One night there was a very bad storm, the wind howled as loud as a noble beast could bark. It was raining so hard that the drains were overflowing and water was flooding down the streets. As the night went on the storm got worse, it had turned into a hurricane.
The noble beasts were safe in the collie club, but they were not happy. They knew that the people in the nearby town were in danger. The collies put on their safety helmets and left the collie club. They charged through the howling wind and pouring rain to see where they could help.
The police, fire brigade and ambulance people were already very busy, rescuing people who were trapped in damaged and flooded buildings. They were all pleased to see the noble beasts charging towards them.



Some of the collies went with the rescue people to help them, while the rest of the noble beasts looked to see what they could do on their own.
The water in the streets was nearly a metre deep and was still rising, if it got much deeper there would be a lot more problems. Skiply had seen that some of the cars were starting to float about, they could do a lot of damage if the water carried them down the street.
Skiply saw the owner of a hardware shop looking out of his window. The man shouted to Skiply that he was alright and wanted to help. 'Throw me some strong rope!' Skiply shouted. The man soon got the rope and threw it to Skiply, who caught it in his teeth. Then he ran to the nearest car and tied it to a lamppost. The other collies joined in, and soon all the cars were tied up and could not do any damage.




One of the firemen came running up to Skiply, the river behind the town was blocked by fallen trees and was beginning to overflow. If it did overflow, then the town would be in serious trouble, the water would wash away most of the buildings. Skiply left Kenneth in charge of the other collies, then he went with Clarence collie and the fireman to look at the river.
While Skiply and Clarence charged off, Cathy and Katie collies were risking life and limb in a daring rescue. A huge tree had fallen on top of a house. The roof was crushed and a man, woman and their baby were trapped inside, the house could collapse at any moment. The rescue workers did not think that they could get the people out in time.
Katie looked at the tree, then carefully climbed along its trunk. She safely reached the house and climbed in through a window. The tree had fallen onto the mans legs, he was not hurt, but he could not move. His wife and baby were very frightened and sitting next to him. They were all happy to see that a noble beast had come to help them.
Katie told them not to worry, the collies would rescue them, then she gently picked the baby up and climbed back out of the window. The tree wobbled under Katie`s weight as she gently padded along it, the little baby was safe in her strong jaws.
Katie passed the baby to a police woman, then climbed back onto the tree and went back into the house. Cathy collie followed Katie to see how she could help.




The tree was blocking the door of the house and it was not balanced enough to take the weight of a person. Nobody could get in the house to help, the collies were on their own.
The tree could not be moved in case it made the house collapse, but the man would have to be freed. Cathy and Katie soon had the answer, they nibbled away at the floor boards by the mans legs. Soon they had made enough room for him to wriggle free from the tree.
Cathy and Katie kept biting away at the floorboards and made the hole large enough for the people to climb through. The collies held the woman by her jumper and carefully lowered her through the hole and onto a table that was below. Then they did the same with the man.
The man and woman told the collies to jump through the hole, they would catch them. 'No, get out of the house now' Cathy shouted, 'We will climb back along the tree.'
The people did as they were told and rushed outside to safety. Cathy collie carefully walked along the tree that was now beginning to move. As she reached the bottom, Katie climbed onto the tree. There was a loud crash and the house collapsed with Katie still inside it.
Everybody looked in horror at the pile of bricks. Cathy gave a loud 'Collie in distress!' howl and leapt onto the bricks. She pawed at the rubble, whimpering and bleating, hoping to hear Katie. There was no reply and Cathy lowered her head, tears in her dark eyes. Surely Katie was still alive? A mere few tons of bricks and concrete would not get the better of a noble beast!




