se before."

"Give her to me," cried Johnie Armstrong quickly, stung by this
well-earned reproof, "and I will bring the two horses back, and the
cunning fool with them, either alive or dead. 'Tis a far cry from here
to Carlisle, and I trow he could ride but slowly in the darkness."

"A likely story," said the Laird's Jock. "The fool, as thou callest him,
hath already stolen two good horses, and to send another after him would
but be sending good siller after bad."

"An' dost thou think that he could take the horse from me?" asked Johnie
indignantly, and he pleaded so hard to be allowed to pursue Dick, that
at last the Laird's Jock gave him leave.

He wasted no time in seeking his armour, but, snatching up hastily his
kinsman's doublet, sword, and helmet, he leaped on the bay mare and
galloped away.

He rode so furiously that by midday he overtook Dick on Canonbie Lee,
not far from Longtown.

The poor fool had had to ride slowly, for he was not very much
accustomed to horses, and it was not easy for him to manage two. He
looked round in alarm when he heard the thunder of hoofs behind him, but
his face cleared when he saw that Johnie Armstrong was alone.

"I have outwitted a whole household," he thought to himself; "beshrew me
if I cannot tackle one man, even although it be Johnie Armstrong."

All the same he put his horses to the gallop, and went on as fast as he
could.

"Now hold, thou traitor thief, and stand for thy life," shouted Johnie
in a passion.

Dick glanced hastily over his shoulder, and then he pulled his horses
round suddenly. He could fight better than most men thought, when he was
put to it.

"Art thou alone, Johnie?" he said tauntingly. "Then must I tell thee a
little story. I am an unlettered man, being but a poor fool, as thou
knowest, but I try to do my duty, and every Sunday I go to church in
Carlisle city with my betters. And at our church we have a right good
preacher, though his sermons run through my poor brain as if it were a
sieve; but there are three words which I aye remember. The first two of
these are 'faith' and 'conscience,' and it seems to me that ye lacked
both of them when ye came stealing in the dark to my humble cottage,
knowing full well that I could not defend myself, and stole my cows, and
took my wife's coverlets. What the third word is, I cannot at this
moment remember, but it means that when a man lacks faith and conscience
he deserves to be punished, and therefore