m
paying for the bad arrow. So walk up and take your medicine!"

"Nay, that may not be!" protested Robin. "The good friar belongs to
my company and has no authority to lift hands against me. But you, Sir
Knight, stand as it were for the King. I pray you, serve out my blow."

"Not so!" said Friar Tuck. "My son, you forget I stand for the church,
which is greater even than the King."

"Not in merry England," said the knight in a deep voice. Then rising to
his feet, he added, "I stand ready to serve you, Master Hood."

"Now out upon ye for an upstart knight!" cried Friar Tuck. "I told you
last night, sirrah, that we should yet see who was the better man! So we
will e'en prove it now, and thus settle who is to pay Robin Hood."

"Good!" said Robin, "for I want not to start a dispute between church
and state."

"Good!" also said the knight. "'Tis an easy way to end prattling. Come,
friar, strike and ye dare. I will give you first blow."

"You have the advantage of an iron pot on your head and gloves on your
hands," said the friar; "but have at ye! Down you shall go, if you were
Goliath of Gath."

Once more the priest's brawny arm flashed through the air, and struck
with a "whoof!" But to the amazement of all, the knight did not budge
from his tracks, though the upper half of his body swerved slightly to
ease the force of the blow. A loud shout burst from the yeomen at this,
for the friar's fist was proverbial, and few of those present had not
felt the force of it in times past.

"Now 'tis my turn," said his antagonist coolly, casting aside his
gauntlet. And with one blow of his fist the knight sent the friar
spinning to the ground.

If there had been uproar and shouting before, it was as naught to the
noise which now broke forth. Every fellow held his sides or rolled upon
the ground from laughter; every fellow, save one, and that was Robin
Hood.

"Out of the frying-pan into the fire!" thought he. "I wish I had let the
friar box my ears, after all!"

Robin's plight did, indeed, seem a sorry one, before the steel muscles
of his stranger. But he was saved from a tumble heels over head by
an unlooked-for diversion. A horn winded in the glade, and a party of
knights were seen approaching.

"To your arms!" cried Robin, hurriedly seizing his sword and bow.

"'Tis Sir Richard of the Lea!" cried another, as the troop came nearer.

And so it was. Sir Richard spurred forward his horse and dashed up to
the camp while t