not be sure. But she did not enjoy the ride with Helen and
Aunt Alvirah very much for thinking of the possibility of its being Mr.
Bilby's car so close to the inn where Chief Totantora was stopping.

CHAPTER VI

AN ABDUCTION

The ride in Helen's car was enjoyable, especially for Aunt Alvirah. How
that old lady did smile and (as she herself laughingly said) "gabble" her
delight! Being shut inside the house so much, the broader sight of the
surrounding country and the now peacefully flowing Lumano River was
indeed a treat.

Helen drove up the river and over the Long Bridge, where she halted the
car for a time that they might look both up and down the stream. And it
was from this point that Ruth again caught a glimpse of the motor-boat
she had before spied near the roadside inn.

There was but one man in it now, and the boat was moored to the root of a
big tree that overhung the little cove. Not that there was anything
astonishing or suspicious in the appearance of the boat. Merely, it was
there and seemed to have no particular business there. And the girl of
the Red Mill recalled that Mr. Horatio Bilby's motor-car was backed into
the bushes near that spot.

Had Mr. Bilby, who had announced that his business in this vicinity was
to obtain possession of Wonota, anything to do with the men in the boat?
The thought may have been but an idle suggestion in Ruth's mind.

Intuition was strong in Ruth Fielding, however. Somehow, the abandoned
car being there near the inn where Totantora was staying and to which
Wonota had gone to see her father, and the unidentified motor-boat
lurking at the river's edge in the same vicinity, continued to rap an
insistent warning at the door of the girl's mind.

"Helen, let's go back," she said suddenly, as her chum was about to let
in the clutch again. "Turn around--do."

"What for?" asked Helen wonderingly, yet seeing something in the
expression of Ruth's face that made her more than curious.

"I--I feel that everything isn't right with Wonota."

"Wonota!"

Ruth, in low tones, told her chum her fears--told of Bilby's call at the
mill--mentioned the fact that the Indian girl was probably at this time
at the roadside inn and that the rival moving picture producer was
perhaps there likewise.

"What do you know about that!" gasped Helen. "Is there going to be a real
fight for the possession of Wonota, do you think?"

"And for Totantora too, perhaps. For he figures importantl