"I--I guess It was only in fun," said Helen rather shakingly, as the
Indian girl wheeled her mount again and rode away from Dakota Joe.

"I wouldn't want her to be that funny with me," gasped Jennie Stone.
"She must be a regular wild Indian, after all."

"I am sure, at least, that this Dakota Joe person would have deserved
little sympathy if she had shot him," declared Mercy, with confidence.

"Dear me," admitted Ruth herself, "I want to meet that girl more than
ever now. There must be some mystery regarding her connection with the
owner of the show. They certainly are not in accord."

"You've said something!" agreed Jennie, likewise with conviction.

If Wonota had been at all flurried because of her treatment by her
employer, she no longer showed it. Having ridden to the proper spot, she
wheeled the white pony again and faced the place where there was a steel
shield against which the objects she was to shoot at were thrown.

Dakota Joe rode forward as though to affix the first clay ball to the
string. Then he pulled in his horse, scowled across the ring at Wonota,
and beckoned one of the cowboys to approach. This man took up the duty
of affixing the targets for the Indian girl.

"Do you see that?" chuckled Jennie Stone. "He's afraid she might change
her mind and shoot him after all."

"Sh!" cautioned Ruth. "Somebody might hear you. Now look."