Brother Against Brother Part 29

"I have seen some of them, General."

"Dey was ober on de ole road, mars'r, I t'ought."

But Deck did not stop to give them any information, for both wagons had stopped near the party. The driver from Rock Lodge had run away as soon as his vehicle was beset by the ruffians; yet he could tell his portion of the story, while those from Riverlawn could relate the rest of it.

The hero went into the mansion, and a mulatto in a white jacket, who was gaping with all his might, showed him to the sitting-room, where he found the wagon party. There was no Mrs. Belthorpe, for she had pa.s.sed away years before.

"I was afraid you had run away and left us, Mr. Lyon," said Miss Kate, rus.h.i.+ng up to him as he entered.

"Please don't 'mister' me," replied Deck, laughing. "It makes me feel just as though I was a dude."

"Well, you are not a dude," added the fair daughter of the planter, as indignantly as though some person besides herself had called him by the opprobrious name.

"And I don't run away, either."

"That's so!" exclaimed Major Gadbury with decided emphasis. "But I really wonder that you did not run away instead of pitching into that scoundrel who was carrying off Miss Kate."

"I couldn't have done that if I had tried while the lady seemed to be in such a dangerous situation," answered Deck, as he seated himself as near Miss Kate as he could find a place. "But I have been talking myself all the time since we started from the cross-cut, and I don't know yet how you happened to get into this sc.r.a.pe."

"We don't know much more about it than you do, Mr.----"

"Deck," interposed the hero.

"Deck, if you insist upon it, Mr. Lyon," laughed the major. "We left Rock Lodge, and Tom told the driver to go by that cross road. It was a terribly rough pa.s.sage we had of it, and I think we went over rocks a foot high."

"As I told you in my account of the troubles of the night, the ruffians, after they had been driven off from Riverlawn, took the old road, and Squire Truman found that they were going to this mansion," said Deck.

"Didn't you see anything of them before you turned into the cut-off?"

"We neither saw nor heard anything."

"The main body of the ruffians could not have been very far down the road. I don't see how Buck Lagger happened to be where he was with the rest of his gang," added Deck.

"He appears to have had six men with him as nearly as I can make it out," said Tom Belthorpe.

"I don't know what he was doing there, but I can guess," continued Deck.

"But which was the fellow you call Buck Lagger?" asked the major.

"He was the one who captured Miss Margie, and whom I wounded with the shot from my revolver," replied Deck. "I am sorry to say that my Uncle t.i.tus is a Northern doughface, and is the leader of these ruffians. He bought the arms and ammunition of which we took possession at the sink-hole. I believe he hates my father on account of his Unionism and his taking of the arms worse than any man who is not his brother."

"I have heard something about him since I have been at Lyndhall," said Major Gadbury.

"Buck Lagger is his lieutenant and supporter, and I have no doubt Captain t.i.tus sent him to the schoolhouse to disturb the meeting. He carried the flag of truce to-night at the bridge over the creek when his leader demanded the return of the arms," Deck explained. "Though I don't know any more about it than you do, I have no doubt Captain t.i.tus sent this scalliwag ahead of the main body to see that all was clear."

"As scouts," suggested the major.

"Yes, sir; as scouts. As the ruffians had been severely punished in the fight from the bridge, and by the shots from Fort Bedford, they were likely to be more cautious than they had been before. They were whipped out at every approach to Riverlawn. Captain t.i.tus may have found out that Colonel Belthorpe was on the way to his plantation to protect it with force enough to do his ruffians a good deal of mischief. I think Buck Lagger was sent out to obtain information."

"That is a reasonable supposition," the major acquiesced.

"Of course he could not expect to find the colonel and his force on the old road, and he was going by the cross-cut to the new road, which pa.s.ses by the bridge over Bar Creek," Deck proceeded, perhaps feeling that he had an inspiration of wisdom as well as of heroism. "When he came to the cross-cut he must have seen that the Lodge was lighted."

"What you say reminds me that our party stood for some time on the portico talking with Captain Carms and his family about an excursion up the river which Tom suggested as we came out of the house. The wagon was standing before the door waiting for us."

"I haven't any doubt Buck was near enough to hear what you said,"

interposed Deck. "Probably he had sent his scouts up the cross-cut, and wanted to see why the mansion was lighted up at three o'clock in the morning. He understood that those who were to go in the wagon belonged to Colonel Belthorpe's family."

