great following of about three
hundred men were struggling to make their way through the forest,
they heard the sound of a horn, and all at once the thick woodland
seemed to be alive with archers, who used their bows in such a way
that first one, then a dozen, then by fifties, the Sheriff's men
began to flee, and in less than an hour they were all crawling back
to Nottingham, badly beaten, not a man among them being ready to
turn and fight.

In another month the Sheriff advanced again with a stronger force,
but they were driven back more easily than the first, and the
Sheriff was in despair.

But a couple of days later he had the man to whom he had given the
gold pieces found, and sent him to the outlaws' camp with a letter
written upon parchment, in which he ordered Robin Hood, in the
King's name, to give up the little prisoner he held there contrary
to the law and against his own will.

It was many weary anxious days before the messenger came back, but
without the little prisoner.

"What did he say?" asked the Sheriff.

"He said, master, that if you wanted the boy you must go and fetch
him."

It was the very next day that the Sheriff went into the room where
young Robin's aunt was seated, looking very unhappy, and she jumped
up from her chair wonderingly on seeing that her brother-in-law was
dressed as if for a journey, wearing no sword or dagger, only
carrying a long stout walking staff.

"Where are you going, dear?" she said.

"Where I ought to have gone at first," he said humbly; "into the
forest to fetch my boy."

"But you could never find your way," she said, sobbing. "Besides,
you are the Sheriff, and these men will seize and kill you."

"I have someone to show me the way," said the Sheriff gently; "and
somehow, though I have persecuted and fought against the people
sorely, I feel no fear, for Robin Hood is not the man to slay a
broken-hearted father who comes in search of his long-lost boy."

CHAPTER VIII

The sun was low down in the west, and shining through and under the
great oak and beech trees, so that everything seemed to be turned
to orange and gold.

It was the outlaws' supper time, the sun being their clock in the
forest; and the men were gathering together to enjoy their second
great meal of the day, the other being breakfast, after having
which they always separated to go hunting through the woods to
bring in the provisions for the next day.

Robin Hood's men, then, were s