A few inches nearer and he would have stripped the flesh from my arm, and perhaps broken the limb and shoulder bone." While he was speaking a slave was washing the wound, which he then carefully bandaged up.

A few minutes later the whole party lay down to sleep.

Malchus found it difficult to dose his eyes.

His pulse was still throbbing with excitement, and his mind was busy with the brief but stirring scene of the conflict.
Two or three hours passed, and he felt drowsiness creeping over him, when he heard a sudden challenge, followed instantly by a loud and piercing yell from hundreds of throats.

He sprang in an instant to his feet, as did the other occupants of the tent.
"To arms!" Hamilcar cried; "the enemy are upon us." Malchus caught up his shield and sword, threw his helmet on his head, and rushed out of the tent with his father.
A tremendous din had succeeded the silence which had just before reigned in the desert, and the yells of the barbarians rose high in the air, answered by shouts and loud words of command from the soldiers in the other grove.