oice rose in a shout of anger and surprise. "He has
escaped!" cried Bolderwood, the instant he heard his young friend, and
plunged at once into the wood toward the spot where Halpen had been
tied. Truly, the spy was gone.

"The rascal was sharper than I thought," gasped the ranger. "And--and
what will Colonel Allen say?"

"That isn't the worst of it," declared the youth.

"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,