Puck of Pook's Hill

  ON THE GREAT WALL

  When I left Rome for Lalage's sake By the Legions' Road to Rimini, She vowed her heart was mine to take With me and my shield to Rimini-- (Till the Eagles flew from Rimini!) And I've tramped Britain and I've tramped Gaul And the Pontic shore where the snow-flakes fall As white as the neck of Lalage-- As cold as the heart of Lalage! And I've lost Britain and I've lost Gaul

  (the voice seemed very cheerful about it),

  And I've lost Rome, and worst of all, I've lost Lalage!

  They were standing by the gate to Far Wood when they heard this song.Without a word they hurried to their private gap and wriggled through thehedge almost atop of a jay that was feeding from Puck's hand.

  'Gently!' said Puck. 'What are you looking for?'

  'Parnesius, of course,' Dan answered. 'We've only just rememberedyesterday. It isn't fair.'

  Puck chuckled as he rose. 'I'm sorry, but children who spend the afternoonwith me and a Roman Centurion need a little settling dose of Magic beforethey go to tea with their governess. Ohe, Parnesius!' he called.

  'Here, Faun!' came the answer from 'Volaterrae.' They could see theshimmer of bronze armour in the beech crotch, and the friendly flash ofthe great shield uplifted.

  'I have driven out the Britons.' Parnesius laughed like a boy. 'I occupytheir high forts. But Rome is merciful! You may come up.' And up theythree all scrambled.

  'What was the song you were singing just now?' said Una, as soon as shehad settled herself.

  'That? Oh, _Rimini_. It's one of the tunes that are always being bornsomewhere in the Empire. They run like a pestilence for six months or ayear, till another one pleases the Legions, and then they march to_that_.'

  'Tell them about the marching, Parnesius. Few people nowadays walk fromend to end of this country,' said Puck.

  'The greater their loss. I know nothing better than the Long March whenyour feet are hardened. You begin after the mists have risen, and you end,perhaps, an hour after sundown.'

  'And what do you have to eat?' Dan asked, promptly.

  'Fat bacon, beans, and bread, and whatever wine happens to be in therest-houses. But soldiers are born grumblers. Their very first day out, mymen complained of our water-ground British corn. They said it wasn't sofilling as the rough stuff that is ground in the Roman ox-mills. However,they had to fetch and eat it.'

  'Fetch it? Where from?' said Una.

  'From that newly-invented water-mill below the Forge.'

  'That's Forge Mill--_our_ Mill!' Una looked at Puck.

  'Yes; yours,' Puck put in. 'How old did you think it was?'

  'I don't know. Didn't Sir Richard Dalyngridge talk about it?'

  'He did, and it was old in his day,' Puck answered. 'Hundreds of yearsold.'

  'It was new in mine,' said Parnesius. 'My men looked at the flour in theirhelmets as though it had been a nest of adders. They did it to try mypatience. But I--addressed them, and we became friends. To tell the truth,they taught me the Roman Step. You see, I'd only served withquick-marching Auxiliaries. A Legion's pace is altogether different. It isa long, slow stride, that never varies from sunrise to sunset. "Rome'sRace--Rome's Pace," as the proverb says. Twenty-four miles in eight hours,neither more nor less. Head and spear up, shield on your back,cuirass-collar open one hand's breadth--and that's how you take the Eaglesthrough Britain.'

  'And did you meet any adventures?' said Dan.

  'There are no adventures South the Wall,' said Parnesius. 'The worst thingthat happened me was having to appear before a magistrate up North, wherea wandering philosopher had jeered at the Eagles. I was able to show thatthe old man had deliberately blocked our road, and the magistrate toldhim, out of his own Book, I believe, that, whatever his God might be, heshould pay proper respect to Caesar.'

  'What did you do?' said Dan.

  'Went on. Why should _I_ care for such things, my business being to reachmy station? It took me twenty days.

  'Of course, the farther North you go the emptier are the roads. At lastyou fetch clear of the forests and climb bare hills, where wolves howl inthe ruins of our cities that have been. No more pretty girls; no morejolly magistrates who knew your Father when he was young, and invite youto stay with them; no news at the temples and way-stations except bad newsof wild beasts. There's where you meet hunters, and trappers for theCircuses, prodding along chained bears and muzzled wolves. Your pony shiesat them, and your men laugh.

