Zane Grey - Ultimate Collection: 60+ Western Classics, Historical Novels & Baseball Stories E-Book
Zane Grey
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- Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
- Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
- Sprache: Englisch
Zane Grey - Ultimate Collection presents a comprehensive anthology of over sixty works by the prolific author known for his seminal contributions to the Western genre. This collection features an eclectic mix of classic Western novels, rich historical narratives, and engaging baseball stories, all infused with Grey's signature style that combines vivid imagery, compelling plots, and nuanced characterizations. With a keen eye for the rugged American landscape and its archetypes, Grey's prose resonates with themes of adventure, heroism, and the struggle between civilization and wilderness, reflecting the cultural zeitgeist of early 20th-century America. Born in 1872, Zane Grey was a dentist-turned-author whose passion for the outdoors and American folklore deeply influenced his literary work. His childhood fascination with stories of the Wild West, combined with his experiences exploring the American frontier, fueled his imagination and enabled him to craft narratives that captured the essence of the American spirit. Grey's background and personal connections with the characters he portrayed lend authenticity and depth to his storytelling, making it resonate with readers of all ages. This ultimate collection serves as an accessible entry point for newcomers while also offering long-time fans the opportunity to delve into Grey's extensive oeuvre. Whether you are drawn to tales of daring cowboys, exhilarating baseball games, or intricate portrayals of historical events, this anthology is sure to captivate and enrich your understanding of one of America's most celebrated authors. In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience: - A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions. - A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation. - A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists. - A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths. - Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts. - Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Zane Grey - Ultimate Collection: 60+ Western Classics, Historical Novels & Baseball Stories
Table of Contents
Introduction
This omnibus gathers more than sixty works by Zane Grey into a single, panoramic survey of his achievement, allowing readers to trace the breadth of his storytelling across decades and terrains. Rather than a narrowly defined subset, the collection presents a representative cross-section of major novels, story cycles, and nonfiction narratives, enabling both first-time readers and longtime admirers to follow recurring concerns in one place. By uniting frontier epics alongside sporting and travel writing, it situates Grey's Western fiction within the larger context of his outdoor life and reportorial instincts, offering a coherent resource for reading, study, and comparison without presuming to be a complete accounting of every title he wrote.
The scope ranges from early historical romances rooted in the Ohio Valley, including Betty Zane, The Spirit of the Border, and The Last Trail, to the desert and canyon sagas that solidified his reputation, such as Riders of the Purple Sage, Desert Gold, The Light of the Western Stars, and The Call of the Canyon. It follows the borderlands of law and outlawry in The Rustlers of Pecos County and The Lone Star Ranger, and the timbered high country of The Man of the Forest and Under the Tonto Rim. Railroad-building, ranching, and boomtown chronicles like The UP Trail, The Thundering Herd, and Thunder Mountain widen the historical and geographic compass.
Within these covers are long-form novels, youth-oriented adventures, short fiction, and nonfiction field accounts. Story collections like The Redheaded Outfield, and Other Baseball Stories sit beside books for younger readers, including The Young Forester, The Young Pitcher, The Young Lion Hunter, and Ken Ward in the Jungle. A robust vein of angling and travel writing—Tales of Fishes, Tales of Fishing Virgin Seas, Tales of the Angler's Eldorado, New Zealand, Tales of Swordfish and Tuna, and An American Angler in Australia—joins wilderness narratives such as Roping Lions in the Grand Canyon and Tales of Lonely Trails. The result is a diverse blend of narrative modes unified by outdoor experience.
Across genres, Grey's hallmarks are consistent: evocative landscapes, lucid action, and moral stakes sharpened by the tension between wilderness and settlement. His Westerns often turn on questions of identity, loyalty, and redemption, while celebrating horsemanship, tracking, and practical knowledge of the trail. In ranch, mining, and railroad settings, he attends to labor, risk, and the brittle alliances of frontier communities. The baseball stories value discipline, teamwork, and competitive nerve; the angling books dwell on patience, craft, and attentiveness to weather, water, and migrations. Together they reveal a writer fascinated by skill, character under pressure, and the elemental drama of open country.
As a whole, the collection shows how Grey helped shape the popular Western novel in the early twentieth century, synthesizing romance, adventure, and an exacting sense of place. Books such as Riders of the Purple Sage and The Border Legion distilled patterns—isolated settlements, border conflicts, and hard choices—that later writers would revisit. Historical panoramas like The Vanishing American and To the Last Man register cultural change and contested histories in the Southwest and mountain West. The sporting volumes advance a parallel tradition of American outdoor literature, preserving techniques, locales, and seasons with documentary care, and widening our understanding of Grey beyond his most familiar frontier fictions.
Reading across this assemblage reveals productive contrasts and continuities: range wars in The Hash Knife Outfit and The Code of the West; outlaw hideouts and remote mesas in Robbers' Roost and Black Mesa; river and canyon expeditions in Roping Lions in the Grand Canyon; and meditations on resource booms and their costs in The Thundering Herd and Thunder Mountain. Titles such as Forlorn River, Nevada, and Arizona Ames return to ranch life, while Valley of Wild Horses and West of the Pecos revisit the testing of courage and trust. Throughout, recurring locales, families, and professions form a loose lattice that rewards attentive, comparative reading.
By assembling Western classics beside historical romances, youth adventures, and baseball and fishing narratives, this volume offers a full-spectrum portrait of Zane Grey's concerns and craft. It invites linear reading within a given vein or exploratory leaps across forms and decades, tracing how tone, setting, and character evolve while core preoccupations persist. Whether encountering the Ohio frontier, the red-rock deserts, ranch country, or distant coasts, readers will find a sustained engagement with landscape as destiny and with conduct under pressure. As an integrated library, the collection foregrounds range and continuity, providing a durable foundation for enjoyment, study, and renewed appraisal.
