t,
with the hope that he might save the men if they were thrown on the
flat in an exhausted condition, had nearly reached the high bluff. The
sergeant had ceased to hurry when he realized that nothing could be
done for the doomed troopers. They had to pay the penalty of their own
folly.

Fronklyn and Cuffy soon joined Deck, the negro putting all his strength
into his lamentations for the loss of his boat. He did not seem to
realize that four men had just passed into eternity; but Deck had more
charity for him after he said he loved the flimsy craft, and reproached
him no more.

"Your boat is gone for the present, but you may find it again," said
Deck with an effort to comfort him. "It will be cast ashore by the
current, or be drawn into some eddy. When the river gets quiet again,
you can go down stream and find it in some place where the logs gather
on the shoal places."

"I dunno, Mars'r; how kin I go down de riber when I done lose my boat?"
demanded Cuffy.

"Come with me," said Deck, as he led the way to the rock behind which
they had left the steamer's tender. "There is a boat you can use till
some one claims it."

"Glory Hallelujah!" exclaimed the negro, when he saw the keel-boat; and
he was skilled enough to perceive even in the darkness, that it was a
vastly better one than the skiff he had lost.

"Whar you git dat boat, Mars'r?" asked Cuffy, disturbed by the
suggestion that some one might claim it.

"Can you keep a secret, Cuffy?" asked Deck.

"Kin keep a hund'ed on 'em."

"That's too many for one man to keep," replied the lieutenant, who
decided not to admit, as he had before intended to do, in what manner
they had escaped from the enemy's camp. "This boat belongs to the
steamboat up by Mill Springs; we have no further use for it, and we
shall leave it here. But you haven't lost anything of any value
to-night. We shall want two of the men's horses, as they have no
further use for them, and you can keep the other two, Cuffy. You can
sell them for money enough to make you rich."

"Bress de Lo'd!" cried the ferryman.

"Come along now, and we will go back to your shanty," said Deck, as he
led the way to the tree where the horses had been secured. They all
mounted, and rode back to the cabin, where the tired trooper and his
officer went to bed in the barn on some straw they found there.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE OWNER OF THE MANSION ON THE HILL

Cuffy took care of the horses, for two of them wer