eeding out all those who had in
the conflict among the mountains shown themselves wanting in personal
strength or in military qualities. Giving these leave to return home he
advanced at the head of fifty thousand picked infantry and nine thousand
cavalry.

The company under Malchus had rendered good service during the campaign
of Catalonia. It had accompanied the column marching by the seashore;
with this were the elephants, the treasure, and the heavy baggage of the
army. It had throughout been in advance of the column, feeling the
way, protecting it from ambushes, and dispersing any small bodies of
tribesmen who might have placed themselves on heights, whence with
arrows and slings they could harass the column on its march. The company
had lost comparatively few men in the campaign, for it had taken no part
in the various sieges. Its duties, however, were severe in the extreme.
The men were ever on the watch, scouting the country round, while the
army was engaged in siege operations, sometimes ascending mountains
whence they could command views over the interior or pursuing bands of
tribesmen to their refuges among the hills.

Severely as Malchus had trained himself in every exercise, he found it
at first difficult to support the fatigues of such a life; but every day
his muscles hardened, and by the end of the campaign he was able to keep
on foot as long as the hardest of his men.

One day he had followed a party of the tribesmen far up among the
mountains. The enemy had scattered, and the Arabs in their hot pursuit
had also broken up into small parties. Malchus kept his eye upon the man
who appeared to be the chief of the enemy's party, and pressing hotly
upon him brought him to bay on the face of a steep and rugged gorge.
Only one of the Numidians was at hand, a man named Nessus, who was
greatly attached to his young leader, and always kept close to him in
his expeditions. The savage, a bulky and heavy man, finding he could
no longer keep ahead of his fleet footed pursuers, took his post at a
narrow point in the path where but one could oppose him; and there, with
his heavy sword drawn, he awaited the attack. Malchus advanced to meet
him, sword in hand, when an arrow from Nessus whizzed past him and
struck the chief in the throat, and his body fell heavily down the
rocks.

"That is not fair," Malchus said angrily. "I would fain have fought him
hand to hand."

The Arab bowed his head.

"My lord," he said, "t