"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.
Helen and Jennie drove over to the mill to get Ruth that afternoon, and they planned to take Aunt Alvirah out with them. She had lost her fear of the automobile and had even begun to hint to the miller that she wished he would buy a small car.
"Land o" Goshen!" grumbled Uncle Jabez, "what next? I s"pose you"d want to learn to run the dratted thing, Alvirah Boggs?"
"Well, Jabez Potter, I don"t see why not?" she had confessed. "Other women learns."
"Huh! You with one foot in the grave and the other on the gas, eh?" he snorted.
However, Aunt Alvirah did not go out in Helen"s car on this afternoon.
While the girls were waiting for her to be made ready, Helen looked back, up the road, down which she and Jennie had just come.
"What"s this?" she wanted to know. "A runaway horse?"
Jennie stood up to look over the back of the car. She uttered an excited squeal.
"Helen! Ruthie!" she declared. "It"s that Indian girl--in all her war-togs, too. She is riding like the wind. And, yes! There is somebody after her! Talk about your moving picture chases--this is the real thing!"
"It"s Dakota Joe!" shrieked Helen. "Goodness! He must have gone mad. See him beating that horse he rides. Why--"
"He surely has blown up," stated Jennie Stone with conviction. "Ruthie!
what are you going to do?"
CHAPTER VIII
A WONDERFUL EVENT
Wonota was a long way ahead of the Westerner. She was light and she bestrode a horse with much more speed than the one Dakota Joe rode. She lay far along her horse"s neck and urged it with her voice rather than a cruel goad.
The plucky pony was responding n.o.bly, although it was plain, as it came nearer to the girls before the old mill farmhouse, that it had traveled hard. It was thirty miles from the town where the Wild West Show was performing to the Red Mill.
"Oh, Wonota!" cried Jennie Stone, beckoning the Indian girl on. "What is the matter?"
Ruth had not waited to get any report from Wonota. She turned and dashed for the house. Already Sarah, the maid-of-all-work, had started through the covered pa.s.sage to the mill, shrieking for Ben, the hired man.
Ben and the miller ran down the long walk to roadside. Jabez Potter was no weakling despite his age, while Ben was a giant of a fellow, able to handle two ordinary men.
Wonota pulled her pony in behind Helen"s car, whirling to face her pursuer. She did not carry the light rifle she used in her act. Perhaps it would have been better had she been armed, for Dakota Joe was quite beside himself with wrath. He came pounding along, swinging his whip and yelling at the top of his voice.
"What"s the matter with that crazy feller?" demanded the old miller in amazement. "He chasin" that colored girl?"
"She"s not colored. She is my Indian princess, Uncle Jabez," Ruth explained.
"I swanny, you don"t mean it! Hi, Ben!" But n.o.body had to tell Ben what to do. As Fenbrook drew in his horse abruptly, the mill-hand jumped into the road, grabbed Dakota Joe"s whip-hand, broke his hold on the reins, and dragged the Westerner out of the saddle. It was a feat requiring no little strength, and it surprised Dakota Joe as much as it did anybody.
"Hey, you! What you doin"?" bawled Dakota Joe, when he found himself sitting on the hard ground, staring up at the group.
"Ain"t doing nothing," drawled Ben. "It"s done. Better sit where you be, Mister, and cool off."
"What sort o" tomfoolishness is this?" asked the miller again. "Makin"
one o" them picture-shows right here on the public road? I want to know!"
At that, and without rising from his seat in the road, Dakota Joe Fenbrook lifted up his voice and gave his opinion of all moving picture people, and especially those that would steal "that Injun gal" from a hard-working man like himself. He stated that the efforts of a "shark named Hammond" and this girl here that he thought was a lady an"
friendly to him were about to ruin his show.
"They"ll crab the whole business if they git Wonota away from me. That"s what will happen! And I ought to give her a blame" good lickin"--"
"We won"t hear nothing more about that," interrupted the old miller, advancing a stride or two toward the angry Westerner. "Whether the gal"s got blue blood or red blood, or what color, she ain"t going to be mishandled none by you. Understand? You git up and git!"
"But what has happened, Wonota?" the puzzled Ruth asked the Indian girl.
Wonota pointed scornfully at Fenbrook, just then struggling to his feet.
"Joe, heap smart white man. Wuh!" She really was grimly chuckling. "He go get a talking paper from the court. Call it injunction, eh?"
"I heard about the injunction," admitted Ruth interestedly.
"All right Wonota can"t leave Joe to work for you, eh? But the paleface law-man say to me that that talking paper good only In that county. You see? I not in that county now."
"Oh, Jerry!" gasped Jennie Stone. "Isn"t that cute? She is outside the jurisdiction of the court."
"Sho!" exclaimed Jabez Potter, much amused by this outcome of the matter. "It is a fact. Go on back to your show, mister. The gal"s here, and she"s with friends, and that"s all there is to it."
Dakota Joe had already realized this situation. He climbed slowly into his saddle and eyed them all--especially Ruth and Wonota--with a savage glare.
"Wait!" he growled. "Wait--that"s all. I"ll fix you movie people yet--the whole of you! It"s the sorriest day"s job you ever done to get Wonota away from me. Wait!"
He rode away. When he was some rods up the road, down which he had galloped, he set spurs to his horse again and dashed on and out of sight. For a little while n.o.body spoke. It was Jennie who, as usual, light-hearted and unafraid, broke the silence.
"Well, all right, we"ll wait," she said. "But we needn"t do it right here, I suppose. We can sit down and wait just as easily."
Helen laughed. But Ruth and Wonota were sober, and even Uncle Jabez Potter saw something to take note of in the threat of the proprietor of the Wild West Show.
"That man is a coward. That"s as plain as the nose on your face. And a coward when he gits mad and threatens you is more to be feared than a really brave man. That man"s a coward. He"s mean. He"s p"ison mean! You want to look out for him, Niece Ruth. I wouldn"t wonder if he tried, some time, to do you and Mr. Hammond some trick that won"t bring you in no money, to say the least."
The old miller went off with that statement on his lips. Ben, the hired man, followed him, shaking his head. The girls looked at each other, then at the rapidly disappearing cloud of dust raised by Dakota Joe"s pony. Jennie said:
"Well, goodness! why so serious? Guess that man won"t do such a much!
Don"t be scared, Wonota. We won"t let anybody hurt you."
"I wish Tom were here," Ruth Fielding repeated.