detour round the camp
and continued their way for some hours, then they left the track that
the army would follow, and, after walking for about a mile, lay down
among some bushes and were soon asleep.

In the morning they agreed that before proceeding further it was
absolutely necessary to obtain some food. Malchus had been fed when
among the Romans, but Nessus had had nothing from the morning when he
had been upset in the Rhone four days before, save a manchet of bread
which he had found in one of the tents he had entered. Surveying the
country round carefully, the keen eye of the Arab perceived some light
smoke curling up at the foot of the hills on their right, and they at
once directed their course towards it. An hour's walking brought them
within sight of a native village.

As soon as they perceived it they dropped on their hands and knees and
proceeded with caution until within a short distance of it. They were
not long in discovering a flock of goats browsing on the verdure in some
broken ground a few hundred yards from the village. They were under the
charge of a native boy, who was seated on a rock near them. They made
their way round among the brushwood until they were close to the spot.

"Shall I shoot him?" Nessus asked, for he had carried his bow and arrows
concealed in his attire as a Roman soldier.

"No, no," Malchus replied, "the lad has done us no harm; but we must
have one of his goats. His back is towards us, and, if we wait, one of
them is sure to come close to us presently."

They lay quiet among the bushes until, after a delay of a quarter of an
hour, a goat, browsing upon the bushes, passed within a yard or two of
them.

Nessus let fly his arrow, it passed almost through the animal, right
behind its shoulder, and it fell among the bushes. In an instant
Nessus was upon it, and, grasping its mouth tightly to prevent it from
bleating, cut its throat. They dragged it away until a fall in the
ground hid them from the sight of the natives, then they quickly skinned
and cut it up, devoured some of the meat raw, and then, each taking a
leg of the animal, proceeded upon their way.

They now walked without a halt until, late in the evening, they came
down upon the spot where the Carthaginian army had crossed. It was
deserted. Going down to the edge of the river they saw the great rafts
upon which the elephants had crossed.

"We had best go on a mile or two ahead," Nessus said, "the Roman cavalry
m