Trolls! what a cub to send a message by! But
get along, now; you will suffer from their temper if they think it likely that
you have kept them waiting." He gave the horse a stinging slap upon the flank,
that sent him forward like a shaft from a bow.
Snatching up her slackened rein with one hand, his rider managed to secure her
leaping cap with the other; and after the first bounce, she caught the jerky
gait instinctively and swayed her body into its uneven swing. But her heart
was all at once a-throb in a wild panic. Was this what a boy must expect? This
challenging brutal downrightness, which made one seem to have become a dog
that must prove his usefulness or be kicked aside? Her spirit felt as bruised
as a fledgeling fallen upon stony ground. She shivered as the old beech stock
loomed up before her.
"If these other men behave so, it is in my mind to tell them that I am a
woman," she decided. "Since they are my own people, no evil can come of their
knowing; and I dislike the other feeling."
The recollection that she had always this escape open gave her a new lease of
boldness. Her courage rose as fast as her body when they began to climb the
hillside toward the ruddy light that slanted down between the tree-trunks.
When a sentinel stopped her near the top, she faced him with a fairly firm
front.
"I have war news for King Canute," she told him haughtily; and he let her pass
with no more than a grin.
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