The king sprang outside and called his horsemen.
They ranged themselves in the plain before him in the form of a circle.
Narr' Havas, who was mounted, bent his head and bit his lips. At last he
separated his men into two equal divisions, and told the first to wait;
then with an imperious gesture he carried off the others at a gallop and
disappeared on the horizon in the direction of the mountains.
"Master!" murmured Spendius, "I do not like these extraordinary
chances--the Suffet returning, Narr' Havas going away--"
"Why! what does it matter?" said Matho disdainfully.
It was a reason the more for anticipating Hamilcar by uniting with
Autaritus. But if the siege of the towns were raised, the inhabitants
would come out and attack them in the rear, while they would have the
Carthaginians in front. After much talking the following measures were
resolved upon and immediately executed.
Spendius proceeded with fifteen thousand men as far as the bridge built
across the Macaras, three miles from Utica; the corners of it were
fortified with four huge towers provided with catapults; all the paths
and gorges in the mountains were stopped up with trunks of trees, pieces
of rock, interlacings of thorn, and stone walls; on the summits heaps
of grass were made which might be lighted as signals, and shepherds who
were able to see at a distance were posted at intervals.
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