by Ian Whybrow
EEE-OWWWWW! Down they swept again! Harry looked down the beak of his flying B.U.D. and saw that the collie was right in line to feel the point of it!
Pteranodon let the shotgun drop. He began to mutter and squawk.
‘Behave yourself!’ warned Harry, which was just enough to save Jeff from getting speared like a sausage. Still, it didn’t stop Pteranodon giving the dog’s tail a sharp tweak, just for the fun of it.
The dog yelped and shot under the hedge with his wagger tucked firmly between his legs. Jeff won’t go sheep-worrying again in a hurry, thought Harry.
‘Now grab the other dog!’ he ordered. ‘But no games this time! Just get him by the collar.’
Round they swept once more, and down so low this time that Pteranodon’s trailing legs slapped against the uncut hedges. He dipped his head, caught hold of Spike’s collar and flipped him into the air. Up he went, spinning like a football, and landed on the dinosaur’s wing before rolling towards its other passenger.
‘Gotcha!’ said Harry as he grabbed on to the dog with one hand. ‘I think it’s time to take you home to the Manor!’ He bent forward to give new orders to Pteranodon. ‘Head east along the valley road but keep out of the way of anybody who might be looking up. I don’t want anyone to see me.’ He looked back towards the farmer, who was still staggering about looking for his shotgun.
Pteranodon kept low till they could duck behind the next hill where it was safe to start gaining height. As they rose over a field where potatoes had been dug up, Harry saw a chilling sight.
‘An accident!’ he gasped. ‘A tractor’s tipped over on its side! Quick! Let’s get down.’
Swiftly they landed. Harry, still clutching Lady Spansford’s naughty little terrier, slid off Pteranodon’s back and dashed towards the tractor. The farm machine had rolled sideways down the steep slope and now the driver lay trapped under the cab.
By his side a dirty brown shape stirred. It leapt to its feet as Harry approached.
‘BWOOOF! BWOOOF!’
Chapter 10
‘Shaky!’ cried Harry, rather nervously it has to be said. He took the damp T-shirt out of his back pocket and held it towards the dog. The smell of Frederick seemed to relax Shaky and Harry patted him on the head carefully. Spike joined in the welcome, wiggling and licking the big dog’s anxious face.
‘Good boy! Good boy!’ said Harry, as something dawned on him. Shaky had run all the way to the Batch not to worry sheep at all – but to find help for his injured master.
‘My legs!’ came a whisper from the man trapped under the tractor. ‘Get this thing off my legs!’
Harry looked at his mobile. No signal.
‘Now what?’ he said aloud.
‘I’m sorry, Harry, but I can’t help,’ said Pteranodon. ‘I haven’t got the strength to shift anything as heavy as that. My hollow bones would snap.’
‘I understand,’ said Harry. ‘I’ll have to find something stronger to do the job.’
Harry ordered Pteranodon to fly Spike back to the Spansfords’ estate and then return with his bike from the top of Hanter Hill. ‘Be quick – I’ll need you to help me again.’
The dinosaur flapped off with Spike clamped between his two flat feet. The injured farmer was moaning softly. Harry held his water bottle to the man’s lips and poured a small amount into his mouth. Then he gave Shaky a drink. The dog lapped gratefully from his hands and then lay back down beside the farmer for comfort.
Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out his B.U.D. key-ring. Two cards on his key-ring were very warm. He swept his thumb across each in the correct direction: nose-to-tail. Instantly he found himself almost sandwiched between two mighty bodies as hard as warm brick walls.
Triceratops and Stegosaurus had arrived.
‘At your service, Harry,’ they rumbled, their voices like low thunder.
Shaky began to stir and look about and growl. Although he couldn’t see them, he could smell the dried mud of ancient swamps on the wrinkled hides of the great beasts.
‘It’s OK,’ Harry said, patting him. ‘Lie down.’ The dog returned to his master, who now looked like he was sleeping.
I have to hurry, Harry thought. He needs to get to hospital.
‘Can you get your heads under the side of the tractor?’ Harry asked his two new super-sized helpers.
Triceratops and Stegosaurus nodded. They stood on either side of the powerful machine and lifted it as if it were no heavier than a dry leaf.
‘Now put the tractor over on its other side,’ said Harry. He realized that when help did arrive, there might be some very awkward questions. Somebody might like to know how a young boy could lift up a machine weighing over a tonne.
Harry asked the two dinosaurs to stand close to the injured man and help Shaky to keep him comfortable with their warm breath.
