“By nightfall we reached this valley.  The next morning we set to work and cut a number of strong levers, then we went up on the hillside to where you saw us, and I posted them all behind the rocks.  We spent all the day loosing stones and placing them in readiness to roll down, and were then prepared for your coming.  At nightfall I assembled them all, and put a guard over them.  We posted them again at daybreak yesterday, but watched all day in vain, and here we should have remained for a month if necessary, as I should have sent down some of the boys for more provisions when those they brought were gone.  However, I was right glad when I saw you coming today, for it was dull work.  I would have killed the whole of these treacherous savages if I had not been afraid of injuring you and the men.  As it was I was in terrible fright when the stones went rushing down at you.  One of our men has been killed, I see; but there was no help for it.”

The whole party then proceeded down the valley.  On emerging from the hills Trebon told his improvised army that they could return to their village, as he had no further need of their services, and, delighted at having escaped without damage or injury, they at once proceeded on their way.

“We had best halt here for the night,” Trebon said, “and in the morning I will start off with the mounted men and get some horses from one of the villages for the rest of you.  No doubt they are all pretty well stripped of fighting men.”

The next day the horses were obtained, and Malchus, seeing that, now he had lost all the presents intended for the chiefs, it would be useless to pursue his mission further, especially as he had learned that the Roman agents had already been at work among the tribes, returned with his party to Hannibal’s camp.

“I am sorry, Malchus,” the Carthaginian general said, when he related his failure to carry out the mission, “that you have not succeeded, but it is clear that your failure is due to no want of tact on your part.  The attack upon you was evidently determined upon the instant you appeared in sight of the village, for men must have been sent out at once to summon the tribe.  Your friend Trebon behaved with great intelligence in the matter of your rescue, and I shall at once promote him a step in rank.”

“I am ready to set out again and try whether I can succeed better with some of the other chiefs if you like,” Malchus said.

“No, Malchus, we will leave them alone for the present.  The Romans have been beforehand with us, and as this man was one of their principal chiefs, it is probable that, as he has forsaken his alliance with us, the others have done the same.  Moreover, the news of his death, deserved as it was, at the hands of a party of Carthaginians, will not improve their feelings towards us.  Nothing short of a general movement among the hill tribes would be of any great advantage to us, and it is clear that no general movement can be looked for now.  Besides, now that we see the spirit which animates these savages, I do not care to risk your loss by sending you among them.”