CHAPTER IX.
{Chapter heading picture: p64.jpg} _The Prince and the Firedrake_.
It was dreadfully hot, even high up in the air, where the prince hung invisible.

Great burning stones were tossed up by the volcano, and nearly hit him several times.

Moreover, the steam and smoke, and the flames which the Firedrake spouted like foam from his nostrils, would have daunted even the bravest man.

The sides of the hill, too, were covered with the blackened ashes of his victims, whom he had roasted when they came out to kill him.

The garden-engine of poor little Alphonso was lying in the valley, all broken and useless.