ttom of the steps, holding the lantern above his head just to see that
the dungeon really was empty, as usual. Half of it was empty as usual,
except for the old iron and odds and ends, and the firewood and the
coals. But the other side was not empty. It was quite full, and what it
was full of was Dragon.

"It must have come up those nasty broken steps from goodness knows
where," said the blacksmith to himself, trembling all over, as he tried
to creep back up the winding stairs.

But the dragon was too quick for him--it put out a great claw and caught
him by the leg, and as it moved it rattled like a great bunch of keys,
or like the sheet iron they make thunder out of in pantomimes.

"No you don't," said the dragon in a spluttering voice, like a damp
squib.

"Deary, deary me," said poor John, trembling more than ever in the claw
of the dragon. "Here's a nice end for a respectable blacksmith!"

The dragon seemed very much struck by this remark.

"Do you mind saying that again?" said he, quite politely.

So John said again, very distinctly:
"_Here_--_is_--_a_--_nice_--_end_--_for_--_a_--_respectable_--_blacksmith._"

"I didn't know," said the dragon. "Fancy now! You're the very man I
wanted."

"So I understood you to say before," said John, his teeth chattering.

"Oh, I don't mean what you mean," said the dragon, "but I should like
you to do a job for me. One of my wings has got some of the rivets out
of it just above the joint. Could you put that to rights?"

"I might, sir," said John, politely, for you must always be polite to a
possible customer, even if he be a dragon.

"A master craftsman--you are a master, of course?--can see in a minute
what's wrong," the dragon went on. "Just come around here and feel my
plates, will you?"

John timidly went around when the dragon took his claw away; and sure
enough, the dragon's wing was hanging loose, and several of the plates
near the joint certainly wanted riveting.

The dragon seemed to be made almost entirely of iron armor--a sort of
tawny, red-rust color it was; from damp, no doubt--and under it he
seemed to be covered with something furry.

All the blacksmith welled up in John's heart, and he felt more at ease.

"You could certainly do with a rivet or two, sir," said he. "In fact,
you want a good many."

"Well, get to work, then," said the dragon. "You mend my wing, and then
I'll go out and eat up all the town, and if you make a really smart job
of it I