"So we are, Ruth, for the boys made a great discovery on their trip up the creek," answered the planter hurriedly. "That story about the arms and ammunition which Titus and Amelia came down here to disclaim and deny was all as true as gospel, for the boys have found them."
In five minutes more Mr. Lyon told his wife all that it was necessary for her to know, and charged her to be secret and silent. She seemed to be alarmed; but he assured her that there was no danger in the enterprise in which they were to engage. It was absolutely necessary that the arms and munitions should be removed beyond the reach of the conspirators. He asked her to bring him three lanterns without letting any one see them, which she did at once. With these in his hands, the planter left the house without going into the sitting-room.
Deck and Artie reached the boat-pier without speaking a word, and they ran half the way. The Magnolia was moored out in the creek; and taking the canoe, which was used as her tender when the sailboat was in service, as it had not been since the death of the colonel, she was towed alongside the pier. They went to work baling her out, of which she was in great need, though she had been well cared for in her idleness by the boatmen of the place.
The Magnolia had not been built for a sailboat. Site was long and narrow for her length, about thirty feet, and was provided with rowlocks for six oars. Before they had finished baling her out the General and Dummy reached the wharf. They were great strapping negroes, fully six feet tall, and the weight of each could not have been much below two hundred pounds, though they were not of aldermanic build.
When they saw what the boys were doing,—for Levi had not given them even a hint as to the nature of the service in which they were to be employed,—they seized the buckets, and soon cleared the well of water. Levi was the next to put in an appearance, just as Deck was telling the two men to take the mast out of her, an order which the manager countermanded.
"We may want the mast and sail," interposed Levi; "for the wind is fresh from the south-west to-night, and I don't believe in doing any more work with the oars than is necessary."
"But we have no boatman, and none of us know how to manage the sail," argued Deck. "It would be a bad time to get upset, and we have no time to indulge in fooling, Levi."
"The mast and sail are not in the way in the boat. I am no boatman, and I never tried to handle the Magnolia, for the colonel was the only person on the place who ever learned the trick of doing that; but I often sailed in her up and down the river, and I used to think I could do it if I tried," replied the manager, as the other four negroes came upon the pier.
"Oh, well, if you can handle her with a sail, that's another thing," answered Deck, yielding the point.
"Here, Rosebud, unlock the boathouse, and bring out six oars, the biggest ones, and all the boathooks you can find," said Levi, as he looked the boat over.