  'The houses change from gardened villas to shut forts with watch-towers ofgrey stone, and great stone-walled sheepfolds, guarded by armed Britons ofthe North Shore. In the naked hills beyond the naked houses, where theshadows of the clouds play like cavalry charging, you see puffs of blacksmoke from the mines. The hard road goes on and on--and the wind singsthrough your helmet-plume--past altars to Legions and Generals forgotten,and broken statues of Gods and Heroes, and thousands of graves where themountain foxes and hares peep at you. Red-hot in summer, freezing inwinter, is that big, purple heather country of broken stone.

  'There's where you meet hunters, and trappers for the Circuses, prodding along chained bears and muzzled wolves.']

  'Just when you think you are at the world's end, you see a smoke from Eastto West as far as the eye can turn, and then, under it, also as far as theeye can stretch, houses and temples, shops and theatres, barracks, andgranaries, trickling along like dice behind--always behind--one long, low,rising and falling, and hiding and showing line of towers. And that is theWall!'

  'Ah!' said the children, taking breath.

  'You may well,' said Parnesius. 'Old men who have followed the Eaglessince boyhood say nothing in the Empire is more wonderful than first sightof the Wall!'

  'Is it just a Wall? Like the one round the kitchen-garden?' said Dan.

  'No, no! It is _the_ Wall. Along the top are towers with guard-houses,small towers, between. Even on the narrowest part of it three men withshields can walk abreast from guard-house to guard-house. A little curtainwall, no higher than a man's neck, runs along the top of the thick wall,so that from a distance you see the helmets of the sentries sliding backand forth like beads. Thirty feet high is the Wall, and on the Picts'side, the North, is a ditch, strewn with blades of old swords andspear-heads set in wood, and tyres of wheels joined by chains. The LittlePeople come there to steal iron for their arrow-heads.

  'But the Wall itself is not more wonderful than the town behind it. Longago there were great ramparts and ditches on the South side, and no onewas allowed to build there. Now the ramparts are partly pulled down andbuilt over, from end to end of the Wall; making a thin town eighty mileslong. Think of it! One roaring, rioting, cockfighting, wolf-baiting,horse-racing town, from Ituna on the West to Segedunum on the cold easternbeach! On one side heather, woods and ruins where Picts hide, and on theother, a vast town--long like a snake, and wicked like a snake. Yes, asnake basking beside a warm wall!

  'My Cohort, I was told, lay at Hunno, where the Great North Road runsthrough the Wall into the Province of Valentia.' Parnesius laughedscornfully. 'The Province of Valentia! We followed the road, therefore,into Hunno town, and stood astonished. The place was a fair--a fair ofpeoples from every corner of the Empire. Some were racing horses: some satin wine-shops: some watched dogs baiting bears, and many gathered in aditch to see cocks fight. A boy not much older than myself, but I couldsee he was an Officer, reined up before me and asked what I wanted.

  '"My station," I said, and showed him my shield.' Parnesius held up hisbroad shield with its three X's like letters on a beer-cask.

  '"Lucky omen!" said he. "Your Cohort's the next tower to us, but they'reall at the cock-fight. This is a happy place. Come and wet the Eagles." Hemeant to offer me a drink.

  '"When I've handed over my men," I said. I felt angry and ashamed.

  '"Oh, you'll soon outgrow that sort of nonsense," he answered. "But don'tlet me interfere with your hopes. Go on to the Statue of Roma Dea. Youcan't miss it. The main road into Valenti
a!" and he laughed and rode off.I could see the Statue not a quarter of a mile away, and there I went. Atsome time or other the Great North Road ran under it into Valentia; butthe far end had been blocked up because of the Picts, and on the plaster aman had scratched, "Finish!" It was like marching into a cave. We groundedspears together, my little thirty, and it echoed in the barrel of thearch, but none came. There was a door at one side painted with our number.We prowled in, and I found a cook asleep, and ordered him to give us food.Then I climbed to the top of the Wall, and looked out over the Pictcountry, and I--thought,' said Parnesius. 'The bricked-up arch with"Finish!" on the plaster was what shook me, for I was not much more than aboy.'

  'What a shame!' said Una. 'But did you feel happy after you'd had agood----' Dan stopped her with a nudge.

