Rachel had evidently come to a like conclusion, for all at once she said in a whisper, “I thought so.”
There was silence for a moment while both children, rather confused, were considering the strangeness of this. Then Rachel, who was never very long quiet, began again:
“There’s a great town behind the tower, isn’t there? When the flames blow backwards I can see the houses.”
“You behold the city of Alexandria.”
“Alexandria?” repeated Diana quickly. “That reminds me of—last time. Bucephalus, you know, and Alexander the Great.... Has the town anything to do with him?”
“Everything,” answered Dinocrates. “He founded it, and gave to it his own name, the name by which men who live in your world of to-day, still call it. But it was I who built it,” he added. “That is, you understand, it was I who made the plans for the building of the city.”
“And did you build the lighthouse too?” asked Diana.
Dinocrates shook his head.
“Nay, not to me, but to another, do the sailors owe that tower of warning—the tower that has saved many lives.”
“Do tell us about it,” urged Rachel. “Who first thought of it? I suppose the sort of lights we have now with reflectors and all that, weren’t invented when this lighthouse was made? But what a good idea to make flames come out at the top instead.”