"Grow up? I can't even get up."
"Then I'll help you."
King scuttled off. "Don't! Do you want to kill me?"
"Right now, I'd be willing to stand aside and watch a herd of bull elephants pound you into pudding," said Nancy yanking him to his feet. King walked about in wavering circles on wobbly legs.
"What's his problem?" Remo asked Nancy.
"No one's quite sure, but any dollar is on undescended testicles."
Remo grunted, and Nancy took it for a laugh.
The engineer was leaning out of the cab, and he shouted; "I am ready when you are, Missy Nancy."
Skip King stopped walking in circles. "Hey! You're supposed to say that native boy stuff to me."
He was ignored.
"You and your friend are free to ride with us," Nancy told Remo.
'We have a Land Rover parked down the trail," Remo said. "And if you want a bit of free advice, you'd better ride with us."
"Why?"
Remo indicated the old Asian with a surreptitious finger. "I want to take another shot at explaining dinosaurs to him, and I need backup."
"Will it persuade him away from his hankering for a drumstick?"
"That's the idea."
"Deal," said Nancy. And they shook on it. Remo's grip felt like something cut from fossilized bone, Nancy thought. And as she looked up into his deepset eyes, she felt her heart leap into her throat for no reason that she could think of.
Remo turned. The Master of Sinanju was hovering about the dinosaur like a fussy little hen. "Come on, Little Father. We're driving escort."
Stepping away from flatcar, the old Korean followed them, padding silently a few paces behind.
"That is the ugliest dragon I have ever beheld," he said in an unhappy voice.
"And exactly how many dragons have you seen?" Nancy wanted to know.
"That is my first."
"It isn't even that. It's a dinosaur."
"Pah! It is a dragon. An African dragon. And it has been cruelly abused."
"No, we just tranquilized it for the trip back to America."
"How are you getting it back?" Remo asked, interest detectable in his voice for the first time.
"You got me there. B'wana King has worked out all the details. I'm just the glorified babysitter."
Chiun caught up with them and asked, "Where are its wings?"
"Wings?"
"I did not see wings. Or stumps where they would be attached."
"It doesn't have wings."
"But it does breathe fire?"
"Not that anyone ever noticed," Nancy said patiently. "Maybe his pilot light went out," Remo said dryly.
Chiun made a face. Nancy frowned at Remo. But inside she smiled. He was funny in a flat sort of way.
They came to the Land Rover. It was parked down the line, sitting between the rails as if that were a perfectly natural place for it to be.
"You didn't drive it up like that?" Nancy blurted out.
"The shocks are pretty good," Remo said. "Or were."
"So how are you going to get it turned around?"
"Little Father."
The two didn't speak a word. They just deployed on either end of the Land Rover. Remo took the front, and the little man named Chiun the back. They grabbed the bumpers, bent, and Remo said, "One."
They straightened their spines. The Land Rover came up with them, its tires hanging low on loose shocks.
"Two," said Remo in a voice devoid of strain.
They walked in a half-circle until the Land Rover was turned around. They stopped. "Three," said Remo. And they bent down, setting the vehicle back on its wheels.
"How did you do that?" Nancy asked in a shocked-thin voice.
Remo grinned good-naturedly. "Practice. We can actually bench press three Land Rovers each, but we don't like to show off."
"What I just saw was impossible," murmured Nancy, circling the vehicle.
"Then you didn't see it," Remo told her, waving her into the Land Rover. She got in back. Remo took the wheel, the old Oriental beside him.
Remo got the motor started and they began bumping along.
Every bone in Nancy's slim body rattled. She began wishing she'd packed a jogging bra and folded her arms under her chest. That helped. By the time they got up to a reasonable speed, Nancy found it tolerable. If she kept her teeth clenched tightly.