but it was not doing him much good to have to sit
and fight so much. He wanted quick and decisive victories, not these
long, agonizing battles that were crippling and killing thousands of
good men on both sides. But he found this city just as much of an
obstacle as the first.
25 The enemy used every trick he used before, and, a new one. He had
dug a deep ditch around the entire city, and flooded it from the river.
They would have to fill it before they could build siege towers and
bring them up.
26 The Hawk didn't like THAT idea. For days he tried to find something
way into the city, but the enemy had thought of everything! "You know,"
said one of his mountain men one night, "these walls aren't smooth.
They did a terrible job of fitting the stones. We could climb this
thing."
27 "You could?" gasped The Hawk.
28 The man started to step forward, and The Hawk pulled him back. "Not
now," he warned, "tonight. We're being watched!"
29 That evening hundreds of mountaineers carrying ropes slipped up to
the wall on one side of the city. They wore no armor and had their
light shields on their backs. Silently, surely, they disappeared up the
wall into the darkness.
30 The Hawk and his men waited below. Others waited near the gates. As
they waited there was a sudden 'thud' and an enemy soldier lay at The
Hawk's feet.
31 "Good Lords!" whispered one of the men, "If he had hit you..."
32 "Let's not think about it!" answered The Hawk, shivering. A few
minutes later the ropes came down. The rope ladders were tied on,
hauled up, and the rest of the men started their climb. The Hawk had
just