arm ourselves. The greater portion of our troops will be
assembled behind the wall, and should the Egyptians gain a way through
we should pour in at the openings, and as they can be only reinforced
slowly, would speedily hurl them all over the edge of the cliff. It is
not that I fear."

"What is it that you do fear, Jethro?"

"I fear, prince, because I do not know what it is I have to fear.
We are as children in a struggle of this kind as opposed to the
Egyptians. Already they have wholly overthrown all our calculations,
and it is just because I do not know what they will do next that I am
afraid. It must be as plain to them as it is to us that if they dig
through the walls we shall rush in and overpower them."

"Perhaps they intend to work right and left and to undermine the
walls, until large portions of them tumble over and breaches are
made."

Jethro shook his head.

"That would destroy the Egyptian shelters and bury their workmen; or,
even did they manage to retire before the walls fell, they would gain
nothing by it. In fact, I wish that we ourselves could tumble the
walls over, for in that case the heap of earth and stones would rise
from the very edge of the rock, and as the Egyptians could only
climb up in small numbers at a time, we could destroy them without
difficulty. I see now that our builders made a mistake in surrounding
the city with a high wall; it would have been best to have built a
mere breastwork at the very edge of the cliff all round. Here comes
Amusis; we shall hear what his opinion of the matter is."

Amusis looked flushed and anxious, although when he saw the prince he
assumed an expression of carelessness.

"The Egyptians are going to burrow through our walls," he said; "but
when they do we will drive them like rats out of the holes. Do you not
think so, Jethro?"

"I do not know," Jethro said gravely. "If they dig through our walls
we shall certainly, as you say, drive them out of their holes; but I
cannot believe that that is what they are going to do."

"What do you think they are going to do?" Amusis asked roughly.

"I have no idea, Amusis. I wish that I had; but I am quite sure that
they haven't taken all this trouble for nothing."

CHAPTER III.

CAPTIVE.

So confident were the Rebu that if the Egyptians dug through their
walls, or even threw them down by undermining them, they could repel
their assault, that they took but little heed to the huts established
at