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Page 19
"What's the matter with you, Wonota?" he demanded. "You trying to queer
the show? You ain't got no more'n enough time to dress for your act. Get
on in there, like I tell you."
Instead of propitiating Ruth now, he showed her the ugly side of his
character.
"I guess you been playin' two-faced, ain't you, ma'am?" he growled as
Wonota fled toward the dressing tent "I thought you was a friend of
mine. But I believe you been cuttin' the sand right out from under my
feet. Ain't you?"
"I do not know what you mean, Mr. Fenbrook," said Ruth sharply.
"You're Ruth Fielding, ain't you?" he demanded.
"Yes. That is my name."
"So they tell me," growled Dakota Joe. "And you are coupled up with this
Hammond feller that they tell me has put in a bid for Wonota over and
above what she's wuth, and what I can pay. Ain't that so?"
"If you wish to discuss the matter with Mr. Hammond I will give you his
address," Ruth said with dignity. "I am not prepared to discuss the
matter with you, Mr. Fenbrook."
"Is that so?" he snarled. "Well, ma'am, whether you want to talk or
don't want to talk, things ain't goin' all your way. No, ma'am! I got
some rights. The courts will give me my rights to Wonota. I'm her
guardian, I am. Her father, Totantora, is dead, and I'll show you
folks--and that Injun agent--just where you get off in this business!"
"Go on," said Ruth to Helen, without answering the angry man. But when
the car had gone a little way along the road, the girl of the Red Mill
exclaimed:
"Dear me! I fear that man will make trouble. I--I wish Tom were here."
"Don't say a word!" gasped Helen. "But not only because he could handle
this Western bully do I wish Tommy-boy was home and the war was over."
"Why don't you offer Dakota Joe a job in your picture company, too?"
drawled Jennie Stone.
"He'd make such a fine 'bad man.'"
"He certainly would," agreed Helen.
Just how bad the proprietor of the Wild West Show could be was proved
the following day. Mr. Hammond sent Ruth a telegram In the morning
intimating that something had gone wrong with their plans to get Wonota
into their employ.
* * * * *
"The Court has given Fenbrook an injunction. What do you know about it?"
* * * * *
Now, of course, Ruth Fielding did not know anything at all about it. And
after what she had seen of Dakota Joe she had no mind to go to him on
behalf of Mr. Hammond and herself. If the Westerner was balking the
attempt to get Wonota out of his clutches, nothing would beat him, Ruth
believed, but legal proceedings.
She telegraphed Mr. Hammond to this effect, advising that he put the
matter in the hands of the attorney that had drawn the new contract with
the Indian girl.
"The goodness knows," she told Aunt Alvirah and Uncle Jabez, "I don't
want to have anything personally to do with that rough man. He is just
as ugly as he can be."
"Wal," snorted the miller, "he better not come around here cutting up
his didoes! Me and Ben will tend to him!"
Ruth could not help being somewhat fearful of the proprietor of the Wild
West Show. If the man really made up his mind to make trouble, Ruth
hoped that he would not come to the Red Mill.
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