by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XI
AROUSED TO THE SOLEMN DUTY OF THE HOUR
It was more than two hours after suppertime when Deck and Artie arrived.They were very tired and very hungry after their long pull up the creek;but they felt better after they had taken a hearty supper. Deck soughtthe first opportunity to detail the operations of the afternoon to hisfather.
"Your Uncle Titus has been here this afternoon, and I have had a longtalk with him on the bridge; but his first business here was to disclaimany knowledge of the arms and ammunition concealed on the river," saidMr. Lyon, before the boys had an opportunity to open with the story oftheir adventure. "He says your Aunt Amelia understood him with herelbows, and it was a ridiculous story she told your mother without aword of truth in it."
"Without a word of truth in it," repeated Deck, who was more inclinedthan Artie to do the talking, though the latter was fluent enough ofspeech when the occasion required it.
The boys looked at each other; and they did something more than smilethis time, for they laughed out loud. In view of the revelation they hadto make, the affair became more exciting; but after the discovery theyhad made, they did not wonder that Titus had been so earnest in hispurpose to contradict the statement their aunt had made.
"What are you laughing at, boys?" interposed their father. "This is aserious matter as your uncle looks upon it; and I suppose such a rumorcirculated about the county might get him and his sons into trouble. TheUnionists regard the Home Guards as precisely the same as Secessionists,and believe that they are armed, so far as they are armed, to help alongthe cause of the South."
"I should say that Uncle Titus might be a little shaken up about thestory Aunt Amelia related," added Artie with a significant look at hiscousin.
"I don't know but the Union people would mob him if they believed he hadobtained arms for any Home Guards, especially for such ruffians as theysay he has been gathering together for his company," said Mr. Lyon. "Ihave cautioned all who heard the story not to mention or hint at it inthe strongest manner; for of course I don't want to get your uncle intotrouble by repeating a false rumor."
"Suppose he gets himself into trouble?" suggested Deck. "He is anout-and-out Secesher, and he don't make any bones of saying so out loud.Sandy thinks they will break up the Union meeting at the schoolhouseto-morrow night."
"Titus says he has done his best to prevent anything of the kind beingdone," replied Mr. Lynn. "He thinks I should be mobbed and this houseburned over our heads if he did not use his influence to prevent it. Butyour uncle believes what he wants to believe, and is certain a vastmajority of the people of the county are Secessionists. I am very wellsatisfied that they are at least about equally divided. At any rate, theSecessionists are doing their best to overawe the Union people, and theymight succeed to some extent if they could arm the villains they haveenrolled."
"Then it is better not to let them be armed," suggested Deck, with aglance at his cousin.
"The story your mother told at dinner made it look as though they wereto be provided with weapons and ammunition at once; but the statement isnot true, and we appear to be safe for the present," said Mr. Lyon. "Butwhere have you been all the afternoon, boys?"
"Deck will tell the story, father," replied Artie.
"You led off in this business, Artie, and I think you had better tellit," said Deck, though he was ready enough to relate the adventure.
"We will both tell it, then," added Artie. "I will begin and go as faras where you joined me this afternoon at the bridge, and you shall tellthe rest of it."
"All right; fire away, Artie."
In accordance with this arrangement, the boys minutely narrated theevents of the afternoon, to the great astonishment and indignation ofMr. Lyon. He occasionally interrupted his son to ask questions in regardto the boxes they had examined in the cavern. The boys described thecases, with the marks upon them, and the listener had no doubt theycontained arms and ammunition. The two carriages for the field-pieceswere the only portion of the warlike material not contained in boxes;and these were almost evidence enough to determine the character of therest of the goods.
"Were the boxes all of the same kind?" asked the father, deeplyinterested, and not a little disturbed by the revelation of the evening.
"They were not the same," replied Deck, taking a paper from his pocket,on which he had written down a list of the cases. "The lid of one of thetwo in which the cannon were boxed up had been split off in part, sothat we could see what was in it. Twelve cases were labelled'Breech-loading Rifles,' and the rest of the lot were marked with thekind of ammunition they contained. The smallest of them had cannon-ballsand grape in them."
"There isn't any doubt about the matter now," replied Mr. Lyon. "Thismeans war; and I have no doubt they are to be used in this county byyour uncle's cut-throats; for that is what they are according to whatColonel Cosgrove said to me the other day. This is bad business," andthe planter gazed at the floor, his wrinkled brow indicating the deepthought in which he was engaged.
"Sandy says the company of Home Guards is about full, and I suppose theywill not leave the arms and ammunition in the cavern for any greatlength of time," suggested Deck.
"Something must be done," said Mr. Lyon. "If that company get theseweapons they will terrorize the whole county. There are some very strongUnionists in this vicinity. Colonel Cosgrove told me they had threatenedto burn his house, though he is a very conservative man. He was in favorof neutrality; but he admits that the Home Guards in this county areabout all Secessionists. Your Uncle Titus says I am looked upon as anabolitionist, and if it had not been for him they would have 'cleaned meout,' as he called it, before this time. It is time something was done,"and the planter relapsed into a revery again.
The boys were silent. Fort Sumter had been bombarded, and its heroicgarrison had marched out with the honors of war. The country was in astate of war. The call of the President for seventy-five thousand menhad been made. Northern soldiers were marching South for the protectionof Washington. Flags were flying, drums were beating, trumpets wereblaring, and troops were organizing all over the loyal nation.
