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  WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT

  THE WILD WORLD OF BUCK BRAY BOOKS

  “Something for everyone—adventure, suspense, geography, and science! Buck Bray’s exciting adventure is a story that keeps readers in suspense. This mystery is one you won’t want to put down. I can’t wait to read more of Buck’s wild adventures through our amazing country.”

  —Royce Wilkinson, Wellsville-Middleton Elementary, Wellsville, Missouri

  “Danger at the Dinosaur Stomping Grounds is an outstanding story. There is a good balance of mystery, unexpected surprises, and humor. As the story goes on, it continues to get more mysterious and more exciting. I enjoyed the book!”

  —Barret Malouf, Winterberry Charter School, Anchorage, Alaska

  “The Wild World of Buck Bray books are not your usual mystery stories. They are amazing adventures that include solving mysteries, overcoming problems, and facing life-threatening situations!”

  —Jordan Cassetto, Heights Elementary, Clarkston, Washington

  “The Missing Grizzly Cubs is a very suspenseful book that you can’t put down. It keeps you in mystery until the very end!”

  —Dylan Wortham, Hopewell Middle School, Round Rock, Texas

  “I like the adventure and the cool locations, the way the stories take place in national parks. And I like how they add the videography to the mysteries. Buck is an interesting character, and I want to read more of his adventures.”

  —Forrest Athearn, Denver School of Science and Technology/Byers, Denver, Colorado

  “Buck Bray is a modern boy with lots of technology at his fingertips, but he combines common sense, help from his friends, and lots of adventure to solve mysteries at some of America’s most popular national parks. I’m anxiously awaiting Buck’s next adventure so I can travel along and visit another national park through his eyes . . . and try to solve the mystery along with him!”

  —Susan Hutchins, Semi-Retired Literacy/Special Education Teacher, Poudre School District, Fort Collins, Colorado

  “What child doesn’t love camping, dinosaurs, and a mystery to solve? As part of a literacy parent engagement activity, Portland Elementary purchased an autographed copy of Danger of the Dinosaur Stomping Grounds for each of our families. We gave our families weekly reading assignments and had Judy visit our school to do writing workshops with each of our classes.”

  —Cristy West, Portland Elementary Principal, Portland, Arkansas

  “I just finished The Missing Grizzly Cubs and loved it! This book would be great for students who love adventure stories. I also enjoyed the bear facts that titled each chapter and the education about being a good steward of our national parks. I’ve ordered the next Wild World of Buck Bray and can’t wait for it to arrive.”

  —Ginger Addicott, Third-Grade Teacher, Chain Lake Elementary, Monroe, Washington

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2019 Judy Young

  Cover illustration copyright © 2019 Celia Krampien

  Design copyright © 2019 Sleeping Bear Press

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews and articles.

  All inquiries should be addressed to:

  Sleeping Bear Press™

  2395 South Huron Parkway, Suite 200, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

  www.sleepingbearpress.com

  © Sleeping Bear Press

  Printed and bound in the United States.

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Young, Judy, 1956- author.

  Title: The wolves of Slough Creek / written by Judy Young.

  Description: Ann Arbor, MI : Sleeping Bear Press, [2019] | Series: The Wild World of Buck Bray ; book 3 | Summary: Eleven-year-olds Buck and Toni and the Wild World of Buck Bray television crew head to Yellowstone National Park to film an episode about its famous geysers and gray wolf restoration program, but soon after arriving they suspect someone is operating drones illegally in the park.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018037164| ISBN 9781534110205 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534110212 (pbk.)

  Subjects: LCSH: Yellowstone National Park--Juvenile fiction. | CYAC: Yellowstone National Park--Fiction. | Television programs--Production and direction--Fiction. | Wolves--Fiction. | Drone aircraft--Fiction. | Mystery and detective stories.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.Y8664 Wo 2019 | DDC [FIc]--dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018037164

  For Tucker,

  who will have many of his own

  wild world adventures!

  –Love, Grandma

  With special thanks to:

  Philo West, campground host extraordinaire,

  for many enjoyable and entertaining chats around campfires

  at Box Canyon, Idaho.

  Mike Baer, Principal,

  for the tour of Gardiner School.

  Go Bruins!

  and

  The rangers, park employees, and wolf spotters

  I consulted concerning this book,

  for all they do keeping Yellowstone National Park

  “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”

  J.Y.

  When we try to pick out anything by itself,

  we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.

  —John Muir

  CONTENTS

  Map

  Take 1

  Take 2

  Take 3

  Take 4

  Take 5

  Take 6

  Take 7

  Take 8

  Take 9

  Take 10

  Take 11

  Take 12

  Take 13

  Take 14

  Take 15

  Take 16

  Take 17

  Take 18

  Take 19

  Take 20

  Take 21

  Take 22

  Take 23

  Take 24

  Take 25

  Take 26

  Take 27

  Take 28

  Glossary

  Judy Young

  TAKE 1:

  “IF A BISON RACED A WOLF, THEY’D TIE! BOTH CAN REACH 35 MILES PER HOUR.”

