by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER VI
THE NIGHT ADVENTURE ON THE CREEK
If Deck Lyon had particularly noted the actions of his cousin in theboat he would have noticed that he was less decided in his movementsthan usual. He stopped rowing several times in the ten minutes or morethat elapsed after he had invited Deck to go with him; and one who hadbeen near enough to study his expression would have understood that hehad a purpose before him which he was not prepared to execute underpresent circumstances.
He had listened with the closest attention to Mrs. Lyon's report of hervisit at the house of Titus, and he was in a revery after dinner as heobserved Noah and his son walking to the bridge. He waited till he hadseen them seated on the bench, and then he walked slowly to the boatpier. He was disappointed when his cousin refused to go with him; but hewas not inclined to persuade him to leave his father, for he concludedthat something of importance was under discussion between them.
He was relieved, and all his vigor and animation came back to him as hepulled to the house landing. Artie was more inclined than Deck to keepwithin his own shell; but it was not for the want of native energy, andboth of the boys were disposed to do whatever they had in hand with alltheir might. He brought the boat up abreast of the pier, and Deckstepped into the bow without any further invitation. He took one of thelight pine oars from his cousin.
"If you don't object, Deck, I would like to pull the forward oar," saidArtie, as his companion was seating himself.
"It is all the same to me which oar I take," replied Deck, as he changedhis place.
"I want to talk with you, and I can do it better when you are in frontof me," added Artie, as he shoved the boat out into the stream.
"Where are you going? You seem to have something in your head besidesbones," said Deck curiously.
"Besides the bones I've got a big notion in my head."
"Is it a Yankee or a Kentucky notion, Artie?"
"I picked it up here, and it is Kentuckish. But I don't want to sayanything now; for I'm afraid some one might hear me, more particularlyUncle Titus," replied the bow oarsman as he took the stroke from hiscousin. "I wonder what brought him over here, for he don't come toRiverlawn much oftener than he goes to church."
"He acts like a regular Hottentot just out of the woods; and if thereare any bears in Kentucky they would behave like gentlemen compared withUncle Titus," added Deck, who proceeded to describe the manner of thevisitor on the bridge when the two brothers met.
"Uncle Titus has got something besides bones in his head this afternoon,and when he started to come over here he meant business," suggestedArtie. "Something is in the wind."
"I wanted to stay and hear what was said, but Uncle Titus drove me offas he would have kicked a snake into the creek. He was as grouty and assavage as a she-lion that had lost all her cubs."
"Did he say anything about that story your mother told at dinner?" askedArty.
"Not a word; he drove me off as though I had been a cur dog before hesaid a word about anything else," replied Deck, who could not easilyforget the brutal manner of his uncle. "But you have not told me yetwhere you are going, Artie. You haven't any fishlines or bait, and Isuppose you are not going a-fishing."
"Not up the creek, for the river suits me better for that business; butI'm going a-fishing for something that won't swim in the water," repliedthe undemonstrative boy.
"What do you mean by that?" demanded Deck; and his interest in thesubject caused him to cease rowing, and Artie pulled the boat round sothat it was headed to the shore.
"Pull away, Deck! What are you about? We don't want to stop here," saidArtie with more than his usual vigor.
"I am about nothing; but when I talk with you I like to look you in theface, for that sometimes tells the story better than your words,"replied Deck, as he gave way again with his oar. "As I said before, youhave got something besides bones in your head, and I am in a hurry toknow what it is all about. You can't talk it into me through the back ofmy head."
"But we don't want to stop here, Richard Coeur de Lyon!" protestedArtie, rather vehemently for him. "Don't you see that we are still insight of the bridge, and I would not have Uncle Titus see what we areabout for all the world, with Venus and Mars thrown in. Besides, we havea long pull before us, and we have no time to spare."
"But I want to know what it is all about," Deck objected. "I am notgoing into any conspiracy with my eyes blinded."
"Pull away, Deck! I don't want that Secesher to see us stopping here. Weshall come to the bend in five minutes; and then if you want to stop andtalk I will agree to it, though we haven't any time to waste," suggestedArtie as a compromise.
"One would think you were going to set the river on fire by your talk,"replied Deck, profoundly mystified by the words, and more by the mannerof his companion.
"We may set the creek on fire before we get through with this job,"continued Artie, deepening the mystery every minute. "There's LeviBedford," he added, as the manager, riding on a rather wild colt, in theroad leading to the fields, came abreast of the boat.
He was too far off to talk to the boys; but he waved his hat to them,and the boatmen returned the salute, as he continued on his way.
"I wonder where Levi stands in the row that is brewing all over thecountry," said Deck. "I don't hear him say anything of any consequence,though he may have talked to father. He did not come from New England,and I don't know whether he is a Secesher or not; and it looks as thoughhe did not mean anybody should know."
"He don't belong to the Home Guards any way," added Artie. "He is aTennesseean, and it would not be strange if he had some Secesh notions."
"I don't believe he is going back on father," replied Deck, when themanager had disappeared and the boat had reached the bend. "Here we are;we can't see the bridge now, and the bridge can't see us."
"We will stop if you say so; but we may not get back to the house beforeto-morrow morning if we spend much time here," said Artie, as he restedon his oar, and seemed to be very unwilling to use any of the time inmere talk.
