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Page 64
"No reason at all, Jennie," he declared. "But let me tell the good news.
By the time you get back to New York a certain major in the French
forces expects to be relieved and to be on his way to the States again.
He tells me that you are soon going to become a French citizeness, _ma
cherie."_
It was a very gay party that sat for the remainder of that afternoon on
the observation platform of the special car. There was so much to say
on both sides.
"So the appearance of Wonota's father was the great surprise you had in
store for us, Tom?" Ruth said at one point.
"That's it. And some story that old fellow can tell his daughter--if he
warms up enough to do it. These Indians certainly are funny people. He
seems to have taken a shine to me and follows me around a good deal as
though he were my servant. Yet I understand that he belongs to the very
rich Osage tribe, and is really one of the big men of it."
"Quite true," Ruth said.
The story of Totantora's adventures in Germany was a thrilling one. But
only by hearsay had Tom got the details. The Indians and other
performers put in confinement by the Germans when the war began, had all
suffered more or less. Twice Chief Totantora had escaped and tried to
make his way out of the country. Each time he had been caught, and more
severely treated.
The third time he had succeeded in breaking through into neutral
territory. Even there, in a strange land, amid unfamiliar customs and
people talking an unknown language, he had made his way alone and
without help till he had reached the American lines. Perhaps one less
stoical, with less endurance, than an Indian, and an Indian, like Chief
Totantora, trained in an earlier, hardier day, could not have done it.
But Wonota's father did succeed, and after he reached the American lines
he became attached in some indefinite capacity to Captain Tom Cameron's
regiment.
"When I first saw the poor old chap he was little more than a skeleton.
But the life Indians lead certainly makes them tough and enduring. He
stood starvation and confinement better than the white men. Some of the
ex-show people died in that influenza epidemic the second year of the
war. But old Totantora was pretty husky, in spite of having all the
appearance of a professional living skeleton," explained Tom.
Whether Totantora told Wonota the details of his imprisonment or not,
the white girls never knew. Wonota, too, was inclined to be very
secretive. But she was supremely happy.
She was to have a recess from work, and when the special car started
East with Ruth and her chums, Wonota and her father accompanied them to
Kansas City. Then the Osages went south to the reservation.
Totantora had heard all about his daughter's work in the moving picture
before the party separated, and he put his mark on Mr. Hammond's
contract binding himself to allow the girl to go on as already agreed.
Totantora had possibly some old-fashioned Indian ideas about the
treatment of squaws; but he knew the value of money. The sums Wonota
had already been paid were very satisfactory to the chief of the Osages.
In Ruth's mind, the money part of the contract was the smallest part.
She desired greatly to see Wonota develop and grow in her chosen
profession. To see the Indian maid become a popular screen star was
going to delight the girl of the Red Mill, and she was frank in saying
so.
"See here," Tom Cameron said when they were alone together. "I can see
very well, Ruthie, that you are even more enamored of your profession
than you were before I left for Europe. How long is this going to last?"
"How long is what going to last?" she asked him, her frank gaze finding
his.
"You know what I mean," said the young man boyishly. "Gee, Ruth! the war
is over. You know what I want. And I feel as though I deserved some
consideration after what I have been through."
She smiled, but still looked at him levelly.
"Well, how about it?" he demanded.
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