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Page 16
The girls sped away from the old mill, and in a little while Ruth was
shut into a telephone booth talking with Mr. Hammond in a distant city.
She told him a good deal more than she had the girls. It was his due.
Besides, she had already got the skeleton of a story in her mind and she
repeated the important points of this to the picture producer.
"Sounds good, Miss Ruth," he declared. "But it all depends upon the
girl. If you think she has the looks, is amenable to discipline, and has
some natural ability, we might safely go ahead with it, I will get into
communication by telegraph with the Department of Indian Affairs at
Washington and with the agent at Three Rivers Station, Oklahoma, as
well. We can afford to invest some money in the chance that this Wonota
is a find."
"Fifty-fifty, Mr. Hammond," Ruth told him. "On whatever it costs,
remember, I am just as good a sport as you are when it comes to taking a
chance in business."
He laughed. "I have often doubted your blood relationship to Uncle
Jabez," Mr. Hammond declared "He has no gambler's blood in his old
veins."
"He was born too long before the moving picture came into existence,"
she laughingly returned. "Now I mean to see Wonota again and try to
encourage her to throw in her fortunes with us. At least, I hope to get
her away from that disgusting Dakota Joe."
Later Jennie teasingly suggested: "You should have taken up with his
offer, Ruthie. You could have had free passes to the show in several
towns."
"I don't much wish to see the show again," Ruth declared.
"I bet Mercy Curtis would like to see it," giggled Helen, "if Wonota was
sure to shoot Joe. What a bloodthirsty child that Mercy continues to
be."
"She has changed a lot since we were all children together," Ruth said
reflectively. "And I never did blame Mercy much for being so scrappy.
Because of her lameness she missed a lot that we other girls had. I am
so glad she has practically gotten over her affliction."
"But not her failings of temper," suggested Jennie. "Still, as long as
she takes it out on Dakota Joe, for instance, I don't know but I agree
with her expressions of savage feeling."
"Hear! Hear!" cried Helen.
Despite their expressed dislike for Fenbrook, Helen and Jennie Stone
accompanied Ruth the next day to the afternoon performance of the Wild
West Show at a town much farther away than that at which they had first
met Wonota, the Indian princess.
Wonota was glad to see them--especially glad to see Ruth Fielding. For
Ruth had given her hope for a change. The Indian girl was utterly
disillusioned about traveling with a tent show; and even the promises
Fenbrook had made her of improved conditions during the winter, when
they would show for week-runs in the bigger cities, did not encourage
Wonota to continue with him.
"Yet I would very much like to earn money to spend in searching for the
great Chief Totantora," she confessed to the three white girls. "The
Great Father at Washington can do nothing now to find my father--and I
do not blame the White Father. The whole world is at war and those
peoples in Europe are sick with the fever of war. It is sad, but it
cannot be helped."
"And if you had money how would you go about looking for Chief
Totantora?" Helen asked her curiously.
"I must go over there myself. I must search through that German
country."
"Plucky girl!" ejaculated Jennie. "But not a chance!"
"You think not, lady?" asked Wonota, anxiously.
"We three have been to Europe--to France. We know something about the
difficulties," said Ruth, quietly. "I understand how you feel, Wonota.
And conditions may soon change. We believe the war will end. Then you
can make a proper search for your father."
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