“You don’t know your own sister very well, Tom,” retorted Ruth.
“Humph!” ejaculated Tom Cameron. “Perhaps we fellows don’t understand any girl very well.”
But Ruth was not to be led into any discussion of that topic then. It was agreed that she and Helen and Tom should hurry back to the motion picture camp at once.
“The King of the Pipes won’t bite you,” Tom said to Chess. “Only don’t let him go back into the cave. Those fellows might do him some harm. And the sheriff will want him for a witness against the gang. He is not so crazy as he makes out to be.”
The night’s adventures were by no means completed, for Ruth and Helen could not go to bed after they reached the bungalow until they knew how it all turned out. Mr. Hammond had returned before them, and Willie and Tom started at once for Chippewa Bay in the Gem.
The capture of Bilby in connection with the smugglers and Chinese runners delighted the motion picture producer.
“That will settle the controversy, I believe,” Mr. Hammond said to the two girls. “Bilby’s attempt to annoy us must fall through now. We will get Totantora and Wonota back from Canada and finish the picture properly. But, believe me! I have had all the experience I want with freak stars. The expense and trouble I have been put to regarding Wonota has taught me a lesson. I’d sell my contract with Wonota to-morrow—or after the picture is done—for a song.”
Ruth looked at him steadily for a moment.
“Do you mean that, Mr. Hammond?” she asked quietly.
“Yes, I do.”