In his mind, Gisburne had already entered the castle. For this reason, it was probably not very astonishing that he was taken completely by surprise when a wagon loaded with firewood sped out of a side street. Obviously, its draft horse had bolted and the carter had not managed to get it back under control before it reached the main road, where many people - and other carts - were on the road.
Among these was the knight, who would usually not give a damn about the problems of a carter. What did a Norman care if a Saxon lost everything he needed to earn money for his family? Nothing.
But this time Gisburne was not able to escape the consequences of the incident. But this was only due to the fact that he, too, was on his way with a wagon, which, moreover, was carrying a valuable freight. And this cart had reached the mouth of the side road at the very moment when the other vehicle turned onto the main road, moving with a speed that made it impossible to avoid it.
Of course, the knight was not alone with the wagon, but was accompanied by a troop of soldiers, for the freight for which he was responsible was made up of the money that the Sheriff's steward had collected in the villages and on the larger manors. This was to go to the Sheriff's treasury, where it would then await to be brought to the King.
The knight was well aware that this was a likely target for Hood and his men, so he had taken a larger squad of soldiers with him as an escort. The plan had worked, as they had reached Nottingham without any problems.
But even a large detachment of soldiers could do nothing against a horse dragging a heavily loaded cart in its wake. For this reason, the knight suddenly found himself in the midst of a huge mess, which consisted not only of the two wagons that had become wedged into each other and in the process been overturned. The load of the first one - firewood and bundles of brushwood - was scattered over the width of the road, while the load of the other wagon - two sturdy chests - had ended up on the ground without having cracked open and spilled their contents all over the road as well. The knight had made sure of this with a glance before turning to the rest of the aftermath of this accident.
The two draft horses made themselves noticed quite loudly, as well as the carter and his helper, who lamented unceasingly about their mishap. In addition, there were the soldiers who tried to protect the two chests - after the knight had directed their attention to them with a few punches to the heads, for his roar had been lost in the hullabaloo - and quite a few citizens of Nottingham, who apparently were all of the opinion that they had to express their views about the incident in a manner that could not be overheard, and all of them at the same time. Therefore, it was of course impossible for anyone to understand anything. Which only made everyone try even harder to make themselves heard.
The knight - who, by the way, could only sympathize with the panic of the two horses - was still busy trying to restore order to the mess. He tried to get his soldiers to take care of the two chests, the carter to look after his horse, and the citizens to get the firewood out of the way. At the same time, he himself attempted to calm the draft horse that had pulled the wagon with the money. But all he managed to do was to make everything even more chaotic.
Finally, Gisburne became aware of this and apparently saw only one way to complete his mission successfully. Having reached the end of his patience, which was never very great anyway, he began to push everyone else away from the wagons, not caring who they might be or whether he hurt anyone in the process.
Apparently, though, everyone had caught on pretty fast to what was going on, for all of a sudden there was no one on the street except for the knight and the soldiers. But this might also be the result of the fact that Nottingham's citizens knew better than to get in Gisburne's way when he had apparently gotten out of control.
Just as the steward was about to breathe a sigh of relief that he had finally managed to rectify the situation, one of his soldiers touched him hesitantly on the arm. Ready to reprimand the man for his impertinence, Gisburne wheeled around ... only to immediately realize what the other man had been trying to point out to him.
When the knight grasped what had taken place when he had been distracted, he blanched, while at the same time he began to look around frantically. Only to notice that, apart from the soldiers, there was no one else to be seen. But much more serious was the fact that although all the firewood was still there on the road, together with the brushwood, there was no trace of the two chests.
Gisburne would have liked to turn around and get out of Nottingham as fast as possible, for he knew exactly what was in store for him at this point. The Sheriff would doubtless make him suffer for having traded his gold for a load of wood. And yet he knew that he had no choice but to face de Rainault and bear his wrath when he had to confess to him that he had once again let himself be duped by Loxley.