enough to pay you for that battered door."

"Now by all the saints--" began the Bishop.

"Take care; they are all watching you," interrupted Robin; "so name them
not upon your unchurchly lips. But I will trouble you to hand over that
purse of gold you had saved to pay for my head."

"I'll see you hanged first!" raged the Bishop, stating no more than
what would have been so, if he could do the ordering of things. "Have at
them, my men, and hew them down in their tracks!"

"Hold!" retorted Robin. "See how we have you at our mercy." And aiming a
sudden shaft he shot so close to the Bishop's head that it carried away
both his hat and the skull-cap which he always wore, leaving him quite
bald.

The prelate turned as white as his shiny head and clutched wildly at his
ears. He thought himself dead almost.

"Help! Murder!" he gasped. "Do not shoot again! Here's your purse of
gold!"

And without waiting for further parley he fairly bolted down the road.

His men being left leaderless had nothing for it but to retreat after
him, which they did in sullen order, covered by the bows of the yeomen.
And thus ended the Bishop of Hereford's great outlaw-hunt in the forest.

CHAPTER XIX

HOW THE SHERIFF HELD ANOTHER SHOOTING MATCH

"To tell the truth, I'm well informed
Yon match it is a wile;
The Sheriff, I know, devises this
Us archers to beguile."

Now the Sheriff was so greatly troubled in heart over the growing power
of Robin Hood, that he did a very foolish thing. He went to London town
to lay his troubles before the King and get another force of troops to
cope with the outlaws. King Richard was not yet returned from the Holy
Land, but Prince John heard him with scorn.

"Pooh!" said he, shrugging his shoulders. "What have I to do with all
this? Art thou not sheriff for me? The law is in force to take thy
course of them that injure thee. Go, get thee gone, and by thyself
devise some tricking game to trap these rebels; and never let me see thy
face at court again until thou hast a better tale to tell."

So away went the Sheriff in sorrier pass than ever, and cudgeled his
brain, on the way home, for some plan of action.

His daughter met him on his return and saw at once that he had been on a
poor mission. She was minded to upbraid him when she learned what he
had told the Prince. But the words of the latter started her to thinking
afresh.

"I have it!" she exclaimed at length. "Why shoul