Down the rain-forest aisle the roaring mammoth rapidly waddled. Its flames--even longer than its body--withered into blackened ruin all that stood before it. This time, instead of snatching up their possessions and fleeing to safety, the Kentons stood their ground with their pocket-size fumigation bomb that had been designed for pocket-sized lizards. When the dragon was within throwing distance, Pole flipped on the spray jet of the tiny bomb and threw it as straight as he could. Then both of them sped away, leaving all their possessions at the mercy of the advancing, ravening flames.... * * * * * "Oh, Pole! Isn't our new home just the dandiest that a Venusian pretzin-gathering couple ever had?" "It _is_ dandy," concurred Pole. "Who'd ever have thought we would have a cabin that was only an inch thick, and yet was absolutely water tight?" "The table makes a dandy smokestack too, when it's propped up. Fireproof." "How about the mouth when it's propped open?" challenged Pole. "Who could beat a front porch like that?" "You can't. You just can't!" "Correct." He ruminated, "We'd never have been able to cut the hide. Not a tough, inch-thick one like this one." "I'll never get over the way you gutted the dragon. You cut him loose inside, just below the tonsils--" "And after I lassoed them, I gave a run--" "And all his guts came stringing out!" "Had him cleaned to the bone within an hour!" said Pole proudly. "We would never have had it so good if it hadn't been for Mr. Wattles' helpfulness," reminded Bliss. "That fumigation bomb, besides making a horrible stink--" "--explodes when it enters a dragon's flaming mouth--and blows his methane tanks." End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dragon Slayers, by Frank Banta