CHAPTER XXXI. THE BATTLE OF TROGLODYTES. I hear the noise of battle tumultuous! It is not on the earth, nor do spectral hosts contend in the cloudy sky; Under my feet it is raging, in the heart of the globe skirmish the struggling armies. The cries of horror, the clash of weapons, the sharp crack of the deadly rifle, Strike dully on my ear, as though the crust of the earth intervened between them fighting, and I listening. Yes, the battle is subterranean! Do the gnomes assault one another Over some new vein of gold but lately discovered? Or do the dead, not rising from stone-sealed sepulchres, Renew those quarrels below, which on earth ended their existence? I know not indeed whether it be the dead or the gnomes, But I hear the noise of battle tumultuous! There was no doubt that a night attack was intended, and that Alcibiades, hoping to take Justinian by surprise, trusted he would be able to break in through the tunnel before his secret arrival was discovered. Unfortunately for himself, he did not know the military alertness of the Demarch, who, warned by the watchfires, marshalled his men with the greatest rapidity, and in the space of half an hour every man on the island was drawn up, under arms, in the space before the Acropolis. The powerful electric light flooded the whole crater, so that the little army manœuvred as though it were day, and in profound silence every man took his place in the ranks, ready to march to the front. Justinian held a hurried council of war with Maurice, Crispin, and Dick, as to the disposal of the troops, for the question was whether Alcibiades would concentrate his forces in the tunnel, and make one bold dash for the island, or, dividing his men into two bodies, attack both entrances simultaneously. Messengers had now arrived from the watchmen on the heights and on the beach, from whose report it appeared that the advancing enemy were all making in a body for the eastern side of the island, therefore the Demarch came to the conclusion that for the present only the tunnel was threatened by the invader. However, to obviate any chance of the western pass being taken by surprise, about thirty men, under the command of Crispin and Dick, marched in that direction, and the remaining eighty-six, with Justinian and his nephew as leaders, took up their station inside the tunnel palisade. Alexandros, of course, remained behind at the Acropolis to attend to the working of the electric lights, which were burning with full power at the western pass and in the tunnel, the middle apparatus being turned off after the departure of the men, so as to increase the brilliance of the other two. Temistocles was employed as a messenger between the two forces, so as to keep the four leaders thoroughly cognizant of what occurred either on the western or eastern side of the island.