An Incredible Case of Dinosaurs (2 page)

“It looks like a washing machine!” Giles
exclaimed.

Tina sighed long-sufferingly. “Barnes, even the greatest
inventors are forced to work with the raw materials at hand. In this case, a
washing machine happened to be the most suitable starting
point.”

“Mom was not impressed,” panted Kevin, who had
single-handedly pushed the huge contraption from home. He was lying flat on his
back on Miss Frost’s patio, catching his breath.

“We can’t go underwater in this thing!” Giles
said. “Look at it! There are still dials on top that say RINSE and SPIN
CYCLE!”

“I don’t think either of you fully appreciate the
greatness of my latest invention,” Tina said haughtily. “This
bathysphere is capable of going underwater to great depths,
while safely carrying three people inside. It will allow us to make a thorough
aquatic examination of the pool.”

Giles walked slowly around the bathysphere, taking a good look.
Tina had certainly made a lot of alterations. At the rear was a huge propeller
that looked suspiciously like the ceiling fan from the Quarks’ dining
room. Four bicycle lights had been bolted to the front. On either side of the
bathysphere were bolted, big oil drums, which sounded hollow when Giles tapped
them. Thick rubber hosing was wrapped all around the outside, and truck tires
were nailed to the base. It was much bigger than a regular washing machine.
Giles peered through the round glass hatch. Still, it looked like a tight
squeeze in there.

“I’m not sure about this,” Giles
said.

“It’s perfectly safe, Barnes,” Tina said.
“I’ve tested it extensively.”

“That’s what you said about the turbo
toaster,” Kevin reminded her. “Dad nearly lost an eye.” He
turned to Giles. “That toast came out of there like a
rocket!”

“Fine,” said Tina,
“I’ll go alone. All the more glory for me, making the first descent
all by myself—”

“All right, all right,” sighed Giles. After all, she
was
a genius. “We’re coming.”

He helped Kevin to his feet and together they rolled the
bathysphere off the deck and into the swampy water. It rode high on the surface,
buoyed up by the rubber tires and oil drums.

Tina opened the round glass hatch.

“Everyone in,” she said.

It was a tight squeeze. Giles thought the inside looked like an
airplane cockpit, with switches, gauges and buttons on all sides, and overhead,
too. He found it all kind of reassuring. Something with this many switches had
to work.

Tina clanged the hatch shut behind her and sat at the controls
between Giles and Kevin.

“Beginning descent!” she said, pushing buttons and
throwing levers.

The bathysphere was slowly sinking. Giles watched as the
gurgling water crept higher and higher up the round
glass window. Soon it
was level with his face, and he could see half below and half above the water.
He caught himself holding his breath as the bathysphere sank completely under
the surface.

It had become very dark all of a sudden, and Tina flipped
another switch. The bicycle lights came on, and the water glowed eerily all
around them.

Giles could barely believe they were in a swimming pool. It
certainly didn’t look like one.

It was another world, murky-green and vast. There was no sign of
any walls. Far below them, the pool bottom was so covered in dirt and stones
that it looked like the ocean floor. Fat gas bubbles wobbled past them towards
the surface. A school of rainbow-coloured fish flitted across their
path.

“Hey, how’d they get in here?” Kevin
asked.

“There must be another way into this pool,” Tina
said solemnly.

She steered the bathysphere deeper along the bottom.

“Look at that!” said Giles, pointing.

Lying toppled along the bottom was a huge statue of
Poseidon.

“It must have fallen in from the
patio,” said Kevin. “Wow. It’s like the lost continent of
Atlantis down here!”

“Never mind that,” said Tina, “I think
I’ve found something interesting.”

She aimed the lights at a long, jagged crack in the pool floor,
near the statue. The crack was wide—about half a metre, Giles
guessed.

“There must be an underground river below,” said
Tina. “Or else all the water would have drained through that crack.
Let’s have a closer look.”

“Gork!” said Kevin suddenly.

“Sorry, I didn’t quite get that, Kevin,” Tina
said.

“Thlurk!” Kevin managed to say.

Giles looked over to see Kevin pointing out the window with a
trembling hand, his eyes huge.

