pper, but let us
have a mouthful of something first, just to give us an appetite.'

Whereupon he began to eat some huge boulders as if they had been cakes,
and when he had quite finished, he offered Paul one. Paul was not fond
of boulders, but he took a wooden knife and cut one in two, then
he snatched up both halves in his hands and threw them with all his
strength at the dragon, so that two out of the six heads were smashed
in. At this the dragon, with a mighty roar, rushed upon Paul, but he
sprang on one side, and with a swinging blow cut off two of the other
heads. Then, seizing the monster by the neck, he dashed the remaining
heads against the rock.

When the maiden heard that the dragon was dead, she thanked her
deliverer with tears in her eyes, but told him that her two younger
sisters were in the power of dragons still fiercer and more horrible
than this one. He vowed that his sword should never rest in its sheath
till they were set free, and bade the girl come with him, and show him
the way.

The maiden gladly consented to go with him, but first she gave him a
golden rod, and bade him strike the castle with it. He did so, and it
instantly changed into a golden apple, which he put in his pocket. After
that, they started on their search.

They had not gone far before they reached the castle where the second
girl was confined by the power of the dragon with twelve heads, who had
stolen her from her home. She was overjoyed at the sight of her sister
and of Paul, and brought him a shirt belonging to the dragon, which made
every one who wore it twice as strong as they were before. Scarcely had
he put it on when the dragon came back, and the fight began. Long and
hard was the struggle, but Paul's sword and his shirt helped him, and
the twelve heads lay dead upon the ground.

Then Paul changed the castle into an apple, which he put into his
pocket, and set out with the two girls in search of the third castle.

It was not long before they found it, and within the walls was the third
sister, who was younger and prettier than either of the other two. Her
husband had eighteen heads, but when he quitted the lower regions for
the surface of the earth, he left them all at home except one, which he
changed for the head of a little dwarf, with a pointed beard.

The moment that Paul knew that this terrible dragon was no other than
the dwarf whom he had tied to the tree, he longed more than ever to fly
at his throat. But