In Kentucky men were enlisting in both armies, though the majority ofthem clung to the flag of the Union, inspired by the traditions of theState. But large portions of it were subjected to a reign of terror. Oneparty was struggling to carry the State out of the Union, and the otherto keep it in the Union. The county in which Noah Lyon and his familywere located was even more shaken by these discordant elements than mostof the others; for it was not more than thirty miles from the southernboundary of the State.
"It almost breaks my heart to have my only living brother associatedwith, and even leading, these conspirators against the Union," Mr. Lyonresumed, as he wiped some tears from his eyes. "But when it comes to thedefence of the old flag under which we have become the most enlightenedand prosperous nation in the world, no true man can favor even hisbrother when he plots to ruin it. Something must be done!" he repeatedwith energy as he rose to his feet, and emphasized his remark with avigorous stamp of his foot.
"What shall be done, father?" asked Deck, awed by the manner and thetears of his father; and he had never been so moved before in his life.
"We must defend the old flag, my boys! We must rally with those who aremarching to the defence of the Union! The time for talking has gone by,and the time for action has come. I have not passed the military age,and I shall not shirk the plain duty of the citizen, which is to becomea soldier," replied Mr. Lyon impressively.
"Do you mean to say that you shall join the army, father?" asked Deck.
"Certainly; what else can I do at a time like this?" replied the father."And that is not all, my son; you and Artemas are now sixteen years old,nearly seventeen. You are both stout boys; and not only the sire, butthe sons, must shoulder the musket and march to the battle-field."
"I am ready for one!" exclaimed Deck with enthusiasm.
"I am ready for the other!" added Artie quite as earnestly.
"For some time I have seen that this was what we must come to; but Ihave put off saying anything about it, for it is a solemn and even anawful thing to engage in the strife of civil war, brother againstbrother, the son against his father, and the father against his son."
"In our own family, we shall all be on the same side," added Deck.
"But your uncle and his two sons will be with the enemies of the Union.It is not of our choosing, and God will be with us while we do our dutyto our country," said the patriot father, as he solemnly lifted his eyesupward. "Now, my sons, for you both call me father, and I have alwaystried to be the same to both of you"--
"And you always have been! And Aunt Ruth has been a mother to me and mysister Dorcas!" interposed Artie, as he wiped the tears from his eyes."I shall never again call either of you anything but father or mother. Iam ready to enlist whenever you say the word, father."
"You are honest and true, and that is the kind of man you will make, myson; and I can say the same of Dexter. You will both make goodsoldiers."
Both the father and the sons shed tears as they realized, as they neverhad before, the solemn duty which the peril of the Union imposed uponthem; and they were inspired to do that duty to the last drop of theirlife-blood.
"There, boys! I did not intend to make a scene like this; but thefinding of the arms and ammunition convinces me that your Uncle Titusand his villanous associates mean to make war upon loyal men in thiscounty. When you join the ranks of the Union army, you will find themall in the columns of the enemy. You have done good service to our causein the discovery and ferreting out of this conspiracy against the truemen of this locality."
"It was all by accident that I found out about it," added Artiemodestly.
"I hope you will forgive me for scolding at you for being out so latethat night," said Mr. Lyon.
"You didn't scold me; you only gave me some good advice, and I hope Ishall always remember it. But I did not know then what I had discovered,or where they were storing the arms."
"You did exceedingly well, whether you knew what you were doing or not.Now it is driven into my very soul that I ought not to let the enemyprofit by obtaining those arms. I have made up my mind that it would betreason, or next door to it, for me to let Titus and his gang have allthese weapons; and with the blessing of God they never shall have them!"
"That is the talk, father!" exclaimed Deck.
"So say we all of us!" Artie chimed in. "But what can we do?"
"Before the light of to-morrow morning breaks upon Riverlawn, we mustmove all those boxes to the plantation," replied Mr. Lyon; and heproceeded to discuss the means by which this purpose could beaccomplished.
"We have teams enough to haul the whole of them over here at one load,"said Deck, boiling over with enthusiasm.
"Keep cool, my son, for we must be very prudent in our movements. Do youknow what became of the flatboat with which the conspirators moved thecases up to the cavern?"
"Artie thought of that; and we found the gundalow in a little inlet atthe mouth of a brook, covered up with bushes."
"Then we may use that," replied the planter. "But I am in doubt aboutone thing which may bother us."
"What's that, father?" asked Deck, who could not think of any impedimentto the carrying out of the plan announced by his father.
"I don't know that we can depend upon every person about the plantation.A single one opposed to our scheme could ruin it. He might go to thevillage and tell Titus, or some of his fellow-conspirators, what we wereabout, and interfere with us before we got back."
"No one here would do such a thing," protested Deck. "All the servantsbelieve in you."
"I was thinking of Levi Bedford."
"Levi!" exclaimed both of the loyal boys together.
"I have never spoken a word to him about politics, or he to me.Absolutely all I know about him is that he is a Tennesseean. But we mustsettle this point on the instant; you may go and find him, Dexter, andask him to come into the library."
Deck left the room. He found the overseer in the sitting-room with thefamily, and he returned with him a minute later.