ard its horrible
teeth crunching against the side of his crystal helmet, and he felt
the pressure of its coils around his side, and the breath almost left
his body; but the dragon, unable to pierce the helmet, unwound his
coils, and soon Enda's hands were free, and before the dragon could
attempt to seize him again, he drove his spear through one of its
fiery eyes, and, writhing with pain, the hissing dragon darted through
a cave behind him. Enda, gaining courage from the dragon's flight,
marched on until he came to a door of dull brass set in the rocks. He
tried to push it in before him, but he might as well have tried to
push away the rocks. While he was wondering what he should do, he
heard again the fierce hissing of the dragon, and saw the red glare of
his fiery eye dimly in the water.

Lifting his spear and hastily turning round to meet the furious
monster, Enda accidently touched the door with the point of the spear,
and the door flew open. Enda passed through, and the door closed
behind him with a grating sound, and he marched along through a rocky
pass which led to a sandy plain.

As he stepped from the pass into the plain the sands began to move, as
if they were alive. In a second a thousand hideous serpents, almost
the colour of the sand, rose hissing up, and with their forked
tongues made a horrible, poisonous hedge in front of him. For a second
he stood dismayed, but then, levelling his spear, he rushed against
the hedge of serpents, and they, shooting poison at him, sank beneath
the sand. But the poison did not harm him, because of his water-dress
and crystal helmet.

When he had passed over the sandy plain, he had to climb a great
steep, jagged rock. When he got to the top of the rock he saw spread
out before him a stony waste without a tuft or blade of grass. At some
distance in front of him he noticed a large dark object, which he took
to be a rock, but on looking at it more closely he saw that it was a
huge, misshapen, swollen mass, apparently alive. And it was growing
bigger and bigger every moment. Enda stood amazed at the sight, and
before he knew where he was the loathsome creature rose from the
ground, and sprang upon him before he could use his spear, and,
catching him in its horrid grasp, flung him back over the rocks on to
the sandy plain. Enda was almost stunned, but the hissing of the
serpents rising from the sand around him brought him to himself, and,
jumping to his feet, once more he d