Outlaw by Michael Morpurgo Read Free Book Online Page B

down his mill. Unfortunately, when it came to threats, the sheriff was always as good as his word. This time he did not send his men to do his dirty work as he so often did; he meted out the punishment himself – he enjoyed that kind of thing from time to time, particularly if there was little or no danger.
    It was dawn, and Much was out rabbit-trapping when the sheriff came with his men. Much’s father was already at his milling. They shut the door of the mill and barred it. Then they tossed burning faggots in through the windows and set it on fire.
    If there was one single thing that alarmed the Outlaws, it was fire. They all knew, as every forester does, just how fast a wind-fanned fire can race through the treetops, faster than a man can run. Alook-out saw the smoke rising from the edge of the forest and sounded his horn. By the time Robin and the Outlaws reached the mill, it was burnt to the ground. They found Much the miller’s son sitting staring into the ashes, his face blackened with smoke and smeared with tears. He looked up at Robin.
    “I should have been here. I was too late. They burnt him. They burnt my father alive.”
    “The sheriff?” Robin asked.
    “I saw him riding off,” said Much. “He was laughing. They were all laughing.”
    Friar Tuck took him by the arms and helped him to his feet. Much was a massive man. He towered above Tuck and was just about as broad as he was high. “By God’s good grace, I know you,” said Tuck. “You’re the wrestler I saw at Nottingham fair, aren’t you? Didn’t you throw ten men inside as manyminutes? I’d know you anywhere. I was one of the ten!” He turned to Robin. “Didn’t I tell you, Robin? Didn’t I say to have faith?”
    “Then heaven be praised,” said Robin, “for you’re just the man we’re looking for. Teach us to fight as well as you, and we’ll build up your mill better than it ever was. What d’you say?”
    Much the miller’s son looked down at Robin and wiped away the last of his tears. “You’re Robin Hood, aren’t you?” And he laid his great hands on Robin’s shoulders. “You can leave the mill as it is. I have milled my last sack of flour. If I can be of service, if I can put my strength to some good use, then all I ask in return is food in my belly, a warm place to lay my head, and the chance when the time comes to hang the cursed Sheriff of Nottingham for what he did to my father. Is it a bargain?”
    “A bargain,” said Robin, “and a promise.”
    And from that moment on the two of them became the firmest of friends, always comfortable in each other’s company. Hugely different as they were in shape and size, they were about the same age. A quiet giant and never far from Robin’s side, he soon became known as “Robin’s shadow”. They spoke little, nor did they need to, so closely did they seem to understand one another – perhaps because the sheriff had wreaked much the same havoc in both their young lives.
    Much proved to be a tireless, patient teacher. He taught the Outlaws everything he knew, so that within months all of them were fighting fit. They were ready. Now, every one of them, however twisted and bent, could defend himself or herself, and most were more than a match for any sheriff’s man. They were champing at the bit, straining to be let loose at the sheriff, to do what they had beentrained to do. But Will Scarlett and Robin’s father still counselled caution. They had only a couple of dozen rusty swords and a few spears between them, hardly enough to attack Nottingham castle. All the smiths they knew of were in the pay of the sheriff and his armourer, and none of them could be trusted. Robin, like most of them, began to despair of ever finding one. But not Tuck. “The Lord brought us Much, did he not?” he said. “Remember what He told us: ‘Seek and ye shall find.’ And so we shall, by God’s good grace. We shall find ourselves a smith.”
    To keep the Outlaws happy, Robin arranged