"Yer thought I was giving yer up, did yer, but I wasn't. I've been
watching for yer ever since yer run away. I knowed I should ketch
yer some day. Errrr! yer young thief!"

He tightened his grip of Robin's shoulders, grinned at him like an
angry dog, and gave him a fierce shake, while his victim breathed
hard as he pressed his teeth together, and there was the look in
his eyes as if he were some newly captured wild creature seeking a
way to escape.

"Kerm along," snarled the young swineherd. "I dropped my staff
just back here, and as soon as I gets it, I'm going to stand over
yer while yer strips off all them things; and if yer tries to get
away I'll break yer legs, and yer can't run then."

Robin drew a breath which sounded like a deep sigh, and ceased his
struggling, letting his enemy force him to walk backward among the
bracken and nearly fall again and again, till all at once the
savage young lout shouted:

"Ah, here it is'" and loosening one hand, he was in the act of
stooping to pick up the staff he had dropped in leaping upon his
victim, who now made a bound which sent the boy face downward on to
his staff, while Robin dashed off to where his own quarter-staff
lay among the bracken--a spot he had glanced at again and again.

He seized it in an instant, and was about to bound away among the
trees, but his enemy had recovered himself, and staff in hand, came
after him at so terrible a rate that Robin only avoided a swishing
blow at his legs by dodging round a tree, which received the stroke.