But for a while the old Witch scowled on the fire, bony chin on bony knees, and dreamily cracked her finger-joints.
“Oho!” she cried suddenly. “Aha—a body that nobody's is, yet body that everybody knoweth for body o' thine—aha! So must nobody know that nobody's body is not thy body. Dost see my meaning, Robin-a-Green?”
“No whit, Witch! Thou growest involved, thy talk diffuse, abstruse and altogether beyond one so obtuse as simple Rob—”
“Then hark 'ee again, Addlepate! Everybodymust believe nobody's body thy body, so by dead body will I make thy live body of so great account to everybody that nobody henceforth shall doubt dead body made live body, by my witchcraft, and thou be feared, therefore, of everybody. Dost follow me now, numskull?”
“Aye, truly, mother! And truly 'tis a rare subtlety, a notable wile, and thou a right cunning witch and wise. But how wilt achieve this wonder?”
“Since dead thou art, I to life will bring thee. Oho, I will summon thee through fire and flame; aha, I will make thee more dreaded than heretofore; thy fame shall fill the wild-wood and beyond. Know'st thou the Haunted Wood, hard by Thraxby Waste?”
Now here Robin's merry smile languished, and he rubbed nose with dubious finger.
“Aye, I do,” quoth he sombrely; “an ill place and—demon-rid, they say—”
“Come ye there to-morrow at midnight.”
“Alone?” says Robin, starting.