of dragons in general.

"Do not betray me, young sirs," went on the dragon in a pathetic and
weepy voice, "I have managed so far to lie here concealed though
multitudes of people have passed this way and never perceived me."

"I tell you what," said Helmut touched by the dragon's evident terror,
"let's make friends with him, boys; he's given us a nice ride for
nothing; we will present him with the flag of truce."

Turning to the dragon he said: "Allow us to give you a banana and a roll
in token of our friendship and esteem."

"O," said the dragon brightening up, "I like bananas. People often throw
the skins away here. I prefer them to orange peel. I live on such
things, you must know, the cast-off refuse of humanity," he said,
becoming tragic again.

They presented him with the banana, and he ate it skin and all, it
seemed to give him an appetite. He appeared to recover his spirits, and
the boys thought it would be better to look for the way out. The cavern
seemed quite smooth and round, except for the cracks through which the
daylight came; they could not discover the passage by which they had
entered. The dragon's eyes were beginning to look bloodthirsty;
remembrances of his former strength shot across his dulled brains. He
could crush and eat these little boys after all and nobody would be the
wiser. Little boys tasted nicer than bananas even.

Meanwhile Wolf and Werner had stuck their flags through the holes in the
rocks, so that they were visible from the outside.

Now little Adolf had gone straight home, and had told awful tales of the
games the others were up to, and he conducted the four mothers to the
Dragon's Gorge where they wandered up and down looking for their boys.
Adolf observed the flags sticking up on the rocks, and drew attention to
them. The Dragon's Gorge resounded with the cries of "Helmut! Wolf!
Werner!"

The dragon heard the voices as well; his evil intentions died away; the
chronic fear of discovery came upon him again. He grew paler and paler;
clouds of smoke came from his nostrils, until he became invisible. At
the same moment Helmut groping against the wall that lay in shadow,
found the opening of the passage through which they had come. Through
this the three boys now crawled, hardly daring to breathe, for fear of
exciting the dragon again. Soon a gleam of light at the other end told
of their deliverance. Their tender mothers fell on their necks, and
scolded them at the same time.