  'Happy?' said Parnesius. 'When the men of the Cohort I was to command cameback unhelmeted from the cock-fight, their birds under their arms, andasked me who I was? No, I was not happy; but I made my new Cohort unhappytoo.... I wrote my Mother I was happy, but, oh, my friends'--he stretchedarms over bare knees--'I would not wish my worst enemy to suffer as Isuffered through my first months on the Wall. Remember this: among theofficers was scarcely one, except myself (and I thought I had lost thefavour of Maximus, my General), scarcely one who had not done something ofwrong or folly. Either he had killed a man, or taken money, or insultedthe magistrates, or blasphemed the Gods, and so had been sent to the Wallas a hiding-place from shame or fear. And the men were as the officers.Remember, also, that the Wall was manned by every breed and race in theEmpire. No two towers spoke the same tongue, or worshipped the same Gods.In one thing only we were all equal. No matter what arms we had usedbefore we came to the Wall, _on_ the Wall we were all archers, like theScythians. The Pict cannot run away from the arrow, or crawl under it. Heis a bowman himself. _He_ knows!'

  'I suppose you were fighting Picts all the time,' said Dan.

  'Picts seldom fight. I never saw a fighting Pict for half a year. The tamePicts told us they had all gone North.'

  'What is a tame Pict?' said Dan.

  'A Pict--there were many such--who speaks a few words of our tongue, andslips across the Wall to sell ponies and wolf-hounds. Without a horse anda dog, _and_ a friend, man would perish. The Gods gave me all three, andthere is no gift like friendship. Remember this'--Parnesius turned toDan--'when you become a young man. For your fate will turn on the firsttrue friend you make.'

  'He means,' said Puck, grinning, 'that if you try to make yourself adecent chap when you're young, you'll make rather decent friends when yougrow up. If you're a beast, you'll have beastly friends. Listen to thePious Parnesius on Friendship!'

  'I am not pious,' Parnesius answered, 'but I know what goodness means; andmy friend, though he was without hope, was ten thousand times better thanI. Stop laughing, Faun!'

  'Oh Youth Eternal and All-believing,' cried Puck, as he rocked on thebranch above. 'Tell them about your Pertinax.'

  'He was that friend the Gods sent me--the boy who spoke to me when I firstcame. Little older than myself, commanding the Augusta Victoria Cohort onthe tower next to us and the Numidians. In virtue he was far my superior.'

  'Then why was he on the Wall?' Una asked, quickly. 'They'd all donesomething bad. You said so yourself.'

  'He was the nephew, his Father had died, of a great rich man in Gaul whowas not always kind to his Mother. When Pertinax grew up, he discoveredthis, and so his uncle shipped him off, by trickery and force, to theWall. We came to know each other at a ceremony in our Temple--in the dark.It was the Bull Killing,' Parnesius explained to Puck.

  '_I_ see,' said Puck, and turned to the children. 'That's something youwouldn't quite understand. Parnesius means he met Pertinax in church.'

  'Yes--in the Cave we first met, and we were both raised to the Degree ofGryphons together.' Parnesius lifted his hand towards his neck for aninstant. 'He had been on the Wall two years, and knew the Picts well. Hetaught me first how to take Heather.'

  'What's that?' said Dan.

  'Going out hunting in the Pict country with a tame Pict. You are quitesafe so long as you are his guest, and wear a sprig of heather where itcan be seen. If you went alone you would surely be killed, if you were notsmothered first in the bogs. Only the Picts know their way about thoseblack and hidden bogs. Old Allo, the one-eyed, withered little Pict fromwhom we bought our ponies, was our special friend. At first we went onlyto escape from the terrible town, and to talk together about our homes.Then he showed us how to hunt wolves and those great red deer with hornslike Jewish candlesticks. The Roman-born officers rather looked down on usfor doing this, but we preferred the heather to their amusements. Believeme,' Parnesius turned again to Dan, 'a boy is safe from all things thatreally harm when he is astride a pony or after a deer. Do you remember, OFaun,' he turned to Puck, 'the little altar I built to the Sylvan Pan bythe pine-forest beyond the brook?'

  'Which? The stone one with the line from Xenophon?' said Puck, in quite anew voice.

  'No. What do _I_ know of Xenophon? That was Pertinax--after he had shot hisfirst mountain-hare with an arrow--by chance! Mine I made of round pebblesin memory of my first bear. It took me one happy day to build.' Parnesiusfaced the children quickly.

  'And that was how we lived on the Wall for two years--a little scufflingwith the Picts, and a great deal of hunting with old Allo in the Pictcountry. He called us his children sometimes, and we were fond of him andhis barbarians, though we never let them paint us Pict fashion. The marksendure till you die.'

  'How's it done?' said Dan. 'Anything like tattooing?'

