They did not believe at the time that Ruth was in any further peril from Dakota Joe.  As for the girls, they were particularly excited just then by some news Mr. Hammond had brought with him from the post-office.

Letters from Tom Cameron!  He was coming home!  Indeed, he would have started before Ruth and Helen received the messages he wrote.  And in Ruth’s letter he promised a great surprise.  What that surprise was the girl of the Red Mill could not imagine.

“Doesn’t he say anything about a surprise for me?” demanded Jennie Stone.

“He doesn’t say a word about you in my letter, Heavy,” said Helen wickedly.

“Why, Jennie, he doesn’t know you are with us here in the West,” Ruth said soothingly.

“I don’t care,” sputtered the fat girl.  “He must know about my Henri.  And not a word have I heard from or about him in a month.  If the war is over, surely Henri must be as free as Tom Cameron.”

“I suppose some of the soldiers have to stay along the Rhine, Jennie, dear,” replied Ruth.  “Maybe Henri is one of those guarding the frontier.”

“He is holding the German hordes back, single-handed, from la belle France,” put in Helen, smiling.

“Oh, cat’s foot!” snapped Jennie.  “The Germans are just as glad to stop fighting as we are.  They certainly don’t need Henri in the army any longer.  I am going to write to his mother!”

CHAPTER XXI

A BULL AND A BEAR

Wonota had known nothing of what was supposed to have been a deliberate attempt to injure Ruth Fielding until some hours after the occurrence.  She had not much to say about it, but, like the three white girls, she was sure the guilty man was Dakota Joe.

As William had said, Fenbrook was a “mighty mean man,” and the Osage maid knew that to be a fact.  She nodded her head gravely as she commented upon the incident that might have ended so seriously.

“That Dakota Joe is bad.  Chief Totantora would have sent him to the spirit land long since, had he been here.  There are white men, Miss Fielding, who are much worse than any redman.”

“I will grant you that,” sighed Ruth.  “Badness is not a matter of blood, I guess.  This Fenbrook has no feeling or decency.  He is dangerous.”

“I should have shot him,” declared the Osage girl confidently.  “I am afraid I have done wrong in not doing so before.”

“How can you talk so recklessly!” exclaimed Ruth, and she was really troubled.  “Shooting Dakota Joe would make you quite as bad as he is.  No, no!  That is not the way to feel about it.”

But Wonota could not understand this logic.

And yet, Wonota in other ways was not at all reckless or ferocious.  She possessed a fund of sympathy, and was kindly disposed toward everybody When one of the cook’s helpers cut his foot with an ax, she aided in the rough surgery furnished by the camp boss, and afterwards nursed the invalid while he was confined to his bunk and could not even hop about.