it gleamed like burnished metal; and on the other a crag named Seneh, ‘the Thorny’. Bozez was to the north over against the garrison of the Philistines, and Seneh was to the south in face of Geba. The whole region was rugged, wild and precipitous. But Jonathan knew it as he knew the palm of his hand.

This then was his stratagem: that they two, himself and his armour-bearer, should sally out in disguise when night was down, and having descended into the ravine beneath, should make their way to the foot of the cliff beyond whose summit was the camp of the Philistines, scale it, and attack the outpost that guarded the crag, and as if from the eyrie of an eagle kept watch upon the valleys.

‘Even,’ said Jonathan, ‘if we make this venture alone, thou and I together, against these accursed Philistines, even though it be but a step between us and death, peradventure the Lord will work a wonder, and with his help we shall be the means of rousing all Israel. I am sick to the heart as the days go by in waste and despair. But with God nothing is impossible. And who is to declare how he shall save his people, whether by many or by few, yea, or even by you and me alone?’

And his armour-bearer, who was also young and valiant, vowed that he would follow him to the death. ‘Do all that is in thine heart,’ he said, ‘and I am with thee; my life with thy life. But we must come upon them by stealth. And how shall we scale the crag or even get within bowshot of this outpost and not be seen?’

‘Well said,’ said Jonathan. ‘But to that too I have seen a way out. For see, now: when we have come to the foot of the crag, we will show ourselves, and the watchman looking down and shadowing us out in the darkness will take us for belated night-farers, fugitives from the raiders, who under cover of the dark are stealing home. If, when he challenge us, he cry “Hold! Stand where you are until we come down to you!” then will we wait for them there in our places. But if, boaster that he be, he dare us to come up, then will we go up, and woe be to him!

‘This then shall be the sign to us; if he say “Come!” we will go, and I vow even thou and I alone while still we breathe will show them a wonder! The Lord will have delivered them into our hands. These vile Philistines boast there is not a mouse left stirring in Israel, but Jehovah will fight for us, and that shall be our sign.’

When all that Jonathan had devised was made clear between them, they returned into the camp. They spoke of it to no man, nor did Jonathan say one word concerning his stratagem to his father the king. He knew its dangers, and what small hope there was that he should escape with his life. And he feared that his father might forbid the venture, and prevent him from pursuing it.

On a night of no moon, and when all the camp was still; armed, cloaked and muffled, Jonathan with his armour-bearer stole silently forth from out of his tent. Soon lost to sight in the pitchy dark, they descended into the valley. And no man challenged them. Prowling nocturnal beasts their only company, the dismal yell of roving jackals their sole music, they pressed on through the ravine, strown with sunburned rocks. Its air, though it was night, was parched and hot as an oven. They made their way betwixt the two precipitous crags of Seneh on the one side, dense with thorn and bramble, and Bozez naked and faintly glimmering on the other, their summits looming black against the star-sewn sky.

Not a breath of wind stirred the leaves, the dense ravine was sultry and stagnant, as though bodeful of some strange disaster. But thus these two came out at length at the foot of the lowermost slope of the crag on which was stationed the outpost of the Philistines.

Huge rounded boulders and scrub bushes lay scattered around them; and when they had rested themselves, whispering together, their pulses drumming them on, they stole out from their concealment and showed themselves in the open.

The clatter of their footfall reached the ears of the watchman above. He peered down at them through the gloom, and discerned their motionless shapes against the pallor of the rocks. Whereupon he called


  By PanEris using Melati.

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