"Caleb. What's yours?"
"Solomon; but they don't call me that. They call me Mephibosheth, because Mephibosheth was lame in his feet; that is, they call me Meph because the whole word takes too much breath, and folks need all they've got, especially in such travelling as this."
The night wore wearily away. Once old Mattathias joined the little group, but only for a few moments; for though the conduct of the expedition was left to the younger men, chiefly his five sons, the responsibility of the movement rested with the venerable priest. Once Judas came to them, but it was only to insist that the daughter of Elkiah should make use of a rude palanquin, which two strong-limbed men carried between them upon two poles. This Deborah refused, and, footsore and weary though she was, trudged by its side while the bearers conveyed a sick woman with her babe at her breast.
In the early dawn the fugitives threaded the wild, narrow ravine in the neighborhood of Michmash, once the scene of the adventures of Prince Jonathan, during the wars of Saul against the Philistines. As the day advanced, women and children sought rest and shelter among the caverns and chasms which made that region frightful in days of peace, but a welcome retreat to those whom the troublous times had ejected from better homes. Here, at Judas' advice, Mattathias decided to halt the little host. All fell to work building the defenses which they would surely need in coming dangers, and which became ever after famous as the eyrie whence the Maccabæan eagles, those sons of Mattathias, swooped down upon the Syrian prey.
Rapidly the natural rocks grew into an orderly fortification. Loose stone walls were built between the outcropping ledges, until a vast space was enclosed and divided into compartments, where a few defenders could withstand many assailants, and to capture which would be for the victors to fasten themselves into slaughter pens. Across the top of the natural chasms were laid poles covered with brushwood, which screened the people from the sun by day and from the dews by night. Great boulders scattered over the adjacent fields were connected by ditches, which were so roofed that, while they effectually obscured those passing beneath, they were at the same time pitfalls for any intruders. Each great rock thus became an outlying fortress, behind which, day and night, lay wary men.
At one place was a rude forge, where all sorts of iron implements were wrought into weapons; reversing the ancient prediction, for plowshares were now beaten into swords, and pruning-hooks into spears.
Day by day even the women and children were practised in archery, and learned to hurl the javelin and sling stones; while the men were drilled in companies to execute manœuvres which the genius of Judas devised, and which were especially adapted to warfare in the craggy battlements of the hills. Far and wide scouts answered one another with mysterious signals, quick flashes at night, and sounds by day in which the cries of birds and beasts were imitated according to a code prepared by Jonathan. The country for leagues about was thus practically under one eye and one voice of command.
One evening Judas came to the little enclosure of rocks which the respect and sympathy of the people had assigned to the privacy of Deborah. It was screened by a coarse matting, which served both as door and wall.
"This is no place for the daughter of Elkiah," said the young man. "I have come to ask that you allow half a score of our brave men to escort you to a spot of more safety and comfort. The strong castle of Masada, in the wilderness by the Sea of Salt, will prove impregnable to any attack. The journey will not be more difficult than remaining here."