"I, write a book? What a daft idea! But then, General Apollodoros made the same suggestion in Babylon. If I do, I'll surely tell of your help. And the other condition?"
"That you give me a ride on the monster."
"Nought easier."
I pushed through the crowd around the elephant and called up to Kanadas to help the admiral up. I turned the hipparchia over to Klonios, told him to find a camp site, and climbed up on the elephant, too. By now I had overcome some of my feeling that I had to manage every detail of the hipparchia's existence myself.
"Come with us, Vardanas," I called.
"The naval anchorage lies yonder," said Philoxenos, pointing.
Kanadas turned Aias' head. Presently we came to the sailors' village, with long rows of shacks and thousands of sailors and rowers and their slatternly women and swarming children, all of whom rushed up to see the elephant. Philoxenos asked me about Aias' weight, but I had to give him the same answer that I had Menes, to wit, that I knew it not.
There were scores of ships. Many of the smaller ones were hauled out on the beach, whilst the rest rode at anchor off shore. The great majority were common two- and three-bankers, but there were a few larger ships looming over the rest like tuna amongst herrings. Two great gilded fivers were rowing in from exercises.
Philoxenos pointed again. "I think that is our ship, the Destroyer. Ē! Thoas! Bring a boat! Kylon! Run and fetch Iason!"
Presently a boat appeared, rowed by a burly sailor. From the other direction a man came out of the store sheds at the end of the sailors' village and walked along the beach towards us.
"This is Iason of Rhodes, my naval architect," said Philoxenos. "These are Leon of Atrax and Vardanas of Sousa, on a special mission from the king. Tell Iason what you have told me."
I did so, though I had to repeat myself several times because Iason's attention kept wandering to the elephant. Philoxenos added: "We shall row out to the Destroyer to look her over with a view to converting her."
"Oh dear! What a wicked thing to do to such a pretty ship!" said Iason. "A mere floating pigpen—or elephantpen, I ought to say."
"The elephant will make her stink no worse than she does," said Philoxenos. "Let us go."
He and Iason hopped into the boat. I got in more cautiously, knowing that I was no experienced mariner. Vardanas said:
"Leon, had I not better stay here?"
"What for?"
"Well—ah—Kanadas might need help with the elephant."
"Rubbish! Get in."
Looking miserable, he did so, clutching the gunwales. The sailor rowed us out to the Destroyer. This was the biggest ship of all, an eighter. As landlubbers sometimes ask how a ship can have eight banks of oars, let me explain that no ship does, for it would be so high and its uppermost oars so long that rowers could not manage it. The Destroyer had eighty oars arranged in four banks of twenty each, two banks on each side. Five rowers pulled each oar of the upper banks, whilst three pulled each oar of the lower banks. As five and three make eight, the ship was called an eighter.
We climbed a ladder of rope, with wooden rungs, that hung down the side. Sailors helped us over the rail. As we stood on deck at last, Vardanas, looking greener than ever, whispered:
"My first time aboard a ship, Leon! Would it were my last!"
Philoxenos took us on a walk around the mighty ship. The Destroyer was a good sixty paces long, with a raised forecastle bearing two light catapults for throwing darts, and a raised quarter-deck including the officers' cabins and a pair of steering oars. Down the middle of the ship ran a raised grating of sections that could be taken up. Philoxenos stepped into an open section of the grating and led us down a ladder to the oar deck.
Here all was dark and cavernous, the only light being that which came through the oar ports and the grating overhead. The oar deck was empty of life, save for mice. Though the ship was in commission, the rowers came aboard only when it was about to put out. The place stank. The oars lay lengthwise in bundles.
Philoxenos looked about, fingering his beard. "What make you of it, Iason?"
The Rhodian said: "Maybe we could take out the middle third of the rowers' benches and make a pen in their place. How much space does your little old monster need, Hipparch?"
"He should have room to turn around in. He is about seven cubits high and ten cubits long."
"That would mean taking out at least seven or eight rowing spaces on each side—"
There was a loud thump, followed by curses in Persian. Vardanas, the tallest present, had struck his head on an overhead beam.
"That made me see stars all right," he said, rubbing his head. "If it be too low for me, how would you ever get an elephant in here?"
"A right smart point, blessed one," said Iason. "Can you make him lie down for the whole voyage?"
"I'm sure not," I said. "Certainly he could never crawl into a low space like a badger creeping into its hole."
"Then there's nothing for it but to take up a section of the main deck, letting the elephant's back show to the whole world."
"Do not take it up clear across the ship," said Philoxenos. "It would make it too hard to get from bow to stern."
"I can leave a catwalk two planks wide on each side." Iason hopped down to the lowest part of the oar deck, next to the side of the ship. He stamped on the floor boards. "Look here, you-all, these planks would never, never hold that weight. Your monster's feet would go through the bottom of the ship as if it was papyrus."
Philoxenos said: "There are those timbers we salvaged from the wreck of the Arrogant. Could we lay a course of them over the regular floor, at right angles to the planks?"
"I should think so, if we sawed them to size."
I said: "I see not how you plan to get Aias on and off the ship. There are no cranes or hoists in the world for lifting such a weight."
Iason said: "Tell you what: I'll build a ramp down from the main deck to the oar deck. How steep a slope can the elephant walk?"
"I know not, though I should think you could work it by running the ramp the length of the pen."
Iason clapped a hand to his forehead. "By the Dog! Here's the worst obstacle yet! I daren't put the elephant anywhere but right in the center of the ship, for fear he'll make it list or ride out of trim. But that's where the mast is."
"We can unship the mast for the voyage to Peiraieus," said Philoxenos. "This time of year the winds are too strong and gusty for safe sailing anyway. For that matter, you will have to take out some of these pillars."
"I can't take out too many, lest the hull be weakened."
Philoxenos touched an overhead beam. "But these deck girders will have to go, as they are right where the elephant's body will be. Without the girders your pillars will be mere posts, serving no purpose but for the elephant to scratch himself against."
"Herakles!" said Iason. "That's true. Let me think. Let's not get hasty, best ones, or we're liable to send both ship and creature to the bottom of the Aegean."
Vardanas paled at these words. At last Iason said: "I reckon I can run some heavy timbers along the stringer angles to strengthen the sides, in that way making up for the loss of the girders."
"We must block the oar ports in the waist, too," said Philoxenos.
"That's all very grand," I said, "but how shall Aias reach the deck?"
Philoxenos said: "We can build a mole out to deep water. I have enough idle rowers and sailors, eating their heads off at three or four oboloi a day, to do the job in a few days."
"Then how shall we get him off at Peiraieus?"
"They have some real fine piers there," said Iason.
"Aye, but how high from the water are the tops of these piers?"