ely tried the feet of the soldiers, these being
in most cases unprotected even by sandals. Malchus and his mounted
companions did not of course suffer in their feet. But they were almost
as glad as the infantry when the camping place was reached, for nothing
is more fatiguing to a horseman than to be obliged to travel in the
saddle for ten hours at the pace of footmen. The halting place this
time was near the upper edge of the forest which then clothed the lower
slopes of the mountains.

Enough meat had been killed on the previous evening for three days'
rations for the troops, and there was therefore no loss of time in
preparing the meal. Wood, of course, was in abundance, and the pots
were soon hanging from thick poles placed above the fires. The night was
exceedingly cold, and the soldiers were grateful for the shelter which
the trees afforded from the piercing wind which blew across the snow
covered peaks of the higher range of mountains.

"What is that noise?" Malchus asked one of the officers as, after the
meal was finished and silence began to reign in the camp, a deep sound
was heard in the forest.

"That is the howling of a pack of wolves," the officer said. "They are
savage brutes, and when in company will not hesitate to attack small
parties of men. They abound in the mountains, and are a scourge to
the shepherds of the plains, especially in the cold weather, when they
descend and commit terrible damage among the flocks."

"I thought I did not know the sound," Malchus said. "The nights were
noisy enough sometimes at the southern edge of the desert. The packs
of jackals, with their sharp yelping cry, abounded; then there was the
deeper note of the hyenas, and the barking cry of troops of monkeys, and
the thundering roar of the lions. They were unpleasant enough, and at
first used to keep one awake; but none of them were so lugubrious
as that mournful howl I hear now. I suppose sometimes, when there is
nothing else to do, we get up hunting parties?"

"Yes," the officer replied; "it is the chief amusement of our garrisons
in winter among the wild parts of the country. Of course, near
Carthagena these creatures have been eradicated; but among the mountains
they abound, and the carcass of a dead horse is sure to attract plenty
of them. It is a sport not without danger; and there are many instances
where parties of five or six have gone out, taking with them a carcass
to attract the wolves, and have never retu