Besides, he and I never agreed on politics. By the great George Washington, there he is now!" exclaimed Noah Lyon, springing up from his seat on the bench.
t.i.tus Lyon was seated with his wife in a stylish buggy. He stopped his horse on the bridge when he came opposite to his brother, and pa.s.sing the reins to Mrs. Lyon he descended to the planks. His wife drove on, and stopped at the front door of the mansion. Frank the coachman ran with all his might from the stable to take charge of the team, and the lady went into the house.
"How do you do, t.i.tus?" said Noah, extending his hand to his brother.
"I think it is about time for me to have some talk with you, Noah,"
replied t.i.tus, ignoring the offered hand, and bestowing a frowning look upon Deck. "Send that boy away."
"Dexter knows all about my affairs, and I don"t have many secrets from him," replied Noah very mildly, and somewhat nettled to have his son treated in that rude manner.
"I came over here on purpose to talk with you; and what I have to say is between you and me--for the present. If you don"t wish to talk with me on these terms, that"s the end on"t," added t.i.tus, rising from the seat he had taken.
"I will go with Artie, father," interposed Deck, who did not wish to prevent an interview between the brothers, though he thought his uncle behaved like a Hottentot.
"Very well, Dexter; but you needn"t go if you don"t want to," said his father, who evidently did not believe that the proposed interview with t.i.tus would be conducted on a peace basis.
"I think I will go," added Deck, who hailed Artie from the bridge, and then hastened to a plank where he could get into the boat.
For a reason which he would not have explained if he had been interrogated by his father, or by any other person except Deck, Artie was very desirous to have his cousin go with him; in fact, he was thinking of postponing his excursion, whatever its object, till his cousin could accompany him, when the hail came to him from the bridge.
He pulled up to the plank, the outer end of which was supported by stakes driven into the bottom of the stream, with a cross-piece above the water. It had been built for the convenience of those taking one of the boats near the mansion. Deck took an oar, and they pulled together up the creek.
Mrs. t.i.tus Lyon was cordially welcomed at the door of the house by Mrs.
Noah, who had seen her coming from the window. The lady from the village was in a high state of perturbation, and her eyes looked as though she had been weeping.
"I have had an awful time since you called upon me this morning," said she, wiping her eyes with her handkerchief. "I don"t know what we are coming to at our house. For the first time in my life my husband struck me after we got up from dinner, and then hurried me down here with hardly time to change my clothes!"
"Struck you, Amelia!" exclaimed Mrs. Noah with an expression of horror.
"Perhaps it was all my own fault," groaned the poor woman.
"No fault could justify your husband in striking you. But what was it for?" inquired Mrs. Noah, overflowing with sympathy for her sister-in-law.
"You remember that story about the arms and equipments I told you this morning? Well, it seems that my son Orly was listening at the half-open door when I supposed that no one but myself was in the house, for the girls had all gone off to the store. He heard the whole of it, and told his father when he came in to dinner," gasped the abused lady in short sentences.
"He struck you for telling me, did he?" demanded Mrs. Noah indignantly.
"I should like to give him a piece of my mind!"
"Don"t you say a word to him about it, for that would only make it all the worse for me. t.i.tus says there is no truth at all in the story. He has bought no arms. I misunderstood him; he was telling about a committee in Logan County that had bought the arms and ammunition for a company. It is all a mistake; and if you have told any of your family, do take it all back, and say there is not a word of truth in the story."
Mrs. t.i.tus could see from the window that the two brothers were having a stormy interview on the bridge; but she stayed till long after dark, and had recovered her self-possession before she left. Noah had no supper till she had gone, and the boys had not yet returned.
CHAPTER VI
THE NIGHT ADVENTURE ON THE CREEK
If Deck Lyon had particularly noted the actions of his cousin in the boat he would have noticed that he was less decided in his movements than usual. He stopped rowing several times in the ten minutes or more that elapsed after he had invited Deck to go with him; and one who had been near enough to study his expression would have understood that he had a purpose before him which he was not prepared to execute under present circ.u.mstances.
