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the desk. Dr. Drake went back to his work. He was writing what seemed to be a very long and formal-looking letter, and I had a chance to look around his study. It had hundreds of books ranged on tall shelves that ran right round the room. On the wall there was a large painting of Saint George and the Dragon and several other small paintings and sketches. At the end of the study, behind the desk, was a padlocked door. But what held my attention were some sheets of paper that lay on Dr. Drake’s desk. One was a letter in a thin, slanting hand. The other was a sort of painted diagram of a gemstone. In the very centre of the gemstone was what looked like the reflection of an old man with an extremely long beard. Even though it was upside down, I could read the caption above it, which said,
The Dragon’s Eye.
What also interested me was that I could see the signature on the letter next to it:
Ignatius Crook.
    I am not very good at reading things upside down, but I did my best. I managed to make out a few phrases like
My Dear Ernest; my father, Ebenezer;
and
our most valuable family treasures,
before Dr. Drake put down his pen and shuffled the papers on his desk so that the sketch of the Dragon’s Eye disappeared from view. Then, he stood up, gesturing over to an umbrella stand in the corner, which contained a large assortment of canes, sticks, and three-foot-long metal rulers. I feared for the worst.
    â€œChoose one,” he said simply.
    I went over to the umbrella stand with a heavy heart and carefully chose the lightest-looking cane I could find. I presented it to Dr. Drake with a downcast expression.
    â€œBut that one’s no good, Daniel,” cried Dr. Drake. “What? Did you think I was going to beat you? I don’t go in for punishments of
that
sort, my boy. Instead, I have decided I cannot quite trust you at the moment and so I am going to keep you with me. You will be able to indulge your curiosity to the full. You are going to both see and learn a lot of things you have never even dreamt of. So you must choose a stick that will be useful for beating back thick undergrowth. You must take the notebook and pencil that I am going to give you and write
Daniel Cook’s Dragonological Record Book
on the first page. And you must be up and ready to leave the house at five o’clock tomorrow morning.”
    After helping me to choose a much stouter stick, which looked perfect for beating back even the thickest briars, Dr. Drake showed me to my room and bade me good night. Darcy was already sleeping in one of the other beds. I was very tired too. Yet I was so anxious to have my first lesson in dragonology that I have never had so little sleep in all my life as I had that night. I crept quietly out of the room and was ready and waiting for Dr. Drake in the hallway with my record book and my stick in my hand at half past four.

When he arrived at five o’clock, Dr. Drake was carrying the same leather bag I had often seen him carry, a stout stick of his own, and a glass bottle full of some kind of honey-coloured liquid with a label that read, D R . D RAKE ’ S L INCTUS . He unlatched the front door, and we slipped out.
    â€œDaniel,” he whispered, “the first lesson a dragonologist must learn is that once there were a great many dragons, but now there are far fewer. Although fully grown dragons are indeed powerful and dangerous, they are, as a species, no match for human beings. There is a danger that they may even become extinct. So the first lesson a dragonologist must learn is to conserve and protect those dragons that still remain, wherever he can.”
    â€œIs that what the linctus is for?” I asked him.
    â€œAs I told you, Scorcher is sick. It is strange because dragons hardly ever get ill, and I have not encountered this particular sickness in dragons before. But the linctus seems to be helping. Scorcher has brightened up considerably. Soon I will be able to take him