“Chares glanced at me quickly.
“‘Why?’ he asked.
“‘Because, if only I knew that, I should also know at once what to do.’
“I spoke with great confidence, for I was really quite sure of the plan I had in mind—though why I was so sure, I could not tell.
“Chares looked at me again, and then as though he had dismissed the subject, said, ‘To-day I will take you where you may work at your maps and plans in greater quiet.’
“Since the destruction of our house, another in the heart of the town had become our General Headquarters, and here everything was crowded and rough and noisy with the incessant tramping of soldiers about its door, and there was no spot in it that I could call my own. So I was glad that Chares had found a place for me, and, when after several hours’ absence, he returned, I willingly followed him to a house on the hill-side beyond the walls. We passed through a quiet garden and presently entered a room, where, to my surprise, I saw our general Phrynis, several other officers, and one or two men I knew to be engineers. These men smiled in an amused way when I came in, and I heard one whisper to another,
“‘Have we been brought here to consult with a child?’
“But Chares drew a stool up to the table in the window space, and told me to open the ground plans of the city and the maps I had brought, and when the men crowded round to see, I noticed that their faces altered as they passed my drawings from one to the other in silence.
“At last Phrynis, who was very grave, spoke touching a point on one of my plans of the town.
“‘Cleon,’ he said, ‘if the new war engine should be posted at this part of the wall, what would you do supposing you had everything you wanted at your command?’