The Chronicles of Robin Hood Read Online Free PDF Page B

And Robin, watching with interest, saw that he was a skilled bowman, despite his popinjay appearance, for he laid his whole body to the bow, instead of drawing with his arm only, as is the way of the unskilled, and when he loosed the bolt he did so without plucking; nor did he strike his left forearm with the released bowstring. The deer-bolt hummed away across the clearing and struck a fat doe full in the breast. She ran a few paces and fell, while the rest of the herd fled for shelter in the forest.
    Forth stepped Robin from the dun shadows of the trees and called blithely to the marksman: ‘A fine shot, friend scarlet-cap!’
    Instantly the man swung round, revealing a pleasant face with bright dark eyes and an arrogant mouth. His glance swept up and down the brown-clad figure of the outlaw (for when the leaves turned from green to brown in the autumn Robin and his men followed suit, changing their Lincoln green for warm hoods and tunics of russet) and his hand flew to snatch an arrow from his girdle.
    Robin laughed, and stayed him with a gesture. ‘I am no king’s forester. Look at my cap; I wear no bugle-badge in it.’
    ‘Who are you, then?’
    ‘A free ranger of the forest, with free men at my back.’
    ‘How if I distrust your word?’ demanded the young man fiercely. ‘How am I to know that you have not cut the silver badge from your cap in order to tran me? These men of yours—if I shoot now, can they be here before the bolt is in your heart?’
    Robin shook his head. ‘Softly, lad; do not play the fool. I also have my bow, and can loose as swiftly as you; and if by any chance you should slay me, it would not be long, I promise you, before my men would be on your track, and you would have as much chance of life as though there were a wolf-pack on your trail. If you are so eager to use your bow, let us shoot together at an agreed mark in friendly fashion.’
    For a moment the young man hesitated; then he shrugged his shoulders and withdrew his hand from the arrow in his girdle. ‘As you will.’
    ‘Then I will provide the prick and you shall make the garland,’ said Robin pleasantly. ‘Yonder red dogwood leaves should show up bravely against the peeled hazel.’
    The young man went a little unwillingly to break off the dogwood spray, while Robin, going quickly aside into the forest, cut a long hazel wand. They met again on the narrow track, the one peeling the bark from his hazel-prick, the other twisting crimson dogwood leaves into a rough garland. Side by side they paced the agreed distance out into the clearing and set up the prick with the garland hanging from the top; side by side they returned to the briar bush from which they had started out.
    ‘Now,’ said Robin, ‘that was a fine shot of yours which brought down yon fallow doe. Do you think you can better it?’
    ‘I can try,’ answered the young man, and he seemed to have forgotten his distrust of his companion as he nocked the arrow to his string, and, bending the bow, took careful aim, and loosed. The arrow thrummed away to pass just outside the garland, and he shook his head ruefully as he stepped aside to give place to Robin.
    The outlaw raised his bow, nocked his arrow, and loosed, scarcely seeming to take aim at all. The bolt passed within the garland, only two fingers’ breadth from the prick itself. Then it was the other’s turn again. This time he took even more care than before; but the arrow missed by a wider margin, and once more he gave place to Robin, whose own shaft this time grazed the top of the prick.
    The third round remained, and the arrow which the stranger took from his girdle was the last he had. He stood turning it over in his fingers for a moment before nocking it to his bowstring. Then it hummed away over the tawny sea of bracken, to pass well within the garland. He heaved a little sigh of satisfaction as he gave place to Robin for the last time, and a moment later gave a sharp whistle of astonished admiration as