Historical Context
Zane Grey (born Pearl Zane Grey, 31 January 1872, Zanesville, Ohio) carried family frontier memory into fiction. His debut cycle on the Ohio River borderlands drew upon his ancestor Colonel Ebenezer Zane, builder of Zane’s Trace (1796–1797), and his relative Elizabeth Betty Zane, heroine of the 1782 siege of Fort Henry at Wheeling. In Betty Zane (1903), The Spirit of the Border (1906), and The Last Trail (1909), Grey set private courage within the post-Revolutionary migration that opened the Northwest Territory. Trained as a dentist at the University of Pennsylvania (1896), and aided editorially by his wife Lina Dolly Roth (married 1905), he turned pioneer chronicle into a lifelong narrative of American expansion.
In the Western novels that followed, Grey framed the turbulent transformation of the trans-Mississippi West between the Civil War’s end and the 1890s. The Union Pacific’s construction (1865–1869) supplies the backdrop for The UP Trail, while the open-range cattle boom and its demise under barbed wire (Joseph Glidden’s 1874 patent) permeate The Drift Fence, The Trail Driver, Thirty Thousand on the Hoof, and Sunset Pass. His portraits of Texas law and outlawry—The Lone Star Ranger and Rustlers of Pecos County—draw on the history of the Texas Rangers (reorganized in 1874) and border figures such as Judge Roy Bean. Across such books, Grey chronicles the code, violence, and improvisational justice of frontier communities.
Grey’s signature landscapes lay in Utah and Arizona—canyon, mesa, and the Mogollon Rim—where settler religions, tribal nations, and stock interests collided. Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) and The Rainbow Trail address Mormon settlement, set against the 1890 Manifesto ending polygamy and older territorial tensions. The Vanishing American (1925) confronted assimilationist policies such as the Dawes Act of 1887 and boarding schools affecting Navajo and Hopi peoples. Under the Tonto Rim, The Shepherd of Guadaloupe, To the Last Man, and Arizona Ames echo the Pleasant Valley War of 1882–1892. Forlorn River and Nevada, along with Knights of the Range, Twin Sombreros, Valley of Wild Horses, Stranger from the Tonto, The Fugitive Trail, and Arizona Clan, extend ranch dynasties and Rim Country codes across successive generations.
Boomtown volatility in mining Wests furnished another recurring stage. The Comstock Lode (from 1859), Colorado’s Cripple Creek rush of the 1890s, Idaho’s Thunder Mountain excitement around 1902, and copper camps across Arizona and New Mexico inform Grey’s depictions of speculators, vigilantes, and road agents in The Border Legion, Thunder Mountain, and The Mysterious Rider. His interest in the older Southwest—Ancestral Puebloan ruins and desert archaeology—shapes Lost Pueblo and Black Mesa, which echo public fascination following discoveries such as Mesa Verde (1888) and Rainbow Bridge (publicized in 1909). In these narratives, mineral strikes, antiquities fever, and isolated camps test loyalty, greed, and frontier notions of property.
A conservationist ethic, tempered by the era’s sporting culture, runs through Grey’s outdoor narratives. Travels with plainsman Charles Buffalo Jones prompted The Last of the Plainsmen and Roping Lions in the Grand Canyon, books that register both the late-1870s slaughter of the American bison and nascent wildlife protection later advanced by the U.S. Forest Service (1905) and National Park Service (1916). The Thundering Herd, Wildfire, The Man of the Forest, Tappan’s Burro, Tales of Lonely Trails, Wanderer of the Wasteland, The Heritage of the Desert, The Young Forester, The Young Lion Hunter, and Ken Ward in the Jungle praise endurance and landscape as resources dwindled. The Grand Canyon’s federal designations (1908 monument; 1919 park) frame Grey’s celebration of rugged public lands.
Borderlands turmoil shaped many plots set from the Rio Grande to Sonora. The Mexican Revolution (1910–1920), cross-border smuggling, and the 1916 Villa raid with the U.S. Punitive Expedition inform the atmosphere of Desert Gold and The Light of the Western Stars, whose sequel Majesty’s Rancho revisits border ranch culture. West of the Pecos and The Lone Star Ranger evoke ad hoc law along the international line, while Arizona Ames and Raiders of Spanish Peaks trace legacies of Spanish and Mexican land grants. Whether following Rangers, vaqueros, or bandits, Grey stages a multilingual frontier—El Paso to Nogales—where shifting jurisdictions, gun-running, and cattle theft dramatize the porous boundary’s commerce and revolution.
Grey’s career bridged Gilded Age enterprise and modern disillusion. Railroad capitalism and the hell-on-wheels towns that followed new track shadow several narratives; wartime agriculture and labor conflict animate The Desert of Wheat (1919) amid espionage scares and the 1918 influenza. Postwar malaise, Prohibition (from 1920), and the first Red Scare (1919–1920) haunt The Day of the Beast and The Call of the Canyon, whose veterans seek recovery in Arizona’s red-rock country as tourism expands via the Santa Fe Railway and new motor roads. His baseball books—The Short Stop (1909), The Young Pitcher (1911), and The Redheaded Outfield (1915)—reflect Deadball Era ethics and anxieties sharpened by the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Many novels were widely filmed from the 1910s through the 1930s, shaping screen Western conventions.
Adventure for Grey also meant oceans and other settler frontiers. He helped popularize big-game angling from Santa Catalina Island with the Tuna Club of Avalon, then abroad, chronicling tackle innovations, record hunts, and remote coasts. Tales of Fishes (1919) and Tales of Fishing Virgin Seas (1925) range from the Pacific islands to the Gulf Stream; Tales of the Angler’s Eldorado, New Zealand (1926) celebrates the Bay of Islands; Tales of Swordfish and Tuna (1927) systematizes technique; An American Angler in Australia (1937) reports Bermagui’s developing fishery. The Wilderness Trek extends his frontier imagination to the Australian bush. These works, like his Westerns, valorize risk, mastery, and conservation during the interwar travel boom.
Synopsis (Selection)
Betty Zane
A frontier romance of the American Revolution centered on the defense of Fort Henry and the courage of the real-life heroine Betty Zane.
