In the moonlight he could see that two of the five men ahead of him were members of the Carthaginian horse guard, for the light glittered on their helmets; the other three were, by their attire, natives.  Two of the latter soon separated from the others, and on reaching the better part of the town the two Carthaginians turned down a side street, and in the still night Malchus heard the parting words to their neighbour, “At the same place tomorrow night.”  The remaining native kept straight along the road which Malchus was following.  Still onward he went, and Malchus, to his surprise, saw him go up to one of the side entrances to Hannibal’s palace.  He must have knocked very quietly, or someone must have been waiting to admit him, for without a sound the door was opened and the man entered.

Malchus went round to the principal entrance, and after a little badinage from the officer on guard as to the lateness of the hour at which he returned, made his way to his apartment.

He was puzzled by what he had seen.  It was strange that two of the Carthaginian guard, men necessarily belonging to noble families, should have been at a native gathering of some sort in the upper town.  Strange, too, that a man probably an attendant or slave belonging to the palace should also have been present.  The more he thought of it the more he was puzzled to account for it, and before he went to sleep he came to the resolution that he would, if possible, on the following night discover the object of such a gathering.

Next evening, therefore, he returned from the Syssite early, exchanged his helmet for a skullcap, and, wrapping himself in his cloak, made his way to the house from which he had seen the men come forth.  It stood at the corner of the street.  Thick hangings hung across the openings for the windows, and prevented even a ray of light from finding its way out.  Listening attentively Malchus could hear a low hum of voices within.  As there were still people about he moved away for half an hour.

On his return the street was deserted.  Malchus put his hand through a window opening into the side street and felt that the hanging was composed of rushes tightly plaited together.  With the point of his dagger he very cautiously cut a slit in this, and applying his eye to it was able to obtain a glimpse of the apartment within.  On low stools by a fire two Carthaginians were sitting, while four natives were seated on the rushes which covered the floor.  Malchus recognized the Carthaginians at once, for they were members of the troop in which he had served.  Neither of them were men popular among their fellows, for they belonged to families closely related to Hanno.  They had always, however, professed the greatest admiration for Hannibal, and had declared that for their part they altogether repudiated the doings of the party to which their family belonged.