Page:A C Doyle - The White Company.djvu/205

Rh others were stationed with leather water-bags to quench any fire-arrows which might come aboard, while others were sent up the mast, to lie along the yard and drop stones or shoot arrows as the occasion served.

'Let them be supplied with all that is heavy and weighty in the ship,' said Sir Nigel.

'Then we must send them up Sir Oliver Buttesthorn,' quoth Ford.

The knight looked at him with a face which struck the smile from his lips. 'No squire of mine,' he said, 'shall ever make jest of a belted knight. And yet,' he added, his eyes softening, 'I know that it is but a boy's mirth, with no sting in it. Yet I should ill do my part towards your father if I did not teach you to curb your tongue-play.'

'They will lay us aboard on either quarter, my lord,' cried the master. 'See how they stretch out from each other! The Norman hath a or a  upon the fore-castle. See, they bend to the levers! They are about to loose it.' 'Aylward,' cried the knight, 'pick your three trustiest archers, and see if you cannot do something to hinder their aim. Me thinks they are within long arrow flight.'

'Seventeen score paces,' said the archer, running his eye backwards and forwards. 'By my ten finger bones! it would be a strange thing if we could not notch a mark at that distance. Here, Watkin of Sowley, Arnold, Long Williams, let us show the rogues that they have English bowmen to deal with.' The three archers named stood at the further end of the poop, balancing themselves with feet widely spread and bows drawn, until the heads of the cloth-yard arrows were level with the centre of the stave. 'You are the surer, Watkin,' said Aylward, standing by them with shaft upon string. 'Do you take the rogue with the red coif. You two bring down the man with the head-piece, and I will hold myself ready if you miss. Ma foi! they are about to loose her. Shoot, mes garçons, or you will be too late.'