“Th…th…there’s something moving over
there.”

“Are you sure?” asked Tina.

Kevin nodded.

Tina jiggled a few switches and the beams of light swept
around.

“I don’t see anything,” said Giles.
“What did it look like, Kevin?”

“Big. Big and floppy.”

“Big and floppy,” said Tina, shaking her head with a
sigh. “Very scientific, Kevin. Thank you.”

“Big and floppy and kind of green.”

“Oh, terrific,” said Tina sarcastically.

Suddenly, something struck against the bathysphere
window.

Something big and floppy, and definitely green.

“That’s it!” wailed Kevin. “That’s
what I saw!”

It was gone so quickly, Giles didn’t even have time to
focus on it.

“Let’s surface!” said Kevin. “This
isn’t fun anymore!”

“Certainly not!” said Tina. “Not when
we’ve just made visual contact!”

“There it is again!” said Giles.

“Don’t go too close,” said Kevin, his voice
shaky.

Tina aimed the spotlight at the creature. She sighed.

“So this is it, huh? Big and floppy and
green.”

It was a tattered tarpaulin, floating just off the bottom of the
pool, its ratty edges undulating like tentacles.

“It looked so much bigger when I saw it,” Kevin said
sheepishly.

“This must be Miss Frost’s
creature,” said Giles with relief.

“Yes,” said Tina wisely. “A gas bubble must
lift the tarp up through the water. At the top, all the gas escapes, and the
tarp sinks back down to the bottom. It could keep going up and down like that
forever.”

“Well,” said Kevin, who had cheered up considerably,
“that’s another case cracked by the Quark genius business.” He
nudged Giles. “See, it wasn’t worth getting so scared about, was
it?”

Something nudged up against the bathysphere window, blotting out
the light.

“Gork!” said Kevin again.

Giles knew exactly what he meant this time.

This wasn’t a tarpaulin.

This was something else.

This something had a purple, wedge-shaped head with green-rimmed
eyes, and a long, narrow mouth lined with two sharp mountain ranges of
teeth!

Miss Frost looked up as they burst into her office.

“You’ve got something, all right!” Kevin blurted out, skidding across the floor.

“A creature!” said Giles. “There is definitely a strange creature living in your pool!”

“I see,” Miss Frost replied calmly. “You’re quite certain of that, are you?”

“Certain?” said Kevin. “You should have seen the teeth on that thing!”

“Thank you, Kevin,” said Tina firmly, “that will be enough. Miss Frost, I’m pleased to report that I have made visual contact with the creature in question, and have managed to make an identification.”

“Go on,” she said.

“Unless I’m mistaken,” Tina began, “and I so rarely am, the creature is actually a very rare species of
Hydrosaurus
.”

“Are you telling me I have a dinosaur living in my pool?”

“Yes I am, Miss Frost.”

Giles had never seen anyone take such extraordinary news so calmly.

“How did it get there?”

“Through a crack in the bottom,” said Giles. “It must swim in from some underground river. After we saw it, it darted back down through the crack.”

A telephone rang. Miss Frost picked it up, said, “Not now,” and hung up.

She looked back at the three of them and smiled. “Excellent. A remarkable job.”

“Well, I think that about wraps things up here,” said Kevin eagerly. “It’s been a real pleasure, Miss Frost. We’ll send you our bill and—”

“No, no,” said Miss Frost. “You’re not finished yet.”

“We’re not?” said Giles.

“I wonder how much a dinosaur is worth?” Miss Frost said quietly, turning towards the flashing wall of
television screens. “It’s one of a kind. I’d be the only person in the world to have one.” She looked sternly at the three of them. “I want you to catch it for me.”

“Catch it?” exclaimed Kevin.

“Miss Frost,” said Giles, “catching dinosaurs really isn’t the kind of thing we do.”

“It isn’t at all,” agreed Kevin. “I mean, the last time we caught dinosaurs was—”

“I want that hydrosaur,” said Miss Frost in her steely voice.

“I’m sure we could trap it for you,” said Tina confidently.

Giles stared at her in amazement.

“But—” he began to say.

“But—” Kevin began to say.

“Good!” said Miss Frost. “That’s the kind of attitude I like in my business.”

