He carried her back down the beach. Almost immediately her arm began to redden and swell. Mike would not soon forget the frantic drive back to civilization, the four-wheel-drive Land Rover slipping and sliding up the muddy track into the hills, while his daughter screamed in fear and pain, and her arm grew more bloated and red. Long before they reached the park boundaries, the swelling had spread to her neck, and then Tina began to have trouble breathing…

"She'll be all right now?" Ellen said, staring through the plastic oxygen tent.

"I believe so," Dr. Cruz said. "I have given her another dose of steroids, and her breathing is much easier. And you can see the edema in her arm is greatly reduced."

Mike Bowman said, "About those bites…"

"We have no identification yet," the doctor said. "I myself haven't seen bites like that before. But you'll notice they are disappearing. It's already quite difficult to make them out. Fortunately I have taken photographs for reference. And I have washed her arm to collect some samples of the sticky saliva-one for analysis here, a second to send to the labs in San Jose, and the third we will keep frozen in case it is needed. Do you have the picture she made?"

"Yes," Mike Bowman said. He handed the doctor the sketch that Tina had drawn, in response to questions from the admitting officials.

"This is the animal that bit her?" Dr. Cruz said, looking at the picture.

"Yes," Mike Bowman said. "She said it was a green lizard, the size of a chicken or a crow."

"I don't know of such a lizard," the doctor said. "She has drawn it standing on its hind legs…"

"That's right," Mike Bowman said. "She said it walked on its hind legs."

Dr. Cruz frowned. He stared at the picture a while longer. "I am not an expert. I've asked for Dr. Guitierrez to visit us here. He is a senior researcher at the Reserva Biologica de Carara, which is across the bay. Perhaps he can identify the animal for us."