“Bessie, here they are!” cried Col.  Zane, in his hearty voice.  “She is tamed at last.  No excuses, Alfred, in to dinner you go.”

Col.  Zane pushed the young people up the steps before him, and stopping on the threshold while he knocked the ashes from his pipe, he smiled contentedly.

AFTERWORD.

Betty lived all her after life on the scene of her famous exploit.  She became a happy wife and mother.  When she grew to be an old lady, with her grandchildren about her knee, she delighted to tell them that when a girl she had run the gauntlet of the Indians.

Col.  Zane became the friend of all redmen.  He maintained a trading-post for many years, and his dealings were ever kind and honorable.  After the country got settled he received from time to time various marks of distinction from the State, Colonial, and National governments.  His most noted achievement was completed about 1796.  President Washington, desiring to open a National road from Fort Henry to Maysville, Kentucky, paid a great tribute to Col.  Zane’s ability by employing him to undertake the arduous task.  His brother Jonathan and the Indian guide, Tomepomehala, rendered valuable aid in blazing out the path through the wilderness.  This road, famous for many years as Zane’s Trace, opened the beautiful Ohio valley to the ambitious pioneer.  For this service Congress granted Col.  Zane the privilege of locating military warrants upon three sections of land, each a square mile in extent, which property the government eventually presented to him.  Col.  Zane was the founder of Wheeling, Zanesville, Martin’s Ferry, and Bridgeport.  He died in 1811.

Isaac Zane received from the government a patent of ten thousand acres of land on Mad river.  He established his home in the center of this tract, where he lived with the Wyandot until his death.  A white settlement sprang up, prospered, and grew, and today it is the thriving city of Zanesfield.

Jonathan Zane settled down after peace was declared with the Indians, found himself a wife, and eventually became an influential citizen.  However, he never lost his love for the wild woods.  At times he would take down the old rifle and disappear for two or three days.  He always returned cheerful and happy from these lonely hunts.

Wetzel alone did not take kindly to the march of civilization; but then he was a hunter, not a pioneer.  He kept his word of peace with his old enemies, the Hurons, though he never abandoned his wandering and vengeful quests after the Delawares.

As the years passed Wetzel grew more silent and taciturn.  From time to time he visited Ft.  Henry, and on these visits he spent hours playing with Betty’s children.  But he was restless in the settlement, and his sojourns grew briefer and more infrequent as time rolled on.  True to his conviction that no wife existed on earth for him, he never married.  His home was the trackless wilds, where he was true to his calling—­a foe to the redman.