CHAPTER III

"Now then, don't you be long," cried the young swineherd, and he
raised his stick threateningly, and made another thrust at Robin,
which was avoided; and feeling desperate now as well as hungry,
feeling too, that it would be better to fall into any other hands,
the little fellow ran on, following a faint track in and out among
the trees, till he came suddenly into an opening, face to face with
a group of fifty or sixty people busily engaged around a heap
beneath a spreading beech tree.

Robin's first act was to stand and stare, for the heap consisted of
bales similar to those with which he had seen the mules laden a
couple of days back, and tied up together a few yards away were the
very mules, while the little crowd of men who were busy bore a very
strong resemblance to those by whom the attack was made on the
previous day.

Robin knew nothing in those days about the old proverb of jumping
out of the frying-pan into the fire, but he felt something of the
kind as he found himself face to face with the marauders who had
seized upon the bales of cloth and put his aunt's servants to
flight, and without a moment's hesitation he turned and began to
hurry back, but ran into the arms of a huge fellow who caught him
up as if he had been a baby.

[Illustration: Robin ran into the arms of a huge fellow, who caught
him up as if he had been a baby.]