"Robin Hood!" roared he, and without
another word he wheeled his horse in the road and went off in a cloud of
dust. The Sheriff's men, seeing their master thus fleeing for his life,
thought that it was not their business to tarry longer, so, clapping
spurs to their horses, they also dashed away after him. But though the
Sheriff of Nottingham went fast, he could not outstrip a clothyard
arrow. Little John twanged his bowstring with a shout, and when the
Sheriff dashed in through the gates of Nottingham Town at full speed, a
gray goose shaft stuck out behind him like a moulting sparrow with one
feather in its tail. For a month afterward the poor Sheriff could sit
upon nought but the softest cushions that could be gotten for him.
Thus the Sheriff and a score of men ran away from Robin Hood and Little
John; so that when Will Stutely and a dozen or more of stout yeomen
burst from out the covert, they saw nought of their master's enemies,
for the Sheriff and his men were scurrying away in the distance, hidden
within a cloud of dust like a little thunderstorm.
Then they all went back into the forest once more, where they found the
widow's three sons, who ran to Little John and kissed his hands.
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