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18 A Visitor for the Professor

Barnabas Greenbloos, not that he had a lot to pack He traveled light, with only a battered old bag into which he flung some shirts and underwear, his favorite sweater, and a pencil box He always packed a camera, too, and a thick, much-stained notebook in which he wrote all the stories he caraphs, copies of any inscriptions he found, and drawings he had done froiven to him by people who had met fabulous creatures The professor had already filled almost a hundred such notebooks They were all in his study at ho to the species of creatures and the places where they had appeared This one, thought Barnabas Greenblooiven a place of honor, for it contained a photograph of Firedrake The dragon had allowed hi rescued from the basilisk

"I can’t wait to hear what Vita has to say," breathed the professor, stowing the book away in his bag "She’s always feared that dragons were extinct" S happily, he picked up a towel and went out into the evening twilight, on his way to wash the dust and sweat off his face before his journey

His tent was on the outskirts of the camp, close to the only well A donkey and a few ca in the warht The caone into the nearby town The rest were in their tents, asleep, writing letters ho their notes up to date

Barnabas Greenblooe of the little wall around it, and drew up a bucket of the wonderfully cool water As he did, he whistled softly and looked up at the stars They were as nurains of sand beneath his feet

Suddenly the donkey and the camels raised their heads in alared at their ropes Barnabas didn’t notice He was thinking about his daughter, wondering whether she’d have grown much in the four weeks since he’d last seen her Then a noise startled hihts and jolted him back to the present The noise came fro -- the heavy breathing of a very, very large animal

Alarmed, the professor put down the bucket on the rim of the well and took a step back No one knew better than he did that the bottom of a well may shelter extremely unpleasant creatures However, his curiosity was always stronger than his caution, so he did not do the sensible thing, which would have been to turn and run away as fast as he could go Instead, Barnabas Greenbloom stayed put and waited with interest to see just as about to crawl out of the well He did put his left hand to his back pocket, ready to take out the little encies The pocket also held a nuer

The heavy breathing was getting louder, and a strange rattling noise caainst the rough stones

The professor frowned What fabulous creature would make a sound like that? Hard as he tried, he couldn’t think of a single one, so for safety’s sake he took another step back Just as the rising moon disappeared for a olden, scaly claw eed from the well

The animals bleated and rolled their eyes, tore their stakes out of the sand, and fled into the desert, dragging the stakes behind them Barnabas Greenbloom, however, was rooted to the spot

"Barnabas," he et out of here, you stupid idiot!" His feet took yet another step backward -- and stopped

The sturdy wall around the top of the well fell apart like a set of doon forced his way out of the shaft His golden scales shone in thedeep into the sand and his long, spiny tail rattled as it dragged after hi to one of his horns

Sloith steps that seemed to make the desert quake, the lowed red as blood in the darkness

"You have sorowled Nettlebrand, his voice resounding in the professor’s ears