The Concuspidor, having reached into his boot:

What a deserter that Cog is! He dived for the door, unless I'm very much mistaken. So much for loyalty...

This dragon: a more immediate problem. Think quickly... notorious hoarders, these dragons... now, if I can just get the beast's attention with these then I can cast them to my right and sprint to my left... steady now...

"Now look here, dragon. The civil thing to do in situations like these is to do some dealing, don't you agree? So what I'll do is this - a bag of gems, finest quality, nothing less. Normally, for right of passage past a dragon, a juvenile say, would be, hmm, a couple of small rubies... an oriental, snakey dragon, a chunk of jade... but a dragon of your quality - big, alert, um... near, er... warm - well, and I'm a fool to myself I know, but let's go mad and throw in a whole bag of gems. No, I know what you're thinking, don't try to stop me, you'd settle for half I know, but, really, I insist...So, here you are... I'll just toss them over, oops..."