A VERY OBSTINATE PRISONER CAPTURED
Deck Lyon's horse had been one of his father's best stock, and he had
been selected by Levi Bedford, the overseer, for his use. He was a very
spirited animal, and not every young fellow of eighteen would have felt
at home in a saddle placed on his back. As the ladies from the house
rushed forward to intercept him, Ceph, which was his abbreviated name,
was startled, reared, and faced the music, as he had been taught to do.
"I didn't mean to scare your horse, sir," said the elder of the ladies;
"but for the love of Heaven, can't you do something for my husband?"
demanded Mrs. Barkland, as she proved to be.
"Oh, save my father, if you can!" added the younger woman. "Oh, my
father! They are abusing him shamefully, and they have threatened to
hang him."
"That is the business in which I am engaged; and, if you will excuse
me, I will attend to it," replied Deck, as he gave Ceph the signal to go
ahead again with his legs.
"Do save him!" repeated the old lady, who wanted to talk some more about
the matter.
But the young cavalryman waited to hear no more; and his horse went off
at a dead run, the other two following him as rapidly as their steeds
would permit, and he was several rods ahead of them. In a couple of
minutes he had reached a point which commanded a view of the place
chosen for the spectacle. The actors had evidently preferred to be at a
distance from the mansion, where the women could not interfere with
them, the better to carry their point with the owner of the plantation.
They had the intended victim with a rope around his neck, and there
could be no doubt in regard to their purpose. One man had the other end
of the line, and was climbing a tree with it, to pass it over a branch.
Five men were on the ground, and their attention had already been
attracted by the approach of the horsemen from the direction of the
house; and they did not appear to have observed the others, with Knox at
their head, for they had passed behind a thicket of young trees on a
knoll.
"Halt!" shouted one of the five men in a voice loud enough to be heard
half a mile. "If you come any nearer we will fire!"
"Fire away!" yelled Deck with all the force of his lungs.
But he reined in his steed; and Ceph obediently came to a full stop,
while he unslung his carbine, his companions doing the same without any
suggestion from him. They came up to him, and ranged their horses at his
side. The carbines were ready for use in a moment, and all three of them
were aimed at the five men surrounding the planter. The actors in the
tragedy very plainly did not like this demonstration; for they did not
fire, though all of them had aimed at the intruders on this side of
them. The distance was still considerable, and probably they had no
great faith in the arms in their hands.
"Now we will go ahead, if you are ready, Fox and Owens," said Deck,
though he had no authority whatever to direct their movements.
The speed and sagacity of Ceph appeared to have placed him in command of
the little squad, for his horse always kept away ahead of every other
when he was permitted to do so. Deck was a brave fellow; he seemed to
have no idea of anything like fear when he was required to face an
enemy; but his father, who thought his son was inclined to be reckless,
had carefully instilled into his mind the necessity of prudence.
Knox had said that he intended to do most of the work on the present
occasion; but just now it looked as though the whole of it had fallen on
Deck's party. It was possible that he and his men had been entangled in
the bushes and young trees, or had come to some water they could not
easily pass. Deck led the way, and his companions kept close to him. The
man in the tree had passed the line over the branch, and thrown the end
down to the others.
"Halt where you are!" shouted the man who had spoken before; and this
time his voice gave Deck a thrill which caused him to stop his horse.
The two parties were not more than two hundred feet apart; and the
leader believed the speaker was his uncle, Captain Titus Lyon. This gave
him much to think of besides the identity of the commander of the
expedition upon which the squadron had fallen. It was evident to him
that the first work of the cavalry squadron raised at Riverlawn was to
be fighting the Home Guards, or "ruffians" as they had hitherto been
called.
Deck was annoyed and disconcerted at the discovery he had made, and it
checked his enthusiasm; for the quarrel with Uncle Titus, which he
insisted upon carrying to extremes, was in the family. The forces at
Riverlawn had defeated and driven off him and his command three times,
and it was an old story. He had hoped and expected that the campaign
would present the war in a new aspect.
It gave the young soldier his first lively impression of the results of
civil war. He was not at all inclined to shoot his father's brother;
though he was just as earnestly determined to do his whole duty to his
country, without regard to his relationship with any of the combatants
on the other side. They were there by their own choice, and were
responsible for the consequences.
With his carbine ready for instant use, Deck rode forward very slowly;
and, more than at any time before, he wished Knox would arrive upon the
scene of action. Captain Titus could now be clearly identified; and he
had evidently made up his mind to proceed with the business in hand, as
only three men had appeared so far to interfere with the operation. He
had turned his attention from the intruders, and was talking to the
unfortunate planter he had captured in a brutal manner, and shaking his
fist frequently in his face.
"Stand by the rope!" called he to the other men. "The fellow is as
obstinate as a mule, and we must make an end of him."
"Aim at the men who are holding the rope," said Deck to his companions,
and the three carbines were promptly pointed at them. "This thing has
gone far enough!" continued he, addressing the principal actor in the
scene.
"Who are you?" demanded Captain Titus, stopping long enough in his
operation to examine the intruders.
"I don't want to shoot you, but if you proceed any farther with this
business we shall fire," replied Deck.
