Page:A C Doyle - The White Company.djvu/75

Rh his lips and a smile in his eye. What was to be made of such a man as that?

It chanced that the soldier looked up and saw the questioning glance which the young clerk threw upon him. He raised his flagon and drank to him, with a merry flash of his white teeth.

'À toi, mon garcon!' he cried. 'Hast surely never seen a man-at-arms, that thou shouldst stare so?'

'I never have,' said Alleyne frankly, 'though I have oft heard talk of their deeds.'

'By my hilt!' cried the other, 'if you were to cross the narrow sea you would find them as thick as bees at a tee-hole. Couldst not shoot a bolt down any street of Bordeaux, I warrant, but you would pink archer, squire or knight. There are more breastplates than gaberdines to be seen, I promise you.'

'And where got you all those pretty things?' asked Hordle John, pointing at the heap in the corner.

'Where there is as much more waiting for any brave lad to pick it up. Where a good man can always earn a good wage, and where he need look upon no man as his paymaster, but just reach his hand out and help himself. Aye, it is a goodly and a proper life. And here I drink to mine old comrades, and the saints be with them! A rouse all together, mes enfants, under pain of my displeasure! To Sir Claude Latour and the White Company!'

'Sir Claude Latour and the White Company!' shouted the travellers, draining off their goblets.

'Well quaffed, mes braves! It is for me to fill your cups again, since you have drained them to my dear lads of the white jerkin. Holà! mon ange, bring wine and ale. How runs the old stave?—

He roared out the catch in a harsh unmusical voice, and