` He looked at me a long time , and bowed his head slanting like a Spaniard . `` Follow it , boy , '' he said . That was all . I was only too glad to get away , though I had many messages for home . I found my men standing as they had been put -- they had not even shifted their feet in the dust , and off I marched , still feeling that terrific smile like an east wind up my back . I never halted them till sunset , and ' -- he turned about and looked at Pook 's Hill below him -- ` then I halted yonder . ' He pointed to the broken , bracken-covered shoulder of the Forge Hill behind old Hobden 's cottage . ` There ? Why , that 's only the old Forge -- where they made iron once , ' said Dan . ` Very good stuff it was too , ' said Parnesius calmly . ` We mended three shoulder-straps here and had a spear-head riveted . The Forge was rented from the Government by a one-eyed smith from Carthage . I remember we called him Cyclops . He sold me a beaver-skin rug for my sister 's room . ' ` But it could n't have been here , ' Dan insisted . ` But it was ! From the Altar of Victory at Anderida to the First Forge in the Forest here is twelve miles seven hundred paces . It is all in the Road Book . A man does n't forget his first march . I think I could tell you every station between this and -- ' He leaned forward , but his eye was caught by the setting sun .
It had come down to the top of Cherry Clack XXXXX , and the light poured in between the tree trunks so that you could see red and gold and black deep into the heart of Far Wood ; and Parnesius in his armour shone as though he had been afire .
Anderida Carthage Cyclops Dan First Hill Hobden Parnesius Spaniard shoulder-straps