"Get thee
back to thy grooming."
"Yea, verily," insisted the groom; "but it is somewhat to thee," and he
knocked the tools together in his hands at a great rate. "I did come by
the Isle of Axholme. And the other king's man did accuse me of
drunkenness and revellings when I did begin to have speech with him of
the matter, but he did change his mind, and give me a coin. Do thou but
the same and thou also mayest hear what I did see."
Richard Wood regarded him attentively. "Speak truth," he said, "and say
that I would hear, and thou shalt have two coins."
The vacant-faced groom grinned a broad and foolish grin. "Said I not,"
he cried joyfully, "that thou wert a better man than the other? For he
was but small and fierce and hath met sorrow, or his horse had not come
back riderless."
Richard Wood smiled contemptuously at this reference to Walter Skinner.
Then he said: "Thou didst come by the Isle of Axholme. What sawest thou
there?"
"Why, thou canst talk like an advocate," said the foolish groom, who
had never seen an advocate in his life. "Ay," he continued, "he that
giveth two coins is ever a better master than he that giveth one.
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