CHAPTER XI
A DAY OF ADVENTURE
"Caroline! Caroline!" called Faith, and the call echoed back to herastonished ears from the shadowy passage. "I'd better go back! I'msure the other was the right way," she finally decided; and veryslowly she retraced her steps, stopping now and then to call the namesof the girls who had deserted her.
It seemed a long time to Faith before she was back to where the bigsolid door had blocked the first passage. She was sure now that theother way would lead her back to the square where she had last seenher companions. But as she stood looking at the door she could seethat it was not closed. It swung a little, and Faith wondered toherself if this door, after all, might not open near the entrance sothat 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 thedoor; and she seized this and pulled with all her might. As the doorslowly opened, letting in the clear October sunlight, Faith heardsteps coming down the passage. The half-opened door nearly hid herfrom sight, and she looked back expecting to see either Caroline orCatherine, and, in the comfort of the hope of seeing them, quite readyto accept any excuse they might offer. But before she could call outshe heard a voice, which was vaguely familiar, say: "I did leave thatdoor 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 toosurprised to speak.
"I'm lost!" Faith whispered. "I'm so glad you came. Major Young'slittle girls asked me to come to the fort, and then ran away and leftme," and Faith told of her endeavors to find her companions.
"Lucky I came back," said Nathan again, but this time his voice had anangry tone. "It was a mean trick. Those girls----" Then Nathan stoppedsuddenly. "Well, they're Tories," he concluded.
"I was afraid it was night," said Faith.
"No, but you might have wandered about in these passageways until youwere tired out. Or you might have fallen from that door. Look out, buthold close to the door," said Nathan.
Faith came to the doorway and found herself looking straight down theface of a high cliff to the blue waters of the lake. Lifting her eyesshe could look across and see the distant wooded hills of the GreenMountains, 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 thatgave the soldiers who held the fort a chance to look up and down thelake in order to see the approach of an enemy by water. "And givesthem a chance to scramble down the cliff and get away if the enemycaptures the fort from the other side." Then he showed Faith the twobig cannon that commanded the lake and any approach by the cliff.
"But come on. I must take you home," he declared, moving as if toclose the door.
"Could we get out any other way than by going back through thatpassage?" asked Faith, who thought that she never wanted to see thetwo sisters again, and now feared they might be waiting for her.
"Certainly we could. That is, if you are a good climber," repliedNathan. "I'll tell you something, that is, if you'll never tell," headded.
"I won't," Faith declared earnestly.
"Well, I can go down that cliff and up, too, just as easily as I canwalk along that passage. And the soldiers don't pay much attention tothis part of the fort. There's a sentry at the other end of thepassage, but he doesn't mind how I get in and out. If you'll do justas I say I'll take you down the cliff. My boat is hidden down byWillow Point, and I'll paddle you alongshore. 'Twill be easier thanwalking. That is, if you're not afraid," concluded Nathan.
"No, I'm not afraid," said Faith, thinking to herself that here wasanother secret, and almost wishing that she had not agreed to listento it.
"Come on, then," said Nathan, stepping outside the door, and holdingtightly to the door-frame with one hand and reaching the other towardFaith. "Hold tight to my hand and don't look down," he said. "Look tothe 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 theright for her to stand. She heard the big door clang behind her. "Ihad to shut it," Nathan said, as he cautiously made his way a stepdown the face of the cliff. Faith followed cautiously. She noticedjust how Nathan clung to the outstanding rocks, how slowly andcarefully he made each movement. She knew if she slipped that shewould 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 theywere safely down, standing on a narrow rocky ledge which hardly gavethem a foothold. Along this they crept to a thick growth of alderbushes where a clumsy wooden punt was fastened.
Faith followed Nathan into the punt, and as he pushed the boat offfrom the bushes she gave a long sigh of relief.
"That was great!" declared Nathan triumphantly. "Say, you're thebravest girl I know. I've always wondered if I could bring anybodydown that cliff, and now I know I can. But you mustn't tell any onehow we got out of the fort. You won't, will you?" And Faith renewedher promise not to tell.
Nathan paddled the boat out around the promontory on which the fortwas 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," repliedNathan scornfully. "I wish the Green Mountain Boys would take thisfort and send the English back where they belong. They keep stirringthe Indians up against the settlers, so that people don't know whenthey are safe."
It was the last day of October, and the morning had been bright andsunny. The sun still shone, but an east wind was ruffling the watersof the lake, and Faith began to feel chilly.
"I'll warrant you don't know when this lake was discovered?" saidNathan; and Faith was delighted to tell him that Samuel De Champlaindiscovered and gave the lake his name in 1609.
"The Indians used to call it 'Pe-ton-boque,'" she added.
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 in1756, bringing troops and supplies from Canada.
"The old fort has all sorts of provisions, and guns and powder thatthe English have stored there. I wish the American troops had them. IfI were Ethan Allen or Seth Warner I'd make a try, anyway, for thisfort and for Crown Point, too," said Nathan.
The rising wind made it rather difficult for the boy to manage hisboat, and he finally landed some distance above the point whereKashaqua had reached shore. Faith was sure that she could go over thefields and find her way safely home, and Nathan was anxious to crossthe lake to Shoreham before the wind became any stronger. Faith feltvery grateful to him for bringing her from the fort.
"You'll be as brave as Colonel Allen when you grow up," she said, asshe stood on the shore and watched him paddle off against the wind.
He nodded laughingly. "So will you. Remember your promise," he calledback.
The wind seemed to blow the little girl before it as she hurriedacross the rough field. She held tight to her velvet cap, and, for thefirst time, wondered if she had torn or soiled the pretty new dress inher scramble down the cliff. Her mind was so full of the happenings ofthe 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 ofthorn bushes, which seemed to seize her dress in a dozen places. Bythe time Faith had fought her way clear her hands were scratched andbleeding and her dress torn in ragged ugly tears that Faith was surecould never be mended.
She began to cry bitterly. "It's all the fault of those hatefulgirls," she sobbed aloud. "If they had not run off and left me Ishould be safe at home. What will Aunt Prissy say?"
Faith reached the road without further mishap, and was soon walking upthe path. There was no one in sight; not even Scotchie was about. Asudden resolve entered her mind.
She would slip up-stairs, change herdress, and not tell her aunt about the torn dress. "Perhaps I can mendit, after all," she thought.
As she changed her dress hurriedly, she wondered where all the familycould be, for the house was very quiet. But she bathed her hands andface, smoothed her ruffled hair, and then looked for a place to hidethe blue dress until she could find a chance to mend it. She peeredinto the closet. A small hair-covered trunk stood in the far cornerand Faith lifted the top and thrust her dress in. At that moment sheheard Donald's voice, and then her aunt's, and she started to godown-stairs to meet them.