Brother Against Brother Part 14

"Ought to say 'let fall,' Mars'r Levi," added General.

"No talk, General. Now gather up, and pull away!" continued Levi.

General would have given him the proper form, "Give way!" but Levi was not in the humor to be instructed, and the rower said no more. The men pulled their oars with a will, and the implements bent under their vigorous stroke. The planter had run all the way from the mansion, and was out of breath, so he was silent for a time.

CHAPTER XIII

AT THE HEAD WATERS OF BAR CREEK

It was quite dark when the Magnolia went out from the pier, though it was a starlight night. The crew pulled very well, for the colonel had taken no little pride in the appearance of his boat on the river. Before his health was impaired he occasionally went to the county town by water; for it was on a branch of the river, and was full thirty miles distant by the winding streams.

The crew were powerful men, and had had plenty of practice in former years. But the present planter preferred the vehicles, drawn by fine horses, and the boys used the smaller boats, so the Magnolia had not been manned under the new order of things. Under the vigorous stroke of the negroes she soon pa.s.sed under the bridge, and headed up the creek.

"We are fairly started, and this boat seems to be making at least five miles an hour," said the planter, when he had fully recovered his breath.

"More than that, I should say, Major Lyon. I don't believe the hands can keep up this gait all the way; but we shall get to the sink about midnight," replied Levi.

"I don't know that there is anything to apprehend in the way of danger,"

added Mr. Lyon.

"I don't know whether there is or not; but I put my revolver and a box of cartridges into my pocket."

"I never owned a pistol of any kind, and have hardly fired a gun since I was a boy; but in the storeroom out of the library I found some very nice weapons,--a double-barrelled rifle and a fowling-piece."

"The colonel had two revolvers; and they must be somewhere about the library. A few years ago some horse-thieves were in this vicinity, and we kept a watch on the place every night for a couple of weeks," said Levi.

"If Uncle t.i.tus put five thousand dollars into these guns and pistols, I should think he would be apt to keep a watch over them," suggested Deck.

"A watch would not amount to anything unless he put as many as half a dozen men on it," answered Levi. "But I think he depends upon the secrecy of his movements and the safety of the cavern for the security of the arms. He put the things away in the night, and I don't believe anybody ever goes over the spring road in the darkness. If he put a watch anywhere he would station it on that road at the place where they s.h.i.+fted the boxes from the wagon to the flatboat. But I reckon we can take care of the watch if there is any there."

"But the road is about a quarter of a mile from the creek," said Deck.

"All of that; and we may pa.s.s the place without much of any noise, and no one on the road would be likely to hear us," replied Levi.

"I don't think the watch, if there is one, will give us any trouble, for if they hear us, we can keep out of their way; and I don't think they would have any boat in the creek," added the planter. "Your revolver will keep them at a proper distance when we reach the cavern."

"I found a s.h.i.+ngling hatchet in the boathouse, and I brought that along with me," said Artie.

"Are you going to fight with that?" asked Deck.

"Not exactly that; but we couldn't open one of the boxes this afternoon for the want of a tool, and we can do so with this hatchet; then we shall have all the muskets, revolvers, and cartridges we can use,"

replied Artie.

"That is a good scheme, my boy," added Levi approvingly. "But I don't believe we shall have to do any fighting. If the conspirators have set a watch, it must be in the road; and I reckon we shall clean out the cavern before they can get there."

"We won't fight any battles before we get there," interposed the planter. "We have always been peaceable people, but I suppose we must get used to fighting, for we are going to have a terrible war; and I don't believe in Mr. Seward's prediction that it will all be over in a hundred days. I am ready to become a soldier, Levi, and so are the boys, in defence of the Union."

"I suppose I ought to do the same," added the overseer; "but I had not thought of it."

"You are fifty years old, and you will not be called upon to go into the army, Levi," replied Mr. Lyon.

"But I am ready to do my share of the fighting; and if I am over fifty, I reckon I am as tough and hearty as any of them that will shoulder a musket," said the overseer; and those near him could hear his chuckle, though they could not see his smile.

"I hope you will not go to the war, my friend," continued Mr. Lyon in a very serious tone. "I am only forty-two, and I believe it is not only my duty to send my boys into the army, but to go myself. I have thought a great deal of this subject within the last month, though I haven't said much. I believe a man's first duty is to his family, and I should hate to go off into the army, and leave my wife and the girls here; for I believe whoever stays in Barcreek will see some fighting here."

