'
And again he loosed and Bow-may also, but a shaft rattled on his helm
withal and another smote a Woodlander beside him, and pierced through
the calf of his leg, as he turned and stooped to take fresh arrows
from a sheaf that lay there; but the carle took it by the notch and
the point, and brake it and drew it out, and then stood up and went
on shooting. And Face-of-god spake again:
'Folk-might skulketh not; nor the Men of the Vine, and the Sickle,
and the Face, nor the Shepherd-Folk: soon shall they be making our
work easy to us, if we can hold our own till then. They are on the
other roads that lead into the square. Now suffer me, and shoot on!'
Therewith he looked round about him, and he saw on the left hand that
all was quiet; and before him was the confused throng of the Dusky
Men trampling their own dead and wounded, and not able as yet to
cross that death-line of the arrow so near to them. But on his right
hand he saw how they of the kindreds held them firm on the way. Then
for a moment of time he considered and thought, till him-seemed he
could see the whole battle yet to be foughten; and his face flushed,
and he said sharply: 'Bow-may, abide here and shoot, and show the
others where to shoot, while the arrows hold out; but we will go
further for a while, and ye shall follow when we have made the rent
great enough.
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