The overseer did not like the looks of the revolver in the hands of his employer, and he fled from the house. The commander had sent all the Riverlawn force back to the two roads to observe the movements of the ruffians, or he would have given the faithless fellow an escort from the vicinity of the mansion.
"The boys will all stand by you, mars"r," said Sam in the white jacket as the colonel followed the renegade to the front door.
"Then call two of them"--
"They"re all right here, mars"r," interposed the servant.
The commander sent two of them to follow Tilford. He found, somewhat to his astonishment, that all the servants on the place, even to the old men, had armed themselves with clubs, pitchforks, shovels, or whatever they could lay their hands upon, ready to defend their master, who had always been kinder to them than the overseer. Besides, the armed negroes from Riverlawn had remained some little time on the premises, and had very fully informed them in regard to the events of the night, including the capture of the two daughters of their master, which had roused them to the highest pitch of indignation, for they looked upon Margie and Kate as a pair of angels, and wondered they had no wings.
When Colonel Belthorpe returned to the sitting-room, he found that Tom had collected all the arms and ammunition in the mansion, taking a repeating rifle for himself, and giving another to the guest of the house. Each of them took a revolver, and they were loading these weapons for immediate use. The rest of the arms were given to a few of the most trusty of the servants.
The commander led the way to the large courtyard in front of the mansion, where he divided the force into two parties, one to meet the enemy on each of the two roads. Before this could be done, the scouts on the new road returned, with the two Lyndhall boys who had followed Tilford. They had pa.s.sed him through the ranks of the mounted men when they were in sight of the ruffians, and some of them had stoned him as a farewell salute.
The commander made Major Lyon the officer of the old road force. He objected, and suggested Major Gadbury for the position; but it was found that the visitor held his t.i.tle only by courtesy, and was not a military man, and then the Riverlawn planter accepted the position. Tom Belthorpe, Squire Truman, Deck, and four of the eight mounted men, with about twenty of the Lyndhall boys, were placed under his command.
The commander had endeavored to make a fair division of the force, and Colonel Cosgrove, Major Gadbury, four Riverlawn hors.e.m.e.n, and a score of his own people composed his own force. The ruffians were within fifty rods of the mansion on the new road, and the division for this service marched at once. The cavalry were sent out ahead, with orders not to fire unless the ruffians opened upon them.
General was at the head of the hors.e.m.e.n, and he galloped his horse up to the front of the ruffians. He and his men had loosened the slings of their weapons, and brought them in front of them, so that they were ready for immediate use. The ruffians had halted as soon as they discovered the riders in front of them. Then they built a fire, and as soon as its light shone upon them, General discovered a flag of truce.
The leader ventured to approach a little nearer to the enemy, when he was saluted with a volley of oaths, and some one of them, not Captain t.i.tus, demanded where his master was.
"Ober on de ole road," replied General, almost as savagely as he had been addressed.
"Do you know what this flag means, you n.i.g.g.e.r?" interrogated the speaker with an oath.
"Yes, sar! Mars"r Belthorpe won"t hab no more ob dat nonsense," answered General.
"Tell him I want to see him under a flag of truce!" shouted the one who appeared to be in command.
The horseman was afraid of making some mistake, and he sent one of his boys back to the commander with this message. Colonel Belthorpe had sent Sam back for his saddle horse, and presently he galloped to the front.
"Take in your flag of truce, or I will fire upon it!" shouted the colonel. "No more fooling! I don"t parley with ruffians!"
The flag immediately disappeared. By the light of the fire it could be seen that about half a dozen men at the front of the column were armed with muskets, which, with or without a command from the officer, they brought to their shoulders and fired. Colonel Belthorpe put his hand on his left arm, as though a ball had struck him there.
"Now, my boys, fire at them at will, just as you please," continued the commander, as he began to blaze away with his heavy revolver.
The four mounted men began to use their repeaters; but their horses were restive, and they could not fire at the best advantage, though several of the ruffians were seen to fall, while the main body of them fled into the adjoining fields.
CHAPTER XXVII
AN UNEXPLAINED GATHERING ON THE ROAD
The ruffians were a mere mob, entirely devoid of any semblance of discipline; and it was again made manifest that they could not stand up against a continuous fire such as the mounted boys and those on foot were beginning to pour into them, scattered though it was at first by the restiveness of the untrained horses. t.i.tus Lyon was not a military man, and he did not appear to appreciate the advantage of order in the handling of his force.
It is true that the negroes that confronted him were not organized to any adequate extent for military purposes, though the little training Colonel Belthorpe had given them on the bridge had been of very great service to them. It was absolutely astonishing to the commander that the boys did not drop their weapons and run when the random shots from the enemy were discharged at them; for this idea was in accordance with his estimate of negro character.
It was a new revelation to him, the manner in which the men conducted themselves under fire, hurried as they had been, without any training, into the ranks; and the same number of white men of average ability could hardly have done better under similar circ.u.mstances. But the negro was strong in his affections, and the feeling that they were fighting for the family who had used them kindly, and treated them with more consideration than they had been in the habit of receiving, even under the mild sway of Colonel Lyon, was the stimulus that strengthened their souls and nerved their arms.