  THURSDAY, MAY 15

  Buck was so distracted as he walked across the parking lot that he didn’t notice the thunderous roar coming up from behind him until Toni screamed. Buck quickly spun around. Charging straight toward him was a wall of bison. Dust filled the air as they stampeded through the piney woods beside Yellowstone’s Firehole River. Branches snapped as the huge beasts plowed over small trees and trampled deadfalls in their path. Before Buck could even think, the herd stormed into the parking lot, the noise of their stomping hooves becoming even more deafening when they hit the pavement.

  In the lead was the biggest bull bison of the herd. Its small, beady eyes set wide apart in its enormous head seemed to focus on Buck. As it entered the parking lot, it lowered its head, exposing the huge hump of its back, its horns now curved forward. It let out a snort that steamed from its nostrils in the chilly air. Then it veered toward Buck, the rest of the herd following. Buck turned and ran for the closest thing he saw—a white SUV with a dark green stripe. But the sound of hooves pounding from behind gained on him rapidly, and he knew he wasn’t going to make it. He still had twenty yards to go before he could reach safety behind the SUV, when he was slammed to the ground.

  As his breath was knocked from him, Buck instinctively closed his eyes and curled into a ball, waiting to be trampled to almost certain death. Then something grabbed hold of him and pulled him backward. Thinking one of the bison’s horns had hooked his belt, Buck’s muscles tensed even more, expecting to be tossed into the air. When he didn’t go flying, Buck opened his eyes. The fury of the beating hooves stomping on pavement continued as dozens of bison legs raced past him only inches away. But a woman in a green ranger uniform had hold of his belt. She had tugged him backward toward where she squatted, hunched behind a big boulder in the middle of the parking lot. Buck quickly scooted closer to her, and the woman put her arm around him, pulling him even tighter to her side. They both huddled up against the rock, their knees bent tight to their chests. They sat that way for only a minute or two, but to Buck it seemed like hours that the living wall of brown beasts stampeded around them.

  An hour before, eleven-year-old Buck and his father, along with their cameraman, Shoop, and Shoop’s eleven-year-old daughter, Toni, had entered Yellowstone National Park through the west entrance before the sun was even up. They were headed to Old Faithful, where they were to meet a ranger who would help them as they filmed another episode of The Wild World of Buck Bray television series. Buck kept his eyes peeled, looking through the window that connected the living area with the cab of the camper. He hoped to see some wildlife, but in the headlights that split the darkness he saw nothing but road.

  “Are we there?” Buck asked when Dad slowed the Green Beast down and turned right.

  “No, it says here that it will be at least another forty minutes depending on traffic before we reach Old Faithful,” Toni answered, using a flashlight to read from some information pamphlets they had gotten at the entrance.

  Buck yawned and rubbed his eyes, trying to stay awake, but it wasn’t long before his
eyes shut and his head bobbed. As they continued, the sun started peeking over the mountains to their left, turning the sky pink, but Buck didn’t notice. He was sound asleep, his cheek resting on the back of the couch by the window.

  “Pull in there!” Shoop suddenly shouted.

  Buck startled awake as Dad quickly swung the Green Beast onto a short drive leading to a parking lot.

  “Look how the light is filtering through the steam coming off the Firehole!” Shoop continued.

  “Firehole?” Buck asked, quickly looking out the window.

  “That’s the name of the river we’ve been driving alongside,” Toni said.

  In the early morning light the river shimmered in a sparkling flow of fluid silver. Plumes of steam rose from it. Steam also dotted its banks, looking like the smoke from dozens of campfires, twisting and turning with spiraling tendrils. The rising sun caught droplets of water in the steam, and, magically, bits of moving rainbows flickered as the vapor swirled and rose.

  “That would make a great opening shot!” Shoop said.

  “We’ve got plenty of time,” Dad said, glancing at his watch. “We’re not scheduled to meet the ranger until eight.”

  “Where are we?” Buck asked.

  “Grand Prismatic Spring,” Dad answered. “It’s only a few more miles to Old Faithful.”

  “Listen to this,” Toni said. She started reading aloud again. “Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest hot spring in the United States and is photographed more than anything else in Yellowstone.”

  “How big is it?” Buck asked.

  “It says it’s bigger than a football field,” Toni replied.

  Dad pulled into a parking space next to a black pickup. It had a shell covering the truck bed and a camping trailer hooked to the back. Without hesitating, Shoop grabbed the backpack that held his camera equipment. He jumped out of the cab before they had even come to a complete stop.

  “Bring the shotgun mic and meet me at that footbridge, Toni,” Shoop said, and started jogging across the parking lot.

  Toni swung her red backpack over one shoulder and picked up a black case. Inside it was a microphone that attached to an extending pole, and a pair of headphones. Stepping from the camper, she hurried after her father. Buck followed her out the door. The early May air was cold. Buck stretched, then jammed his hands into the pocket of his gray hoodie. As he waited for his father to gather script notebooks and lock the camper, he watched Shoop and Toni cut across the long, rectangular parking lot to the wooden footbridge. Beyond it, clouds of steam billowed from the huge expanse of Grand Prismatic Spring.

