The Battle of the Giants

This pulp magazine issue features a Robin Hood adventure story, "A Good Guest with Bad News" by Robert Finch. Little John, sentimental and restless, joins Friar Tuck and others to find a guest for Robin Hood's supper. They encounter Sir Henry Angerstein, an impoverished knight traveling to borrow money from an abbot. Robin Hood welcomes him generously, provides dinner (venison, game, pies, ale), and learns that Prince John has ruined Sir Henry by seizing his lands during King Richard's absence on Crusade. Robin Hood gifts the knight a hundred nobles, asking only for news in return. Sir Henry soon returns with urgent warning: Prince John and the villain Oswald de Burgh have arrived nearby with two hundred soldiers. Robin Hood refuses to flee, resolving instead to consult his officers about the impending confrontation.