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Page 63
"There are two soldiers," she said. "Look! Boys coming home from 'over
there,' I do believe. See! They have their trench helmets slung behind
them with their other duffle. Why----"
She halted. Helen had looked up lazily, but it was Jennie who first
exclaimed in rejoinder to Ruth's observation:
"Dear me, it surely isn't my Henri!"
"No," said Ruth slowly, but still staring, "there is no horizon blue
uniform in sight."
"Don't remind us of such possibilities," complained Helen Cameron with a
deep sigh. "If Tom--"
"It _is_!" gasped Ruth, under her breath, and suddenly the other girls
looked at her to observe an almost beatific expression spread over the
features of the girl of the Red Mill.
"Ruthie!" cried Helen, and jumped up from her seat.
"My aunt!" murmured Jennie, and stared as hard as she could along the
beaten path toward the station.
The two figures in uniform strode toward the special car. One straight
and youthful figure came ahead, while the other soldier, as though in a
subservient position, followed in the first one's footsteps.
Wonota was coming across the street toward the railroad. She, too, saw
the pair of uniformed men. For an instant the Indian girl halted. Then
she bounded toward the pair, her light feet fairly spurning the ground.
"My father! Chief Totantora!" the white girls heard her cry.
The leading soldier halted, swung about to look at her, and said
something to his companion. Not until this order was given him did the
second man even look in the direction of the flying Indian maid.
Ruth and her friends then saw that he was a man past middle age, that
his face was that of an Indian, and that his expression was quite as
stoical as the countenances of Indians are usually presumed to be.
But Wonota had learned of late to give way to her feelings. No white
girl could have flung herself into the arms of her long-lost parent with
more abandon than did Wonota. And that not-withstanding the costume she
wore--the very pretty one sent West from the Fifth Avenue modiste's
shop!
Perhaps the change in his lovely daughter shocked Totantora at first, He
seemed not at all sure that this was really his Wonota. Nor did he put
his arms about her as a white father would have done. But he patted her
shoulder, and then her cheek, and in earnest gutturals he conversed a
long time with the Indian maid.
Meanwhile the three white girls had their own special surprise. The
white soldier, who was plainly an officer, advanced toward the special
car. His bronzed and smiling face was not to be mistaken even at that
distance. Helen suddenly cried:
"Hold me, somebody! I know I'm going to faint! That's Tommy-boy."
Ruth, however, gave no sign of fainting. She dashed off the steps of the
car and ran several yards to meet the handsome soldier. Then she halted,
blushing to think of the appearance she made. Suppose members of the
company should see her?
"Well, Ruth," cried the broadly smiling Tom, "is that the way you greet
your best chum's brother? Say! You girls ought to be kinder than this to
us. Why! when we paraded in New York an old lady ran right out into the
street and kissed me."
"And how many pretty girls did the same, Captain Tom?" Ruth wanted to
know sedately.
"Nobody as pretty as you, Ruth," he whispered, seizing both her hands
and kissing her just as his sister and Jennie reached the spot. He let
Helen--and even Jennie---kiss him also.
"You know how it is, Tommy," the latter explained. "If I can't kiss my
own soldier, why shouldn't I practise on you?"
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