As suddenly as it had started, the strange electronic siren cut out.
‘I’m over here,’ said Lulu, rising up from the reeds that grew along the riverbank. ‘When I swam away the noise stopped.’
‘Perhaps the sound is meant to scare away seals like you?’ Mr Dog joined her on land, shook himself off and peered around. ‘Aha!’ He stood on his hind legs. ‘What’s this I spy?’
Lulu looked and saw a thick orange plastic box mounted on a wooden post. A grey cable stretched down from the box into the water.
Mr Dog walked over to investigate.
But when Lulu swam towards it, the sound went off again. ‘Ouch!’ she grunted. ‘There’s something down there – something small and orange on the end of that cable. The horrid thing screams every time it sees me!’
‘It must be a machine,’ said Mr Dog, studying the orange box. ‘It can’t see you, but perhaps it has a sensor that detects large animals moving in the river … and blasts out that noise to warn them away.’
As he finished, the noise went off again. ‘I didn’t go near it that time, though!’ Lulu quivered, hauling herself up on to the riverbank. ‘What set it off?’
The blaring noise suddenly cut out mid-beep. Mr Dog frowned to see bubbles in the water – and then, with a great splash, a dark figure burst up, making him jump backwards. It was another seal, much bigger than Lulu, grey with darker spots on its face and neck. A plastic orange gadget hung uselessly from one end of the cable clamped in its jaws.
‘Ditzy!’ Lulu clapped her little flippers together as she galumphed down the bank and into the water. ‘Ditzy, I’ve found you!’
‘Lulu!’ Ditzy rocketed over to meet her and the pair happily knocked noses. ‘I’m so happy to see you! I’m glad the seal-scarer didn’t frighten you off.’ She tossed the cable and box away. It landed by Mr Dog’s front paws.
‘Seal-scarer?’ he echoed.
‘Yes, the humans put them in the river to scare us away. But I’m a wee bit deaf so they don’t bother me much. I just bite through them – chomp, chomp, chomp!’ Ditzy mimed biting with her big ivory teeth. ‘CHOMP! Who are you anyway?’
‘My name is Mr Dog. Some say D-O-G is short for Dog of Greatness, but it’s not my place to agree.’ He grinned and bowed his head. ‘I’m very pleased to meet you, Ditzy, but I don’t understand why people are going to so much trouble to scare stray seals from this river?’
Lulu blinked. ‘Yes, why is that, Ditzy?’
‘Come on!’ Ditzy gave her a sly smile. ‘Don’t pretend you don’t know. Why else are you here?’
‘I’m here because I was worried about you,’ said Lulu.
‘And I’m here because I enjoy a mystery mixed up with an adventure,’ Mr Dog added. ‘But why are you here? Why are the humans trying so hard to scare seals away?’
‘Why?’ Ditzy threw back her head and made a grunting, honking noise like laughter. ‘I must show you. Come with me, Lulu. You’ll be amazed – and very well fed.’
‘Ooooh!’ Lulu’s black eyes had grown to the size of saucers. ‘All right, Ditzy.’
‘Wait! Whatever you’ve found, it could be dangerous,’ Mr Dog warned the seals. ‘The anglers have set these noisy boxes to keep you away, Ditzy, but you haven’t listened – quite literally! You’ve ignored the warnings and it seems to me that people are ready to take more serious action.’
‘Come now, doggy. They wouldn’t hurt Ditzy, the celebrated seal!’ Ditzy turned in an ungainly circle that made Mr Dog smile despite himself. ‘Er, would they?’
‘Someone shot at poor Lulu,’ Mr Dog informed her.
‘Well! I’m sure they didn’t mean to.’ Ditzy did a blubbery somersault. ‘Now come on, Lulu, I simply must show you why I’ve stuck around here for so long.’ And with that, she powered away through the water. ‘This way. Chop-chop!’
Mr Dog hared off after Ditzy along the riverbank, but he could see that Lulu was finding it harder to keep up.
‘Wait for me! I can’t go as fast as you, Ditzy,’ she said.
But the slightly deaf seal didn’t hear her. ‘Pardon?’
‘I hurt my flipper,’ Lulu called.
‘You caught a kipper? Good girl!’
‘No, she hurt her flipper when she got tangled in a piece of net,’ Mr Dog explained as he ran along. ‘Perhaps you should stop for a minute?’
‘Oh, very well,’ Ditzy grumbled.
Just then, Mr Dog caught a high-pitched metallic vibration from behind him. Looking about, he saw a jagged gap in the trees and, beyond that, a railway track. ‘A train is coming,’ he observed.
‘Oooh, is it? What good timing!’ Ditzy clapped, swam to the bank and wibbled up the slope towards the train line. ‘I’ll give the passengers on board a real performance … I do miss putting on a show!’
But, as the train came clanking past, Mr Dog saw it was only a goods train – an engine pulling a lot of wagons that carried things, not people.
Ditzy looked disappointed. ‘Oh. No audience, as usual. Just those silly old wagons full of nasty plastic rubbish.’
‘Eh? Plastic rubbish?’ Mr Dog stared at her. ‘How do you know what’s inside those wagons?’
‘Because the first time I passed this spot, something awful happened!’ Ditzy galumphed a little nearer to him. ‘Earlier in the summer there were terrible rains that brought terrible floods. The tracks were swamped with water and a train derailed, right here! Its wagons fell over and they crashed through those trees and tore them down. The noise!’ Like all seals, Ditzy’s ears were hardly visible, but she shook her head from side to side. ‘I couldn’t believe it as a big crate fell from one of the wagons and came rolling over and over …’
Mr Dog stepped so close to her they were almost nose to nose. ‘Ditzy, do you know where that crate is now?’
‘In the water over there.’ Ditzy nodded to the side of the bank. ‘The crate’s broken open – so all the nasty plastic stuff inside is getting out!’