But, with your favor,
friend, I must gather my arrows again, for while a shaft costs a
penny a poor man can scarce leave them sticking in wayside
stumps. We must, then, on our road again, and I hope from my
heart that you may train these two young goshawks here until they
are ready for a cast even at such a quarry as you speak of."
Leaving the thumbless archer and his brood, the wayfarers struck
through the scattered huts of Emery Down, and out on to the broad
rolling heath covered deep in ferns and in heather, where droves
of the half-wild black forest pigs were rooting about amongst the
hillocks. The woods about this point fall away to the left and
the right, while the road curves upwards and the wind sweeps
keenly over the swelling uplands. The broad strips of bracken
glowed red and yellow against the black peaty soil, and a queenly
doe who grazed among them turned her white front and her great
questioning eyes towards the wayfarers. Alleyne gazed in
admiration at the supple beauty of the creature; but the archer's
fingers played with his quiver, and his eyes glistened with the
fell instinct which urges a man to slaughter.
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