A VERY OBSTINATE PRISONER CAPTURED

Deck Lyon's horse had been one of his father's best stock, and he had been selected by Levi Bedford, the overseer, for his use. He was a very spirited animal, and not every young fellow of eighteen would have felt at home in a saddle placed on his back. As the ladies from the house rushed forward to intercept him, Ceph, which was his abbreviated name, was startled, reared, and faced the music, as he had been taught to do.

"I didn't mean to scare your horse, sir," said the elder of the ladies; "but for the love of Heaven, can't you do something for my husband?" demanded Mrs. Barkland, as she proved to be.

"Oh, save my father, if you can!" added the younger woman. "Oh, my father! They are abusing him shamefully, and they have threatened to hang him."

"That is the business in which I am engaged; and, if you will excuse me, I will attend to it," replied Deck, as he gave Ceph the signal to go ahead again with his legs.

"Do save him!" repeated the old lady, who wanted to talk some more about the matter.

But the young cavalryman waited to hear no more; and his horse went off at a dead run, the other two following him as rapidly as their steeds would permit, and he was several rods ahead of them. In a couple of minutes he had reached a point which commanded a view of the place chosen for the spectacle. The actors had evidently preferred to be at a distance from the mansion, where the women could not interfere with them, the better to carry their point with the owner of the plantation.

They had the intended victim with a rope around his neck, and there could be no doubt in regard to their purpose. One man had the other end of the line, and was climbing a tree with it, to pass it over a branch. Five men were on the ground, and their attention had already been attracted by the approach of the horsemen from the direction of the house; and they did not appear to have observed the others, with Knox at their head, for they had passed behind a thicket of young trees on a knoll.

"Halt!" shouted one of the five men in a voice loud enough to be heard half a mile. "If you come any nearer we will fire!"

"Fire away!" yelled Deck with all the force of his lungs.

But he reined in his steed; and Ceph obediently came to a full stop, while he unslung his carbine, his companions doing the same without any suggestion from him. They came up to him, and ranged their horses at his side. The carbines were ready for use in a moment, and all three of them were aimed at the five men surrounding the planter. The actors in the tragedy very plainly did not like this demonstration; for they did not fire, though all of them had aimed at the intruders on this side of them. The distance was still considerable, and probably they had no great faith in the arms in their hands.

"Now we will go ahead, if you are ready, Fox and Owens," said Deck, though he had no authority whatever to direct their movements.

The speed and sagacity of Ceph appeared to have placed him in command of the little squad, for his horse always kept away ahead of every other when he was permitted to do so. Deck was a brave fellow; he seemed to have no idea of anything like fear when he was required to face an enemy; but his father, who thought his son was inclined to be reckless, had carefully instilled into his mind the necessity of prudence.

Knox had said that he intended to do most of the work on the present occasion; but just now it looked as though the whole of it had fallen on Deck's party. It was possible that he and his men had been entangled in the bushes and young trees, or had come to some water they could not easily pass. Deck led the way, and his companions kept close to him. The man in the tree had passed the line over the branch, and thrown the end down to the others.

"Halt where you are!" shouted the man who had spoken before; and this time his voice gave Deck a thrill which caused him to stop his horse.

The two parties were not more than two hundred feet apart; and the leader believed the speaker was his uncle, Captain Titus Lyon. This gave him much to think of besides the identity of the commander of the expedition upon which the squadron had fallen. It was evident to him that the first work of the cavalry squadron raised at Riverlawn was to be fighting the Home Guards, or "ruffians" as they had hitherto been called.

Deck was annoyed and disconcerted at the discovery he had made, and it checked his enthusiasm; for the quarrel with Uncle Titus, which he insisted upon carrying to extremes, was in the family. The forces at Riverlawn had defeated and driven off him and his command three times, and it was an old story. He had hoped and expected that the campaign would present the war in a new aspect.

It gave the young soldier his first lively impression of the results of civil war. He was not at all inclined to shoot his father's brother; though he was just as earnestly determined to do his whole duty to his country, without regard to his relationship with any of the combatants on the other side. They were there by their own choice, and were responsible for the consequences.

With his carbine ready for instant use, Deck rode forward very slowly; and, more than at any time before, he wished Knox would arrive upon the scene of action. Captain Titus could now be clearly identified; and he had evidently made up his mind to proceed with the business in hand, as only three men had appeared so far to interfere with the operation. He had turned his attention from the intruders, and was talking to the unfortunate planter he had captured in a brutal manner, and shaking his fist frequently in his face.

"Stand by the rope!" called he to the other men. "The fellow is as obstinate as a mule, and we must make an end of him."

"Aim at the men who are holding the rope," said Deck to his companions, and the three carbines were promptly pointed at them. "This thing has gone far enough!" continued he, addressing the principal actor in the scene.

"Who are you?" demanded Captain Titus, stopping long enough in his operation to examine the intruders.

"I don't want to shoot you, but if you proceed any farther with this business we shall fire," replied Deck.

