Part 7 (1/2)
”Nay, Jack, leave thee!” he cried ”That were a knave's trick, to be sure, when ye risked a shot and a ducking, ay, and a drowning too, to save , in sooth; for why I did not pull you in along with me, the saints alone can tell!”
”Nay,” said Matchaood dick, for I can swim”
”Can ye so?” cried dick, with open eyes It was the one manly accomplishment of which he was his that he adht ca ”Well,” he said, ”here is a lesson to despise no man I promised to care for you as far as Holywood, and, by the rood, Jack, y'
are more capable to care for me”
”Well, dick, we're friends now,” said Matcham
”Nay, I never was unfriends,” answered dick ”Y' are a brave lad in your way, albeit so of a milksop, too I never met your like before this day But, prithee, fetch back your breath, and let us on Here is no place for chatter”
”My foot hurts shrewdly,” said Matchaot your foot,” returned dick ”Well, we htly where ere I have clean lost the path; yet that may be for the better, too An they watch the ferry, they watch the path, belike, as well I would Sir Daniel were back with two score men; he would sweep me these rascals as the wind sweeps leaves
Come, Jack, lean ye on h What age are ye, for a wager?--twelve?”
”Nay, I aht, then,” answered dick ”But take o softly, never fear I owe you a life; I aan to go forward up the slope
”We must hit the road, early or late,” continued dick; ”and then for a fresh start By the mass! but y' 'ave a rickety hand, Jack If I had a hand like that, I would think shame I tell you,” he went on, with a sudden chuckle, ”I swear by the h Ferryman took you for a h
”A' did, though, for a wager!” dick exclaimed ”Small blame to him Ye look likerrogue for a boy; but for a hussy, Jack, ye would be right fair--ye would
Ye would be well favoured for a wench”
”Well,” said Matchaht well that I am none”
”Nay, I know that; I do but jest,” said dick ”Ye'll be a man before your mother, Jack What cheer, my bully! Ye shall strike shrewd strokes Nohich, I hted I shall be, or die for 't 'Sir Richard Shelton, Knight': it soundeth bravely But 'Sir John Matcham' soundeth not amiss”
”Prithee, dick, stop till I drink,” said the other, pausing where a little clear spring welled out of the slope into a gravelled basin no bigger than a pocket ”And O, dick, if I er”
”Why, fool, did ye not eat at Kettley?” asked dick
”I had made a vow--it was a sin I had been led into,” stammered Matchareedily”
”Sit ye, then, and eat,” said dick, ”while that I scout a little forward for the road” And he took a wallet froirdle, wherein were bread and pieces of dry bacon, and, while Matcha the trees
A little beyond there was a dip in the ground, where a streaain, the trees were better grown and stood wider, and oak and beech began to take the place ofand el the leaves sufficiently concealed the sounds of his footsteps on the ht is to the eye; but for all that dick went cautiously, slipping fro sharply about hih the underwood in front of hiusted at the chance This part of the wood had been certainly deserted, but now that the poor deer had run, she was like a er he should have sent before hi farther, he turned hian to climb
Luck had served him well The oak on which he had mounted was one of the tallest in that quarter of the wood, and easily out-topped its neighbours by a fathom and a half; and when dick had cla dizzily in the great wind, he saw behind him the whole fenny plain as far as Kettley, and the Till wandering ah-road winding through the forest The boat had been righted--it was even noay on the ferry Beyond that there was no sign ofbut the wind He was about to descend, when, taking a last view, his eye lit upon a string ofpoints about thethe causeway, and that at a good pace; and this gave hiorously down the trunk and returned across the wood for his companion
CHAPTER IV--A GREENWOOD COMPANY