“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. “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.