“I want to know all sorts of other things first,” she declared. “Did Alexander live here after the town was built?”
“Nay, and he never saw more of the city than its beginning. He was marching always from country to country, conquering the world, and had no time to return to the place which bears his name. Though, after all, I am wrong. He did come back. But when he came, Death, not he, was the conqueror. He died in Babylon, but they brought him hither, to the city built at his command, and here he was buried.”
“Was his lovely horse dead by that time?” asked Diana. “I hope so. Because he would have missed his master.”
“Why, yes,” put in Rachel. “Don’t you remember that Alexander buried him and named a town after him?”
“Of course! How silly of me....” Diana turned expectantly to Dinocrates.
“And about the lighthouse?” she persisted.
“Our ship is about to enter the harbour,” said their companion. “We will land, and go to the spot where the lighthouse finally arose. There I may best tell you its story.”
In a few moments the little vessel on the deck of which they stood, had been safely steered into the harbour between the island of Pharos and the city. At a quay running alongside of the island, they stepped off the ship, and “Dinocrates” led the way to a rock jutting out into the sea. It was a position from which there was a view of the busy harbour, and of the long bridge joining the island to the city, over which passed continually a gaily coloured crowd. Mules with gaudy trappings were driven by shouting boys. Ladies in silken litters were borne along by dark-skinned slaves. Men dressed in tunics like the one worn by “Dinocrates” sauntered by, and from the city itself came a confused hum of voices.
By turning their backs to the bridge the children found the blue sea almost at their feet, stretching away to the distant horizon.
Dinocrates began to speak again, and the water lapping against the rocks close at hand murmured between the pauses of his story.