ew the arrow to the head,
and was about to loose it, when a woman's arm was flung round his neck.

CHAPTER XXXII.

Coventry and Cole met that night near a little church.

Hill was to join them, and tell them the result.

Now, as it happens, Little went home rather late that night; so these
confederates waited, alternately hoping and fearing, a considerable
time.

Presently, something mysterious occurred that gave them a chill. An
arrow descended, as if from the clouds, and stuck quivering on a grave
not ten yards from them. The black and white feathers shone clear in the
moonlight.

To Coventry it seemed as if Heaven was retaliating on him.

The more prosaic but quick-witted cutler, after the first stupefaction,
suspected it was the very arrow destined for Little, and said so.

"And Heaven flings it back to us," said Coventry, and trembled in every
limb.

"Heaven has naught to do in it. The fool has got drunk, and shot it in
the air. Anyway, it mustn't stick there to tell tales."

Cole vaulted over the church-yard wall, drew it out of the grave, and
told Coventry to hide it.

"Go you home," said he. "I'll find out what this means."

Hill's unexpected assailant dragged him back so suddenly and violently
that the arrow went up at an angle of forty-five, and, as the man loosed
the string to defend himself, flew up into the sky, and came down full a
hundred yards from the place.

Hill twisted violently round and, dropping the bow, struck the woman in
the face with his fist; he had not room to use all his force; yet the
blow covered her face with blood. She cried out, but gripped him so
tight by both shoulders that he could not strike again but he kicked
her savagely. She screamed, but slipped her arms down and got him tight
round the waist. Then he was done for; with one mighty whirl she tore
him off his feet in a moment, then dashed herself and him under her to
the ground with such ponderous violence that his head rang loud on the
pavement and he was stunned for a few seconds. Ere he quite recovered
she had him turned on his face, and her weighty knee grinding down his
shoulders, while her nimble hands whipped off her kerchief and tied his
hands behind him in a twinkling.

So quickly was it all done, that by the time Little heard the scrimmage,
ascertained it was behind him, and came back to see, she was seated on
her prisoner, trembling and crying after her athletic feat, and very
little fit to