23 "Let's try a little bombardment first," he
suggested. "The enemy knows the secret of our kites. He used them
against us at Lo, himself. But there's always a chance they've been
careless, and we can get a few fires going. "
24 So all that night their kites rose high over the city, dropping their loads again and again. They saw little
flame, but in the morning a steady black column of smoke rose by the
corner of the wall. "They've got a problem in there!" announced The First Speaker,
"We've started something they can't put out!"
25 As the day passed the smoke grew thicker. A man walking up
to the wall touched it. "Wow!" he cried, "That's hot! It must be worse
than it looks!"
26 "Water," ordered Gray Goat, "bring water; lots and lots of water. "
27 The men obeyed. Gray Goat threw a bucket of water on the hot stone.
It hissed, but to his disappointment, didn't crack. "It was a good
idea," commented one of the men. "If we could've cracked enough of
them, part of the wall might have fallen."
28 He threw another bucket. Nothing happened. Then, Gray Goat noticed
something. The water had washed out the dirt under the stone. The
stones of the wall only sank a few inches into the ground! "They must
be huge!" he thought. "Can we undermine them?"
29 "As long as that fire burns," answered one of the Warlocks, "and
they can't get men above us."
30 "No good," answered Gray Goat. "It will take days. That fire can't
burn more than a few hours. These damned walls are so smooth even our
people can't climb them! It wouldn't do us any good, anyway. We
couldn't live in that smoke anymore than THEY can."
Page
563