Frank Poole had always prided himself on his self-control, and never imagined that as a full-grown adult he would give a cry of pure fright. But like every boy of his generation, he had seen all the 'Jurassic' movies – and he knew a raptor when he met one eye to eye.

'I'm terribly sorry,' said Indra, with obvious concern. 'I never thought of warning you.'

Poole's jangling nerves returned to normal. Of course, there could be no danger, in this perhaps too-well-ordered world: but still...!

The dinosaur returned his stare with apparent total disinterest, then doubled back into the shed and emerged again with a rake and a pair of garden shears, which it dropped into a bag hanging over one shoulder. It walked away from them with a bird-like gait, never looking back as it disappeared behind some ten-metre-high sunflowers.

'I should explain,' said Indra contritely. 'We like to use bio-organisms when we can, rather than robots – I suppose it's carbon chauvinism! Now, there are only a few animals that have any manual dexterity, and we've used them all at one time or another.'

'And here's a mystery that no one's been able to solve. You'd think that enhanced herbivores like orangutans and gorillas would be good at this sort of work. Well, they're not; they don't have the patience for it.'

'Yet carnivores like our friend here are excellent, and easily trained. What's more – here's another paradox! -after they've been modified they're docile and good-natured. Of course, there's almost a thousand years of genetic engineering behind them, and look what primitive man did to the wolf, merely by trial and error!'

Indra laughed and continued: 'You may not believe this, Frank, but they also make good baby-sitters – children love them! There's a five-hundred-year-old joke: "Would you trust your kids to a dinosaur?" "What – and risk injuring it?"'