ciated.

The special car was sidetracked just outside of Chicago and the whole
party motored into the city in various automobiles and on various
errands. The Hammonds had relatives to visit. Ruth and her three girl
companions had telegraphed ahead for reservations at one of the big
hotels, and they proposed to spend the two days and nights Mr. Hammond
had arranged for in seeing the sights and attending two particular
theatrical performances.

"And I declare!" cried Helen, as they rolled on through one of the
suburbs of the city, "there is one of the sights, sure enough. See that
billboard, girls?"

"Oh!" cried Wonota, who possessed quite as sharp eyes as anybody in the
party.

"We can't escape that man," sighed Jennie, as she read in towering
letters the announcement of "Dakota Joe's Wild West and Frontier
Round-Up."

"I am sorry the show is here in Chicago," added Ruth with serious mien.
"I am still limping. Next time that awful man will manage to lame me
completely."

"You ought to have a guard. Tell the police--do!" exclaimed Jennie
Stone.

"Tell the police _what?"_ demanded Ruth, with scorn. "We can't prove
anything."

"I know it was Joe in that car that ran you down, Miss Fielding,"
declared Wonota, with anxiety.

"Yes. But nobody else saw him--to recognize him, I mean. We cannot base
a complaint upon such little foundation. Nor would it be well, perhaps,
to get Dakota Joe into the courts. He is a very vindictive man--he must
be----"

"He is very bad man!" repeated Wonota vehemently.

"Yes. That is just it. Why stir up his passions to a greater degree,
then?"

"Of course, Ruthie would want to turn 'the other cheek,'" scoffed
Jennie.

"I am not going around with a chip on my shoulder, looking for somebody
to knock it off," laughed the girl of the Red Mill. "I just want Joe to
leave us alone--that's all."

Wonota shook her head and seemed unconvinced of the wisdom of this. She
was not a pacifist. She knew, too, the heart of the showman, and perhaps
she feared him more than she was willing to tell her new friends.

The four girls made their headquarters at the hotel, and then set forth
at once to shop and to look. As the hours of that first day passed
Wonota was vastly excited over the new sights. For once she lost that
stoic calmness which was her racial trait. The big stores and the tall
buildings here in the mid-western city seemed to impress her even more
than had those in New York.

There