It was well I had done so, for within another minute the owner of the dragons reappeared with a weapon not wholly unlike a long cannon of very small bore fixed upon a sort of stand.
This he levelled at me, and I, seeing that a danger of whose magnitude and nature I could form no exact estimate was impending, caught up instinctively one of my prisoners, and held him as a shield between myself and the weapon pointed at me.

This checked my enemy, who for the moment seemed almost as much at a loss as myself.

Fortunately his hostile intention evidently endangered not only my life but all near me, and secured me from any close attack.
At this moment a somewhat remarkable personage came to the front of the group which had gathered some few yards before me.

He wore a long frock of emerald green and trousers of the same colour, gathered in at the waist by a belt of a red metal.

On earth I should have taken him for a hale and vigorous gentleman of some fifty years; he was two inches short of five feet, but well proportioned as a man of middle size.