them to the very last man had not Dick
personally, and by means of imperative messages persistently reiterated,
stayed the slaughter, by pointing out that the victory was too decisive
and complete for further aggression to ever again become a possibility;
and that a too relentless pursuit of already desperate men could but
result in a further loss of life among the Izreelites themselves. Even
this representation, forcibly as it appealed to a people who regarded
the lives of their men-kind as the most precious possession of the
nation, scarcely sufficed to curb their lust for further slaughter, for
they had become, for the moment, human tigers who, having tasted blood,
abandoned their prey only with the utmost reluctance and with much
savage snarling of discontent and disappointment. But at length the
obvious soundness of Dick's reasoning gained recognition and acceptance
by the Izreelite chiefs, who finally persuaded their followers to
content themselves with the mere ejectment of the insignificant remnants
of the enemy beyond the frontier.

Meanwhile Dick, having paid a flying visit to Bethalia, to satisfy
himself that all was well in that quarter, made arrangements for the
immediate reconstruction of those portions of the roads through the
passes that had been broken down, in order to check the advance of the
invaders. This was temporarily accomplished by the building of rough
bridges across the gaps; but, fully recognising how important a part had
been played by those gaps, he sketched out a scheme whereby they should
be made permanent, spanned by substantial drawbridges, and defended at
the inner extremity by strongly fortified gateways. This scheme he laid
before the Elders, who immediately approved of it, and ultimately the
work was carried out.

But long before that many things had happened. In the first place the
victorious Izreelites, having shepherded the last of the fugitives over
the border, had returned in triumph, each to his own home, and had set
to work to repair the devastation wrought by the fighting on the lands
that lay outside the circle of the protecting hills. This was
considerably less than had been anticipated; for, so certain had Mokatto
and his colleagues been of victory that they had issued the most
stringent orders against any wanton destruction of property, the result
being that such damage as had accrued had only amounted to what was
inevitable in the course of a stubbornly conteste