The Mystery of Wandering Caveman - M. V. Carey [4]
“Now wait a minute!” cried Brandon.
“You said yourself you didn’t know how old he was!” insisted McAfee. “Had to be much older than eight or ten thousand was what you said. You was sure enough of that when you first saw him. So that means humans did start up here in America, and that little guy in my cave could be the great-grand-daddy of us all. Maybe it was his kids and grandkids that went across them straits to Asia and started humanity on its way. Maybe the Garden of Eden wasn’t someplace over there, like we always thought.
Supposing it was in Bakersfield or Fresno. Wouldn’t that be a lick?”
“You’re jumping to conclusions,” said Brandon in a dogged way. “When we have a chance to properly study the find—”
“Ain’t going to be no studying done!” declared McAfee.
Brandon spun around and glared at McAfee.
“That little guy’s been in my cave right along, and he’s going to stay there!” said McAfee. “Ain’t nobody going to haul him away and cut him up and look at him through a microscope. And if you think the lines of people waiting to get into Marineland and Magic Mountain are long, just wait’ll you see the lines of people who’ll want to see a real cave man!”
“You’re going to put the fossils on display?” cried Brandon. “But you can’t! We aren’t sure how old the bones are, or …”
“The bones are old enough,” McAfee announced. “What we’ve got right here is the beginnings of civilization, and everybody’s interested in that!”
“You ignorant lout!” shouted Brandon. “You haven’t any idea what you’re talking about!”
“I’m talking about what may be the first man.” McAfee looked full at the camera.
“That’s why I come on this show. I want everybody to know that I’m getting my place ready, and as soon as I can, I’ll open my cave for visitors. It’ll be like those other wonderful places in California, and —”
“You imbecile!” shouted Brandon. He lurched out of his chair.
The camera quickly moved in close so that only Bob Engel could be seen.
There was some shouting off camera, and a scuffling noise. Then Bob Engel said hastily, “That’s all for this exciting portion of our show. We’re out of time, thank heavens. Now stay tuned for an important message from Nodust furniture polish, and then we’ll be back with …”
Pete turned off the television. “Wow!” he said. “Things really got out of hand there. Brandon looked like he was going to pound that McAfee guy right into the ground.”
“I didn’t like McAfee much myself,” said Jupe, “and if he won’t let Brandon remove the bones …”
“Can he stop Brandon?” said Bob.
“I should think so, if the cave is on his property. What a maddening situation for an archaeologist to be in — to find something so exciting and then not be able to evaluate it! And probably there’s been bad blood between those two men from the beginning, if McAfee ran for his gun when he saw Brandon at the cave. A bad situation! And Brandon’s got a temper. It’s the sort of thing that could end in … in …”
“Bloodshed?” said Pete.
“Yes. Yes, that’s just how it could end — in bloodshed!”
Chapter 3
An Unusual Welcome
AFTER THAT FIRST explosive interview, James Brandon did not appear on television again. It was Newt McAfee who was seen on several of the talk shows, and as spring turned to summer, the chubby merchant from Citrus Grove gave interviews to any reporter who would stand still and listen. By the middle of July most people in southern California knew about his cave and his cave man. Then the paid advertisements began to appear. The cave would be opened to the public early in August.
During the last week of July, Jupiter had a timely encounter with his neighbour Les Wolf.
Wolf was a contractor who installed ovens and stoves and dishwashers in restaurants and hotels. He lived in a big frame house down the street from The Jones Salvage Yard. On that July day Jupe was riding his bike past the Wolf home when he saw Mr. Wolf trying to coax a kitten out from under a hedge. Jupe stopped to