"Now," he said, "upon your good speed and better discretion we do all

depend. Bring me a good answer back, and before three weeks, I will have

purged my forest of these vagabonds that brave us to our faces. But mark

it well, Throgmorton: the matter is not easy. Ye must steal forth under

night, and go like a fox; and how ye are to cross Till I know not,

neither by the bridge nor ferry."

I can swim," returned Throgmorton. "I will come soundly, fear not."

Well, friend, get ye to the buttery," replied Sir Daniel. "Ye shall

swim first of all in nut-brown ale." And with that he turned back into

the hall.

"Sir Daniel hath a wise tongue," said Hatch, aside, to Dick. "See, now,

where many a lesser man had glossed the matter over, he speaketh it out

plainly to his company. Here is a danger, 'a saith, and here difficulty;

and jesteth in the very saying. Nay, by Saint Barbary, he is a born

captain! Not a man but he is some deal heartened up! See how they fall

again to work."

This praise of Sir Daniel put a thought in the lad's head.

"Bennet," he said, "how came my father by his end?"

"Ask me not that," replied Hatch. "I had no hand nor knowledge in it;

furthermore, I will even be silent, Master Dick. For look you, in a

man's own business there he may speak; but of hearsay matters and of

The Black Arrow