"I don't mean to meddle with your affairs, Levi, but the time has come when every man, must declare himself." "I should think it had, Mr. Lyon; and this afternoon I thought I was going to have a chance to strike for your side of the house. I was ready to do it, for two or three times I thought you were in peril. I don't know what you were talking about, only it was something very stirring," replied Levi with his usual smile. "I don't think I was in any danger, but I am very much obliged to you for looking out for me. Now things have come to such a pass that I must put a direct question to you: Are you a Union man or a Secessionist?" "I am a Union man now from the crown of my foot to the sole of my head," laughed Levi. "But it wouldn't be anything more than honest and square, Major Lyon, for me to say that I haven't been so many months. Colonel Lyon was a Union man; but he didn't have it half as bad as you have it. Some of his neighbors thought he was too tender with his people; but he and Colonel Cosgrove were pretty well matched on politics." "He is a strong Union man, though he is in favor of neutrality if it can be carried out, which is utterly impossible," added the planter. "About the only thing in the row that set me to thinking and made me mad was that such a set of reckless scallawags have run the machine on the other side. There is hardly a man of any standing among them. I know that your brother, who is nothing but a Northern doughface, is one of the principal leaders among them, and--" "We haven't any time to talk about this matter now, Levi," interposed Noah Lyon, looking at his watch. "I see that you are all right, for you are a Union man, and you do not approve the course of the violent party in this county, and the time has come for the boys and me to do something." The planter proceeded in rather hurried speech to state the situation, and to describe the discovery the boys had made that afternoon. The overseer evidently had a very strong desire to express his mind in regard to Titus Lyon; but with great effort he restrained himself, and listened almost in silence to the narrative of the speaker. "I am with you in this matter, Major Lyon, on its merits, though I like to be on your side; but these ruffians who are trying to make civil war in the State of Kentucky must be checked," he replied, when the planter had hurried through his statement. "I am sorry that brother of yours used any of the money the colonel left him to buy arms and ammunition to help drag the State out of the Union. I will work day and night to euchre him and the rest of them." "You are just the right man in the right place, Levi Bedford!" exclaimed Mr. Lyon. "We have no time now to decide what we will do with these warlike implements, only to get possession of them. It is quarter-past nine now, and I have my plan for the beginning. While we are carrying it out we can settle what is to be done with the arms."