I will meet him one day where there be no miry pools,
and then let him beware." This last he uttered with a look which was
intended to be fierce, but which was only silly.
"Didst thou come after them alone with no man to help thee?" asked
Richard Wood, still more incredulously.
"Oh, I did have help enough," was the answer, with a crafty look. "I
did have to my help a yew bow with a silken string that the king
himself need not despise, and a great store of arrows, moreover. And I
did hide and bide my time until the darkness of night came and the fire
blazed high. And then I did let my arrows fly. And what did the
serving-man? He did catch up the very fire and rush upon me. And later
he did break my arrows and cut my bow-string, and fling my bow into the
water, and then departed, I know not where."
"Thou art but a sorry fool," declared Richard Wood, after some thought.
"And yet I cannot find it in my heart to leave thee here. Mount up
behind me, and at Gainsborough I will set thee down. There canst thou
shift for thyself, and chase or forbear to chase as thou choosest."
"Ay, thou sayest truly," said the half-drunken Walter Skinner.
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