"Do you think they will make another attack upon Riverlawn, Levi?" asked Deck with along gape.
"I don't reckon they will try it in the same way they did before; at least not till they are fully provided with arms and ammunition," replied Levi. "That attempt to capture the two daughters of Colonel Belthorpe looks like one of Buck Lagger's schemes. If he had obtained possession of the two girls, very likely he would have confined them in one of the caverns like the one where they put the arms, with a guard over them."
"That would have been awful," added Artie.
"I reckon they didn't mean to hurt the girls, and wouldn't if they had got possession of them," continued Levi. "But you can see for yourselves, boys, that they would have had the key to the fortress in their own hands if they had obtained the girls."
"That's so!" exclaimed Deck, who had seen the point before without any help from the overseer.
"I don't see what good the girls could have done them," said Artie, who had been asleep most of the time during the absence of the planter and his son.
"It is as plain as the nose on a monkey's face," added Deck. "With the two girls as prisoners, Captain Titus would have demanded the return of the arms and ammunition of Colonel Belthorpe."
"I see!" exclaimed Artie, as the object of the capture dawned upon him. "But the colonel did not have the arms, and he could not have given them up."
"But father would have made common cause with him, and he could not well have helped giving up the arms to get back his neighbor's daughter," Deck explained.
"But I wonder they didn't try to take our girls," suggested Artie.