By the third day, Vol began to see evidence of another threat. He was quite certain that the enemy was doing it merely for show, but the fact remained that the threat was a worthy one. Those gold commanders had a good number of their men drop close to the castle throughout the day, with mud-covered pickaxes and spades in their hands, and mud in their clothes. The threat was as clear as it had been with the pagans – they wanted them to believe that they were going to make a tunnelling attempt under their walls.
"How realistic do you suppose that to be?" Penelope had asked Vol. She'd seemed particularly concerned about that line of action.
"Not very. It would take weeks at the distance they're starting at," Vol had replied. His instincts had been almost certain, but on that too, apparently, they were unable to draw a proper conclusion, leaving him far too deeply in the dark on it.
