For two days we continued our return march without any interruption, and reached the base of the steep ascent that leads to the plateau overlooking the river.
The mounting of this height was a matter of no little difficulty. We had to climb like goats, clinging to rocks and tufts of brushwood, trampling down branches and dry grass, and hardly succeeded, after all, in following the track which the head of the caravan had opened.
Suddenly, about half-way up the slope, the ground sank abruptly, forming a deep ravine that had to be crossed before continuing the ascent. We paused at its brink to recover our breath. Behind us the long line of our sailors and porters was slowly filing through the thicket; in front, yawned the precipitous ravine itself; and opposite to us rose the mountain-side, to its very summit a mass of sombre woods; several eagles were wheeling round above the chasm.
"A fine place for an ambush!" said Hannibal, wiping the perspiration from his forehead, and little dreaming what was in store for us.
Himilco took a draught from the goat-skin that he carried at his side, and heaved a long-drawn sigh:
"Ah!" he said, "it was in just such a plaguy hole as this that I lost my eye ten years ago. I hope the hand that thrust the lance has been rotten long since."
My own experience of the dangers of the land of Tarshish made me very cautious, and with the approval of my two military subordinates, I despatched Hanno and Jonah to the rear to call together the stragglers, and to collect any that might have lost their way in the woods; Bichri and his ten Benjamite archers, and Aminocles with his five companion Phocians, I sent on in front to make their way rapidly across the ravine, and to explore the forest on the opposite side.
Jonah's trumpet was soon heard sounding its call, and very shortly afterwards Bichri and Aminocles were seen entering the wood beyond the hollow. Without suspecting that there was any cause for alarm, I ordered the guide (who was still being watched narrowly by my sailors) to advance, and we began our descent. Some of us had already reached the bottom, and the main body were making their way as best they could down the troublesome incline, when the guide came to a sudden halt. He was about fifty paces ahead, just beginning to re-ascend the hollow. As soon as he stopped, a whistle was distinctly heard from the woods in front, and Himilco called out:
"Look out, captain—look out! there's mischief brewing."
I shouted with all my might to the guide to move on more briskly, and the sailor who had been put in charge of him was in the act of pushing him forward, when the savage made a sudden dive, felled the sailor to the ground, in two or three bounds cleared the intervening space, and disappeared in the adjoining thicket.