ved there was a man with
him--evidently a traveler, for there was a pack on his back, and he
was tired. Faith heard her Aunt Prissy call the stranger by name, and
welcome him.

"Why, it is Esther's father. Of course it is!" she exclaimed suddenly.

Mr. Eldridge told her all about Esther, and promised that his little
daughter should again visit the Wilderness cabin. Faith wondered what
business it was that took Mr. Eldridge through the Wilderness and up
and down the lakes. Long afterward she discovered that he was one of
the trusted messengers of the American leaders, and through him the
American settlers along the lake shores and through the New Hampshire
Grants were kept informed of what the English were doing. She did not
know that he underwent constant danger.

The little boys went early to bed that night, but Faith was not
sleepy. The firelight in the sitting-room made dancing pictures on the
wall, as she sat in a small chair at the end of the sofa. The sound of
Aunt Prissy's knitting needles made her think of the silvery tinkle of
the mill-stream under the winter ice in her Wilderness home. Mr.
Eldridge and her uncle were talking quietly. She heard her uncle say
that: "Ticonderoga was the lock to the gate of the country," and Mr.
Eldridge respond that until Crown Point and Ticonderoga were taken by
the Americans that none of the colonies could be safe.

"If there were any way to get into Fort Ticonderoga," said Mr.
Eldridge. "They say there's a secret passageway."

Faith was all attention at this. She quite forgot that she was
listening to conversation not intended for her ears, as she heard her
uncle answer:

"There is such a door, but no way for an American to find it. If some
one could get entrance to the fort in that way, discover just the plan
of the place, and escape, it would be of the greatest service to the
Americans when the right time came to take the fort."

"Time for bed, Faithie," said Aunt Prissy, and, very reluctantly, the
little girl went up-stairs. She was thinking of all that her uncle and
Mr. Eldridge had said, and of the unguarded door opening on the cliff
at the fort. She wondered if she could make her way up that steep
cliff as easily as Nathan had declared he had so often done.

"Perhaps Nathan will help capture the fort," she thought. "Anyway he
could show the Green Mountain Boys the way. If I were at home I would
put a note in that cave near Lake Dunmore and tell Ethan Allen about