by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XII
THE NIGHT EXPEDITION IN THE MAGNOLIA
Levi Bedford walked into the library not a little excited withcuriosity; for Titus Lyon had spent the whole afternoon on the bridgewith the planter, who had been closeted with the two boys for some time.It was evident to him that something unusual had occurred. Noah wasseated in a great arm-chair which usually faced his desk, but he hadturned it around. The overseer walked up to this chair, and plantedhimself in front of it with a respectful look of inquiry on his roundface.
"I am in doubt, Levi, and I have sent for you," Mr. Lyon began. "As youare aware, I have never talked politics with you, and have not known towhich party you belong."
"I don't belong to any party," replied Levi with a very broad smile onhis face. "My party is the plantation and the family. I look out forthem, and I don't bother my head much about anything else."
"I suppose you have relatives in Tennessee?" suggested the planter.
"Second or third cousins very likely; but I don't know anything aboutthem, and I don't lie awake nights thinking of them. My father diedbefore I was twenty-one; I had no sisters, and my only brother went toCalifornia twenty years ago, and I haven't heard from him in ten years."
"I don't mean to meddle with your affairs, Levi, but the time has comewhen every man, must declare himself."
"I should think it had, Mr. Lyon; and this afternoon I thought I wasgoing to have a chance to strike for your side of the house. I was readyto do it, for two or three times I thought you were in peril. I don'tknow what you were talking about, only it was something very stirring,"replied Levi with his usual smile.
"I don't think I was in any danger, but I am very much obliged to youfor looking out for me. Now things have come to such a pass that I mustput a direct question to you: Are you a Union man or a Secessionist?"
"I am a Union man now from the crown of my foot to the sole of my head,"laughed Levi. "But it wouldn't be anything more than honest and square,Major Lyon, for me to say that I haven't been so many months. ColonelLyon was a Union man; but he didn't have it half as bad as you have it.Some of his neighbors thought he was too tender with his people; but heand Colonel Cosgrove were pretty well matched on politics."
"He is a strong Union man, though he is in favor of neutrality if it canbe carried out, which is utterly impossible," added the planter.
"About the only thing in the row that set me to thinking and made me madwas that such a set of reckless scallawags have run the machine on theother side. There is hardly a man of any standing among them. I knowthat your brother, who is nothing but a Northern doughface, is one ofthe principal leaders among them, and--"
"We haven't any time to talk about this matter now, Levi," interposedNoah Lyon, looking at his watch. "I see that you are all right, for youare a Union man, and you do not approve the course of the violent partyin this county, and the time has come for the boys and me to dosomething."
The planter proceeded in rather hurried speech to state the situation,and to describe the discovery the boys had made that afternoon. Theoverseer evidently had a very strong desire to express his mind inregard to Titus Lyon; but with great effort he restrained himself, andlistened almost in silence to the narrative of the speaker.
"I am with you in this matter, Major Lyon, on its merits, though I liketo be on your side; but these ruffians who are trying to make civil warin the State of Kentucky must be checked," he replied, when the planterhad hurried through his statement. "I am sorry that brother of yoursused any of the money the colonel left him to buy arms and ammunition tohelp drag the State out of the Union. I will work day and night toeuchre him and the rest of them."
"You are just the right man in the right place, Levi Bedford!" exclaimedMr. Lyon. "We have no time now to decide what we will do with thesewarlike implements, only to get possession of them. It is quarter-pastnine now, and I have my plan for the beginning. While we are carrying itout we can settle what is to be done with the arms."
"I know just where that sink-hole and cavern are, and all we have to doto get there is to follow the creek," added the manager.
"The flatboat is near the place, and we can move the boxes in that, asthe conspirators conveyed them from the road," replied Mr. Lyon. "Butthere are only four of us, two men and two boys. The cannons must weighsix or seven hundred pounds apiece, and we shall want more help."
"Well, we have help enough, and we can take a dozen of the people withus, if we want as many as that," added Levi. "I know something aboutthese things, for when I kept stable in my State I used to belong to anartillery company."
"Can the negroes be trusted? We must keep our operations a profoundsecret."
"In this business you can trust them a great deal farther than you can awhite man," said the overseer, as he took a piece of paper from the deskand wrote down the names of some of the hands. "How many do you want,Major Lyon?"
"Half a dozen; we can't accommodate more than that. Put in the boatmen,for there is a deal of boating to be done."
Levi revised his list and then handed it to the planter.
"General, Dummy, Rosebud, Woolly, Mose, Faraway," Mr. Lyon read from thelist. "I should say you had picked out just the men we need. They areall used to the boats, and they are among the toughest and strongesthands on the place. Yon must put them under oath, if need be, to be assecret as death itself. I will leave all that to you. Now, have them atthe lower boat pier just as soon as possible, and we will be there."
"I will have them there in fifteen minutes," replied Levi, as hehastened to execute his mission.
"Now, boys, go to the pier, and get the Magnolia in condition to go upthe creek," continued Mr. Lyon.
