Ben felt that he would be running considerable risk in advancing across the open ground on an evening when the moon was shining, but he was brave, and decided to take a closer view, anyhow.
Having decided, he at once set to work. He advanced from among the trees, and just before getting out where the light would encompass him, Ben dropped on his hands and knees, and began slowly crawling along, after the fashion of an Indian.
He was not quite as expert at this kind of work as an Indian, but he did very well, advancing slowly, and keeping his body close to the ground, thus not being so likely to attract the attention of a sentinel at the fort.
It was about a third of a mile to the stockade-wall around the fort, and Ben was at least half an hour in going that distance, and as he drew near the fort, he was in momentary expectation of hearing the crack of a musket and feeling the sting of a bullet.
Ben was not discovered, however. At any rate, there was no musket-shot or outcry. All was quiet, and on reaching the wall, Ben sat down, with his back against the logs, and rested a while. It had been rather trying on his nerves to crawl across the open space under the light of the moon, faint though it was.
When he had got rested, Ben turned and began making an examination of the wall. He found that it was made of large logs, flattened at the sides and placed on top of one another. The wall was, he judged, about twelve feet high.
Ben worked his way slowly along the wall, feeling between the logs, for openings, as he wished to learn how thick the wall was, and whether it would be possible to batter it down with the field-pieces that General Greene had brought with the army.
Presently Ben found an opening, through which he pushed his hand, and his fingers came in contact with another log on the inside. The wall was at least two logs in thickness, and this would make it difficult to batter it down with the field-pieces.
The patriot youth continued to work his way along the wall, and on reaching the corner, he turned it and made his way along the wall on that side. He kept on till he had made the circuit of the stockade-wall, and he guessed the wall as being about two hundred feet in each direction.
Near one corner of the wall Ben had found a place where there were several openings between the logs, and he believed that he could climb to the top of the wall, there. He decided to make the attempt, anyway, as all was quiet. He wished to get a look into the enclosure, if he possibly could.