ut the raven-winged ships from the North
where Rome does not rule. Men moved in the ships, and the sun flashed
on their helmets--winged helmets of the red-haired men from the North
where Rome does not rule. We watched, and we counted, and we wondered,
for though we had heard rumours concerning these Winged Hats, as the
Picts called them, never before had we looked upon them.

"'Come away! come away!" said Allo. "My Heather won't protect you
here. We shall all be killed!" His legs trembled like his voice. Back
we went--back across the heather under the moon, till it was nearly
morning, and our poor beasts stumbled on some ruins.

'When we woke, very stiff and cold, Allo was mixing the meal and water.
One does not light fires in the Pict country except near a village.
The little men are always signalling to each other with smokes, and a
strange smoke brings them out buzzing like bees. They can sting, too!

"'What we saw last night was a trading-station," said Allo. "Nothing
but a trading-station."

"'I do not like lies on an empty stomach," said Pertinax. "I suppose"
(he had eyes like an eagle's)--"I suppose that is a trading-station
also?" He pointed to a smoke far off on a hill-top, ascending in what
we call the Picts' Call:---Puff--double-puff: double-puff--puff! They
make it by raising and dropping a wet hide on a fire.

"'No," said Allo, pushing the platter back into the bag. "That is for
you and me. Your fate is fixed. Come."

'We came. When one takes Heather, one must obey one's Pict--but that
wretched smoke was twenty miles distant, well over on the East coast,
and the day was as hot as a bath.

"'Whatever happens," said Allo, while our ponies grunted along, "I want
you to remember me." "'I shall not forget," said Pertinax. "You have
cheated me out of my breakfast."

"What is a handful of crushed oats to a Roman?" he said. Then he
laughed his laugh that was not a laugh.

"What would you do if you were a handful of oats being crushed between
the upper and lower stones of a mill?"

"'I'm Pertinax, not a riddle-guesser," said Pertinax.

"'You're a fool," said Allo. "Your Gods and my Gods are threatened by
strange Gods, and all you can do is to laugh."

"'Threatened men live long," I said.

"'I pray the Gods that may be true," he said. "But I ask you again not
to forget me."

'We climbed the last hot hill and looked out on the eastern sea, three
or four miles off. There was a small