ng the other from
his belt, he sent it skimming some few feet from the earth with so true
an aim that it struck and transfixed the stork for the second time ere
it could reach the ground. A deep-chested shout of delight burst from
the archers at the sight of this double feat, and Aylward, dancing with
joy, threw his arms round the old marksman and embraced him with such
vigor that their mail tunics clanged again.

"Ah! camarade," he cried, "you shall have a stoup with me for this! What
then, old dog, would not the hawk please thee, but thou must have the
stork as well. Oh, to my heart again!"

"It is a pretty piece of yew, and well strung," said Johnston with a
twinkle in his deep-set gray eyes. "Even an old broken bowman might find
the clout with a bow like this."

"You have done very well," remarked the Brabanter in a surly voice.
"But it seems to me that you have not yet shown yourself to be a better
marksman than I, for I have struck that at which I aimed, and, by the
three kings! no man can do more."

"It would ill beseem me to claim to be a better marksman," answered
Johnston, "for I have heard great things of your skill. I did but wish
to show that the long-bow could do that which an arbalest could not do,
for you could not with your moulinet have your string ready to speed
another shaft ere the bird drop to the earth."

"In that you have vantage," said the crossbowman. "By Saint James! it
is now my turn to show you where my weapon has the better of you. I pray
you to draw a flight shaft with all your strength down the valley, that
we may see the length of your shoot."

"That is a very strong prod of yours," said Johnston, shaking his
grizzled head as he glanced at the thick arch and powerful strings of
his rival's arbalest. "I have little doubt that you can overshoot me,
and yet I have seen bowmen who could send a cloth-yard arrow further
than you could speed a quarrel."

"So I have heard," remarked the Brabanter; "and yet it is a strange
thing that these wondrous bowmen are never where I chance to be. Pace
out the distances with a wand at every five score, and do you, Arnaud,
stand at the fifth wand to carry back my bolts to me."

A line was measured down the valley, and Johnston, drawing an arrow to
the very head, sent it whistling over the row of wands.

"Bravely drawn! A rare shoot!" shouted the bystanders.

"It is well up to the fourth mark."

"By my hilt! it is over it," cried Aylward. "I can