Disappearance

342 XXIX. The Riverlawn Cavalry changes Base 354 XXX. The Magnate of Greeltop's Visit 366 XXXI. Life Knox on the Mountain Road 378 XXXII. The Skirmish in the Great Circle 390 XXXIII. Captain Stinger the Fire-Eater 402 XXXIV. The Re-enforcement for Plain Hill 414 XXXV. Surrounded and Totally Defeated 426 XXXVI. Captain Vinegold of the Guerillas 439

ILLUSTRATIONS.

		PAGE
"Be You Uns Soldiers, Mass'r?"		Frontispiece.
Illustrated Title
"Help! Help! Shouted the Victim"		19
"One of the Texans Tumbled from His Horse"		123
"Sling Carbines! Charge Them!"		203
"Halt where You are, Kipps!"		283
"What are You Uns doing Here?"		315
"The Ruffian seemed to be as Powerless as an Infant in his Grasp"		385

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IN THE SADDLE

CHAPTER I

COLLECTING A BILL BY FORCE OF ARMS

"Help! Help!"

This call for assistance came from a small house, poorly constructed by those who had little skill in the art of carpentry. It stood near the Spring Road, in a field of about ten acres of land, under cultivation, though the rank weeds among the useful plants indicated that it had been sorely neglected.

Those familiar with the locality would have recognized it as the abode of one of those small farmers found all over the country, who were struggling to improve their worldly condition on a very insufficient capital. The house was hardly finished, and the want of skill was apparent in its erection from sill to ridgepole.

Swinburne Pickford was the proprietor of the dwelling and land. He worked for farmers, planters, and mechanics, for any one who would give him employment, in addition to his labor in the cultivation of his land; and with the sum he had been able to save from his wages, he had bought the land, and started the small farm on his own account. He had a wife and two small children; and, as his time permitted, he had built the house with his own hands alone.

The section of the State of Kentucky in which this little place was located had been sorely disturbed by the conflicts and outrages of the two parties at the beginning of the War of the Rebellion, one struggling to drag the State out of the Union, and the other to prevent its secession. As in the other States of the South, the advocates of disunion were more violent and demonstrative than the loyal people, and after the bombardment of Fort Sumter appeared to be in the ascendant for this reason.

The entire South had been in a state of excitement from the inception of the presidential campaign which resulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln, and the industries of this region suffered in consequence; and it looked as though Pickford's house would never be entirely finished. With the exception of the chimney, placed outside of the building, after the fashion of the South, he had done all the work himself. Titus Lyon, the mason of the village of Barcreek, had done this portion of the labor, and the bill for its erection was still unpaid.

Inside of the house two young men, the older about eighteen and the younger sixteen, both armed with muskets, had dragged the proprietor of the house to the floor. One of them had his foot on the chest of the fallen farmer, and the other was pointing his gun at him. Pickford had evidently endeavored to protect himself from the assault of his two assailants, who had got the better of him, and had only given up the battle when pinned to the floor by the foot of one of them.