"If the time is so short, why didn't you start out this morning? and whydidn't you let me know sooner that you were going to set the creek onfire? We might have brought our dinners with us, as we did when we wentto school in Derry, and made a day of it," argued Deck.
"Things were not ready this morning, and I started just as soon as I sawthe star in the east," replied Artie.
"You don't generally wait for the grass to grow under your feet when thelightning strikes near you."
"The lightning struck while we were at dinner," added Artie quietly.
"But I think we can fix things so that we can talk and keep moving atthe same time," suggested Deck, as he rose from his seat with his oar inhis hand, and stepped over his thwart to the aftermost one.
He seated himself on this thwart, facing the bow. The boys were notskilled boatmen, though they had practised rowing a good deal on theriver and creek, and they had not trimmed the light craft to the bestadvantage for ease and speed, for it was down too much by the head. Deckasked his cousin to move one seat farther aft, and he complied readily,in spite of the fact that he was the more skilled of the two in rowing.In the smallest of the three boats at the lower pier he had often madelong trips alone up the creek, besides those when his cousin was hiscompanion.
"That lifts the bow higher out of the water," said Artie as he took hisplace.
"So much the better," replied Deck, proceeding to give philosophical andscientific reasons to explain what experienced boatmen know by instinct,as it were. "Now take the stroke from me, and don't pull any faster thanI do."
Placing himself in an angular position on the thwart, with his righthand hold of the seat, he began to row with his left. While pullingalone in the canoe, as the negro rowers called the smallest craft, hehad been inclined to protest against the accepted custom of goingbackwards in rowing; and he would gladly have adopted the mechanicalcontrivance in use on some of the Northern waters which enabled theboatmen to pull
while facing the bow. He wanted to see where he wasgoing without turning around, and he had practised rowing in thisposition.
Deck was heavier and stronger than his cousin, though hardly as agile.Artie took the stroke from him, and it was quite as quick as he cared torow on a long pull. They kept good time, and the boat went along asrapidly as before.
"Now light your match, and start the fire, Artie. We shall lose no timeby this arrangement, and we shall get back to the house before morning."
"Perhaps, after you understand the nature of the enterprise, you willnot be willing to go with me," added Artie, looking earnestly into theface of his cousin.
"I can tell better about that after I know what it is," returned Deck,reciprocating the earnest gaze of the other. "But it is you who arewasting the time now. Why don't you come to the point without goingaround all the buildings on the plantation?"
"You heard the story mother told about the arms and ammunition UncleTitus had bought for the Home Guards in order to make himself thecaptain of the company?"
"Of course I heard it," and Deck was unwilling to say another word toincrease the preliminaries to the revelation.
"Did you believe it?"
"I did."
"Then you are satisfied that Uncle Titus has a lot of arms hid awaysomewhere in this region?" persisted Artie.
"I had my doubts, and I spoke to father about it on the bridge justbefore you came along in the boat. He thought that his brother was justcrazy enough to do such a thing; but he thought whiskey had a good dealto do with the matter, especially in permitting him to tell his wifeabout it. Of course Sandy and Orly are mixed up in this business. Butthis is an old story by this time, Artie, and you have not told me yetwhat you are driving at," said Deck impatiently.
"We are going to look for the arms and ammunition, Deck!" exclaimed theoriginator of the enterprise. "Is that talking plainly enough?"
"To look for the arms and ammunition!" almost shouted the after oarsman,ceasing to use his oar in the astonishment of the moment.
"You insisted on my telling you all at once, and I have done so; youhave stopped rowing."
"What you said was enough to throw a fellow off his base. Do you meanthat you are going on a wild-goose chase all over the State of Kentuckyto look for what may be a mere notion, conjured up by an overdose ofwhiskey?" demanded Deck, still resting on his oar.
"Don't get excited, Coeur de Lyon; cold steel cuts best," said Artie.
"And that's the reason father puts his razor into hot water when he isshaving."
"I don't think anybody is right down sure of anything in this world,"continued the leader of the enterprise. "I think I am as sure as anyfellow can be in this State of Kentucky, where no man or boy can tellwhich end he stands on, that I know where Uncle Titus's arms andammunition are hidden."
"You know!" ejaculated Deck.
"I think I know."
"What are you doing up the creek, then? Didn't Aunt Amelia say that thearms were concealed near the river?" asked Deck, hardly able to breathein his excitement.
"I think I know where they are hidden better than she did. If UncleTitus told his wife that they were hidden on the river,--and that isjust what aunt said,--her husband intended to cheat her," said Artievery confidently. "I should say that a dozen glasses of whiskey wouldnot have made Uncle Titus fool enough to tell anybody where the armswere concealed, not even his wife; and they don't seem to be a veryloving couple since they came to Kentucky."
"That's so," added Deck.
"Do you remember that time about a fortnight ago when father spoke to meabout being out so late one night, Deck?"
"I remember it; it was on the bridge."
"That night I found out something I could not explain, but I can now,after what I heard at dinner to-day. But we have eight or ten miles topull if we are going to find the arms to-day, and we must be moving,"added Artie.
Deck rowed again, and they proceeded up the creek, Artie telling hisnight adventure by the way.