Lydia slipped her arm affectionately around Betty’s neck and said, “Why did you not come over to the Fort to-day?”

“It has been such an ugly day, so disagreeable altogether, that I have remained indoors.”

“You missed something,” said Lydia, knowingly.

“What do you mean?  What did I miss?”

“Oh, perhaps, after all, it will not interest you.”

“How provoking!  Of course it will.  Anything or anybody would interest me to-night.  Do tell me, please.”

“It isn’t much.  Only a young soldier came over with Major McColloch.”

“A soldier?  From Fort Pitt?  Do I know him?  I have met most of the officers.”

“No, you have never seen him.  He is a stranger to all of us.”

“There does not seem to be so much in your news,” said Betty, in a disappointed tone.  “To be sure, strangers are a rarity in our little village, but, judging from the strangers who have visited us in the past, I imagine this one cannot be much different.”

“Wait until you see him,” said Lydia, with a serious little nod of her head.

“Come, tell me all about him,” said Betty, now much interested.

“Major McColloch brought him in to see papa, and he was introduced to me.  He is a southerner and from one of those old families.  I could tell by his cool, easy, almost reckless air.  He is handsome, tall and fair, and his face is frank and open.  He has such beautiful manners.  He bowed low to me and really I felt so embarrassed that I hardly spoke.  You know I am used to these big hunters seizing your hand and giving it a squeeze which makes you want to scream.  Well, this young man is different.  He is a cavalier.  All the girls are in love with him already.  So will you be.”

“I?  Indeed not.  But how refreshing.  You must have been strongly impressed to see and remember all you have told me.”

“Betty Zane, I remember so well because he is just the man you described one day when we were building castles and telling each other what kind of a hero we wanted.”

“Girls, do not talk such nonsense,” interrupted the Colonel’s wife who was perturbed by the colloquy in the other room.  She had seen those ominous signs before.  “Can you find nothing better to talk about?”

Meanwhile Colonel Zane and his companions were earnestly discussing certain information which had arrived that day.  A friendly Indian runner had brought news to Short Creek, a settlement on the river between Fort Henry and Fort Pitt of an intended raid by the Indians all along the Ohio valley.  Major McColloch, who had been warned by Wetzel of the fever of unrest among the Indians—­a fever which broke out every spring—­had gone to Fort Pitt with the hope of bringing back reinforcements, but, excepting the young soldier, who had volunteered to return with him, no help could he enlist, so he journeyed back post-haste to Fort Henry.

The information he brought disturbed Captain Boggs, who commanded the garrison, as a number of men were away on a logging expedition up the river, and were not expected to raft down to the Fort for two weeks.