And
here have I met such misfortunes as would last a man his lifetime."
To all this Richard Wood had lent but half an ear, being occupied in
turning over in his mind the fact that Hugo and Humphrey had been in
the Isle and had gone, and trying to decide what was best to do. He now
looked at him. "Mount up behind me and cease thy prating," he said.
Then turning to the men-at-arms he continued: "We go hence to
Gainsborough. From thence down to Sherwood Forest. It seemeth this
serving man loveth woods and wilds. Therefore it were waste of time to
seek for him in towns and beaten ways."
All the while he was speaking Walter Skinner, with many groans, was
trying to mount behind his old companion; but, on account of the horse
shying his objections to such a proceeding, and the drunken clumsiness
of Walter Skinner himself, nothing had been accomplished. Richard Wood
therefore called on one of the men-at-arms to dismount and hoist him
up; which he did much as if the fierce little spy had been a bag of
meal, and much to Walter Skinner's discomfort, who suddenly found
himself heavily seated with one leg doubled up under him and with a
bumped face where he had struck against Richard Wood's shoulder.
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