“Then I began to explain very fast and confidently—(for it all seemed quite simple to me)—just the way in which I would lay a mine under that part of the wall, and just the spot where the engine would sink, if certain directions were carried out.
“The men glanced at one another again in silence, and all at once Phrynis rose. ‘The work begins to-night,’ I heard him say. ‘There is no time to lose. Back to the city.’
“The soldiers clattered out, leaving me alone with Chares, who took my hand and whispered hurriedly, ‘It is right you should know—though you understand that no word must cross your lips. It is there, opposite the place on the plan pointed out to you by Phrynis, that the machine will be planted. This we have learnt through our spies. So important is the secret that Phrynis would hold no meeting in the city itself, and therefore have we come to this quiet place. You are to follow and direct the work as soon as it grows dark.’
“Can you at all imagine what a thrilling night that was for me when by the light of torches I saw hundreds of men working under my direction? At the time I was too preoccupied to wonder how it happened that I knew exactly what to say and do. It seemed to me every now and then that I had done and said the same things many times before and therefore need not hesitate, nor even think. It was as though something was happening in my sleep, quite easily and naturally.
“When the first streak of dawn was in the sky, the work was finished, and, all at once worn out, I was almost carried by Chares to our barracks, where I slept for hours. All the rest of that day we waited in suspense, for, though we knew the war machine was ready, we were not sure when the attack would be made.
“It came the next morning. Shouts and battle cries from the besiegers, and terrific blasts from their trumpets were followed by flights of arrows, as the huge monster moving towards us over the waste ground beyond the walls drew near.
“I watched it, with my heart thumping. The ground already in the possession of Demetrius had been levelled so that the ‘destroyer of cities’ might move more easily, and I knew just where the mine would strike it—if only we had not been deceived about the track over which it was to pass!
“But suppose Demetrius had changed his plans? Or that the spies were wrong? Suppose the machine should pass a shade too far on the right or the left of the mine. It would then arrive safely beneath the wall, and we should all, I thought, be destroyed. For never had I, or any of the Rhodians, imagined such a monster as this!
“It was like a square castle upon wheels. Thousands of soldiers pushed it forward, but their toil was made easier by the wheels or castors which turned every way under the great frame supporting it. Nine storeys I counted, with staircases leading up and down from one to the other. The whole monster, half animal, half tower (as it looked), was covered with iron plates like the scales on a serpent. In the front of each storey there were little windows with leather curtains which moved up and down, covering them—meant, no doubt, to break the force of the stones and darts we should hurl in our defence. On it came, towering above our walls, its windows like the awful eyes of some dragon, glaring at its victims. As yet it had not begun to spit forth stones and darts and flaming torches, but evidently it was only waiting for this till it should be closer at hand, and more deadly in effect.