And that, my dear Maria, would in all probability have
been never.
"But before I had time to begin my retreat, a very extraordinary sound,
which I cannot describe by any word I know, reached my ears. It was not
a roar, nor a clank, nor a boom, nor a clap, nor a crash, nor a thud,
but if you have ever heard a noise combining all those elements, with a
small percentage of screech to enliven them, that comes as near it as I
can contrive to tell. We know from Holy Scripture that there used to be
such creatures as dragons, though we have never seen them; but I seemed
to be hearing one as I stood there. It was just the sort of groan you
might have expected from a dragon, who had swallowed something highly
indigestible."
"My dear! And he might have swallowed you, if you had stopped. How could
you help running away, my Joshua? I should have insisted immediately
upon it. But you are so terribly intrepid!"
"Far from it, Maria. Quite the contrary, I assure you. In fact, I did
make off, for a considerable distance; not rapidly as a youth might do,
but with self-reproach at my tardiness. But the sound ceased coming; and
then I remembered how wholly we are in the hand of the Lord. A sense of
the power of right rose within me, backed up by a strong curiosity; and
I said to myself that if I went home, with nothing more than that to
tell you, I should not have at all an easy time of it. Therefore I
resolved to face the question again, and ascertain, if possible, without
self-sacrifice, what was going on among the ruins.
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