tly, 'there was not much that those
little people did not know! He told me when Maximus crossed over to
Gaul, after he had made himself Emperor of Britain, and what troops and
emigrants he had taken with him. We did not get the news on the Wall
till fifteen days later. He told me what troops Maximus was taking out
of Britain every month to help him to conquer Gaul; and I always found
the numbers were as he said. Wonderful! And I tell another strange
thing!'

He joined his hands across his knees, and leaned his head on the curve
of the shield behind him.

'Late in the summer, when the first frosts begin and the Picts kill
their bees, we three rode out after wolf with some new hounds.
Rutilianus, our General, had given us ten days' leave, and we had
pushed beyond the Second Wall--beyond the Province of Valentia--into
the higher hills, where there are not even any of old Rome's ruins. We
killed a she-wolf before noon, and while Allo was skinning her he
looked up and said to me, "When you are Captain of the Wall, my child,
you won't be able to do this any more!"

'I might as well have been made Prefect of Lower Gaul, so I laughed and
said, "Wait till I am Captain."

"'No, don't wait," said Allo. "Take my advice and go home--both of
you."

"'We have no homes," said Pertinax. "You know that as well as we do.
We're finished men--thumbs down against both of us. Only men without
hope would risk their necks on your ponies."

The old man laughed one of those short Pict laughs--like a fox barking
on a frosty night. "I'm fond of you two," he said. "Besides, I've
taught you what little you know about hunting. Take my advice and go
home."

"'We can't," I said. "I'm out of favour with my General, for one
thing; and for another, Pertinax has an uncle."

"'I don't know about his uncle," said Allo, "but the trouble with you,
Parnesius, is that your General thinks well of you."

"'Roma Dea!" said Pertinax, sitting up. "What can you guess what
Maximus thinks, you old horse-coper?"

'Just then (you know how near the brutes creep when one is eating?) a
great dog-wolf jumped out behind us, and away our rested hounds tore
after him, with us at their tails. He ran us far out of any country
we'd ever heard of, straight as an arrow till sunset, towards the
sunset. We came at last to long capes stretching into winding waters,
and on a grey beach below us we saw ships drawn up. Forty-seven we
counted--not Roman galleys b