Hack the Ripper was furious. Roaring and snarling, he strode back to the body of the stegosaurus, hacking at it to stuff himself full of meat. All the dinosaurs on that part of the Great Plain moved as hastily as they could out of sight of the angry tyrannosaurus. Once again, had they known it, they were in fact quite safe for a while. He would not hunt till he was hungry again.
Gargantua and Titanic had been out in the
lake, gathering their daily ration of waterweed, and had seen the drama of Banty’s escape.
“Again!” cried Gargantua. “Again our friends the pterodactyls have saved our Banty!”
“Old Clawed,” said Titanic, “was pretty good, wasn’t he, Gargy?”
Later that afternoon, Nosy and his parents were hanging from a favorite branch when they heard a lot of noise in the distance. It sounded like branches breaking, which it was.
Banty could have walked among the trees without damaging them, but Titanic and Gargantua, who were much of a size—enormous—could not.
As they neared the pterodactyls’ roost, Titanic attempted to make his way between two very large trees that were growing close together, too close for an apatosaurus to pass. He became stuck.
“I’m stuck, Gargy!” he called. “What shall I do?”
“Use your brains,” Gargantua called back.
Titanic thought about this advice for a while, with no result. Then, growing annoyed, he began to lean sideways, first against one tree, then against the other, until, with a tremendous crash, first one and then the other tree fell, torn up by the roots.
Titanic walked on till he caught up with his wife and his daughter, and all three dinosaurs stood below the high branch from which the three pterosaurs were hanging.
“Aviatrix, dear,” Gargantua called up, “we have come, Titanic and I, to thank your
husband for his heroic efforts in once again saving our child. What do you say, Banty?”
“Thank you, sir,” said Banty.
“And please, sir, accept my grateful thanks,” said Titanic.
Daughter and father both calling me “sir,” thought Clawed. I wish the mother would too, but you can’t have everything.
“My dear Gargantua,” said Aviatrix, “once again we are only too glad to have been of service. Had I been on duty at the time, I should no doubt have flummoxed the dastardly curmudgeon.”
Gargantua looked pleased.
Titanic and Clawed looked puzzled.
Banty and Nosy looked at one another with amusement.
“Well,” said Gargantua, “we must be getting back to the lake. Why don’t you all come and have a drink with us? To celebrate.”
“Shall we, Clawed?” said Aviatrix.
“Good idea, Avy,” said Clawed.
As the pterodactyls, flying very slowly above their friends, followed the path by which the apatosauruses had reached them, they noticed the two great trees that had been felled.
Titanic stopped and stretched up his long neck to address Clawed hovering above.
“I must apologize, sir,” he said. “I got a bit stuck between those trees, I’m afraid.”
“Don’t worry, old lad,” replied Clawed.
“Plenty more trees about.”
When they had all reached the lake and Aviatrix had flown up on a quick reconnaissance patrol to make sure the coast was clear, she and Clawed went off to the dead stegosaurus for a feast of flies. Nosy and Banty went off to play.
“Cry T. Rex!?” suggested Nosy.
“No, thanks,” said Banty. “I never want to play that game again.”
“Gosh!” Nosy said. “Your pa is so strong!”
“Ma, too,” said Banty.
“You will be, one day.”
“Suppose so.”
Nosy let himself down gently onto his friend’s neck. They had invented this position, which gave him a rest from flying and still allowed her, if she wished, to graze. One leg on either side of her neck meant that there was no danger of his claws scratching her.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said.
“Oh yes?”
“Sooner or later, we’ve got to do something about T. rex.”
“What can we possibly do? Your mom and daddy couldn’t do anything, nor could Ma and Pa.”
“True,” said Nosy. “But you and I might, between us. There must be a way to rid us of T. rex.”
“How?”
“Give him a fright,” said Nosy. “He’s always roaring about, attacking baby dinosaurs. I bet he’s really a coward. And if we attack him, he’ll get the fright of his life and run away. We’ll scare him off.”