Captain Titus was plainly astonished, if not confounded, when he
recognized his nephew in the uniform of the cavalry. He did not like the
looks of the three carbines pointed at his men. But Deck felt somewhat
ashamed of the delay he had made in relieving the terrified planter from
the extremity to which he had been reduced, and he decided to bring
matters to a head at once. Starting his horse, he dashed to the rope,
and seized it with one hand.
"Fire at him!" yelled Captain Titus furiously, to two of the ruffians
with muskets in their hands.
One of them raised his weapon to aim at Deck, who instantly fired at
him. He dropped his gun upon the ground, and grasped his right arm with
the left hand. The other man then raised his musket; but both of the
other horsemen fired at him at the same instant, and he dropped heavily
on the sod.
The three cavalrymen reloaded their weapons, and were immediately ready
for the next move. The three men at the rope seemed to be appalled at
the fate of their associates, and released their hold upon it. A moment
later they began to skulk off in the direction of the grove.
"Don't let them escape, Owens!" said Deck, to the one nearest to him.
Both of them darted off at a gallop, and headed them off, driving them
back to the tree from which the rope was hanging. Again Deck seized the
line, and urged his horse up to the place where the planter was
standing. Reaching down from his seat in the saddle, he cut the cords
that bound the prisoner, and then directed him to remove the rope from
his neck.
"I owe my life to you, young man," said Mr. Barkland, panting with
emotion and excitement.
"I suppose you are a Union man, sir?" added Deck.
"I am; and that is the reason why I am subjected to this outrage,"
replied the intended victim.
"What brought you here, Deck Lyon? Who sent you here to interfere with
my business?" demanded Captain Titus, confronting his nephew with a
savage frown.
"We shall not allow any such business as this," answered Deck, who was
not at all inclined to parley with the captain of the late Home Guards,
now in the service of the Confederacy. "You and those with you will
consider yourselves as prisoners of war."
"Prisoners of war!" exclaimed Captain Titus. "I reckon we ain't nothin'
of the sort. Do you mean to take six on us with only three?"
"We shall not take the trouble to count your numbers. Mr. Barkland, you
can return to your house, for your wife and daughter are very anxious
about you. I hope you have not been injured, sir."
"Only in my nerves," replied the planter, as he started for his mansion.
At this moment Knox and his three men dashed upon the scene, to the
great astonishment of Captain Titus.
"Well, Deck, is the business finished?" asked the sergeant, as he reined
up his steed. "We had to go about two miles to get here, and that is
what made it so late."
Deck reported what had happened so far. The man who had dropped so
heavily on the ground was not killed; but he was bleeding from a wound
in the side of the head, and the ball had only stunned him. The other
man, with a bullet through his arm, was worse off.
"This man who is in command of the company is my uncle, Captain Titus,"
said Deck in a low voice to the sergeant.
"What! Major Lyon's brother?" exclaimed Life. "I have heard all about
him, and he is a pesky troublesome fellow."
"I don't want anything more to do with him, Life, and I wish you would
dispose of him," added Deck.
"Do you want me to kill him? I can't do that; for"--
"Nothing of the sort!" interposed the nephew warmly. "Of course I don't
want you to do anything of the sort."
"We have six prisoners of war, and we will march them down to the main
body," added Knox.
The sergeant proceeded to form his prisoners in a single rank; but
Captain Titus appeared to have brought all his obstinacy and
unreasonableness with him, and he refused to take the place assigned to
him.
"Where are you going?" demanded the prisoner, as though he still ruled
the roost, as he had doubtless done in his company.
"None of your business where we are going," replied the sergeant. "If
you don't take your place I shall put you into it."
"This thing won't last long, for my company will take a hand in the
business in the morning, and a battalion of Texan cavalry will make it
warm for you."
"We are not talking about your company or any Texan cavalry. Will you
take your place in the line? That's the only question you have got to
settle," returned Knox.
"I won't take any place!" replied the captain with a volley of oaths.
"Swear not at all, my man," continued Life, as he seized the rebellious
prisoner by the back of his coat collar, lifted him clear of the ground,
and then brought him down in the place assigned to him. "Stay there!"
"I won't stay there!" growled he, as he attempted to leave the spot.
But Knox seized hold of him again, lifted him up, and slapped him down
across the pommel of his saddle, face down.
"Any way you like, my man; but you are going with this crowd. Forward,
my men!" and he placed himself at the head of the squad, and started in
the direction of the road, in spite of the struggles of the prisoner.
But they had not reached the road where they had first seen Cato, when
the head of a column appeared in the act of turning into the field,
doubtless guided by Hart, the messenger who had been sent to report to
the major in command.
Knox halted his little force, and threw his prisoner on the ground
without any ceremony, ordering Owens to take charge of him. The column
consisted of only the first company, the other having been sent to take
another position. Captain Truman had been ordered to hold himself in
readiness to cut off the retreat to the westward of the force which Lane
had reported upon.
"What have you here?" asked Major Lyon, as he saw the six prisoners in
front of Knox's scouts.
"Prisoners, Major; and I am sorry to say that your brother is one of
them," replied the sergeant. "They were about to hang the planter, Mr.
Barkland, who lives in the mansion yonder; but we saved him, and sent
him home."
"My brother a prisoner!" exclaimed the major very sadly.
He gave the order to march, and the first company proceeded towards the
planter's mansion.