He wore a
sweeping gown of dark thick stuff, lined and edged with yellowish fur,
and he bowed a bent-down bow that made them feel both proud and
ashamed. Then he looked at them steadily, and they stared back without
doubt or fear.

'You are not afraid?' he said, running his hands through his splendid
grey beard. 'Not afraid that those men yonder'--he jerked his head
towards the incessant POP-POP of the guns from the lower woods--'will
do you hurt?'

'We-ell'--Dan liked to be accurate, especially when he was shy--'old
Hobd--a friend of mine told me that one of the beaters got peppered
last week--hit in the leg, I mean. You see, Mr Meyer will fire at
rabbits. But he gave Waxy Garnett a quid--sovereign, I mean--and Waxy
told Hobden he'd have stood both barrels for half the money.'

'He doesn't understand,'Una cried, watching the pale, troubled face.
'Oh, I wish--'

She had scarcely said it when Puck rustled out of the hollies and spoke
to the man quickly in foreign words. Puck wore a long cloak too--the
afternoon was just frosting down--and it changed his appearance
altogether.

'Nay, nay!'he said at last. 'You did not understand the boy. A
freeman was a little hurt, by pure mischance, at the hunting.'

'I know that mischance! What did his lord do? Laugh and ride over
him?' the old man sneered.

'It was one of your own people did the hurt, Kadmiel.' Puck's eyes
twinkled maliciously. 'So he gave the freeman a piece of gold, and no
more was said.'

'A Jew drew blood from a Christian and no more was said?' Kadmiel
cried. 'Never! When did they torture him?'

'No man may be bound, or fined, or slain till he has been judged by his
peers,' Puck insisted. 'There is but one Law in Old England for Jew or
Christian--the Law that was signed at Runnymede.'

'Why, that's Magna Charta!' Dan whispered. It was one of the few
history dates that he could remember.

Kadmiel turned on him with a sweep and a whirr of his spicy-scented
gown.

'Dost thou know of that, babe?' he cried, and lifted his hands in
wonder.

'Yes,' said Dan firmly.

'Magna Charta was signed by John,
That Henry the Third put his heel upon.

And old Hobden says that if it hadn't been for her (he calls everything
"her", you know), the keepers would have him clapped in Lewes jail all
the year round.'

Again Puck translated to Kadmiel in the strange, solemn-sounding
language, and at last Kadmiel laughed.

'Out of the mouths of