"The house is close by the road, and he could easily have seen who we were," said Tom.

"He had been on the creek bridge when the colonel talked with Captain t.i.tus, and he saw that he was in command of the forces there. Very likely he knew it was he who gave the order to fire upon his party below the bridge. He must have been as hard down on your father as he was on mine, Mr. Belthorpe. When he saw your two sisters ready to get into the wagon, he had some trick in his head to obtain a hold upon your father.

The two ladies were to be hostages in the hands of the ruffians for the conduct of your father."

"I think you have solved the problem, Deck, and only your bravery and skill saved the girls," said Major Gadbury.

"My father would have burned his buildings himself to recover my sisters, for no man was ever more devoted to his children than he is,"

added Tom. "If Buck had carried off the girls he would have had a tremendous hold on him."

"I suppose the villain would have confined us in some hovel, under guard of these miscreants, while he negotiated with my father with all the odds in his favor," Miss Margie commented. "Perhaps that was his way to have the arms returned to Captain t.i.tus."

"You have saved us!" cried the younger and more impulsive Miss Kate, as she rushed forward to grasp the hand of Deck; and perhaps she would have kissed him again if Colonel Belthorpe had not entered the apartment at this moment, and she retreated to the chair she had before occupied.

"I see you have arrived," said the devoted father. "I have been worrying about you the last hour; but I concluded Captain Carms would send you home. I left my wagon at the stable of a friend near the schoolhouse, and I have been so busy all night that I have hardly thought of you, for I knew that you would be safe at Captain Carms's."

"But we haven't been safe, papa," said Miss Kate, rus.h.i.+ng into her father's arms.

"Why, what has been the trouble, Kate?" asked the colonel, with his arms around the beautiful girl.

Before she could answer, Colonel Cosgrove, followed by Major Lyon and Squire Truman, entered the room.

"It seems that a fight has already come off in the cross-cut," said Colonel Cosgrove, with some excitement in his manner. "Major Lyon's man tells us you had a stormy time in the road, Deck. We did not wait to bear the particulars."

Colonel Belthorpe presented his guest and the members of his family to the party. Major Gadbury stated what had happened to them in the cross-cut, and then asked Deck to describe the fight. But Deck, who was not a bully or a bl.u.s.terer, and was well ballasted with innate modesty in spite of the great amount of talking he had done, declined to do so, and the guest of the mansion described the fight with the marauders, giving the young hero at least all the credit that was due to him.

Deck blushed up to the eyes at the praise bestowed upon him, and was rather sorry he had not told the story, for he could have spared himself the crimson on his cheeks.

"It is all true, every word of it, papa!" exclaimed Miss Kate.

"Deck, I am your debtor for life!" exclaimed Colonel Belthorpe, detaching himself from the twining arms of his daughter, and rus.h.i.+ng to the hero of the night with both hands extended. "You are a n.o.ble and brave fellow, Deck, and you will make your mark in the world!" And he pressed both the hands of the boy.

"Upon my word, I think he has made his mark already!" added Major Gadbury. "At any rate, he made it on the shoulder of Buck Lagger."

"My son, you have done well," said Major Lyon very quietly, as he took the boy's hand. "I am glad I brought you with me."

"But, father, I was beaten by the ruffian who was holding Miss Kate; he was too much for me, and he would have shaken me off if Mose had not come up and given the fellow a sledge-hammer blow with his fist which knocked him into a hole," Deck explained.

"Where is Mose?" demanded the father of the girl, as he took a gold piece of money from his pocket. "Send for him, and let--"

"Excuse me, Colonel," interposed Major Lyon, placing his hand on his arm. "I see what you mean, and I must beg you not to reward him, for Mose did no more than every one of the faithful boys would have done if he had had the opportunity, though all of them have not so hard a fist as he."

"Just as you say, Major; but I feel grateful to Mose, as I do to Deck, for the hard hit he made for the safety of my daughter," replied the planter of Lyndhall. "We shall talk of this affair for the next week; but just now perhaps we ought to attend to the duty of the present moment. I sent the mounted men from Riverlawn down the old road for a mile to reconnoitre, and those who came in the wagon over to the new road to notify us of the approach of the enemy. We went over there on our arrival to arrange a plan for the defence of the place."