  'They prick the skin till the blood runs, and rub in coloured juices. Allowas painted blue, green, and red from his forehead to his ankles. He saidit was part of his religion. He told us about his religion (Pertinax wasalways interested in such things), and as we came to know him well, hetold us what was happening in Britain behind the Wall. Many things tookplace behind us in those days. And, by the Light of the Sun,' saidParnesius, earnestly, 'there was not much that those little people did notknow! He told me when Maximus crossed over to Gaul, after he had madehimself Emperor of Britain, and what troops and emigrants he had takenwith 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 tohelp him to conquer Gaul; and I always found the numbers as he said.Wonderful! And I tell another strange thing!'

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

  'Late in the summer, when the first frosts begin and the Picts kill theirbees, we three rode out after wolf with some new hounds. Rutilianus, ourGeneral, had given us ten days' leave, and we had pushed beyond the SecondWall--beyond the Province of Valentia--into the higher hills, where thereare not even any of Rome's old ruins. We killed a she-wolf before noon,and while Allo was skinning her he looked up and said to me, "When you areCaptain 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 andsaid, "Wait till I am Captain." "No, don't wait," said Allo. "Take myadvice and go home--both of you." "We have no homes," said Pertinax. "Youknow that as well as we do. We're finished men--thumbs down against both ofus. Only men without hope would risk their necks on your ponies." The oldman laughed one of those short Pict laughs--like a fox barking on a frostynight. "I'm fond of you two," he said. "Besides, I've taught you whatlittle 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 Maximusthinks, you old horse-coper?"

  'Just then (you know how near the brutes creep when one is eating?) agreat dog-wolf jumped out behind us, and away our rested hounds tore afterhim, with us
at their tails. He ran us far out of any country we'd everheard of, straight as an arrow till sunset, towards the sunset. We came atlast to long capes stretching into winding waters, and on a grey beachbelow us we saw ships drawn up. Forty-seven we counted--not Roman galleysbut the raven-winged ships from the North where Rome does not rule. Menmoved in the ships, and the sun flashed on their helmets--winged helmets ofthe red-haired men from the North where Rome does not rule. We watched,and we counted, and we wondered; for though we had heard rumoursconcerning these Winged Hats, as the Picts called them, never before hadwe looked upon them.

  '"Come away! Come away!" said Allo. "My Heather won't protect you here. Weshall all be killed!" His legs trembled like his voice. Back we went--backacross the heather under the moon, till it was nearly morning, and ourpoor 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. Thelittle men are always signalling to each other with smokes, and a strangesmoke brings them out buzzing like bees. They can sting, too!

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

  '"I do not like lies on an empty stomach," said Pertinax. "I suppose" (hehad 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 thePict's Call:--Puff--double-puff: double-puff--puff! They make it by raisingand dropping a wet hide on a fire.

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

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

  '"Whatever happens," said Allo, while our ponies grunted along, "I wantyou to remember me."

  '"I shall not forget," said Pertinax. "You have cheated me out of mybreakfast."

  '"What is a handful of crushed oats to a Roman?" he said. Then he laughedhis laugh that was not a laugh. "What would you do if you were a handfulof 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 bystrange 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 toforget me."

  'We climbed the last hot hill and looked out on the eastern sea, three orfour miles off. There was a small sailing-galley of the North Gaul patternat anchor, her landing-plank down and her sail half up; and below us,alone in a hollow, holding his pony, sat Maximus, Emperor of Britain! Hewas dressed like a hunter, and he leaned on his little stick; but I knewthat back as far as I could see it, and I told Pertinax.

  '"You're madder than Allo!" he said. "It must be the sun!"

  'Maximus never stirred till we stood before him. Then he looked me up anddown, and said: "Hungry again? It seems to be my destiny to feed youwhenever we meet. I have food here. Allo shall cook it."

  '"No," said Allo. "A Prince in his own land does not wait on wanderingEmperors. I feed my two children without asking your leave." He began toblow up the ashes.

  '"I was wrong," said Pertinax. "We are all mad. Speak up, O Madman calledEmperor!"

  'Maximus smiled his terrible tight-lipped smile, but two years on the Walldo not make a man afraid of mere looks. So I was not afraid.

  '"I meant you, Parnesius, to live and die an Officer of the Wall," saidMaximus. "But it seems from these," he fumbled in his breast, "you canthink as well as draw." He pulled out a roll of letters I had written tomy people, full of drawings of Picts, and bears, and men I had met on theWall. Mother and my sister always liked my pictures.

