er boys laughed at him, and chucked theirs into the little
stream, which made Helmut very angry.

"I won't be your officer any more, if you do not do as I say," he said,
and they began to quarrel.

"We're not going to fight your old dragon, we're going home again to
play football, that will be far better fun," said the boys who had
joined as recruits, and they went off home, till only Helmut's chums
were left. They were glad enough to get rid of the other boys.

"We have more chance of seeing the dragon without those stupid fellows,"
they said.

They finished their lunch, shouldered their guns again, and entered the
second gorge, which is even more picturesque and narrow than the first.

Suddenly Helmut espied something round, and slimy, and long lying on
the path before him like a blind worm, but much thicker than blind worms
generally are. He became fearfully excited, "Come along you fellows,
hurry up," he said, "I do believe it is the dragon's tail!"

They came up close behind him and looked over his shoulders; the gorge
was so narrow here that they could not pass one another.

"Good gracious!" they said, "whatever shall we do now?"

They all felt frightened at the idea of a real dragon, but they stood to
their guns like men, all but the youngest, Adolf, who wanted to run away
home; but the others would not let him.

"Helmut catch hold of it, quick now," whispered Werner and Wolf, the
other two boys.

Helmut stretched out his hand courageously; perhaps it was only a huge,
blind worm after all; but as he tried to catch it, the thing slipped
swiftly away. They all followed it, running as fast as they could
through the narrow gorge, bumping themselves against the walls,
scratching themselves and tearing their clothes, but all the time Helmut
never let that tail (if it was a tail) out of his sight.

"If we had some salt to put on it," said he, "we might catch it like a
dicky bird."

"It would be a fine thing to present to a museum," said Wolf.

Well, that thing led them a fine dance. It would stop short, and then
when they thought they had got it, it started off again, until they were
all puffing and blowing.

"We've got to catch it somehow," said Helmut, who thought the chase fine
sport. At that moment the gorge opened out again into the woods, and the
tail gave them the slip; for it disappeared in a crevice of the rock
where there was no room for a boy to follow it.

"It _was_ a blind worm you see," s