“Your sister Lucretia has arrived from Savannah; she is ill, and we will go down and see her immediately,” replied the planter.
The wife and both of the daughters expressed their surprise; but the colonel directed them to get ready as speedily as possible, and they left the room for this purpose.
“I am sorry to leave you, captain,” continued the planter; “but I will endeavor to return as soon as you have finished your supper. Pray make yourselves entirely at home. Why don’t your men come into the house. My doors are always open to the defenders of my country.”
“Thank you, Colonel Roman. I will take them into the dining-room at once.”
“Do so,” said the planter, as he left the room.
“You’re smart, Yank!” exclaimed Turkin.
“I have only done what you told me to do. If there is any credit about the affair, it belongs to you,” replied Somers, in a deprecatory tone.
“That’s so, Yank; but yer kerried it through right smart, and yer shall hev some supper afore—”
“You are shot,” the ruffian would have said, if not prevented by prudential motives.
The planter and his family left the house by the front door; and it is probable that they used all possible haste to escape from the presence of the guerillas, whose character they now understood. In the mean time, Turkin amused himself by opening the various drawers in the planter’s secretary, and prying into every hole and corner which might be supposed to contain any valuables.