scaped."

"That is true enough," Malchus said, "but there must be at least five or
six thousand slaves here. How could these find food among the mountains?
They might exist for a time upon berries and grain, but they would in
the end be forced to go into the valleys for food, and would then be
slaughtered by the Romans. Nevertheless a small body of men could no
doubt subsist among the hills, and the strength of the guard you see on
the heights shows that attempts to escape are not rare. Should we find
our existence intolerable here, we will at any rate try to escape. There
are fifty of us, and if we agreed in common action we could certainly
break through the guards and take to the hills. As you may see by their
faces, the spirit of these slaves is broken. See how bent most of them
are by their labour, and how their shoulders are wealed by the lashes of
their taskmasters!"

The officer in charge of the mines told Malchus that he should not put
him and the other two officers to labour, but would appoint them as
overseers over gangs of the men, informing them that he had a brother
who was at present a captive in the hands of Hannibal; and he trusted
that Malchus, should he have an opportunity, would use his kind offices
on his behalf.

One of the lines of huts near the Roman camp was assigned to the
Carthaginians, and that evening they received rations of almost black
bread similar to those served out to the others. The following morning
they were set to work. Malchus and his two friends found their tasks by
no means labourious, as they were appointed to look after a number of
Sards employed in breaking up and sorting the lead ore as it was brought
up from the mine. The men, however, returned in the evening worn out
with toil. All had been at work in the mines. Some had had to crawl long
distances through passages little more than three feet high and one foot
wide, until they reached the broad lode of lead ore.

Here some of the party had been set to work, others had been employed in
pushing on the little galleries, and there had sat for hours working
in a cramped position, with pick, hammer, and wedge. Others had been
lowered by ropes down shafts so narrow that when they got to the bottom
it was only with extreme difficulty that they were able to stoop to work
at the rock beneath their feet. Many, indeed, of these old shafts have
been found in the mines of Montepone, so extremely narrow that it is
supposed that they