“Mmm, delicious!” said Katzilow, swallowing his last spoonful of gazpacho, the fiery, chilled tomato soup that is one of the great dishes of Spain.

“I must say” murmured Hombellyton “These chilli linguine are excellent!”

“Burp!” went Carmeramalita, who’d had the Hot French Bean and Garlic Salad. “Pardon ME!”

In fact they’d all had delicious food, thanks to the busy little trains puffing in and out of the Food Mountain at the back of Lucia the Tracboat – and those were only the starters!

“Go on Eldy” said Walpurgis, who’d also had the gazpacho – with a little of that special Spanish bread, still hot from the oven. “You were telling us… about our Food Mountain… you’d just started out to find your first Lost One… a difficult time indeed… ”

There was a general murmur of agreement, which Dot didn’t join in with because her mouth was full of linguine. And so were Wizard’s and Fromage’s, sharing away with her!

“Yes” said Eldenbeam, clearing the last of his gazpacho with some bread and popping it into his spoon-shaped beak. He chewed in silence for a while.

“Like we all are, I’d been given my task by the Zildiths of Phargon, the wonderful wise women and men of the internet, the day-by-day guardians of all that is good and worthwhile in www. world. It was to go to the Mountain of Rood, where a Tweet had been misrouted.”

He paused, thinking. It gave Dot a chance to catch up – she’d finished her starter and put her plate on the last truck of the little train. Woop woop! Off it went.

“What is the Mountain of Rood, please?” she asked in her politest voice. She could tell that Eldenbeam was finding it hard to tell his story.

“Ah, yes!” Eldenbeam said, giving himself a little shake. “The Mountain of Rood, Dot, is where many of the Foretells on the net go, to be tested for cyber-verity. Not, to be sure, that what the Foretell predicts will actually happen, you understand… but to check that each one is clean, and not a virus carrier. Foretells are especially vulnerable to malware – horrible programmes that bury themselves inside your computer, and slow every part of it down. ”

“ ’Ow could a leetle Tweet be a Foretell?” asked Fromage, cleaning the last drops of the chilli sauce off his whiskers.

“It was a mistake” said Eldenbeam. “It was because whoever was tweeting put in future>, like that. Having the > sign next to the word future made it into a Foretell. So it was lost and the Twing of Tweets – the Twitter leader in cyberspace – wanted it back, so it could be sent out again, properly this time!”

“What did the Tweet say?” asked Wiz.

Eldenbeam grunted. “Not much, as usual.” he said. “It was from that actor chap… what’s his name… Simon Baker, that’s who. He was just saying how he’d got into a lift with a tea lady at some office or other and how he was squashed into a corner by her tea trolley, and how he wouldn’t do be doing that in the future. Or future>, to be accurate - which he wasn’t, of course!”

“Sounds a bit of a silly task to have to do” said Dot. Then, realizing that she’d been a bit tactless, she hastily added “For your first ever TricTrucTracker searchfind I mean! Something so important in your life… ”

Oh dear…

Her voice trailed away. But she needn’t have worried.

Eldenbeam nodded. “It was! Even as a first day Cadet Finder I thought so too!” He shrugged. “But if that’s your Lost One, that’s who you have to find!” He paused again, suddenly looking embarrassed.

“Go on Eldy” smiled Walpurgis. “Tell our friends!”