he man. "I can't be blamed for
misunderstanding half what you Easterners say. You got me locoed right
from the start."

The joke had to be told when the three friends retired that night, and
it was perhaps fortunate that Jennie Stone possessed an equable
disposition.

"I am the butt of everybody's joke," she said, complacently. "That is
what makes me so popular. You see, you skinny girls are scarcely
noticed. It is me the men-folk give their attention to."

"Isn't it nice to be so perfectly satisfied with one's self?" observed
Helen, scornfully. "Come on, Ruthie! Let's sleep on that."

There were other topics to excite the friends in the morning, even
before the company got away for the "location." Mail which had followed
them across the continent was brought up from the post-office to the
special car. Helen and Ruth were both delighted to receive letters from
Captain Tom.

In the one to Ruth the young man acknowledged the receipt of her letter
bearing on the matter of Chief Totantora. He said that news of the
captured Wild West performers had drifted through the lines long before
the armistice, and that he had now set in motion an inquiry which might
yield some important news of the missing Osage chieftain--if he was yet
alive--before many weeks. As for his own return, Tom could not then
state anything with certainty.

* * * * *

"Nobody seems to know," he wrote. "It is all on the knees of the
gods--and a badgered War Department. But perhaps I shall be with you,
dear Ruth, before long."

* * * * *

Ruth did not show her letter to her girl friends. Jennie had received no
news from Henri, and this disaster troubled her more than her bruised
flesh. She went around with a sober face for at least an hour--which was
a long time for Jennie Stone to be morose.

William, the driver who had handled the emigrant wagon the day before,
came along as the men were saddling the ponies for the ride out to the
ranch. He had an open letter in his hand that he had evidently just
received.

"Say!" he drawled, "didn't I hear something about you taking this Injun
gal away from Dakota Joe's show? Ain't that so, Miss Fielding?"

"Her contract with that man ran out and Mr. Hammond hired her," Ruth
explained.

"And that left the show flat in Chicago?" pursued William.

"It was in Chicago the last we saw of it," agreed Ruth. "But Wonota had
left Dakota Joe's employ l