“I’ll try, anyway,” she said to herself, as she turned toward home.
After supper she went early up-stairs. But she did not undress. She knew that her uncle would not go to the lake shore with his visitor, for that might attract the attention of some hunter or fisherman. It would not be long before Mr. Phelps would start. There was no time to lose. She put on her fur cap, and a knit jacket, and then peered out of the window. The sky was clear, and the moon made it almost as light as day. The sound of the falls came clearly through the quiet air.
“He could find his way up the cliff as plainly as if it were daylight,” thought Faith, as she turned from the window.
She opened her door and closed it silently behind her. Her cousins were in bed, her uncle and aunt in the sitting-room with their visitor. Faith would have to pass the sitting-room door and go through the kitchen; the slightest noise would betray her. She had put on her moccasins, the ones Kashaqua had given her, and she stepped cautiously, without a sound. In a few moments she was safely out-of-doors and running across the field. She crouched down in the canoe and waited.
Faith did not hear or see the stranger as he came toward the shore—not until he grasped the canoe to push it into the water.
“King of Britain!” he whispered under his breath, when Faith spoke his name. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m going to show you the way into the fort. Yes! ’Twill take not more than an hour or two. Then you can leave me here. ’Twill do me no harm, and you will tell Colonel Allen about the fort,” said Faith, in a whisper.
The man slid the canoe into the water. “You are well-named, Faith,” he responded. “Well, ’tis a chance, and no man will harm a little maid,” and with a stroke of his paddle he sent the canoe clear of the willows and headed toward the fort.
“Keep close to the shore,” whispered Faith, peering anxiously ahead.
Several hours later Faith stepped from the canoe, and said a whispered good-bye to the stranger, and watched the canoe dart off straight toward Shoreham. He had scaled the cliff, while Faith kept the canoe close under the alder bushes, entered the door of the fort, and skilfully made his way about the fortifications, determining the right place for an attack and assuring himself that the fortress contained valuable stores.