Dr. NO BY IAN FLEMING

“Well then, yes, they are rare. Very. You can get five dollars for a perfect specimen. In Miami. That’s where I deal with. They’re called Venus Elegans-The Elegant Venus.” Her eyes sparkled up at him with excitement. “This morning I found what I wanted. The bed where they live,” she waved towards the sea. “You wouldn’t find it though,” she added with sudden carefulness. “It’s very deep and hidden away. I doubt if you could dive that deep. And anyway,” she looked happy, “I’m going to clear the whole bed today. You’d only get the imperfect ones if you came back here.”

Bond laughe’d. “I promise I won’t steal any. I really don’t know anything about shells. Cross my heart.”

She stood up, her work completed. “What about these birds of yours? What sort are they? Are they valuable too? I won’t tell either if you tell me. I only collect shells.”

“They’re called roseate spoonbills,” said Bond. “Sort of pink stork with a flat beak. Ever seen any?”

“Oh, those,” she said scornfully. “There used to be thousands of them here. But you won’t find many now. They scared them all away.” She sat down on the sand and put her arms round her knees, proud of her superior knowledge and now certain that she had nothing to fear from this man.

Bond sat down a yard away. He stretched out and turned towards her, resting on his elbow. He wanted to preserve the picnic atmosphere and try to find out more about this queer, beautiful girl. He said, easily, “Oh, really. What happened? Who did it?”

She shrugged impatiently. “The people here did it. I don’t know who they are. There’s a Chinaman. He doesn’t like birds or something. He’s got a dragon. He sent the dragon after the birds and scared them away. The dragon burned up their nesting places. There used to be two men who lived with the birds and looked after them. They got scared away too, or killed or something.”

It all seemed quite natural to her. She gave the facts indifferently, staring out to sea.

Bond said, “This dragon. What kind is he? Have you ever seen him?”

“Yes., I’ve seen him.” She screwed up her eyes and made a wry face as if she was swallowing bitter medicine. She looked earnestly at Bond to make him share her feelings. “I’ve been coming here for about a year, looking for shells and exploring. I only found these,” she waved at the beach, “about a month ago. On my last trip. But I’ve found plenty of other good ones. Just before Christmas I thought I’d explore the river. I went up it to the top, where the birdmen had their camp. It was all broken up. It was getting late and I decided to spend the night there. In the middle of the night I woke up. The dragon was coming by only a few chains away from me. It had two great glaring eyes and a long snout. It had sort of short wings and a pointed tail. It was all black and gold.” She frowned at the expression on Bond’s face. “There was a full moon. I could see it quite clearly.It went by me. It was making a sort of roaring noise. It went over the marsh and came to some thick mangrove and it simply climbed over the bushes and went on. A whole flock of birds got up in front of it and suddenly a lot of fire came out of its mouth and it burned a lot of them up and all the trees they’d been roosting in. It was horrible. The most horrible thing I’ve ever seen.”

The girl leant sideways and peered at Bond’s face. She sat up straight again and stared obstinately out to sea. “I can see you don’t believe me,” she said in a furious, tense voice. “You’re one of these city people. You don’t believe anything. Ugh,” she shuddered with dislike of him.

Bond said reasonably, “Honey, there just aren’t such things as dragons in the world. You saw something that looked very like a dragon. I’m just wondering what it was.”

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