nobserved.

On the previous afternoon, John had dispatched Jonas to Abila, and
he had returned with a number of cows' horns. Round the fire in the
evening, the men had set to work to pierce the points with heated
arrowheads, and had converted them into instruments capable of
giving a deep, prolonged sound. On the return of the scouts, John
set his men in motion.

"We cannot fight them, today, but we can hinder their work. We will
scatter through the forest and, as we approach them, each is to
sound his horn; and continue to do so, from time to time. The
Romans will think that a great force is advancing against them."

This was done, with the effect John had anticipated. Hearing the
sound of horns, all over the mountainside, the Romans concluded
that a great force was advancing to attack them; and the archers
were at once recalled. The troops all stood to arms and, for
several hours, remained waiting an attack. Then, after strong
bodies of heavy-armed troops--preceded by the archers, skirmishing
before them--had pushed some distance into the forest without
meeting with an enemy, the work recommenced; a considerable number
still standing to their arms, as protectors to the rest.

Although a certain amount of time had been gained, for the city, by
the interruption of the work of bringing in timber, John had
undertaken these sham attacks rather with the purpose of
accustoming his band to work together, and to give them confidence,
than with the view of troubling the Romans. In this he was
perfectly successful. The band, when they reached their camp, that
evening, were in high spirits. They had, for two days, puzzled and
baffled a large Roman force; had inflicted some loss upon them, and
forced them to desist from their work. They were pleased with
themselves, and their leader; and had lost much of the dread of the
Romans which the capture of Jotapata, Japha, and Tarichea, and the
tales of their cruelty and ferocity, had excited among the whole
population.

A reverse, at the commencement of their work, would have been
fatal; and John had felt that, however earnest the men were, in
their determination to die fighting for their country, the loss of
a few of their number at the outset would have so dispirited the
rest that the probability was that the band would disperse--or
would, at any rate, be unwilling to undertake any desperate
operation. But in their present mood they were ready for any
enterprise upon which he m