"You'd better get back," Nancy warned.
"Why?"
"Because it's been shot in the tail. It could go berserk at any time."
"Wouldn't it already be berserk?" asked King in a dazed voice. He was just standing there, like a jumper on a ledge.
"The Apatosaurus is so long that nerve impulses have to be relayed along the spinal column through an organic relay near the tail," Nancy said. "Like a booster station."
"What does that mean?"
"It's been hit in the tail. But doesn't know it yet. When the pain reaches the brain, there's no telling what will happen."
"Oh," said King, talking a step backward. He took another.
Then the placid goat eyes staring at him flared. The Apatosaur suddenly acted as if it had whiplash. It reared up, a titan of black-and-orange flesh, on its rear legs. The forefeet hanging before it, it thrashed its long neck about the barn, banging its head and snout against the rafters like a snake in a box. Wood splintered and showered down.
Harrdunk. Harruuunkk. Harruunkk.
"Oh shit," said King.
The fit of pain was over quickly. Still balanced on its rear legs, the head righted itself, and eyes questing, its crazed gaze fell on one figure.
The head dipped, looming closer, every tooth in its yawning mouth exposed.
Nancy tried to roll out of the way. King stumbled back.
"Don't hurt me! Don't hurt me!" he was screaming, waving the orange snout away.
His heels encountered an obstacle. He looked back and saw Nancy, lying there, all but helpless.
Skip King knew opportunity when he saw it. He pulled Nancy to her feet and got her in front of him, trying to use her as a shield.
"King! Let go, you jerk!"
King cowered behind his prisoner. "Don't let it get me, Mommy! Don't let it get me!"
The head snaked down, a splash of orange with blazing eyes.
Frantic, Nancy brought her heels down on King's feet. They dodged. In her ears was King's voice screaming-inarticulately now.
The scream was cut off as if by a blow. The snap of great teeth coming together sounded over her head.
King's grip suddenly went away, and Nancy knew to duck.
Looking up, she beheld Skip King, arms and legs jittering, being carried away. His head was in the Apatosaur's mouth and it had closed. The rest of him dangled like so much clothed meat.
As she watched, the creature threw its head back, upending it. And Skip King went down the long gullet like so much cabbage.
Nancy watched in blue-eyed horror, then turned her head away at the sight of King's tasseled loafers slipping from sight.
Remo was at her side a moment later, his strong fingers shredding her bonds.
"You okay?" he was asking.
"What about Jack?" Nancy asked in a shaken voice.
"I was hoping you had some ideas."
The Apatosaur was gyrating its long neck, trying to get the too-large morsel down. It wasn't succeeding. It moved its rear legs clumsily, trying to hold on to its precarious balance.
"It's going to choke! Can't we do something?"
Remo called down. "Chiun-any suggestions?"
Chiun's voice floated up. "Do not fear."
And the Master of Sinanju was suddenly a fluttery shape on the creature's great dappled back. He leaped onto the neck with the agility of a monkey seizing a coconut tree bole. And like a monkey, he climbed to a point just under the jaw hinge.
There, Chiun took hold of either side of the reptile's muscular throat and gave a hard twist. The crack of vetebra was audible.
"No!" Nancy screamed.
"Damn," said Remo.
The serpent's head came down, dropped its uneaten meal, and raced it to the floor.
Every rafter and roof shake shook off dust and grit when the monster slammed into the floor.
The Master of Sinanju leaped off the collapsed carcass to land on the floor. He paused, inserted his fingers into the sleeves of his kimono, and regarded the two pairs of horror-struck eyes-Remo's and Nancy's-with unconcern.
"It is done," he intoned. "The beast has been quelled. I await my deserved reward."
Chapter 25
"It is not dead," intoned the Master of Sinanju when they climbed down to join him at the Apatosaur's side.
Nancy's eyes, hot with tears of anger, went to the creature's head. She placed a hand in front of its nostrils. They grew instantly moist and warm.
Then she buried her head in its orange forehead and sobbed in immense relief.
"It was only a realigning of the spine, producing unconsciousness," Chiun announced.
Remo blinked. "Chiropractic?"
"Did I ever tell you, Remo, how a Master of Sinanju, penniless and stranded far from his village, divulged certain secrets of Sinanju to a foreigner in return for passage home, and centuries later, a new breed of charlatan became as numerous as cockroaches in Europe?"
"Never mind," said Remo. He examined the hauler. The back was ruined. It looked as if Godzilla had sat on it hard.
"I don't know about you, but I'm not up to moving this thing again," he said to no one in particular. "Never mind where we could put it."
Nancy came up, wiping at red eyes.
"I was taking Punkin to the Zoological Gardens in Philadelphia. I have a friend there. Burger Triumph would have to sue to get it back."
"Good plan. Too bad you didn't make it."
Nancy walked around the beast, which was limned by the hauler headlights. She stood near the back, the belly of the Apatosaur was clearly exposed.
"It's a bull!" she gasped.
The Master of Sinanju looked to his pupil. "The strain is obviously too much for this woman, Remo. She now believes this hideous dragon is a bull."
"I think she means it's a bull Bronto, as in a male."
Frowning, the Master of Sinanju floated over to where Nancy was kneeling to satisfy his curiosity. He returned almost at once, his wrinkled face crimson with embarassment.
"It is definitely male. And that woman is leering at its maleness in a disgusting way."
"Nancy's allowed. She's a cryptozoologist."
The side door opened and Remo and Chiun dropped into tense crouches, ready to attack or defend as the circumstance warranted. A rustic-looking man with an odd fringe of a beard and a quaint round-brimmed hat poked his head in, saw them, and said in a Germanic voice, "Who is in my barn at this hour making such noises?"
"This your barn?" asked Remo.
"Ja."
"We want to rent it for a few days," Remo said.
"Why should I rent you English my barn?"
"Or we can just leave this bull Brontosaurus for you to clean up?" Remo said, cocking a thumb over his shoulder.
The man looked past Remo for the first time, eyes going round as the brim of his hat.
"How many dollars per day vill you pay?" he asked.
"As many as you want if you leave us alone," Remo replied.
"I do this. Danke. " He clapped the door shut behind him.
"Who was that?" Nancy asked, coming around to see.
"Some Amish guy," said Remo.
"Amish?"
"We're in Pennsylvania Dutch country. Didn't you know?"
"No. My God! That poor man. What will he tell his family?"
"If he's smart, nothing." Remo was looking at Skip King's broken body lying in the hay. "I thought you said they ate only vegetables."
Nancy refused to look at the body. "They do. Old Jack wasn't trying to eat King, just to punish him. I guess he recognized King from Africa. He was probably the first human being he ever saw."
"Well, he's a used doggy chew-bone now," Remo said.
The Master of Sinanju strode up to Nancy and fixed her with his stern hazel eyes.
"I have twice rescued this ugly beast," he said, his wispy chin held high.
"That's true," said Nancy.
"I claim my reward."
"Little Father-" Remo began.
The Master of Sinanju cut him off with a curt chop of his hand. "When this noble creature expires at the end of its natural span, its bones are mine."