One hot summers day the collie club started out on their annual sponsored walk, or sponsored herd, as the collies liked to call it. It was fun for everybody and the collies raised a lot of money for charity.
The collies walked, well it was more like running, for two hundred kilometres, through cheering crowds and street parties. The people could enjoy the day, knowing that not even the most foolish brontosaurus would dare ruin it.
The brontosauruses knew that the collie club was out in force that day. There were twenty collies on the walk itself and at least twice as many in hiding along the route. As always, there were a lot of collies waiting in the collie club in case of a brontosaurus attack somewhere else. To make things even safer for the people, other collies, the ordinary sort, marched about as well. The brontosauruses would not dare to come near the noble beasts sponsored walk.



The noble beasts started off on their walk at eight o'clock in the morning. They had already marched, or rather crept, fifty kilometres to the starting point. Nobody knew exactly where the collie club was, and the noble beasts did not want to give away too many clues.
As the collies galloped off, there were great cheers from the crowd. Then, as the noise dropped slightly, a towns choir began to sing:

"The noble beasts are herding
Across the course so long
They are such kind collies
That they can do no wrong"

The collies charged along at a steady pace, grinning to everybody. They each had two buckets tied to their backs, that kept being filled with money. When the buckets were full, the noble beasts ran down to the nearest bank with them.



The collies did not really get tired, but they pretended that they were, so that the people wanted to give them more money.
At dinner time, the noble beasts stopped for an hours rest and a light snack. Then they carried on with the second half of their walk.
By six o'clock in the evening, the noble beasts had finished their walk. They staggered the last few kilometres of the course, pretending to be exhausted. The banks had agreed to stay open until the end of the walk, and they took in the last buckets of money before they closed.
There was a deafening applause as the noble beasts finished the course. They sat down, panting and grinning and nodding their heads at everybody. Soon large bowls of water were passed around and the collies drank gratefully. People crowded around them and took their autographs, well their paw-prints, and plenty of photographs as well. Later on that evening, the collies joined in with the parties, drinking lots of collie beer and dancing with everybody.
It was very late in the evening when the parties came to an end and everybody went home. The collies curled up for the night in a large barn. They stamped around in circles, squashing the straw flat, and made loud whining nesting noises.
As the sun rose, the collies awoke and stretched then decided to go back to sleep again. And why not? After all, they had earned a lie-in. Just as they were dozing off, the farmer, who owned the barn, came running in to them. He looked so upset that the collies quickly jumped to their feet, they were worried about him.
'My pet elk has been kidnapped by a brontosaurus!' The farmer stuttered.



The collies could not believe what they had heard. A brontosaurus? Surely not, after all, they had kept a guard all through the night. They would have smelt one even if they had not seen one. Not that a brontosaurus is easy to miss. Cuthbert collie thought that he had better investigate. He looked in the stable that the elk had been sleeping in.
There were no signs of a struggle, only a brontosaurus footprint in the ground. Cuthbert thought the footprint looked a bit strange, and that the stable was too low for the brontosaurus to get in without damaging it. He followed the footprints outside, where they disappeared in the grass, all Cuthbert could see were faint elk tracks.
Then the farmer showed Cuthbert his larder, there was a bowl of blancmange spilt on the floor. The farmer thought that the brontosaurus had come in to the larder by mistake, and knocked the blancmange over.
Cuthbert did not believe this for a minute, but thought that it would be better not to say anything to the farmer just yet. After telling the farmer not to throw away the blancmange, Cuthbert went back to the other collies and they discussed the mystery.
The other collies investigated the brontosaurus print as well. They all agreed that it was not a real foot print, obviously something was not quite right.



