‘Why, it is only an old—’ the girl said, and then quickly swallowed the rest, and added, ‘—design, which I have painted over. I am sure you may have it, if you like it so.’

‘Oh,’ Elsie said, and said urgently to Hollin, ‘Will you keep it for me? Perhaps it might be washed, and packed away safe?’

It took another half an hour for this to be done to her satisfaction, with much bobbing of heads and exchanges of compliments on both sides: a happy conversation which went past in a buzz of noise for Laurence, until at last he made an effort, and forced himself to say abruptly, ‘Hollin, we had better be going.’

‘Oh,’ the girl said. ‘But, shan't you wait for him?’ She pointed; and they looked to see another dragon in the sky, flying in their direction.

‘A fine thing,’ Miller said, ‘a fine thing. Expected four days ago in camp and I find you here, Captain Hollin, wandering around where you oughtn't be, and taking a convicted felon into good society.’

Hollin flushed and said sharply, ‘If I have done wrong, Captain Miller, you may be sure I will explain myself to those as has the right to ask me to account for it. We have been looking for the dragon we was sent to fetch, seeing as how those fellows in the breeding ground have forgot their duty and gone, and the beasts all scattered.’

‘What?’ Miller said, forgetting to be pompous in alarm. ‘All of them gone, out of the grounds? Where have they got to, what have they been eating—’

Miller's courier beast, Devastatio, was markedly smaller than Elsie, who was big for a Winchester. Hollin had known better than most new young courier-captains how to see to the proper feeding of a dragon, and he had already been on friendly terms with most of the herdsmen around the bigger coverts, a further advantage. Devastatio had landed showily, strutting the last few strides into the clearing, and having realized too late that he was outweighed, was now trying his best to puff out his chest, and surreptitiously climb a hillock. Elsie eyed him puzzled, and then offered, ‘Would you like to see my plate?’

‘Gentlemen,’ Laurence said sharply, seeing Miller dragging Hollin through all the narrative of their search. ‘We have no time for this. The French have been sighted nearby, and we must bring the intelligence to camp at once.’

‘We already know about the French being here, there has been some fighting,’ Miller said. ‘Some bright militia-officer has raised the countryside and beat them properly over at Wembley, and again at Harlesden this morning. That is why we are here: I am carrying a colonel's commission for him.’