CHAPTER XIV
JANKOW THE DRAGON
"I don't exactly like that sound," said Zuzu, drawing back. "It makes my shoulders creep." Lulu also hesitated.
"Don't fear," said the Private Secretary. "In my belief the Dragon is not so bad as his voice and actions would seem to indicate. I have lived here all my life, and although I have known our Dragon to threaten to do a great many things, I have never known him really to harm anybody in his life. It seems necessary for a Dragon to roar a great deal; but in my experience they are not dangerous if properly approached and handled with care."
Zuzu and Lulu, none the less, were very much afraid as they went on through the woods with the Private Secretary. The voice of the Dragon seemed to them very loud and ferocious. They held on tight to the hands of the Private Secretary, who led them on until at last they came out into a wide, open space in front of a high and jagged pile of rocks. In these rocks there was a narrow sort of gorge or passageway, and directly in front of this opening or door, as they presently discovered, lay the head and shoulders of the most dreadful looking Dragon either Zuzu or Lulu had ever heard of in all their lives.
The head of the Dragon was as large as a two-horse carriage and its mouth was as wide as a door; so that both of the Twins could have stepped into the mouth had they cared to do so. As they approached, they saw that the roof of the Dragon's mouth was dark red, the sides of its mouth and its tongue a light red in color. It had teeth as long as one's arm. Fire at times came out of its nostrils, and its eyes, which were as large as bushel baskets and very bright red in color, rolled from side to side in the most remarkable and threatening manner.
"Oh, I wish it would stop," exclaimed Lulu, beginning to cry, as the Dragon went on growling and roaring.
"Arnggh! Arnggh!" it roared, and started up on its forefeet as though to talk to these intruders. As it did this, it moved its long body quite to the extremity of its tail, and the Twins could hear its heavy scales rattling at least fifty feet back in the dark passage where the rest of the body and the tail of the Dragon were lying. At these sights and sounds it was all the Private Secretary could do to keep the Twins from running away, but he held them tight by the hands.