to throw great stones and other missiles into the cities they sit
down against. They ran it up just beyond bowshot of the walls, and
clamped it firmly down with stakes and ropes to the earth. Then
setting their lean arms to the windlasses, they drew back the great
tree which formed the spring till its tethering place reached the
ground, and in the cradle at its head they placed one of the
prisoners, bound helplessly, so that he could not throw himself
over the side.

Then the rude, savage, skin-clad mob stood back, and one who
had appointed himself engineer knocked back the catch that held the
great spring in place.

With a whir and a twang the elastic wood flung upwards, and
the bound man was shot away from its tip with the speed of a
lightning flash. He sang through the air, spinning over and over
with inconceivable rapidity, and the great crowd of rebels held
their breath in silence as they watched. He passed high above the
city wall, a tiny mannikin in the distance now, and then the
trajectory of his flight began to lower. The spike of a new-built
pyramid lay in the path of his terrific flight, and he struck it
with a thud whose sound floated out to us afterwards, and then he
toppled down out of our sight, leaving a red stain on the whiteness
of the stone as he fell.

With a roar the crowd acknowledged the success of their
device, and bellowed out insults to Phorenice, and insults to the
Gods: a poor frantic crowd they showed themselves. And then with
ravening shouts, they fell upon the other captive warder, binding
him also into a compact helpless missile, and meanwhile getting the