As he approached the bridge that he had crossed previously, he became much more cautious and moved along the edge of the brush that lined the narrow track. He could hear the roar of the river as it tumbled through the narrow gorge under the bridge. Shortly, as he drew closer to the river, the need for his cautious and silent approach was rewarded by discovering a posted sentry just off his side of the track, half-hidden in the heavy brush that grew along and back from the river bank. As the scout approached the sentry, __________ moved deeper into the woods, in order to get behind him. This man, an obvious raider, wore a mail shirt and his girdle was heavy with a long Viking style sword, and a wicked looking half sword in a wooden sheath on his left hip. The guard was seated on a large rock and cradled in his arms was a long wooden shafted spear, with a toothed bronze spearpoint. This would have to be done with stealth and style, he thought to himself, and he began his agonizingly slow crawl towards the sentry. It appeared the man was asleep, but _________ couldn’t take that chance, and he put all his effort into a totally silent approach. When he reached the seated man, he had in hand a ‘strangle-wire,’ simply a strand of copper wire, with a wooden handle on each end, When the scout was within an arms length of the sentry he made a large loop with the wire, and quickly slipping the loop over the sentry’s head, the scout jerked the wire closed around the man’s neck and then hung on tightly to the wooden handles while the sentry thrashed about. It was over in seconds, with the man’s throat cut to the bone. _________________ picked the limp body up and staggering to the cliff’s edge, through the brush, he dumped the body over the short rocky cliff and into the foaming rapids, after relieving the raider of his outer clothes, weapons and mail shirt. The scout hastily donned the former sentries clothes, armor and weapons, he cautiously surveyed the track the way he had come as well as the bridge and beyond, he moved quickly across the bridge on the downstream side, behind the wooden guardrail, so as not to be immediately noticed, and then took up station, as a posted sentry on the other end of the bridge. He lounged in the brush, just off the track, and donning his dark green hood he carefully surveyed the area downstream of the road. He could smell a faint odor of smoke in the air, and after a few moments of searching, he found a faint plume of smoke drifting over the river. He tracked the smoke with his eyes until the had the location of the fire pretty well pinpointed and then began his search for another posted sentry. This man, another raider barbarian by his dress was half-hidden in the brush, at the opening into an open area just off the track. By this time___________ was sure that this group was a part of the raider horde that had put the Legion fort under attack. Knowing this, the scout also knew that time was valuable, and he had to get around them some way and warn the other scouts at the signal station about these raiders. However, there appeared to be a group of not less than eight men here, far too many to fight, and they seemed to be well posted to command the road, The river upstream of the bridge fell over a steep cliff which enclosed both sides of the river with the woodlands on this side of the river infested with a heavy undercover of wild berry vines. To go around, through that heavy underbrush and then to ascend the steep cliffs beyond, would take far too much time. There had to be another way! As the scout stood deep in thought, a light wind came up blowing downriver into the wide marshlands beyond, and then to the open sea. Gazing out over the wide lands toward the sea, it occurred to him that a fire might do what he alone could not. A fire ignited along this side of the road would free him to move along the track, while the cliffs extending from the road up and downstream would prevent any rapid movement toward the lookout station except by the road. It might well to serve to delay the barbarians toward the station, which was their obvious objective, and might even destroy some of their equipment. The woods were dry and the brush beside the road even drier. ____________ hastily set to gathering twigs and sticks along the track, and soon he had a large pile of dry sticks and hand crushed and cut dry grass. Then checking that he was still undetected, he set to work with his flint, steel, and charcloth, and soon he had a flame. He carefully placed the flame in a nest of dry tinder and watched it gain in size and strength as he piled more and more fuel onto to it, and around and over it. The downriver breeze caught the flames and began pushing them toward heavier foliage which began to smolder. Quickly the scout strung his bow and wrapping four arrow points in cloth strips, torn from his shirt he quickly ignited them and fired the arrows far over the imagined campsite into the dry brush on the far side of the clearing. By this time, the fire at his feet had caught the heavier brush and moving downriver with the wind as well as along the brushed track line, the fire was fanned heavily now by the wind and was rushing inward enclosing the raiding party. Soon shouts from the encampment indicated that the fire had been detected, and now it was a race between the fire and the barbarians to get their water buckets to the river, fill them and return. It was time for his escape, and with his bow armed, he stepped into the roadway, crossed the track, stepping lightly so as to leave no telltale footprints behind him, and disappeared into the heavy brush on the other side. Penetrating to the more open forest just downriver of the heavy vines, he raced along parallel to the road, past where the other raider sentry had stood, which was now empty, and then back onto the track, just below the cliffs, which now became merely a narrow woodland trail to ascend to the looming heights above the lower woodlands along the river, and the marshlands further on. The trail here was steep and badly corroded from wind and rain. Struggling along, in a rush to see the results of what he had wrought, he finally gained the heights and at the edge of the cliffs, at a height of 30 to 40 meters (90-94 ft), just above the few pine and fir trees close by the slopes. The scout crouched behind a flowering bush to survey the scene below. He could trace the river below the bridge all the way beyond the lowe marshlands to the sea The fire had progressed beyond the raider camp as he had hoped it would. As he watched he could pick out several figures running through the scrublands bordering the marshes and the river and entered the river just before the flames reached the flammable brush along the riverbank. Now satisfied that this group of raiders was taken care of for the moment ________________ could move on towards the forward lookout station and warn the other scouts about the raiding party and help ready the stations defenses.