She opened a drawer and took out the thickest wallet Giles had ever seen.

“And rest assured,” she said, “I’ll make it very worth your while.”

“I can’t believe we’re actually trying to catch a dinosaur,” said Giles nervously.

“It’s a scientific breakthrough,” said Tina grandly. “Think about it, Barnes. Until now, all we’ve had to go on are dinosaur bones. But now we’ve discovered a living specimen! It might be millions of years old! Or this particular species might never have died out at all! It’s absolutely essential that we catch it!”

“Besides,” added Kevin, “did you see the size of Miss Frost’s wallet? We’re going to be rich!”

They had been waiting in the bathysphere for a long time now, hovering at the bottom of the pool near the large crack. But so far there had been no sign of the hydrosaur.

“I don’t understand why the dinosaur keeps coming back here anyway,” said Giles.

“After we catch it,” said Tina, flipping some switches, “and I have time to study it properly, perhaps I’ll have an answer to that question.”

“I just hope this plan of yours works,” said Giles dubiously.

All at once, the dinosaur slipped up through the crack and circled gracefully through the water. For the first time, Giles got a good look at it. Its skin was a deep purple, with brilliant streaks of green. Its body was quite slender, with four leathery fins jutting out from its sides. It had a very long, very thin neck, which ended with its small wedge-shaped head.

“Look at it move!” said Giles in awe. “It’s so fast!”

“Here we go!” said Tina excitedly. She edged the bathysphere forward until it nudged against the huge statue of Poseidon. The propeller whirred loudly, and the whole vessel began to shudder.

“The statue’s too big!” shouted Giles.

“It won’t budge!” cried Kevin.

“We have the power!” said Tina through gritted teeth.

The propeller’s whining increased in pitch, and the bathysphere shook so violently that Giles thought it would burst apart at any moment. But slowly, the statue of Poseidon began to scrape across the pool floor towards the long crack.

“It’s working!” said Tina.

A second hydrosaur suddenly darted up through the opening—this one a bright yellow, with a pink under-belly. The two dinosaurs rolled playfully through the water together.

“Look!” gasped Giles. “We’ve got two now!”

“We’ve got an incredible case of dinosaurs!” said Kevin.

Tina threw another lever and the bathysphere pushed ahead some more. In a few seconds, the statue rolled into place over the crack, blocking the opening completely.

“Miss Frost,” Tina said with satisfaction, “is now the proud owner of two dinosaurs.”

Giles wrinkled his nose as he plunged his hand into the bucket, grabbed another fish and threw it into the pool. One of the dinosaurs snapped it up before it even hit the water.

“They sure do eat a lot,” said Kevin, lobbing a cod tail to the other hydrosaur.

“Good job, you two,” said Tina. “Keep it up.” She was stretched out in a lawn chair at the poolside, a digital voice recorder in one hand, a glass of iced tea in the other. Every so often, she would lift the recorder to her face, speak into it, then smile and shake her head with a small chuckle—as if what she’d just said was the most amusing and remarkable thing she’d ever heard.

Giles rolled his eyes in disgust.

“I don’t suppose you want to take a turn feeding them?” he asked.

“No need to be sarcastic, Barnes,” Tina replied. “Anyone can see I’m extremely busy making scientific notes on these specimens.”

“Right,” Giles grumbled.

Every day after school for the past week, he and Kevin had made the trip to the local fish market to buy pounds and pounds of raw fish for the hydrosaurs. The bus driver refused to let them on with their stinking buckets of dinosaur food, so they had to lug them all the way to Miss Frost’s house by foot. People on the street would sniff, then stop, then sniff again, then stare as they passed by. It was the worst!

“This is going to make headlines,” Tina said contentedly. “‘Local genius discovers dinosaurs.’ Or maybe, ‘Breakthrough of century made by local genius.’ Or what about ‘Tina Quark wins Nobel Prize’? It’s been far too long since I was on the front page of a newspaper.”

“At least you’re not the one who goes home smelling like a barnacle,” Giles told her.

“You’ve got nothing to complain about, Barnes,”
Tina said. “Miss Frost is paying us all very generously to take care of the dinosaurs. A few more days and you’ll have enough for that remote-controlled airplane you’ve wanted for so long. Don’t you want to be rich?”

Giles sighed.

He supposed he did want to be rich. After all, who didn’t? And he definitely wanted that airplane. Yester-day he’d passed the store window where it was displayed. He was always a little afraid that the next time, it would be gone. Soon, though, he’d be able to walk right into the store, put his money down on the counter, and take the airplane home himself.

But he felt uneasy. And it wasn’t just because he had to heft buckets of smelly fish around every day. He looked at the two hydrosaurs in the pool.

“I don’t think they’re very happy, trapped like that,” he told Tina.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Barnes,” said Tina. “They have brains the size of grape seeds. Would you feel sorry for a goldfish in a bowl? I don’t think so. These creatures probably don’t even realize they’re trapped!”

But Giles wasn’t so sure. After they’d rolled the statue
of Poseidon over the crack, the two hydrosaurs had prodded at it with their heads, and darted back and forth in confusion. And a ghostly moaning had drifted through the water. It was the most mournful thing Giles had ever heard.

And Giles thought they looked a little listless sometimes, floating near the surface, their wedge-shaped heads peering out at him. At other times they seemed restless, churning the swampy water into a froth as they tore around the perimeter of the pool, faster and faster, as if they were desperate to escape.

“How do you know they’re so stupid?” Giles asked.

“Everyone knows the dinosaurs weren’t very bright,” Tina replied wisely. “All these creatures can do is swim and eat. They’re savage beasts. They’re eating machines.”

“I wonder what Miss Frost is going to do with them?” Giles wondered aloud.

It wasn’t as if she’d taken any real interest in the dinosaurs. She hadn’t even come down to the poolside to have a close look. A few times, Giles had turned to see her watching from her office window, but, once spotted, she always quickly disappeared from sight. What a strange person she was, Giles thought, working all alone
in that huge house, with only her creepy personal assistant, Swift, for company!

“I want to get a shot of the dinosaurs,” said Kevin, taking a camera from his backpack. “Barnes, can you stand by the edge, holding a fish?”

“Do I have to?”

“Yeah. It’ll be a great photo.”

Giles faced Kevin, holding a fish head as far away from his body as possible.

“A little further back, Barnes. You’re not in the picture.”

He took another step back.

“A little more! There’s plenty of room!”

Another few steps.

“Um, Barnes…” he heard Kevin say suddenly.

The next thing he knew, he was deep in the pool, swampy water shooting up his nostrils. Spluttering, he fought to get back to the surface, but his clothes were drenched and dragging him down. His head popped up for a moment, but he just managed to suck in a breath of air before sinking under again.

I’m a goner! he thought in pure panic. I’m about to get eaten by dinosaurs!

Opening his eyes, he made out a blurry purple shape swirling around him, and then felt it brush past him. This is it, he thought, gritting his teeth. Here it comes. He felt the dinosaur nudge its head against his backside and then push hard. Giles was propelled up and out of the water, as if he were in an ejector seat! He sailed through the air and landed at the edge of the pool, dripping water, still spluttering.

“Wow!” gasped Kevin.

“Extraordinary!” said Tina, who had put down her glass of iced tea and was standing at the poolside with Kevin.

“Am I ever sorry, Barnes!” said Kevin worriedly, slapping him on the back. “I had no idea you were so close to the edge! I was about to dive in and save you!”

“You most definitely were not, Kevin,” said Tina with-eringly.

“Well, I was planning on doing something!” Kevin said. “Are you okay, Barnes?”

Giles nodded. He still felt a little shaky. He could see the dinosaur poking its head above the water, watching him with its bright eyes.

“It didn’t eat me!” he stammered. “It lifted me out!”

He’d heard all sorts of stories about shipwrecked sailors being saved from drowning by dolphins. He’d just been saved by a hydrosaur!

“They must be smarter than you think, Tina,” Kevin told his sister.

“And friendlier,” Giles said.

“And much cuddlier than I first thought,” added Kevin, waving at the purple dinosaur in the pool.

Tina frowned, then stalked back to her lawn chair and started muttering into her recorder.