The Spirit of the Border: A Romance of the Early Settlers in the Ohio Valley
Sequel to Betty Zane, following missionaries and frontiersmen amid violent clashes with tribes in the Ohio Valley, with intertwined romances and moral conflict.
The Last of the Plainsmen
A nonfiction-tinged adventure chronicling Zane Grey’s journey with famed scout Buffalo Jones, tracking big game across the Grand Canyon and desert while voicing early conservation themes.
The Last Trail
Conclusion of the Betty Zane trilogy, depicting border wars and vigilant justice as seasoned frontiersmen pursue raiders along the perilous Ohio frontier.
The Short Stop
A coming-of-age baseball tale in which a young man fights his way from sandlots to the professional ranks to support his family, testing integrity and grit.
The Heritage of the Desert
An Eastern youth rescued by a Mormon rancher finds purpose in Utah’s canyon country, confronting rustlers and divided loyalties as love reshapes his future.
The Young Forester
A young man goes West to learn forestry, battling timber thieves and wilderness hazards while proving himself in the new conservation movement.
The Young Pitcher
A schoolboy ace faces pressure, rivalry, and the temptation to bend the rules, learning sportsmanship and self-discipline on and off the mound.
The Young Lion Hunter
Ken Ward ventures into Arizona to track mountain lions, balancing the thrill of the hunt with respect for wildlife and the lessons of the backcountry.
Riders of the Purple Sage
A persecuted ranchwoman and a lone gunman defy a powerful sect and ruthless rustlers in Utah’s canyon labyrinth, forging alliances and a hard-won hope.
Ken Ward in the Jungle
Ken Ward joins a scientific expedition into the Mexican tropics, confronting poachers, treacherous rivers, and fever in a test of skill and nerve.
Desert Gold
Amid Mexican border turmoil, cowboys and rangers race to rescue a captive woman and protect a hidden treasure, culminating in desert chases and gunfights.
The Light of the Western Stars
An Eastern heiress who buys a New Mexico ranch is thrust into border violence and ranch politics, finding unexpected loyalty and love among cowboys.
The Rustlers of Pecos County
Texas Rangers take on a network of rustlers and corrupt officials in Linrock, infiltrating outlaw circles to restore law and order.
The Lone Star Ranger: A Romance of the Border
An outlawed gunman seeks redemption by joining the Texas Rangers, confronting border gangs in a journey from exile to duty.
Rainbow Trail
A young clergyman braves Utah’s slot canyons and a secretive sect to uncover the fate of those hidden by persecution and to free the woman he loves.
The Border Legion
A woman abducted by outlaws navigates a brutal mining-camp world where a repentant gunman risks everything to save her and himself.
Wildfire
A legendary wild stallion draws a loner rider and a rancher’s daughter into a high-speed saga of pursuit, rivalry, and the spell of the open range.
The UP Trail
Amid the building of the Union Pacific, an engineer and his allies face lawlessness, graft, and raids along the new steel frontier, anchored by a survival romance.
The Desert of Wheat
On Washington’s wheat frontier during World War I, a young rancher confronts sabotage, labor unrest, and espionage while safeguarding his land and love.
Tales of Fishes
Big-game angling essays blending adventure, technique, and natural history from the Atlantic and Pacific, with reflective portraits of fish and fishermen.
The Man of the Forest
A reclusive woodsman becomes protector to two sisters targeted by a ruthless cattle boss, pitting wilderness savvy against range power.
The Redheaded Outfield, and Other Baseball Stories
A collection of short stories spotlighting the humor, drama, and ethics of America’s pastime, from colorful bush leagues to the big time.
The Mysterious Rider
A haunted drifter with a deadly reputation shields a young woman from a tyrannical rancher, forcing reckonings with the past and the code of the West.
To the Last Man
Inspired by the Pleasant Valley War, this feud saga follows a young man torn between warring clans and a love that challenges inherited hate.
The Day of the Beast
A World War I veteran returns to a morally fraying small town and battles corruption, bootlegging, and cynicism to reclaim purpose.
Tales of Lonely Trails
Nonfiction sketches of Western travel, hunting, and remote camps, capturing solitude, hardship, and beauty across deserts and high country.
Wanderer of the Wasteland
After a shattering crime, a young man flees into the desert and survives as a wanderer, seeking atonement and a path back to humanity.
Tappan’s Burro
A prospector and his steadfast burro cross deadly deserts in pursuit of a strike, an ode to endurance and quiet companionship.
The Call of the Canyon
A shell-shocked veteran seeks healing in Arizona’s red-rock country and must choose between Eastern ties and a new life shaped by the West.
Roping Lions in the Grand Canyon
An action-packed account of lassoing mountain lions on the canyon rims, mixing youthful bravado with the perils of cliffs and weather.
The Thundering Herd
Buffalo hunters ride into the waning days of the great bison, confronting stampedes, outlaws, and the costs of a vanishing frontier.
The Vanishing American
A Navajo hero’s story indicts exploitation and forced assimilation, tracing love and loss amid cultural collision in the Southwest.
Tales of Fishing Virgin Seas
Adventure narratives of exploring relatively untouched waters in pursuit of big game fish, emphasizing discovery and respectful sport.
Under the Tonto Rim
A young woman goes into an isolated Arizona canyon community after a tragedy, working to uplift lives and finding love across social divides.
Tales of the Angler’s Eldorado, New Zealand
A travel-and-angling chronicle of New Zealand’s storied trout waters, celebrating wild rivers, record fish, and rugged landscapes.
Forlorn River
Dreamer Ben Ide, hounded by false accusations, seeks a lost mine and a fresh start, aided by the enigmatic drifter Nevada amid range intrigue.
Tales of Swordfish and Tuna
Firsthand accounts of blue-water battles with giant swordfish and tuna, blending tactics, near disasters, and the science of the catch.
Nevada
Sequel to Forlorn River, following the gunman Nevada as he tries to go straight while protecting friends from rustlers and revenge.
