The Return of the Dragon Paperback - 2006

Suddenly Hannah, in the lead, stopped dead.

Look at that!" she said in a horrified voice.

Zachary and Sarah Emily crowded behind her, staring.

Someone had made a campsite on the beach. A cluster of white tents was set up behind the sheltering rise of a dune. There were five tents, one much larger than the others. "That must be the leader's," Zachary whispered.

The large tent had plastic windows in it - they could be sealed shut at night with white canvas covers - and a zippered double door. A folding wooden chair was set up just outside the door with a table net to it. On the other side of the chair was a tripod to which was attached an enormous pair of black binoculars.

As the children watched, crouching behind the tree trunks, the zippered door rolled open and an elderly Chinese man came out. He was tall and thin, dressed in a black suit, with an embroidered cap on his head. He stood silently, his expression grim, eyes narrowed to slits, arms folded across his chest. Then he stalked slowly across the campsite and vanished between the tents, headed in the direction of the sea.

"Who's that?" Sara Emily said. She sounded frightened.

Hannah and Zachary exchanged anxious glances.

"A trespasser," Zachary said.

They watched the camp for several more minutes, but nothing happened. The tents sat silent and deserted, their canvas doors firmly shut.

"We might as well go," Hannah whispered finally.

The children turned and crept quietly back through the trees, the way that they had come.

"Let's go see . . . F," Zachary said. "We should warn him about this."

________

THE RETURN OF THE DRAGON by Rebecca Rupp. Copyright (c) 2006 by Rebecca Rupp. Published by Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA.

Rebecca Rupp has written nonfiction articles for many national magazines on topics ranging from the history of blue jeans to the science of ice cream.. She is also the author of THE DRAGON OF LONELY ISLAND, THE WATERSTONE, and several nonfiction books, both for children and adults. Of THE RETURN OF THE DRAGON, she says, "I hope all of you enjoy the return of Fafnyr's cave -- and hearing from Aunt Mehitabel again -- as much as I have. Much as I love the three-headed dragon, I also love Aunt Mehitabel. I plan to be just like her when I turn eighty-five." Rebecca Rupp lives in Vermont with her husband, three sons, three cats, and a tarantula named Immanuel Kant.