The Berenstain Bears Chapter Book: The G-Rex Bones Read Free

Sandcrab made his surprising statement, a small group of cubs was scanning the horizon with binoculars from the top of a mesa about a mile away. They were from Teacher Bob’s and Teacher Jane’s classes at Bear Country School in Beartown, and they were out in the desert on a nature hike. Twenty minutes earlier they had chased a roadrunner down into a gorge while the rest of the group drifted off. And now they were lost.
    “I say we go east,” said Brother Bear, lowering his binoculars.
    “Why east?” asked Sister.
    “I just remembered,” said Brother. “When we started out, Teacher Bob said we were headed west from the highway. Who’s got a compass? I forgot mine.”

    “I forgot mine, too,” said Sister.
    “I left mine on the bus,” said Lizzy Bruin. “It felt all lumpy in my pocket.”
    Brother looked hopefully at Cousin Fred. Surely a semi-nerd like Fred would bring a compass on a nature hike. But Fred felt in his pocket, only to pull it inside out with a sigh. There was a big hole in it.
    “I’ve got mine!” said Barry Bruin. Proudly he held it up for all to see. It was tiny. Sort of a baby compass. Barry looked at it and frowned. He shook it and looked again. “Darn!” he said. “It’s busted!”
    “Where did you get that crummy little thing, anyway?” said Sister.
    “From a box of Grizzly Jack,” said Barry. “It was the prize. It must have broken when I bit it by accident.”
    “Great!” said Sister. “ You’re a prize, too, Barry.”
    “So how do we figure out which way east is?” asked Lizzy.

    “I know!” said Fred. “The sun! It rises in the east and sets in the west!”
    Shading their eyes, they all looked up. And groaned in unison. The sun was directly overhead.
    “That means it’s noon!” cried Barry.
    “So what?” said Sister.
    Barry shrugged. “So, at least we know what time it is.”
    More groans.
    “We’re saved!” cried Fred all of a sudden. He pointed at the spot his binoculars were aimed at. “I see the bus! We’re only about a mile from the highway. Let’s get going.”
    The cubs headed for the highway side of the mesa. But then they held back. “Come on, Liz!” called Barry.
    Lizzy hadn’t budged. She was training her binoculars on something far off in the opposite direction. The others hurried to her side. “What is it, Liz?” asked Brother.

    “I see some bears out there,” she said. “In a shallow gulch. Look.”
    They scanned the area Lizzy was aiming at until they all found the bears.
    “Five of ’em,” said Fred. “And there’s a pickup truck at the edge of the gulch.”
    “They’re all holding something,” said Sister. “Shovels, I think. Hey, one of them just looked up. Now he’s looking all around. He’s looking in this direction.”
    “Who are they?” Brother asked Lizzy, who had the sharpest eyesight of any of the cubs.
    Lizzy peered extra hard through the rising heat waves that made everything wiggly and watery. “I can’t make out any faces,” she said. “But one of them is wearing a straw hat. Now he’s looking around too. He’s got a green suit on. And white things down around his ankles.”
    “Spats?” said Fred. “Green suit? Straw hat? You just described Ralph Ripoff.”
    “What the heck is Ralph doing way out here in the desert?” said Sister.
    “Hmm,” said Brother. “Something tells me that’s for Ralph to know and us to find out.”
    “Does that mean you’re gonna call a meeting of the Bear Detectives?” asked Fred eagerly.
    “Not yet,” said Brother. “We need more to go on. Maybe something will turn up in the next few days. Meanwhile, let’s get back to the bus. Sooner or later Teacher Bob and Teacher Jane will look for us there.”

Chapter 5
    Fossil Furor
    It turned out that Brother was right about both things. Teacher Bob and Teacher Jane did eventually check the bus for the lost cubs. And something did turn up about Ralph’s desert trip in the next few days. The very next day, in