  'He handed me one that I had called "Maximus's Soldiers." It showed a rowof fat wine-skins, and our old Doctor of the Hunno hospital snuffing atthem. Each time that Maximus had taken troops out of Britain to help himto conquer Gaul, he used to send the garrisons more wine--to keep themquiet, I suppose. On the Wall, we always called a wine-skin a "Maximus."Oh, yes; and I had drawn them in Imperial helmets!

  '"Not long since," he went on, "men's names were sent up to Caesar forsmaller jokes than this."

  '"True, Caesar," said Pertinax; "but you forget that was before I, yourfriend's friend, became such a good spear-thrower."

  'He did not actually point his hunting spear at Maximus, but balanced iton his palm--so!

  '"I was speaking of time past," said Maximus, never fluttering an eyelid."Nowadays one is only too pleased to find boys who can think forthemselves, _and_ their friends." He nodded at Pertinax. "Your Father lentme the letters, Parnesius, so you run no risk from me."

  '"None whatever," said Pertinax, and rubbed the spear-point on his sleeve.

  '"I have been forced to reduce the garrisons in Britain, because I needtroops in Gaul. Now I come to take troops from the Wall itself," said he.

  '"I wish you joy of us," said Pertinax. "We're the last sweepings of theEmpire--the men without hope. Myself, I'd sooner trust condemnedcriminals."

  '"You think so?" he said, quite seriously. "But it will only be till I winGaul. One must always risk one's life, or one's soul, or one's peace--orsome little thing."

  'Allo passed round the fire with the sizzling deer's meat. He served ustwo first.

  '"Ah!" said Maximus, waiting his turn. "I perceive you are in your owncountry. Well, you deserve it. They tell me you have quite a followingamong the Picts, Parnesius."

  '"I have hunted with them," I said. "Maybe I have a few friends among theHeather."

  '"He is the only armoured man of you all who understands us," said Allo,and he began a long speech about our virtues, and how we had saved one ofhis grandchildren from a wolf the year before.'

  'Had you?' said Una.

  'Yes; but that was neither here nor there. The little green man oratedlike a--like Cicero. He made us out to be magnificent fellows. Maximusnever took his eyes off our faces.

  '"Enough," he said. "I have heard Allo on you. I wish to hear you on thePicts."

  'I told him as much as I knew, and Pertinax helped me out. There is neverharm in a Pict if you but take the trouble to find out what he wants.Their real grievance against us came from our burning their heather. Thewhole garrison of the Wall moved out twice a year, and solemnly burned theheather for ten miles North. Rutilianus, our General, called it clearingthe country. The Picts, of course, scampered away, and all we did was todestroy their bee-bloom in the summer, and ruin their sheep-food in thespring.

  '"True, quite true," said Allo. "How can we make our holy heather-wine, ifyou burn our bee-pasture?"

  'We talked long, Maximus asking keen questions that showed he knew muchand had thought more about the Picts. He said presently to me: "If I gaveyou the old Province of Valentia to govern, could you keep the Pictscontented till I won Gaul? Stand away, so that you do not see Allo's face;and speak your own thoughts."

  '"No," I said. "You cannot re-make that Province. The Picts have been freetoo long."

  '"Leave them their village councils, and let them furnish their ownsoldiers," he said. "You, I am sure, would hold the reins very lightly."

  '"Even then, no," I said. "At least not now. They have been too oppressedby us to trust anything with a Roman name for years and years."

  'I heard old Allo behind me mutter: "Good child!"

  '"Then what do you recommend," said Maximus, "to keep the North quiet tillI win Gaul?"

  '"Leave the Picts alone," I said. "Stop the heather-burning at once,and--they are improvident little animals--send them a shipload or two ofcorn now and then."

  '"Their own men must distribute it--not some cheating Greek accountant,"said Pertinax.

  '"Yes, and allow them to come to our hospitals when they are sick," Isaid.

  '"Surely they would die first," said Maximus.

  '"
Not if Parnesius brought them in," said Allo. "I could show you twentywolf-bitten, bear-clawed Picts within twenty miles of here. But Parnesiusmust stay with them in Hospital, else they would go mad with fear."

  '"_I_ see," said Maximus. "Like everything else in the world, it is oneman's work. You, I think, are that one man."

  '"Pertinax and I are one," I said.

  '"As you please, so long as you work. Now, Allo, you know that I mean yourpeople no harm. Leave us to talk together," said Maximus.

