But he
could think of no way of rescuing them, for the city absolutely boiled
with frantic, mixed-up castes and creeds picked at random, and thrown
in at random from the whole of India. A mouse could not have passed
through the streets undetected! And yet, from a soldier's point of
view, there were certain fascinating details to be noticed about that
powder-magazine. In the first place, it had been constructed for
a granary by an emperor who never heard of Joseph, but who had the
same ideal plan for cornering the people's food-supply. And since
labor had been unlimited, and cheap, he had gone about building the
thing on the most thoroughly unpractical and most pretentious plan
that he and his architects could figure out. It was big enough to
hold about ten times as much grain as the province could grow in
any one year of plenty. And, since that was the least practical
and most ungranary-like shape, he had caused it to be built like
an enormous beehive, with a tiny platform at the top.
Winding round and round the huge stone dome, and on the outside, was
a six-foot-wide trail, which was the elevator.
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