H&C Leaves Out the Best Parts

I seemed to recall that story that H&C wrote about in his last post on Districted. Which one? Oh, right, there were several. I mean the one about the torture device in the shape of a bull. It's the one in the last half of his last paragraph. I'd like to link directly to it, but single-subject paragraphs are for losers, apparently.

I thought I remembered it because it was tied to some vocabulary word I'd learned long ago. I checked Wikipedia, and found out why I remembered it so vividly: that Greek king tested out his "brazen bull" torture device on the inventor himself.

The inventor was showing the king how the thing worked. "And here is where you place the victim." He unlocked and opened the hatch.

"And you say the screams will really sound like a bull?" the king asked.

"Absolutely," the inventor said. He climbed into the hatch, pointing to the inside of the head. "These tubes have been calibrated to modulate the sound of whatever voice inside into the roar of a maddened bull. See, here is the first valve, where-"

"I can't quite see what you're talking about," said the king.

"It's just under here," the inventor said, kneeling down.

The hatch slammed and the lock clicked shut. The inventor started shouting. The king said, "Hmm, yes, well that doesn't sound quite like a bull. Let's see what he sounds like over a fire."

They put the brazen bull, inventor inside, over the fire. The king waited until the screaming had turned fully bull-like before letting the inventor out.

"Did you hear me... my king... screaming inside?"

"Yes, I did! And it jolly well sounded like a bull, too. Guards, take him to his reward."

And the guards threw the inventor off of a cliff.

Eventually, the king was himself roasted in that bull, but that is another story.