Alice B. Emerson

“ Ruth shuddered again and Tom laughed ruefully.
“I must admit myself he isn’t any beauty,” he said, beginning to stride up and down the room. “But if you should get rid of Rumph what would you do for a villain? No ordinary actor could take that part, you know.”
“No,” admitted Ruth simply. But there was the queer little secret look in her face that Tom had often surprised there when Ruth was seized by inspiration. “No ordinary actor could. But—have you noticed Carlton Brewer?” ”

“ Snow Mountain, capped with ice all the year round and raising its proud crest high above its fellows, inspired the young people with awe. The crude and ramshackle buildings of Knockout Point seemed to them utterly out of place there, huddled at the base of the mountain and profaning the grandeur of the background.
“A wonderful spot for making pictures, Helen,” Ruth murmured finally. “I can scarcely wait until to-morrow!”
They returned about dinner time to Knockout Inn to find an ample, if very simple, meal awaiting them. ”

“ So quiet had the little old woman been, lost in the depths of the great chair, that Ruth and Tom had almost forgotten her presence in the room.
Now they both looked at her with the gentle consideration they always reserved for the frail old lady.
“Helen’s at home with Chess,” said Tom, with a grin. “Holding hands with him and sighing a last sad farewell.”
“It is right hard on Chess,” said Aunt Alvirah gently. “In my day young ladies didn’t keep their future husbands waiting around so long. It don’t—well, it don’t seem quite fair.” ”

“ It was evident that Tom and Chess had stumbled into a trap of some sort. It might be a trap deliberately set by Bloomberg and his tools. Or it might have been—and here Ruth’s breath caught in a gasp of hope—that the boys had struck a real trail at last and stumbled upon the hiding place of the films.
At any rate, there was no time to be lost. Tom and Chess were probably both in deadly peril. She must get help to them at once! ”

“ Ruth Fielding sank to the grass and stared at the others, her forehead wrinkling in a puzzled frown.
“I don’t know,” she said, in response to Tom’s question. “There are really a hundred things I ought to do right here——”
“Oh, there always are, Ruthie,” broke in Helen flippantly. “You are so busy all the time it makes me weary just to see you work. Why turn down a perfectly exciting trip to New York—especially when duty calls you?”
“Do you really think it is my duty to go, Tom?” Ruth’s eyes appealed to Helen’s twin brother as he stood thoughtfully reading over the telegram. ”

“ There was something that appealed to their imagination in the privacy of the compartment, in the fact that, aboard that crowded train, they four could be as much alone as though they were in the dining-room of the house at the Red Mill.
Even the train itself seemed enveloped in the same glamorous mist—a sort of dream train, speeding them on toward romance and adventure.
The illusion continued during all of that long journey across the continent. Never once did their spirits flag or that utter boredom that is so often the accompaniment of a long trip descend upon them. ”

“ Tom Cameron laughed at Ruth’s statement and tried to reassure her. But Ruth could not be shaken from her stand.
“Rumph dislikes me and mistrusts me for some reason, Tom,” she insisted. “I have not been in this profession so long, meeting all types and kinds of people, without learning a few things—and one of them is to be able to judge pretty accurately the attitude of my actors toward me. You don’t know how sensitive a director is to atmosphere, Tom. I suppose he has to traffic so much in emotions, both artificial and real, that he becomes supersensitive to them. ”

“ Everything went beautifully up to the entrance of Edith Lang.
“Now, Miss Lang!” cried Ruth excitedly. “You come on the scene just as the villain—Carlton Brewer in the rôle this time and a perfect example of the marvelous deception of which Levy and a cameraman are capable—just as the villain is in the act of jumping the claim staked off by your daughter the day before. Because she is ill, you have come in her place to protect your property. Panting, exhausted, almost fainting, you still defy the thief— Right! ”

“ Who knew at what moment the tunnel might cave in, burying her beneath a smothering weight of dirt and rock? Ruth knew that this was an actual and imminent peril.
She tried to turn with some vague idea in her mind of returning to the comparative safety of the place she had left.
But the movement of her shoulders against the sides of the tunnel brought with it such a terrifying rattle of stones that Ruth decided to push on at any cost.
“There must be an outlet somewhere!” she gasped sobbingly. “There must be! There must!” ”

