disturbed water and the trash being borne down
by the current was an effect arranged by Jim Hooley's workmen. The
timbermen working for the Benbow Company helped.

A boom of logs was chained across the river at a narrow gorge. This held
back for two nights and a day the heavy cultch floating down stream, and
piled up a good deal of water, too, for the boom soon became a regular
dam. Below the dam thus made the level of the stream dropped
perceptibly.

"I am going to put Wonota in her canoe into the stream above the boom,"
Hooley explained. "When the boom is cut the whole mass will shoot down
ahead of the girl. But the effect, as it comes past the spot where the
cameras are being cranked, will be as though Wonota was in the very
midst of the freshet. She handles her paddle so well that I do not think
she will be in any danger."

"But you will safeguard her, won't you, Mr. Hooley?" asked Ruth, who was
always more or less nervous when these "stunt pictures" were being
taken.

"There will be two canoes--and two good paddlers in each--on either side
of Wonota's craft, but out of the camera focus of course. Then, we will
line up a lot of the boys along the shore on either side. If she gets a
ducking she won't mind. She understands. That Indian girl has some
pluck, all right," concluded the director with much satisfaction.

"Yes, Wonota's courageous," agreed Ruth quietly.

Arrangements were made for the next morning. Ruth went with Mr. Hooley
to the bunkhouse to hear him instruct the timbermen hired from the
Benbow Company and who were much interested in this "movie stuff."

The girl of the Red Mill had already made some acquaintances among the
rough but kindly fellows. She stepped into the long, shed-like
bunkhouse to speak to one of her acquaintances, and there, at the end of
the plank table, partaking of a late supper that the cook had just
served him, was no other than Dakota Joe Fenbrook, the erstwhile
proprietor of the Wild West and Frontier Round-Up.

CHAPTER XVIII

AN ACCIDENT THREATENING

Probably the ex-showman was not as surprised to see Ruth Fielding as she
was to see him. But he was the first, nevertheless, to speak.

"Ho! so it's you, is it?" he growled, scowling at the girl of the Red
Mill. "Reckon you didn't expect to see me."

"I certainly did not," returned Ruth tartly. "What are you doing at
Benbow Camp, Mr. Fenbrook?"

"I reckon you'd be glad to hear that I walked here," sneered the