"The Magnolia!" exclaimed Deck. "Why, she--"
"We have no time to argue any question, Dexter," interposed the father."Take your overcoats; and you are to be as secret as the rest of us. Askyour mother to come into the library, but don't stop to talk, my son."
The boys left the room, and Mrs. Lyon immediately presented herself inthe library.
"What in the world is going on here to-night, Noah?" asked the goodwoman. "Ever since the boys came in you have been closeted in here as ifyou were planning something."
"So we are, Ruth, for the boys made a great discovery on their trip upthe creek," answered the planter hurriedly. "That story about the armsand ammunition which Titus and Amelia came down here to disclaim anddeny was all as true as gospel, for the boys have found them."
In five minutes more Mr. Lyon told his wife all that it was necessaryfor her to know, and charged her to be secret and silent. She seemed tobe alarmed; but he assured her that there was no danger in theenterprise in which they were to engage. It was absolutely necessarythat the arms and munitions should be removed beyond the reach of theconspirators. He asked her to bring him three lanterns without lettingany one see them, which she did at once. With these in his hands, theplanter left the house without going into the sitting-room.
Deck and Artie reached the boat-pier without speaking a word, and theyran half the way. The Magnolia was moored out in the creek; and takingthe canoe, which was used as her tender when the sailboat was inservice, as it had not been since the death of the colonel, she wastowed alongside the pier. They went to work baling her out, of which shewas in great need, though she had been well cared for in her idleness bythe boatmen of the place.
The Magnolia had not been built for a sailboat. Site was long and narrowfor her length, about thirty feet, and was provided with rowlocks forsix oars. Before they had finished baling her out the General and Dummyreached the wharf. They were great strapping negroes, fully six feettall, and the weight of each could not have been much below two hundredpounds, though they were not of aldermanic build.
When they saw what the boys were doing,--for Levi had not given themeven a hint as to the nature of the service in which they were to beemployed,--they seized the buckets, and soon cleared the well of water.Levi was the next to put in an appearance, just as Deck was telling t
hetwo men to take the mast out of her, an order which the managercountermanded.
"We may want the mast and sail," interposed Levi; "for the wind is freshfrom the south-west to-night, and I don't believe in doing any more workwith the oars than is necessary."
"But we have no boatman, and none of us know how to manage the sail,"argued Deck. "It would be a bad time to get upset, and we have no timeto indulge in fooling, Levi."
"The mast and sail are not in the way in the boat. I am no boatman, andI never tried to handle the Magnolia, for the colonel was the onlyperson on the place who ever learned the trick of doing that; but Ioften sailed in her up and down the river, and I used to think I coulddo it if I tried," replied the manager, as the other four negroes cameupon the pier.
"Oh, well, if you can handle her with a sail, that's another thing,"answered Deck, yielding the point.
"Here, Rosebud, unlock the boathouse, and bring out six oars, thebiggest ones, and all the boathooks you can find," said Levi, as helooked the boat over.
No one said a word about the mission upon which they were to embark,leaving the planter to do all the talking when he came. General andDummy were the biggest of the six men who had been selected; but theother four were stalwart fellows. Their names were rather odd, thefamily thought when they first heard them; but not one of them bore theone his mother had given him in his babyhood, for the colonel hadrechristened the whole of them on the plantation to suit his own fancy.
Some circumstance, or something in their appearance, had doubtlesssuggested the names; but after they were given they clung to theirowners as though they had been recorded in a church. The General was aquick-witted fellow, which inclined him to take the lead when anythingwas to be done. Woolly had a tremendous mop of hair on his head. Dummywas a preacher in the shanty which served as a church at the Big Bend;and perhaps because he was always studying his sermons, he never spoke aword unless the occasion required it; but Levi, who had heard himpreach, said he could talk fast enough in his pulpit, and delivered amore sensible sermon than some white clergymen to whom he had listened.
Rosebud, like the overseer, always had a smile on his face, and couldhardly do or say anything without laughing. Mose did not swearprofanely, but "by Moses;" and everything was as true, as high, as big,as handsome, as "Moses in de bulrushes." "Faraway" had been a pet wordwith the one to whom the planter had given this name. They were allreliable servants, and were devoted to their past and present masters.No king, prince, or potentate had ever been as big a man in theirestimation as the colonel; and they had transferred this homage to the"major," as they were inclined to call Mr. Lyon after they heard theoverseer use this title.
Levi placed the men in the boat, each with his oar, and then headed itup the creek. The boys took their places in the stern-sheets, and theoverseer handled the tiller lines. These arrangements were no soonercompleted than the planter appeared, and took his place with the boys.The rowers were sitting with the oars upright; for the General, who wasthe stroke oarsman, had learned either from pictures in the illustratedpapers their former master used to give the hands when he had done withthem, or from some person more experienced than himself, some of theforms used in boating.
"Drop your oars!" said Levi, and they all fell into the water together.
"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 wasnot in the humor to be instructed, and the rower said no more. The menpulled their oars with a will, and the implements bent under theirvigorous stroke. The planter had run all the way from the mansion, andwas out of breath, so he was silent for a time.