The Shepherd of Guadaloupe
A war-scarred veteran finds peace as a shepherd in Arizona but must fight predatory cattle interests to defend his valley and love.
Sunset Pass
A lone rider is drawn into a canyon-country feud, forced to choose between vengeance and a new life while defending embattled ranchers.
Arizona Ames
A famed gunfighter seeks to leave violence behind, only to be pulled into defending a ranch from old enemies and fresh threats.
Robbers’ Roost
An outlaw sanctuary in Utah becomes the stage for infiltration and divided loyalties as a gang faces betrayal, lawmen, and an unexpected woman’s courage.
The Drift Fence
When a vast barbed-wire fence goes up to control cattle drift, it sparks a range war that tests a young foreman’s mettle and honor.
The Hash Knife Outfit
A tough cattle crew locked in feuds and rustling welcomes a new hand who uncovers treachery while proving himself on a dangerous range.
The Code of the West
An Eastern bride on a Western ranch confronts rustlers and betrayal, learning that survival rests on courage, loyalty, and frontier ethics.
Thunder Mountain
In Idaho’s gold country, prospectors and schemers clash over a rich strike, where greed, wilderness hazards, and romance collide.
The Trail Driver
A veteran cowman leads a perilous long drive through outlaw country and storms, a sweeping sequel thread to the buffalo-hunter saga.
West of the Pecos
A swift-shooting drifter is thrust into lawman duty along the Texas border, protecting a disguised Eastern girl amid comic scrapes and deadly fights.
An American Angler in Australia
Travel-and-fishing narratives of marlin and tuna in Australian waters, pairing big-game sport with observations of coast and culture.
Raiders of Spanish Peaks
A powerful Colorado ranch becomes the target of raiders and intrigue, and a young cowboy and strong-willed heiress fight to save it.
Knights of the Range
Elite cowboys unite against an organized rustling ring, forming bonds of loyalty and setting the stage for further range adventures.
Thirty Thousand on the Hoof
A pioneer family builds a cattle empire through droughts, raids, and years of hardship, a generational saga of the open range.
Twin Sombreros
Linked to Knights of the Range, this tale follows partner cowboys into borderlands pursuit of rustlers and romance with spirited sisters.
Majesty’s Rancho
A next-generation sequel to The Light of the Western Stars, where a headstrong ranch heiress confronts smugglers and modern threats on her land.
The Wilderness Trek
An Australian outback epic of overlanding cattle across deserts and rivers, facing hostile terrain, cultural crossings, and hard-won love.
Valley of Wild Horses
A drifter discovers a hidden valley of mustangs and a chance to start anew, battling rustlers and his own past to claim a home.
Lost Pueblo
An expedition into the desert hunts a fabled cliff-dweller city, where romance and rivalry flare amid ruins, hardships, and peril.
Black Mesa
Range tensions around a stark mesa pit cowmen and outlaws against one another, with a determined newcomer and a courageous woman at the center.
Stranger from the Tonto
A mysterious rider from the Tonto Basin aids a threatened ranch family, uncovering secrets and forging a new identity in the process.
The Fugitive Trail
An accused man flees across desert and canyon trails, seeking to clear his name while evading posses and assassins.
Arizona Clan
A frontier family clan stakes out a ranching empire in Arizona, weathering feuds, raids, and the changing West through unity and grit.
Zane Grey - Ultimate Collection: 60+ Western Classics, Historical Novels & Baseball Stories
BETTY ZANE
Table of Contents
NOTE
In a quiet corner of the stately little city of Wheeling, West Va., stands a monument on which is inscribed:
"By authority of the State of West Virginia to commemorate the siege of Fort Henry, Sept 11, 1782, the last battle of the American Revolution, this tablet is here placed."
Had it not been for the heroism of a girl the foregoing inscription would never have been written, and the city of Wheeling would never have existed. From time to time I have read short stories and magazine articles which have been published about Elizabeth Zane and her famous exploit; but they are unreliable in some particulars, which is owing, no doubt, to the singularly meagre details available in histories of our western border.
For a hundred years the stories of Betty and Isaac Zane have been familiar, oft-repeated tales in my family—tales told with that pardonable ancestral pride which seems inherent in every one. My grandmother loved to cluster the children round her and tell them that when she was a little girl she had knelt at the feet of Betty Zane, and listened to the old lady as she told of her brother's capture by the Indian Princess, of the burning of the Fort, and of her own race for life. I knew these stories by heart when a child.
Two years ago my mother came to me with an old note book which had been discovered in some rubbish that had been placed in the yard to burn. The book had probably been hidden in an old picture frame for many years. It belonged to my great-grandfather, Col. Ebenezer Zane. From its faded and time-worn pages I have taken the main facts of my story. My regret is that a worthier pen than mine has not had this wealth of material.
In this busy progressive age there are no heroes of the kind so dear to all lovers of chivalry and romance. There are heroes, perhaps, but they are the patient sad-faced kind, of whom few take cognizance as they hurry onward. But cannot we all remember some one who suffered greatly, who accomplished great deeds, who died on the battlefield—some one around whose name lingers a halo of glory? Few of us are so unfortunate that we cannot look backward on kith or kin and thrill with love and reverence as we dream of an act of heroism or martyrdom which rings down the annals of time like the melody of the huntsman's horn, as it peals out on a frosty October morn purer and sweeter with each succeeding note.
If to any of those who have such remembrances, as well as those who have not, my story gives an hour of pleasure I shall be rewarded.
PROLOGUE
On June 16, 1716, Alexander Spotswood, Governor of the Colony of Virginia, and a gallant soldier who had served under Marlborough in the English wars, rode, at the head of a dauntless band of cavaliers, down the quiet street of quaint old Williamsburg.
The adventurous spirits of this party of men urged them toward the land of the setting sun, that unknown west far beyond the blue crested mountains rising so grandly before them.
