but when we are upon the highroad again, I will go one way through
the country and will send my men the other, so that if one falleth

into the King's hands the others may haply escape. We will go
by devious ways, and so, I hope, will reach Sherwood in safety.

And now, Sir Page, I wish thee farewell."
"Farewell, thou bold yeoman," said young Partington, "and mayst

thou reach thy hiding in safety." So each shook the other's hand,
and the lad, turning his horse's head, rode back toward London,

while Robin entered the inn once more.
There he found his yeomen sitting in silence, waiting his coming;

likewise the landlord was there, for he was curious to know what
Master Partington had to do with the fellow in blue. "Up, my merry men!"

quoth Robin, "this is no place for us, for those are after us with
whom we will stand but an ill chance an we fall into their hands.

So we will go forward once more, nor will we stop this night
till we reach Saint Albans." Hereupon, taking out his purse,

he paid the landlord his score, and so they left the inn.
When they had come to the highroad without the town, Robin stopped

and told them all that had passed between young Partington and himself,
and how that the King's men were after them with hot heels.

Then he told them that here they should part company; they three going
to the eastward and he to the westward, and so, skirting the main highroads,

would come by devious paths to Sherwood. "So, be ye wily,"
said Robin Hood, "and keep well away from the northward roads till

ye have gotten well to the eastward. And thou, Will Scarlet,
take the lead of the others, for thou hast a cunning turn to thy wits."

Then Robin kissed the three upon the cheeks, and they kissed him,
and so they parted company.

Not long after this, a score or more of the King's men came clattering
up to the door of the inn at Barnet Town. Here they leaped from

their horses and quickly surrounded the place, the leader of the band
and four others entering the room where the yeomen had been.

But they found that their birds had flown again, and that the King
had been balked a second time.

"Methought that they were naughty fellows," said the host, when he heard
whom the men-at-arms sought. "But I heard that blue-clad knave say that

they would go straight forward to Saint Albans; so, an ye hurry forward,
ye may, perchance, catch them on the highroad betwixt here and there."

For this news the leader of the band thanked mine host right heartily, and,
calling his men together, mounted and set forth again, galloping forward

to Saint Albans upon a wild goose chase.
After Little John and Will Scarlet and Allan a Dale had left

the highway near garnet, they traveled toward the eastward,
without stopping, as long as their legs could carry them, until they

came to Chelmsford, in Essex. Thence they turned northward,
and came through Cambridge and Lincolnshire, to the good town

of Gainsborough. Then, striking to the westward and the south,
they came at last to the northern borders of Sherwood Forest,

without in all that time having met so much as a single band
of the King's men. Eight days they journeyed thus ere they reached

the woodlands in safety, but when they got to the greenwood glade,
they found that Robin had not yet returned.

For Robin was not as lucky in getting back as his men had been,
as you shall presently hear.

After having left the great northern road, he turned his face
to the westward, and so came past Aylesbury, to fair Woodstock,

in Oxfordshire. Thence he turned his footsteps northward,
traveling for a great distance by way of Warwick Town,

till he came to Dudley, in Staffordshire. Seven days it took
him to journey thus far, and then he thought he had gotten

far enough to the north, so, turning toward the eastward,
shunning the main roads, and choosing byways and grassy lanes,

he went, by way of Litchfield and Ashby de la Zouch, toward Sherwood,
until he came to a place called Stanton. And now Robin's

heart began to laugh aloud, for he thought that his danger
had gone by, and that his nostrils would soon snuff the spicy

air of the woodlands once again. But there is many a slip
betwixt the cup and the lip, and this Robin was to find.

For thus it was:
When the King's men found themselves foiled at Saint Albans,

and that Robin and his men were not to be found high nor low,
they knew not what to do. Presently another band of horsemen came,

and another, until all the moonlit streets were full of armed men.
Betwixt midnight and dawn another band came to the town,

and with them came the Bishop of Hereford. When he heard
that Robin Hood had once more slipped out of the trap, he stayed

not a minute, but, gathering his bands together, he pushed forward
to the northward with speed, leaving orders for all the troops

that came to Saint Albans to follow after him without tarrying.
On the evening of the fourth day he reached Nottingham Town,

and there straightway divided his men into bands of six or seven,
and sent them all through the countryside, blocking every highway

and byway to the eastward and the southward and the westward
of Sherwood. The Sheriff of Nottingham called forth all his

men likewise, and joined with the Bishop, for he saw that this
was the best chance that had ever befallen of paying back

his score in full to Robin Hood. Will Scarlet and Little John
and Allan a Dale had just missed the King's men to the eastward,

for the very next day after they had passed the line and entered
Sherwood the roads through which they had traveled were blocked,

so that, had they tarried in their journeying, they would surely
have fallen into the Bishop's hands.

But of all this Robin knew not a whit; so he whistled merrily
as he trudged along the road beyond Stanton, with his heart as free

from care as the yolk of an egg is from cobwebs. At last he came
to where a little stream spread across the road in a shallow sheet,

tinkling and sparkling as it fretted over its bed of golden gravel.
Here Robin stopped, being athirst, and, kneeling down,

he made a cup of the palms of his hands, and began to drink.
On either side of the road, for a long distance, stood tangled

thickets of bushes and young trees, and it pleased Robin's heart
to hear the little birds singing therein, for it made him think

of Sherwood, and it seemed as though it had been a lifetime
since he had breathed the air of the woodlands. But of a sudden,

as he thus stooped, drinking, something hissed past his ear,
and struck with a splash into the gravel and water beside him.

Quick as a wink Robin sprang to his feet, and, at one bound,
crossed the stream and the roadside, and plunged headlong into

the thicket, without looking around, for he knew right well that
that which had hissed so venomously beside his ear was a gray

goose shaft, and that to tarry so much as a moment meant death.
Even as he leaped into the thicket six more arrows rattled

among the branches after him, one of which pierced his doublet,
and would have struck deeply into his side but for the tough

coat of steel that he wore. Then up the road came riding some
of the King's men at headlong speed. They leaped from their horses

and plunged straightway into the thicket after Robin. But Robin
knew the ground better than they did, so crawling here,

stooping there, and, anon, running across some little open,
he soon left them far behind, coming out, at last, upon another

road about eight hundred paces distant from the one he had left.
Here he stood for a moment, listening to the distant shouts of

the seven men as they beat up and down in the thickets like hounds
that had lost the scent of the quarry. Then, buckling his belt