"What do you want?" demanded the commander, adopting the suggestion of the planter of Riverlawn.
"We want to settle this business, and I want to see Major Lyon," replied Captain Titus.
"Come to the middle of the bridge, and he will meet you," shouted the officer in command.
Titus advanced with his three supporters, marching very slowly.
"I suppose I must see him," said Major Lyon, who would evidently have been glad to be spared the interview.
"Three of us will go with you, and make an even thing of it," added Colonel Belthorpe, as Noah Lyon stopped forward to discharge his disagreeable duty.
The commander placed Colonel Cosgrove on one side of him and Squire Truman on the other, taking position in front of them himself. He saw the planter of the estate did not like to meet his brother.
"Major Lyon, I think you had better let me do the talking, for the situation must be very annoying to you," suggested the leader.
"I shall be very glad to have you do so, Colonel," answered the planter. "I am extremely sorry that my own brother is the leader of the ruffians, and I did not expect to see him engaged in such a work. He warned me yesterday that my place might be burned, and that I might be hung to one of the big trees, though he had prevented such an outrage so far."
"I suppose the loss of the military stores has roused him to the highest pitch of wrath, which he manifested in his visit to the meeting. But if he can proceed so far as to bring a horde of ruffians to burn your house and hang you to a tree, you can't do less than defend yourself, even if he is your own brother," said the lawyer.