CHAPTER XX
GOOD NEWS
Tragedy was very dose indeed at that moment to the girl of the Red Mill.Many adventures had touched Ruth nearly; but nothing more perilous hadthreatened her than this.
She balanced herself on the rushing log with the help of the peavey. Shewas more than ordinarily sure-footed. But if the log she rode chanced tobe hit by one of the falling timbers loosened from their station on topof the bluff--that would be the end of the incident, and the end of thegirl as well!
Perhaps it was well that Helen and Jennie could no longer see theirchum. The curtain of spray thrown up by the plunging logs from above hidthe whole scene for several minutes.
Then out of the turmoil on the river shot the log on which Ruth stood,appearing marvelously to her friends on the other bank.
"Ruth! Ruth Fielding!" shrieked Helen, so shrilly that her voice reallycould be heard. "Are you alive?"
Ruth waved one hand. She held her balance better now. She shot a glancebehind and saw Wonota in the canoe coming down the rapids amid the snagsand drifting debris--a wonderful picture!
Jim Hooley, almost overcome by the shock and fright, suddenly beheld histwo camera men cranking steadily--as unruffled as though all this uproarand excitement was only the usual turmoil of the studio!
"Bully, boys!" the director shouted. "Keep at it!" Then through themegaphone: "Eyes on the camera, Wonota! Your lover is in the water--youmust save him! Nobody else can reach him There! He's going down again!Bend forward--look at him--at the camera! That's it! When he appearsagain that log is going to hit him if you do not swerve the canoe inbetween the log and him--There! With your paddle! Shoot the canoe innow!"
He swerved the megaphone to the men waiting on the bank: "Look out forMiss Fielding, some of you fellows. The rest of you stand ready to grabWonota when that canoe goes over."
Again to the Indian girl: "Now, Wonota! Pitch the paddle away. Leanover--grab at his head. There it is!"
The Indian girl did as instructed, leaning so far that the canoe tipped.Mr. Hooley raised his hand. He snapped his fingers. "There! Enough!" heshouted, and the cameras stopped as the canoe canted the Indian girlheadfirst into the stream. The rest of that scene would be taken inquiet water.
While the man waded in to help Wonota, Ruth reached the bank and sprangoff her log before she was butted off. Helen and Jennie ran to her, andsuch a hullabaloo as there was for a few minutes!
Jim Hooley came striding down to the three Eastern girls, flushed andwith scowling brow.
"I want to know who did that?" he shouted. "No thanks to anybody but mycamera men that the whole scene wasn't a fizzle. And what would Mr.Hammond have said? Who were those men, Miss Fielding?"
"What men?" asked Ruth in wonder.
"Up there on the other bank? Those that knocked the chocks out fromunder that heap of logs? You don't suppose that avalanche of timberstarted all by itself?"
"I don't know what you are talking about, Mr. Hooley," declared RuthFielding.
"And surely," Helen added quickly, "you do not suppose that it was herfault? She might have been killed."
"I got a glimpse of a man dodging out of the way just as that pile oflogs started. I saw the flash of the sun on his ax," and the directorwas very much in earnest.
It was Jennie who put into words the thought that had come both to Ruthand Helen as well:
"Where is that awful Dakota Joe? He was here last night. He has tried toharm our Ruthie before. I do believe he did it!"
"Who's that?" demanded the director. "The man who had Wonota in hisshow?"
"Yes, Mr. Hooley. He was here last night. I spoke with him up in thebunk-house while you were telling the boys about this scene," Ruth saidgravely.
"The unhung villain!" exclaimed the director. "He tried to ruin ourshot."
Jennie stared at him with open mouth as well as eyes.
"Well!" she gasped after a minute. "That is what you might call beingwrapped up in one's business, sure enough! Ruined your shot, indeed! Howabout ruining a perfectly good girl named Ruth Fielding?"
"Oh, I beg Miss Fielding's pardon," stammered the director. "You mustremember that taking such a scene as this costs the corporation a gooddeal of money. Miss Fielding's danger, I must say, threw me quite off mybalance. If I didn't have two of the keenest camera men in the businessall this," and he gestured toward the turbulent river, "would have gonefor nothing."
"I can thank Mr. Hooley for what he tried to do for me," smiled Ruth. "Isaw his gestures if I could not hear his voice. That was my salvation.But I believe it must have been Dakota Joe who started that avalanche oflogs down upon me."
"I'll have the scoundrel looked for," promised Hooley, turning to goupstream again.
"But don't tell these rough men why you want Dakota Joe," advised thegirl of the Red Mill.
"No?"
"You know how they are--even some of the fellows working for the picturecompany. They are pretty rough themselves. I do not want murder donebecause of my narrow escape."
The other girls cried out at this, but Mr. Hooley noddedunderstandingly.
"I get you, Miss Fielding. But I'll make it so he can't try any capersaround here again. No, sir!"
The girls were left to discuss the awful peril that had threatened, andcome so near to over-coming, Ruth. Helen was particularly excited aboutit.
"I do think, Ruth, that we should start right for home. This isaltogether too savage a country. To think of that rascal _daring_ to dosuch a thing! For of course it was Dakota Joe who started those logs torolling."
"I can imagine nobody else doing it," confessed her chum.
"Then I think you should start East at once," repeated Helen. "Don't youthink so, Jennie?"
"I'd hire a guard," said the plump girl. "This country certainly is notsafe for our Ruth."
"Neither was New York, it seemed," rejoined Ruth, with a whimsicalsmile. "Of course we are not sure--"
"We are sure you came near losing your life," interrupted Helen.
"Quite so. I was in danger. But if it was Joe, he has run away, ofcourse. He will not be likely to linger about here after making theattempt."
And to this opinion everybody else who knew about it agreed. A searchwas made by some of the men for Dakota Joe. It was said he had left foranother logging camp far to the north before daybreak that very morning.Nobody had seen him since that early hour.
"Just the same, he hung around long enough to start those logs torolling. And I am not sure but that he had help," Jim Hooley said,talking the matter over later, after Mr. Hammond had arrived from therailroad and had been told about the incident, "He is a dangerousfellow, that Fenbrook."
"He has made himself a nuisance," agreed Mr. Hammond. "Tell William andthe other boys to keep their eyes open for him. The moment he appearsagain--if he does appear--let them grab him. I will get a warrant swornout at Clearwater for his arrest. We will put him in jail until ourpicture is finished, at least."
They did not believe at the time that Ruth was in any further peril fromDakota Joe. As for the girls, they were particularly excited just thenby some news Mr. Hammond had brought with him from the post-office.
Letters from Tom Cameron! He was coming home! Indeed, he would havestarted before Ruth and Helen received the messages he wrote. And inRuth's letter he promised a great surprise. What that surprise was thegirl of the Red Mill could not imagine.
"Doesn't he say anything about a surprise for me?" demanded JennieStone.
"He doesn't say a word about you in my letter, Heavy," said Helenwickedly.
"Why, Jennie, he doesn't know you are with us here in the West," Ruthsaid 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 isover, 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 thefrontier."
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sp; "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 stopfighting as we are. They certainly don't need Henri in the army anylonger. I am going to write to his mother!"
Ruth Fielding in the Great Northwest; Or, The Indian Girl Star of the Movies Page 20