"Well, I will arrange for the shortening of our stay here. Mr. Hooley will "phone you the time we will leave--probably to-morrow morning very early."
Ruth said nothing to the other three girls--why trouble them with a mere possibility?--and they went to the theatre that evening and enjoyed the play immensely. But getting out of the taxicab at the hotel door near midnight, Wonota, who was the first to step out, suddenly crowded back into Ruth Fielding"s arms as the latter attempted to follow her to the sidewalk.
"What is the matter, Wonota?" the girl of the Red Mill asked.
"There he is!" murmured the Indian girl, drawing herself up.
"There who is?" was Ruth"s demand. Then she saw the object of Wonota"s anxiety, Dakota Joe stood under the portico of the hotel entrance. "He"s waiting for us!" hissed Ruth. "Stop, girls! Don"t get out."
Helen and Jennie, over the heads of the others, saw the man. Jennie was irrepressible of course.
"What do you expect us to do? Ride around all night in this taxi?"
"Call a policeman!" cried Helen, under her breath.
"Come back in here, Wonota," commanded Ruth, making up her mind with her usual a.s.surance. "Say nothing, girls." Then to the driver Ruth observed: "Isn"t there a side entrance to this hotel?"
"Yes, ma"am. Round on the other street."
"Take us around to that door. We see somebody waiting here whom we do not wish to speak with."
"All right, ma"am," agreed the taxicab driver.
In two minutes they were whisked around to the other door, and entered the hotel thereby. As they pa.s.sed through the lobby to the elevators one of the clerks came to Ruth.
"A man has been asking for you, Miss Fielding" he said. "He--he seems a peculiar individual--"
Ruth described Dakota Joe Fenbrook and the clerk admitted that he was the man. "A rather rude person," he said.
"So rude that we do not wish to see him," Ruth told the clerk. "Please keep him away from us. He is annoying, and if he attempts to interfere with me, I will call a policeman."
"Oh, we could allow nothing like that," the clerk hastened to say. "No disturbance would be countenanced by the management of the hotel," and he shook his head. "We will keep him away from you, Miss Fielding."
"Thank you," said Ruth, and followed her friends into the elevator. She felt that they were free of Dakota Joe until morning at least She a.s.sured Wonota that she need not worry.
"That bad man may hurt you. I am not afraid," declared the Indian girl.
"If I only had him out on the Osage Reservation, I would know what to do to with him."
But she did not explain what treatment she would accord Dokota Joe if she were at home.
It was only seven o"clock when Jim Hooley called on the telephone and told Ruth that, following instructions from Mr. Hammond, he had gathered the company together and that the special car standing in the railroad yard outside Chicago would be picked up by the nine-thirty western bound Continental. The girls had scarcely time to dress and drive to the point of departure. There was some "scrabbling," as Jennie expressed it, to dress, get their possessions together, and get away from the hotel.
"Didn"t see Dakota Joe anywhere about, did you?" Helen asked, as their taxi-cab-left the hotel entrance.
"For goodness" sake! he would not have hung about the hotel all night, would he?" demanded Jennie.
"Mr. Hammond seems to be afraid of the man" pursued Helen. "Or we would not be running away like this."
Ruth smiled. "I guess," she said, "that Mr. Hammond is hurrying us on for a different reason. You must remember that he has this company on salary and that the longer we delay on the way to the Hubbell Ranch the more money it is costing him while the company is idle."
It was proved, however, that the picture producer had a good reason for wishing to get out of Dakota Joe"s neighborhood. When the four girls in the taxicab rolled up to the gate of the railroad yard and got out with their bags, Dakota Joe himself popped out of hiding. With him a broad-hatted man in a blue suit.
"Hey!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the showman, standing directly in Ruth"s path. "I got you now where I want you. That Hammond man won"t help me, and I told him the trouble I"m in jest because he got that Injun gal away from me. I see her! That"s the gal--"
"What do you want of me, Mr. Fenbrook?" demanded Ruth, bravely, and gesturing Wonota to remain behind her. "I have no idea why you should hound me in this way."
"I ain"t houndin" you."
"I should like to know what you call it then!" the girl of the Red Mill demanded indignantly.
She was quick to grasp the chance of engaging Fenbrook in an argument that would enable Wonota and the two other girls to slip out of the other door of the taxicab and reach the yard gate. She flashed a look over her shoulder that Helen Cameron understood. She and Jennie and Wonota alighted from the other side of the cab.
"I got an officer here," stammered Dakota Joe. "He"s a marshal. That Injun gal"s got to be taken before the United States District Court.
She"s got to show cause why she shouldn"t come back to my show and fill out the time of her contract."
"She finished her contract with you, and you know it, Fenbrook,"
declared Ruth, turning to pay the driver of the cab.
"I say she didn"t!" cried Dakota Joe. "Officer! You serve that warrant--Hey! where"s that Wonota gone to?"
The Indian girl and Ruth"s friends had disappeared. Dakota Joe lunged for the gate. But since the beginning of the war this particular railroad yard had been closed to the public. A man stood at the gate who barred the entrance of the showman.
"You don"t come in here, brother," said the railroad man. "Not unless you"ve got a pa.s.s or a permit."
"Hey!" shouted Dakota Joe, calling the marshal. "Show this guy your warrant."
"Don"t show me nothin"," rejoined the railroad employee. He let Ruth slip through and whispered: "Your party"s aboard your car. There"s a switcher coupled on. She"ll scoot you all down the yard to the main line. Get aboard."
Ruth slipped through the gate, while the guard stood in a position to prevent the two men from approaching it. The girl heard the gate close behind her.
It was evident that Mr. Hammond had been apprised of Dakota Joe"s attempt to bring the Indian girl into court. Of course, the judge would deny his appeal; but a court session would delay the party"s journey westward.
Ruth saw the other girls ahead of her, and she ran to the car. Mr.
Hammond himself was on the platform to welcome them.
"That fellow is a most awful nuisance. I had to make an arrangement with the railroad company to get us out of here at once. Luckily I have a friend high up among the officials of the company. Come aboard, Miss Ruth. Everybody else is here and we are about to start."
CHAPTER XIV
THE HUBBELL RANCH
"You see, Miss Ruth," Mr. Hammond told the girl of the Red Mill as the special car rolled out of the railroad yard, "this Dakota Joe has become a very annoying individual. We had to fairly run away from him."
"I do not understand," Ruth said. "I think he should be shown his place--and that place I believe is the police station."