At the same time the cohort’s carpenter had been tasked with designing a saddle frame equipped to carry lightweight burdens which could be jettisoned in an instant. Other men worked hard to create dummy bundles of fabrics to be loaded on to the saddle frames. All was ready by the end of the tenth day after Macro had taken control of the cohort.The same evening a message arrived from Petra. Symeon had done as he had been asked and contacted the merchants whose caravan Macro had saved. They had agreed to meet Macro and his men at the same place as before - the Nabataean way station - at dusk in three days’ time.

On the night before Macro and his small force of men left Fort Bushir, he had a final meal with Cato in the dining room of the prefect’s quarters. Scrofa, no doubt flush with the money he had extorted from the caravan cartels, had decorated his accommodation lavishly and the walls of the dining room were alive with hunting scenes set in lush green landscapes so utterly different from the barren wilderness stretching out around the fort that it made both men long for the kinder, temperate landscapes of Italy or even Britain.

‘Say what you like about Scrofa,’ Macro said, as he chewed on a chunk of roast kid, ‘at least he knew how to live.’

‘So I can see.’ Cato was still billeted in the same room at headquarters where he and Macro had been confined. Given the mood of some of the officers it had been felt necessary for Cato to remain at the administrative heart of the cohort and keep watch on their activities. At the same time, he made sure that the two prisoners in the cell did not speak to anyone. Scrofa and Postumus were sent their food, and had their slops bucket emptied, rinsed and returned, and that was all the contact with others that Cato allowed them.

‘How is Scrofa coping?’ Macro asked.

‘Well enough. He’s stopped playing the outraged innocent and given up demanding to be set free. What worries me is that the other officers keep asking what is going to happen to the pair of them.’

‘Just tell them that those two will be treated fairly and given a proper hearing once we’ve settled things with Bannus. If that doesn’t work then tell them to keep their mouths shut and their noses out of things that don’t concern them, unless they want to share the same cell.’

‘Do you think they will be given a hearing?’

‘Not if Narcissus has anything to do with it.They’ll be interrogated to reveal anything they know about Longinus, and then disposed of.You know what Narcissus is like, Cato.’