The firemen climbed onto the remains of the building with great care, they did not want to tread on Katie. They had a special camera that could detect heat, this would soon show up the warmth from Katie`s body and tell them where she was. Ten other noble beasts were helping Cathy and the firemen with the search for Katie. They had dashed there as soon as they had heard the distress call.
A lot of the collapsed house was below the water and the collies were worried that Katie was underwater as well. They worked as fast as they could, dragging bricks and large chunks of concrete away in their teeth. The camera had not found Katie, perhaps she was buried too deep for it to find her.
The collies dug even faster, hurling huge lumps of brick and concrete away as if they were bits of paper. Soon they had dug down to the level of the water but there was still no sign of Katie collie.




At the river bank, Skiply had been told about Katie collie. He wanted to go and help, but he knew that there were enough noble beasts already trying to rescue her. Skiply could do more good where he was, trying to stop the river from overflowing. There were too many trees in the river for even the collies to drag away. The branches had all twisted together, making them into a solid mass of wood. Even if the collies could clear the front trees, then the rest of them would be washed onto the collies, crushing them. Skiply said that if he had some dynamite, then he could blow up the trees that were blocking the river. A policeman said that he could get some dynamite, but it would take him at least an hour.
As the policeman went away, Skiply and Clarence collie started digging into the river bank. They wanted to make a ditch around the trees that were blocking the river, to let the water flow past them. Skiply knew that it would be a hard job and he called for some more collies to help them. Five collies soon came and joined in with the urgent job, one of them told Skiply and Clarence that Katie collie still had not been found.





The collies had just finished digging around one side of the river bank and were about to start on the other side when a tired and wet noble beast came running up to Skiply. The collie was exhausted, he had run at full collie speed for nearly two hundred kilometres. His name was Oscar and he told Skiply about an attack by brontosauruses on a small village.
The noble beasts there had fought the brontosauruses and chased them away. The collies had tried to follow them but had lost their tracks. Oscar told Skiply that the brontosauruses were coming towards him and the other collies. Skiply told Clarence to take charge of the digging, while he went to organise a collie defence team.
Skiply rushed around the town, finding collies that could be spared from their rescue work. He stopped by the collapsed building where Katie was still trapped. It broke Skiplys heart to take away some of the collies that were searching for Katie, but there could be much more at risk than Katie`s rescue. Skiply gave Cathy collie a sad lick on her beak, then he and his pack followed Oscar towards the brontosauruses.
Kenneth was left in charge of the noble beasts in the town. He went up to the river bank and saw that the collies had just finished digging the second ditch. Kenneth told Clarence to stay there, to make sure that Skiplys plan worked and the river did not overflow. Then he went to see if there was any news of Katie collie.
The rubble from the collapsed house had been cleared away and all that Kenneth could see was a pool of water. It was the flooded cellar of the house. Collies were diving into the cellar searching for Katie, but she was nowhere in sight. It was a mystery where she had gone, there was no sign of her anywhere. Kenneth stared down into the deep hole, then across at the pile of rubble and furniture. His beak twitched as a cupboard came floating past him. With a mighty bound, Kenneth leapt towards the cupboard and pulled it open.
Katie collie was inside the cupboard.




