'You are not afraid?' he said, running his hands through his splendid grey beard. 'Not afraid that those men yonder'--he jerked his head towards the incessant pop-pop of the guns from the lower woods--'will do you hurt?'
'We-ell'--Dan liked to be accurate, especially when he was shy--'old Hobd--a friend of mine told me that one of the beaters got peppered last week--hit in the leg, I mean. You see, Mr Meyer _will_ fire at rabbits. But he gave Waxy Garnett a quid--sovereign, I mean--and Waxy told Hobden he'd have stood both barrels for half the money.'
'He doesn't understand,' Una cried, watching the pale, troubled face. 'Oh, I wish----'
She had scarcely said it when Puck rustled out of the hollies and spoke to the man quickly in foreign words. Puck wore a long cloak too--the afternoon was just frosting down--and it changed his appearance altogether.
'Nay, nay!' he said at last. 'You did not understand the boy. A freeman was a little hurt, by pure mischance, at the hunting.'
'I know that mischance! What did his Lord do? Laugh and ride over him?' the old man sneered.
'It was one of your own people did the hurt, Kadmiel.' Puck's eyes twinkled maliciously. 'So he gave the freeman a piece of gold, and no more was said.'
'A Jew drew blood from a Christian and no more was said?' Kadmiel cried. 'Never! When did they torture him?'
'No man may be bound, or fined, or slain till he has been judged by his peers,' Puck insisted. 'There is but one Law in Old England for Jew or Christian--the Law that was signed at Runnymede.'
'Why, that's Magna Charta!' Dan whispered. It was one of the few history dates that he could remember. Kadmiel turned on him with a sweep and a whirr of his spicy-scented gown.
'Dost _thou_ know of that, babe?' he cried, and lifted his hands in wonder.
'Magna Charta was signed by John, That Henry the Third put his heel upon.
And old Hobden says that if it hadn't been for _her_ (he calls everything "her", you know), the keepers would have him clapped in Lewes Gaol all the year round.'
Again Puck translated to Kadmiel in the strange, solemn-sounding language, and at last Kadmiel laughed.
'Out of the mouths of babes do we learn,' said he. 'But tell me now, and I will not call you a babe but a Rabbi, _why_ did the King sign the roll of the New Law at Runnymede? For he was a King.'