She shook her head.
“Do you learn any language but English?”
She nodded.
“What is the use of learning any other than English?”
She raised her right shoulder in the faintest possible shrug and at the same time turned her right palm slightly up.
“Now,” was my reply, “don’t you see you have answered all my three questions in signs which you said you did not use?”
Following the subject, I said: “What does this mean?” and held up my right hand with the first and second fingers crossed.
“Pax,” she whispered; and then, after further trials, I learned that at least thirty signs were in daily use in that local school.
This was in England. In America the sign “Pax,” or “King’s cross,” is called “King’s X,” “Fines” or “Fins” or “Fends,” “Bars up” or “Truce,” meaning always, “I claim immunity.”
This is a very ancient sign and seems to refer to the right of sanctuary. The name “King’s cross,” used occasionally in England, means probably the sanctuary in the King’s palace.