"Oh, Master Warner, I am so glad you came. I think I should have died
if I had stayed another day in this horrid house."

"Tell me your story, Martha."

"I was sent by my aunt to Farmer Mervale to arrange for an exchange of
eggs. You see, aunt had a lot of hen's eggs and Farmer Mervale had a
lot of duck's eggs, and the two wanted to exchange. When I reached
here the farmer asked me my name, and then if I was any relation of
Remember Baker, and I told him that I was his sister. Then he asked me
to go upstairs to help count the eggs. I did so, and the farmer told
me that he was going to keep me there, because if my brother attempted
to do anything to his brother, who was a soldier in Ticonderoga, he
would kill me. Then he tortured me by saying that he would poison some
soup and invite the rebels to dinner with him, and that when they had
all eaten heartily he would kill me before their eyes."

The farmer heard the girl's statement, and, instead of denying it,
declared it was all a joke, which, perhaps, it was, but it was cruel,
and the perpetrator of such a joke deserved punishment.

Warner ordered his men to strip the farmer to the waist and introduce
him to the "birch dance," as summary punishment was called.

Fifty good, sharp strokes across the bare back with strong beechen
sticks made Farmer Mervale wish he had been less fond of joking and
illegally imprisoning a girl.

Martha told how she had seen the monk, and had called to him through
the open window, telling him how she had been served, and also asking
him to let the Mountain Boys know of her detention.

How well the eccentric monk had fulfilled his mission we have seen.

It was rather late in the afternoon when the strong fort at Crown Point
was reached.

Seth Warner called to the sentinel who stood guard at the gate.

"Tell your commander that I must see him at once."

"I cannot leave my post."

"Spoken like a brave soldier. Surrender!"

"To whom?"

"To the army of the Continental Congress."

"I am a soldier of the king, and to no one else will I surrender my
gun, except my superior so wills it."

"Brave soldier. I shall be under the necessity of taking the gun away
from you by force."

The man fired the musket in the air.

That was a signal for the garrison to assemble.

Seeing a hundred men with Warner, the sergeant quickly raised the white
flag, and so, without the shedding of a drop of blood, two of the
strongest forts on L