“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 said nothing to Jim Hooley about Dakota Joe.  She did not wish to bother the director in any case.  She had come to appreciate Hooley as, in a sense, a creative genius who should have his mind perfectly free of all other subjects—­especially of annoying topics of thought—­if he was to turn out a thoroughly good picture.  Hooley fairly lived in the picture while the scenes were being shot.  He must not be troubled by the knowledge of the possibility of Dakota Joe’s being at Benbow Camp for some ulterior purpose.

Ruth told the girls about the man’s appearance when she returned to the shacks where the members of the moving picture company were spending the night.  And she warned Wonota in particular, and in private.

“He is as angry with us as he can be,” the girl of the Red Mill told the Osage maiden.  “I think, if I were you, Wonota, I would beware of him.”

“Beware of Dakota Joe?” repeated Wonota.

“Yes.”

“I would beware of him?  I would shoot him?” said the Osage girl with suddenly flashing eyes.  “That is what you mean?”

Ruth laughed in spite of her anxiety.  “Beware” was plainly a word outside the Indian girl’s vocabulary.

“Don’t talk like a little savage,” she admonished Wonota, more severely than usual.  “Of course you are not to shoot the man.  You are just to see that he does you no harm—­watch out for him when he is in your vicinity.”

“Oh!  I’ll watch Dakota Joe all right,” promised Wonota with emphasis.  “Don’t you worry about that, Miss Fielding.  I’ll watch him.”

To Ruth’s mind it seemed that the ex-showman, in his anger, was likely to try to punish the Indian girl for leaving his show, or to do some harm to the picture-making so as to injure Mr. Hammond.  He had already (or so Ruth believed) endeavored to hurt Ruth herself when she was all but run over in New York.  Ruth did not expect a second attack upon herself.

The next morning—­the really “great day” of the picture taking—­all at the camp were aroused by daybreak.  There was not a soul—­to the very cook of the timber-camp outfit—­who was not interested in the matter.  The freshet Jim Hooley had planned had to be handled in just the right way and everything connected with it must be done in the nick of time.