He felt much better now.
“Let me be candid, Miss Frost. Allow me to get straight to the heart of the matter. I’m not a man to mince words. Speaking as one businessperson to another, I think we can hammer out a deal which is mutually beneficial.”
He hadn’t the slightest idea where all these words were coming from, but they were pouring into his mind thick and fast.
“I think you’ll find that my offer speaks for itself.”
He snapped his fingers again, and Kevin brought over the briefcase and set it on Miss Frost’s desk. Giles gave a curt nod. Kevin opened the clasps and flipped up the top. Inside was a small, rumpled stack of money, held together by an elastic band. Scattered across the bottom of the briefcase was an assortment of coins.
Miss Frost carefully counted the money. Giles looked over at Kevin and smiled weakly. Would it be enough? He didn’t think it looked nearly as impressive as it had earlier in his bedroom. But it was all the money he’d saved up for the remote-controlled airplane, plus some of Kevin’s savings from the genius business.
“You realize, of course,” said Miss Frost, “that these dinosaurs are worth over a million times the amount you have here.”
Giles instantly felt ridiculous.
“Really?”
“I’m afraid so, yes.”
“Well,” said Giles, “this is all I have.”
Miss Frost looked at him curiously.
“And you’re willing to spend all of it on the dinosaurs?”
Giles nodded firmly. “It’s just money.”
Miss Frost gazed thoughtfully at all the television screens flashing numbers, then turned towards the windows.
“What did you want to do with these dinosaurs?”
“Set them free.”
“But why?” she asked in amazement.
“They’re sad and restless. They’re big animals, and much smarter than you might think. And it can’t be very comfortable for them, being crammed into the swimming pool.”
“No,” said Miss Frost, “I suppose not.”
She looked back at the money in the briefcase with a small smile.
She’s going to say no, thought Giles glumly. So much for that idea. All he’d done was make a fool of himself. He should have known she’d never go for it.
“This,” said Miss Frost, looking up at Giles, “is the best deal that’s ever been offered to me.”
Giles gaped.
Kevin’s sunglasses fell off his face.
“Are you serious?” Giles exclaimed.
“I am,” replied Miss Frost. “You drive a hard bargain, Giles, but you’ve got yourself a deal. I only wish I could take a good, close look at those dinosaurs before they go.”
“But why can’t you?” Giles asked, confused. He thought of her secretly watching from the window. Why hadn’t she ever just come down to the pool?
“I can’t possibly leave my office,” she explained. “I might miss an important phone call.”
“Wouldn’t they call back?” Kevin asked.
“Or I might miss a blip on one of the monitors,” she said, waving her hand at the wall of flashing screens.
“A blip?” said Kevin. “Is that serious?”
“It could be,” she replied. “It could be very serious. It depends on what kind of blip we’re talking about. It might be a zig or a zag.”
“A zig or a zag?” said Giles.
“That would be quite serious.”
“I see,” said Kevin.
“But not as serious as a dip,” she went on. “It would be disastrous if I missed a dip. Or a peak, or a trough, a swing, a boom, or a bust—”
Suddenly she started to laugh.
“It sounds so ridiculous really, doesn’t it?” she said. “I stay trapped in this room, year after year, watching screens and shouting into phones. It’s ridiculous! I’m coming out to see the dinosaurs!”
“Great!” said Giles.
Miss Frost stood up. She walked out from behind her desk.
The three of them had almost reached the door when the phone rang.
Oh, no, Giles thought.
Miss Frost hesitated. She looked at the ringing phone, then back at Giles and Kevin.
“It’s only money, after all,” she said with a smile, and then turned and walked out the door of her office.
Chapter 7
Hatched
“They’re beautiful!” exclaimed Miss Frost, peering at the dinosaurs through the bathysphere’s glass hatch. “It’s been far too long since I’ve taken the time to really look at things! Look at them move!”
Giles guided the bathysphere smoothly down to the bottom of the pool. He’d watched Tina enough times to know how to use the controls. The two hydrosaurs glided gracefully through the water around them.
“Did you ever figure out why they came in the first place?” Miss Frost asked.
