ietly cordial with most people, she was never
"hail fellow, well met" with anybody, unless it was her own, dear, old
girl friends of Briarwood Hall.

She resisted, however, making any criticism upon Tom's presence in the
moving picture camp. Everybody in the house--and there were several
members of the company there besides Mr. Hammond and the director--greeted
Tom Cameron cordially. He was a favorite with them all.

And the minute Totantora heard of Tom's arrival, the Osage chief appeared
at the door, standing with glittering eyes fixed on the ex-captain and
unmoved expression of countenance while he waited to catch Tom's
attention.

"Bless my heart!" cried the rollicking Tom, "here's my old buddy!
Totantora, how are you?"

They shook hands, the Indian gravely but with an expression in his eyes
that revealed a more than ordinary affection for the young white man. In
France and along the Rhine Totantora, the Osage chief, had become the
sworn follower of the drygoods merchant's son--a situation to cause
remark, if not wonder.

Tom had learned a few words of the Osage tongue and could understand some
of Totantora's gutturals. What the chief said seemed at one point to
refer to Ruth, who, quite unconscious, was talking with Mr. Hammond
across the room. Tom glanced at Ruth's back and shook his head slightly.
But he made no audible comment upon what the Indian said.

He did not, indeed, see much of Ruth that night; but in one moment of
privacy she said to Tom:

"Do you want to make an early morning excursion--before Lazybones Helen
is roused from her rosy slumbers?"

"Bet you!" was Tom's boyish reply.

"Six o'clock, then, at the dock. If you are there first rouse out Willie,
the boatman, and offer him a five dollar bill from me to take us through
the islands in the _Gem_. That's his boat."

"I'll find him to-night and make sure," said Tom promptly.

"You are a faithful servitor," laughed Ruth, and left him before Tom
could take any advantage of her kindness.

The appointment was kept to the letter and minute in the morning. Helen
was still asleep when Ruth dressed and stole out of the bungalow. Not
many of the people on the island, save the cooks and dining-room
employees, were astir. But Tom and the boatman--and the _Gem_--were at
the dock in readiness.

Ruth gave Willie his instructions. He was to make a landing at the far
end of the island on which the picture had been taken the day before. It
was too ear