"Do you expect to get into any trouble, my boy?" asked the major, anxiously gazing into the messenger"s face.
"I don"t expect any trouble, but something may happen."
"Perhaps I had better send half a dozen of the boys with you," suggested his father.
"The boys?" queried the lieutenant, wondering where they were to come from, as he had seen only two of them.
"I mean the negroes who defended the place the other night," added the planter. "They have learned to handle the breech-loaders, and they would fight for my boys as long as there was anything left of them."
"I dare say they would," replied the officer with a significant smile.
"But if you send six negroes armed with breech-loaders to Bowling Green, you may be sure there will be a row."
"Just my sentiments," added Levi Bedford. "I don"t think Artie will have any trouble if he goes alone."
"Very well, let him go alone; but I am confident half a dozen of the boys would make it hot for any band that attempted to molest him," said the major; and the messenger departed on his mission.
"Have you an American flag, Major Lyon?" asked the lieutenant when he had gone.
"Two of them, for my brother always celebrated the Fourth of July."
"We always hoist one on a recruiting office."
Under the direction of Levi a flagstaff was erected in front of the fort, and before dinner-time the Star Spangled Banner was spread to the breeze. Major Lyon took off his hat and bowed to it as soon as it was shaken out to the breeze; and cheers were heard from the negroes in the field beyond the stables.
"If you had set that flag over your office in the village, it would have been hauled down and trampled under foot inside of an hour," said the planter.
"Are the people of this vicinity so disloyal as that?" asked Lieutenant Gordon, astonished at the remark. "I supposed the Unionists were in the majority here."
"So they are; but they are not half so demonstrative as the other side."
The bell rang at the door of the mansion for dinner; and while the family were attending to this midday duty, Artie was entering the county town. He had taken his dinner with him, and had eaten it as he approached his destination. There were two printing-offices in the place, and he called at the first one he saw.
"What"s this? "Union Cavalry!"" demanded the printer, as he read the head-line in displayed type.
"What will you charge for printing two hundred copies of that bill, and doing it while I wait?" asked Artie.
""Riverlawn!"" added the man, as he continued to read the placard. "Who are you, boy?"
"My name is Artemas Lyon, and my father lives at Riverlawn," replied Artie.
"Well, Artemas Lyon, I would not print that bill if your father would give me a hundred dollars a letter for doing it!" stormed the printer, as he tossed the copy back to the messenger with as much indignation in his manner as in his speech.
"All right, sir; if you don"t want to do the job you needn"t!" replied Artie, as he returned the bill to his pocket and moved to the door.
"Stop a minute, boy! So you are recruiting at Riverlawn for the Abolition army?" called the printer, who was perhaps a member of the Home Guards. "I want to know something about that business."
"If you want to enlist in the Union army, you can do so at Riverlawn. I am in a hurry, and I can"t stop to answer any questions," replied Artie, as he bolted out at the door.
"What are you doing here, Artie Lyon?" called a voice from the other side of the street as he was unhitching his horse.
It was Colonel Cosgrove, though his house was some distance farther up the street. The lawyer came over to him, and he explained the object of his visit to the county town.
"You ought to have come to me at once, Artie," said the colonel, as the messenger showed him the handbill. "That printer runs a Secession paper, and he would lose all his subscribers if it was known that he printed a placard like this. Come with me, and I will get the work done for you."
Artie followed him to the office of a Union paper, and it looked as though it was in a more prosperous condition than the other. The printer readily undertook the work, and promised to have it done by three o"clock in the afternoon. The messenger was invited to the mansion of Colonel Cosgrove, where he dined with the family.
"I signed the letter to General Buell with your father, asking him to send a recruiting officer to this locality," said the colonel, as he conducted his guest to the library. "I am very glad he has come. I should have been in favor of establishing his office in this place if it were not a current report that the town is to be occupied by the Confederates within a short time."
"Father thought Riverlawn would be a better place than Barcreek village for it," added Artie.
"I think he is right."
The messenger was called upon to tell the news of his vicinity, and he mentioned all that had occurred since the fight, including the attempt to murder Levi Bedford, and the capture of Buck Lagger. At three o"clock Artie went to the printing-office, and found the handbills all ready for him. He paid the bill, and went back to the colonel"s house for his horse, which had been as well cared for as his rider. He was advised to hurry out of the town, and he galloped his horse for the first mile till he reached the open country. Half a mile ahead of him was a wood.
The young horseman had reduced his speed to a moderate gait before he reached this grove; but he had not gone far before three men stepped out of the bushes and stood in front of him in the road. They had flint-lock guns in their hands, and it looked as though they were there for a purpose.
"Stop, boy!" shouted the man who stood in the middle of the road, with one on each side of him.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ""STOP, BOY!" SHOUTED THE MAN."]
"What do you want of me?" demanded Artie, with his right hand on the handle of his revolver.
"I want them handbills you just got printed," replied the spokesman. "We ain"t go"n" to have no Abolition troops enlisted round here. And that ain"t all nuther; we"re gwine to clean out that Major Lyon that sent you over here."
"Hand over the papers and we won"t hurt you," added another of the trio.
"I shall not give them up!" replied Artie as decidedly as though he had the new company of cavalry behind him. "Get out of the road, or I will ride over you!"
"You won"t give em" up, won"t yer?" returned the man in the middle, as he brought his old gun to his shoulder.
"No!" yelled the messenger, as he fired his revolver at the spokesman.
At the same moment he drove his heels into the flanks of his spirited steed, giving him the rein as he did so. The horse darted ahead like a shot from a gun, and choosing his way between the men, he knocked two of them over, and galloped on his way. The sudden movement of the animal had prevented the men from bringing their guns to bear upon him. The man on his feet fired, and the rider heard a ball whistle near him. In a minute he was out of the range of such weapons, and reached Riverlawn in season for supper.
He delivered the bills to the lieutenant, and told his story. The next morning the early risers saw these placards posted all over Barcreek village, and along the roads for five miles in all directions.
CHAPTER x.x.xIV
THE FIRE THAT WAS STARTED AT RIVERLAWN
Levi and Deck were the bill-stickers, and the night was chosen as the time to post them, in order that the paste might be well dried and hardened before they were seen. They had taken a wagon, and with the coachman for driver they had gone their round after people generally were asleep. Wherever a flat surface could be found by the light of a lantern, on barns, fences, rocks, and shops, a placard was posted.
It would take the ruffian brigade a long time to pull them all down, after the paste was dry; and the very wrath of these men would a.s.sist in advertising the recruiting office at Riverlawn. The fact that the papers were ready for signature could hardly fail to be known all over the vicinity early in the morning, and all over the county in a day or two.
The information was already circulating in Bowling Green; for the editor of _The Planter_, at whose office Artie had applied to have the bills printed, had made it known soon enough to enable the three ruffians to make an attempt to suppress the placards.