A Lieutenant at Eighteen Part 4

"With old shot-guns, horse-pistols, and antique rifles," replied Win contemptuously.

"But even such weapons will kill; and I don't want to lose my men unless it is absolutely necessary, for they can be put to a better use than in grinding up such blackguards as we have here."

"Don't you think they comprehend the situation by this time?" asked Milton, who seemed to be impatient to see the end of the affair.

"I might as well wait here as at Millersville; for Captain Gordon has gone over to Breedings to settle up a case of this kind, and he may not arrive for several hours yet. I will go into the house and talk with Mr. Halliburn," said Deck, as he suited the action to the word.

"I doubt if he can give you any information you have not already obtained," answered Milton, following the lieutenant into the mansion.

The planter and his wife were found on the sofas where they had been confined; and they seemed to be still paralyzed with terror, for not a few Union men had been hung or shot in the State within the preceding year. Mr. Halliburn was a man of sixty or more. He had been a clergyman during a considerable portion of his life, and he was not at all belligerent in his nature.

"Mr. Halliburn, this is Lieutenant Lyon, of the Riverlawn Cavalry, serving the United States Government," said Win, presenting the young officer.

"I am very glad to see you, Lieutenant Lyon; I may say that I am rejoiced to see you at this time, for I am beset by the children of Satan, who would hang me to the highest walnut in my park," said the venerable gentleman, with a sweetly religious smile on his thin lips, while his eyes lighted up with an expression in keeping with the smile, which excited the reverence of the youthful soldier.

"I am very glad to see you, Mr. Halliburn, for I hope I shall soon be able to relieve you of your troublesome visitors," replied Deck, taking the hand the planter extended to him.

"I am not a man of war or blood, and I have submitted with what resignation I could command to the outrages of these myrmidons of sin,"

continued the ex-clergyman. "They learned in some manner that I had money in the house, which belongs mostly to my ward, Miss Morgan."

"I have met her, and sent two of my men to conduct her to the house of your brother," added Deck.

"G.o.d bless you for your kindness to the child!" exclaimed Mr.

Halliburn, grasping the officer's hand again. "When I saw these foes of G.o.d and man coming towards the mansion, I understood their mission; and I sent Grace to my brother's with all the money in the house. I hoped to save it for her use, for nearly all of it belongs to her. But where is my poor wife?"

"She is all right, in the sitting-room," replied Win. "I will bring her in," and he hastened to the other front room for her.

Mr. Halliburn told the lieutenant that the marauders had threatened to hang him if he did not tell where his money was concealed. He had told them the truth, that there was no money in the house; but they refused to believe him, and had been searching the house for the last hour.

They had opened every drawer and closet, explored the cellar, examined the chimneys at each end of the house, and then gone up-stairs to continue the hunt.

Mrs. Halliburn came into the room, leaning on the arm of Win Milton, who presented her to the lieutenant. She looked like the twin-sister, rather than the wife, of the planter, and the same pious expression was settled upon her face. But Deck had learned all he cared to know at present, and he thought by this time that the guerillas had come to a realizing sense of their situation. He thought it was time for him to attend to them. As he pa.s.sed out of the parlor, a soldier saluted him.

"One on 'em wants to speak to the commanding officer," said he, pointing to the head of the stairs, where the marauders were huddled together. "This is the lieutenant in command," added the cavalryman, calling to the man who wished to see him.

"What! that boy?" demanded the ruffian.

"Boy or man, I am in command of this detachment of United States cavalry," replied Deck, elevating his head as high as he could get it; and he was quite as tall as half of his platoon. "If you have anything to say to me, say it with a civil tongue in your head."

"That is Captain c.o.o.nly," said Win in a low tone.

"I have come to the conclusion that I had better make terms with you,"

replied the leader of the ruffians.

"I make no terms with thieves and robbers," answered Deck, with dignity enough for a major-general. "I find you engaged in plundering a citizen of the United States, threatening him, and ransacking his mansion.

Soldiers do not engage in such work."

"I am in the service of the Southern Confederacy," replied Captain c.o.o.nly, evidently somewhat crestfallen.

"Have you a commission about you?"

"Not yet; but I shall have one."

"I look upon you and your gang as guerillas, and I shall treat you as such. Will you surrender to an officer of the United States?"

"No, I won't surrender! I am willing to make terms with you, and will do the fair thing," bl.u.s.tered the captain without a commission.

"I do not make terms with such as you are. We have talked enough on that subject, and you need not say another word about terms; there is no such word in my book."

"My men are all armed in good shape, and they are fighting characters.

All I ask is fair play."

"You shall have it; and according to the civil law of Kentucky, that means the inside of a prison-cell for such fellows as you are!"

answered the lieutenant coolly and calmly, with no display of anger; for he was trying with all his might to follow the excellent advice his father had given him for his guidance as an officer.

"No civil law about it!" exclaimed Captain c.o.o.nly, his wrath stirred up by the mention of a prison. "I am a soldier, and so are my men. I demand terms such as one military officer should give to another."

"I do not recognize you as a soldier in the service of the Confederacy, which would ent.i.tle you to military consideration," Lieutenant Lyon declared with as much solemnity as though he had been presiding over a court-martial.

Win Milton could hardly control his risible muscles; for he was inclined to laugh outright as he heard a young fellow of eighteen talk as though he understood military law as well as he did cavalry tactics.

But Deck had studied the needed subjects for his conduct as an officer while others slept, and he had improved every opportunity to converse with Captain Gordon upon the laws and customs of the service.

"I thought you said we should have fair play?" growled Captain c.o.o.nly.

"I did; and I explained what fair play was in a case like this. But we have talked enough about terms; and now we will proceed to business, or to fight out this thing, if you so elect," said Deck very calmly but very decidedly.

"But I only ask"--

"You need not ask anything!" interposed the lieutenant. "We have talked enough; now will you oblige me by coming down the stairs?"

"What if I decline to come down the stairs?" demanded Captain c.o.o.nly.

"Then I shall interpret your reply to mean that you prefer to fight out this matter."

"But you have us"--

"I have you, and I propose to keep you. No more talk! Come down-stairs, Captain c.o.o.nly, or I will order my men to fire!"

The leader of the marauders hesitated, and then took a single step in the descent; he halted there.

"I only want to say"--

"Say nothing more! Come down, or you are a dead man in another second!"

added Deck, still calm and resolute.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "COME DOWN, OR YOU ARE A DEAD MAN." _Page 64._]

"Go down, Cap!" said several of his followers as they retired from the dangerous locality at the head of the stairs.