All this took some time in the telling, and now night was coming on
apace, and Folk-might said:
'Now will it be time to go to the Hall; but keep in thy mind that
these Dusky Men will overrun you unless ye deal with them betimes.
These are of the kind that ye must cast fear into their hearts by
falling on them; for if ye abide till they fall upon you, they are
like the winter wolves that swarm on and on, how many soever ye slay.
And this above all things shall help you, that we shall bring you
whereas ye shall fall on them unawares and destroy them as boys do
with a wasp's nest. Yet shall many a mother's son bite the dust.
'Is it not so that in four weeks' time is your spring-feast and
market at Burgstead, and thereafter the great Folk-mote?'
'So it is,' said Gold-mane.
'Thither shall I come then,' said Folk-might, 'and give myself out
for the slayer of Rusty and the ransacker of Harts-bane and Penny-
thumb; and therefor shall I offer good blood-wite and theft-wite; and
thy father shall take that; for he is a just man. Then shall I tell
my tale. Yet it may be thou shalt see us before if battle betide.
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