"And see some before a great while," added Levi. "Everything is boiling round here, and it will boil over before long. These Secession ruffians are not going to keep the peace much longer. They are itching to begin the work of driving the Union men into their cub pasture."

"That is my own opinion; and that is my only dread in joining the army.

But I have comforted myself with the belief that Levi Bedford was over fifty, and he would remain on the plantation and take care of my family."

"I am very much obliged to you, Major Lyon, for the confidence you put in me, and I can a.s.sure you it shall not be abused," returned the manager, with more gravity in his tone and manner than usual. "If by staying here I can keep three good Union soldiers in the field, perhaps that will be doing my fair share of the work."

"We will talk this matter at another time, Levi; and I will only say I could not have found a man more to my mind to take charge of the plantation and the women-folks if I had hunted for him all over the nation."

"That's handsome, Major; and you may wager your life and all you have in the world that I will never go back on you or your family," protested the overseer warmly.

"We understand each other perfectly, Levi. But there is a more pressing question than that before the house just now," said Mr. Lyon, as he took Levi's offered hand, and gave it an earnest grasp. "What are we to do with all these arms and ammunition when we get them down to Riverlawn?"

"I haven't had much time to think of that; but I had an idea come across my head as I was running from the house down to the boat-pier. I pa.s.sed by the ice-house, and it jumped into my noddle that it would make a good a.r.s.enal; but I haven't worked up the idea yet," replied the manager.

"That is a happy thought!" exclaimed the planter. "It never occurred to me. It is in just the right place; for my brother has given me warning that I was in danger of being mobbed as an abolitionist, and that nothing but his influence has prevented it from being done before."

"It is hard work for me to believe that doughface is a brother of yours and the late colonel; but if he dared to show his face in it, he would be the first man to get up such a demonstration. Excuse me, Major, if I am talking too plainly," said Levi, who had little patience with, or toleration for, t.i.tus Lyon. "He may send his company of Home Guards over to clean out the mansion, but he won't come himself, for he is a poison snake."

"Perhaps you know my brother as he has developed himself in this locality better than I do, though he has even shown his fangs, under a mask, to me; but I shall keep the peace with him," replied Mr. Lyon very sadly.

"If he attempts anything of that sort, or any other border-ruffians do, I believe we can make them wish they had stayed at home," said Levi stoutly.

"We can make the ice-house into a fortress for the protection of the mansion," continued the planter. "It is near the creek, and commands the bridge and the road leading to it, which is the only practicable approach to the mansion. The swamp half a mile back of the house lies between the spring road and the creek, and extends all the way to the hills, not less than ten miles by water; and no body of men can get through that way."

Though he had had no military experience, Noah Lyon talked like an army engineer. He was a man of very decided general ability, and he readily comprehended the situation so far as his plantation was concerned. The ice-house was about twenty-five feet square. It was built of stone under the direction of Colonel Lyon, who had his own views, though they were not always scientific. To preserve the ice, which did not consist of great solid blocks as in New Hamps.h.i.+re, he believed that thick walls were necessary, and he had put two feet of solid masonry into them. The ice was generally not more than two inches thick in this lat.i.tude, though an exceptionally hard winter sometimes made it four. It was packed in solid, and then permitted to freeze by leaving the door and two windows open during the freezing weather.

"Stop rowing," said Levi, when they came to a bend five miles above the bridge. "Now rest yourselves for five minutes, boys."

"Don't need no rest, mars'r," said General, as he drew his arm over his forehead, from which the perspiration was dropping on the handle of his oar. "We done pulled dis boat twenty mile widout stoppin' once."

"A little rest will do you no harm, for you will be kept at work till morning," replied Levi.

"Whar we gwine, mars'r?" asked General.

"About five miles farther," replied the overseer evasively. "Have you brought your jackets or coats with you, boys?"

They had brought them. Levi had read of m.u.f.fled oars, and he ordered each of the rowers to wind the garment not in use around the loom of his oar where it rested in the rowlock. They obeyed in silence, and no one asked any question; for this reason they would have made good sailors, for they must obey without asking the reason for the command. They had been well trained by the overseer.