Part 35 (1/2)

Somewhat rea.s.sured, the farmer came out. ”What does my lord require?”

he asked, impressed by a nearer view of Beric's dress and arms.

”How much flour have you in the house?” Beric asked, ”and what is the price of it?”

The farmer had three sacks of flour. ”I will take them all,” Beric said, ”and three skins of wine if you have them. I would also buy two sheep if you name me a fair price for the whole.”

The farmer named a price not much above that which he would have obtained in the market, and Beric also bought of him a number of small bags capable of containing some fifteen or twenty pounds of flour each. Then one of the men fetched up the rest of the band; the flour was divided and packed in the small bags; the sheep were killed and cut up; three of the men lifted the wine skins on to their shoulders; the rest took the flour and meat, and they marched away, leaving the farmer and his family astounded at the appearance of these strange men with fair hair and blue eyes, and of stature that appeared to them gigantic.

Still ascending the mountain the band halted in a forest. Wood was soon collected and a fire lighted. The contents of one of the bags was made into dough at a stream hard by, divided into cakes and placed on red hot ashes, while the meat was cut up and hung over the fire.

”We have forgotten drinking horns,” Beric said, ”but your steel cap, Porus, will serve us for a drinking cup for today.”

After a hearty meal they lay down for some hours to sleep, and then resumed their march. They were getting well into the heart of the mountains when a figure suddenly appeared on a crag above them.

”Who are you?” he shouted, ”and what do you here in the mountains?”

”We are fugitives from the tyranny of Rome,” Beric replied. ”We mean harm to no man, but those who would meddle with us are likely to regret it.”

”You swear that you are fugitives,” the man called back.

”I swear,” Beric said, holding up his hand.

The man turned round and spoke to someone behind him, and a moment later a party of fifteen men appeared on the crag and began to descend into the ravine up which Beric's band were making their way.

”It is the Britons,” the leader exclaimed as he neared them. ”Why, Beric, is it you, tired already of the dignities of Rome? How fares it with you, Boduoc?”

Beric recognized at once a Gaul, one of the gladiators of Scopus, who had some months before fled from the ludus. In a minute the two bands met. Most of the newcomers were Gauls, and, like their leader, escaped gladiators, and as Beric's name was well known to all they saluted him with acclamations. Both parties were pleased at the meeting, for, akin by race and speaking dialects of the same language, they regarded each other as natural allies.

”The life of an outlaw will be a change to you after Nero's palace, Beric,” Gatho, their leader, said.

”A pleasant change,” Beric replied. ”I have no taste for gilded chains. How do you fare here, Gatho?”

”There are plenty of wild boars among the mountains, and we can always get a goat when they are lacking. There are plenty of them wild all over the hills, escaped captives like ourselves. As for wine and flour, we have occasionally to make a raid on the villages.”

”I do not propose to do that,” Beric said; ”I have money to buy what we require; and if we set the villagers against us, sooner or later they will lead the troops after us up the mountains.”

”I would gladly do that too, but the means are lacking. We owe the peasants no ill will, but one must live, you know.”

”Have you any place you make your headquarters?”

”An hour's march from hence; I will lead you to it.”

The united bands continued to climb the hills, and on emerging from the ravine Gatho led them for some distance along the upper edge of a forest, and then turned up a narrow gorge in the hillside with a little rivulet running down it. The ravine widened out as they went up it, till they reached a spot where it formed a circular area of some hundred and fifty feet in diameter, surrounded on all sides by perpendicular rocks, with a tiny cascade a hundred feet in height falling into it at the farther end. Some rough huts of boughs of trees were erected near the centre.

”A good hiding place,” Beric said, ”but I see no mode of retreat, and if a peasant were to lead a party of Romans to the entrance you would be caught in a trap.”

”We have only been here ten days,” Gatho said, ”and never stop long in one place; but it has the disadvantage you speak of. However, we have always one or two men posted lower down, at points where they can see any bodies of men ascending the hills. They brought us notice of your coming when you were far below, so you see we are not likely to be taken by surprise, and the Roman soldiers are not fond of night marches among the mountains.”

As it was some hours since the Britons had partaken of their meal they were quite ready to join the Gauls in another, and the carca.s.s of a wild boar hanging up near the huts was soon cut up and roasting over a fire, the Britons contributing wine and flour to the meal.

After it was over there was a long talk, and after consulting together Gatho and his band unanimously agreed in asking Beric to take command of the whole party.