“Yay!” went Eldenbeam. “I LOVE boating it!”

“Excellent!” said Katzilow, with a beaming beak.

“Dreamy!” went Carmeramalita.

“Hmm, not sure” said Hombellyton, looking a little green. “Anyone got any more of those net-sick pills?”

“Nonsense!” said Walpurgis. “No TricTrucTracker under my leadership gets seasick!”

“Except me!” muttered Hombellyton, anxiously searching the pockets on his scarlet sleeveless jacket. “Constibblings!! WHERE did I put those zillipardet pills??”

“Language!” murmured Katzilow.

Walpurgis roared with laughter (it was a kind of “hootch hootch hootch” sound) and gave poor Hombellyton a big pat on the back, nearly making him lose his balance. “You’ll be fine and dandy!” he chuckled. “Time to pre-launch, any way! Off we go!”

He began to shuffle around, clapping his paws together as he did so – one-two-three, one-two-three – a bit like the start of one of those oldie rock songs by that group Queen. Dot grinned. It reminded her of her Dad singing “We will rock you” in the shower, using his back scrubbing brush like a drumstick, slapping it on his hand!

One-two-three. One-two-three.

As Walpurgis clapped away, the other four TricTrucTrackers joined in, following him as he walked round, Hombellyton letting out a big sigh. He’d stopped fiddling about with his jacket – he obviously couldn’t find his pills anywhere.

Then, the oddest thing began to happen. The TricTrucTrackers were walking in a strange shape – you could see it because every time they put their paws down, they left little electric blue marks, glowing on the floor of Samson’s server space.

Which didn’t make him very happy.

“Do watch out with that thing of yours!” he rumbled. “Not a lot of space in here you know!”

Walpurgis raised a hand in between claps, but didn’t look up or reply.

His team completed one circuit – back where they started, and now Dot could see the shape they were making. It was, indeed, the outline of a boat!

“Joli bateau!” said Fromage. “I once went wiz our cousin on ze – how do you say? – Serpentine boating lake, in your English capital, Londres! Much fun we had.” Dot stroked Wiz behind his ears. He lay down with a little sigh, his feathery tail swishing to and fro on the floor – what Dot’s Dad called his sweeper act!

Round came the TricTrucTrackers again, still clapping.

But now the boat was taking shape around them as they walked, rising up from where their paw prints made the glowing marks on the floor. It was quite quick. You could see its sides – all in that shimmering, electric blue – and its pointy bow at the front, and a square stern at the other end to finish it off.

Now – it seemed to have taken no time at all – the sides were so high that all you could see were the heads of the TricTrucTrackers, still walking round and clapping. Hombellyton was still obviously a bit fretful about the whole idea!

Then the rhythm of their clapping changed. One, two – one two, three four - one, two – one two, three four they went.

And just as they did so their heads disappeared completely. But you could still hear the clapping.

Then – the sides of the boat had stopped growing – strange little silver propellers began to appear, all along the top edge of the side of the boat she was looking at, one, two, three, four, till Dot could see twenty of them,.

They looked rather like those plastic whirly things, little windmills on sticks, that you used to get at fairgrounds, before it was all brown and black inflatable hammers and Bart Simpson balloons.

The clapping changed again. Now it was one, two, three, four five six - one, two, three, four five six – and another set of objects appeared along the sides of the electric blue boat. They were little globes, in a dull golden colour, each with a wavy line in the middle. Zippppppppp they went, into the spaces between the propellers.

Then, the clapping stopped – with a final one, two, THREE!

On the THREE – so sudden it made Dot jump, Wiz do his little “Look out!” yap, and Fromage scurry up onto his cousin’s hidey-hole under the shoulder of her T-shirt (how did he know about that, she wondered) – SUDDENLY all the propellers started whirring round, zzzzzzz, and all the globes opened , each revealing a large, friendly-looking eye.

They were very beautiful eyes – just like the ones Jersey cows have, and with the same film star eyelashes – but all in different colours. The one opposite Dot opened and closed again.

It was giving her a wink!

As if he was being raised up on a special lift, Walpurgis appeared again above the edge of the boat.

He gave Dot a big beaky grin and a thumbs-up sign.

“All aboard!” he laughed. “We’re off boating!”