The Lion's Slave (4 page)
The Lord of Syracuse gathered the crowds in the main square. He himself stood at the window of the palace. “The people of Syracuse are blessed by the gods,” he cried. “The Romans have their ships and soldiers, but we have Archimedes … the Lion of Syracuse!”
And we all cheered till our throats were sore.
“Roman ships have been sunk,” the Lord went on (to more cheers), “and the rest have been driven out to sea. All thanks to the great inventor, Archimedes!”
Cheers! More cheers and more.
The next morning, I rose from my straw bed to make my master his breakfast. I found him in the garden, kneeling beside the pond. He was using a toy catapult to fire at toy ships on the pond.
“Would you like breakfast, sir?” I asked.
He waved me away with a hand. When he was thinking his great thoughts, no one else mattered.
“In the night, the Romans sailed into our harbour under the cloak of darkness,” he said quickly.
“So? We can sink them with your great war machines.”
He took a pebble and placed it on the toy catapult. “Look … there is a Roman ship in the harbour. I fire a rock.”
He fired. The rock landed in the middle of the pond and missed the little ship.
“So? We can move the catapult
back
!” I said.
“I’ve tried it, simple girl.”
He moved the catapult back. He fired again. This time the rock landed on the edge of the pond.
“See?” he groaned. “It landed
on
the harbour. If we get it wrong, we will shatter our own town. The Romans are clever. They know we can’t fire at them when they are so close.”
I looked at the models and picked up a twig from the garden tree. I took a thread from my tunic and dangled it from the twig. I took a pin and bent it.
“What are you doing, stupid girl?” Archimedes asked.
“When I was a child, I used to fish with my brothers.”
I dangled my little rod over the model ship and hooked it into the air. “If the Romans come too close, we could fish them out of the water!” I laughed.
“Idiot child,” he snapped. “We cannot build a mighty fishing rod. It’s a stupid idea.”
“I know, sir,” I sighed.
Archimedes snapped his fingers. “But if we built a tall crane,” he murmured, taking the rod from my hand. “We could reach out over the harbour and snatch at the Roman ships. Fix a claw on the end, like a crab’s, and snatch them!
Eureka
!”
I covered my mouth with my hand. “Oh, sir, that’s brilliant! Oh, sir, I knew you’d invent something to save us! It’s true what they say!”
“What
do
they say?”
“That you are the cleverest man in Syracuse!”
“We will call it Archimedes’ claw!” he nodded.
You will know that Archimedes’ claw smashed several Roman ships and drove them back.
Again, the Lord of Syracuse gathered the people in the square and told them how great my master was. He paid Archimedes a fortune.
