ing touch or
sound. I tamed him till he would let anybody gentle him, till it was
perfectly safe for anyone to ride him. I even trusted Septima on him and
he justified my confidence in my training of him and in him. In fact, from
being a man-killer who had to be kept penned up in the dark, whom not even
the boldest horse-master dare approach, he became so gentle and so
trustworthy that he could be let run at large, mild to all human beings,
even to strangers.

He grew to love me like a pet dog, followed me about when I was not riding
him, and would come to me from far away to a call or gesticulation; and he
could see me and recognize me at such distances that I revised my notions
as to the powers of sight possessed by horses, for I had held the common
opinion that no horse can see clearly or definitely any object at all far
from him. Selinus repeatedly saw and recognized me a full half-mile away
and galloped to me, approaching with every demonstration of joy.

During my horse-wrangling expeditions and my excursions after wandering
stock I had grown well acquainted with the country-side and its
inhabitants. I was on terms of comradeship with all my fellow-slaves, of
easy sociability with the yeomanry; while I was treated by the overseers,
the _Villicus_, and inspectors with marked consideration. Thus I rapidly
learnt all there was to know of the idiosyncrasies of the locality, since
everybody seemed to trust me and no one held aloof or was reticent with
me.

I found conditions in the Umbrian mountains as amazing, as incredible as
in the _ergastulum_ at Nuceria. There the two vital facts were the
negligence and impotence of the warders and the secret system for cheating
and thwarting them. Here all the thoughts of slaves, peasants and yeomen
on the one hand, and of overseers, inspectors and landowners on the other,
pivoted on the existence in the district of a post of road-constabulary on
the lookout for bandits and of a camp of brigands owing allegiance to the
King of the Highwaymen.

The wealthy proprietors, the gentlemanly landowners, the inspectors of the
Estate, its _Villicus_ and his overseers all suspected the presence of the
bandits and were doing all they could to assist the road-constabulary to
locate them, pounce on them and capture them. Their efforts were
completely futile. Neither any of the constabulary nor any of the well-to-
do persons who sided with them, could ever get an inkling of the location
of