it in stripping off my own garments to arm myself; but of the man I had
slain only scattered bones were left. The wolves had devoured him.

When I saw that, I thought that this dead man might as well pass for
myself--Heregar, the outlaw. So I examined billhook and quarterstaff,
and at last said I knew them. They had been given to one Heregar, who
had been outlawed and driven from the Moot even as I stood to watch the
gathering as I passed by.

"Then his outlawry has ended here," said the collier. "The wolves have
devoured him."

"Just as well," I said carelessly. "Shall you take his staff and bill?
They are good enough."

"Not I," said the man. "It is ill meddling with strange men's weapons,
most of all an outlaw's."

"Mayhap you are wise," I said, and, casting down the things alongside
the bones, went on.

Now I had looked all round, and saw that my old garments were gone, so
that the man I had let go had at all events started away with them. But
now I knew that the news of my death would soon spread, hard on the
publishing of the sentence of outlawry, for the doings of an outlaw are
of the first interest to those among whom he may wander. As it was,
indeed, to my guide, who spoke so much thereof that I knew he would be
full of it, and tell it to all whom he met. And when he told me he
should go back through the town I was glad, for so Matelgar would have
news of the same, confirming the tale of his man, though not accounting