  '"No need!" said Allo. "I am the corn between the upper and lowermillstones. I must know what the lower millstone means to do. These boyshave spoken the truth as far as they know it. I, a Prince, will tell youthe rest. I am troubled about the Men of the North." He squatted like ahare in the heather, and looked over his shoulder.

  '"I also," said Maximus, "or I should not be here."

  '"Listen," said Allo. "Long and long ago the Winged Hats"--he meant theNorthmen--"came to our beaches and said, 'Rome falls! Push her down!' Wefought you. You sent men. We were beaten. After that we said to the WingedHats, 'You are liars! Make our men alive that Rome killed, and we willbelieve you.' They went away ashamed. Now they come back bold, and theytell the old tale, which we begin to believe--that Rome falls!"

  '"Give me three years' peace on the Wall," cried Maximus, "and I will showyou and all the ravens how they lie!"

  '"Ah, I wish it too! I wish to save what is left of the corn from themillstones. But you shoot us Picts when we come to borrow a little ironfrom the Iron Ditch; you burn our heather, which is all our crop; youtrouble us with your great catapults. Then you hide behind the Wall, andscorch us with Greek fire. How can I keep my young men from listening tothe Winged Hats--in winter especially, when we are hungry? My young menwill say, 'Rome can neither fight nor rule. She is taking her men out ofBritain. The Winged Hats will help us to push down the Wall. Let us showthem the secret roads across the bogs.' Do _I_ want that? No!" He spatlike an adder. "_I_ would keep the secrets of my people though I wereburned alive. My two children here have spoken truth. Leave us Pictsalone. Comfort us, and cherish us, and feed us from far off--with the handbehind your back. Parnesius understands us. Let _him_ have rule on theWall, and I will hold my young men quiet for"--he ticked it off on hisfingers--"one year easily: the next year not so easily: the third year,perhaps! See, I give you three years. If then you do not show us that Romeis strong in men and terrible in arms, the Winged Hats, I tell you, willsweep down the Wall from either sea till they meet in the middle, and youwill go. _I_ shall not grieve over that, but well I know tribe never helpstribe except for one price. We Picts will go too. The Winged Hats willgrind us to this!" He tossed a handful of dust in the air.

  '"Oh, Roma Dea!" said Maximus, half aloud. "It is always one man'swork--always and everywhere!"

  '"And one man's life," said Allo. "You are Emperor, but not a God. You maydie."

  '"I have thought of that, too," said he. "Very good. If this wind holds, Ishall be at the East end of the Wall by morning. To-morrow, then, I shallsee you two when I inspect; and I will make you Captains of the Wall forthis work."

  '"One instant, Caesar," said Pertinax. "All men have their price. I am notbought yet."

  '"Do _you_ also begin to bargain so early?" said Maximus. "Well?"

  '"Give me justice against my uncle Icenus, the Duumvir of Divio in Gaul,"he said.

  '"Only a life? I thought it would be money or an office. Certainly youshall have him. Write his name on these tablets--on the red side; the otheris for the living!" And Maximus held out his tablets.

  '"He is of no use to me dead," said Pertinax. "My mother is a widow. I amfar off. I am not sure he pays her all her dowry."

  '"No matter. My arm is reasonably long. We will look through your uncle'saccounts in due time. Now, farewell till to-morrow, O Captains of theWall!"

  'We saw him grow small across the heather as he walked to the galley.There were Picts, scores, each side of him, hidden behind stones. He neverlooked left or right. He sailed away Southerly, full spread before theevening breeze, and when we had watched him out to sea, we were silent. Weunderstood Earth bred few men like to this man.

  'Presently Allo brought the ponies and held them for us to mount--a thinghe had never done before.

  '"Wait awhile," said Pertinax, and he made a little altar of cut turf, andstrewed heather-bloom atop, and laid upon it a letter from a girl in Gaul.

  '"What do you do, O my friend?" I said.

  '"I sacrifice to my dead youth," he answered, and, when the flames hadconsumed the letter, he ground them out with his heel. Then we rode backto that Wall of which we were to be Captains.'

  Parnesius stopped. The children sat still, not even asking if that wereall the tale. Puck beckoned, and pointed the way out of the wood. 'Sorry,'he whispered, 'but you must go now.'

  'We haven't made him angry, have we?' said Una. 'He looks so far off,and--and--thinky.'

  'Bless your heart, no. Wait till to-morrow. It won't be long. Remember,you've been playing "_Lays of Ancient Rome_."'

  And as soon as they had scrambled through their gap, where Oak, Ash andThorn grow, that was all they remembered.