A Lieutenant at Eighteen Part 34

"I have put my servants on picket, as they have been for several days.

They are all mounted, just as they came back from the avenue. They are all faithful to me, though I don't expect them to do any fighting; but they can keep watch as well as white men."

"Then, if you are ready, Colonel, we will go to the front hall of the house," said the lieutenant, as he led the way.

At the door he called the sergeant from behind his breastwork, and put the planter in his place. The old soldier had hardly shown himself in the hall before a shot was fired down the stairway. Doubtless one or more of the ruffians had been on the lookout for the appearance of a man in the hall below; and as the planter pa.s.sed behind the open door, the opportunity had been used.

Fortunately the venerable planter was not hit; for the enemy had only such old flint-lock guns as General Crittenden describes in his report of the battle of Mill Springs, and they were far from being reliable weapons. The bullet shattered the edge of the door, and no other damage was done. The veteran proved that he was still an active man; for as soon as he was behind the steel fortress, he cast a searching glance up the stairs.

On the landing he discovered a head on the floor; for the man who had fired the shot was lying where he could see down into the hall. It would have been better for him if his feet had been where his head was; for the planter raised his rifle, and fired at almost the same instant.

His companions drew his body back without exposing themselves to the deadly fire from the hall.

"Flickens is killed!" exclaimed one of them; and the enemy were one less in number.

The planter, with his rifle in position for instant use, fixed his gaze upon the head of the staircase; but no one now was to be seen there.

Deck and the sergeant had pa.s.sed into the parlor, the door of which was next to the safe, after the colonel had discharged his rifle.

"Are you all right, sir?" asked the lieutenant, stopping in a safe place near the door of the apartment.

"I am better off than the fellow I just hit in the top of his head,"

replied the planter. "I wish another of them would try that experiment again."

"I know you can hold this position, and I will see what can be done elsewhere," returned Deck, as he moved towards the door of the rear room.

"You need not be concerned about me; I can finish the affair if the villains will only show themselves," replied the colonel; and his cheerful tones indicated that he was happy in his new position.

Deck and Fronklyn pa.s.sed around into the rear of the hall, where they found Warren Hickman standing at the door of the dining-room, where he could not be seen from the head of the back stairs. He was informed that an attempt would be made to drive the enemy from the second story.

He was to remain in his present position. The lieutenant and the sergeant pa.s.sed out at the back door into the kitchen, some distance from the mansion. Here they found the other two sons of the planter, watching the windows on that side of the house.

The end of the cook-room extended back into a grove of trees which surrounded the mansion, and which had given Deck his first suggestion of his method of future operations. Taking the two Hickmans with them, the four went through a window into the grove. The building containing the kitchen concealed them from the view of the ruffians, if any of them went to the windows.

The trees around the mansion, like those in the avenue, were large, and the foliage dense. Deck explained to his companions his plan, and then directed one of them to proceed by the grove to each of the sides of the house, reserving the one by the stable for himself.

"What then?" inquired Fronklyn.

"Each of you will sling his rifle, and then climb a tree commanding all the windows on his side of the mansion," replied Deck. "When you see one of the enemy at a window, use your rifle. I shall be on the stable side."

The lieutenant, who had provided himself with a rifle on the piazza, followed the grove in the direction of the stable, outside of all the out-buildings, while the other three proceeded the opposite way. There were no trees between the mansion and the stable; but Deck made his way to the hayloft, which commanded a view of all the windows of the former. He waited long enough to enable his companions to secure their places in the trees, and then opened a window, which enabled him to obtain a safe position for himself.

While he was waiting, he took a couple of horse-blankets from the harness-room, and fastened them up before the only two windows in the loft. This made the place quite dark, though there was light enough to enable him to find his way. Then he kneeled about ten feet from the open window, darkened to within a foot of the bottom. From this point he discovered, by looking through the window directly opposite his opening, three men sitting on a bed.

He fired his rifle, and saw one of the ruffians drop on the floor.

CHAPTER x.x.x

THE SURRENDER OF CAPTAIN GRUNDY

Deck Lyon reloaded his rifle without a moment's delay; then resuming his kneeling posture, he gazed at the window again. The ruffian had fallen forwards from the bed, and his companions had picked him up. The observer could see that he had not been killed. The other two laid him on the bed, and it was evident that he had been severely wounded. They examined him, but of course the result could not be known to the lieutenant.