“ No one seemed to know exactly what had happened, and shouts and cries rent the air as people blocked the stairs and companionways in a mad scramble for the deck.
Helen and Ruth were among the first to reach the deck, with Chess and Tom close behind them. There they were jostled by a seething mass of humanity and swept on toward the railing.
At the cry of “Man overboard” power had been shut off in the engine room. Fortunately the ship had been proceeding cautiously because of the storm, so that momentum carried it only a short distance from the scene of the accident. ”

“ Tom protested. “Carlton Brewer is one of the best set-up lads I ever saw.”
“Oh, Tommy, Tommy, you’re funny,” cried Ruth, laughing a little with suppressed excitement. “Do you mean to tell me that you have been connected with this profession this long without learning that with a little artificial make-up the straightest back can be bent and a most convincing screen cripple made? And incidentally Abe Levy—did you notice him? The little good-looking, curly-haired Jew with the cheerful smile—is one of the cleverest make-up men in the profession. ”

“ He knows, and Charlie Reid knows too, that small delays mean actual loss in dollars and cents. He knows that when a company of actors is worked up to acting pitch that just some small delay or the introduction of a ludicrous incident will sometimes completely ruin their morale. He knows—but there!” She checked herself and looked a little embarrassed at her impassioned flow of words. “I’m going on dreadfully and you both must think me a regular kill-joy, but you asked me a question, Helen, and I’ve answered it the best I know how. I am afraid of Sol Bloomberg!” ”

“ Ruth guessed that this was meant as a gentle rebuke to her as well as to Helen. She flushed a little and bent still more intently over her work.
It was Tom who broke the rather awkward silence.
“Oh, Chess doesn’t blame her,” he said easily. “Thinks she ought to have all the fun coming to her before she has to settle down. His chief worry is that he can’t go along with us. Poor old Chess, he works too hard. Thing he needs is to chuck business for a time and take a good long vacation.” ”

“ An unworldly, gentle, dreaming old man, no matter how kind-hearted and desirous of serving, could probably avail little against the cold-blooded, hardened type of pioneer buccaneer who would deliberately attempt to wrest a lawful claim from two orphaned and defenseless girls.
What Mary and Ellen Chase undoubtedly needed was a young and virile defender, preferably one acquainted with the ways of the gold country and so would be best qualified to cope with the kind of pirates these poor young things were facing. ”

“ Helen protested. “Even Chess couldn’t deny me this wonderful chance for a little fun before, before——”
“The end?” suggested Tom, with a grin.
“You put it crudely, Tommy-boy,” chuckled Helen, making a face at him. “But I simply couldn’t miss this trip. Especially since our old friends Bloomberg and Charlie Reid are stepping into the limelight again, prepared to give us a few thrills.”
“I shouldn’t wonder,” said Ruth dryly, as she examined the location photographs Mr. Hammond had given her that afternoon, “if we will have more thrills than we exactly enjoy before we get through.” ”

“ Ruth’s voice was quiet as she put the questions. No time now for hysteria, she told herself sternly. This occasion called for all the grit and stamina she possessed. No need to ask who was at the bottom of the theft. This was Bloomberg’s revenge—the blow she had been waiting for and dreading ever since she had heard that her enemy was at Knockout Point. To outwit such a man as Bloomberg [Pg 173] called for calm nerve and a cool mind. To give way now would be merely to play into Sol Bloomberg’s hands.
Tom nodded in reply to her question. ”

“ And that’s why we keep Dad’s shotgun always handy!”
“Who is this Lieberstein, anyway?” asked Ruth suddenly. “Where does he come from?”
“Dawson City,” answered Ellen.
“I wish he were back there now!” cried Mary, speaking with a swift, passionate rush of words. “I wish I had some way of sending him back so that he would never, never dare come here again!”
“He is close by, then?” It was more a statement than a question.
Mary nodded.
“He stays at The Big Chance at Knockout Point,” she said.
“The Big Chance is run by a new man,” Ellen contributed, with apparent irrelevance. ”

“ The man got unsteadily to his feet, holding to the edge of the door casing for support.
“So you’re the one who tripped me up,” he snarled to Ruth, ignoring Mary and her threatening gun. “Well, young lady, the next time you try it, you’ll wish you hadn’t.”
Ruth stepped close to him and in her eyes was a glitter before which his own gaze fell sullenly to the ground.
“And you might as well understand one thing,” she said in an even tone. “These girls are not as friendless and defenseless as you seem to think! You and the man, or men, back of you stop annoying them or you will be extremely sorry.” ”

