CHAPTER XI
EVADING THE TRAFFIC POLICE
Ruth had turned her back on the car and did not see it slip out of thecrowd of motor traffic and turn into the avenue. But Wonota, the Indiangirl, saw her friend's danger. She uttered a loud cry and bounded out ofthe camera field just as the two camera men began to crank theirmachines.
"Look out, Miss Fielding!"
The cry startled Ruth, but it did not aid her much to escape. Andperhaps the chauffeur of the car only intended to crowd by the girl ofthe Red Mill and so escape from the traffic hold-up.
At Wonota's scream the director shouted for the camera men to halt. Hestarted himself with angry excitement after the Indian girl. She hadutterly spoiled the shot.
But on the instant he was adding his warning cry to Wonota's and to thecries of other bystanders. Ruth, amazed, could not understand whatWonota meant. Then the car was upon her, the mudguard knocked her down,and her loose coat catching in some part of the car, she was dragged forseveral yards before Wonota could reach her.
Over and over in the dust Ruth had been whirled. She was breathless andbruised. She could not even cry out, the shock of the accident was sogreat.
The instant the Indian girl reached the prostrate Ruth the motor-carbroke away and its driver shot the machine around the nearest corner andout of sight.
A policeman charged after the car at top speed, but when he reached thecorner there were so many other cars in the cross street that he couldnot identify the one that had caused the accident.
To Ruth, Wonota gasped: "That bad man! I knew he would do somethingmean, but I thought it would be to me."
Ruth could scarcely reply. The director was at her side, as well asother sympathetic people. She was lifted up, but she could not stand.Something had happened to her left ankle. She could bear no weight uponit without exquisite pain.
For the time the taking of the picture was called off. The trafficofficer allowed the stalled cars to pass on. A crowd began to assembleabout Ruth.
"Do take me into the hotel--somewhere!" she gasped. "I--I can't walk--"
One of the camera men and the director, Mr. Hooley, made a seat withtheir hands, and sitting in this and with Wonota to steady her, the girlof the Red Mill was hurried under cover, leaving the throng ofspectators on the street quite sure that the accident had been a plannedincident of the moving picture people. They evidently considered Ruth a"stunt actress."
It was not until Ruth was alone with Wonota in a hotel room, lying on acouch, the Indian girl stripping the shoe and stocking from the injuredlimb, that Ruth asked what Wonota had meant when she first boundedtoward her, shrieking her warning of the motor-car's approach.
"What did you mean, Wonota?" asked the girl of the Red Mill. "Who was itran over me? I know Mr. Hooley will try to find him, but--"
"That bad, _bad_ Dakota Joe!" interrupted the Indian girl withvehemence, her eyes flashing and the color deeping in her bronze cheeks."When your friend told us he was in this city, I feared."
"Why, Wonota!" cried Ruth, sitting up in surprise, "do you mean to saythat Dakota Joe Fenbrook was driving that car?"
"No. He cannot drive a car. But it was one of his men--Yes."
"I can scarcely believe it. He deliberately ran me down?"
"I saw Dakota Joe in the back of the car just as it shot down towardyou, Miss Fielding. He is a bad, bad man! He was leaning forward urgingthat driver on. I know he was."
"Why, it seems terrible!" Ruth sighed. "Yes, that feels good on myankle, Wonota. I do not believe it is really sprained. Oh, but it hurtat first! Wrenched, I suppose."
Jim Hooley, the director, had telephoned for Mr. Hammond, and theproducer hurried to the hotel. He insisted on bringing a surgeon withhim. But by the time of their arrival Ruth felt much easier, and afterthe medical man had pronounced no real harm done to the ankle, Ruthdressed again, insisting that a second attempt be made to shoot thescene while the sun remained high enough.
The police had endeavored to trace the motor-car that had caused theaccident. But it seemed that nobody had noted the numbers on themachine, or even the kind of car it was. Ruth had forbidden Wonota totell what she revealed to her. If it was Dakota Joe who had run her downthere was no use attempting to fasten the guilt of the incident upon himunless they were positive and could prove his guilt.
"And you know, Wonota, you cannot be _sure_--"
"I saw him. It was for but a moment, but I _saw_ him," said the Indiangirl positively.
"Even at that, it would take corroborative testimony to convince thecourt," mused Ruth.
"I do not understand paleface laws," said Wonota, shaking her head. "Ifan Indian does something like that to another Indian, the injured onecan punish his enemy. And he almost always does."
"But we cannot take the law into our own hands that way."
"Why not?" asked Wonota. "Is a redman so much superior to a white man?If the redman can punish an enemy why cannot a white man?"
"Our law does not leave it in our hands to punish," said Ruth, quietly,though rather staggered by the Indian girl's question. "We have courts,and judges, and methods of criminal procedure. A person who has beeninjured by another cannot be the best judge of the punishment to bemeted out to the one who has harmed him."
"Why not?" demanded Wonota, promptly. "He is the one hurt. Who otherthan he should deal out punishment?"
Ruth was silenced for the time being. In fact, Wonota looked uponmundane matters from such a different angle that it was sometimesimpossible for Ruth to convince her protege that the white man's way wasbetter.
However, this incident gave Ruth Fielding a warning that she did notintend to ignore. A little later she told Mr. Hammond of the Indiangirl's suspicion that it was Fenbrook who had been the cause of Ruth'sslight injury. It was too late then to set the police on the track ofthe showman, for on making private inquiry Mr. Hammond found that DakotaJoe's show had already left Brooklyn and was _en route_ for some city inthe Middle West.
"But it seems scarcely probable, Miss Ruth," the producer said, "thatthat fellow would take such a chance. And to hurt _you!_ Why, if he hadtried to injure that Indian girl, I might be convinced. She probably sawsomebody in the car with a sombrero on--"
"I noticed two men in that car with broad hats," confessed Ruth. "But Igave them only a glance. It doesn't seem very sensible to believe thatthe man would deliberately hurt me. Yet he did threaten us when he wasangry, there at the mill. No getting around that."
Mr. Hammond shrugged his shoulders and laughed. "You will begin tobelieve that the making of moving pictures is a pretty perilousbusiness."
"It may be." She laughed, yet rather doubtfully. "I am to be on thewatch for the 'hand in the dark,' am I not? At any rate when we are hearDakota Joe again, I will keep a very sharp lookout."
"Yes, of course, Miss Ruth, we'll all do that," returned Mr. Hammond,more seriously now, for he saw that Ruth was really disturbed. "Still,whatever his intentions, I do not believe Fenbrook will have the powerto do any real harm. At any rate, keep your courage up, for we areforewarned now, and can take care of ourselves--and of you," he added,with a smile, as he left her.