Months afterward they stood on the western range of the Great North mountains towering above the picturesque Shenandoah Valley, and from the summit of one of the loftiest peaks, where, until then, the foot of a white man had never trod, they viewed the vast expanse of plain and forest with glistening eyes. Returning to Williamsburg they told of the wonderful richness of the newly discovered country and thus opened the way for the venturesome pioneer who was destined to overcome all difficulties and make a home in the western world.
But fifty years and more passed before a white man penetrated far beyond the purple spires of those majestic mountains.
One bright morning in June, 1769, the figure of a stalwart, broad shouldered man could have been seen standing on the wild and rugged promontory which rears its rocky bluff high above the Ohio river, at a point near the mouth of Wheeling Creek. He was alone save for the companionship of a deerhound that crouched at his feet. As he leaned on a long rifle, contemplating the glorious scene that stretched before him, a smile flashed across his bronzed cheek, and his heart bounded as he forecast the future of that spot. In the river below him lay an island so round and green that it resembled a huge lily pad floating placidly on the water. The fresh green foliage of the trees sparkled with glittering dewdrops. Back of him rose the high ridges, and, in front, as far as eye could reach, extended an unbroken forest.
Beneath him to the left and across a deep ravine he saw a wide level clearing. The few scattered and blackened tree stumps showed the ravages made by a forest fire in the years gone by. The field was now overgrown with hazel and laurel bushes, and intermingling with them were the trailing arbutus, the honeysuckle, and the wild rose. A fragrant perfume was wafted upward to him. A rushing creek bordered one edge of the clearing. After a long quiet reach of water, which could be seen winding back in the hills, the stream tumbled madly over a rocky ledge, and white with foam, it hurried onward as if impatient of long restraint, and lost its individuality in the broad Ohio.
This solitary hunter was Colonel Ebenezer Zane. He was one of those daring men, who, as the tide of emigration started westward, had left his friends and family and had struck out alone into the wilderness. Departing from his home in Eastern Virginia he had plunged into the woods, and after many days of hunting and exploring, he reached the then far Western Ohio valley.
The scene so impressed Colonel Zane that he concluded to found a settlement there. Taking "tomahawk possession" of the locality (which consisted of blazing a few trees with his tomahawk), he built himself a rude shack and remained that summer on the Ohio.
In the autumn he set out for Berkeley County, Virginia, to tell his people of the magnificent country he had discovered. The following spring he persuaded a number of settlers, of a like spirit with himself, to accompany him to the wilderness. Believing it unsafe to take their families with them at once, they left them at Red Stone on the Monongahela river, while the men, including Colonel Zane, his brothers Silas, Andrew, Jonathan and Isaac, the Wetzels, McCollochs, Bennets, Metzars and others, pushed on ahead.
The country through which they passed was one tangled, most impenetrable forest; the axe of the pioneer had never sounded in this region, where every rod of the way might harbor some unknown danger.
These reckless bordermen knew not the meaning of fear; to all, daring adventure was welcome, and the screech of a redskin and the ping of a bullet were familiar sounds; to the Wetzels, McCollochs and Jonathan Zane the hunting of Indians was the most thrilling passion of their lives; indeed, the Wetzels, particularly, knew no other occupation. They had attained a wonderful skill with the rifle; long practice had rendered their senses as acute as those of the fox. Skilled in every variety of woodcraft, with lynx eyes ever on the alert for detecting a trail, or the curling smoke of some camp fire, or the minutest sign of an enemy, these men stole onward through the forest with the cautious but dogged and persistent determination that was characteristic of the settler.
They at length climbed the commanding bluff overlooking the majestic river, and as they gazed out on the undulating and uninterrupted area of green, their hearts beat high with hope.
The keen axe, wielded by strong arms, soon opened the clearing and reared stout log cabins on the river bluff. Then Ebenezer Zane and his followers moved their families and soon the settlement began to grow and flourish. As the little village commenced to prosper the redmen became troublesome. Settlers were shot while plowing the fields or gathering the harvests. Bands of hostile Indians prowled around and made it dangerous for anyone to leave the clearing. Frequently the first person to appear in the early morning would be shot at by an Indian concealed in the woods.
General George Rodgers Clark, commandant of the Western Military Department, arrived at the village in 1774. As an attack from the savages was apprehended during the year the settlers determined to erect a fort as a defense for the infant settlement. It was planned by General Clark and built by the people themselves. At first they called it Fort Fincastle, in honor of Lord Dunmore, who, at the time of its erection, was Governor of the Colony of Virginia. In 1776 its name was changed to Fort Henry, in honor of Patrick Henry.
For many years it remained the most famous fort on the frontier, having withstood numberless Indian attacks and two memorable sieges, one in 1777, which year is called the year of the "Bloody Sevens," and again in 1782. In this last siege the British Rangers under Hamilton took part with the Indians, making the attack practically the last battle of the Revolution.
CHAPTER I.
The Zane family was a remarkable one in early days, and most of its members are historical characters.
The first Zane of whom any trace can be found was a Dane of aristocratic lineage, who was exiled from his country and came to America with William Penn. He was prominent for several years in the new settlement founded by Penn, and Zane street, Philadelphia, bears his name. Being a proud and arrogant man, he soon became obnoxious to his Quaker brethren. He therefore cut loose from them and emigrated to Virginia, settling on the Potomac river, in what was then known as Berkeley county. There his five sons, and one daughter, the heroine of this story, were born.
Ebenezer Zane, the eldest, was born October 7, 1747, and grew to manhood in the Potomac valley. There he married Elizabeth McColloch, a sister of the famous McColloch brothers so well known in frontier history.
Ebenezer was fortunate in having such a wife and no pioneer could have been better blessed. She was not only a handsome woman, but one of remarkable force of character as well as kindness of heart. She was particularly noted for a rare skill in the treatment of illness, and her deftness in handling the surgeon's knife and extracting a poisoned bullet or arrow from a wound had restored to health many a settler when all had despaired.
The Zane brothers were best known on the border for their athletic prowess, and for their knowledge of Indian warfare and cunning. They were all powerful men, exceedingly active and as fleet as deer. In appearance they were singularly pleasing and bore a marked resemblance to one another, all having smooth faces, clear cut, regular features, dark eyes and long black hair.
