moons,
however, as Woot discovered when he had examined the place more
carefully. They were eyes. The eyes were in the heads of enormous
beasts whose bodies trailed far behind them. Each beast was bigger than
an elephant, and three times as long, and there were a dozen or more of
the creatures scattered here and there about the cavern. On their
bodies were big scales, as round as pie-plates, which were beautifully
tinted in shades of green, purple and orange. On the ends of their long
tails were clusters of jewels. Around the great, moon-like eyes were
circles of diamonds which sparkled in the subdued light that glowed
from the eyes.

Woot saw that the creatures had wide mouths and rows of terrible teeth
and, from tales he had heard of such beings, he knew he had fallen into
a cavern inhabited by the great Dragons that had been driven from the
surface of the earth and were only allowed to come out once in a
hundred years to search for food. Of course he had never seen Dragons
before, yet there was no mistaking them, for they were unlike any other
living creatures.

Woot sat upon the floor where he had fallen, staring around, and the
owners of the big eyes returned his look, silently and motionless.
Finally one of the Dragons which was farthest away from him asked, in a
deep, grave voice:

"What was that?"

And the greatest Dragon of all, who was just in front of the Green
Monkey, answered in a still deeper voice:

"It is some foolish animal from Outside."

"Is it good to eat?" inquired a smaller Dragon beside the great one.
"I'm hungry."

"Hungry!" exclaimed all the Dragons, in a reproachful chorus; and then
the great one said chidingly: "Tut-tut, my son! You've no reason to be
hungry at this time."

"Why not?" asked the little Dragon. "I haven't eaten anything in eleven
years."

"Eleven years is nothing," remarked another Dragon, sleepily opening
and closing his eyes; "I haven't feasted for eighty-seven years, and I
dare not get hungry for a dozen or so years to come. Children who eat
between meals should be broken of the habit."

"All I had, eleven years ago, was a rhinoceros, and that's not a full
meal at all," grumbled the young one. "And, before that, I had waited
sixty-two years to be fed; so it's no wonder I'm hungry."

"How old are you now?" asked Woot, forgetting his own dangerous
position in his interest in the conversation.

"Why, I'm--I'm--How old am I, Father?" asked the little Dragon.