again to
the outlaws' stronghold.

"Prisoners!" said young Robin.

"Poor men, too," grumbled Little John.

"Then you'll give them their supper and send them away to-morrow
morning," said young Robin.

"I suppose so," said Little John, "but I don't know what made our
fellows bring them in."

"Let's go and see," said young Robin.

Little John followed as the boy marched off, bow in hand, to where
Robin Hood was standing, waiting to hear what his men had to say
about the prisoners they had brought in. And as they drew near the
boy saw that one was, a homely poor-looking man with round
shoulders, the other, well dressed in sad-colored clothes, and thin
and bent. But the boy could see little more for the broad bandage,
which nearly covered the prisoner's face and was tied tightly
behind over his long, gray hair, while his gray beard hung down low.

Young Robin looked pityingly at this prisoner, and a longing came
over him to loosen the thong which tied his hands tightly behind
him, and take off the bandage so that he could breathe freely, but
just then Robin Hood cried:

"Well, my lads, whom have we here?"

The bowed down gray-haired prisoner rose erect at this, and cried:

"Is that Robin Hood who speaks?"

Before the outlaw could answer; he was stopped by a cry: from the
boy, who threw down his bow and darted to the prisoner's side.

"Father!" he cried; and he leaped up, as active now as one of the
deer of the forest, to fling his arms about the prisoner's neck.

But only for a moment.

The next he had dropped to the ground, to look fiercely round at
the astonished men, as he drew the dagger which hung from his belt.

[Illustration: Robin looked fiercely round at the astonished men,
as he drew the dagger which hung from his belt.]

"Who dared do this?" he cried, as he reached up to tear the bandage
from the face bending over him, and then darted round to begin
sawing at the thong which held his father's hands.

Little John took a step or two forward to help the boy, but Robin
Hood held up his hand to keep him back, and a dead silence fell
upon the great group of foresters who had pressed forward, and who
eagerly watched the scene before them in the soft, amber sunshine
which came slanting through the trees. The task was hard, but the
little fellow worked well, and many moments had not elapsed before
the prisoner's hands were free, and as if seeing no one but the
little forester before him in green