He looked into the sky and could see Pteranodon flying low, one leg looped through his bike. Let’s hope nobody is looking up at the sky, Harry thought, imagining how it would look to see just a bicycle flying through the air. The creature dropped his bike to the ground and landed beside him with a thump.
‘Thank you,’ said Harry, patting the side of the beast. But there was no time to waste. ‘Do you happen to know Morse code?’ he asked.
The creature blinked at him. ‘I know about eating fish and flying,’ came the answer.
‘Never mind. I’ll ask Stegosaurus. Would you like to make your loudest call?’ said Harry. ‘I want you to sound it like this: Dit-dit-dit, DAH–DAH–DAH, Dit-dit-dit. And keep it up until I tell you to stop.’
Harry had to cover his ears as an ear-splitting screech blasted out across the fields and the bony plates along the creature’s spine rattled. Shaky jumped to his feet and started yapping, adding to the noise. Harry hoped that someone was near enough hear it.
It was certainly loud enough for Dennis Willetts to hear. He was a farmer who was cutting wood at the back of his cottage on the next farm.
He listened again. ‘That’s an S.O.S.,’ he said aloud. He shouted to his wife, who was taking the wood to the shed in a wheelbarrow, ‘Mary, can you hear that?’
Mary stopped to listen. ‘I can,’ she said. ‘That’s Morse code. Someone must need help.’
They jumped into their Land Rover and raced up and down the lanes, trying to work out where the emergency signal was coming from.
Chapter 11
Back at the tractor, as soon as help had arrived, Harry stroked Triceratops and Stegosaurus in the opposite direction – tail-to-nose – to make them disappear. ‘You did really well. Great job, both of you!’ he said, and he could see how pleased the creatures were as they vanished from his sight.
Right up to the moment when Mr and Mrs Willetts arrived, screaming to a halt in their Land Rover, Stegosaurus had continued to screech his S.O.S. The farmer and his wife jumped out and looked around, wondering where the sound was coming from.
‘You can stop now,’ Harry commanded the B.U.D. and luckily Mr and Mrs Willetts were too busy worrying about their injured neighbour to hear him.
‘It’s poor old Ralphie Grimes,’ Mary told Harry. ‘He must have got crushed by the tractor and somehow crawled out from under it. I saw him ploughing this field yesterday. He lives by himself, so I bet he’s been lying here since then,’ she said. ‘The strange thing is he feels quite warm. Amazing!’
‘How did you find him all the way up here?’ Mr Willetts asked Harry, as his wife went back to the house to phone for an ambulance. ‘And what on earth was making that incredible noise?’
Harry had to think quickly. He explained that he was cycling about, looking for a lost dog, when he heard Shaky barking. When he went to investigate, he found the dog’s master lying hurt on the ground and wasn’t sure what to do. ‘And then, um … I looked in the tractor and I suppose an emergency alarm-system must have activated. Lucky you heard it!’ he exclaimed.
‘Well, Mr Grimes should be fine as soon as the ambulance gets here,’ said Mr Willetts.
‘The only thing is we need to do something about his dog.’ He bent down and stroked him tenderly. ‘You deserve a medal, you do, Jakey!’
So that’s the dog’s real name! thought Harry. Frederick wasn’t far off – no wonder he answered to Shaky!
He suddenly realized that Mr Willetts was still talking to him. ‘They’re bound to keep Mr Grimes in hospital for a couple of days at least,’ he was saying.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Harry. ‘I know somebody who’s going to be delighted to look after Jakey for a while.’
Harry stayed long enough to see the air ambulance come and pick up the injured farmer and then he collected his bike from where Pteranodon had delivered it and cycled across the field to the Willetts’ farm with the dog trotting along behind him.
Pteranodon flew high above them, circling around anxiously.
At the farmhouse Mary gave Shaky the remains of a large chicken they’d shared for lunch, and a big bowl of water. Her husband gave the dog a welcome wash-down with the garden hose, then a good brushing.
Soon Shaky was looking much more his old self and less like a hungry wolf! Harry ate a chicken sandwich and a large glass of orange juice before heading on his way, the dog trotting along by the bike. He’d promised he would bring back Shaky once Mr Grimes was back on his feet.
By now, Pteranodon had settled and was patiently waiting for Harry next to the potato field to see whether he could be of any further service. He explained that when he dropped Spike off at the back door of the Manor, the cheeky little terrier dived into the house through the cat-flap.
‘So that’s how he sneaks out!’ said Harry.
