LOST IN DINOSAUR WORLD

Almost without thinking, Tim jumped out and scrambled down the embankment.>

Passengers in the other cars were busy watching the diplodocus, so no one saw him leave the train. In a few steps he reached the radio. The thirty-foot stegosaur was eating. Tim was close enough to touch her. So he did. Wouldn't you? He reached out, and very softly touched one of her tree-trunk-sized legs.

The skin felt thick and wrinkled, like an elephant's, but without any hair. A ripple went up the stegosaur's back, along the large bony plates used for defense against attacking carnivores. Her tail shook, and the dangerous spikes on the end rattled ominously. She turned her head to look at the odd little human creature. Tim quickly pulled his hand back. He must not have looked very threatening because, after a moment, the stegosaur went right on eating.

Tim picked up the radio. It was dirty and the antenna was bent. He shook it and heard an electronic buzzing. Was it broken? Then he heard something else. Something that immediately made him forget the radio and the huge dinosaur.

As he looked up, he saw the T-Rex Express disappear from sight down the tracks. The train was leaving without him!

He scrambled back up the embankment and began running along behind it, yelling, "Wait! Hey! Wait for me!"

He stood panting, completely out of breath, helplessly watching as the train disappeared around a bend. A puff of smoke was the last thing he saw of the T-Rex Express. From far away, a lonely whistle echoed back down the empty tracks. Without any warning, almost by accident it seemed, he was alone — lost in the middle of Dinosaur World.