When they were as yet boys they had been captured by Indians, soon after their arrival on the Virginia border, and had been taken far into the interior, and held as captives for two years. Ebenezer, Silas, and Jonathan Zane were then taken to Detroit and ransomed. While attempting to swim the Scioto river in an effort to escape, Andrew Zane had been shot and killed by his pursuers.
But the bonds that held Isaac Zane, the remaining and youngest brother, were stronger than those of interest or revenge such as had caused the captivity of his brothers. He was loved by an Indian princess, the daughter of Tarhe, the chief of the puissant Huron race. Isaac had escaped on various occasions, but had always been retaken, and at the time of the opening of our story nothing had been heard of him for several years, and it was believed he had been killed.
At the period of the settling of the little colony in the wilderness, Elizabeth Zane, the only sister, was living with an aunt in Philadelphia, where she was being educated.
Colonel Zane's house, a two story structure built of rough hewn logs, was the most comfortable one in the settlement, and occupied a prominent site on the hillside about one hundred yards from the fort. It was constructed of heavy timber and presented rather a forbidding appearance with its square corners, its ominous looking portholes, and strongly barred doors and windows. There were three rooms on the ground floor, a kitchen, a magazine room for military supplies, and a large room for general use. The several sleeping rooms were on the second floor, which was reached by a steep stairway.
The interior of a pioneer's rude dwelling did not reveal, as a rule, more than bare walls, a bed or two, a table and a few chairs—in fact, no more than the necessities of life. But Colonel Zane's house proved an exception to this. Most interesting was the large room. The chinks between the logs had been plastered up with clay and then the walls covered with white birch bark; trophies of the chase, Indian bows and arrows, pipes and tomahawks hung upon them; the wide spreading antlers of a noble buck adorned the space above the mantel piece; buffalo robes covered the couches; bearskin rugs lay scattered about on the hardwood floor. The wall on the western side had been built over a huge stone, into which had been cut an open fireplace.
This blackened recess, which had seen two houses burned over it, when full of blazing logs had cheered many noted men with its warmth. Lord Dunmore, General Clark, Simon Kenton, and Daniel Boone had sat beside that fire. There Cornplanter, the Seneca chief, had made his famous deal with Colonel Zane, trading the island in the river opposite the settlement for a barrel of whiskey. Logan, the Mingo chief and friend of the whites, had smoked many pipes of peace there with Colonel Zane. At a later period, when King Louis Phillippe, who had been exiled from France by Napoleon, had come to America, during the course of his melancholy wanderings he had stopped at Fort Henry a few days. His stay there was marked by a fierce blizzard and the royal guest passed most of his time at Colonel Zane's fireside. Musing by those roaring logs perhaps he saw the radiant star of the Man of Destiny rise to its magnificent zenith.
One cold, raw night in early spring the Colonel had just returned from one of his hunting trips and the tramping of horses mingled with the rough voices of the negro slaves sounded without. When Colonel Zane entered the house he was greeted affectionately by his wife and sister. The latter, at the death of her aunt in Philadelphia, had come west to live with her brother, and had been there since late in the preceding autumn. It was a welcome sight for the eyes of a tired and weary hunter. The tender kiss of his comely wife, the cries of the delighted children, and the crackling of the fire warmed his heart and made him feel how good it was to be home again after a three days' march in the woods. Placing his rifle in a corner and throwing aside his wet hunting coat, he turned and stood with his back to the bright blaze. Still young and vigorous, Colonel Zane was a handsome man. Tall, though not heavy, his frame denoted great strength and endurance. His face was smooth, his heavy eyebrows met in a straight line; his eyes were dark and now beamed with a kindly light; his jaw was square and massive; his mouth resolute; in fact, his whole face was strikingly expressive of courage and geniality. A great wolf dog had followed him in and, tired from travel, had stretched himself out before the fireplace, laying his noble head on the paws he had extended toward the warm blaze.
"Well! Well! I am nearly starved and mighty glad to get back," said the Colonel, with a smile of satisfaction at the steaming dishes a negro servant was bringing from the kitchen.
"We are glad you have returned," answered his wife, whose glowing face testified to the pleasure she felt. "Supper is ready—Annie, bring in some cream—yes, indeed, I am happy that you are home. I never have a moment's peace when you are away, especially when you are accompanied by Lewis Wetzel."
"Our hunt was a failure," said the Colonel, after he had helped himself to a plate full of roast wild turkey. "The bears have just come out of their winter's sleep and are unusually wary at this time. We saw many signs of their work, tearing rotten logs to pieces in search of grubs and bees' nests. Wetzel killed a deer and we baited a likely place where we had discovered many bear tracks. We stayed up all night in a drizzling rain, hoping to get a shot. I am tired out. So is Tige. Wetzel did not mind the weather or the ill luck, and when we ran across some Indian sign he went off on one of his lonely tramps, leaving me to come home alone."
"He is such a reckless man," remarked Mrs. Zane.
"Wetzel is reckless, or rather, daring. His incomparable nerve carries him safely through many dangers, where an ordinary man would have no show whatever. Well, Betty, how are you?"
"Quite well," said the slender, dark-eyed girl who had just taken the seat opposite the Colonel.
"Bessie, has my sister indulged in any shocking escapade in my absence? I think that last trick of hers, when she gave a bucket of hard cider to that poor tame bear, should last her a spell."
"No, for a wonder Elizabeth has been very good. However, I do not attribute it to any unusual change of temperament; simply the cold, wet weather. I anticipate a catastrophe very shortly if she is kept indoors much longer."
"I have not had much opportunity to be anything but well behaved. If it rains a few days more I shall become desperate. I want to ride my pony, roam the woods, paddle my canoe, and enjoy myself," said Elizabeth.
"Well! Well! Betts, I knew it would be dull here for you, but you must not get discouraged. You know you got here late last fall, and have not had any pleasant weather yet. It is perfectly delightful in May and June. I can take you to fields of wild white honeysuckle and May flowers and wild roses. I know you love the woods, so be patient a little longer."
