Page:A C Doyle - The White Company.djvu/81

Rh 'We have had enough bobance and boasting,' said Hordle John, rising and throwing off his doublet. 'I will show you that there are better men left in England than ever went thieving to France.'

'Pasques Dieu!' cried the archer, loosening his jerkin, and eyeing his foeman over with the keen glance of one who is a judge of manhood. 'I have only once before seen such a body of a man. By your leave, my red-headed friend, I should be right sorry to exchange buffets with you; and I will allow that there is no man in the Company who would pull against you on a rope; so let that be a salve to your pride. On the other hand, I should judge that you have led a life of ease for some months back, and that my muscle is harder than your own. I am ready to wager upon myself against you, if you are not afeard.'

'Afeard, thou lurden!' growled big John. 'I never saw the face yet of the man that I was afeard of. Come out, and we shall see who is the better man.'

'But the wager?'

'I have nought to wager. Come out for the love and the lust of the thing.'

'Nought to wager!' cried the soldier. 'Why, you have that which I covet above all things. It is that big body of thine that I am after. See, now, mon garçon, I have a French feather-bed there, which I have been at pains to keep these years back. I had it at the sacking of Issodun, and the king himself hath not such a bed. If you throw me, it is thine; but, if I throw you, then you are under a vow to take bow and bill and hie with me to France, there to serve in the White Company as long as we be enrolled.'

'A fair wager!' cried all the travellers, moving back their benches and trestles, so as to give fair field for the wrestlers.

'Then you may bid farewell to your bed, soldier,' said Hordle John.

'Nay; I shall keep the bed, and I shall have you to France in spite of your teeth, and you shall live to thank me