IN THE HAND

When I got used to the Old English style of writing In Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow, I quite enjoyed the swashbuckling tale of knights and ladies and narrowly escaped danger. This passage reminded me of my prompt for the day:

 "Would ye have me shoot upon a leper?" he cried. 

"THE HAND would fail me. Nay, now," he added-- "Nay, now, let be!"

The book is wonderfully illustrated with N.C.Wyeth's paintings, the first showing Richard with a torch IN THE  one HAND, and a crossbow in the other. The second illustrates members of the order of the Black Arrow with bows IN THE HAND, at the ready to assist Sir Richard in his attempt to rescue the lady Joan.

"We must be in the dungeons"