CHAPTER VIII
A WONDERFUL EVENT
Wonota was a long way ahead of the Westerner. She was light and shebestrode a horse with much more speed than the one Dakota Joe rode. Shelay far along her horse's neck and urged it with her voice rather than acruel goad.
The plucky pony was responding nobly, although it was plain, as it camenearer to the girls before the old mill farmhouse, that it had traveledhard. It was thirty miles from the town where the Wild West Show wasperforming to the Red Mill.
"Oh, Wonota!" cried Jennie Stone, beckoning the Indian girl on. "What isthe matter?"
Ruth had not waited to get any report from Wonota. She turned and dashedfor the house. Already Sarah, the maid-of-all-work, had started throughthe covered passage to the mill, shrieking for Ben, the hired man.
Ben and the miller ran down the long walk to roadside. Jabez Potter wasno weakling despite his age, while Ben was a giant of a fellow, able tohandle two ordinary men.
Wonota pulled her pony in behind Helen's car, whirling to face herpursuer. She did not carry the light rifle she used in her act. Perhapsit would have been better had she been armed, for Dakota Joe was quitebeside himself with wrath. He came pounding along, swinging his whip andyelling at the top of his voice.
"What's the matter with that crazy feller?" demanded the old miller inamazement. "He chasin' that colored girl?"
"She's not colored. She is my Indian princess, Uncle Jabez," Ruthexplained.
"I swanny, you don't mean it! Hi, Ben!" But nobody had to tell Ben whatto do. As Fenbrook drew in his horse abruptly, the mill-hand jumped intothe road, grabbed Dakota Joe's whip-hand, broke his hold on the reins,and dragged the Westerner out of the saddle. It was a feat requiring nolittle strength, and it surprised Dakota Joe as much as it did anybody.
"Hey, you! What you doin'?" bawled Dakota Joe, when he found himselfsitting on the hard ground, staring up at the group.
"Ain't doing nothing," drawled Ben. "It's done. Better sit where you be,Mister, and cool off."
"What sort o' tomfoolishness is this?" asked the miller again. "Makin'one o' them picture-shows right here on the public road? I want toknow!"
At that, and without rising from his seat in the road, Dakota JoeFenbrook lifted up his voice and gave his opinion of all moving picturepeople, and especially those that would steal "that Injun gal" from ahard-working man like himself. He stated that the efforts of a "sharknamed Hammond" and this girl here that he thought was a lady an'friendly to him were about to ruin his show.
"They'll crab the whole business if they git Wonota away from me. That'swhat will happen! And I ought to give her a blame' good lickin'--"
"We won't hear nothing more about that," interrupted the old miller,advancing a stride or two toward the angry Westerner. "Whether the gal'sgot blue blood or red blood, or what color, she ain't going to bemishandled none by you. Understand? You git up and git!"
"But what has happened, Wonota?" the puzzled Ruth asked the Indian girl.
Wonota pointed scornfully at Fenbrook, just then struggling to his feet.
"Joe, heap smart white man. Wuh!" She really was grimly chuckling. "Hego get a talking paper from the court. Call it injunction, eh?"
"I heard about the injunction," admitted Ruth interestedly.
"All right Wonota can't leave Joe to work for you, eh? But the palefacelaw-man say to me that that talking paper good only In that county. Yousee? I not in that county now."
"Oh, Jerry!" gasped Jennie Stone. "Isn't that cute? She is outside thejurisdiction of the court."
"Sho!" exclaimed Jabez Potter, much amused by this outcome of thematter. "It is a fact. Go on back to your show, mister. The gal's here,and she's with friends, and that's all there is to it."
Dakota Joe had already realized this situation. He climbed slowly intohis saddle and eyed them all--especially Ruth and Wonota--with a savageglare.
"Wait!" he growled. "Wait--that's all. I'll fix you movie peopleyet--the whole of you! It's the sorriest day's job you ever done to getWonota away from me. Wait!"
He rode away. When he was some rods up the road, down which he hadgalloped, he set spurs to his horse again and dashed on and out ofsight. For a little while nobody spoke. It was Jennie who, as usual,light-hearted and unafraid, broke the silence.
"Well, all right, we'll wait," she said. "But we needn't do it righthere, I suppose. We can sit down and wait just as easily."
Helen laughed. But Ruth and Wonota were sober, and even Uncle JabezPotter saw something to take note of in the threat of the proprietor ofthe Wild West Show.
"That man is a coward. That's as plain as the nose on your face. And acoward when he gits mad and threatens you is more to be feared than areally brave man. That man's a coward. He's mean. He's p'ison mean! Youwant to look out for him, Niece Ruth. I wouldn't wonder if he tried,some time, to do you and Mr. Hammond some trick that won't bring you inno money, to say the least."
The old miller went off with that statement on his lips. Ben, the hiredman, followed him, shaking his head. The girls looked at each other,then at the rapidly disappearing cloud of dust raised by Dakota Joe'spony. Jennie said:
"Well, goodness! why so serious? Guess that man won't do such a much!Don't be scared, Wonota. We won't let anybody hurt you."
"I wish Tom were here," Ruth Fielding repeated.
And in less than forty-eight hours this wish of the girl of the Red Millseemed to her almost prophetical. Tom Cameron was coming home!
The whole land rejoiced over that fact. The whole world, indeed, gavethanks that it was possible for a young captain in the AmericanExpeditionary Forces to look forward to his release and return to hishome.
The armistice had been declared. Cheslow, like every town and city inthe Union, celebrated the great occasion. It was not merely a day'scelebration. The war was over (or so it seemed) and the boys who were somuch missed would be coming home again. It took some time for Ruth andher friends to realize that this return must be, because of the natureof things, postponed for many tiresome months.
Before Tom Cameron was likely to be freed from the army, the matter ofthe Indian girl's engagement with the moving picture corporation must becompletely settled--at least, as far as Dakota Joe's claim upon Wonota'sservices went.