Page:The Song of the Sirens.djvu/182

 rejoined, "and he will not lose one in the river. None is being swept down."

Mago scanned the turbid surface.

"Look there!" he exclaimed, pointing below the herd, now more than half across. Two heads bobbed in the current. They watched them till they gained the banks. Barranith's mahout was one and the boy the other.

"If that little idiot makes any more fuss I'll have him thrown back into the river," said Hannibal savagely.

"Give him a chance," said Mago for the fourth time.

"Where a boy can swim there can I," said Hannibal without replying.

"Don't you venture it," his brother protested. "If we lose you we are all dead men together. Cross in a boat."

"Example counts," snapped Hannibal, "I swim. As for you, off with you. Now is your chance for one of your favorite rear guard actions. Send me all the divisions except your own as promptly as you can. Don't lose more men than you need lose. Take Gisgo and Hasdrubal. I keep the rest."

The two young nobles he designated followed Mago away from the river, the rest followed Hannibal toward it.

As the last elephant scaled the further bank