I knew that he was thence, and thought no harm."
"There is no blame to you," Owen said. "It is not possible to look
for such treachery among our own men."
Then we went into our room to show the captain what had been done.
And thence the two arrows had already been taken. The hole in the
plaster where the first struck was yet there, and the slit made by
the second in the tough hide of the bear was to be seen when I
turned over the fur, but who had taken them we could not tell.
Only, it was plain that here in the palace some one was in the plot
and had taken away what might be proof of who the archer had been,
not knowing, as I suppose, that the attempt had failed so utterly.
For an arrow will often prove a good witness, as men will use only
some special pattern that they are sure of, and will often mark
them that they may claim them and their own game in the woodlands
if they are found in some stricken beast that has got away for a
time. It was more than likely that Tregoz would have been careful
to use only such arrows as he knew well in a matter needing such
close shooting as this. Indeed, we afterwards found men who knew
the two shafts from the rampart as those of the Cornishman, without
doubt.
This I did not like at all, for the going of these arrows brought
the danger to our very door, as it were.
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