But if not, then
perchance you slew the French knight who wore it on Hastings Hill, ere
you loosed the three arrows at the mouth of the cave near Minnes Rock."
Now I gaped at him.
"Shut your mouth, young man, lest those teeth of yours should fall
out. You wonder how I know? Well, my friend John Grimmer, the goldsmith
knave, has a magic crystal which he purchased from one who brought it
from the East, and I saw it in that crystal."
As he spoke, as though by chance he pushed back the hood that covered
his head, revealing a wrinkled old face with a mocking mouth which
drooped at one corner, a mouth that I knew again, although many years
had passed since I looked upon it as a boy.
"You are John Grimmer!" I muttered.
"Yes, Hubert of Hastings, I am that knave himself. And now tell me, what
did you do with the gold piece I gave you some twelve summers gone?"
Then I was minded to lie, for I feared this old man. But thinking better
of it, I answered that I had spent it on a dog. He laughed outright and
said:
"Pray that it is not an omen and that you may not follow the gold
piece to the dogs.
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