Giles shook his head. “Not really. Tina thought that maybe they got lost on their way to the ocean.”
In the distance, in the far corner of the pool, Giles made out a small mound of stones that he’d never noticed before.
“What’s that?” he said, steering the bathysphere over for a closer look.
All at once the two dinosaurs cut in front of him, blocking his way. Again and again, they streaked anxiously past the hatch, making a low, gurgling moan.
“They don’t want you to get any closer!” Kevin exclaimed.
“I wonder why?” said Miss Frost.
Giles squinted at the strange mound and caught a glimpse of something white nestled among the rocks.
Suddenly, everything made sense.
“Look! It’s an egg!” Giles shouted. “That’s why they came here. To make a nest. It’s the perfect place for it, too. Safe and quiet!”
As they all watched, the egg began to shudder slightly.
“It’s hatching!” said Kevin.
The two hydrosaurs swam in close and swirled around the egg. At first, Giles couldn’t see what was going on. But after a few minutes, he managed to catch a glimpse of a small, bright red, wedge-shaped head, peeping out from the top of the cracked egg.
“Let’s set them free now,” said Miss Frost.
Giles turned the bathysphere round and pushed up against the huge statue of Poseidon. He opened up the throttle to full, and the propeller whirred furiously. Gradually, the statue scraped across the pool floor until the crack was completely uncovered.
The dinosaurs didn’t waste a second.
The first hydrosaur shot down through the opening like a flash of purple lightning. Then the red, baby hydrosaur swam a little clumsily towards the crack, nudged along by the yellow dinosaur. After the baby wobbled down out of sight, the last hydrosaur circled magnificently around the bathysphere once, then darted into the fissure and was gone.
“I’m trying to remain calm,” said Tina.
“That’s good,” said Kevin nervously. “Breathe deeply.”
“I am breathing deeply, Kevin. I am breathing as deeply as I know how. If I breathe any deeper I am going to blow up like a balloon and POP!”
Kevin jumped.
“Barnes, do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Tina asked miserably.
“I think I’m about to find out,” Giles replied.
“You’ve destroyed my career, Barnes. I’m finished. Ruined. Washed up. I spent the best days of my life studying those two dinosaurs. I was ready to make scientific history! They were the only two living dinosaurs ever seen by mankind.”
“Three,” Kevin reminded her good-naturedly. “Don’t forget the baby hydrosaur.”
“Thank you, Kevin,” said Tina through clenched teeth. “Of course, I didn’t get the chance to see the baby dinosaur, thanks to you both! Did you know I’d been invited to speak at the university? Did you know I’d practically finished my memoirs? Tina Quark: A Brilliant Life. It would have been a bestseller.”
“Look on the bright side,” said Kevin. “We got another job for the genius busin
ess out of it. Miss Frost has hired us to clean up her house.”
Tina shook her head dejectedly.
“From award-winning scientist to cleaning staff,” said Tina. “This is a very sad day. I’m completely at a loss.”
“I’m not,” said Giles, stretching his arms above his head with a yawn. “I know exactly what I’m going to do. I’m going to go home and have a nice, relaxing bath. And, if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to have it alone this time.”
Have you read all of the Barnes & the Brains adventures?
Also by Kenneth Oppel
Starclimber
Skybreaker
Airborn
Darkwing
Firewing
Sunwing
Silverwing
Dead Water Zone
The Live-Forever Machine
(For Younger Readers)
The King’s Taster
Peg and the Yeti
Peg and the Whale
Emma’s Emu
A Bad Case of Ghosts
A Strange Case of Magic
A Crazy Case of Robots
A Weird Case of Super-Goo
A Creepy Case of Vampires
Copyright
An Incredible Case of Dinosaurs
Copyright © 1994, 2001 by Firewing Productions Inc.
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EPub Edition © JUNE 2010 ISBN: 978-1-443-40067-1
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Originally published in Canada by Scholastic Canada Ltd: 1994
This HarperTrophyCanada™ edition: 2010
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Kenneth Oppel, An Incredible Case of Dinosaurs
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