, and he saw the ruins where he had met Mr. Perrin.

And among those ruins something was moving. Something long and jointed
and green. It could be nothing but the dragon.

'Oh, Crikey!' said Philip to himself; 'whatever shall I do? Perhaps I'd
better see what weapons there are.'

So he ran down the stairs and down and down till he came to the vaults
of the castle, and there he found everything a dragon-killer could
possibly need, even to a little red book called the _Young
Dragon-Catcher's Vade Mecum, or a Complete Guide to the Good Sport of
Dragon-Slaying_; and a pair of excellent field-glasses.

The top of the tower seemed the safest place. It was there that he tried
to read the book. The words were very long and most difficultly spelt.
But he did manage to make out that all dragons sleep for one hour after
sunset. Then he heard a loud rattling sound from the ruin, and he knew
it was the dragon who was making that sound, so he looked through the
field-glasses, frowning with anxiety to see what the dragon was doing.

And as he looked he started and almost dropped the glasses, and the
frown cleared away from his forehead and he gave a sigh that was almost
a sob and almost a laugh, and then he said

'That old thing!'

Then he looked again, and this is what he saw. An enormous green dragon,
very long and fierce-looking, that rattled as it moved, going in and out
among the ruins, rubbing itself against the fallen pillars. And the
reason Philip laughed and sighed was that he knew that dragon very well
indeed. He had known it long ago. It was the clockwork lizard that had
been given him the Christmas before last. And he remembered that he had
put it into one of the cities he and Helen had built together. Only now,
of course, it had grown big and had come alive like all the other images
of live things he had put in his cities. But he saw that it was still a
clockwork creature. And its key was sticking out of its side. And it was
rubbing itself against the pillars so as to turn the key and wind itself
up. But this was a slow business and the winding was not half done when
the sun set. The dragon instantly lay down and went to sleep.

'Well,' said Philip, 'now I've got to think.'

He did think, harder than he had ever done before. And when he had
finished thinking he went down into the vault and got a long rope. Then
he stood still a moment, wondering if he really were brave enough. And
then he remembered 'Rise up, Sir