Towards evening Tharagavverug ceased to snap at Leothric, but ran
before him to avoid the stick, for his nose was sore and shining;
and in the gloaming the villagers came out and danced to cymbal and
psaltery. When Tharagavverug heard the cymbal and psaltery, hunger
and anger came upon him, and he felt as some lord might feel who was
held by force from the banquet in his own castle and heard the
creaking spit go round and round and the good meat crackling on it.
And all that night he attacked Leothric fiercely, and oft-times
nearly caught him in the darkness; for his gleaming eyes of steel
could see as well by night as by day. And Leothric gave ground
slowly till the dawn, and when the light came they were near the
village again; yet not so near to it as they had been when they
encountered, for Leothric drove Tharagavverug farther in the day
than Tharagavverug had forced him back in the night. Then Leothric
drove him again with his stick till the hour came when it was the
custom of the dragon-crocodile to find his man. One third of his man
he would eat at the time he found him, and the rest at noon and
evening. But when the hour came for finding his man a great
fierceness came on Tharagavverug, and he grabbed rapidly at
Leothric, but could not seize him, and for a long while neither of
them would retire. But at last the pain of the stick on his leaden
nose overcame the hunger of the dragon-crocodile, and he turned from
it howling. From that moment Tharagavverug weakened. All that day
Leothric drove him with his stick, and at night both held their
ground; and when the dawn of the third day was come the heart of
Tharagavverug beat slower and fainter. It was as though a tired man
was ringing a bell. Once Tharagavverug nearly seized a frog, but
Leothric snatched it away just in time. Towards noon the
dragon-crocodile lay still for a long while, and Leothric stood near