He had listened with the closest attention to Mrs. Lyon"s report of her visit at the house of t.i.tus, and he was in a revery after dinner as he observed Noah and his son walking to the bridge. He waited till he had seen them seated on the bench, and then he walked slowly to the boat pier. He was disappointed when his cousin refused to go with him; but he was not inclined to persuade him to leave his father, for he concluded that something of importance was under discussion between them.
He was relieved, and all his vigor and animation came back to him as he pulled to the house landing. Artie was more inclined than Deck to keep within his own sh.e.l.l; but it was not for the want of native energy, and both of the boys were disposed to do whatever they had in hand with all their might. He brought the boat up abreast of the pier, and Deck stepped into the bow without any further invitation. He took one of the light pine oars from his cousin.
"If you don"t object, Deck, I would like to pull the forward oar," said Artie, as his companion was seating himself.
"It is all the same to me which oar I take," replied Deck, as he changed his place.
"I want to talk with you, and I can do it better when you are in front of me," added Artie, as he shoved the boat out into the stream.
"Where are you going? You seem to have something in your head besides bones," said Deck curiously.
"Besides the bones I"ve got a big notion in my head."
"Is it a Yankee or a Kentucky notion, Artie?"
"I picked it up here, and it is Kentuckish. But I don"t want to say anything now; for I"m afraid some one might hear me, more particularly Uncle t.i.tus," replied the bow oarsman as he took the stroke from his cousin. "I wonder what brought him over here, for he don"t come to Riverlawn much oftener than he goes to church."
"He acts like a regular Hottentot just out of the woods; and if there are any bears in Kentucky they would behave like gentlemen compared with Uncle t.i.tus," added Deck, who proceeded to describe the manner of the visitor on the bridge when the two brothers met.
"Uncle t.i.tus has got something besides bones in his head this afternoon, and when he started to come over here he meant business," suggested Artie. "Something is in the wind."
"I wanted to stay and hear what was said, but Uncle t.i.tus drove me off as he would have kicked a snake into the creek. He was as grouty and as savage as a she-lion that had lost all her cubs."
"Did he say anything about that story your mother told at dinner?" asked Arty.
"Not a word; he drove me off as though I had been a cur dog before he said a word about anything else," replied Deck, who could not easily forget the brutal manner of his uncle. "But you have not told me yet where you are going, Artie. You haven"t any fishlines or bait, and I suppose you are not going a-fishing."
"Not up the creek, for the river suits me better for that business; but I"m going a-fishing for something that won"t swim in the water," replied the undemonstrative boy.
"What do you mean by that?" demanded Deck; and his interest in the subject caused him to cease rowing, and Artie pulled the boat round so that it was headed to the sh.o.r.e.
"Pull away, Deck! What are you about? We don"t want to stop here," said Artie with more than his usual vigor.
"I am about nothing; but when I talk with you I like to look you in the face, for that sometimes tells the story better than your words,"
replied Deck, as he gave way again with his oar. "As I said before, you have got something besides bones in your head, and I am in a hurry to know what it is all about. You can"t talk it into me through the back of my head."
"But we don"t want to stop here, Richard Coeur de Lyon!" protested Artie, rather vehemently for him. "Don"t you see that we are still in sight of the bridge, and I would not have Uncle t.i.tus see what we are about for all the world, with Venus and Mars thrown in. Besides, we have a long pull before us, and we have no time to spare."
"But I want to know what it is all about," Deck objected. "I am not going into any conspiracy with my eyes blinded."
"Pull away, Deck! I don"t want that Secesher to see us stopping here. We shall come to the bend in five minutes; and then if you want to stop and talk I will agree to it, though we haven"t any time to waste," suggested Artie as a compromise.
"One would think you were going to set the river on fire by your talk,"
replied Deck, profoundly mystified by the words, and more by the manner of his companion.
"We may set the creek on fire before we get through with this job,"
continued Artie, deepening the mystery every minute. "There"s Levi Bedford," he added, as the manager, riding on a rather wild colt, in the road leading to the fields, came abreast of the boat.