“With the chain?” queried Haukyn.
“With the chain?” Symme echoed, his eyes on the peddler.
“N-nay, but alone.”
“Twenty for the chain, eh, peddler?” said Nicholas.
“N-nearer ten.”
Then there was a very long stillness, till at last Symme said:—
“Fifteen pound!”
“If the King loveth us,” grumbled the beggar, “he 'll never grudge fifteen pound. Hath not the maid said the King 's our friend?”
“Ho, fellows! 'T is our horn as well as the King's,” Nicholas blustered in a whisper. “Doth not the maid say we 'll share with him?”
“'T is the maid's,” said Symme, glancing aside uneasily at the peddler. “The King gave it to the maid.”