Come, lads, let us pack up and home again, say I." Accordingly, the others arose, and, coming forth from out the thicket, they all turned their toes back again to Sherwood.

After they had gone some distance, Will Stutely, who headed the party, suddenly stopped.
"Hist!" quoth he, for his ears were as sharp as those of a five-year-old fox.

"Hark, lads! Methinks I hear a sound." At this all stopped and listened with bated breath, albeit for a time they could hear nothing, their ears being duller than Stutely's.

At length they heard a faint and melancholy sound, like someone in lamentation.
"Ha!" quoth Will Scarlet, "this must be looked into.

There is someone in distress nigh to us here." "I know not," quoth Will Stutely, shaking his head doubtfully, "our master is ever rash about thrusting his finger into a boiling pot; but, for my part, I see no use in getting ourselves into mischievous coils.
Yon is a man's voice, if I mistake not, and a man should be always ready to get himself out from his own pothers." Then out spake Will Scarlet boldly.