Ever since Amira and Dylan had discovered Leonard the dinosaur sleeping at the bottom of Horsmarlonerpool Harbour by accidentally tickling his toe, the huge creature had not only been wide awake for the first time in millions of years, he had also been a huge help.
He would scoop the muck out the bottom of the harbour so the biggest ships could sail in to nice deep water. He would move boats around by gently picking them up and placing them back down where they were needed. And on a still day, if a boat with sales needed a helping hand getting back out to see he would blow very gently - and their sales would fill with air and zoom the craft back out to sea as all the sailors held on and laughed.
But not only could Leonard blow air out of his huge nostrils, he could also sniff air in better than any creature in the world. And that meant that he could smell just about anything from anywhere. Which in a harbour, or a port, is very useful. Imagine all the hundreds of crates and boxes being unloaded from ships… and instead of having to check each and every single one to see which was which, the harbour master could ask Leonard to sniff each one and then he could mark it on the outside and know where it had to go.
Of course, Leonard needed to be taught what all the smells were. Because millions of years ago they didn’t have televisions or apple pies or lamp shades - and televisions and apples pies and lamp shades all smell very different. And if you wanted a new TV you’d be a bit annoyed if you got an apple pie delivered instead, wouldn’t you? Unless you were very hungry, I suppose. BUT - it was an important job. And after a few weeks - Leonard was expert at it.
But then on one very busy day, as he was sniffing all the crates and getting them loaded onto lorries and trains as quickly as he could - Leonard sniffed a big crate and was a bit confused - it was a smell he didn’t recognise. The Harbour master was running around sweatily with his list - they were behind schedule and another big ship full of new goods was waiting to enter the port from the Albion Sea.
“I’m looking for Tangerines and Nectarines, Leonard,” shouted the Harbour Master. Leonard looked at the mystery crate in front of him - the one that he couldn’t identify. On the outside was printed in big letters ’TNT.’. Leonard didn’t know what tangerines or nectaries smelt like, but decided to use his reading skills.
“T. N. T. Well. ’T’ for Tangerines. ’N’ for Nectarines. And ’T’ for more tangerines. Over here, Harbour Master, I’ve found them.”
Relieved, the harbour master told Laura the crane driver to pick the crate up and swing it around onto a train that was waiting with Sixwheels the engine at the front.
As it was the very last crate to be loaded onto the heavy train, the Harbour Master waved to Sixwheels’ driver and it slowly pulled out of the harbour and up the branch line towards town.
“Ah, here are are the nectarines and tangerines,” called a worker to the Harbour Master. “Found them at last!”
“But,” said the Harbour Master to Leonard, “then what did we just put on the train?”
“Oh, definitely tangerines and nectarines,” said Leonard. “It had ‘TNT’ written on the side.”
The harbor master stared at him. “It had…”
“‘TNT’ written on the side of the crate, yes, I checked,” said Leonard.
The harbour master gasped. “TNT is another way of saying DYNAMITE, Leonard,” he said and ran into his office. He picked up the phone as quickly as he could and rang Miss Lane, the Station Mistress at Horsmarlonerpool Station.
“This is the harbour speaking. You’ve got a train headed to you loaded with… with dynamite!” and with that, the harbour master fainted!
Miss Lane turned to her other two engines, Shampoo and Mersey. “We’ve got to evaluate! We’ve got to evacuate!” she said “Sixwheels is pulling a train full of dynamite straight towards the town!”
Mersey and Shampoo looked at each other and both engines put themselves into forward gear. “Then we’ve got work to do,” said Mersey, and instead of rushing out the station away from the oncoming bomb, they sped out the other way towards the junction to the harbour.
As they reached the junction, they saw Sixwheels pulling her heavy train up the hill and Shampoo’s driver jumped down and switched the points onto the main line that led out towards the sea and all the way to the Skylands. Mersey and Shampoo pulled ahead onto the main line past the junction and coupled themselves together. Sixwheels and her driver were surprised when they lurched to the right over the points instead of turning left, and then saw Shampoo and Mersey signaling for them to continue forward and join them.
Sixwheels’ front coupler was soon joined to the the rear of Mersey and all three engines heaved as hard as they could and pulled the whole train up and onto the main line away from the town.
“Where are we going?” said Sixwheels. “This train is for Little Fisher!”
“You’ve got a truck full of explosives,” shouted back Shampoo. “It’s very dangerous. It’s our job to get it as far away from the town in case it explodes!”
Well Sixwheels could hardly believe what she was hearing! Why would Leonard have given her explosives to carry? But as all three engines were the bravest you’ll ever find, they didn’t think about themselves and just concentrated on picking up speed.
Back at the harbour, someone poured a bucket of water over the Harbour Master and he woke with a start. Hoping for a moment that he’d just had a terrible dream, he then staggered to his feet and saw the three engines up on the hill pulling their deadly train away towards the coast in a huge cloud of smoke and steam.
“Oh!” said the Harbour Master. “But if it goes too fast, it if bumps too much on the tracks, it will blow them all up!”
Leonard’s mouth opened wide. “Oh my,” he said.
Lifting his huge body out of the water everyone gasped as he rose to his full size and climbed up the hill towards the main line.
At the top, the train was picking up pace and the wagon containing the TNT was rocking on the tracks.
Leonard ran alongside the train, looked to spot the truck he wanted and then carefully reached down to slide one of the huge claws on the end of his short arms between it and truck ahead of it - separating it from the train. Then, very gently, he picked up the truck and ran with it towards the sea - his huge scaled feet causing giant waves as he splashed in and dived underneath them with the truck.
Remerging through the surface of the water, Leonard appeared to stamp on something and a huge explosion send the sea water shooting up over his head and raining down all around him.
Everyone in the harbour covered their mouths in astonishment. But Leonard smiled. Not only did he now know what dynamite smelt like - he was getting a lovely refreshing shower, too!
