ng the
passage.

Four days' march up the Rhone brought Hannibal to the point where the
Isere runs into that river. He crossed it, and with his army entered the
region called by Polybius "The Island," although the designation is an
incorrect one, for while the Rhone flows along one side of the triangle
and the Isere on the other, the base is formed not by a third river, but
by a portion of the Alpine chain.

Malchus and his band had been among the first to push off from the
shore when the army began to cross the Rhone. Malchus was in a roughly
constructed canoe, which was paddled by Nessus and another of his men.
Like most of the other canoes, their craft soon became waterlogged,
for the rapid and angry current of the river, broken and agitated by so
large a number of boats, splashed over the sides of the clumsy canoes,
which were but a few inches above the water. The buoyancy of the wood
was sufficient to float them even when full, but they paddled slowly and
heavily.

The confusion was prodigious. The greater part of the men, unaccustomed
to rowing, had little control over their boats. Collisions were
frequent, and numbers of the boats were upset and their occupants
drowned. The canoe which carried Malchus was making fair progress, but,
to his vexation, was no longer in the front line. He was urging the
paddlers to exert themselves to the utmost, when Nessus gave a sudden
cry.

A horse which had broken loose from its fastenings behind one of the
barges was swimming down, frightened and confused at the din. It was
within a few feet of them when Nessus perceived it, and in another
moment it struck the canoe broadside with its chest. The boat rolled
over at once, throwing its occupants into the water. Malchus grasped the
canoe as it upset, for he would instantly have sunk from the weight of
his armour. Nessus a moment later appeared by his side.

"I will go to the other side, my lord," he said, "that will keep the
tree from turning over again."

He dived under the canoe, and came up on the opposite side, and giving
Malchus his hand across it, there was no longer any fear of the log
rolling over. The other rower did not reappear above the surface.
Malchus shouted in vain to some of the passing boats to pick him up, but
all were so absorbed in their efforts to advance and their eagerness to
engage the enemy that none paid attention to Malchus or the others in
like plight. Besides, it seemed probable that all, if the