They decided that they would try and solve the mystery. Cuthbert kept three of the collies with him and sent the others back to the collie club.
Cuthbert and his three collie companions set off in the direction that the elk had seemed to go. His tracks were very faint and soon disappeared, it was only collie skill that led the noble beasts to another clue in the mystery. They found a milkmaids stool hidden in the bushes, the collies grinned happily. It proved that they were right about a brontosaurus having nothing to do with it.
The collies hunted for the rest of the day, but did not find any more clues. When it was getting dark, the collies returned to the barn. The farmer was upset that they had not found his elk, but he was not annoyed with them. He knew that the collies had tried their best, and would search again in the morning.
The farmer gave them some din-dins and collie beer and asked them if they would rather sleep in his spare bed. They thanked him, but said that they would stay in the barn, just in case there was a message for them from the collie club.
When the collies woke up the next morning, Cuthbert suddenly thought of something. He rushed into the farmhouse, nearly making the farmer drop his mug of tea in surprise. Cuthbert asked to see the bowl of blancmange again, and found what he was looking for.
Cuthbert returned to the barn and told the other collies about his latest find. They were pleased about it, this was definite proof to them that the elk was in no real danger. They decided that their investigations would only need two noble beasts. Colin collie stayed with Cuthbert, and the other two collies went back to the collie club.
Cuthbert and Colin told the farmer about their plan, and then herded off into the woods again. They went to the place where the milking stool had been found and sniffed around for any clues that they might have missed yesterday.
After nearly an hour of sniffing they still had not found anything. They decided to hide beneath trees that over looked the farm and wait. Cuthbert and Colin lay down on a pile of ferns and made themselves comfortable.
As it got dark again, Cuthbert and Colin sat up and kept twisting their heads around, looking and listening everywhere. Their ears twitched with every single rustle in the dark woods. The noises of hedgehogs scuttling about the undergrowth and owls flying about, made the collies ears point up, their faces looking like carrots. It was well past midnight when a lumbering elk appeared in front of the collies, they grinned at each other, then jumped up in front of the elk.
The elk froze in horror at the sight of Cuthbert and Colin. He had not realised that the collies had been summonsed to find him! He sat down, opening and shutting his wide mouth in disbelief.



The collies told him not to worry, they had worked out what happened in the barn.
The collies knew a brontosaurus could not have got into the stable without damaging it. There was an elk hair in the blancmange, this had made things even more suspicious!
The elk had obviously tried to eat the blancmange then spilt it and got frightened. Because he was worried that the farmer would tell him off, the elk pretended that a brontosaurus had kidnapped him. He had turned a milking stool upside down and hopped on it, out of his stable, trying to make brontosaurus footprints. The collies knew that the elk would come back when he was cold and hungry, that is why they had waited.
Cuthbert and Colin told the elk that they would have to take him back to the farmer and tell him what had happened. The elk said that he was frightened to go back, the farmer might tell him off!
The noble beasts told him that the farmer had been very worried about him, he had every right to be annoyed! What did the elk expect them to do? Lie about what had happened? Noble beasts collies did not do things like that. Perhaps the farmer would be so relieved when he knew that the elk was safe that he would not be angry.
Then the elk started to cry, he told the collies that he had only tried to get the blancmange to give it to them. He was a real fan of the collies, but had not been allowed to see them. The elk thought that if he took the blancmange to the collies, then they would want to talk to him.
Cuthbert and Colin smiled, of course they would have talked to him, he need not have brought them a blancmange. Collies weren't snooty, they were friends of man and beast alike, except brontosauruses and other baddies of course. Cuthbert and Colin licked the tears from the elks face and led him back to the farm. They promised to talk to the farmer and to tell him exactly what had happened. Cuthbert and Colin did not have the heart to tell the elk that they did not like blancmange.



The farmer had a special surprise in the morning. When he got up he found the elk fast asleep in his barn, with the two collies next to him. Cuthbert collie followed the smiling farmer as he went back outside and told him what had happened. The farmer was upset, he did not know that the collies had meant so much to the elk. Of course the elk would be allowed to see the noble beasts every time they were nearby.
As they left the farm, Cuthbert tripped over a branch. 'Your like a great lumbering elk!' Colin laughed.