Meanwhile the man whom he had come to rescue, instead of joining in the

conflict, had, on the first sign of intervention, leaped aback and blown

again, and yet more urgently and loudly, on that same shrill-voiced

trumpet that began the alarm. Next moment, indeed, his foes were on him,

and he was once more charging and fleeing, leaping, stabbing, dropping to

his knee, and using indifferently sword and dagger, foot and hand, with

the same unshaken courage and feverish energy and speed.

But that ear-piercing summons had been heard at last. There was a

muffled rushing in the snow; and in a good hour for Dick, who saw the

sword-points glitter already at his throat, there poured forth out of the

wood upon both sides a disorderly torrent of mounted men-at-arms, each

cased in iron, and with visor lowered, each bearing his lance in rest, or

his sword bared and raised, and each carrying, so to speak, a passenger,

in the shape of an archer or page, who leaped one after another from

their perches, and had presently doubled the array.

The original assailants; seeing themselves outnumbered and surrounded,

threw down their arms without a word.

"Seize me these fellows!" said the hero of the trumpet; and when his

order had been obeyed, he drew near to Dick and looked him in the face.

Dick, returning this scrutiny, was surprised to find in one who had

displayed such strength, skill and energy, a lad no older than

himself--slightly deformed, with one shoulder higher than the other, and

The Black Arrow