iles away from the camp, and his friends there would have
no means of knowing the position in which he was placed. They would
no doubt send out all the soldiers in search of the party; but in that
broken wilderness of forest and mountain, it was the merest chance
whether they would find the spot where he was prisoner. Still, it
appeared to him that this was the only possibility of his rescue. The
trees grew thickly together, and he could easily have climbed from that
in which he was stationed to the next, and might so have made his way
for some distance; but as the wolves were watching him, and could see
as well by night as by day, there was no advantage in shifting his
position.

The day passed slowly. The wolves had for the most part withdrawn from
beneath the tree, but a few kept their station there steadily, and
Malchus knew that the rest were only lying beneath the bushes round;
for he could hear their frequent snarling, and sometimes a gray head was
thrust out, and a pair of eager eyes looked hungrily towards him. From
time to time Malchus listened breathlessly in hopes of hearing the
distant shouts of his comrades; but all was still in the forest, and
he felt sure that the wolves would hear anyone approaching before he
should.

Once or twice, indeed, he fancied that by their pricked ears and
attitude of attention they could hear sounds inaudible to him; but the
alarm, if such it was, soon passed away, and it might have been that
they were listening only to the distant footsteps of some stag passing
through the forest. Night came again with its long, dreary hours.
Malchus strapped himself by his belt to the tree to prevent himself from
falling and managed to obtain a few hours of uneasy sleep, waking up
each time with a start, in a cold perspiration of fear, believing that
he was falling into the hungry jaws below. In the morning a fierce
desire to kill some of his foes seized him, and he descended to the
lowest branch.

The wolves, seeing their prey so close at hand, thronged thickly under
it, and strove to leap up at him. Lying down on the bough, and twisting
his legs firmly under it to give him a purchase, Malchus thrust his
sword nearly to the hilt between the jaws, which snapped fiercely as a
wolf sprang to within a few inches of the bough. Several were killed in
this way, and the rest, rendered cautious, withdrew to a short distance.
Suddenly an idea struck Malchus. He took off his belt and formed it
int