  A car backed out of a space near the footbridge and drove around several large boulders strategically placed at the far end of the lot to direct the flow of traffic back out to the main road. Beyond the boulders, Buck saw nothing but a forest of tall lodgepole pine.

  “I wish they’d put the long parking spots for RVs and campers closer to the front for once,” Buck whined as he watched Shoop and Toni step onto a sidewalk that led to the bridge.

  “It won’t hurt you to walk a bit,” Dad said, “and it’ll give you time to rehearse the script.”

  Buck rolled his eyes. He had read the scripts so many times, he felt as if he could say them in his sleep. As he and his father headed toward the bridge, Buck heard a vehicle drive in behind them, and soon some voices.

  “That’s the weirdest-looking camper I’ve ever seen,” a girl’s voice said.

  Buck glanced back over his shoulder. An RV that had SEE AMERICA FIRST written in huge letters across the side had pulled in next to their camper. A man, a woman, and two kids—a boy and a girl—had gotten out of it. They stood staring at the Brays’ camper that looked like a combination of a tank and a school bus.

  “‘Bray Traveling Studio. The Wild World of Buck Bray,’” the woman said, reading aloud the wording on the camper’s door. “I wonder what that’s all about.”

  “Beats me,” the girl said, then she turned to the boy. “Race you!”

  The two kids took off running, quickly passing Buck and his father.

  “Don’t go any farther than the bridge,” the man’s voice called out. Soon, the woman and the man had caught up with Buck and his father. The man said hello, and Dad returned the greeting, but Buck didn’t stick around for what he knew was going to happen next. He jogged on ahead, hearing the man ask Dad the usual question, “Are you making a movie or something?”

  When Buck reached the bridge, Shoop had the tripod set up on the sidewalk nearby. The camera was mounted to it, and he was already filming the steam rising from the river and its banks. Toni and the two kids from the SEE AMERICA FIRST RV were standing in the middle of the bridge.

  “That’s Buck,” Toni said as Buck approached them. “And this is Kale and Kayla Kolson. They’re twins and the same age as us.”

  “Hi,” Buck said. “I saw you get out of your RV.”

  “You’ve got a wicked-looking camper,” Kayla said.

  “Yeah, we call it the Green Beast,” Buck said.

  “Ours is just a rental,” Kayla said. “It’s the first time our family has ever gone camping.”

  “That’s cool,” Buck said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

  “Toni told us about your show,” Kayla continued. “Could we watch you being filmed?”

  “Sure,” Buck said, shrugging. Then, leaning his elbows on the bridge railing, he looked upstream. Without saying a word, Kale stood next to Buck, leaning his elbows on the bridge, too.

  The two sides of the river were totally different from each other. Open lodgepole woods on the left side sloped gently to the river. Upstream, beyond the trees, a grassy meadow lined the river as it curved. On the right side of the river there were no trees or grassy meadows. The bank was made of solid stone rising steeply from the river’s edge. A few yards from the bridge, a wide channel cut deep into the stone. It was edged with a bright yellow mineral deposit, and a torrent of steaming water rushed through it before dropping into the Firehole River. In other places, steam spouted out of cracks and crevices in the rock.

  “Looks ghostly,” Buck said. Kale nodded but didn’t say anything. Buck shrugged and looked down over the railing at a trout in the clear water.

  “We’ll do the first shot here, Buck,” Shoop called out. “You’re in a good spot. Just turn this way.”

  As Buck turned, Shoop called out to the others. “Would you kids mind moving out of my camera’s view? It will only be a minute.”

  “No problem,” Kayla said. She tapped her brother on the shoulder. “Come on, Kale.”

  “Thanks,” Shoop said as Toni and the twins walked off the bridge and stood behind the tripod. “Toni, let’s do a sound check.”

  Toni took the shotgun microphone out of its case and extended the pole. As she put on the pair of headphones, the other adults reached the bridge and stopped beside the twins.

  “Of course we’ll include the geothermal features that Yellowstone is famous for, but we’re also interested in the wolf population,” Dad was telling the Kolsons. “Half the show will be about the wolf restoration program here in the park.”

  Toni held the shotgun mic out toward Buck.

  “There’s a lot of noise from the river,” she said, then turned to the adults, “and I need you guys to stop talking, please.”

  “No problem,” Dad said, giving Toni a big smile. Then he whispered to the Kolsons, “Toni’s our sound person—she’s great!”

  “I’ll be able to filter the river noise so it won’t be too loud,” Shoop told Toni. “Just concentrate on Buck’s voice.”

  Everyone was quiet as Buck looked at the camera. When its red light came on, he smiled and said, “Welcome to Yellowstone,” then looked over at Toni.

  “Sounds fine,” Toni said.

  “Okay,” Shoop said. “We’re ready to roll.”

  “Wait a second,” Dad spoke up. “Buck, take off your hoodie. You need to be filmed in your official shirt.”

  “I’m sorry,” Buck said, pulling up the sweatshirt, exposing a T-shirt. “I don’t have it on. We got up so early this morning, I just threw my hoodie on. I was going to change when we got to Old Faithful but forgot all about it when we pulled in here.”

  “Well, run back and—” Dad started, but Kale suddenly called out.