Are they endan-
gered?”
“No, but their cousins, the Vancouver Island
marmots, are,” he said. “Professor Trainey’s
plan is to research the whistling marmots in
Yellowstone so we can figure out what condi-
tions marmots best thrive in. The information
we gather here will be used by biologists to
breed Vancouver Island marmots in captiv-
ity.”
“That’s wonderful,” Nancy said.
Ned nodded. “From the first moment I
heard Professor Trainey talk about the study, I
knew I wanted to help. He even got a federal
grant to buy a state-of-the-art tracking sys-
tem.”
Nancy cocked her head curiously.
“Imagine a transmitter no bigger than a
dime that tells us not only where the animal
is,” Ned went on, “but its body temperature,
blood pressure, eating and sleeping cycles-
it’s just amazing!”
“And amazingly expensive, I bet,” Nancy
commented.
Ned nodded his agreement and pulled her to
her feet. “Come on, I’ll show you around. First
stop is our command post.”
He led Nancy across the campsite to the tiny
cabin she had stopped at earlier. He pulled a