, like a blind man, turned aside from his direction.

Dick leaped to his feet and waved to him.

"Here!" he cried. "This way! here is help! Nay, run, fellow--run!"

But just then a second arrow struck Selden in the shoulder, between the
plates of his brigandine, and, piercing through his jack, brought him,
like a stone, to earth.

"O the poor heart!" cried Matcham, with clasped hands.

And Dick stood petrified upon the hill, a mark for archery.

Ten to one he had speedily been shot--for the foresters were furious
with themselves, and taken unawares by Dick's appearance in the rear of
their position--but instantly out of a quarter of the wood surprisingly
near to the two lads, a stentorian voice arose, the voice of Ellis
Duckworth.

"Hold!" it roared. "Shoot not! Take him alive! It is young
Shelton--Harry's son."

And immediately after a shrill whistle sounded several times, and was
again taken up and repeated farther off. The whistle, it appeared, was
John Amend-All's battle trumpet, by which he published his directions.

"Ah, foul fortune!" cried Dick. "We are undone. Swiftly, Jack, come
swiftly!"

And the pair turned and ran back through the open pine clump that
covered the summit of the hill.

CHAPTER VI

TO THE DAY'S END

It was, indeed, high time for them to run. On every side the company of
the Black Arrow was making for the hill. Some, being better runners, or
having open ground to run upon, had far outstripped the others, and were
already close upon the goal; some, following valleys, had spread out to
right and left, and outflanked the lads on either side.

Dick plunged into the nearest cover. It was a tall grove of oaks, firm
under foot and clear of underbrush, and as it lay down hill, they made
good speed. There followed next a piece of open, which Dick avoided,
holding to his left. Two minutes after, and the same obstacle arising,
the lads followed the same course. Thus it followed that, while the
lads, bending continually to the left, drew nearer and nearer to the
high-road and the river which they had crossed an hour or two before,
the great bulk of their pursuers were leaning to the other hand, and
running towards Tunstall.

The lads paused to breathe. There was no sound of pursuit. Dick put his
ear to the ground, and still there was nothing; but the wind, to be
sure, still made a turmoil in the trees, and it was hard to make
certain.

"On again!" said Dick; and, tired as they