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Had Quox been at all bashful I am sure he would have felt uncomfortable at the astonished stare of every eye in the group except Tubekins, of course, who was not astonished because he had seen Quox so often. Betsy had thought a "young" dragon must be a small dragon, yet here was one so enormous that the girl decided he must be full grown, if not overgrown.
Step a little out of my path, my dear, and I'll make a rush for the Nome King's cavern." She fell back a few steps and Quox raised himself on his stout legs, whisked his long tail and in an instant had slid down the rocks and made a dive through the entrance. Along the passage he swept, nearly filling it with his immense body, and now he poked his head into the jeweled cavern of Ruggedo.
"Me?" stammered the Chamberlain, greatly surprised by the question. "Well, I couldn't be a worse King, I'm sure." "Would the nomes obey you?" inquired the dragon. "Of course," said Kaliko. "They like me better than ever they did Ruggedo." "Then hereafter you shall be the Metal Monarch, King of the Nomes, and Tititi-Hoochoo expects you to rule your Kingdom wisely and well," said Quox.
She walked around Quox two or three times, trying to discover some tender place on his body where a thump or a punch might be felt; but he lay extended along the rocks with his chin flat upon the ground and his legs drawn underneath his body, and all that one could see was his thick sky-blue skin thicker than that of a rhinoceros and his silver scales.
Instead, there was something so cold and merciless in the dragon's expression that the condemned Nome King trembled and was sick at heart. There was little comfort for Ruggedo in the fact that the dragon was now chained, although he had boasted of it. He glared at the immense head of Quox as if fascinated and there was fear in the old King's eyes as he watched his enemy's movements.
"Do you see it plainly?" persisted the dragon, with a little chuckle of amusement. "I do," declared Ruggedo. "Then you no longer possess any magical powers, and are as helpless as a clam," asserted Quox.
Ruggedo promptly threw his sceptre at his Royal Chamberlain, who dodged it with his usual cleverness, and then he said with an attempt to swagger: "Never mind; I don't need magic to enable me to destroy these invaders; fire and the sword will do the business and I am still King of the Nomes and lord and master of my Underground Kingdom!" "Again I beg to differ with Your Majesty," said Quox.
On the next day, when our friends went to visit the dragon, Quox said to them: "I must now bid you good-bye, for my mission here is finished and I must depart for the other side of the world, where I belong." "Will you go through the Tube again?" asked Betsy. "To be sure. But it will be a lonely trip this time, with no one to talk to, and I cannot invite any of you to go with me.
"One enemy is out of my way, and now for the others." When Polychrome saw Shaggy Man transformed into a dove and realized that Ruggedo was about do something as dreadful to the Princess and Files, and that Tik-Tok would soon be melted in a crucible, she turned and ran from the cavern, through the passage and back to the place where Quox lay asleep. A Clever Conquest
Because of this lack, he has been disrespectful toward his most ancient ancestor, the Original Dragon, telling him once to mind his own business and again saying that the Ancient One had grown foolish with age. We are aware that dragons are not the same as fairies and cannot be altogether guided by our laws, yet such disrespect as Quox has shown should not be unnoticed by us.
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