“It is a mere nothing,” Giscon said.

“Nay,” Hamilcar replied, “it is an ugly scratch, Giscon; he has laid open your arm from the shoulder to the elbow as if it were by the cut of a knife.”

“It served me right for being too rash,” Giscon said.  “I thought he was nearly dead, and approached with my sword to give him a finishing thrust.  When he struck viciously at me I sprang back, but one of his claws caught my shoulder.  A few inches nearer and he would have stripped the flesh from my arm, and perhaps broken the limb and shoulder bone.”

While he was speaking a slave was washing the wound, which he then carefully bandaged up.  A few minutes later the whole party lay down to sleep.  Malchus found it difficult to dose his eyes.  His pulse was still throbbing with excitement, and his mind was busy with the brief but stirring scene of the conflict.

Two or three hours passed, and he felt drowsiness creeping over him, when he heard a sudden challenge, followed instantly by a loud and piercing yell from hundreds of throats.  He sprang in an instant to his feet, as did the other occupants of the tent.

“To arms!” Hamilcar cried; “the enemy are upon us.”

Malchus caught up his shield and sword, threw his helmet on his head, and rushed out of the tent with his father.

A tremendous din had succeeded the silence which had just before reigned in the desert, and the yells of the barbarians rose high in the air, answered by shouts and loud words of command from the soldiers in the other grove.  The elephants in their excitement were trumpeting loudly; the horses stamped the ground; the draught cattle, terrified by the din, strove to break away.

Large numbers of dark figures occupied the space some two hundred yards wide between the groves.  The general’s guards, twenty in number, had already sprung to their feet and stood to arms; the slaves and attendants, panic stricken at the sudden attack, were giving vent to screams and cries and were running about in confusion.

Hamilcar sternly ordered silence.

“Let each man,” he said, “take a weapon of some kind and stand steady.  We are cut off from the main body and shall have to fight for our lives.  Do you,” he said to the soldiers, “lay aside your spears and shoot quickly among them.  Fire fast.  The great object is to conceal from them the smallness of our number.”

Moving round the little grove Hamilcar posted the slaves at short distances apart, to give warning should the enemy be attempting an attack upon the other sides, and then returned to the side facing the other grove, where the soldiers were keeping up a steady fire at the enemy.

The latter were at present concentrating their attention upon their attack upon the main body.  Their scouts on the hills during the previous day had no doubt ascertained that the Carthaginian force was encamped here, and the occupants of the smaller grove would fall easy victims after they had dealt with the main body.  The fight was raging furiously here.  The natives had crept up close before they were discovered by the sentries, and with a fierce rush they had fallen upon the troops before they had time to seize their arms and gather in order.