“Looks a lot like the yellow dragon on the box lid.” Sig got up and went to inspect it more closely.

Kim shook his head. “The yellow dragon is a Lung, one belonging to the Emperor.”

“How can you tell?” Artie wanted to know.

“First, because it is yellow, that’s the color that only the Emperor could wear or use. Then, it had five claws on its feet, that makes it a Lung. But the one in the puzzle is Shui Mien Lung—that means ‘Slumbering Dragon,’ and it was not really a dragon but a man—a man who lived in China a long time ago. He was First Minister and General-in-Chief to the Emperor Liu Pei, and he had a sword the Emperor had given him with a closed-eyed dragon engraved on it. Then he did something big and brave and the people called him Slumbering Dragon—they even made up a song about him—” Kim talked faster and faster, glad to see he had their full attention now and that they seemed to believe all he said.

“A man, not a dragon.” Artie nodded. “Mine was, too—Artos Pendragon—he was a king and he had an important sword. But his dragon wasn’t on the sword, it was a big red banner. When the wind filled it, it looked like a dragon flying.”

“Mine was a real dragon—or once it had been a man and then it became a dragon—but it was bad. It had to be killed. They called it Fafnir. Sigurd King’s-Son killed it with the sword Balmung. Odin helped him—” Sig contributed.

“Sirrush-Lau was real, too,” Ras cut in. “It was horrible—like a big snake mixed up with an alligator, or one of those prehistoric monsters. The priests of MardukBel kept it in a pool in the temple and they were going to have it kill Daniel, only he figured out a way to kill it first.”

Kim’s head turned from one to the other as he listened eagerly. So he had been right in his guess that each had had a dragon, as different as the four pictures on the cover of the box. And he wanted to know more, all of what had happened to each of them. Pendragon, Fafnir, Sirrush-Lau—strange names. But probably to Sig, Artie, and Ras “Shui Mien Lung” sounded just as queer.

“The puzzle”—he brought them back to the immediate problem. “What’s going to happen to it if they come and take everything out of the house, maybe tomorrow?”

“You put the yellow dragon together, finished it this afternoon?” Ras wanted to know.

Kim nodded.

“Then you left it there on the table?”

“Yes. I thought it was late, that Mother would worry. Then—then I guess I just never thought of taking it apart. You know, it was so tight I couldn’t even see the cracks marking the pieces, or feel them.”