Pteranodon was amazed by the noisy whirling bird that had carried away the injured farmer. ‘What a wonderful roar he had!’ he said with enthusiasm. ‘But what a strange wing-action! He must get very dizzy!’
Harry nodded. He wasn’t sure how to explain the helicopter to the ancient reptile. ‘Thanks for all your help, Pteranodon. You were the real hero.’
‘No problem,’ replied his personal aircraft. ‘If you need any of us to help you again,’ he wheezed, ‘then you know how to call on us. You don’t need Morse code either!’
Then he shuffled over to Harry so the boy could stroke him – tail-to-nose – and all of a sudden it was just Harry and Shaky, who was running about and chasing his tail.
‘C’mon, boy,’ said Harry. ‘Someone I know wants to see you!’
Chapter 12
The GOGOs were all starting to worry about Harry when he finally came freewheeling down the hill towards the bakery to meet them. They were planning to shout ‘Where have you been?’ but they were so surprised to see Shaky trotting behind on a string lead that they all shouted ‘Well done!’ instead.
Siri, Jack and Charlie crowded around their friend to ask what had happened.
‘I was just lucky,’ said Harry. ‘I was riding down the lane when I heard Shaky barking. And that’s a sound you can’t mistake, as you all know.’
All the GOGOs nodded.
He told the rest of the story – well, as much as he could. And it wasn’t long before the whole village had heard about it, too, not only about Harry being a hero, but about two dogs from the village getting up to no good.
The way Mr Oakley told it to the GOGOs, a farmer had reported that Jeff the collie had been spotted with a little terrier chasing sheep. ‘They were both very lucky not to have got shot,’ he reported. Mr and Mrs Temple from Flag Station Farm were very sorry. They realized that Jeff was a working dog and missed his old job, so they bought half a dozen ewes to keep him busy.
Lady Spansford wouldn’t hear anything bad said about her little terrier. ‘Well, the terrier that worried those sheep simply can’t have been our Spiky,’ she insisted to Mr Oakley. ‘We never let him out of our sight!’
‘Ask her to check her cat-flap,’ Harry suggested to Mr Oakley. ‘I mean he might just be able to squeeze through it when she’s not looking.’
And when Mr Oakley did mention this to Lady Spansford on the telephone, she said, ‘Oh gosh! I see what you mean. I’d never thought of that!’ A few minutes later she rang back to beg Mr Oakley not to mention the cat-flap to anyone else. ‘And by the way,’ she added, ‘the Colonel and I would like to offer you – quite free of charge, of course – the use of one of our fields. We feel that your cows would enjoy some fresh grass.’
As for Frederick, he was told that if he was very good and very nice to all the GOGOs, they would lead him to their secret hideout for a wonderful surprise. He enjoyed being blindfolded and led to the Great Oak and he was overjoyed to be reunited with his lost friend, Shaky. After that he was a completely changed little boy. He was happy, well-behaved and everything grown-ups like, except clean, which didn’t matter very much.
‘Who would have thought that our little boy could become so sweet in just three days?’ were Mrs Brattburger’s words when they got back from Scotland. ‘What a family!’ Then she covered Harry with wet kisses, and gave his mother lots of extra work writing articles about children and animals. They were even happy to care for Shaky until Mr Grimes was out of hospital and felt able to look after him again.
Best of all, Mr Brattburger presented Harry with a cool battery-powered model of an F-22 Raptor stealth fighter plane. ‘I heard about the – um – accident with your model plane,’ he said. ‘So this is just our way of saying sorry, and thanks for being so good to Frederick.’
Naturally, Harry took it down to the Great Oak and told the GOGOs that it was theirs as much as his.
‘Wow,’ said Jack. And just in case that wasn’t enough, he added, ‘Cool!’
‘My goodness!’ exclaimed Siri. ‘It has a two-channel radio and a throttle for 3-D control with independent thrust from separate motors!’
‘What? Say that again in English,’ said Charlie. ‘Oh, never mind; it’s great to fly anyway! Don’t you think so, Harry?’
‘Great to fly?’ said Harry, who was daydreaming about something else. ‘Oh, yes, it really is!’
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First published 2011
Text copyright © Ian Whybrow, 2011
Cover illustration copyright © Adrian Reynolds, 2011
Text illustrations copyright © Puffin Books, 2011
Character concept copyright © Ian Whybrow and Adrian Reynolds, 2011
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author and illustrators has been asserted
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
ISBN: 978-0-14-196257-3
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