While one of them was tying a handkerchief around the head of the wounded man, the other went to the window. A pane of gla.s.s had been broken, and this must have a.s.sured him that the ball had come from outside of the mansion. Then he proceeded to look about the surroundings in search of the person who had fired the shot, confining his gaze to the ground. If he had reasoned at all over the matter, which perhaps his education did not enable him to do, he might have realized that the bullet did not come from the ground.

The man had thrown the window wide open, and was making a very scrutinizing examination of every part of the courtyard. He could see plainly whatever was in front of the window; but this did not seem to satisfy him. He thrust half his body out of the opening, looking both sides of him, as though it had been possible to fire a rifle around a corner. The fellow was certainly stupid enough to be shot, and Deck did not wait any longer to do his work.

The ball struck him in the head as he was stretching his neck to the utmost to enlarge the extent of his vision to a point from which the fatal bullet could not possibly have come. If he could have imagined a line from the round hole in the pane of gla.s.s to the point where his comrade's head had been, it would have pointed directly to Deck's locality when he discharged the rifle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THE BALL STRUCK HIM IN THE HEAD." _Page 388._]

The ruffian dropped from the window-sill to the ground with a heavy thud, and did not move again. The ball had penetrated his brain, and he was the victim of his unscientific observations. But the lieutenant did not remove his gaze from the open window. It seemed very like slaughter to shoot down the enemy in this manner, and a twinge of conscience disturbed him. But he reasoned that he had given the ruffians a chance to surrender, which they had refused to accept. Then they were pirates, robbers, making war for gain against friend and foe alike.

The third man in the room did not remain there any longer. He could hardly have known what became of the one at the window, unless he had heard the crack of a rifle, and failed to see him again. Under these circ.u.mstances it was not difficult for him to reason out the conclusion that the chamber where he was must be a dangerous locality, and he sought a safer place.

The lieutenant continued to watch the window, but no enemy appeared in the room again. It had proved to be a chamber of death. He had hardly lost sight of the foe before he heard the crack of a rifle in the grove. The two Hickmans there were riflemen, and Deck did not believe it would be possible for either of them to fire without killing or wounding his man; but he heard but one shot, and probably four of the land pirates were still living.

Deck waited some time for the sound of another shot, but in vain. He did not believe another ruffian would enter the fatal room commanded by his position, and he decided to seek a more promising place for his operations. Since the shot he had heard, he was confident that none of the enemy would show themselves at the windows. He descended to the cellar of the stable, and then, by the way he had come, reached the kitchen, and then the parlor, at the door of which the planter was fortified.

"Anything new, Colonel Hickman?" he asked.

"Yes, indeed!" exclaimed the sentinel over the staircase. "What have you been doing outside? Something has happened."

"I think we have reduced the enemy by three, and perhaps more," replied the young officer; and he proceeded to explain what he and his companions had been doing.

"You think you have knocked down three or more of the robbers?"

"As many as that."

"Then that explains it!"

"Explains what?" asked Deck, as much puzzled by the exhilarated tones of the planter as by his questions.

"One of them hailed me some time ago, and wanted to see the one in command. I told him the commander was not in the house, but was conducting the fight outside. He asked me to send for him, but I refused to do so. I did not intend to interrupt your operation; for I never take another's command away from him," replied the colonel, indulging at the same time in a chuckle, to which he was somewhat given when pleased.

"Do you know what he wanted?"

"I do; for he shouted down the stairs that he and the rest of them desired to surrender."

"Then we will let them do so," added Deck, who was not disposed to fight after the battle had been won.

"What shall you do with them after they have surrendered, Lieutenant?"

asked the planter, plainly much interested in the question.

"I shall do nothing at all with them; I am not the judge or the civil power of Russell County. We have beaten the enemy, and I have nothing further to do with the matter," answered Deck.

The colonel decided not to ask any more questions, though the lieutenant suspected he intended to dispose of the prisoners as he thought best.

"Up-stairs, there!" shouted the planter. "The commander is here now."