Elizabeth had been spoiled by her brothers—what girl would not have been by five great big worshippers?—and any trivial thing gone wrong with her was a serious matter to them. They were proud of her, and of her beauty and accomplishments were never tired of talking. She had the dark hair and eyes so characteristic of the Zanes; the same oval face and fine features: and added to this was a certain softness of contour and a sweetness of expression which made her face bewitching. But, in spite of that demure and innocent face, she possessed a decided will of her own, and one very apt to be asserted; she was mischievous; inclined to coquettishness, and more terrible than all she had a fiery temper which could be aroused with the most surprising ease.
Colonel Zane was wont to say that his sister's accomplishments were innumerable. After only a few months on the border she could prepare the flax and weave a linsey dresscloth with admirable skill. Sometimes to humor Betty the Colonel's wife would allow her to get the dinner, and she would do it in a manner that pleased her brothers, and called forth golden praises from the cook, old Sam's wife who had been with the family twenty years. Betty sang in the little church on Sundays; she organized and taught a Sunday school class; she often beat Colonel Zane and Major McColloch at their favorite game of checkers, which they had played together since they were knee high; in fact, Betty did nearly everything well, from baking pies to painting the birch bark walls of her room. But these things were insignificant in Colonel Zane's eyes. If the Colonel were ever guilty of bragging it was about his sister's ability in those acquirements demanding a true eye, a fleet foot, a strong arm and a daring spirit. He had told all the people in the settlement, to many of whom Betty was unknown, that she could ride like an Indian and shoot with undoubted skill; that she had a generous share of the Zanes' fleetness of foot, and that she would send a canoe over as bad a place as she could find. The boasts of the Colonel remained as yet unproven, but, be that as it may, Betty had, notwithstanding her many faults, endeared herself to all. She made sunshine and happiness everywhere; the old people loved her; the children adored her, and the broad shouldered, heavy footed young settlers were shy and silent, yet blissfully happy in her presence.
"Betty, will you fill my pipe?" asked the Colonel, when he had finished his supper and had pulled his big chair nearer the fire. His oldest child, Noah, a sturdy lad of six, climbed upon his knee and plied him with questions.
"Did you see any bars and bufflers?" he asked, his eyes large and round.
"No, my lad, not one."
"How long will it be until I am big enough to go?"
"Not for a very long time, Noah."
"But I am not afraid of Betty's bar. He growls at me when I throw sticks at him, and snaps his teeth. Can I go with you next time?"
"My brother came over from Short Creek to-day. He has been to Fort Pitt," interposed Mrs. Zane. As she was speaking a tap sounded on the door, which, being opened by Betty, disclosed Captain Boggs his daughter Lydia, and Major Samuel McColloch, the brother of Mrs. Zane.
"Ah, Colonel! I expected to find you at home to-night. The weather has been miserable for hunting and it is not getting any better. The wind is blowing from the northwest and a storm is coming," said Captain Boggs, a fine, soldierly looking man.
"Hello, Captain! How are you? Sam, I have not had the pleasure of seeing you for a long time," replied Colonel Zane, as he shook hands with his guests.
Major McColloch was the eldest of the brothers of that name. As an Indian killer he ranked next to the intrepid Wetzel; but while Wetzel preferred to take his chances alone and track the Indians through the untrodden wilds, McColloch was a leader of expeditions against the savages. A giant in stature, massive in build, bronzed and bearded, he looked the typical frontiersman. His blue eyes were like those of his sister and his voice had the same pleasant ring.
"Major McColloch, do you remember me?" asked Betty.
"Indeed I do," he answered, with a smile. "You were a little girl, running wild, on the Potomac when I last saw you!"
"Do you remember when you used to lift me on your horse and give me lessons in riding?"
"I remember better than you. How you used to stick on the back of that horse was a mystery to me."
"Well, I shall be ready soon to go on with those lessons in riding. I have heard of your wonderful leap over the hill and I should like to have you tell me all about it. Of all the stories I have heard since I arrived at Fort Henry, the one of your ride and leap for life is the most wonderful."
"Yes, Sam, she will bother you to death about that ride, and will try to give you lessons in leaping down precipices. I should not be at all surprised to find her trying to duplicate your feat. You know the Indian pony I got from that fur trader last summer. Well, he is as wild as a deer and she has been riding him without his being broken," said Colonel Zane.
"Some other time I shall tell you about my jump over the hill. Just now I have important matters to discuss," answered the Major to Betty.
It was evident that something unusual had occurred, for after chatting a few moments the three men withdrew into the magazine room and conversed in low, earnest tones.
Lydia Boggs was eighteen, fair haired and blue eyed. Like Betty she had received a good education, and, in that respect, was superior to the border girls, who seldom knew more than to keep house and to make linen. At the outbreak of the Indian wars General Clark had stationed Captain Boggs at Fort Henry and Lydia had lived there with him two years. After Betty's arrival, which she hailed with delight, the girls had become fast friends.
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.
Jonathan Zane, who had been sent for, joined the trio at this moment, and was acquainted with the particulars. The Zane brothers were always consulted where any question concerning Indian craft and cunning was to be decided. Colonel Zane had a strong friendly influence with certain tribes, and his advice was invaluable. Jonathan Zane hated the sight of an Indian and except for his knowledge as a scout, or Indian tracker or fighter, he was of little use in a council. Colonel Zane informed the men of the fact that Wetzel and he had discovered Indian tracks within ten miles of the Fort, and he dwelt particularly on the disappearance of Wetzel.
"Now, you can depend on what I say. There are Wyandots in force on the war path. Wetzel told me to dig for the Fort and he left me in a hurry. We were near that cranberry bog over at the foot of Bald mountain. I do not believe we shall be attacked. In my opinion the Indians would come up from the west and keep to the high ridges along Yellow creek. They always come that way. But of course, it is best to know surely, and I daresay Lew will come in to-night or to-morrow with the facts. In the meantime put out some scouts back in the woods and let Jonathan and the Major watch the river."