“ Ruth’s eyes gleamed and she laughed exuberantly.
“Prove it!” and with a wave of her hand consigned him to the care of the make-up man.
“Attention, everybody!” she cried, returning to the scene. “We’ll rehearse that scene again, leaving out temporarily the part of the villain. Mr. Boardman, please! Miss Lytelly, you have just stumbled upon your lover in the clearing. He is unconscious. You think he is dead. You are forgetful of your own danger. You forget everything as you turn his face so that you may see it! Can you cry? Good! Everybody ready?” ”

“ The girls were sorry over the prospect of parting with their new-found friend. But Ruth was on fire to get back to Knockout Point, to tell Tom what she had heard about Bloomberg.
“It’s a long way back to the river front,” said Mary. “It would be a long tramp, even for some one who is used to walking——”
“Well, I’m that some one—” Ruth was beginning when Ellen interrupted.
“Look there!” she cried, pointing to a cloud of dust that appeared in the distance. “Dust means horsemen. Some one is coming this way——”
“And coming fast!” finished Ruth hopefully. ”

“ Mary Chase inquired, puzzled. “I wish Ellen had not told you!”
“Oh, no, no! It’s all right,” said Ruth hastily, forcing her stiff lips to smile. “I happen to be acquainted with Bloomberg, that’s all; and if this is the same man, I certainly know little good of him.”
“He is a bad man!” Ellen burst out with almost [Pg 136] childish fury. “I have heard that he cheats at cards, but he does it so cleverly that nobody can catch him in the act. He is a bad man, and I think he wants our claim as much as Lieberstein—and maybe more!” ”

“ The three cameramen, Traymore, Schultz and Atwater, were all pleasant and competent men, and Ruth felt instinctively that there would be little friction in her association with them.
Artists, every one of them in their line—in this day of the “super-film,” there is a great deal more importance to the work of the cameramen than is generally suspected—they all had heard of her and respected her ability and had decided to give their best in service to their youthful “chief.”
Ruth felt this and was grateful for it. But about the actors and the two directors, she was not so sure. ”

“ Ruth and Helen heard him murmur softly. “You can put away your dad’s old shotgun in the darkest corner you’ve got. For you’re never going to need it any more!”
“The close-up,” murmured Ruth to Helen, as they turned away.
“And for us,” Helen finished whimsically, “the fade-out!”
So it was that the problem of Mary Chase and her sister Ellen was a problem no longer, even though the affairs of “the girl miners of Snow Mountain,” as Eddie Jones called them, still needed adjusting.
[Pg 192]
Max Lieberstein left Knockout Point on the very night of the trouble at the cabin. ”

“ Winter comes suddenly and soon in Alaska, and those who linger too long are apt to wake up some morning to find the river blocked with ice and themselves marooned for no one knows how long.
None of the actors cared to remain in Alaska over the severe winter. And besides, Alice Lytelly was wanted in Hollywood.
No, there would be no time for the refilming of those important scenes. That, Ruth knew, was definitely out of the question. Her one chance lay in finding the lost films—and that [Pg 195] chance, even Tom and the optimistic Chess, began to think was exceedingly slim. ”

“ It was characteristic of Ruth that, even in that moment of strain and tense expectancy, the uppermost thought in her mind was professional.
“Our leading man was never in better form in his life,” was her unspoken comment upon the scene. “What a picture this would make! Almost,” with a whimsical smile, “true to life!”
As Boardman advanced into the cabin, driving Lieberstein before him, they saw that he was not alone. Helen followed him, breathless and disheveled, but triumphant. After her came several [Pg 189] young miners whom Ruth recognized as having been much in Boardman’s company recently. ”

“ Ruth clenched her hands against the hope that she might recover them after all. She must not torture herself with hopes for which there was, as yet, no real foundation.
Tom and Chess were in trouble, perhaps desperate trouble. She must think of them exclusively now.
Arrived at Knockout Inn she found that Kid Curry, the lad who had brought her the message from Tom, had already arrived with “the boys.” Curry was explaining the situation to Layton Boardman in curt, gruff sentences when Ruth came up to them.
Helen flew down the steps of the inn and flung her arms about her chum. ”