"Oh, how terrible!" exclaimed Ruth with a shiver.
"They ain't got no right to come off their reservation," went on the cowboy; "but they do it all the same. You see this place is pretty well out of the way, and by the time we could get troops here to drive 'em back, they'd probably be gone of their own accord, anyhow. So we sort of let 'em alone. They don't bother us, and we don't bother them. Just keep away from that hill, that's all, for it's so high you can't see the top of it unless you climb up, and there's no tellin' when the Indians come and go."
"I should like to see some of those rites, just the same," declared Alice.
"Oh, but you won't go there; will you?" begged Ruth. "Promise me you won't, my dear. Daddy, make her!"
"I won't go alone, I promise you that," laughed Alice.
"Of course with a party it might be all right," assented Baldy, "but even then the Indians act rather hostile."
"Mr. Pertell will be sure to want some moving pictures of the Indians, if he hears about them," said Mr. DeVere. "Better not tell him, or he might run into danger—or send Russ."
"Then we won't say a thing about it!" exclaimed Ruth, with such sudden energy that Alice laughed.
"Oh, no, we mustn't endanger Russ!" she said, mockingly.
"Alice!" exclaimed Ruth, with gentle dignity, her face the while being suffused with a burning blush. "I meant I didn't want anyone to run into danger."