Finally he wet all the sponges thoroughly and wound
coarse cloths loosely round them to keep in as much of the water as
possible. By pouring on water from time to time the soft wood was to
be ultimately wet through, the wicks leading the moisture constantly
inward, and in the end the great block must inevitably be split into
halves. It is the prehistoric method, and there never was any other
way of cleaving very hard stone until gunpowder first brought in
blasting. It is slow, but it is quite sure.
The place where the two men had been working was many feet below the
level of the courtyard, but the porter could now and then hear the
sound of blows echoing underground through the vast empty cellars,
even when he stood near the great entrance.
Toto heard the noise too, one day, as he was standing still to light
his pipe in the Vicolo dei Soldati. When it struck his ear he let the
match burn out till it singed his horny fingers. His expression became
even more blank than usual, but he looked up and down the street, to
see if he were alone, and upward at the windows of the house opposite.
Nobody was in sight, but in order to place his ear close to the wall
and listen, he made a pretence of fastening his shoe-string. The sound
came to him from very far beneath, regular as the panting of an
engine.
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