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home.”
    â€œDo you know where he comes from, then?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œDid someone steal him?”
    â€œI am afraid so, Daniel. I did not realise until this morning exactly who it was or quite what it was they wanted. But now I see a great danger coming, not only for dragonologists, but for ordinary people and dragons, too.”
    â€œWas it Ignatius Crook?” I asked.
    â€œWait for me here,” said Dr. Drake. “I must go and give Scorcher his medicine.”
    When he came back, the bottle of linctus was empty. Dr. Drake put it down next to the front door. Then he peered at me closely, in much the same way he had peered at Scorcher the day before, and gestured for me to follow him. We headed up the drive and along the path that led into the forest. There we walked silently for some distance — it may have been about two miles — before Dr. Drake paused and offered me a cheese sandwich and a drink of lemonade from a bottle that he was carrying in his bag.
    â€œNow,” said Dr. Drake when we had both eaten, “have you heard of the Knucker Hole?”
    I had to admit that I hadn’t.
    â€œIt is a very deep pool about thirty miles from here that lies just outside of the village of Lyminster, near the south coast. People used to say that the pool was so deep that it actually had no bottom. They also used to say that it was the home of a dragon. But only one of those two things was correct.”
    â€œThe part about the dragon?” I asked.
    â€œIndeed. The dragon that lived there used to be what is called a knucker. They are quite small for dragons. They are long and thin, and they have very small wings and cannot actually fly. But I don’t want to tell you too much at the moment, as I need you to find out everything you can on your own. Take out your record book, and make a note of your first assignment: tonight I want you to make a list of all the differences you notice between the knucker and Scorcher, who is a European dragon. Providing you can remember much about Scorcher, of course.” He said.
    â€œI remember Scorcher’s eyes quite well,” I said.
    â€œReally?” said Dr. Drake. “I would have thought that his fangs, wings, tail, scales, or the smoke coming from his nostrils — which is quite a remarkable phenomenon for such a young dragon, by the way — would have been more memorable. In order to compare the two dragons, you are going to have to meet a knucker. And while there is no knucker at Lyminster anymore, there is one here in the forest, which I have been studying for quite some time. When I am at home, I like to make a daily record of her behaviour, and I am going to introduce you. I call her Weasel.”
    â€œDoes Weasel live in a pool, too?” I asked.
    â€œNo. A knucker does not always need a pool. Weasel has a hole in the side of one of the streambeds. Knuckers are very lazy. Weasel is happy living here because the soil is mostly sand, which is easy to dig burrows in, and she is rather partial to rabbit. But I would be careful not to get too close to her until she gets to know you. It is sometimes said that a hungry knucker will take a stray child for its dinner, if it finds one. Now, I am going to tell you no more about knuckers, but I want you to note down everything you see.
    â€œDragonology, as I am sure you realise, is not a very well known area of study, and most books about it are not at all reliable. So a dragonologist’s record book — or dragon diary — becomes his most precious resource, with information on everything he has ever learned or found out about dragons, and notes on all the different things he plans to find out as soon as he can. When you study a live dragon, it is particularly important to record the time, the weather conditions, the sort of dragon you are studying, and any dragon behaviours that you note, including whether it can talk or not.”
    I must have looked