Page:Tudor Jenks--The defense of the castle.djvu/96

72 though it had been fired from a greater distance. Edgar walked along the battlements and passed through a tower room, to see why the others had put their mangonel in action. To his amazement, he found Friar Bacon directing the second weapon. The friar smiled as he saw the young lord's surprise.

"I have had some interest in these weapons for several years," said he. "And I have devised a means of increasing their range." And he explained to Edgar how, by raising the lever in the fulcrum, or pivot on which the great throwing arm turned, he was able to make it go through a longer arc, and thus give added force to its throw. "Of course," the friar explained, "there is nothing new in this idea, but I have studied out exactly how long each side of the throwing-beam should be in order to get the best results. You can see for yourself that this mangonel carries further than you had supposed, and we can direct our fire against their machine without their even seeing where the opposing one is placed."

Edgar at once sent one of the men to call Hugh, and the new device was explained to him. He approved it heartily, but objected that they would have to direct their missiles by guess-work.

"Not at all," the friar answered. "Let me have a small boy to call out where the stones