Betty Zane - Zane Grey (free ebook novel .txt) 📗

ready to fight. Stern resolve gleamed from her flashing eyes; there was no faltering in those set lips.

Betty was a Zane and the Zanes came of a fighting race. Their blood had ever been hot and passionate; the blood of men quick to love and quick to hate. It had flowed in the veins of daring, reckless men who had fought and died for their country; men who had won their sweethearts with the sword; men who had had unconquerable spirits. It was this fighting instinct that now rose in Betty; it gave her strength and pride to defend her secret; the resolve to fight against the longing in her heart.

“I will forget him! I will tear him out of my heart!” she exclaimed passionately. “He never deserved my love. He did not care. I was a little fool to let him amuse himself with me. He went away and forgot. I hate him.”

At length Betty subdued her excitement, and when she went down to supper a few minutes later she tried to maintain a cheerful composure of manner and to chat with her old-time vivacity.

“Bessie, I am sure you have exaggerated things,” remarked Col. Zane after Betty had gone upstairs to dress for the dance. “Perhaps it is only that Betty grows a little tired of this howling wilderness. Small wonder if she does. You know she has always been used to comfort and many young people, places to go and all that. This is her first winter on the frontier. She’ll come round all right.”

“Have it your way, Ebenezer,” answered his wife with a look of amused contempt on her face. “I am sure I hope you are right. By the way, what do you think of this Ralfe Miller? He has been much with Betty of late.”

“I do not know the fellow, Bessie. He seems agreeable. He is a good-looking young man. Why do you ask?”

“The Major told me that Miller had a bad name at Pitt, and that he had been a friend of Simon Girty before Girty became a renegade.”

“Humph! I’ll have to speak to Sam. As for knowing Girty, there is nothing terrible in that. All the women seem to think that Simon is the very prince of devils. I have known all the Girtys for years. Simon was not a bad fellow before he went over to the Indians. It is his brother James who has committed most of those deeds which have made the name of Girty so infamous.”

“I don’t like Miller,” continued Mrs. Zane in a hesitating way. “I must admit that I have no sensible reason for my dislike. He is pleasant and agreeable, yes, but behind it there is a certain intensity. That man has something on his mind.”

“If he is in love with Betty, as you seem to think, he has enough on his mind. I’ll vouch for that,” said Col. Zane. “Betty is inclined to be a coquette. If she liked Clarke pretty well, it may be a lesson to her.”

“I wish she were married and settled down. It may have been no great harm for Betty to have had many admirers while in Philadelphia, but out here on the border it will never do. These men will not have it. There will be trouble come of Betty’s coquettishness.”

“Why, Bessie, she is only a child. What would you have her do? Marry the first man who asked her?”

“The clodhoppers are coming,” said Mrs. Zane as the jingling of sleigh bells broke the stillness.

Col. Zane sprang up and opened the door. A broad stream of light flashed from the room and lighted up the road. Three powerful teams stood before the door. They were hitched to sleds, or clodhoppers, which were nothing more than wagon beds fastened on wooden runners. A chorus of merry shouts greeted Col. Zane as he appeared in the doorway.

“All right! all right! Here she is,” he cried, as Betty ran down the steps.

The Colonel bundled her in a buffalo robe in a corner of the foremost sled. At her feet he placed a buckskin bag containing a hot stone Mrs. Zane thoughtfully had provided.

“All ready here. Let them go,” called the Colonel. “You will have clear weather. Coming back look well to the traces and keep a watch for the wolves.”

The long whips cracked, the bells jingled, the impatient horses plunged forward and away they went over the glistening snow. The night was clear and cold; countless stars blinked in the black vault overhead; the pale moon cast its wintry light down on a white and frozen world. As the runners glided swiftly and smoothly onward showers of dry snow like fine powder flew from under the horses’ hoofs and soon whitened the black-robed figures in the sleds. The way led down the hill past the Fort, over the creek bridge and along the road that skirted the Black Forest. The ride was long; it led up and down hills, and through a lengthy stretch of gloomy forest. Sometimes the drivers walked the horses up a steep climb and again raced them along a level bottom. Making a turn in the road they saw a bright light in the distance which marked their destination. In five minutes the horses dashed into a wide clearing. An immense log fire burned in front of a two-story structure. Streams of light poured from the small windows; the squeaking of fiddles, the shuffling of many feet, and gay laughter came through the open door.

The steaming horses were unhitched, covered carefully with robes and led into sheltered places, while the merry party disappeared into the house.

The occasion was the celebration of the birthday of old Dan Watkins’s daughter. Dan was one of the oldest settlers along the river; in fact, he had located his farm several years after Col. Zane had founded the settlement. He was noted for his openhanded dealing and kindness of heart. He had loaned many a head of cattle which had never been returned, and many a