“I gave Merlin a fright. And there was the man who swam for the boat, and another after Merlin had jumped into the bushes. That makes two to my own bow.” He held her close, looking down at her from under his raised vizor. “God, what a mate for a man! But no more playing with death. I’ll take a bow and drive these gentry to cover.” CHAPTER XXXV Fulk went down to bar and barricade the door that opened from the passage leading to the kitchen quarters from the yard. He dragged all the lumber he could find in the kitchen and offices, tables, casks, flour bins, stools, and benches, and piled them in the passage way. All this gear, jammed together behind the door, would give Merlin’s men some trouble if they tried to break in on that side. Fulk remembered that he had seen a ladder hanging on brackets under the stable eaves. He went out by the hall door, and with an axe broke the ladder in pieces. Then he thought of victuals and water. The well was round behind the wood lodge, and Fulk drew several buckets, carried them in, and filled every empty jug and crock that he could find. He caught a couple of fowls, wrung their necks, and hung them in the larder. Nor were faggots forgotten; there was a stack of them behind the house, and Fulk made sure of having fuel for the baking of their bread. When he climbed the ladder into the loft he found that Isoult had discovered an old hauberk and a rusty helmet with a face guard and had armed herself to mighty good purpose. She was at the window, with an arrow ready on the string. “I have brought down another bird.” He chided her. “Heart of mine, can you never leave death alone?” He dropped his vizor, and, drawing her aside, took her place at the window. Merlin’s men were scattered along the further bank, watching for something tangible to shoot at. Fulk counted them. “Seventeen trailbastons left. We have settled eight between us this morning.” Even as he spoke, an arrow flew in at the window and stuck in the opposite wall. “They have marked us down. If we keep to this one window their arrows will fly in like wasps.” They returned to the hall, and Fulk dragged the daïs table against the wall. It was a good length, and made a platform from which he could command two out of the six lancet windows. “I’ll take toll while I can.” He went into the kitchen and came back with a broomstick, a loaf, and an old piece of dark sacking, and sticking the loaf on the end of the broomstick, fastened the cloth to it with a couple of skewers. “Nothing like a good use of one’s wits. Show that at the other windows, and bob it to and fro. I wager it will fool them.”