The great scene had to be taken over again—­a costly and nerve-racking experience.  Like Ruth herself, Helen and Jennie were glad now when the work was finished and they could head for the railroad.

“Guess you were right, Ruthie,” agreed Jennie.  “Something did happen.  As Aunt Alvirah would have said, you must have felt it in your bones.”

“I feel it in my body, anyway,” admitted Ruth.  “I got dreadfully bruised when I fell on that path.  My side is all black and blue.”

The misadventures of the occasion were soon forgotten however, especially when the girls reached Clearwater and found a box waiting for them at the express office.  Unsuspicious Wonota was called into the stateroom in the special car, and there her white friends displayed to her delighted gaze the “trousseau,” as Jennie insisted upon calling the pretty frock and other articles sent on by Madame Jone.

“For me?” asked Wonota, for once showing every indication of delight without being ordered to do so by the director.  “All for me?  Oh, it is too much!  How my father, Chief Totantora, would stare could he see me in those beautiful things.  Wonota’s white sisters are doing too much for her.  There is no way by which she can repay their kindness.”

“Say!” said Jennie bluntly, “if you want to pay Ruth Fielding, you just go ahead and become a real movie star—­a real Indian star, Wonota.  I can see well enough that then she will get big returns on her investment.  And in any case, we are all delighted that you are pleased with our present.”

CHAPTER XXV

OTHER SURPRISES

It was not merely a matter of packing up and starting for the East.  It would be a week still before the party would separate—­some of the Westerners starting for California and the great moving picture studios there, while Ruth and her friends with Mr. Hammond and his personal staff would go eastward.

It had been arranged that Wonota should return to the Osage Agency for a short time.  Meanwhile Ruth had promised to try to do another scenario in which the young Indian girl would have an important part.

Mr. Hammond was enthusiastic, having seen some of the principal scenes of “Brighteyes” projected.  He declared to Ruth: 

“She is going to be what our friend the camera man calls ‘a knock-out.’  There is a charm about Wonota—­a wistfulness and naturalness—­that I believe will catch the movie fans.  Maybe, Miss Fielding, we are on the verge of making one of the few really big hits in the game.”

“I think she is quite worthy of training, Mr. Hammond,” agreed the girl of the Red Mill.  “When I get to work on the new picture I shall want Wonota with me.  Can it be arranged?”

“Surely.  Her contract takes that into consideration.  Unless her father appears on the scene, for the next two years Wonota is to be as much under your instruction as though she were an apprentice,” and he laughed.