it up, and waited patiently for dawn.

CHAPTER XIX

Robin woke from a heavy slumber at daybreak. A faint noise from without
the buttery disturbed him. He very quietly rose up, and, picking his way
across the room, came to the entrance to the kitchens. He opened one of
the doors and found a passage, grey-lit by the first gleam of dawn.

At the end of it was the figure of a man. His height revealed him for
Little John. Over his shoulders was a short sack.

Seeing Robin, he beckoned to him; then whispered his plans. But Robin
did not intend to leave Nottingham so soon.

"Go, Little John, and take that which is in your sack----"

"I shall bring it to you, gossip," spoke Little John, in a muffled
voice: "to your haunts in Barnesdale. You shall see who is the better
servant--Stuteley or myself. Here have I the Sheriff's plate----"

An audacious notion flashed upon Robin.

"Take it to our cave in Barnesdale, honest John," said he, swiftly,
indicating the sack, "and, harkee; I will follow later with such a guest
as never our greenwood has yet carried. Lay out a royal feast and kill
one of the fattest bucks. Take my dagger in token to them that I have
sent you."

"Who will you bring with you, gossip? Not my lord of Hereford?"

"I will bring Monceux himself," said Robin, boldly. "Leave the business
in my hands. Go now, if you know a safe road from out of this place."

"I have a friend at the gate who will ask me no questions," answered
Little John, softly. "But you?"

"My wit shall lead me out from Nottingham," Robin told him.

Little John let himself out by one of the postern doors, and found means
to convey the Sheriff's plate through the streets. Afterwards when he
reached the gate, he continued to win his passage by pure statesmanship,
pretending that he had been sent out at that strange hour to snare young
rabbits for his lord's breakfast!

Meanwhile, Robin returned to the buttery, and waited for events to shape
themselves. Ere long the butchers began yawning and quarrelling betwixt
themselves; and Robin artfully persuaded them, by setting one against
the other, to a free fight.

The servants separated them, and in anger bade them all begone. Robin
besought them to let him stay, saying that he wished an audience with my
lord the Sheriff.

"Out upon you, pestilent fellow!" cried one of the servants. "You scum
of the earth! This comes of hobnobbing with such rascals. Go hence
quickly, with your fell