Page:A C Doyle - The White Company.djvu/313

Rh Simon at last, "this is but a sorry welcome, seeing that we have ridden so far just to shake you by the hand." "Canst shake me by the hand without coming in," said Gourval. "And how that?" asked Simon. "By passing in your hand through the hole," said he. "Nay, my hand is wounded," quoth Simon, "and of such a size that I cannot pass it in." "That need not hinder," said Gourval, who was hot to be rid of us; "pass in your left hand." "But I have something for thee, Gourval," said Simon. "What then?" he asked. "There was an English archer who slept here last week of the name of Hugh of Nutbourne." "We have had many rogues here," said Gourval. "His conscience hath been heavy within him because he owes you a debt of fourteen deniers, having drunk wine for which he hath never paid. For the easing of his soul, he asked me to pay the money to you as I passed." Now this Gourval was very greedy for money, so he thrust forth his hand for the fourteen deniers, but Simon had his dagger ready and he pinned his hand to the door. "I have paid the Englishman's debt, Gourval!" quoth he, and so rode away, laughing so that he could scarce sit his horse, leaving mine host still nailed to his door. Such is the story of the hole which you have marked, and of the smudge upon the wood. I have heard that from that time English archers have been better treated in the auberge of Cardillac. But what have we here by the wayside?'

'It appears to be a very holy man,' said Alleyne. 'And, by the rood! he hath some strange wares,' cried John. 'What are these bits of stone, and of wood, and rusted nails, which are set out in front of him?'

The man whom they had remarked sat with his back against a cherry-tree, and his legs shooting out in front of him, like one who is greatly at his ease. Across his thighs was a wooden board, and scattered over it all manner of slips of wood and knobs of brick and stone, each laid separate from the other as a huckster places his wares. He was dressed in a long grey gown, and wore a broad hat of the