r fastenings. The outlaws also bent over and watched the
proceeding closely, lest he should hide some of the money on his person.
Presently he got the bag unfastened and plunged his hands into it. Forth
from it he drew--not shining gold--but handfuls of fine meal which he
dashed into the eager faces of the men around him. The wind aided him
in this, and soon there arose a blinding cloud which filled the eyes,
noses, and mouths of the three outlaws till they could scarcely see or
breathe.

While they gasped and choked and sputtered and felt around wildly for
that rogue of a beggar, he finished the job by picking up the cloak
by its corners and shaking it vigorously in the faces of his suffering
victims. Then he seized a stick which lay conveniently near, and began
to rain blows down upon their heads, shoulders, and sides, all the time
dancing first on one leg, then on the other, and crying,

"Villains! rascals! here are the hundred pounds I promised. How do you
like them? I' faith, you'll get all that's in the bag."

Whack! whack! whack! whack! went the stick, emphasizing each word. Howls
of pain might have gone up from the sufferers, but they had too much
meal in their throats for that. Their one thought was to flee, and they
stumbled off blindly down the road, the beggar following them a little
way to give them a few parting love-taps.

"Fare ye well, my masters," he said finally turning the other way; "and
when next I come along the Barnesdale road, I hope you will be able to
tell gold from meal dust!"

With this he departed, an easy victor, and again went whistling on his
way, while the three outlaws rubbed the meal out of their eyes and began
to catch their breath again.

As soon as they could look around them clearly, they beheld Robin
Hood leaning against a tree trunk and surveying them smilingly. He had
recovered his own spirits in full measure, on seeing their plight.

"God save ye, gossips!" he said, "ye must, in sooth, have gone the wrong
way and been to the mill, from the looks of your clothes."

Then when they looked shamefaced and answered never a word, he went on,
in a soft voice,

"Did ye see aught of that bold beggar I sent you for, lately?"

"In sooth, master," responded Much the miller's son, "we heard more of
him than we saw him. He filled us so full of meal that I shall sweat
meal for a week. I was born in a mill, and had the smell of meal in my
nostrils from my very birth, you might say,