`` What can you guess what Maximus thinks , you old horse-coper ? '' ` Just then -LRB- you know how near the brutes creep when one is eating ? -RRB- 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 wo n'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 . ` 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 . The little men are always signalling to each other with smokes , and a strange smoke brings them out buzzing like bees . They can sting , too ! ' `` What we saw last night was a trading-station , '' said Allo .
`` Nothing but a XXXXX . '' '
Allo North Pict Roman Rome horse-coper morning night signalling trading-station