“caroline! caroline!” called faith, and the call echoed back to her astonished ears from the shadowy passage. “i’d better go back! i’m sure the other was the right way,” she finally decided; and very slowly she retraced her steps, stopping now and then to call the names of the girls who had deserted her.
it seemed a long time to faith before she was back to where the big solid door had blocked the first passage. she was sure now that the other way would lead her back to the square where she had last seen her companions. but as she stood looking at the door she could see that it was not closed. it swung a little, and faith wondered to herself if this door, after all, might not open near the entrance so that she could find her way to the road, and so back to aunt prissy.
she could just reach a big iron ring that swung from the center of the door; and she seized this and pulled with all her might. as the door slowly opened, letting in the clear october sunlight, faith heard steps coming down the passage. the half-opened door nearly hid her from sight, and she looked back expecting to see either caroline or catherine, and, in the comfort of the hope of seeing them, quite ready to accept any excuse they might offer. but before she could call out she heard a voice, which was vaguely familiar, say: “i did leave that door open. lucky i came back,” and nathan beaman, the shoreham boy, was close beside her.
when he saw a little girl still grasping the iron ring, he seemed too surprised to speak.
“i’m lost!” faith whispered. “i’m so glad you came. major young’s little girls asked me to come to the fort, and then ran away and left me,” and faith told of her endeavors to find her companions.
“lucky i came back,” said nathan again, but this time his voice had an angry tone. “it was a mean trick. those girls——” then nathan stopped suddenly. “well, they’re tories,” he concluded.
“i was afraid it was night,” said faith.
[pg 112]“no, but you might have wandered about in these passageways until you were tired out. or you might have fallen from that door. look out, but hold close to the door,” said nathan.
faith came to the doorway and found herself looking straight down the face of a high cliff to the blue waters of the lake. lifting her eyes she could look across and see the distant wooded hills of the green mountains, and could hear the “chiming waters” of the falls.
“it’s lovely. but what do they have a door here for?” faith asked.
and then nathan explained what forts were for. that a door like that gave the soldiers who held the fort a chance to look up and down the lake in order to see the approach of an enemy by water. “and gives them a chance to scramble down the cliff and get away if the enemy captures the fort from the other side.” then he showed faith the two big cannon that commanded the lake and any approach by the cliff.
“but come on. i must take you home,” he declared, moving as if to close the door.
“could we get out any other way than by going back through that passage?” asked faith, [pg 113]who thought that she never wanted to see the two sisters again, and now feared they might be waiting for her.
“certainly we could. that is, if you are a good climber,” replied nathan. “i’ll tell you something, that is, if you’ll never tell,” he added.
“i won’t,” faith declared earnestly.
“well, i can go down that cliff and up, too, just as easily as i can walk along that passage. and the soldiers don’t pay much attention to this part of the fort. there’s a sentry at the other end of the passage, but he doesn’t mind how i get in and out. if you’ll do just as i say i’ll take you down the cliff. my boat is hidden down by willow point, and i’ll paddle you alongshore. ’twill be easier than walking. that is, if you’re not afraid,” concluded nathan.
“no, i’m not afraid,” said faith, thinking to herself that here was another secret, and almost wishing that she had not agreed to listen to it.
“come on, then,” said nathan, stepping outside the door, and holding tightly to the door-frame with one hand and reaching the other toward faith. “hold tight to my hand and don’t look down,” he said.“look to the right as you step out, and you’ll see a chance for your feet. i’ve got a tight hold. you can’t fall.”
faith clutched his hand and stepped out. there was room toward the right for her to stand. she heard the big door clang behind her. “i had to shut it,” nathan said, as he cautiously made his way a step down the face of the cliff. faith followed cautiously. she noticed just how nathan clung to the outstanding rocks, how slowly and carefully he made each movement. she knew if she slipped that she would push him as well as herself off into the lake.
“i mustn’t slip! i mustn’t,” she said over and over to herself.
nathan did not speak, except to tell her where to step. at last they were safely down, standing on a narrow rocky ledge which hardly gave them a foothold. along this they crept to a thick growth of alder bushes where a clumsy wooden punt was fastened.
faith followed nathan into the punt, and as he pushed the boat off from the bushes she gave a long sigh of relief.
“that was great!” declared nathan triumphantly.[pg 115] “say, you’re the bravest girl i know. i’ve always wondered if i could bring anybody down that cliff, and now i know i can. but you mustn’t tell any one how we got out of the fort. you won’t, will you?” and faith renewed her promise not to tell.
nathan paddled the boat out around the promontory on which the fort was built. he kept close to the shore.
“does major young stay at the fort?” questioned faith.
“not very long at a time. he comes and goes, like all spies,” replied nathan scornfully. “i wish the green mountain boys would take this fort and send the english back where they belong. they keep stirring the indians up against the settlers, so that people don’t know when they are safe.”
it was the last day of october, and the morning had been bright and sunny. the sun still shone, but an east wind was ruffling the waters of the lake, and faith began to feel chilly.
“i’ll warrant you don’t know when this lake was discovered?” said nathan; and faith was delighted to tell him that samuel de champlain discovered and gave the lake his name in 1609.
“the indians used to call it ‘pe-ton-boque,’” she added.
[pg 116]
but when nathan asked when the fort was built she could not answer, and the boy told her of the brave frenchmen who built ticonderoga in 1756, bringing troops and supplies from canada.
“the old fort has all sorts of provisions, and guns and powder that the english have stored there. i wish the american troops had them. if i were ethan allen or seth warner i’d make a try, anyway, for this fort and for crown point, too,” said nathan.
the rising wind made it rather difficult for the boy to manage his boat, and he finally landed some distance above the point where kashaqua had reached shore. faith was sure that she could go over the fields and find her way safely home, and nathan was anxious to cross the lake to shoreham before the wind became any stronger. faith felt very grateful to him for bringing her from the fort.
“you’ll be as brave as colonel allen when you grow up,” she said, as she stood on the shore and watched him paddle off against the wind.
he nodded laughingly. “so will you. remember your promise,” he called back.
the wind seemed to blow the little girl before it as she hurried across the rough field. she held tight to her velvet cap, and, for the first time, wondered if she had torn or soiled the pretty new dress in her scramble down the cliff. her mind was so full of the happenings of the afternoon that she did not look ahead to see where she was going, and suddenly her foot slipped and she fell headlong into a mass of thorn bushes, which seemed to seize her dress in a dozen places. by the time faith had fought her way clear her hands were scratched and bleeding and her dress torn in ragged ugly tears that faith was sure could never be mended.
she began to cry bitterly. “it’s all the fault of those hateful girls,” she sobbed aloud. “if they had not run off and left me i should be safe at home. what will aunt prissy say?”
faith reached the road without further mishap, and was soon walking up the path. there was no one in sight; not even scotchie was about. a sudden resolve entered her mind. she would slip up-stairs, change her dress, and not tell her aunt about the torn dress. “perhaps i can mend it, after all,” she thought.
as she changed her dress hurriedly, she wondered [pg 118]where all the family could be, for the house was very quiet. but she bathed her hands and face, smoothed her ruffled hair, and then looked for a place to hide the blue dress until she could find a chance to mend it. she peered into the closet. a small hair-covered trunk stood in the far corner and faith lifted the top and thrust her dress in. at that moment she heard donald’s voice, and then her aunt’s, and she started to go down-stairs to meet them.
