"Deck, if you insist upon it, Mr. Lyon," laughed the major. "We left Rock Lodge, and Tom told the driver to go by that cross road. It was a terribly rough passage we had of it, and I think we went over rocks a foot high."
"As I told you in my account of the troubles of the night, the ruffians, after they had been driven off from Riverlawn, took the old road, and Squire Truman found that they were going to this mansion," said Deck. "Didn't you see anything of them before you turned into the cut-off?"
"We neither saw nor heard anything."
"The main body of the ruffians could not have been very far down the road. I don't see how Buck Lagger happened to be where he was with the rest of his gang," added Deck.
"He appears to have had six men with him as nearly as I can make it out," said Tom Belthorpe.
"I don't know what he was doing there, but I can guess," continued Deck.
"But which was the fellow you call Buck Lagger?" asked the major.
"He was the one who captured Miss Margie, and whom I wounded with the shot from my revolver," replied Deck. "I am sorry to say that my Uncle Titus is a Northern doughface, and is the leader of these ruffians. He bought the arms and ammunition of which we took possession at the sink-hole. I believe he hates my father on account of his Unionism and his taking of the arms worse than any man who is not his brother."
"I have heard something about him since I have been at Lyndhall," said Major Gadbury.
"Buck Lagger is his lieutenant and supporter, and I have no doubt Captain Titus sent him to the schoolhouse to disturb the meeting. He carried the flag of truce to-night at the bridge over the creek when his leader demanded the return of the arms," Deck explained. "Though I don't know any more about it than you do, I have no doubt Captain Titus sent this scalliwag ahead of the main body to see that all was clear."