showman, and filled his cheek with a mighty mouthful. He wolfed this
down in an instant, and added, with a wide grin: "But I didn't. I saved
my horse an' outfit from the smash, and enough loose change to bring me
West--no thanks to you."

"I am sorry to hear you have failed in business, Mr. Fenbrook," Ruth
said composedly. "But I am sorrier to see that you consider me in a
measure to blame for your misfortune."

"Oh, don't I, though!" snarled Dakota Joe. "I know who to thank for my
bust-up--you and that Hammond man. Yes, sir-ree!"

"You are quite wrong," Ruth said, calmly. "But nothing I can say will
convince you, I presume."

"You can't soft-sawder me, if that's what you mean," and Dakota Joe
absorbed another mighty mouthful.

Ruth could not fail to wonder if he ever chewed his food. He seemed to
swallow it as though he were a boa-constrictor.

"I know," said Dakota Joe, having swallowed the mouthful and washed it
down with half a pannikin of coffee, "that you two takin' that Injun gal
away from me was the beginning of my finish. Yes, sir-ree! I could ha'
pulled through and made money in Chicago and St. Louis, and all along as
I worked West this winter. But no, you fixed me for fair."

"Wonota had a perfect right to break with you, Mr. Fenbrook," Ruth said
decidedly, and with some warmth. "You did not treat her kindly, and you
paid her very little money."

"She got more money than she'd ever saw before. Them Injuns ain't used
to much money. It's jest as bad for 'em as hootch. Yes, sir-ree!"

"She was worth more than you gave her. And she certainly was worthy of
better treatment. But that is all over. Mr. Hammond has her tied up
with a hard and fast contract. Let her alone, Mr. Fenbrook."

"Aw, don't you fret," growled the man. "I ain't come out here to trouble
Wonota none. The little spitfire! She'd shoot me just as like's not if
she took the notion. Them redskins ain't to be trusted--none of 'em. I
know 'em only too well."

Ruth went out of the shack almost before the man had ceased speaking.
She did not want anything further to do with him. She was exceedingly
sorry that Dakota Joe had appeared at Benbow Camp just when the moving
picture company was getting to work on the important scenes of
"Brighteyes." Besides, she felt a trifle anxious because Mr. Hammond
himself did not chance to be here under the present circumstances. He
might be better able to handle Dakota Joe if the ruffian made trouble.

She