THE ADVENTURES OF EUSTACE AT that very moment the others were washing hands and faces in the river and generally getting ready for dinner and a rest. The three best archers had gone up into the hills north of the bay aurned laden with a pair of wild goats which were now roasting over a fire. Caspian had ordered a cask of wine ashore, strong wine of Arland which had to be mixed with water before you drank it, so there would be plenty for all. The work had
gone well so far and it was a merry meal. Only after the sed helping of goat did Edmund say, "Wheres that blighter Eustace?」
Meanwhile Eustace stared round the unknown valley. It was so narrow and deep, and the precipices which surrou so sheer, that it was like a huge pit or trench. The floor was grassy though strewn with rocks, and here and there Eustace saw black burnt patches like those you see on the sides of a railway emba in a dry summer.
About fifteen yards away from him ool of clear, smooth water. There was, at first, nothing else at all in the valley; not an animal, not a bird, not an i. The su down and grim peaks and horns of mountains peered over the valleys edge.
Eustace realized of course that in the fog he had e down the wrong side of the ridge, so he tur oo see about getting back. But as soon as he had looked he shuddered. Apparently he had by amazing luck found the only possible way down - a long green spit of land, horribly steep and narrow, with precipices oher side. There was no other possible way of getting back. But could he do it, now that he saw what it was really like? His head swam at the very thought of it.
He turned round again, thinking that at any rate hed better have a good drink from the pool first. But as soon as he had turned and before he had taken a step forward into the valley he heard a noise behind him. It was only a small it sounded loud in that immense sile froze him dead-still where he stood for a sed. Then he slewed round his ned looked.
At the bottom of the cliff a little on his left hand was a low, dark hole - the entrao a cave perhaps. And out of this two thin wisps of smoke were ing. And the loose stones just beh the dark hollow were moving (that was the noise he had heard) just as if something were crawling in the dark behind them.
Something was crawling. Worse still, something was ing out. Edmund or Lucy or you would have reized it at once, but Eustace had read none of the right books. The thing that came out of the cave was something he had never even imagined - along lead-coloured snout, dull red eyes, hers or fur, a long lithe body that trailed on the ground, legs whose elbows went up higher than its back like a spiders cruel claws, bats wings that made a rasping noise oones, yards of tail. And the lines of smoke were ing from its two nostrils. He never said the word Dragon to himself. Nor would it have made things aer if he had.
But perhaps if he had known something about dragons he would have been a little surprised at this dragons behaviour. It did not sit up and clap its wings, nor did it shoot out a stream of flame from its mouth. The smoke from its nostrils was like the smoke of a fire that will not last much longer. Nor did it seem to have noticed Eustace. It moved very slowly towards the pool - slowly and with many pauses. Even in his fear Eustace felt that it was an old, sad creature. He wondered if he dared make a dash for the ast. But it