Nathan, with a half-muttered word of good-bye to the children, had started toward the door; but the newcomer’s hand grasped his arm.
“Wait a minute!” he said, swinging the boy about. “I’m not so sure about letting you start off so smart. You may head straight for the fort, for all I know. What’s your name?”
Nathan stood silent. His face flushed, but he looked the newcomer steadily in the face.
“Let go of Nathan!” said Donald sturdily, clutching at the man’s arm, and kicking at his legs. “This isn’t your shop. You let go of him.”
“I guess I’d better,” laughed the man, taking a firm hold of Donald and looking at both his captives in evident amusement. “Well, Philip Scott, what sort of a hornet’s nest have you here?” he called out, and Faith turned around to see her Uncle Philip standing in the doorway. “I’ll not let go these men until you promise to defend me,” continued the stranger.
“You are safe, Phelps,” responded Mr. Scott, coming forward and, as Nathan and Donald were released, giving the stranger a cordial welcome. Nathan vanished without a word, but on Mr. Scott’s saying that he was the son of Mr. Beaman of Shoreham, the stranger was reassured. It was evident he did not wish his arrival to become known at the fort.
Faith heard the stranger say that he had come from Hartford, and that he would cross to the New Hampshire Grants as soon as he could safely do so.
“I’d like to look in at Fort Ticonderoga if I could without the soldiers knowing it,” she heard him say, and her uncle replied that it would be impossible.
Faith was sure that this stranger was on some errand to the Green Mountain Boys, for he spoke of Remember Baker, and Seth Warner.
“I’d like to take Colonel Allen a plan of the fort,” she heard him say, as she helped Aunt Prissy prepare an early dinner for their visitor.