Kenneth pulled her out and laid her on top of it. Cathy came bounding over and licked Katie`s face. Katie coughed a bit then grinned at Cathy and all the other noble beasts that had gathered around.
Katie told them that when the house had collapsed she had dived into the cupboard for safety. Her hat had fallen off and she had knocked herself out, that was why she could not call for help. The cupboard had fallen through the floor of the house and into the cellar. When the collies had cleared away the bricks on top, the cupboard had floated away. Katie was lucky that Kenneth had seen the cupboard or she might have floated far away.
Katie would not go back to the collie club for a rest, so Kenneth told her and Cathy to take over from Clarence at the river bank. It would be quite restful for Katie, keeping an eye on the water, and Cathy would be there if she did not feel well.
Katie was feeling a lot better now and she and Cathy gave each other a broad grin as they watched the water pour through the ditches that had been dug around the river bank. Skiplys idea was working well. Katie said that it was silly for both of them to stay there when there was so much work to be done in the town. One of them ought to go and try to help the people. Cathy said a firm 'NO!' Kenneth had told them to stay there and they could not disobey him.
Kenneth was talking to the chiefs of the fire brigade and the police when more bad news came. Victor collie had come from a town that was fifty kilometres away. He told Kenneth that about ten brontosauruses were stomping towards them.
The local collies had dashed off to fight some other brontosauruses that had been seen near the coast. As the storm had been getting worse, noble beasts everywhere had rushed to help people however they could. The brontosauruses had used this chance to do more damage. The noble beasts were really being pushed to their limits.
Kenneth took seven more noble beasts and followed Victor to attack the brontosauruses. The rest of the men collies had been told to patrol around the town for crafty brontosauruses that might try and creep up on them. Cathy collie was left in charge of the other noble beasts. She told Katie to stay by the river while she went to check up on the town.
The lady collies were working hard with the rescue services, getting people away from unsafe buildings, steering floating logs about and carrying sandbags. The water was above the collies heads and they had to swim as they pulled rafts, full of children and elderly people, to safety.
Then Cathy collie had an idea about the flood water. She rushed to the mayors office and looked at the plans of the town. All the drains were marked on it and Cathy soon found what she was looking for.
The trees had not only blocked the river, but also the place where the drains should empty into the river. When the trees were cleared, then the drains could empty and the water would flow away from the town. But what had happened to the dynamite?
A policeman told Cathy the answer to her question, his friend who had gone for the dynamite, had radioed him to say that the dynamite store had been crushed by a telegraph pole. Nobody could go near the store in case it blew up, Cathy collie knew that the dynamite was needed, she would have to take a chance and get the dynamite herself.
Katie collie was now in charge of the remaining collies. She was worried in case there was a brontosaurus attack on the town. If the noble beast patrolling outside the town could not get back in time, then the people would be in terrible danger.
The most sensible thing to do would, be to take the people to the hospital. It was built on top of a hill and was safe from the floodwater. Everybody would be together and would be easier to protect. Katie gave the instructions and soon the people were being taken to the hospital.
When Cathy collie arrived at the dynamite store, she found that it was in a terrible mess. The roof and walls were all smashed in and the dynamite was giving off smoke and was about to explode. She knew that if the store blew up then a lot of people could be hurt. Cathy carefully crept up to the store and sniffed the strange smell that was coming from it. There would be a huge bang if she did not do something soon.
One by one, Cathy pulled the boxes of dynamite from the store and dragged them to a safe place. Then she ran back to the town at full collie speed, carrying some dynamite in her awesome jaws.
Katie collie was waiting for her, and together they put the dynamite on the trees.




It would not be long before they were ready to blow them up. But as the two collies made the final arrangements, they saw the huge shapes of brontosauruses coming towards them.
The noble beasts that were patrolling outside the town leapt onto the brontosauruses and started to fight them. Only three brontosauruses managed to get past the brave collies. They saw the hospital and all the people inside, and then they saw Katie and Cathy. The brontosauruses decided that they would stomp on the two collies first, then stomp on the hospital.
Katie and Cathy leapt on two of the brontosauruses, defeating them fearlessly. The other brontosaurus tried to creep up behind them, but he was too clumsy. He did not see the dynamite that Cathy and Katie had put on the trees. When his huge foot stomped on the trees, the dynamite that was on them exploded.
Katie and Cathy grinned at the brontosaurus as he was washed away in the river. He had done the collies a big favour by stomping on the dynamite, he had cleared the trees from the river. The drains had been unblocked and the water could run away from the town.
Soon the wind and rain stopped and the sun came out, it was daytime now. The floodwater had gone away, and so had the brontosauruses. Everybody was happy, they could go back to their homes.
Skiply, Kenneth and the other collies came marching back into the town after their battles with the brontosauruses. The collies told the people that they would help them repair their homes, but they wanted to have a quick sleep and some din-dins in the collie club first.
The people cheered the noble beasts as they trotted off. Skiply looked at Cathy, 'Quiet night eh?' She grinned as she said 'For some of us anyway'