It was Palmer. He was pale, as if from excitement--as pale as the others felt themselves to be.
It seems to have been the first thought of both men that Palmer was suffering from fright--that something seen, heard or imagined in the back room had deprived him of his senses.
In this snow Palmer's trail from his lodging in the village to the back door of the Eckert house was conspicuous.
"O, thine apparel is good," the palmer protested, "and mine is ragged and torn.
So the palmer was persuaded; and Robin put on the old man's hat, which stood full high in the crown; and his cloak, patched with black and blue and red, like Joseph's coat of many colors in its old age; and his breeches, which had been sewed over with so many patterns that the original was scarce discernible; and his tattered hose; and his shoes, cobbled above and below.
Robin Hood in his palmer's disguise was one of the first ones to enter the gates, and he strolled up and down and around the town as though he had never been there before in all his life.
Palmer made her no answer, and did not even raise his eyes from the newspaper.
Palmer does not hear me," said she, laughing; "he never does sometimes.
Palmer laughed heartily at the recollection of their astonishment, and every body agreed, two or three times over, that it had been quite an agreeable surprise.
"I had sat down here to die," quoth the palmer; "but for many years I have carried in my wallet these precious things which you see set forth now before me.
"My friend," answered the palmer, "not all the money that is in this country could pay a just price for these wares of mine.
"It is very true that he had not much hair," said the palmer quickly, "and it is this which makes this relic so exceeding precious.
"Now, out upon thee, young man," cried the Palmer, "that thou shouldst speak so when a good stout man is to be hanged for nothing but guarding his own life!" And he struck his staff upon the ground in anger.
Then he turned and strode rapidly away; but the Palmer looked after him, muttering, "I wot that youth is no country hind that hath come to see a good man die.
When David of Doncaster told Robin Hood what the Palmer had said to him, Robin called the band around him and spoke to them thus:
