"Oh, Alice!" objected Ruth, shaking out her skirt so it would hang down a little longer, for the girls rode side-saddle. "No, Miss, it ain't exactly haunted," replied Baldy. "But it ain't a safe place to go--least-ways, not all alone." "But why?" persisted Alice. "Because that's a sort of sacred place--at least some of the Indians from the reservation think so--and, though it's off their land, and really belongs to Mr. Norton, them redskins come over, once in a while, to hold some of their heathen rites on it." "Oh, how interesting!" the girl cried. "I wonder if we couldn't see them? Do they do a snake dance, and things like that?" "Well, yes, in a way," Baldy admitted. "But it ain't safe to go watch 'em. Them Indians are peculiar. They don't want strangers lookin' on, and more than once they've made trouble when outsiders tried to climb up there and watch. As I said, the Indians come from their reservation, which is several miles away, to that place for their ceremonies. And they come at odd times, so there's no tellin' when you might strike a body of 'em up on top there, pow-wowin' to beat the band, and yellin' fit to split your ears. So it's best to keep away." "Are the Indians really dangerous?" asked Mr. DeVere. "Well, I don't s'pose they'd actually _scalp_ you," replied Baldy, slowly. "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." "I understand, my dear. Oh, but isn't that sunset gorgeous?--to change the subject," and she laughed at the serious expression on Ruth's face.