Kirsty groaned.

‘Oh dear, it’s going to be that kind of adventure after all,’ she hissed, sitting up. ‘It’s just the sort of thing I didn’t want to happen. Me, and four token boys. Oh, dear. Oh, dear. It’s only a mercy we haven’t got a dog.’ She sat up and brushed some grass off her coat. ‘Anyone got the least idea of where we are?’

‘Ah,’ said Yo-less. ‘I see there’s grass. That means no dinosaurs. I saw that in a film. Grass didn’t evolve until after there were dinosaurs.’

Johnny stood up. His head was aching. He walked to the edge of the little hollow they’d landed in, and looked out.

‘Really. Someone’s been paying attention,’ said Kirsty. ‘Well, that narrows it down to some time in the last sixty million years.’

‘Proper time travellers have proper digital readouts,’ Wobbler grumbled. ‘No grass? What did dinosaurs eat, then?’

‘You only get digital time machine clocks in America,’ said Bigmac. ‘I saw a film about a time machine in Victorian England and it just had light bulbs. They ate other dinosaurs, didn’t they?’

‘You’re not allowed to call them dinosaurs any more,’ said Yo-less. ‘It’s speciesist. You have to call them pre-petroleum persons.’

‘Yeah,’ said Bigmac. ‘One Million Years PC. Get it? ’Cos there was this film called One Million Years BC, but—’

Kirsty’s mouth was open.

‘Do you lot go on like this all the time?’ she said. ‘Yes, you do. I’ve noticed it before, actually. Rather than face up to facts, you start yakking on about weird things. When are we?’

‘May the twenty-first,’ said Johnny, sitting down next to her. ‘Just gone half past three.’

‘Oh yes?’ said Kirsty. ‘And how come you’re so sure?’

‘I went and asked a man who was walking his dog,’ said Johnny.

‘Did he say what year?’

Johnny met Kirsty’s gaze. ‘No,’ he said. ‘But I know what year.’

They climbed out of the hollow and pushed their way through the bushes.

A scrubby field stretched away below them. There were some allotment gardens at the bottom end of the field, and then a river, and then the town of Blackbury.

It was definitely Blackbury. There was the familiar rubber boot factory chimney. There were a few other tall chimneys as well. He’d never seen those before. The man with the dog was watching them from some way off. So was the dog. Neither of them seemed particularly Jurassic, although the dog looked somewhat suspicious.

‘Wha . . ?’ said Wobbler. ‘Here, what’s been happening? What have you done?’

‘I told you we’d travelled in time,’ said Kirsty. ‘Weren’t you listening?’

‘I thought it was just some trick! I thought you were just messing about!’ He gave Johnny a very worried look. ‘This is just messing about, isn’t it?’

‘Yes.’

Wobbler relaxed.

‘It’s messing about with time travel,’ said Johnny.

Wobbler looked scared again.

‘Sorry. But that’s Blackbury all right. It’s just smaller. I think we’re where the mall is going to be.