While they were gone upon this mission, the overseer placed the Magnolia ahead of the flatboat, in readiness to tow it down the creek. The boys returned, and the hatchet was the only thing which had been left. To their astonishment they found that Levi had shaken out the sail of the Magnolia, and they had their doubts about his ability to manage it.
"I hope you won"t tip the sailboat over, Levi," said Deck, as he stepped on board of her, followed by Artie.
"If I do I shall not spill you out, either of you; for I want you to take charge of the flatboat, with two of the hands," replied the overseer. "I shall keep four men in the Magnolia to row, and I think the sail will help us along a good deal."
"I should like to change that plan a little, Levi," interposed Mr. Lyon.
"The boys and myself can take care of the flatboat, and you can have all the men at the oars."
"Just as you say, Major Lyon, and perhaps that will be the best scheme.
I was thinking that you and the boys might sleep part of the way down,"
answered the overseer. "The wind is blowing pretty hard from the south-west, and I reckon we shall get some rain before a great many hours. The sail ought to help us a big piece."
The planter and the boys armed themselves with the long oars of the flatboat, which had been driven into the muddy bottom of the creek to hold her in place at the landing, and they were ready to keep her off the sh.o.r.e in going around a sharp bend. Mr. Lyon placed his between the pins in the stem to steer with.
With their oars in hand the six rowers were in their places, and Levi gave the word to shove off. When the men had pulled a short distance, the skipper, a position which the overseer had a.s.sumed, hauled in the sheet, and made it fast at the cleat for the purpose. The sail filled with a vengeance as a sharp flaw struck it, and the Magnolia forged ahead with a dart, dragging her tow after her. As the creek widened the sail strained, and the Magnolia seemed to be struggling to get away from the gundalow astern of her.
As she proceeded on her course down the stream, she increased her speed, and appeared to make nothing of hauling the tow after her. The motion produced by the sail bothered the rowers, who were not used to this situation. Some of them "caught crabs," and the oars of all of them were lifted and thrown back by the water that rushed past them. They made such bad work of it that Levi ordered them to unship their oars.
The Magnolia was making something like six miles an hour, and would have made ten without the tow. He steered her so that she carried the gundalow safely around the bends of the stream; and the planter had little to do, the boys nothing. Deck and Artie stretched themselves on the boxes, and were soon fast asleep; for they were worn out with the exertion and excitement of the day and night.
The bends in the stream near the spring road perplexed the skipper at first; but his excellent common-sense helped him out, and he hauled in his sheet so as to bring the boat up closer to the wind. Above the most troublesome bend at this point, the general course of the creek was west north-west. He let off the sheet, and the Magnolia flew faster than ever.
When he came to the bridge by the mansion, he waked the negroes, who had all fallen asleep, to take down the mast, so that he could pa.s.s under it, for he had already lowered the sail. He ran the boat close to the bank off the ice-house, and the negroes secured it and the gundalow.
"Dexter, Artemas!" shouted the planter. "Wake up! The cruise is ended."
CHAPTER XV
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF FORT BEDFORD
The two young voyagers of the night sprang to their feet on the pile of cases which filled the body of the gundalow, and looked about them. It was still dark, and they could not make out anything when just roused from their slumber.
"What are we stopping here for, father? Has anything broken?" asked Deck, discovering Mr. Lyon near him.
"Nothing but your slumbers, my son," replied the planter. "Haven"t you got your eyes open yet? Can"t you see that you have got home?"
"I believe I have been asleep," added Artie, rubbing his eyes.
"I know you have, my boy; for I spread your overcoats over you both before we reached the big bend, and I know you were sleeping as soundly as a pair of babies then. You must have slept an hour and a half," the father explained. "I am glad you had some sleep, for we have more work to do before we can go to bed."
"I can see the bridge now," added Deck.
"And there is the house," said Artie.
The negroes were all wide awake by this time, and Levi had gone to the mansion for the key to the ice-house. Mr. Lyon lighted all of the lanterns, and sent the boys to the stone building with them, following himself soon after. The overseer came with the key, and it was opened with some difficulty. The ice with which it had been filled in the winter had been exhausted, and it contained nothing but rubbish. The hands were called, and the interior was soon cleaned out.
Though Levi had not closed his eyes during the night, and had been busy all the time, he was wide awake, and proceeded to drive things as he had done at the cavern. It was decided to move the cannons first, after a broad gang plank had been made of the material in the boat. A heavy cart-stake was procured, which was thrust into the first of the pieces, with room enough for three of the hands to get hold of it. Another was placed under the cascabel, which was supported by General and Dummy, with Rosebud at the jaws.
The gun was easily handled with this force, and the men walked briskly to the new a.r.s.enal. Three wheelbarrows were brought from the tool-house by the planter and the boys while Levi was superintending the removal of the cannons. Three wheelers were selected by the overseer, two placed in the gundalow to load the barrows, and one at the ice-house. In less than an hour, and when the daylight was appearing in the east, the job was finished.
"Now, boys, you can sleep all the rest of the day," said Mr. Lyons, and Levi sent the hands to their quarters.
"We haven"t seen any men on the watch," said Levi, while he was placing some boards over the windows of the building, "but there may have been some on the lookout for all that."
