sable except at four points,
where the natural features had been so far improved upon that passes of
a sort--narrow ledges for the most part, bounded on one side by a
vertical, unclimbable face of rock and upon the other by an appalling
chasm--had been painfully hewn out of the stubborn granite; and it was
in the direction of these four passes that young Maitland was now
retiring in excellent order, and enticing the enemy to follow him. For
it was in these passes that he expected to win the victory which he
intended to convert finally into a complete, disastrous, panic-stricken
rout of the enemy. To this end he had already made certain
preparations, for news of the completion of which he was anxiously
waiting. And at length the news came; whereupon, having dispatched to
the commanders at the other three points identical sets of instructions,
of a sufficiently elastic character to leave plenty of scope for
initiative on the part of the leaders, he summoned the commanders of his
own division to his tent as soon as the day's fighting was over, and,
having carefully and fully explained his plans to them, gave them
explicit instructions regarding their conduct upon the following day,
and dismissed them. Then, mounting his tired horse, Dick rode off up
the pass at a foot-pace, closely followed by the faithful Mafuta, who,
dog-tired though he was after many long days of strenuous fighting,
chuckled grimly as his young master unfolded his plan of campaign.

The fighting which began with dawn upon the following morning was of a
somewhat different character from that of the preceding days; for
hitherto the Izreelites had always begun the day behind the shelter of
stone walls of some sort, from which it had taken the best part of the
day to dislodge them, and from which, when dislodged, they had been wont
to retreat in more or less good order to the next stronghold in their
rear. But now the last of these fortified positions had been abandoned
and the Izreelite armies had retired--or been driven back, as the enemy
firmly believed--into the mouths of the four passes which led across the
hills to the lake and Bethalia. They had not only entered the mouths of
the passes, but had retired into them, until they had reached certain
spots where the natural configuration of the surrounding hills was of
such a character as to constitute the position a natural fortress
capable of being held and defended by a comparatively small body of