“I do.”

She caught her breath and then a spark of deviltry gleamed.  “I wonder!” said Nelly Lebrun, and her glance weighed Donnegan.

“All I ask is a fair chance,” he said.

“He is a big man,” said the girl maliciously.

The never-failing blush burned in the face of Donnegan.

“A large target is more easily hit,” he said through his teeth.

Her thoughts played back and forth in her eyes.

“I can’t do it,” she said.

Donnegan played a random card.

“I was mistaken,” he said darkly.  “Jack was not the man I should have faced.  Lord Nick!”

“No, no, no, Mr. Donnegan!”

“You can’t persuade me.  Well, I was a fool not to guess it!”

“I really think,” said the girl gloomily, “that as soon as Lord Nick comes, you’ll hunt him out!”

He bowed to her with cold politeness.  “In spite of his size,” said
Donnegan through his teeth once more.

And at this the girl’s face softened and grew merry.

“I’m going to help you to take Jack away,” she said, “on one condition.”

“And that?”

“That you won’t make a step toward Lord Nick when he comes.”

“I shall not avoid him,” said Donnegan.

“You’re unreasonable!  Well, not avoid him, but simply not provoke him.  I’ll arrange it so that Lord Nick won’t come hunting trouble.”

“And he’ll let Jack stay with the girl and her father?”

“Perhaps he’ll persuade them to let him go of their own free will.”

Donnegan thought of the colonel and smiled.

“In that case, of course, I shouldn’t care at all.”  He added:  “But do you mean all this?”

“You shall see.”

They talked only a moment longer and then Donnegan left the hall with the girl on his arm.  Certainly the thoughts of all in Milligan’s followed that pair; and it was seen that Donnegan took her to the door of her house and then went away through the town and up the hill.  And big George followed him like a shadow cast from a lantern behind a man walking in a fog.

In the hut on the hill, Donnegan put George quickly to work, and with a door and some bedding, a litter was hastily constructed and swung between the two horses.  In the meantime, Donnegan climbed higher up the hill and watched steadily over the town until, in a house beneath him, two lights were shown.  He came back at that and hurried down the hill with George behind and around the houses until they came to the pretentious cabin of the gambler, Lebrun.

Once there, Donnegan went straight to an unlighted window, tapped; and it was opened from within, softly.  Nelly Lebrun stood within.

“It’s done,” she said.  “Joe and the Pedlar are sound asleep.  They drank too much.”

“Your father.”

“Hasn’t come home.”

“And Jack Landis?”

“No matter what you do, he won’t wake up; but be careful of his shoulder.  It’s badly torn.  How can you carry him?”