In the tradition of the great Pulp dime novels, comes the exciting first chapter of "Tales of the Dinosaur West" si=eries, "Teddy Roosevely and the Lost World."

The time is 1885. Young Theodore Roosevelt is reeling from a series of personal tragedies, and escapes his duties in the East by buying a ranch in the Dakota badlands. 

However, he is soon recruited to lead an expedition into the Yellowstone. Set aside as a preserve for the few remaining herds of Dinosaurs, Roosevelt comes into conflict with Charles Drinker Cope, the obsessed Paleobiolgist and his young daughter Julia. Cope is convinced that the Allosaur threatening the local settlers is the last of its kind and must be preserved, while Roosevelts orders are to kill the beast before it afects settlement of these newly opened lands.

The race is on. both parties leave the rail town of Gardiner on a desperte race to find the Allosaur and either capture or kill it. The fate of Westward expansion and a young nation are at stake, and a yound Theodore Roosevelt's destiny lies in the balance.

Theodore Roosevelt reached down and picked up what was left of his expensive stetson and shook the dust off it. He slapped it roughly against his buckskin chaps and tried to pound it back into some sort of shape. The backof his neck burned red and he tried to ignore the stifled laughter from the ranchhands.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Bill Sewall’s voice rang out loud and clear across the corral. Roosevelt wiped the hat across his brow, leaving a dirty smudge and smashed the it  down on his head. He picked up the still rope and began coiling it for another throw.

“I have this, Bill,” he called out.

“Ayup. Get on it this time or I’m shutting you down. These men have real work to do.”

“I said I have this.” He heaved himself over on the horse and turned himself to face the Stegosaurus and the calf. The boss drew a coil of rope and began twirling it.The ranch was set in a little flat spot above the floodplain of the river and below the rolling hills and bluffs of the badlands. It consisted of a low slung bunkhouse with a wide veranda, a barn for the horses with an attached shoeing shed and corral, and a couple of smaller sheds dotting the compound. 

A Stegosaurus cow was backed up against the far side, her head lowered into a defensive posture. Her spiked tail was arched over her head, ready to swing. At her side was an agitated calf. The calf was trying to hide and shield itself with her body. It was bleating and nuzzling the larger beast.

Around the outside of the ring, a horse paced, turning from one side to the other. The horse was saddled, and a taut length of rope was tied to the saddle horn and led to a figure coiling a length of rope. 

Sewall frowned to himself and spat on the ground. The Boss, Roosevelt, had snagged snagged the Calf with a throw that had come loose. He should not have gotten off the horse until it was secure. 

“Then why’d ya get down off the pony?”