o Numidian cohorts, the Dacians
all, and half the Belgians. It was like an eagle pecking a carcass.

"'And now, how many catapults have you?" He turned up a new list, but
Pertinax laid his open hand there.

"'No, Caesar," said he. "Do not tempt the Gods too far. Take men, or
engines, but not both; else we refuse."' 'Engines?' said Una.

'The catapults of the Wall--huge things forty feet high to the
head--firing nets of raw stone or forged bolts. Nothing can stand
against them. He left us our catapults at last, but he took a Caesar's
half of our men without pity. We were a shell when he rolled up the
lists!

"'Hail, Caesar! We, about to die, salute you!" said Pertinax,
laughing. "If any enemy even leans against the Wall now, it will
tumble."

"'Give me the three years Allo spoke of," he answered, "and you shall
have twenty thousand men of your own choosing up here. But now it is a
gamble--a game played against the Gods, and the stakes are Britain,
Gaul, and perhaps Rome. You play on my side?"

"'We will play, Caesar," I said, for I had never met a man like this
man.

"Good. Tomorrow," said he, "I proclaim you Captains of the Wall before
the troops."

'So we went into the moonlight, where they were cleaning the ground
after the Games. We saw great Roma Dea atop of the Wall, the frost on
her helmet, and her spear pointed towards the North Star. We saw the
twinkle of night-fires all along the guard-towers, and the line of the
black catapults growing smaller and smaller in the distance. All these
things we knew till we were weary; but that night they seemed very
strange to us, because the next day we knew we were to be their masters.

'The men took the news well; but when Maximus went away with half our
strength, and we had to spread ourselves into the emptied towers, and
the townspeople complained that trade would be ruined, and the autumn
gales blew--it was dark days for us two. Here Pertinax was more than
my right hand. Being born and bred among the great country houses in
Gaul, he knew the proper words to address to all--from Roman-born
Centurions to those dogs of the Third--the Libyans. And he spoke to
each as though that man were as high-minded as himself. Now I saw so
strongly what things were needed to be done, that I forgot things are
only accomplished by means of men. That was a mistake.

'I feared nothing from the Picts, at least for that year, but Allo
warned me that the Winged Hats