"She? oh no, heaven bless her brown eyes!" he replied, rapidly and earnestly, while the other could see, in the light of the now fairly risen moon, that there was a strange sparkle in his own dark orbs. "As for the rest—well, heaven need not be particular about blessing them—that is all! But this gabble is not what I drew you out here for. I want you to do me a great favor, at once, and I ask you, because I seem to be better acquainted with you, after a very short time, than with any other person just now at the Notch."
"Now it is coming—just what I dreaded!" said Townsend to himself; but he answered very differently, in a feeble attempt to stave off the trouble.
"Than any other person?"
"Hold your tongue!—you know what I mean!" was the reply. "Answer my question, yes or no—are you the man upon whom I can depend, to do me an immediate personal service that may involve some sacrifice of bodily comfort and perhaps of feeling?"
"I hope so—yes!" answered Townsend. "But before you take any steps in this matter—"
"Conditions already?" asked Rowan. "I thought it was to be an unconditional yes or no!"
"Well, it is!" said Townsend, apparently satisfied that expostulation would after all be useless.
"Enough said!" replied Rowan, catching him by the arm. "Come along with me to the alley, then, and roll me not less than five games of ten-pins."
"But the business you wished me to do?" asked Townsend. "If it is to be done at all—"
"Why, confound the man!—what ails you? That is the business!"