`` well , '' hammond said , `` rather , as i understand it-a certain suggestion- '' hammond tried for a little longer to dress it up : but when at last he came out with a description which laurence could swallow , it seemed wellington had expressed the opinion that if anyone might be hoped to have success at talking sense into a band of uncontrollable dragons , it should be the two of them ; as long as someone was sent along to be sure they did not in the process give away three-quarters of the colony .