nd and the Alectrion Film Corporation with another big
feature picture.

Ruth and Jennie (who became enthusiastic when she was awake in the
morning) chattered about the idea like magpies from breakfast to lunch.
Then Helen drove over from The Outlook, and she had to hear it all
explained while Ruth and Jennie were making ready to go out in the car
with her.

"You must drive us right to Cheslow," Ruth said, "where I can get Mr.
Hammond on the long-distance 'phone. This is important. I feel that I
have a really good idea."

"But what do you suppose that Dakota Joe will say?" drawled Helen. "He
won't love you, I fear."

"Has he got to know?" demanded Jennie. "Don't be a goose, Helen. This is
all going to be done on the q.t."

"Very well," sniffed the other girl. "Guess you'll find it difficult to
take Wonota away from the Wild West Show without Joe's knowing anything
about it."

"Of course!" laughed Ruth. "But until the fatal break occurs we must not
let him suspect anything."

"I see. It is a fell conspiracy," remarked Helen. "Well, come on! The
chariot awaits, my lady. If I am to drive a bunch of conspirators, let's
be at it."

"Helen would hustle one around," complained Jennie, "if she were in the
plot to kill Caesar."

"Your tense is bad, little lady," said Helen. "Caesar, according to the
books, has been dead some years now. Right-o?"

The girls sped away from the old mill, and in a little while Ruth was
shut into a telephone booth talking with Mr. Hammond in a distant city.
She told him a good deal more than she had the girls. It was his due.
Besides, she had already got the skeleton of a story in her mind and she
repeated the important points of this to the picture producer.

"Sounds good, Miss Ruth," he declared. "But it all depends upon the
girl. If you think she has the looks, is amenable to discipline, and has
some natural ability, we might safely go ahead with it, I will get into
communication by telegraph with the Department of Indian Affairs at
Washington and with the agent at Three Rivers Station, Oklahoma, as
well. We can afford to invest some money in the chance that this Wonota
is a find."

"Fifty-fifty, Mr. Hammond," Ruth told him. "On whatever it costs,
remember, I am just as good a sport as you are when it comes to taking a
chance in business."

He laughed. "I have often doubted your blood relationship to Uncle
Jabez," Mr. Hammond declared "He has no gambler's blood in his old
veins.