"If they were in the road near the big bend, where you thought they would be, if anywhere, they could not have walked to the cavern in time to find us there, for we made quick work of loading the boat," added the planter.
"If there were any men there, they may have observed us; but they could not get round here to see what was done with the cases if they did,"
replied Levi. "They may possibly have recognized the Magnolia: and that is the only clew they could have obtained of the operations in this affair."
"It is time to go to bed, and I am inclined to think we shall do some sleeping to-day," added the planter, as he led the way to the mansion.
Levi was not willing to leave anything to chance; and before he went to his room in the house he had called up two of the servants and established a patrol along the bank of the creek from the bridge to the boathouse, with orders to call him if any persons were seen prowling about the vicinity.
All the operations of the night had been conducted with the most prudent regard to secrecy. Doubtless Levi Bedford knew more about the residents of the county than Noah Lyon, and probably more about t.i.tus as he was and had been during the last few years. The disappearance of the arms and ammunition would make a tremendous sensation among the Southern sympathizers, though most of them were not yet aware of the existence of such a store of munitions in the vicinity; for the knowledge of them had probably been confined to the members of t.i.tus"s company of Home Guards.
Even if the wrath and excitement occasioned by the loss of the war material was limited to these ruffians, there were enough of them to do a vast amount of mischief in the county.
The interview on the bridge with his brother had opened wide the eyes of Noah; but he had always lived in a peaceful community, and his overseer understood the situation better than he did. Levi had taken every precaution against the possible a.s.saults of the "bushwackers," as he called the gang with whom the Northern "doughface" had cast his lot at the breaking out of the troubles in the State. The boys slept soundly till nearly noon, and the planter till the middle of the forenoon; but Levi appeared as usual at breakfast, having slept but about three hours.
Mr. Lyon had told his wife something about the events of the night, and a.s.sured her that the arms were safe in the ice-house, and nothing was said at the table about the proceedings of the party, though Levi was as good-natured as usual, and talked about other things. As soon as he had finished his morning meal with a most excellent appet.i.te, he hastened to the ice-house with the key in his hand. The field-hands had gone to their work, and all was quiet about the place.
The ice-house was near the creek, about half-way between the bridge and the boathouse, close to the stream. The door of it faced the water, and there was a small square window in either end. Levi walked around the building two or three times, closely examining the structure. Then he stopped at the door and cast his eyes all around him, especially at the lay of the land on the other side of the creek. He was not a military engineer any more than his employer; but he was a man of ideas, and he was evidently preparing for events in the future which he foresaw, and which the disturbed condition of the State rendered more than possible.
When he had completed his survey he unlocked the door of the building.
The cases were all just as they had been piled up in the early morning.
He bestowed only a glance at them, and then began a study of the two windows, from which he removed the boards that prevented any one from seeing what the building contained. Then he gave his attention to the doors, which were double, the thickness of the wall apart. He was evidently making a plan in his mind for some alterations to the structure; but he was alone, and of course he said nothing.
He appeared to have reached his conclusion. Closing and locking the outer door, he walked over to the boathouse, at the pier of which the Magnolia had been secured by the boatmen as soon as the work of the night was completed. Here again he stopped and made a survey of the neighboring swamp, which separated the lawn from the bank of the Green.
Then he went over to the bank of the river, and followed it down stream.
At this point a bend of the river above forced the water of the stream over near the opposite sh.o.r.e, while half-way across from the bank on which he stood, the waters from the river and the creek had washed in the mud so that it formed a bar on a bed of rocks, and the descent here produced the rapids. The water for half a mile was considerably troubled when the streams were full, while it was deep enough on the other side to permit the pa.s.sage of the steamboats that plied on the river.
Levi continued his walk in the road, with Green River on one side and on the other the swamp which bordered the creek to a point near its source.
The swamp was impa.s.sable on foot or by boat. It was better than a wall in the rear of the mansion, and the marauders of t.i.tus Lyon could not approach from that direction. Farther along was a broad lagoon or pond, connected by a wide and sluggish inlet with Bar Creek. This could be crossed with a boat; but the approach to it from the spring road over the low ground was difficult and dangerous.
The overseer knew the whole region very well; but when he had viewed it again in the light of impending contingencies, he seemed to be entirely satisfied with the situation, for his chronic smile was on his round face, though no one was there to see it. He went to the shop, which formed part of the carriage-house, and began a survey of the lumber on hand there. A couple of three-inch oak planks were pulled out from the pile. He measured and marked them with a piece of chalk, and then left the shop.
Among the plantation hands were carpenters, masons, painters, and other mechanics, more or less skilful, though none of them had regularly learned a trade. Some of them had become quite expert in the use of tools, and could do a very respectable job, especially the carpenters.
Levi was himself a "jack-of-all-trades," and he had trained some of them to the best of his ability.
When he came out of the shop he sent Frank the coachman to call the three carpenters, who worked in the field most of the time. The colonel had given these men names to suit himself, and they were proud of their cognomens. "Shavings" was the most skilful of them, and was the "boss"
at any job to be done. "Gouge" and "Bitts" were only fair workmen, but they did very well under the direction of their foreman.
When they came, Levi ordered Shavings to make two doors of the three-inch planks, and described what he wanted very minutely. At the same time the two door-frames were ordered, and the mechanics went to work with a will, and without asking to what use the doors were to be applied.