Rock fall!
A large chunk of fossiliferous Hallett Cove sandstone crashes down to the rock heaps below.
Gaius falls with it, merely grazing his leg.
Nonetheless, it is a lesson.
Gaius! shouts Margaret. Are you all right?
Yes, says Gaius. A little shaken. And my mandarins have disappeared into a cranny.
I didn't know you had any left, says Margaret.
I had three left, says Gaius. But now I have none.
I'll find them, says Baby Pierre.
Anything to get away from the humming, which has started up again.
Baby Pierre heads over to the cliff base and pokes about in the cranny.
What's that humming? says Gaius.
Lavender, says Margaret.
A lucky name, says Professor Xu Xing.
Thank you, says Lavender. I knew you would say something nice.
May I ask how you knew it? asks Professor Xu Xing.
I know the future, says Lavender.
We must speak further, says Professor Xu Xing.
You don't mean to say you believe her? says Margaret.
It's wise to keep one's mind open, says Professor Xu Xing. That is how I have always advanced in my profession.
See! says Lavender.
What were you humming? asks Gaius.
Nothing, says Lavender. Humming is humming.
More wisdom, says Professor Xu Xing. So tell me, little fossil, what is the future for Chinese science?
Gaius is impressed with the scope of the question. He sits down on a slippery wet rock.
Ummm, says Lavender. CHINESE science? Let me see. Mm. It will be like, um, something will be discovered.
What will it be? asks Professor Xu Xing.
Something with scratches all over it, says Lavender, looking at Gaius's leg.
Will it be found in the Chinese Jurassic fossil beds? asks Professor Xu Xing.
No, says Lavender.
She senses that Professor Xu Xing is losing interest.
She remembers her trip to Beijing. Her interviews with various Chinese doctors and professors of paleontology.
Sadistics, says Lavender.
Remarkable, says Professor Xu Xing. Cladistics. That is also my hope for the future.
(Sometimes you hear what you want to hear).
Lavender is pleased with herself for remembering sadistics.
It proves that she does know the future.
Ha ha to Baby Pierre. He is reduced to looking for lost mandarins in rock crannies.
He won't find even one.
Found one! cries Baby Pierre, brandishing a dented mandarin.
Excellent! says Gaius reaching forward to take it.
Woosh! He slips off the wet rock and onto an underwater rock shelf.
He pulls himself out. Dripping.
It's obviously not my day, says Gaius.
I blame myself, says Professor Xu Xing. No doubt Lavender could have predicted the accident, had I not diverted her attention.
Never mind, says Margaret. Let's all share the orange.
Orange! says Gaius. It's not an orange! It's a mandarin.
Margaret breaks it up into sections, thinking: It looks like an orange.
Of course it is possible that it really is an orange.
No one saw where Baby Pierre was when he found it.
This could turn out to be worth delving into, but....
Just then there is a shout from the cliff top.
The local Rock Fall Emergency Squad has arrived!
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