ump; while the third,
caught in some wandering puff of wind, was driven a foot or two to one
side.

"Good!" cried the north countryman. "Hearken to him lads! He is a master
bowman. Your dad says amen to every word he says."

"By my hilt!" said Aylward, "if I am to preach on bowmanship, the whole
long day would scarce give me time for my sermon. We have marksmen in
the Company who will notch with a shaft every crevice and joint of a
man-at-arm's harness, from the clasp of his bassinet to the hinge of his
greave. 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.

"Tete Dieu!" he growled, "were this France, or even Guienne, we should
have a fresh haunch for our none-meat. Law or no law, I have a mind to
loose a bolt at her."

"I would break your stave across my knee first," cried John, laying his
great hand upon the bow. "What! man, I am forest-born, and I know what
comes of it. In our own township of Hordle two have lost their eyes and
one his skin for this very thing. On my troth, I felt no great love when
I first saw you, but since then I have conceived over much regard for
you to wish to see the verderer's flayer at work upon you."

"It is my trade to risk my skin," growled the archer; but none the less
he thrust his quiver over his hip again and turned his face for the
west.

As they advanced, the path still tended upwards, running from