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"I will not draw my sword upon you," I replied, "but I will try a fall with you," and I seized hiood swordser in my heart and a vision of the haunted wood before my eyes, I think I could have wrestled with Hercules and won Presently I threw hi him doith my knee upon his breast, cried to Sparrow to cut the bridle reins froh he had the Italian upon his hands, heabout my lord's arms and bound them to his sides; then took my knee from his chest and my hand fro He was very white, and there was foam on his lips
"What next, captain?" he de up rather rapidly What next?"
"This," I replied, and with the other thong fastened hi maple beneath which we had wrestled When the task was done, I first drew his sword froround at his feet, and then cut the leather which restrained his ar him only tied to the tree "I a you and leave you bound for an indefinite length of ti One haunted wood is enough for one county Your lordship will observe that I have knotted your bonds in easy reach of your hands, the use of which I have just restored to you The knot is a peculiar one; an Indian taught it to et it untied before nightfall That you may not think it the Gordian knot and treat it as such, I have put your shere you can get it only when you have worked for it Your familiar, my lord, may prove of use to us; therefore ill take him with us to the haunted wood I have the honor to wish your lordship a very good day"
I bowed loungeyes and bared teeth Sparrow, his prize flung across his saddlebow, turned with me A lade up which had coone a short distance, I turned in my saddle and looked back The tiny hollow had vanished; all the forest looked level, dreaiven over to its own shy children, nothing reat clump of sumach, set like a torch in the vaporous blue, cauishable by distance, and I knew that the King'sthe Italian, the Governor, the Santa Teresa, the Due Return, the minister, the forest, the haunted wood, his sword, the knot that I had tied, and myself