The Pan, giving a deep throaty kind of growl, began to shuffle toward them.  “I’d like to have the warming of you three,” he snarled.  “I’ll teach you to come sitting on top of me playing your tricks on my rheumatic bones—­waking me out of the first good nap I’ve had in weeks!—­I’ll fix you—­”

“We’re really very sorry,” Ann began.  “We didn’t mean to sit on you, we thought—­”

But the Warming-pan did not want to hear what Ann thought.  He turned round on her fiercely. “You’re the young person,” he snapped, “who made the polite remarks about my figure this evening?  Eh, didn’t you?  Can you deny it?  Called me old-fashioned and ’country’—­said nobody ever used me any more!—­I’ll teach you to talk about hot-water bottles when I’m through with you!” As he spoke he came closer and closer to Ann, snorting and puffing and glaring at her out of his one terrible eye.  Although he was so round and waddled so clumsily, dragging his long tail behind him, his appearance was quite dreadful.  He reminded Rudolf of the dragon in Peter’s picture-book, and he hastily tried to imagine how Saint George must have felt when defending his princess.  Clutching his sword, he thrust himself in front of Ann and bravely faced the Warming-pan.  “Run!” he called to the others, “Fly!—­and I will fight this monster to the death.”

Ann, dragging Peter by the hand, made off as fast as she could go, and the Pan tried his best to dodge Rudolf and rush after her.  Again and again Rudolf’s sword struck him, but it only rattled on his brassiness, and making a horrible face, he popped three live coals out of his mouth which rolled on the ground unpleasantly close to Rudolf’s bare toes.  Then they had it hot and heavy until at last the knight managed to get his blade entangled with the dragon’s long tail, and tripped the creature up.  Then, without waiting for his enemy to get himself together again and heartily tired of playing Saint George, Rudolf turned and ran after Ann and Peter.  Long before he caught up to them, however, he heard the Pan behind him, snorting and scolding.  Luckily it did not seem able to stop talking, so that it lost what little breath it had and was soon obliged to halt.  For some time Rudolf caught snatches of its unpleasant remarks, such as—­“Children nowadays—­wish he had ’em—­he’d show ’em—­bread and water—­good thick stick!—­” Rudolf was obliged to run with his fingers in his ears before that disagreeable voice died away in the distance.

At last he saw Peter and Ann waiting for him at a turn in the passage just ahead, and in another moment he flung himself panting on the ground beside them.  “What a beast he was!” Rudolf exclaimed.

“Dreadful!” said Ann.  “I shall tell Aunt Jane never, never to let Betsy put him in our bed again.”  And then, after she had thanked Rudolf very prettily for saving her life, and that hero had recovered his breath and rested a little after the excitement of the battle, they all felt ready to start on their way again.