into an arsenal. The so-styled fort was built along the creek,
almost opposite the point where the logs and the raft rested.

"It's still there, but it contains little outside of a few guns and two
boxes of ammunition."

"I was thinking, if those rascals are here, and the worst comes to the
worst, it will be a good thing if we can take possession of the fort,
and use it in defending my mother and the girls and ourselves."

"If the coast is clear, I'll move for the fort without delay," said
Artie. "One man can hold that place, if the doors and the portholes are
properly secured."

"That's so, but don't do anything rash, Artie," said Deck, gravely.
"Remember what Ripley said--those guerillas of Morgan's are the worst
cut-throats Kentucky has ever seen."

"Artie might wait until I can help him," suggested Levi. "If the fort
isn't occupied now, it won't take long to get the boys over to it in the
canoe and with a small raft in tow."

And so it was arranged that the young captain should wait on the
movements of the overseer, and this decided, the three set off on their
various missions.

CHAPTER III

THE ENCOUNTERS AT THE BRIDGE AND ON THE RAFT

At the time of which I write the name of Morgan's Cavalry was already
known throughout the length and breadth of Kentucky, and those of the
inhabitants who were on the side of the Union heard of his coming to one
neighborhood or another with dread.

When the boys in blue were refitting at Nashville, late in the year
1862, Morgan, having made several raids in Kentucky, though hardly, as
yet, any of consequence, determined to visit the State once more, taking
with him the pick of the Confederate cavalry of this section of our
country. His first engagement was with a few companies of Michigan
troops, on the 24th of December, where he suffered a loss of seventeen
men. On Christmas Day came an engagement near Munfordsville, and then
the notorious leader attacked the stockade at Bacon Creek. A vigorous
resistance was made, but the explosion of a number of shells within the
enclosure made a surrender necessary, and this was followed by the
burning of the bridge across Bacon Creek, after which Morgan advanced to
Nolan, where another bridge was destroyed.

The march of the cavalry was now turned toward Elizabethtown, and here a
fierce fight occurred between the Confederates and a body of six hundred
infantry under Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, which lasted six hours. The
in