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He was as pale as white linen, and quaking like a blade of grass in the wind, the very antithesis of the splendid Ares of the fight on the mole. "Your name is Pratinas?" began Cæsar, with the snappish energy of a man who discharges a disagreeable formality.
Looking down, he saw a row of boats rise and fall with the languid swell near her tall side, and the flash of the surf that washed the end of the mole. Then, taking out a cigarette, he strolled towards the captain's room, which stood behind the bridge, and stopped near it in the shadow of a big lifeboat. The room was lighted, and the door and windows were half open because the night was hot.
Its design appeared to be to get between the marmots and their burrows, intercept some of them, and get a hold of them without the trouble of digging them up although that would be no great affair to it, for so strong are its fore-arms and claws that in loose soil it can make its way under the ground as fast as a mole.
With the help of some obliging animals, the hero made himself master of the precious egg and slew the giant by merely striking it against the mole on his right breast. Similarly in a Breton story there figures a giant whom neither fire nor water nor steel can harm.
The Mole ran quickly to comfort the little animal; but Rat, lingering, looked long and doubtfully at certain hoof-marks deep in the sward. "Some great animal has been here," he murmured slowly and thoughtfully; and stood musing, musing; his mind strangely stirred. "Come along, Rat!" called the Mole. "Think of poor Otter, waiting up there by the ford!"
'Want any washing done to-day? They looked at me very proud and stiff and haughty, and said, 'Go away, washerwoman! We don't do any washing on duty. 'Or any other time? says I. Ho, ho, ho! Wasn't I funny, Toad?" "Poor, frivolous animal!" said Toad, very loftily. The fact is, he felt exceedingly jealous of Mole for what he had just done.
They now prepared a select squadron of thirteen ships three of them quinqueremes, three quadriremes, and seven triremes and silently placing on board their best sailors and the best and bravest of their men-at-arms, waited till the hour of noon, when the Cyprian crews would be taking their mid-day meal, and Alexander might be expected, according to his general habit, to have retired to his tent on the opposite side of the mole.
When the Vindictive arrived at a position where it was necessary to alter her course for the Mole, the Warwick, Phoebe and North Star swung to starboard and cruised in the vicinity of the Mole until after the final withdrawal of all the attacking forces.
'Mole, he added incautiously, 'is going out for a run round with Badger. They'll be out till luncheon time, so you and I will spend a pleasant morning together, and I'll do my best to amuse you. Now jump up, there's a good fellow, and don't lie moping there on a fine morning like this!
They hastened on shore, gave the alarm: the gun-boats, of which there were three at the mole, were ordered out, but half the crew and all the officers were on shore, some at balls, others drinking at taverns or posadas; before they could be collected, all three vessels were alongside of the Rebiera: and not aware that anything had been discovered, our hero and his crew were lulled in security.
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