ed in a
wood.

No fires were lit, for they knew not how close the Carthaginians might
be behind them. Malchus was bound hand and foot and thrown down in their
midst. There was no sleep that night. Half the party remained on watch,
the others sat together round the spot where Malchus lay and
discussed the disastrous events of the day--the great flotilla of the
Carthaginians, the sudden attack in their rear, the destruction of their
camp, the capture of the whole of their goods, and the slaughter and
defeat which had befallen them.

As their dialect differed but little from that of the Gauls in the
Carthaginian service, Malchus was enabled to understand the greater part
of their conversation, and learned that the only reason why he was not
put to death at once was that they wished to keep him until beyond the
risk of pursuit of the Carthaginians, when he could be sacrificed to
their gods formally and with the usual ceremonies.

All the time that they were talking Malchus listened anxiously for any
sudden outbreak which would tell that Nessus had been discovered. That
the Numidian had followed on their traces and was somewhere in the
neighbourhood Malchus had no doubt, but rescue in his present position
was impossible, and he only hoped that his follower would find that this
was so in time and would wait for a more favourable opportunity. The
night passed off quietly, and in the morning the natives continued their
march. After proceeding for three or four hours a sudden exclamation
from one of them caused the others to turn, and in the distance a
black mass of horsemen was seen approaching. At a rapid run the natives
started off for the shelter of a wood half a mile distant. Malchus was
forced to accompany them. He felt sure that the horsemen were a party
of Hannibal's cavalry, and he wondered whether Nessus was near enough to
see them, for if so he doubted not that he would manage to join them and
lead them to his rescue.

Just before they reached the wood the natives suddenly stopped, for,
coming from the opposite direction was another body of cavalry. It
needed not the joyous shouts of the natives to tell Malchus that these
were Romans, for they were coming from the south and could only be a
party of Scipio's cavalry. The natives halted at the edge of the wood
to watch the result of the conflict, for the parties evidently saw each
other, and both continued to advance at full speed. The Roman trumpets
were sounding,