The grip on Bond’s shoulder was urgent. He was instantly on his feet.
Quarrel whispered fiercely, “Somepn comin’ across de water, cap’n! It de dragon fo sho!”
The girl woke up. She said anxiously, “What’s happened?”
Bond said, “Stay here, Honey! Don’t move. I’ll be back.” He broke through the bushes on the side away from the mountain and ran along the sand with Quarrel at his elbow.
They came to the tip of the sandspit, twenty yards from the clearing. They stopped under cover of the final bushes. Bond parted them and looked through.
What was it? Half a mile away, coming across the lake, was a shapeless thing with two glaring orange eyes with black pupils. From between these, where the mouth might be, fluttered a yard of blue flame. The grey luminescence of the stars showed some kind o