The "people" of Lyndhall were inspired by the example of those from Riverlawn, and they were filled with admiration when they saw those of their own kind bearing arms, some of them well mounted, and learned that they had actually done duty during the night as soldiers. General, Dummy, and Mose had talked to them, and roused their spirit of emulation. Besides, they had been moved by the same devotion to the members of the planter"s family; and their indignation at the conduct of the overseer, who had been their tyrant, had done not a little to develop their belligerent feelings.
The ruffians had taken to their heels, and fled into the open country between the old and the new road. There were some trees upon the tract, and the fugitives proceeded to utilize them as far as they were available to shelter them from the b.a.l.l.s of the hors.e.m.e.n. At this point the negroes of Lyndhall, unexpectedly to their owner, manifested their presence in a very decided manner. The sight of the four stout boys on the horses, undismayed by the random shots which had been fired at them, had a tremendous influence upon them, and they became exceedingly excited, not to say crazed; and, without any orders from the commander, they rushed into the fields after the ruffians.
Doubtless they would have obeyed from instinct the order to return if the colonel had given it; but he allowed them to have their own way.
With the various weapons with which they had armed themselves, they fell upon the helpless fugitives, pounded, punched, and hammered them till they begged for mercy. They, in turn, were confronted by an infuriated mob. Those who were able to do so fled with all the speed they could command towards the old road, which was nearly a mile distant at this point. Not a few of them had been so beaten that they could not run, and they dropped upon the ground. The victors were not cruel, and they did not meddle with those who no longer made any resistance.
The Lyndhall boys had gone into the fight with no leader of their own number; but as soon as they left the road one developed himself in the person of the preacher of the plantation, a white-haired negro of over seventy years of age, whom the family called "Uncle Dave." He had always been a mild, gentle, and very religious man, and he was always treated with respect.
Uncle Dave seemed to become a giant in strength, his voice that of a stentor, and his manner fierce, as soon as his flock went into action.
He called upon his people not to kill the ruffians, for their souls were black with unrepented sins; and when one of the marauders sunk to the earth, he commanded them not to touch him again. The fleeing ruffians were indebted to him for their lives, while he ordered his flock to punish them severely as they deserved.
Colonel Belthorpe regarded this man with wonder; for he had always been as gentle as a lamb, obedient in all things, and anxious to minister to the people in sickness and death. Now he seemed to be the most terrible fighting character he had ever met. He saw his volunteers, as he called them, chase the ruffians till they disappeared in the distance and the darkness. The mounted men had ceased firing, for there was no enemy near, and they were fearful of hitting those who were fighting on their own side.
"We have made a clean sweep here," said the commander, as Colonel Cosgrove and Major Gadbury joined him in the road; for they had been in the fields south of the road, engaged in a flank movement.
"It has been an easy victory," replied the gentleman from the county town. "But they were nothing but a mob; and your boys seem to be lunatics. They are likely to kill the whole of them before they get through."
"They will not kill one of them unless it is by accident, for I heard Uncle Dave order them as they took to the fields not to do so; and I notice that when a man drops on the ground they let him alone," added the Lyndhall planter.
"We have nothing more to do here, unless we go down the road and pick up the wounded, for I see half a dozen of them in front of us, though they are all sitting up and looking about them, so that none of them have been killed," said Major Gadbury.
"Our occupation here appears to be gone," continued Colonel Belthorpe, as he looked over the fields from which the combatants had disappeared, with the exception of those who were unable to run away. "Major Lyon over on the old road may not have been as fortunate as we have been, and we must go over and re-enforce him. General!"
"Here, sar!" replied that worthy.
"We are going over to the old road to help out Major Lyon. You will leave two of your men here, one mounted, and the other on foot, to watch the enemy; the others will go with me," added the planter.
"Yes, sar," answered General, as he detailed the two scouts. "I reckon we done finished "em ober here, Mars"r Cunnel."
"No doubt of it, General; and I hope Major Lyon has done as well over on the old road."
The commander started off at a gallop, and the mounted men closely followed him. They pa.s.sed through the deserted courtyard of the mansion, where the planter was accosted by his two daughters, who had been observing the movements of the combatants from the elevated veranda of the house.
"Where are you going now, papa?" asked Miss Kate.
"We have driven off the ruffians from this side, and we are going over to a.s.sist Major Lyon," replied the colonel. "Sam, you will remain here, and look out for the house," he added to the man with the white jacket, to whom this duty had been before a.s.signed, and then rode on towards the old road.
"Don"t shoot, Colonel Belthorpe!" called a voice from behind the stable, as the hors.e.m.e.n advanced, and a man came out into the roadway.
It was Tilford, the overseer, who had retreated from the mansion, and joined the ruffians, whom he called his friends. At the first discharge of the mounted men which followed the revolver practice of the commander, he had been hit in the thigh with a bullet; and at the general stampede of the enemy he had made his way into the field.
Realizing that there was no safety for him among "his friends," he had limped all the way back to the mansion.
His wound was not a bad one, though it was painful, and partially disabled him. As he had detached himself from the ruffians there was no one to dispute his pa.s.sage, and he had reached the stable, behind which he had concealed himself when he heard the approach of the hors.e.m.e.n.
But, dark as it was, the colonel perceived and recognized him.