“What foolishness is here,” he thought as he watched, “to keep a resting bow strung, such fashion?”
The two watchers kept very still, for the gathering had an ill look, while as for Wulf, he heartily wished that Elise were well gotten away from the dangerous neighborhood. What the maiden’s own feelings were, he could judge from the hard grip she kept upon his left hand—so hard that he well-nigh flinched with the pain. Nevertheless, her face showed no fear; only, as she looked upon Conradt, it wore a set resoluteness, making Wulf feel sure that whatever came she would not faint nor fall to crying, but what wit and might were hers would be to the fore.
All at once most of the men sprang up and bent forward as listening, each man by gesture silencing his fellows; then was Wulf mazed to note the look of that gathering.
The two bowmen stood staring straight before them, making no motion toward their weapons until Conradt and another took them up and put them in the fellows’ hands, when the boy saw that those archers were stone-blind. More than that, the man who helped Conradt fix their bows had but a short stump of a left forearm.
This stump he thrust through the arm-strap of a shield which he snatched from the ground, and drawing his sword, hurried across the glade, the archers following, holding by his jerkin.
While all this was going forward the two watchers became aware of the sound of a bell through the trees. It was plain that this was the sound which had roused the men. These still remained within the glade, but pressed forward toward the opening, ready to sally out upon whoever might pass.
“This be far from the road for merchants,” Wulf thought. “Mayhap some caravan has lost its way. That bell would be on the leading animal, which looks, an I’m not a blunderer, as ’twere likely to be too large a company for our Conradt’s sorry crew.”
Then he and Elise exchanged looks, for the sound was plainly coming toward the glade, as though the animal bearing the bell were traversing some woodland path.
The monstrous group before them also noted this, and Conradt, plucking the blind archers by their sleeves, led them back a little space, nearer to where Wulf and Elise were hidden. Here he stationed them, and setting their bows at aim toward a slight opening among the bushes on the other side, he went back to the walnut-tree.
“He fancies the travelers, if there be any, will come in at yon place,” said Wulf to himself; “but ’tis my belief that ’tis naught, after all, but an estrayed bell-heifer wandering through the woods.”