"Yea, sir knight," one of the foot-boys replied, halting his horse along the border of the road. "And for a-many a wearisome hour, sir knight, have----" "Sh-h-h!" cautioned the other from the bushes. "Remember, Harold, our heads will surely pay the forfeit of an indiscretion.... Yet, ... 'tis a tiresome business to be held here for none knows how long in a dark and dreary----" "Oh ho!" the first then interrupted angrily, "and who is 't now that's talking to the ax? Yet--an she would but come--we might return in----" "Ah ha!" wailed the second; "now you've finished the whole cursed job! My name's not Thomas, an I give you not a sound buffeting for----" "A truce to your quarreling," interrupted Sir Richard. "I have other business, my boys, besides putting your precious heads in jeopardy. Come ahead, give me your stories after a more complete and less disjoined fashion. By my knightly sword no harm shall befall either of you because of the telling--I am ready." "'Tis thus, good sir knight," spoke the one whom his companion had called Harold: "Now three days gone our worshipful master, Lord Douglas, ... on whom may God's blessing rest, ... commanded us to trap palfrey for a maid, ride upon the Sauchieburn Pass to the southern extremity of the Forest of Lammermuir and await there her coming. Upon the maiden joining us we were bade to conduct her, along unused by-roads, safely back to Castle Yewe. Full two days have we waited here, sir knight, with nothing better to sleep in o' nights but a thin tent in the forest. Every hour between dawn and darkness we but stand here with chattering teeth, idly shivering and watching, without warrant to sally forward or return. Is 't not, thinkest thou, a sad and dismal undertaking?" "That it is, Harold, my boy," Sir Richard heartily agreed. "An you but give me pause to consider," he added, "mayhap I may find out a way to aid you in your adventure." Sir Richard had known at once for whom the boys had been dispatched, and was relieved to discover that the part of his plan relating to the imprisoned maiden was turning out so happily. He was puzzled to understand, however, why the boys had been stationed at such a great distance from the Red Tavern. It was at least a full day's journey from that part of the forest to the inn. It occurred to him that Douglas might have sent guards ahead of the foot-boys, and that when the maid did put in her appearance, it would be in the company of an armed band. While he was trying to arrive upon the wisest course of action, fragmentary whisperings between the foot-boys were carried to his ears. "By the mass!" one of them was saying, "an it were not for the patch on the eye, and the scrag o' beard on the chin, I would take my oath that 'tis the very knight who overthrew every fighting Jack in Castle Yewe. Can'st not tell, Thomas, by the sweep o' the nose o' him, and the sharp eye--and the brow?"