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Page 49
'Which? The stone one with the line from Xenophon?' said Puck, in quite
a new voice.
'No! What do _I_ know of Xenophon? That was Pertinax--after he had shot
his first mountain-hare with an arrow--by chance! Mine I made of round
pebbles, in memory of my first bear. It took me one happy day to build.'
Parnesius faced the children quickly.
'And that was how we lived on the Wall for two years--a little scuffling
with the Picts, and a great deal of hunting with old Allo in the Pict
country. He called us his children sometimes, and we were fond of him
and his barbarians, though we never let them paint us Pict fashion. The
marks endure 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.
Allo was painted blue, green, and red from his forehead to his ankles.
He said it was part of his religion. He told us about his religion
(Pertinax was always interested in such things), and as we came to know
him well, he told us what was happening in Britain behind the Wall. Many
things took place behind us in those days. And by the Light of the Sun,'
said Parnesius, earnestly, '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 but 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.
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