What next?"
"This," I replied, and with the other thong fastened him, despite his
struggles, to the young maple beneath which we had wrestled.
When the task was done, I first drew his sword from its jeweled
scabbard and laid it on the ground at his feet, and then cut the
leather which restrained his arms, leaving him only tied to the tree.
"I am not Sir Thomas Dale," I said, "and therefore I shall not gag
you and leave you bound for an indefinite length of time, to
contemplate a grave that you thought to dig. One haunted wood is
enough for one county. Your lordship will observe that I have
knotted your bonds in easy reach of your hands, the use of which I
have just restored to you. The knot is a peculiar one; an Indian
taught it to me. If you set to work at once, you will get it untied
before nightfall. That you may not think it the Gordian knot and
treat it as such, I have put your sword where you can get it only
when you have worked for it. Your familiar, my lord, may prove of
use to us; therefore we will take him with us to the haunted wood.
I have the honor to wish your lordship a very good day."
I bowed low, swung myself into my saddle, and turned my back
upon his glaring eyes and bared teeth. Sparrow, his prize flung
across his saddlebow, turned with me. A minute more saw us out
of the hollow, and entered upon the glade up which had come the
Italian.
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