Page 48 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

while, also, quite still stood the stranger, holding his bow
in his hand, while one could count five; then he drew his
trusty yew,
holding it drawn but a moment, then loosed the string.
Straight flew the arrow, and so true that it smote a gray
goose feather from off Gilbert’s shaft, which fell fluttering
through the sunlit air as the stranger’s arrow lodged close
beside his of the Red Cap, and in the very center. No one
spoke a word for a while and no one shouted, but each man
looked into his neighbor’s face amazedly.
‘Nay,’ quoth old Adam o’ the Dell presently, drawing a
long breath and shaking his head as he spoke, ‘twoscore
years and more have I shot shaft, and maybe not all times
bad, but I shoot no more this day, for no man can match
with yon stranger, whosoe’er he may be.’ Then he thrust his
shaft into his quiver, rattling, and unstrung his bow with-
out another word.
Then the Sheriff came down from his dais and drew near,
in all his silks and velvets, to where the tattered strang-
er stood leaning upon his stout bow, while the good folk
crowded around to see the man who shot so wondrously
well. ‘Here, good fellow,’ quoth the Sheriff, ‘take thou the
prize, and well and fairly hast thou won it, I bow. What may
be thy name, and whence comest thou?’
‘Men do call me Jock o’ Teviotdale, and thence am I
come,’ said the stranger.
‘Then, by Our Lady, Jock, thou art the fairest archer that
e’er mine eyes beheld, and if thou wilt join my service I
will clothe thee with a better coat than that thou hast upon