The two colonels and the village lawyer saluted the ladies, and assured them that there was no danger, and that they were amply able to defend the place from the assault of a thousand men.
"Now go home, Ruth, and go to bed," added Noah. "We will join you as soon as we have driven off these ruffians, and it won't take long to do it."
She accepted this advice, though she still appeared to have her doubts, and went back to the mansion. What she had seen looked like war to her; and though she had freely consented that her husband and the two boys should join the army of the Union, she and the girls had some of a woman's timidity in the face of the awful calamities of actual war.
"What are they about now?" asked Colonel Belthorpe, as his friends took their places in the ranks.
"They have sent a dozen men or more down the bank of the creek, and they are out of sight now," replied Levi.
"They are looking for a chance to get across the stream," added the commander. "They had better stay where they are if they don't intend to go home. Is there any boat on that side of the river?"
"No boat of any kind; but there is a lot of logs on the shore, about half-way to the river, and they might build a raft of them. I did not think of those logs before, or I should have rolled them into the creek," replied the overseer.
"It will be the worse for them if they attempt to cross. Some one said you had served in an artillery company in Tennessee, Mr. Bedford; is that so?" inquired the commander.
"That is so, Colonel; and I know how to handle a twelve-pounder," replied Levi.
"How many men will it take to manage one of the guns in the fort?"