must be a dangerous locality, and he
sought a safer place.

The lieutenant continued to watch the window, but no enemy appeared in
the room again. It had proved to be a chamber of death. He had hardly
lost sight of the foe before he heard the crack of a rifle in the
grove. The two Hickmans there were riflemen, and Deck did not believe
it would be possible for either of them to fire without killing or
wounding his man; but he heard but one shot, and probably four of the
land pirates were still living.

Deck waited some time for the sound of another shot, but in vain. He
did not believe another ruffian would enter the fatal room commanded by
his position, and he decided to seek a more promising place for his
operations. Since the shot he had heard, he was confident that none of
the enemy would show themselves at the windows. He descended to the
cellar of the stable, and then, by the way he had come, reached the
kitchen, and then the parlor, at the door of which the planter was
fortified.

"Anything new, Colonel Hickman?" he asked.

"Yes, indeed!" exclaimed the sentinel over the staircase. "What have
you been doing outside? Something has happened."

"I think we have reduced the enemy by three, and perhaps more," replied
the young officer; and he proceeded to explain what he and his
companions had been doing.

"You think you have knocked down three or more of the robbers?"

"As many as that."

"Then that explains it!"

"Explains what?" asked Deck, as much puzzled by the exhilarated tones
of the planter as by his questions.

"One of them hailed me some time ago, and wanted to see the one in
command. I told him the commander was not in the house, but was
conducting the fight outside. He asked me to send for him, but I
refused to do so. I did not intend to interrupt your operation; for I
never take another's command away from him," replied the colonel,
indulging at the same time in a chuckle, to which he was somewhat given
when pleased.

"Do you know what he wanted?"

"I do; for he shouted down the stairs that he and the rest of them
desired to surrender."

"Then we will let them do so," added Deck, who was not disposed to
fight after the battle had been won.

"What shall you do with them after they have surrendered, Lieutenant?"
asked the planter, plainly much interested in the question.

"I shall do nothing at all with them; I am not the judge or the civil
power of Russell County. We have beaten the enem