[CHAPTER XX.]
Carmel and Esdraelon.
"Here are boats!" exclaimed the Roman officer, as he drew rein at the place upon the beach from which the Ionian rowers had fled. "Then there were more of these cowardly deserters. If all these boats had remained with the ships, how many brave men might have been rescued! We will search the mountains for these rascals. If Cæsar hath been robbed of two warships by the fire and the rocks, we will at least avenge the shades of our comrades who were left to perish."
An angry man was he, and with good cause so far as these men were concerned, and their crime was well deserving of punishment. He rode away with his horsemen, but there would soon be terrible hunters for blood among the crags of Carmel. There would, however, be a delay of hours before forces could set out from the war garrisons, and meanwhile the Ionians had been pushing their way into the forest.
They were of one accord that it would not be well for them to continue long in one body, attracting attention, and each man was in dread of all his companions, fearing lest their very number should betray him to the sword. They found what seemed a sufficiently hidden camping place and they slept. At their breaking of their fast next morning, having but little to break it with, they were apparently almost cheerful, chatting lightly among themselves concerning their escape. In that country, they said, were great numbers of Greeks, who came and went unquestioned by the authorities. A few more, if scattered here and there, would go unnoted. Not long time need pass before all of them might be upon the sea again and far away, sailing from the many ports of Syria. Not many of them seemed to be warlike men, but it might be understood, in various forms of speech, that among them was no man who grieved for the destruction of Roman keels and Roman soldiers. Rather did some of them mutter that with their will whole legions had perished instead of half a cohort. They believed themselves to be altogether unobserved, but upon them were now gazing eyes of intense hatred from the leafy ambush of some dense thicket at a short distance.
"O ye who hear me," said one of the deserters, loudly, "know ye this! From the first ship that struck the reef and began to burn did some surely get to the land. Like us they are now in Carmel. What shall we do with them?"
"Slay them!" sharply responded several voices. "Lest they prove our ruin. Slay them without mercy!"
One of them was a tall, gray-haired man, with eyes that were set near together and with a pointed nose. His forehead was high and on it was an iron cap. He said:
"If they be too many, make friends with them at the first, but let none escape. I will attend to that."