Captain Titus was plainly astonished, if not confounded, when he recognized his nephew in the uniform of the cavalry. He did not like the looks of the three carbines pointed at his men. But Deck felt somewhat ashamed of the delay he had made in relieving the terrified planter from the extremity to which he had been reduced, and he decided to bring matters to a head at once. Starting his horse, he dashed to the rope, and seized it with one hand.

"Fire at him!" yelled Captain Titus furiously, to two of the ruffians with muskets in their hands.

One of them raised his weapon to aim at Deck, who instantly fired at him. He dropped his gun upon the ground, and grasped his right arm with the left hand. The other man then raised his musket; but both of the other horsemen fired at him at the same instant, and he dropped heavily on the sod.

The three cavalrymen reloaded their weapons, and were immediately ready for the next move. The three men at the rope seemed to be appalled at the fate of their associates, and released their hold upon it. A moment later they began to skulk off in the direction of the grove.

"Don't let them escape, Owens!" said Deck, to the one nearest to him.

Both of them darted off at a gallop, and headed them off, driving them back to the tree from which the rope was hanging. Again Deck seized the line, and urged his horse up to the place where the planter was standing. Reaching down from his seat in the saddle, he cut the cords that bound the prisoner, and then directed him to remove the rope from his neck.

"I owe my life to you, young man," said Mr. Barkland, panting with emotion and excitement.

"I suppose you are a Union man, sir?" added Deck.

"I am; and that is the reason why I am subjected to this outrage," replied the intended victim.

"What brought you here, Deck Lyon? Who sent you here to interfere with my business?" demanded Captain Titus, confronting his nephew with a savage frown.

"We shall not allow any such business as this," answered Deck, who was not at all inclined to parley with the captain of the late Home Guards, now in the service of the Confederacy. "You and those with you will consider yourselves as prisoners of war."

"Prisoners of war!" exclaimed Captain Titus. "I reckon we ain't nothin' of the sort. Do you mean to take six on us with only three?"

"We shall not take the trouble to count your numbers. Mr. Barkland, you can return to your house, for your wife and daughter are very anxious about you. I hope you have not been injured, sir."

"Only in my nerves," replied the planter, as he started for his mansion.

At this moment Knox and his three men dashed upon the scene, to the great astonishment of Captain Titus.

"Well, Deck, is the business finished?" asked the sergeant, as he reined up his steed. "We had to go about two miles to get here, and that is what made it so late."

Deck reported what had happened so far. The man who had dropped so heavily on the ground was not killed; but he was bleeding from a wound in the side of the head, and the ball had only stunned him. The other man, with a bullet through his arm, was worse off.

"This man who is in command of the company is my uncle, Captain Titus," said Deck in a low voice to the sergeant.

"What! Major Lyon's brother?" exclaimed Life. "I have heard all about him, and he is a pesky troublesome fellow."

"I don't want anything more to do with him, Life, and I wish you would dispose of him," added Deck.

"Do you want me to kill him? I can't do that; for"—

"Nothing of the sort!" interposed the nephew warmly. "Of course I don't want you to do anything of the sort."

"We have six prisoners of war, and we will march them down to the main body," added Knox.

The sergeant proceeded to form his prisoners in a single rank; but Captain Titus appeared to have brought all his obstinacy and unreasonableness with him, and he refused to take the place assigned to him.

"Where are you going?" demanded the prisoner, as though he still ruled the roost, as he had doubtless done in his company.

"None of your business where we are going," replied the sergeant. "If you don't take your place I shall put you into it."

"This thing won't last long, for my company will take a hand in the business in the morning, and a battalion of Texan cavalry will make it warm for you."

"We are not talking about your company or any Texan cavalry. Will you take your place in the line? That's the only question you have got to settle," returned Knox.

"I won't take any place!" replied the captain with a volley of oaths.

"Swear not at all, my man," continued Life, as he seized the rebellious prisoner by the back of his coat collar, lifted him clear of the ground, and then brought him down in the place assigned to him. "Stay there!"

"I won't stay there!" growled he, as he attempted to leave the spot.

But Knox seized hold of him again, lifted him up, and slapped him down across the pommel of his saddle, face down.

"Any way you like, my man; but you are going with this crowd. Forward, my men!" and he placed himself at the head of the squad, and started in the direction of the road, in spite of the struggles of the prisoner. But they had not reached the road where they had first seen Cato, when the head of a column appeared in the act of turning into the field, doubtless guided by Hart, the messenger who had been sent to report to the major in command.

Knox halted his little force, and threw his prisoner on the ground without any ceremony, ordering Owens to take charge of him. The column consisted of only the first company, the other having been sent to take another position. Captain Truman had been ordered to hold himself in readiness to cut off the retreat to the westward of the force which Lane had reported upon.

"What have you here?" asked Major Lyon, as he saw the six prisoners in front of Knox's scouts.

"Prisoners, Major; and I am sorry to say that your brother is one of them," replied the sergeant. "They were about to hang the planter, Mr. Barkland, who lives in the mansion yonder; but we saved him, and sent him home."

"My brother a prisoner!" exclaimed the major very sadly.

He gave the order to march, and the first company proceeded towards the planter's mansion.