Betty's gossip regarding Helen and her admirers, and particularly
Roger Brandt; but felt no great concern; he had no curiosity to know
more of her. He admired Helen because she was beautiful, yet the
feeling was much the same he might have experienced for a graceful
deer, a full-foliaged tree, or a dark mossy-stoned bend in a murmuring
brook. The girl's face and figure, perfect and alluring as they were,
had not awakened him from his indifference.

On arriving at his brother's home, he found the colonel and Betty
sitting on the porch.

"Eb, who is this Brandt?" he asked.

"Roger Brandt? He's a French-Canadian; came here from Detroit a year
ago. Why do you ask?"

"I want to know more about him."

Colonel Zane reflected a moment, first as to this unusual request from
Jonathan, and secondly in regard to what little he really did know of
Roger Brandt.

"Well, Jack, I can't tell you much; nothing of him before he showed up
here. He says he has been a pioneer, hunter, scout, soldier,
trader--everything. When he came to the fort we needed men. It was
just after Girty's siege, and all the cabins had been burned. Brandt
seemed honest, and was a good fellow. Besides, he had gold. He started
the river barges, which came from Fort Pitt. He has surely done the
settlement good service, and has prospered. I never talked a dozen
times to him, and even then, not for long. He appears to like the