But if that was his intention, Dakota Joe did not fulfill it. The Indian
girl whipped up the muzzle of her rifle and seemed to take deliberate
aim at the angry man. Evidently this act was not on the bill!




CHAPTER IV

SMOKING THE PEACE PIPE


Ruth Fielding almost screamed aloud. She rose in her seat, clinging to
Helen Cameron's arm.

"Oh! what will she do?" gasped the girl of the Red Mill, just as the
rifle in the Indian sharp-shooter's hands spat its brief tongue of
flame.

The glass ball in Dakota Joe's fingers was shattered and he went through
a cloud of feathers as he turned his horse at a tangent and rode away
from the Indian girl. It was a good shot, but one that the proprietor of
the Wild West Show did not approve of!

"Oh!" exclaimed Mercy Curtis, bitterly, "why didn't she shoot him
instead of the ball? He deserves it, I know."

"Dear me, Mercy," drawled Jennie Stone, "you most certainly are a
blood-thirsty person!"