Before they were out of sight there came into view the head of a column of wagons which turned out to be loaded with cages of bears, lynxes, bison, aurochs, elk, wolves and other northern animals. I watched them pass and meditated. After they were gone the road was normal for a full two hours, during which I pondered the thoughts which obsessed me and gloomed with shame over the condition of the Empire. I had brought food and water with me and ate about noon, slept an hour or more and woke to watch the passage of two trains of cages full of lions, tigers, leopards and panthers. The second train was overtaken and passed by two Imperial couriers from the north, racing each other, the former more than a half mile ahead of the latter, and, apparently lengthening his lead. I spent the day on the crag. Also I spent other days there, sometimes on one shelf, sometimes on the other, sometimes on the top. Not many days elapsed before I again visited the outlaws' camp and had another chat with Bulla; not we two alone, for there was always an easy sociability about the bandits and, if none took part in or broke into their chief's talk, usually two or more lay or sat about listening and sharing our interview. In the course of our talk Bulla discoursed of his importance, of the importance of the band, of the warm regard in which he and they were held by their head chief, the King of the Highwaymen. Some quirk inside my head made me venturesome. "What is his name?" I queried. "You never name him." "His orders!" Bulla snapped. "I know his name; not another man of our band knows it. He never uses it and takes great pains to keep all outsiders who know his name from suspecting that he is King of the Highwaymen; and similarly to make sure that all outsiders who know him as King of the Highwaymen get no inkling of his name. If the knowledge got abroad the usefulness to him of his brother and sister in Rome would be destroyed." I apologized for my question. "No harm done," Bulla smiled. "I don't have to answer any questions unless I want to, and I don't mind questions from you." "If you don't," I pursued, emboldened, "perhaps you'll be willing to explain how it can be that your king holds you and your band in such high esteem, whereas, to all appearances, you have not acquired a sesterce- worth of loot since long before I reached this neighborhood; in fact, as far as I can hear, have not succeeded in robbing anyone since you located your camp here?"