"I hope Wetzel will come in," said the Major. "We can trust him to know more about the Indians than any one. It was a week before you and he went hunting that I saw him. I went to Fort Pitt and tried to bring over some men, but the garrison is short and they need men as much as we do. A young soldier named Clarke volunteered to come and I brought him along with me. He has not seen any Indian fighting, but he is a likely looking chap, and I guess will do. Captain Boggs will give him a place in the block house if you say so."
"By all means. We shall be glad to have him," said Colonel Zane.
"It would not be so serious if I had not sent the men up the river," said Captain Boggs, in anxious tones. "Do you think it possible they might have fallen in with the Indians?"
"It is possible, of course, but not probable," answered Colonel Zane. "The Indians are all across the Ohio. Wetzel is over there and he will get here long before they do."
"I hope it may be as you say. I have much confidence in your judgment," returned Captain Boggs. "I shall put out scouts and take all the precaution possible. We must return now. Come, Lydia."
"Whew! What an awful night this is going to be," said Colonel Zane, when he had closed the door after his guests' departure. "I should not care to sleep out to-night."
"Eb, what will Lew Wetzel do on a night like this?" asked Betty, curiously.
"Oh, Lew will be as snug as a rabbit in his burrow," said Colonel Zane, laughing. "In a few moments he can build a birch bark shack, start a fire inside and go to sleep comfortably."
"Ebenezer, what is all this confab about? What did my brother tell you?" asked Mrs. Zane, anxiously.
"We are in for more trouble from the Wyandots and Shawnees. But, Bessie, I don't believe it will come soon. We are too well protected here for anything but a protracted siege."
Colonel Zane's light and rather evasive answer did not deceive his wife. She knew her brother and her husband would not wear anxious faces for nothing. Her usually bright face clouded with a look of distress. She had seen enough of Indian warfare to make her shudder with horror at the mere thought. Betty seemed unconcerned. She sat down beside the dog and patted him on the head.
"Tige, Indians! Indians!" she said.
The dog growled and showed his teeth. It was only necessary to mention Indians to arouse his ire.
"The dog has been uneasy of late," continued Colonel Zane "He found the Indian tracks before Wetzel did. You know how Tige hates Indians. Ever since he came home with Isaac four years ago he has been of great service to the scouts, as he possesses so much intelligence and sagacity. Tige followed Isaac home the last time he escaped from the Wyandots. When Isaac was in captivity he nursed and cared for the dog after he had been brutally beaten by the redskins. Have you ever heard that long mournful howl Tige gives out sometimes in the dead of night?"
"Yes I have, and it makes me cover up my head," said Betty.
"Well, it is Tige mourning for Isaac," said Colonel Zane
"Poor Isaac," murmured Betty.
"Do you remember him? It has been nine years since you saw him," said Mrs. Zane.
"Remember Isaac? Indeed I do. I shall never forget him. I wonder if he is still living?"
"Probably not. It is now four years since he was recaptured. I think it would have been impossible to keep him that length of time, unless, of course, he has married that Indian girl. The simplicity of the Indian nature is remarkable. He could easily have deceived them and made them believe he was content in captivity. Probably, in attempting to escape again, he has been killed as was poor Andrew."
Brother and sister gazed with dark, sad eyes into the fire, now burned down to a glowing bed of coals. The silence remained unbroken save for the moan of the rising wind outside, the rattle of hail, and the patter of rain drops on the roof.
CHAPTER II.
Fort Henry stood on a bluff overlooking the river and commanded a fine view of the surrounding country. In shape it was a parallelogram, being about three hundred and fifty-six feet in length, and one hundred and fifty in width. Surrounded by a stockade fence twelve feet high, with a yard wide walk running around the inside, and with bastions at each corner large enough to contain six defenders, the fort presented an almost impregnable defense. The blockhouse was two stories in height, the second story projecting out several feet over the first. The thick white oak walls bristled with portholes. Besides the blockhouse, there were a number of cabins located within the stockade. Wells had been sunk inside the inclosure, so that if the spring happened to go dry, an abundance of good water could be had at all times.
In all the histories of frontier life mention is made of the forts and the protection they offered in time of savage warfare. These forts were used as homes for the settlers, who often lived for weeks inside the walls.
Forts constructed entirely of wood without the aid of a nail or spike (for the good reason that these things could not be had) may seem insignificant in these days of great nasal and military garrisons. However, they answered the purpose at that time and served to protect many an infant settlement from the savage attacks of Indian tribes. During a siege of Fort Henry, which had occurred about a year previous, the settlers would have lost scarcely a man had they kept to the fort. But Captain Ogle, at that time in charge of the garrison, had led a company out in search of the Indians. Nearly all of his men were killed, several only making their way to the fort.
On the day following Major McColloch's arrival at Fort Henry, the settlers had been called in from their spring plowing and other labors, and were now busily engaged in moving their stock and the things they wished to save from the destructive torch of the redskin. The women had their hands full with the children, the cleaning of rifles and moulding of bullets, and the thousand and one things the sterner tasks of their husbands had left them. Major McColloch, Jonathan and Silas Zane, early in the day, had taken different directions along the river to keep a sharp lookout for signs of the enemy. Colonel Zane intended to stay in his oven house and defend it, so he had not moved anything to the fort excepting his horses and cattle. Old Sam, the negro, was hauling loads of hay inside the stockade. Captain Boggs had detailed several scouts to watch the roads and one of these was the young man, Clarke, who had accompanied the Major from Fort Pitt.
The appearance of Alfred Clarke, despite the fact that he wore the regulation hunting garb, indicated a young man to whom the hard work and privation of the settler were unaccustomed things. So thought the pioneers who noticed his graceful walk, his fair skin and smooth hands. Yet those who carefully studied his clearcut features were favorably impressed; the women, by the direct, honest gaze of his blue eyes and the absence of ungentle lines in his face; the men, by the good nature, and that indefinable something by which a man marks another as true steel.
