With Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga

by W. Bert Foster

“Yes; you think it is worse that a villain like him should escape without punishment. I doubt not that Ethan Allen would have hung him.”

“He may have deserved hanging,” Enoch returned, with a shudder. “But I am not thinking of that. I fear that he will yet do us harm. If he gets across the lake and warns the folks at Old Ti, I’ll never forgive myself for not sitting down here and watching him all the time.”

“He sartainly should have been watched,” admitted ’Siah. “But I didn’t b’lieve he had the pluck to git away. See here! The thongs are wet with the man’s blood. He must ha’ cut himself badly.”

“We must find him, ’Siah! If he secures a boat and crosses the lake the expedition will be ruined. This man who has just come across declares Captain De la Place knows nothing about our army as yet. But if Simon Halpen reaches the fortifications—”

’Siah rushed back to his company and sent them to search the bank of the lake. He ordered, too, one man to remain with each group of boats so that the escaped spy might not secure one and get such a start across the lake that he could not be overtaken. But it had now grown quite dark and the scouts were unable to find Halpen in the vicinity of the camp. ’Siah was confident that he and his men had obtained every craft on this eastern shore for miles up and down the lake, so he did not believe Halpen could really get across to the fort in time to warn the garrison. He was naturally too tender-hearted to wish to see the fellow hung to the nearest tree, which might be his fate had Ethan Allen examined him and found him guilty of spying upon the patriotic settlers.

Now that night had come and the darkness would have covered the movements of the American troops, as the head of the column did not appear, Bolderwood and his comrades began to fear that something had detained their friends and that the attack upon Ticonderoga might be postponed until the night of the tenth. How the fleet of bateaus and canoes could be held in the vicinity for many hours without suspicions being aroused as to their proposed use, was a question hard to answer. The captain of the scouts sent two of his men out upon the trail by which they expected Ethan Allen and the troops under him to advance.

Meanwhile Enoch Harding had not given up the search for the escaped spy. He feared what the fellow might yet do to weaken or utterly ruin the hopes of the American troops. Halpen was not armed, so the youth had no fear of being attacked by him; but he spent his time creeping through the brushwood up and down the lake shore, hoping to stumble upon the Yorker. He did not believe that Halpen had gone far from the encampment. Finally, in his wanderings, he came to the cove where the scout who had spent the day inside the fort, had landed. The bateaus were on the other side of the cove; the canoe the scout had used was alone in the shadow of a big oak, although a sentinel watched the bateaus. This sentinel had neglected to remove the canoe to his side of the cove and as Enoch came down the hillside he observed something moving in the shadow of the oak. A moment later, before he was really sure whether this something was a man or an animal, the canoe left the bank. The trees threw their shadows upon the water and it was almost impossible to observe the moving craft clearly; yet he was pretty sure that there was a figure in it and that it had been unmoored.

The youth was too far away to risk a shot; the sentinel was much farther from the point of embarkation. If Simon Halpen had found and seized this canoe it looked for a moment as though he would surely escape.

Enoch ran down to the edge of the water, but when he reached the point at which the canoe had been moored it was almost out of sight. He could not see the figure in the boat clearly enough to shoot. Indeed, he shrank from committing what seemed like murder. Simon Halpen was defenseless. “But he must not escape!” the boy exclaimed and started around the shore of the cove. The fugitive kept the canoe within the deep shadow of the trees which bordered the inlet. He did not paddle out into the centre; there he might have been seen by the sentinel on the other side.

The boy ran along the edge of the cove, stumbling over the tree roots and fallen logs, yet endeavoring to follow the course of the canoe as quietly as possible. There was a chance of his passing the fugitive and reaching the mouth of the cove first. Then, he thought, Halpen would be at his mercy. The better to do this unobserved he made a detour into the woods and finally, after ten minutes of rapid work, came out upon the extreme point which guarded the inlet. As he reached this place his quick ear distinguished the splash of a paddle not far away. Straining his eyes he soon observed through the gloom the canoe moving amid the shadows. The spy had very nearly escaped from the cove. Once out in the open lake it would be impossible to overtake him.