'The question is, do you accept ?' He looked down sullenly, and I could see he was greatly angered by my determination to keep the matter to myself.

'Am I to know no more than that ?' he asked, digging the point of his scabbard again and again into the ground.
'No more,' I answered firmly.

'I am bent on a desperate attempt to mend my fortunes before they fall as low as yours; and that is as much as I mean to tell living man.

If you are loth to risk your life with your eyes shut, say so, and I will go to someone else.' But he was not in a position, as I well knew, to refuse such an offer, and presently he accepted it with a fresh semblance of heartiness.

I told him I should want four troopers to escort us, and these he offered to procure, saying that he knew just the knaves to suit me.