their bow-strings, loosening sword and dagger in the
sheath. Ellis held up his hand; his face had suddenly
assumed a look of savage energy; the white of his eyes
shone in his sun-brown face.

"Lads," he said, "ye know your places. Let not one
man's soul escape you. Appleyard was a whet before a
meal; but now we go to table. I have three men whom
I will bitterly avenge -- Harry Shelton, Simon Malmesbury,
and" -- striking his broad bosom -- "and Ellis Duckworth,
by the mass!"

Another man came, red with hurry, through the thorns.
"'Tis not Sir Daniel!" he panted. "They are but
seven. Is the arrow gone?"

"It struck but now," replied Ellis.

"A murrain!" cried the messenger. "Methought I
heard it whistle. And I go dinnerless!"

In the space of a minute, some running, some walking
sharply, according as their stations were nearer or farther
away, the men of the Black Arrow had all disappeared
from the neighbourhood of the ruined house; and the cal-
dron, and the fire, which was now burning low, and the
dead deer's carcase on the hawthorn, remained alone to
testify they had been there.

-61-